;)
The Commentariat -- May 26, 2015
Afternoon Update:
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will decide an important 'one person, one vote' case next term to determine whether states should consider total population -- or only eligible voters -- when drawing roughly equal legislative districts. A shift from using total population would have an enormous impact in states with large immigrant populations, where greater numbers are children or noncitizens. It would shift power from urban areas to more rural districts."
Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "Amtrak will install inward-facing video cameras on a majority of its Northeast Corridor trains by the end of this year, officials announced Tuesday, another in a series of safety measures the rail company has taken since a fatal May 12 derailment that killed eight people and injured more than 200. In a conference call with reporters, Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman said the cameras will allow railroad officials to monitor the actions of engineers while they are on the job."
Joe Heim of the Washington Post: "... Indian American kids have placed a stranglehold on the Scripps National Spelling Bee, winning it now for seven years in a row and all but four of the last 15 years.... Bee organizers were appalled by the reaction to last year's contest, when Sriram, then 14, and his co-winner Ansun, then 13, were greeted with a barrage of racist comments on Facebook and Twitter." CW: Hay reel American kids arent dum. Sumbuddys cheeting.
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** "The Myth of the Hero Cop." David Feige in Slate: "... if you compare the murder rate among police officers with the murder rate in several American cities, you find that it is far safer to be a NYPD officer than an average black man in Baltimore or St. Louis.... Arguments about the dangerous nature of police work drive the increasing militarization of police departments. The life-and-death nature of the job is used to push for extremely generous medical leave, overtime, and pay packages. Most insidious of all, the exaggerated danger and trumped-up heroism drives an us-versus-them mentality that suffuses contemporary big-city policing and bleeds into the criminal justice system, causing systemic imbalances that chronically favor the police over citizens. Together, this creates a sense of invincibility and righteousness among the police that is used to justify even outrageous behavior while simultaneously creating the perception among the public that the police are untouchable."
** Robert Pear of the New York Times: "They are only four words in a 900-page law [the Affordable Care Act]: 'established by the state.'... Who wrote them, and why?... The answer, from interviews with more than two dozen Democrats and Republicans involved in writing the law, is that the words were a product of shifting politics and a sloppy merging of different versions. Some described the words as 'inadvertent,' 'inartful' or 'a drafting error.' But none supported the contention of the plaintiffs, who are from Virginia." Read the whole article. And hope Roberts & Kennedy do, too. ...
... Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "A Supreme Court ruling due in a few weeks could wipe out health insurance for millions of people covered by President Barack Obama's health care law. But it's Republicans -- not White House officials -- who have been talking about damage control. A likely reason: Twenty-six of the 34 states that would be most affected by the ruling have Republican governors, and 22 of the 24 GOP Senate seats up in 2016 are in those states." ...
... "Eerrrrrrntt!" Jennifer Haberkorn & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Preparing for a Supreme Court decision that could strike down Obamacare's subsidies for nearly 7.5 million people this summer, Senate Republicans are coalescing around a plan to resurrect them -- at a steep price for the White House. With several Senate Republicans facing tough reelections, and control of the chamber up for grabs, 31 senators have signed on to a bill written by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that would restore the subsidies for current Obamacare enrollees through September 2017. But the administration would have to pay a heavy price -- the bill would also repeal Obamacare's individual and employer mandates and insurance coverage requirements... But even if Johnson could somehow persuade Obama and Senate Democrats to accept his plan -- a herculean task -- the bigger problem will be his Republican colleagues in the House."
Michael de la Merced of the New York Times: 'The Daily Show' developed [a five-week industry boot camp designed to bring young veterans into the television business] over the last three years without publicizing it, but now, because [Jon] Stewart is preparing to leave the show, he has taken it into the open, urging other shows to develop their own programs to bring more veterans into the industry. 'This is ready to franchise. Please steal our idea,' Mr. Stewart said in an interview at his Manhattan studio recently."
Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama on Monday saluted Americans who died in battle, saying the country must 'never stop trying to fully repay them' for their sacrifices. He noted it was the first Memorial Day in 14 years without U.S. forces engaged in a major ground war." (Also linked yesterday afternoon):
Charles Pierce wrote quite a nice piece on the way to celebrate Memorial Day. CW: While Pierce does not speak ill of parades, one has to wonder how many of the dead would like to be celebrated in a noisy parade. I suppose it's better than being celebrated by a sale on electronics, as I was urged by Best Buy to do today.
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "A pair of grad students surveyed 2,000 state legislators and asked them what they thought their constituents believed on several hot button issues. They then compared the results to actual estimates from each district derived from national surveys.... Both liberal and conservative legislators -- thought their districts were more conservative than they really were." CW: So why are these hip liberal voters choosing Neanderthals to represent them? (As usual, apologies to actual Neanderthals, who were definitely smarter than the average Republican.)
Sinan Salaheddin of the AP: "Iraq on Tuesday announced the launch of a military operation to drive the Islamic State group out of the western Anbar province, where the extremists captured the provincial capital, Ramadi, earlier this month. Iraqi state TV declared the start of the operation, in which troops will be backed by Shiite and Sunni paramilitary forces...." ...
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "American and allied warplanes are equipped with the most precise aerial arsenal ever fielded. But American officials say they are not striking significant -- and obvious -- Islamic State targets out of fear that the attacks will accidentally kill civilians.
... Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Vice President Joe Biden is trying to calm tensions with Iraq's leaders after the U.S. secretary of defense [Ash Carter] accused Iraqi troops of lacking the 'will to fight' Islamic State. Biden spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Monday to reaffirm U.S. support for Iraq's government and to recognize 'the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces,' according to a White House statement."
Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent accused by Iran of espionage who has been imprisoned for more than 10 months, went on trial in a Tehran courtroom on Tuesday morning, state news media reported. The trial, which is not open to the public, began at 10:30 a.m. at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Mr. Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and a photojournalist also went on trial alongside Mr. Rezaian, according to the state news agency IRNA." ...
... UPDATE: "The trial was adjourned after two hours, and the judge in the case, Abolghassem Salavati, will announce a date for the resumption of the proceedings...." ...
... NEW. The Washington Post report, by Carol Morello, is here. ...
... Here's a statement from Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post.
Jeff Amy of the AP: "U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran -- the Mississippi Republican whose 2014 primary campaign drew national attention over an aspiring blogger's photos of his bedridden wife -- has married his longtime aide, his office said Monday. The wedding to Kay Webber took place privately Saturday in Gulfport. The senator's former wife, Rose Cochran, died in December at age 73 from dementia after living in a nursing home for 13 years. Political blogger Clayton Kelly took pictures of a bedridden Rose Cochran in April 2014, and officials say he intended to use the images to advance allegations that the senator was having an inappropriate relationship with Webber." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Ken Thomas of the AP: Bernie "Sanders, who is opening his official presidential campaign Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont, aims to ignite a grassroots fire among left-leaning Democrats wary of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is laying out an agenda in step with the party's progressive wing and compatible with [Elizabeth] Warren's platform -- reining in Wall Street banks, tackling college debt and creating a government-financed infrastructure jobs program." ...
Hadas Gold of Politico: "Hillary Clinton may feel like the press hounds and harasses her, but there's one segment of the media from which she's getting the kind of coverage you just can't buy: women's magazines.... A Politico review of several of the magazines' past few months of coverage suggests that readers will be getting a heavy dose of liberal cheerleading this campaign season along with their skincare, makeup and fashion tips.... It's enough to make Republicans scream."
Ringmasters Aim to Kick Some Clowns off the Car Running Board. Paul Waldman: "By saying they're going to support several candidates in the primaries, the Kochs are pledging to accelerate the winnowing process, by which the race's chaff can be sloughed off and the focus can stay on the serious contenders.... If the Kochs are ready to put some of their ample resources into the primary campaign, it's a sign that the enormous size of the primary field is generating some serious concern at the top of the GOP."
Is the Pope Catholic? Ben Schreckinger of Politico: Pope Francis is causing consternation among conservative Republican Roman Catholics & their pandering presidential candidates. "Like so much else about [Jeb] Bush, his embrace of Francis places him in sync with a majority of Americans but at odds with large swaths of the Republican primary electorate."
Beyond the Beltway
Mitch Smith & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The city of Cleveland has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over what federal authorities said was a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force, people briefed on the case said Monday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)"
See today Comments, near the end:
News Ledes
Guardian: Texas governor Greg Abbott has expanded the emergency disaster zone in his state, adding 24 counties to a list of 13 affected by storms and flooding. Three people were reported dead and 12 missing as Oklahoma was also hit hard, while a tornado left 13 dead in a Mexican town just beyond the border." ...
... New York Times Update: "Flooding brought Houston[, Texas,] to a near-standstill Tuesday, sending normally tame rivers and bayous surging out of their banks, inundating streets and homes, and leaving highways littered with hundreds of abandoned, ruined cars. As much as 10 inches of rain lashed the Houston area overnight, and added to floodwaters flowing downstream from areas of central Texas that were swamped over the holiday weekend, causing waterways to rise from trickle to torrent faster than people could get out of the way." ...
... See also Jeanne Pitz's comment on this in today's Commentariat.
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