The Commentariat -- April 18, 2014

Graphics removed.

** Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "The United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union reached an agreement [in Geneva] on Thursday evening that calls for armed pro-Russian bands to give up the government buildings they have seized in eastern Ukraine and outlines other steps to de-escalate the crisis. Secretary of State John Kerry described the package of measures as an important first step to avert 'a complete and total implosion' in eastern Ukraine and said that it could be followed by negotiation of more far-reaching steps to ease a crisis in which violence seemed to be growing by the day. [Russian Minister Sergey] Lavrov said the deal was 'largely based on compromise' and that a settlement of the crisis was primarily the responsibility of Ukraine's. Mr. Lavrov made the remarks at a news conference that he gave before Mr. Kerry had spoken." ...

     ... Update. Luke Harding, et al., of the Guardian: "Pro-Russian groups occupying a string of public buildings across eastern Ukraine have insisted that they would not end their occupation until a referendum to decide the status of the region had taken place. There was no sign of separatist groups pulling out from their positions at city halls and in town squares, although several said they would hold meetings on Friday to discuss the implications of the Geneva agreement between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States to de-escalate the crisis." ...

     ... Update 2. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The leader of a group of pro-Russian separatists said Friday that he would ignore an international agreement to de-escalate the political crisis in eastern Ukraine, saying his group would remain in the government buildings in the regional capital of Donetsk that it commandeered last weekend." ...

... Oren Dorell of USA Today: "World leaders and Jewish groups condemned a leaflet handed out in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in which Jews were told to 'register' with the pro-Russian militants who have taken over a government office in an attempt to make Ukraine part of Russia, according to Ukrainian and Israeli media. Jews emerging from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city's Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee 'or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated,' reported Ynet News, Israel's largest news website, and Ukraine's Donbass news agency." ...

     ... Julia Ioffe of the New Republic thinks distribution of the flyers is probably a hoax devised by the administration of a nearby town. ...

     ... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: The provenance of the flyers is murky. "Whatever actually happened, there is one clear takeaway here: With both sides accusing the other of being 'Nazis,' and accusing the other of anti-Semitism, Eastern Ukraine's Jewish community is having an especially tough time during the Ukrainian crisis."

** Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama announced Thursday that eight million people had signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and that 35 percent of them were under the age of 35, countering those who predicted it would attract mainly older and sicker people. The final number exceeds by a million the target set by the administration for people to buy insurance through government-run health care exchanges. In addition, the number of young people signing up appears to have surged during the final weeks of enrollment":

... The President began his address by expressing condolences to the people of South Korea because of the ferry sinking. CW: As he began speaking, I thought he was going to offer condolences to the Republican party. Later, in the Q&A, Obama did whack Republicans. Often. And forcefully. Lovely to hear. ...

I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can't bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working. They said nobody would sign up. They were wrong about that ... They were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working when they have no alternative answer. -- President Obama, at today's press conference

... Paul Krugman: "How did enrollment manage to surge so impressively despite the initial debacle of healthcare.gov? Obviously they fixed the website; but the broader issue ... is that being uninsured is truly terrible." ...

... Jonathan Cohn: "This is probably Obamacare's best news day since March 23, 2010, when the president signed it into law." Cohn explains why. CW: Another good day (whatever date that was): the day John Roberts decided not to overturn the core law.

... Jason Millman of the Washington Post: "If we learned one thing from this enrollment period, it's this: Never underestimate the power of procrastination. California's exchange on Thursday reported that April 15, its last day of enrollment, saw 50,000 people sign up -- its best day ever." ...

... CW: We'll probably start seeing more confrontations like these -- between a constituent & Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.). Many reps won't handle it as well as Ross did (even tho the so-called replacement he mentions is farcical). Via Scott Keyes of Think Progress:

Decarbonize! Paul Krugman: "Even as the report [by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] calls for drastic action to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, it asserts that the economic impact of such drastic action would be surprisingly small.... It reflects a technological revolution many people don't know about, the incredible recent decline in the cost of renewable energy, solar power in particular."

All Krugman All the Time. Krugman on Inequality. Via Elias Isquith of Salon:

CW: Oh, Look! Here's one little despicable reason for increased inequality. ...

... Stealing from the Poor. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "'Wage theft' is an old problem. It can take many forms, including paying less than the minimum hourly wage, working employees off the clock, not paying required overtime rates and shifting hours into the next pay period so that overtime isn't incurred.... In the past few weeks, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman extracted settlements from dozens of McDonald's and Domino's locations around the state for off-the-clock work. Last month, workers in California, Michigan and New York filed class-action lawsuits against McDonald's alleging multiple charges of wage theft. These suits have upped the ante by implicating the McDonald's corporation, not just individual franchisees, in bad behavior.... Harsher penalties, including prison time, should be on the table more often when willful wrongdoing is proved."

Nora Caplan-Bricker of the New Republic: Who's the "deporter-in-chief" -- Bush or Obama? It depends upon what the meaning of "deport" is.

Jay Carney on President Obama's toughest interview. (Too bad Kathleen Sebelius didn't realize this.) Via Real Clear Politics:

Laura Myers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Thursday called supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy 'domestic terrorists' because they defended him against a Bureau of Land Management cattle roundup with guns and put their children in harm's way. 'Those people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They're nothing more than domestic terrorists,' Reid said during an appearance at a Las Vegas Review-Journal 'Hashtags & Headlines' event at the Paris. '... I repeat: what went on up there was domestic terrorism." CW: I so underestimated Harry Reid. He isn't a liberal's liberal, but he gets an awful lot right.

Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "It seems likely that the gap in tax rates between the superrich and the very rich may be narrowed."

Russia Today: "Russia has 'no mass surveillance in our country,' according to President Vladimir Putin, after he was asked a surprise question by whistleblower Edward Snowden at his Q&A session, adding 'our surveillance activities are strictly controlled by the law.'" ...

... Ed Snowden, in the Guardian: My motives in asking Putin the question are pure; I'm surprised everybody's picking on me. Also, Christians around the world will note that today is Good Friday; I am the Second Coming.

Right Wing World

** "Bundy Syndrome." Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "... what's going on runs deeper than a knee-jerk desire on the part of the right to believe every white guy in a cowboy hat is a good guy. This is the logical extension of a push that's grown in recent years from conservatives to argue that they, and only they, have special rights to simply disregard any law they don't want to follow. And unfortunately that's an argument that may be making headway this year in the Supreme Court." ...

... Timothy Cama of the Hill: Most GOP presidential hopefuls are wary of the Bundy landmine. Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan & Marco Rubio have not weighed in. But Rand Paul & Mike Huckabee both complained about federal agents with guns. ...

I'm not here to jump in on the middle of whether Cliven Bundy ought to pay the state or pay anybody for the chance for his cows to eat some grass. Here's what I would suggest: that there is something incredibly wrong when a government believes that some blades of grass that a cow is eating is so an egregious affront to the government of the United States that we would literally put a gun in a citizen's face and threaten to shoot him over it. -- Mike Huckabee

Gubernatorial Race

CNN: "Beau Biden said Thursday he won't seek re-election this year as Delaware attorney general and plans instead to run for governor in 2016."

Beyond the Beltway

Aman Batheja of the Texas Tribune: "A Texas political action committee called Boats 'N Hoes PAC will be just a memory by Thursday, according to the Republican political consultant who is the boss of the man who started it.... 'Texas Republicans say they want to reach out to women, to be more inclusive, but actions like this reinforce a pattern of disrespect,' Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Lisa Paul said in a statement. 'There's no defending the use of a derogatory and offensive term like 'hoes'. How can women possibly take the GOP rebranding effort seriously? Their consistent contempt towards women is simply unforgivable.'"

Charles Pierce points us to this bizarre story, by Jessica Lussenhop of the St. Louis Riverfront Times. Pierce calls it "a perfect case study in how firmly we believe in rehabilitation as a concept, and exactly how unstrained the quality of mercy really is."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: David Axelrod, "Barack Obama's most influential adviser during two presidential victories, has been hired to advise Labour on its 2015 election campaign, ensuring that Ed Miliband will put inequality and the break between family finances and economic growth at the centre of his election campaign."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "An avalanche swept the slopes of Mount Everest early Friday morning, killing at least 12 Nepalese guides and leaving three others missing, officials said, in what is now said to be the single deadliest disaster to hit the world's highest peak."

The New York Times outlines some of the shocking errors made after the Korean ferry began to list. ...

     ... UPDATE: "Prosecutors in South Korea on Friday sought to arrest the captain, third mate and another crew member of a ferry on charges of deserting their vessel and passengers after it capsized and leaving more than 270 people missing, many of them high school students on a trip to a resort island. Prosecutors asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Captain Lee Jun-seok, 69, and the 26-year-old third mate, who they said was steering the ship at the time of accident.... The vice principal, Kang Min-kyu, 52, of Danwon High School, who survived the ferry accident on Wednesday, was found hanging from a tree on a hill near a gymnasium where families of the missing had gathered. The police suspected Mr. Kang had hanged himself."

The Commentariat -- April 17, 2014

Internal links, obsolete video & related text removed.

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "New deportation cases brought by the Obama administration in the nation's immigration courts have been declining steadily since 2009 and judges have increasingly ruled against deportations, leading to a 43 percent drop in the number of deportations through the courts in the last five years, according to Justice Department statistics released on Wednesday. The figures show that the administration opened 26 percent fewer deportation cases in the courts last year than in 2009. In 2013, immigration judges ordered deportations in 105,064 cases nationwide. The statistics present a different picture of President Obama's enforcement policies than the one painted by many immigrant advocates, who have assailed the president as the 'deporter in chief'...."

Noah Rayman of Time: "President Barack Obama said in an interview that aired Thursday that 'we don't need a war' with Russia, downplaying the chance of military conflict between the U.S. and Russia over tensions in Ukraine." Here's the part of the interview that aired last night:

Sam Baker of the National Journal: "Obamacare hasn't 'won' -- but it's making a pretty impressive run. The headlines about the Affordable Care Act have turned positive lately, and they're starting to pile up. The most dire predictions from the law's critics simply haven't panned out, and now Democrats are headed into another big health care fight -- the confirmation of a new Health and Human Services secretary -- with stronger real-world evidence than they've had before. There's important information we still don't have about enrollment, and big risks loom on the horizon. Things could change. But right now, the tide seems to be turning in the White House's favor." ...

... CW: Before you get to feeling too hopeful, consider this cautionary note from Krugman, dated April 14: "It's easy to understand [the ignorance of] ... Fox-watchers and Rush-listeners, who are fed a steady diet of supposed Obamacare disaster stories.... But the real story hasn't even gotten through to many people who should know better. Over the weekend I had dinner in NYC with some very smart, sophisticated people; yes, all of them liberals. And almost everyone in the group was under the impression that Obamacare is still going badly -- they wanted me to tell them whether it could still be turned around." ...

... Jason Millman of the Washington Post: "Gallup reports that states which fully embraced the law by setting up their own exchanges and expanding their Medicaid programs saw their uninsured rate drop this year three times faster than the states that didn't.... Meanwhile, the Urban Institute ... [found] that the number of uninsured nonelderly adults fell by 5.4 million people between September and early March.... The survey doesn't cover the last few weeks of March enrollment...." Also, the Urban Institute's numbers are extremely squishy; they could be off by 2.2 million either way. ...

... Gabriel DeBenedetti of Reuters: "Americans increasingly think Democrats have a better plan for healthcare than Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the White House announced that more people than expected had signed up for the 'Obamacare' health plan."

Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden took a trip to a Pennsylvania community college on Wednesday to promote a plan to train workers for skills they need for hard-to-fill jobs":

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe reviews Elizabeth Warren's new memoir, A Fighting Chance.

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker on "the Snowden Pulitzer." ...

... For another Pulitzer controversy, see the Infotainment section. ...

... This probably belongs in Infotainment, too. Caitlan MacNeal of TPM: "MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' co-host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of revising Census Bureau questions concerning health insurance in order to mask the impact of Obamacare on the uninsured. The entire 'Morning Joe' panel followed along by mocking the revised survey, suggesting their own questions that might appear in the census. 'Is Obamacare great, or what?' Scarborough floated as a potential question." (See also yesterday's Commentariat on the Census Bureau questionnaire.) ...

... So Then.... Paul Krugman: "... it's really quite vile to have talk-show hosts who quite literally know nothing about the field, other than that they're against covering the uninsured, casually accusing Census of 'cooking the books' to support Obamacare. But remember, MSNBC is the liberal network, right? Why don't they just hire Donald Trump and be done with it?" ...

... So Then.... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Joe Scarborough is returning fire on Paul Krugman after The New York Times columnist accused him of being an 'Obamacare truther' who was didn't know his facts and was 'against covering the uninsured.' In an email to Politico, Scarborough suggested that Krugman was merely bitter after his poor showing in a debate the two held last year on 'Charlie Rose,' about the national debt. Krugman, who struggled to keep pace with Scarborough, later referred to his performance in that debate as his 'Denver debate moment.'"

Thomas Edsall: The enduring anti-abortion movement is about controlling the reproductive rights of women. Thanks to MAG for the link.

Andrew DeMillo of the AP: The ACLU "filed suit Wednesday to block a new Arkansas law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls before it is enforced for the first time statewide in the primary election next month."

Senate Races

ConservaDem Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.) fights back against his GOP challenger Rep. Tom Cotton with an effective "Mediscare" ad, & Alex Rogers of Time seems a little upset about it.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Democrats are dying to have Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius enter the Senate race in Kansas. It seems crazy to Republicans, who see Sebelius as the face of the botched ObamaCare rollout and believe her candidacy would make it even easier for them to win the Senate majority. But Democrats say her candidacy would make Kansas more winnable, would blunt the problems ObamaCare poses to their party and would force Republicans to pour money into a red state."

Presidential Race

Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker: "On Tuesday, the State of New York took a baby step -- or maybe a giant leap! -- toward making the United States of America something more closely resembling a modern democracy: Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill joining up the Empire State to the National Popular Vote (N.P.V.) interstate compact." ... CW: While I'm all for electing the U.S. president & vice president by popular vote, I remain skeptical of the NPV movement. Should the states actually invoke this mechanism to change the outcome of a presidential election, all hell would break loose. I doubt NPV advocates have given that much thought. And the Supremes, as they have done before, could still settle the election in the highly-principled way they are wont to do.

Modern Family. Katie Glueck of Politico: Jeb Bush may not run for president because his wife Columba, who in 1999 was caught smuggling French fashion items into the U.S., may be against it. Also, one of their children was arrested on drug charges & one for public intoxication. Also, Jeb's brother is a war criminal. (Okay, that's not the way Glueck phrases it.) Also, the GOP base just might not want a Mexican immigrant (Columba) as First Lady.

Andy Kroll of Mother Jones profiles New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, next in line for the mantle of GOP Girl Savior: "Petty. Vindictive. Weak on policy."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian novelist whose 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' established him as a giant of 20th-century literature, died on Thursday at his home in Mexico City. He was 87."

New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia emphasized on Thursday that the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament had authorized him to use military force if necessary in eastern Ukraine, and also stressed Russia's historical claim to the territory, repeatedly referring to it as 'new Russia' and saying that only 'God knows' why it became part of Ukraine....Mr. Putin's remarks on eastern Ukraine came as officials from Russia, the United States, Europe and the new government in Kiev were meeting in Geneva for four-way negotiations aimed at resolving the political crisis." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "Russia may invade southeast Ukraine to protect the local population, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday." ...

... Washington Post: "President Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly denied Russian troops had entered Crimea before the March referendum there, changed his version of those events Thursday, telling the nation that they had indeed been there all along. But the green-uniformed men observed in eastern Ukraine right now, storming buildings and raising the Russian flag, are not Russian, he said. 'Those are local residents,' he said." ...

... AP: "Ukraine is hoping to placate Russia and calm hostilities with its neighbor even as the U.S. prepares a new round of sanctions to punish Moscow for what it regards as fomenting unrest. The carrot-stick strategy emerged as diplomats from Ukraine, the U.S., the European Union and Russia prepared to meet Thursday for the first time over the burgeoning crisis that threatens to roil the new government in Kiev." ...

... Guardian: "Asked if he was expecting any progress, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, simply shrugged." ...

... Reuters is liveblogging of the Ukraine crisis.

... New York Times: "Ukrainian security forces killed three pro-Russian protesters, wounded 13 and took 63 captive in a firefight overnight in the eastern city of Mariupol, the interim Ukrainian interior minister said on Thursday. The clash was the most lethal so far in the east of the country." ...

... AP: "NATO is strengthening its military footprint along its eastern border immediately in response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the alliance's chief said Wednesday."

Washington Post: "A Canadian cyber crime unit has arrested and charged a 19-year-old Ontario man for allegedly hacking into the country's tax agency using the Heartbleed Internet security bug."

Washington Post: "About 24 hours after [a South Korean] passenger ferry with more than 450 aboard began to slowly sink off South Korea's southwestern coast, at least nine are dead and 287 others, many of them teenagers, are unaccounted for. South Korean news media put the number rescued at between 164 and 179, most of whom were brought ashore to the island of Jindo, where they were wrapped in warm towels or treated for minor injuries." ...

... Guardian: "The parents of hundreds of children missing after Wednesday's ferry accident off the coast of South Korea have accused the captain of the vessel of abandoning passengers after it emerged that he and six other crew members were among the first to leave the ship after it started to sink." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "Angry relatives of passengers aboard a sunken South Korean ferry criticized the government's response Thursday as the ship's captain made an emotional apology for fleeing the vessel before hundreds of others had a chance to get out." ...

The Commentariat -- April 16, 2014

Internal links removed.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data for more than three decades, is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama's health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said. The changes are intended to improve the accuracy of the survey, being conducted this month in interviews with tens of thousands of households around the country. But the new questions are so different that the findings will not be comparable, the officials said." ...

... Sarah Kliff of Vox: "It might not be time to freak out quite yet: What's being missed here is that the Obama administration will use the new survey questions to collect data for 2013, the year prior to Obamacare's health insurance expansion, a senior administration official says.... 2013 and 2014 -- the year before and after Obamacare's big programs started -- are using the same question set." ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "On Twitter, Kaiser Family Foundation vice president Larry Leavitt praised the new survey and said it won't stand in the way of determining whether Obamacare is working when it comes to the uninsured."

Kyle Cheney & Brett Norman of Politico: "Insurers saw disaster in the fall when Obamacare's rollout flopped and HealthCare.gov was a mess. But a strong March enrollment surge, along with indications that younger and healthier people had begun signing up, has changed their attitude. Around the country, insurers are considering expanding their stake in the Obamacare exchanges next year, bringing their business to more states and counties. Some health plans that skipped the new marketplaces altogether this year are ready to dive in next year." ...

... Paige Cunningham & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Anti-Obamacare Republicans home on recess are coming face to face this week with newly insured constituents. It could be an interesting encounter. No politician wants to sound eager to take government benefits away from voters -- and while public opinion polls show the health care law is still controversial, millions of people are indeed getting assistance. Especially in states where enrollment finished strong, Republicans will need a nuanced message: Even if Obamacare helped you personally, it's still bad for the country as a whole."

Kathleen Belew, in a New York Times op-ed: "In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a nine-page report detailing the threat of domestic terrorism by the white power movement. This short document outlined no specific threats, but rather a set of historical factors that had predicted white-supremacist activity in the past -- like economic pressure, opposition to immigration and gun-control legislation -- and a new factor, the election of a black president. The report singled out one factor that has fueled every surge in Ku Klux Klan membership in American history, from the 1860s to the present: war. The return of veterans from combat appears to correlate more closely with Klan membership than any other historical factor.... The report raised intense blowback from the American Legion, Fox News and conservative members of Congress. They demanded an apology and denounced the idea that any veteran could commit an act of domestic terrorism. The department shelved the report, removing it from its website. The threat, however, proved real.... When we interpret shootings like the one on Sunday as acts of mad, lone-wolf gunmen, we fail to see white power as an organized -- and deadly -- social movement.... Would [Miller/Cross] have received greater scrutiny had he been a Muslim, a foreigner, not white, not a veteran? The answer is clear, and alarming."

... Peter Bergan & David Sterman of CNN: "... since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology. According to a count by the New America Foundation, right wing extremists have killed 34 people in the United States for political reasons since 9/11.... Terrorists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology have killed 21 people in the United States since 9/11.... The disparity in media coverage between even failed jihadist terrorist attacks and this latest incident in Kansas is emblematic of a flawed division in the public's mind between killing that is purportedly committed in the name of Allah and killing that is committed for other political ends...." ...

... Steve Yaccino of the New York Times: "State prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 73-year-old white supremacist with murder in the killing of three people outside two Jewish community facilities on Sunday. At a news conference in this Kansas City suburb, the authorities announced one count of capital murder and one count of premeditated first-degree murder had been filed against Frazier Glenn Miller of Aurora, Mo., who has for decades espoused anti-Semitic and racist beliefs."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association."

Matt Taibbi: The Bush Justice Department was much tougher on corporate miscreants than the Obama DOJ. The 2008 Wall Street meltdown "was a crisis that was much huger in scope than the S&L crisis or the accounting crisis. I mean, it wiped out 40 percent of the world's wealth, and nobody went to jail, so that we're now in a place where we don't even recognize the importance of keeping up appearances when it comes to making things look equal." This Democracy Now! page has the full transcript, plus video.

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama will announce Wednesday a pair of grant programs designed to bring academic institutions and businesses closer together in preparing the American workforce for jobs that may otherwise go unfilled. The grant programs will total $600 million, money already in the federal budget. The decision to designate the money for these grant programs arose from a review of federal jobs programs by Vice President Biden, who will join Obama ... to make the announcement."

Equal Pay & the Single Girl. Igor Volsky: "In an op-ed published by the Christian Post, Phyllis Schlafly -- the founder of the Eagle Forum -- maintained that increasing the pay gap will help women find suitable husbands.... Schlafly has long been crusader for 'traditional values' within conservative movement and the Republican party, serving as a member of the National GOP Platform Committee as recently as 2012 and as a delegate to the National Convention." Here's Schlafly's op-ed.

Jo Becker in the New York Times Magazine on how President Obama "evolved" to supporting same-sex marriage. And, yeah, thanks, Joe Biden.

Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "Efforts to fix the notorious Heartbleed bug threaten to cause major disruptions to the Internet over the next several weeks as companies scramble to repair encryption systems on hundreds of thousands of Web sites at the same time, security experts say."

Maureen Dowd is worried about Google drones. CW: Her column is silly, but I think her underlying premise might be right.

Eli Lake & Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "The Obama administration is now considering a new policy to share more real-time intelligence with the interim government in Kiev after pressure from some in the U.S. military, Congress and U.S. allies in Ukraine. Over the weekend, CIA Director John Brennan met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema to discuss the formation of new, more secure channels for sharing U.S. intelligence with the country now fighting pro-Russian secessionists in its eastern cities, according to U.S. and Western officials briefed on the meeting."

Be Careful What You Wish For. Mike Eckel of the Christian Science Monitor: Life in Crimea is not so dandy since the Russians took it over.

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Apuzzo & Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "The New York Police Department has abandoned a secretive program that dispatched plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped...."

** Bailey McBride of the AP: "Cities across Oklahoma are now prohibited from establishing mandatory minimum wage or vacation and sick-day requirements under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin.... Those against the bill ... say it specifically targets Oklahoma City, where an initiative is underway to establish a citywide minimum wage higher than the current federal minimum wage." ...

... More from Lulu Chang of the National Memo. ...

     ... CW: One of many reminders that the Grand Oligarchs' Party doesn't just have it in for "lazy poor people"; they want to make sure the working poor stay poor. The excuse for this bill: to protect small business owners. Guess what? "The majority of small business owners support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and adjusting it annually to keep pace with the cost of living." More would support it if they understood macroeconomics. Another excuse: "economic homogeneity": how terrible if some cities (where the cost-of-living is likely to be higher than in rural areas) mandated a slightly better wage for the working poor. ...

     ... And finally, from the lips of Fallin: "Most minimum-wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs. Many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families." Howevah, as the Economic Policy Report documented, "raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would primarily benefit older workers. 88 percent of workers who would be affected by raising the minimum wage are at least 20 years old, and a third of them are at least 40 years old." So fuck the 88 percent to keep a few middle-class kids from getting extra spending money or putting more change in their college funds.

Congressional Races

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Kathleen Sebelius is considering a run against Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, an old family friend who done her wrong.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) runs a hard-hitting ad against the Obama administration's energy policy:

Boehner's "Electile Dysfunction." A Tea Party challenger with a sense of humor:

Emily Schultheis of Politico: "Former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who lost to Republican David Jolly in the special election in Florida's 13th District last month, said she will not run again for the seat -- a big blow to Democrats, who now have no obvious contender for the competitive St. Petersburg-area seat."

Unknown Races

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: San Antonio's Castro twins, Julian & Joaquin, are campaigning hard -- for something.

News Ledes

AP: "A column of armored vehicles flying Russian flags drove into a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russia demonstrators Wednesday, dampening the central government's hopes to re-establish control over restive eastern Ukraine."

AP: "A multi-story ferry carrying 459 people, mostly high school students on an overnight trip to a tourist island, sank off South Korea's southern coast Wednesday, leaving nearly 300 people missing despite a frantic, hours-long rescue by ships and helicopters. At least three people were confirmed dead and 55 injured."

Boston Globe: "A shelter-in-place order on Boylston Street has been lifted and a 25-year-old Boston man is facing charges after police executed a controlled detonation of two suspicious bags left near the Boston Marathon finish line. Just after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of last year's Boston Marathon bombings, police said two backpacks had been found in the area and immediately ordered people to evacuate. Authorities said the backpacks were tied to a man who goes by Kayvon Edson. Edson was captured in several videos marching down Boylston Street in a black veil, wearing a backpack, and chanting 'Boston strong.'" ...

     ... UPDATE: "A man who was arrested after suspicious bags were found near the Boston Marathon finish line was arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court. Kevin Edson, 25, of Boston is being charged with possession of a hoax explosive, threatening battery, threats to commit a crime, disturbing the peace, disturbing a public assembly, and disorderly conduct, according to the Boston Police Department. Edson is being held on $100,000 bail and is being sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for an evaluation, the Associated Press reports."