News Nuggets 1239

DAYLEE PICTURE: An alligator in North Carolina.  From National Geographic.

Man with Ties to Boston Bombing Suspect Admits Role in 2011 Murders; Shot During FBI Questioning from NBC News
"Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News. Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them."

How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled (Paul Krugman) from the New York Review of Books
"...the case for austerity was and is one that many powerful people want to believe, leading them to seize on anything that looks like a justification. I’ll talk about that will to believe later in this article. First, however, it’s useful to trace the recent history of austerity both as a doctrine and as a policy experiment."

How Obama Handles Crisis (Jon Favreau) from the Daily Beast
"The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack Obama will never be on their timeline, says his longtime speechwriter Jon Favreau."

Ben Bernanke to Congress: You’re Doing It Wrong (Daniel Gross) from the Daily Beast
"The Federal Reserve chairman has been working like a dog to keep the economy moving, he told Congress today, but they’re not pulling their weight. He's absolutely right."

Leaks, Privacy and Journalism (Paul R. Pillar) from the National Interest 
"The damage of leaks appears to be widely misunderstood, given how swiftly many commentators are brushing aside the issue of damage in the current case. Leaking of classified information significantly harms national security because it is awfully hard to run an effective national security operation if what stays secret and what becomes public is determined by any individual with an ax to grind or a personal agenda to push and enough of a wild streak to break the rules."

State of Play: Where the IRS Case Stands After 3 Hearings (Shane Goldmacher) from National Journal
"Despite the flurry of activity, some of the most basic details in the case remain foggy, including how exactly the targeting began, who began it, and how it was allowed to continue for so long. Both Democrats and Republicans want answers to those questions. And after more than a dozen hours of often contentious testimony, Republicans have yet to tie the targeting of tea party groups for extra scrutiny to President Obama and the White House."

She Has To Go (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"Whether or not she should be fired for whatever she did in the scandal itself, deciding to take the fifth means she needs to be removed from her position."
YUP!

Sorry, Republicans — Nobody’s Getting Impeached (Gene Lyons) from the National Memo
"Sure, the Internet empowers crackpots. But it also enables in-house bloggers like Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein to bring facts and arguments into the online pages of the high-dollar press that could be censored out of the “mainstream” as recently as the Clinton administration. So nobody’s getting impeached on this tripartite nonsense, OK? Anyway, let’s take them one at a time:..."

Life Lessons in Fighting the Culture of Bullshit: What Politics Taught Me that Current Graduates Need to Know (Jon Lovett) from the Atlantic 
"One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media's imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything."

GOP Moderates Feud with Conservatives Over Stall Tactics on Budget (Lori Montgomery) from the Washington Post
"Long-simmering divisions among Republicans burst into public view Tuesday evening, when GOP moderates challenged tea-party conservatives on the Senate floor over their refusal to proceed to formal negotiations with Democrats over the federal budget."

Ted Cruz: ‘I Don’t Trust The Republicans’ from Talking Points Memo 
"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday defended his objection to initiating House-Senate budget negotiations unless Democrats take a debt limit increase off the table, saying he doesn't trust his party to hold the line. "The senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans. Let me be clear, I don't trust the Republicans," Cruz said. "And I don't trust the Democrats.""
This guy definitely has his hand on the pulse of the GOP grassroots.  Glad to hear that he's considering running for president in 2016!

TORNADO NUGGET!!
A Tornado Chaser Talks About His Science and Craft from National Geographic
"Samaras, a National Geographic grantee known for getting instruments inside tornadoes to measure pressure and wind speeds, talked about what we still don't know about these devastating storms, why he chases them, and what he does in the off-season."

DEVASTATING BOOK REVIEW NUGGET!!
Ruthless Iran: Can a Deal Be Made? (Roger Cohen) from the New York Review of Books
"The eerie effort to whitewash the Islamic Republic in Going to Tehran is so extreme that it would be comical if it did not stray close to obscenity."

POTATO HISTORY NUGGET!!
So THIS is What Caused the Irish Potato Famine: Scientists Finally Identify Unique Pathogen that Caused the Blight from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"A strain called US-1 was long thought to have been the cause. Plant pathogen dubbed HERB-1 now identified as cause of Irish potato blight." 

News Nuggets 1238

DAYLEE PICTURE:  Bats in a tamarind tree in Madagascar.  From the New York Times.

UP-FRONT CONSERVATIVE PUNDIT NUGGET!!
‘Obama Scandals’ Could Actually Hurt Republicans (Ramesh Ponnuru) from Bloomberg News Service
"The biggest danger for Republicans in giving themselves over to scandal mania is one that the conventional retelling of the Clinton impeachment neglects. ... Republicans have similar vulnerabilities on the issues now. They have no real health-care agenda. Voters don’t trust them to look out for middle-class economic interests. Republicans are confused and divided about how to solve the party’s problems. What they can do is unite in opposition to the Obama administration’s scandals and mistakes. So that’s what they’re doing. They’re trying to win news cycles when they need votes."

Is the Vision Thing Important? (Joseph Nye) from the New York Times 
"Leadership experts stress the importance of transformational presidents with grand visions and an inspirational style rather than incremental leaders with a transactional style. In a careful study of the 20th century leaders who presided over the growth of American primacy, I found that many mattered — but not always in the ways that experts predict."

More Heat than Light in Senate’s IRS Hearing (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"A Senate hearing on the ongoing IRS scandal featured lots of outraged bluster, but few admissions of responsibility and nothing like a smoking gun. Eleanor Clift on a day of dead ends."

Will Republicans Screw Up Again? Some Are Already Overreaching (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"Republicans failed to capitalize on President Bill Clinton’s inappropriate conduct by over-playing their hand and pushing impeachment. Not only did they fail to drive him from office, the GOP ended up losing a handful of House seats in the 1998 midterms instead of adding seats as initially expected. ... That same danger exists once again for the GOP."

Republicans’ Hatred of Obama Blinds Them to Public Disinterest in Scandals (Charlie Cook) from National Journal
"Republicans are so focused on their bitter battles against Obama, they can’t see how little impact the “scandals” have had on public opinion."

GOP Aides Mock House Republicans’ ‘Crazy’ Benghazi Witch-Hunt (Ben Armbruster) from Think Progress
"OP aides are criticizing the House Republicans’ partisan witch-hunt over the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year, arguing that the Party should focus more on substantive issues, such as lessons learned and how to recalibrate diplomatic security. Roll Call reports that Republican aides are saying staffers are getting bogged down chasing bogus accusations."

The Suburbanization of Poverty (Emily Badger) from the Atlantic
"... over the last decade, suburbs have increasingly become home to America's poor. Between 2000 and 2011, the population living in American cities below the poverty line increased by 29 percent. During that same time, across the country in the suburbs of metropolitan areas as diverse as Atlanta and Detroit and Salt Lake City, the ranks of the poor grew by 64 percent."

The Economic Geography of America's Abortion Wars (Richard Florida) from the Atlantic
"The word "choice" presumes that women actually have options. While the right to have an abortion is still protected by Roe v. Wade, in practical terms, it has become a privilege that is reserved for the residents of relatively affluent states. "

China's Property Values Are Skyrocketing, With No End in Sight from the Atlantic
"High demand fuelled by easily available credit has pushed prices up, making it harder for first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder and raising concerns that a property bubble is developing."

SPACE TRAVEL NUGGET!!
Welcome to the Real Space Age (Dan Lee) from the New York Magazine 
"This is not a rendering. It is a launching pad in the New Mexico desert for rocket planes that will send you into space for $200,000. It opens later this year."

News Nuggets 1237

DAYLEE PICTURE: Lightening strikes in the Grand Canyon.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Rough Times for Obama? Sure. But Nixonian? Please. (Matthew Dallek) from the Washington Post
"The White House deserves some of the blame for the mess it’s in, but let’s be clear: The comparisons to Nixon are hyperbolic. Watergate, with its unique depth of criminality, remains a scandal unlike any other in modern times, and the echoes today reveal far more about the culture of Washington than about the supposed similarity between Obama’s troubles and Nixon’s crimes."

‘Who’s Going to Jail’ Over IRS Scandal? Probably Nobody. (Aaron Blake) from the Washington Post
"We don’t know yet. But it’s also quite possible that nobody will ever be convicted of breaking the law in the IRS scandal. “I am not aware of any statute that prohibits IRS targeting of applicants,” said Republican lawyer Jan Baran, who served as general counsel to George H.W. Bush and the RNC. Other politically inclined lawyers agree."

Conspiracy Theorists Flummoxed in Face of Actual Scandals (Alex Seitz-Wald) from Salon  
"The Benghazi/IRS/AP trifecta was the moment critics of Obama and the government had been waiting for. Or was it? For some of Obama’s biggest and most imaginative critics, the abundance of scandal stinks to high heaven and suggests the White House is intentionally drowning itself in controversy — for some reason."

IRS Hearing: The Takeaways from Politico
"Democrats are mad, but they aren’t taking it out on Obama.  Sure, Democrats want everyone to know they’re outraged too. But so far, they’re not demanding that President Barack Obama do more — at least not in public. They’re perfectly happy to take it out on the IRS."

Presidential Scandals, Only in the Minds of Republicans (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"... dig into the internals of the poll and you find something striking. In the case of the IRS and Benghazi stories, the lurid and nefarious view of Obama’s involvement in them being peddled by the right is held only by Republicans — big majorities of them — while most moderates and
independents, i.e. the middle of the country, believe the White House’s arguments."


Hillary and the 9 Dwarves (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post 
"Writing about the 2016 Democratic presidential race really means writing about two races. The first race isn’t a race at all. It’s Hillary Clinton’s internal debate about whether she wants to run for president or not. ... The second race is among everyone not named Clinton — a race to see who can grab the small amount of political oxygen that the former Secretary of State leaves behind."


Hillary '16 Campaign Off to Excellent Start (Paul Waldman) from the American Prospect
"The lesson that should be drawn from recent history is that it really doesn't matter who the Democratic nominee is. Republicans will hate him or her, and that hate will grow from an ember to a consuming fire. ... That hate will have a different flavor depending on who the candidate is—if it's Clinton, we'll see the return of all the sexual panic and misogyny she inspires—but what won't change is its quantity."

Mark Penn All But Out For Potential Hillary Clinton 2016 Run from the Huffington Post 
"...if Clinton runs in 2016, Penn is extremely unlikely to join on again, according to the Washington Post."
ThankGodThankGodThankGodThankGodThankGodThankGod

7 Juicy Claims From A Romney Campaign Insider’s New Book from BuzzFeed 
"Former policy aide Gabriel Schoenfeld’s new book, A Bad Day on the Romney Campaign: An Insider’s Account, blames Romney’s staff for his defeat."

ROBOT NUGGET!!
Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don't Fire Us? (Kevin Drum) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Smart machines probably won't kill us all—but they'll definitely take our jobs, and sooner than you think."

SEX AND ETHICS NUGGET!!
The Ethics of Extreme Porn: Is Some Sex Wrong Even Among Consenting Adults? (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"A defense of consent as a lodestar of sexual morality."

NFL NUGGET!!
Hard Knocks: Shanghai, Can the NFL Plant Its Flag in China? (Hua Hsu) from Grantland
"...beyond all this, there's football itself, which has never been an intuitive product for American export. Even nations with an appetite for American things have traditionally found football exotic and inscrutable, one of those aspects of the culture that simply doesn't translate well. But something unusual is happening throughout China's major cities, where football is one of the fastest-growing sports."

News Nuggets 1236

DAYEE PICTURE: A close-up view of the Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm, Alaska.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT POLITICAL NUGGET!!
The Scandals are Falling Apart (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post 
"There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough. Let’s go through them...."

IRA, AP, Libya Scandals are a Trifecta with Little Payout (Ruth Marcus) from the Washington Post
"Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It’s a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph — not even the first page — of the account of the Obama administration in the history books. [...] Bad things happen in second-term presidencies, often in clumps. This is no coincidence; first-term chickens come home to roost in a second term. The inevitable arrogance bred by winning reelection never helps. But this bad run demands perspective."

It's Official: Those Bogus Email Leaks Came From Republicans (Kevin Drum) from Mother Jones Magazine
"It's not as if we didn't know this already, but today Major Garrett made it official: last week's leaks that misquoted the Benghazi emails came directly from Republicans. Here's the report on the CBS Evening News: ..."

Wow, This is Pretty Epic (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"Generally, once partisan, tendentious sources leak information that turns out to be wrong, nothing’s ever done about it. That’s for many reasons, some good or somewhat understandable, mostly bad. But on CBS Evening News tonight, Major Garrett did something I don’t feel like I’ve seen in a really long time or maybe ever on a network news cast. He basically said straight out: Republicans told us these were the quotes, that wasn’t true."

White House Email Contradicts Benghazi Leaks (Jake Tapper) from CNN
"CNN has obtained an email sent by a top aide of President Barack Obama, in which the aide discusses the Obama administration reaction to the attack on the U.S. posts in Benghazi, Libya. The actual email differs from how sources characterized it to two different media organizations. The actual email from then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes appears to show that whomever leaked it did so in a way that made it appear that the White House primarily concerned with the State Department's desire to remove references and warnings about specific terrorist groups so as to not bring criticism to the department."

Understanding the Politics of the IRS Scandal from Talking Points Memo 
"We’re just at the front end of investigating the IRS scandal. And all the standard blah blah blah about how we don’t know just what we’ll find. But I think we do know pretty much exactly what the political implications will be. And they’re significant."

Nixon All Over Again? Not Even Close (Scot Lehigh) from the Boston Globe 
"Watergate? Nixonian? Impeachment? Please. Someone get the smelling salts. [...] [C]harges of a Benghazi coverup don’t pass the evidence test. Comparisons to Nixon are idiotic. And it’s the height of partisan absurdity to suggest that anything we’ve seen in these so-called scandals could justify impeachment."

Nope, Still No Cover-Up (Andrew Rosenthal) from the New York Times 
"First, this White House has no clue how to handle a public relations crisis; it should have released those emails ages ago. Second, the more we learn, the clearer it is that there was no cover-up. Third, the
Republicans in Congress don’t care about the truth of the matter."

A Tough Week, But Obama’s Agenda Isn’t Dead (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"It was rough— the IRS, Benghazi, the AP phone calls. But the president’s already moving past the week’s ‘Watergate’ to get back to business, as immigration reform edges forward."

Memo to GOP: Don’t Pretend You Care (Kirsten Powers) from the Daily Beast 
"Republicans blasting Obama over the AP snooping scandal seem to have selective-memory disorder. They’ve been trying to nail journalists and leakers for years, writes Kirsten Powers."

Why the GOP Thinks it Could Blow it from Politico
"Top GOP leaders are privately warning members to put a sock in it when it comes to silly calls for impeachment or over-the-top comparisons to Watergate. They want members to focus on months of fact-finding investigations — not rhetorical fury. Why the fuss? Well…"

Hispanic Outreach Director Explains Why He Said ‘Adios’ to the GOP (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"The RNC’s guy in charge of reaching out to Florida Hispanics has bolted for the Dems. Pablo Pantoja talks to John Avlon about the racist immigration report that was the final straw."

North Miami Mayoral Candidate Touts Endorsement from Jesus Christ from TV Local 10 [of Miami]
"A mayoral candidate in North Miami claims she has received an endorsement from a higher power.  Campaign posters for Anna L. Pierre tout that she was endorsed by Jesus Christ. "It's a spiritual endorsement. Why? Because everything I do I always get God involved," Pierre said."

FBI Seeks Source of Prostitution, Corruption Allegations Against Sen. Robert Menendez from the Washington Post
"... investigators are looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry. The scene of federal agents interviewing two of the world’s wealthiest sugar barons, whose business holdings include Domino Sugar, underscores the unusual twists of the saga..."

Skeptical Science Flattens Deniers: 97% of Peer-reviewed Papers say Humans Causing Climate Change (Meteor Blades) from Daily Kos
"As researchers under the guidance of John Cook at Skeptical Science discovered in a "citizen science" survey of 11,944 peer-reviewed articles, 1.6 percent of the authors expressing an opinion on the subject rejected or were uncertain about the consensus that the earth is undergoing anthropogenic (human-generated) global warming (AGW). And 97.1 percent of the nearly 4,000 articles in which the author(s) took a position endorsed the AGW consensus."

EUROPEAN RELIGION NUGGET!!
Christianity Declining 50pc Faster than Thought – as One in 10 Under-25s is a Muslim from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"Christianity could be facing a catastrophic collapse in Britain according to official figures suggesting it is declining 50 per cent faster than previously thought."

News Nuggets 1236

The Nuggetsman will be travelling Wednesday and Thursday -- thus there will be no nuggets on those day.  News Nuggets will resume on Friday.

News Nuggets 1235

DAYEE PICTURE: White-tailed Eagles lunging for the same prey in Poland.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT POLITICS NUGGET!!
Our Ceaseless Circus (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
Bruni's Best. Column. Ever.  A lengthy excerpt is in order here.
"Four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya: people with unrealized hopes, unfinished plans, relatives who loved them and friends who will miss them. But let’s focus on what really matters about the attack and its aftermath. Did Hillary Clinton’s presumed 2016 presidential campaign take a hit? [...] Now we have a scandal at the Internal Revenue Service to factor in. And a scandal it is, in urgent need of a thorough investigation, which President Obama pledged at his news conference on Monday and which we’re very much owed. But before we get a full account, let’s by all means pivot to the possible political fallout, politics being all that seems to matter these days.  [...] It never gets better and may in fact be getting worse: the translation of all of the news and of all of Washington’s responses into a ledger of electoral pluses and minuses, a graph of rising and falling political fortunes, a narrative of competition between not just the parties but the would-be potentates within a party. On issue after issue, the sideshow swallows the substance, as politicians and the seemingly infinite ranks of political handlers join us journalists in gaming everything out, ad infinitum."

IRS Acted Alone In Developing Targeting Criteria For Conservative Groups: Report from the Huffington Post 
"The IRS' Friday admission that it disproportionately scrutinized groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status has led some politicians to lay the blame on the Obama administration. However, a report in the Wall Street Journal Sunday said that a forthcoming Treasury Department inspector general report would show that no one outside IRS developed the criteria."

IRS Audits, Benghazi, Sebelius: Obama’s Second Term Is Scandal Heaven (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"IRS Tea Party audits, Benghazi, oh my! The events unfolding in Washington may have journalists seeing blood in the water, but Obama’s second-term scandals are no Watergate, John Dean tells Eleanor Clift."

IRS Tactics Sully Legitimate Hunt for Fraudulent Nonprofits (Brian Dickson) from the Detroit Free Press
This columnist cuts to the chase as to what was probably going on at the IRS. 
"It’s undisputed that a significant number of groups organized in the name of “tax fairness” or “defending the Second Amendment” have put their tax-exempt status in jeopardy by campaigning energetically for conservative candidates in Republican primary elections. Besides avoiding taxes, masquerading as a tax-exempt 501(c)4 organization such organizations to conceal the identity of donors seeking to promote candidates anonymously."
Here's the catch 22.  Name me the Tea Party group that was not campaigning energetically for Republican candidates.  Moreover, as Rachel Maddow and others have argued, many Tea Party groups  were supported directly or indirectly by the GOP or conservative super-PACs.  All of these aspects should make these groups ineligible for tax-exempt status and were thus appropriate targets for IRS scrutiny.  The "political bias" of the IRS stems from the problem that there was no explosion of left-leaning organizations in 2010 and later that sent up as many red flags as these Tea Party groups.  Botton line: in 2010 and 2011 there was a dramatic spike in the number of right-wing groups filing for tax exempt status whose claims to that status were highly problematic.  There was no corresponding spike of left-wing groups. Oddly, as this NYTimes piece seems to indicate, the IRS seems to have rubber stamped the tax exempt status of the largest right-wing PACs and organizations that emerged in 2010 and 2011. Given all this, good luck to the IRS folks who will need to explain this to hostile Congressional interrogators.  They will NEED IT.

IRS Scandal’s Central Figure, Lois Lerner, Described as ‘Apolitical’ (Caitlin Dickson) from the Daily Beast
"Lois Lerner is in the eye of the IRS-Tea Party firestorm. Caitlin Dickson reports on the ‘apolitical’ director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division—and whether she could have averted the scandal."

Breathless Over Benghazi: Republicans Can't Help Overplaying their Hand (David Horsey) from the Baltimore Sun
"The latest round of House hearings about the Benghazi incident provides a perfect example of how American politics has been warped and gummed up by bombastic, partisan extremism. A cool, methodical inquiry could well uncover serious mistakes and provide remedies so that future incidents can be thwarted before more American diplomats are killed in the line of duty. But the current generation of Republican lawmakers does not know how to do cool. Hot rhetoric more suited to a Glenn Beck tirade seems to be the only way they know how to communicate. [...] It is a fever dream for Republicans to think they can bring down President Obama with this pipsqueak of a scandal."

Benghazi Investigation Does Not Reignite Broad Public Interest: Reactions Split Along Partisan Lines from the Pew Research Center
"The public paid limited attention to last week’s congressional hearings on Benghazi. Fewer than half (44%) of Americans say they are following the hearings very or fairly closely, virtually unchanged from late January when Hillary Clinton testified."

White House: 'No Knowledge' of AP Phone Record Seizure (Justin Sink) from The Hill
 "The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press telephone records. “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. Carney said the White House had no involvement in the Justice effort."
"No knowledge" is a pretty cut-and-dried statement -- and for Obama's sake, he and his people (re: AG Eric Holder at the DOJ) better be able to stand by that statement given the heat that is coming their way. 

News Nuggets 1234

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Bamboo Stinkhorn Fungus in India.  From Wikipedia. 

UP-FRONT POLITICAL NUGGET!!
Why Outrage is Dead (Marc Ambinder) from The Week
"Republicans want to know where the outrage is hiding. Why aren't Americans angrier about the (a) cover-up (b) conspiracy (c) lunacy (d) evil-ness of how the Obama administration responded to the events in Libya? ... If everything is an outrage, then nothing is an outrage."
In some ways, this will represent one of the biggest barriers (as well as one of the biggest political dangers) the GOP faces in their effort to "get Obama" over the Benghazi or the IRS issues.  They and the right-wing more generally have zero credibility with the larger electorate.  Even their own base doesn't believe what GOP lawmakers are saying most of the time.  Can Issa/Graham/McCain and company really gin up a compelling enough corpus of evidence to alter the general public's view that these efforts are anything put an abuse of partisan political power?  I doubt it.  But that doesn't mean they won't try.  See Tomasky's commentary below.

ANOTHER UP-FRONT POLITICAL NUGGET WITH EXTENDED QUOTE!!
The Coming GOP Civil War Over Climate Change from the National Journal 
“[Newt] Gingrich and [Mitt] Romney understood, … and I think they even believed the evidence and understood the risk,” [MIT scientist Kerry] Emanuel says. “But they were so terrified by the extremists in their party that in the primaries they felt compelled to deny it. Which is not good leadership, good integrity. I got a low impression of them as leaders.” Throughout the Republican presidential primaries, every candidate but one—former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who was knocked out of the race at the start—questioned, denied, or outright mocked the science of climate change." Soon after his experience in South Carolina, Emanuel changed his lifelong Republican Party registration to independent. “The idea that you could look a huge amount of evidence straight in the face and, for purely ideological reasons, deny it, is anathema to me,” he says.

New Orleans Shooting: I Saw the Mother’s Day Parade Gunman from the Daily Beast
"Medical student Jarratt Pytell was dancing with the crowd at the Mother’s Day parade when he heard a sound like fireworks. He describes seeing the young gunman—and responding to some of the 19 wounded."
It will be on-going episodes like this that will keep gun control front and center for the foreseeable future.

Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream (Joseph Stiglitz) from the New York Times
"The crisis that is about to break out involves student debt and how we finance higher education. Like the housing crisis that preceded it, this crisis is intimately connected to America’s soaring inequality, and how, as Americans on the bottom rungs of the ladder strive to climb up, they are inevitably pulled down — some to a point even lower than where they began. This new crisis is emerging even before the last one has been resolved, and the two are becoming intertwined."

How to Reinvent College (Nick Romeo) from the Daily Beast
"An undergraduate having to pay off $120,000, and a university that has more than $165 million in debt? Paying adjuncts less but having them teach more, and instructors who give A's 43 percent of the time? Nick Romeo on a new book that critiques how higher education has changed, and what needs to be done to save it."

The Coming Attempt to Impeach Obama (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast 
"The idea of impeaching Obama is industrial-strength insane. Republicans will probably try anyway, predicts Michael Tomasky."
It has long occurred to me that an Obama 2nd term might go this way.  Having failed to defeat him in 2008 and again in 2012, the GOP will take whatever scandal-like material they had on hand in 2013 and (if they controlled the House) simply impeach him.  It has NOTHING to do with the merits of the case or whether any "high crimes or misdemeanors" were committed.  It is simply an exercise in power and a desperate attempt to cater to an extremely angry and misinformed party base.  Since Republicans have done nothing about anything legislatively they have to bring something to their constituents to say they are doing something -- so look for this to be it.  It's unclear to me what Obama can do to derail this effort -- but I suspect his team and the Dems will take this quite seriously as Tomasky suggests.

Right-wing Media Check up: still crazy: The Right-Wing Media Hasn't Learned Anything from its Failures in 2012 (Ana Marie Cox) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Several observers have pointed out that the conservative media's real complaint about #BENGHAZI is that the coverage in the MSM hasn't taken their side, and, even more to the point, the American public at large (i.e., those outside the Fox News demographic) has not responded to the coverage with outrage and alarm to match their own. The Week's Mark Ambinder has teased out why that is; they aren't on board with the guiding principle of today's right-wing journalists: Obama is evil."

Politics and Race: Looking Ahead to 2060 (Paul Taylor) from the Pew Research Center
"The report on the racial and ethnic breakdown of voters in 2012 released Wednesday by the Census Bureau attracted lots of well-deserved attention. But for readers of political tea-leaves, a report the bureau issued last December tells an even more compelling story. That report projected the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. population through 2060. If you combine key numbers from those two Census Bureau reports into a single chart, as we’ve done below, you’ll get a feel for a political and
demographic drama that’s going unfold over the next half century. And if you’re a Republican thinking of running for president one day, you may be a bit concerned."

Republicans Ask: Where Is John Boehner? from BuzzFeed
"Worried rank-and-file Republicans say the speaker seems to be “a bit checked out” as new legislative battles loom. His allies say he’s working behind the scenes to move the conference forward.  ... Today though, Republicans shoulder the brunt of the responsibility for the outrage they're not finding. "

South Carolina 'Creationist' Science Quiz is Real (Hunter) from Daily Kos 
"This has been floating around for a while, but it looks like Snopes has now confirmed it. It's real. The above is an actual science quiz given to 4th graders at Blue Ridge Christian Academy in South Carolina."

NYC NUGGET!!
Spire Installed on WTC Tower, Making It 1,776 Feet from the San Francisco Chronicle
"The World Trade Center's rebirth has long revolved around creating a centerpiece of unsparing symbolism: a skyscraper 1,776 feet tall, its height an homage and a bold statement about looking forward. The new 1 World Trade Center reached that height with the lowering of a silvery spire from a crane on Friday, officially taking its place as a signature of the city's skyline and, with some argument, the nation's tallest tower.

News Nuggets 1233

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Red-eyed Frog on a Horned Beetle in Costa Rica.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Whistleblower’s Yarn Fails to Tie Benghazi Lapses to Politics (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"They summoned a whistleblower to Capitol Hill, but instead they got a virtuoso storyteller. ... Hicks was of little use to Republicans in their efforts to connect the lapses in the Benghazi response to Clinton or to the Obama White House."

National Circus: Benghazi Isn’t Watergate (Frank Rich) from New York Magazine
"They believed that Benghazi was figuratively as well as literally the 9/11 of 2012, and that its fallout would usher Romney into the presidency. In fact, it barely registered as a concern in any polls. Now they believe (in Lindsey Graham’s characteristically understated judgment) that Benghazi is “every bit as damaging as Watergate,” a gateway both to the president’s impeachment and to a GOP victory over Hillary in 2016. Yet no one else does."

The Republicans’ Benghazi Obsession from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"The hearing did not prove anything like an administration cover-up or other hysterical allegations of crimes equal to Watergate that some Republicans, such as Representative Steve King and Senator Lindsey Graham, have alleged."

Benghazi Hearing's Real Target: Clinton in 2016 (David Rothkopf) from CNN 
"That is not to say that the tragic events that unfolded last year in Benghazi are not worthy of serious investigation. They just didn't get them from Issa's committee. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her passionate testimony in December, we need to know what went wrong to prevent future tragedies. ... But Issa and his co-inquisitors were more interested in the arithmetic of 2016 presidential politics than with the events of last September 11 in Libya."

No, Benghazi Won’t Hobble Hillary in 2016 (Stephen Stromberg) from the Washington Post
"[I]f their obsession with Benghazi is partly an attempt to render [Clinton] incapable of winning the general election in 2016, the affair won’t do it for them. Or even get close."

The Myth of Presidential Leadership (Norm Ornstein) from National Journal 
"I have grown increasingly frustrated with how the mythology of leadership has been spread in recent weeks. I have yelled at the television set, 'Didn't any of you ever read Richard Neustadt's classic Presidential Leadership? Haven't any of you taken Politics 101 and read about the limits of presidential power in a separation-of-powers system?' But the issue goes beyond that, to a willful ignorance of history.""

Economists See Deficit Emphasis as Impeding Recovery from the New York Times
"After two years of stalemate on how to spur job creation and slash deficits, the consensus is that fiscal tightening has been a drag on economic recovery."

Joe Biden: The Rolling Stone Interview (Douglas Brinkley) from Rolling Stone Magazine
"Never before have a president and vice president been as close personally and professionally as Barack Obama and Joe Biden - just think about the past 80 years. FDR switched out VPs with the regularity of a farmer rotating his crops. Harry Truman had little use for the lightweight Alben Barkley.... Of course, Al Gore and Dick Cheney were formidable presences in the past two White Houses. But by the time both of those men left Washington, their relationships with their bosses were strained."
I think Brinkley is missing a key development here; the transformation of the office and responsibilities of the VP itself.  I would argue that the responsibilities of the Presidency have become so burdensome that whoever occupies the Oval Office now MUST have a VP who can shoulder A LOT of responsibility -- and thus has to be someone the President can trust and dole out key tasks to.  That is how Clinton used Gore, how Bush used Cheney and how Obama has used Biden -- and how future Presidents will use their VPs and what they will look for in a VP nominee.  For those who know something about the history of Ancient Roman, emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD) created a series of co-emperors because the Roman Empire simply became too vast and too complex for one person to manage effectively.  I recall either Obama or one of his aids saying that the pace of life in the White House is like having a fire hose of critical events coming at you each day.  I thank God Obama has someone of Biden's calibre to turn to.

Meet Democrats’ Newest Republican Crush: Ted Cruz?!?! from Talking Points Memo
"Their distaste for his antics and his radical ideology is undoubtedly genuine. But Democrats are also thrilled that someone with those — should we call them qualities? — has emerged after the rout in 2012 as a Republican powerbroker in his own right, in a party whose leadership is too weak and timid to control him. And, the greater his stature in the party, the more harm they believe he’ll do to the GOP nationwide, whether or not he runs for president in 2016."

A Thinner Chris Christie Still Faces Big Political Challenges (Robert Shrum) from the Daily Beast
"Thanks to the GOP’s self-defeating refusal to back pragmatists over true believers, he may not be a winner, says Robert Shrum."

Heritage Foundation Does Damage Control from Politico
"The Heritage Foundation has gone into damage-control mode in the last few days, after coming under fire from Republicans and conservative outside groups over a report it published that puts the price tag of immigration reform at $6.3 trillion. ... The group has also come under scrutiny after it was reported that one of the authors of the report asserted previously that white Americans have higher IQs than immigrants."

CABLE TV NUGGET!!
Agreeing with McCain on Cable Bill (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos 
"At first blush, this bit of legislation coming out of Sen. John McCain's office is full of awesome: ... A la carte: As anyone trying to sign up for cable or satellite knows, you get stuck paying a bill for dozens (if not hundreds) of channels, when the vast majority of us really only watch a handful."

BABY NAMES NUGGET!!
2012 Most Popular Names in the US from Nameberry
The boys' names I can pretty much get my head around -- most of the girls' names, forget it!  I am mystified that huge numbers of parents would use these names.

GEOLOGY NUGGET!!
Atlantis Discovered? (Mac Margolis) from the Daily Beast
"Off the coast of Brazil, in one of the earth’s least explored waters, geologists have made an intriguing find. ... “Today we believe we may have found vestiges of an unknown continent,” Roberto Ventura Santos, head of the Brazilian Geological Service, told The Daily Beast. The evidence? Not gold but granite. “We expected to find volcanic rock and debris, typical of a seabed, not granite. Granite is typically found on the continental shelf.”"

MOTHERS DAY PHOTO NUGGET!!
Mother's Day in the Animal Kingdom for Super-Cute Baby Prairie Pups, Tigers and Polar Bears from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"These are the heart-warming pictures which prove a mother's love really is unconditional - no matter what species you are. With Mother's Day just around the corner, these adorable snaps show a whole host of patient mothers bonding with their boisterous babies."

News Nuggets 1232

DAYLEE PICTURE: The recently built San Buenaventura complex on the outskirts of Mexico City.  From National Geographic.

Benghazi Again (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"The Republicans, apparently with nothing better to do, are still chasing their tails over the tragic events in Benghazi on September 11. ... "I suspect they won't be a viable political party until they begin to focus on substance rather than emptiness.""

Benghazi: Incompetence, But No Cover-up: The Hearings Deepen the Tragedy, but Not the Scandal (Michael Hirsh) from National Journal
"There was tragic incompetence, plainly, in the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks, and even possibly some political calculation. It is a record that may well come to haunt Hillary Clinton, the first Secretary of State to lose an ambassador in the field in more than three decades, if she runs for president in 2016. But the obvious Republican effort to turn this inquiry into the Democratic (Obama) version of the Iraq intelligence scandal that has tarred the GOP since the George W. Bush years -- led by that least-credible of champions, the almost-always-wrong Darrell Issa -- is just not going to amount to much."

Boston Suspects’ Parents on the Run (Anna Nemtsova) from the Daily Beast 
"First reporters hounded them for interviews. Now the mother and father of the Tsarnaev brothers have been kicked out of Chechnya by its president."

Who Are We Again? Have Republicans Totally Forgotten What the 'National Interest' Means? (Daniel Pletka) from Foreign Policy Magazine
It means getting rid of Obama by any means necessary.  From the GOP point-of-view, nothing else matters.
"Those wars have been discussed ad nauseam, but there hasn't been a persuasive self-examination by advocates who remain advocates about what went wrong and how to avoid repeating it. Indeed, we can spare some sympathy for those who cherish harsh thoughts about intervention in Syria ..."

Obama Maintains Approval Advantage, but GOP Runs Even on Key Issues: Two-Thirds Say Obama 'Fights Hard' for His Policies from the Pew Research Center
"President Obama continues to hold a substantial advantage over congressional Republicans in public regard. Obama’s job approval is back in positive territory at 51%, after slipping to 47% in March. By
comparison, just 22% approve of the job Republican leaders in Congress are doing, among the lowest approval rating for congressional leaders from either party in 20 years."

Hospital Prices No Longer Secret As New Data Reveals Bewildering System, Staggering Cost Differences from the Huffington Post
"Americans have long become accustomed to bewilderment and anxiety when confronting health care bills. The new database underscores why, revealing the perplexing assortment of prices for medical care, with the details of bills seemingly untethered to any graspable principle."

Heritage Foundation: We Have Nothing To Do With Racial Immigration Study from Talking Points Memo
"The Heritage Foundation is disavowing past recommendations regarding race, IQ, and immigration from Jason Richwine, the co-author of a recent study by the group claiming undocumented immigrants would add $6.3 trillion to the deficit if granted legal status. “This is not a work product of The Heritage Foundation. Its findings in no way reflect the positions of The Heritage Foundation,"..."
WOW! This study got huge media attention (especially in the right-wing alternative universe).  This disavowal leaves me shaking my head: so THIS is what passes for "policy analysis" in right-wing land!?  In reality, what one sees here is simply further evidence of a point of argued before and that is that so-called conservative "think tanks" whether they are the Heritage Foundation, the CATO Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Manhattan Institute or what have you, their real purpose is not to generate quality research and/or suggest workable solutions to public policy issues.  No, their purpose is simply to pump out conservative talking points to muddy the waters and provide political cover for hard-right lawmakers and some kind of legitimacy for talk jocks trying to pretend that they actually have rational, reality-based reasons for the crazy positions they take.

NRA-Gabrielle Giffords Fight Heats Up from Politico
"Giffords’ gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, hit back – announcing it raised more than $11 million in its first four months of operation – a staggering figure even in the age of super PACs and big outside money groups. The early – and aggressive — posturing on both sides is a clear sign that guns aren’t gone in the run-up to the 2014 midterms."

Census Bureau: Black Turnout Passed White Voters in 2012 from The Hill 
"Black voters were the only racial or ethnic group to show an increase in turnout from 2008, when 64.7 percent voted. Voter rates for whites dropped to 64.1 percent from 66.1 percent. Both black and white voters though had higher turnout rates than Hispanics and Asians in 2012, each at 48 percent."
Not surprising on some levels: the GOP tried to so openly mess with African Americans' right to vote in so many states, they really didn't understand what a provocative, hot-button issue that would turn into.

CHEETAH NUGGET!!
Boy, 3, and his Sister Who Have Grown Up with CHEETAHS and Even Take Them Out in their Mini Jeep from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"At the wheel, a little blond-haired boy... and by his side, a cheetah. It's not your average playtime scene but this is no ordinary family. Three-year-old Malan and his sister Kayla, one, are best friends with the world's fastest land animals - two deadly cheetahs. The siblings have formed an extraordinary bond with the creatures after growing up with them in their home in South Africa."

RE-ENACTMENT NUGGET!!
The Holy Grail of Battle Re-enactments from the New York Times
"The Battle of the Nations, an international full-contact event whose participants are equipped with steel armor, attracts a certain breed of fighter."

News Nuggets 1231

DAYLEE PICTURE: Sunset on the shore of South Africa.  From National Geographic.

Syria: What’s Really Happening (Aaron David Miller) from Salon
"Here's what you need to know about the constantly evolving situation there, and the best of our no-good options."

U.S. and Russia Plan Conference Aimed at Ending Syrian War from the New York Times
"Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia jointly intensified pressure on Syria’s combatants to settle a conflict that has killed more than 70,000."

China Can Posture, But It Can’t Bring Peace to the Middle East (Karl Vick) from Time Magazine
"... Chinese President Xi Jinping brought up a four-point plan to bring the century-old conflict to an end. Could it happen? “I can give you a one word answer: ‘No,’” says Gerald Steinberg, professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel. ... The reality, Steinberg says, is that no country except the United States is trusted enough by both sides to serve as broker to peace talks — but especially by Israel, which sees itself as persecuted and misunderstood by a world that does not understand its situation the way Americans do."

Watergate Revenge: Republicans Yearning To Impeach Obama Over Benghazi ‘Cover-Up’ (Joe Conason) from the National Memo
"The meager substance of the “cover-up” canard was debunked months ago – and to date nothing has emerged to change those facts. ... But defending American diplomats and promoting American prestige are both foreign to the Republican agenda, which is concerned with nothing more elevated than partisan power. With his far-fetched comparison to Richard Nixon’s disgrace, Huckabee helpfully unveiled a flashing neon clue to GOP psychopathology. The desire for revenge over Watergate

Benghazi Returning as Big Scandal: The GOP May Finally Get Its Wish with Three New Whistle-blowers, but Has It Already Undermined its Cred? (Alex Seitz-Wald) from Salon
"The charges seem potentially damaging and the accusers credible, but those trying to fan flames of scandal have so embarrassed and discredited themselves by pushing bogus story lines on Benghazi that it may be hard for the media and American people to take any new allegations seriously. ... If the three new witnesses don’t get the attention they deserve, Fox News and its ilk deserve much of the blame."

The Bombers’ World (Christian Caryl) from the New York Review of Books 
"The imprisoned Dzhokhar has told investigators that the brothers undertook the bombings as retaliation against the US for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sounds plausible enough on the face of things, in view of what we know about the politics of jihadi terrorists in other parts of the world. At the same time, there are many other details of the Tsarnaev brothers’ case that make it seem starkly unique, more of an outlier than something that can be easily slotted into a larger pattern."

As Red Ink Recedes, Pressure Fades for Budget Deal from the Washington Post
"After four years of trillion-dollar deficits, the red ink is receding rapidly, easing pressure on policymakers and shattering hopes for a summertime budget deal."

The Not-So-Golden Years (Megan McArdle) from the Daily Beast
"American retirement is in free fall, and even the safest plans are turning out to be dangerous. WE SCRIMP. We save. We plan. And we dream that when we retire—at 50 or 70 or 90—we’ll ride off into the sunset on a chariot made of our sequestered gold.  But you can stop the dream right there."

A Rust Belt Revival, From Farm to Table from the New York Times
"Around Cleveland and Pittsburgh, a network of chefs, butchers and farmers is bringing the local landscape back into the kitchen — all while making world-class food."

The High Cost of Rush: Talker Bleeds Millions From His Carriers as Toxic Talk Slumps, Cumulus Seems Set to Part Ways With Rush Limbaugh (John Avlon) from the Daily Beast
"The fight between El Rushbo and the flagship carrier of his show is a symptom of conservative talk’s bigger problems. John Avlon reports."

Cumulus CEO on Limbaugh Advertising Fallout: “The Facts are Indisputable” from Salon
"Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey stands by allegations that Limbaugh sank ad revenue for the network."

Ex-Romney Aide Details Campaign ‘Miscalculations’ from the Boston Globe 
"The book makes a case that Romney downplayed foreign policy too much — and made too many blunders — in a way that put the campaign at a disadvantage when responding to international events. Schoenfeld highlights Romney’s ­response to the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi."

WORLD WAR II NUGGET!!
Woman Buys Hatbox for $1 at Estate Sale Containing 250 Letters Home from Brothers Fighting in WWII  from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Brothers Eural and Robert Harvill penned notes of affection from October 1940 to October 1946 to their parents Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Harvill in Drumright, Oklahoma.  More than 70 year later, Julia Gilliland happened upon the antique box at an estate sale in Tulsa, paying just $1 for the historical keepsakes, and is now working to piece together information about the authors."

VOLCANO PHOTO NUGGET!!
The Volcano at Dawn: Spectacular Pictures of the Mountain Spewing Scarlet Smoke Over a Desolate Grey Sea of Sand from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"Billowing brilliant red smoke over the blanched plain, it is the only sign of life in this otherworldly landscape. And Mount Bromo, on the Indonesian island of East Java, is such an extraordinary site thousands of tourists visit every year to enjoy breathtaking vistas across the Tengger massif to the misty peaks beyond."

News Nuggets 1230

DAYLEE PICTURE: A sunrise over Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  From National Geographic.

Asia’s Real Challenge: China’s “Potemkin” Rise (Minxin Pei) from The Diplomat
"... we may overlook a problem far bigger than fake GDP data.  The real scandal in China’s rise is not its exaggerated speed, but the shockingly low quality of its growth.  Low-quality growth has  undermined China’s social fabric and individual welfare.  It also makes China look far stronger on paper than in reality."

N Korea 'Removes' Missiles from East Coast Launch Site from the BBC 
"North Korea has removed two medium-range missiles from a coastal launch site, indicating a lowering of tension on the peninsula, a US official said."
Obama called North Korea's bluff and it appears that Kim Jong-Un was indeed sitting with a pair of deuces,  Unclear if there were any behind the scenes deals -- but its hard to see how the North Koreans don't lose some major face over how this standoff seems to be concluding.

What to Expect at Wednesday’s Benghazi Hearing from the National Journal 
"The White House's accounting of what transpired in Libya is expected to be contradicted by three self-described whistleblowers. ... Thompson’s charges were denied by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. And Daniel Benjamin, who ran the State Department’s counterterrorism bureau's Foreign Emergency Support Team at the time of the Benghazi attacks said in a statement that “I can say now with certainty, as the former Coordinator for Counterterrorism, that this charge is simply untrue.”"

The Idled Young Americans (David Leonhardt) from the New York Times 
"For all of Europe’s troubles — a left-right combination of sclerotic labor markets and austerity — the United States has quietly surpassed much of Europe in the percentage of young adults without jobs.  ...  The grim shift — “a historic turnaround,” says Robert A. Moffitt, a Johns Hopkins University economist — stems from two underappreciated aspects of our long economic slump."

‘New Jim Crow’ Incarcerations Raise Uncomfortable Questions (Mary Mithcell) from the Chicago Sun-Times
"Although many of us might believe the criminal justice system has its flaws, the notion that the system is intentionally biased against black and poor people is too sinister to contemplate.  But that’s exactly what Alexander is suggesting. In a speech at the Union League Club of Chicago last Friday, Alexander pointed out that even though the nation elected its first black president, a couple of blocks from the White House are neighborhoods in which three out of four young black men have already spent time behind bars. Because of mass incarceration “a vast new racial undercast now exists in America,” Alexander said."

No Poor and Huddled Need Apply (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"... Rector said in response to another question, from Roll Call’s David Drucker, the current immigration system, with 11 million here illegally, “is an enormously better deal for the taxpayer.” But even if you accept Heritage’s calculations, immigration isn’t purely a fiscal question. If Republicans don’t find a way to deal with illegal immigrants in the country, they risk political oblivion as the swelling ranks of Latino voters turn against them."

The Justice Regrets (Jeffrey Toobin) from the New Yorker
"Sandra Day O’Connor’s shift on Bush v. Gore reflects a larger change in the Republican Party…"

DENIAL: Homosexuality Is a "Choice," Right? (Jonathan Rauch) from the Huffington Post
"I am always bitterly amused when I hear people say that homosexuality is a choice. Even many otherwise thoughtful people maintain that the homosexual is a heterosexual who perversely ignores, or at least somehow represses, his natural cravings. I say "otherwise thoughtful" because I know of no position which collapses more quickly, under even a moment's examination, than this one."

PRES-2016: Rand Paul, Marco Rubio Face 2016 Bind from Politico
"Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are facing a big obstacle if they seek the White House in 2016 — and it’s not each other. State laws could force the two GOP senators into a difficult choice: run for president or run for reelection to the Senate that same year. Because in their home states of Kentucky and Florida, neither Republican can be on the ballot for both offices at the same time."

Ohio Tea Party Groups Considering GOP Insurrection (Alex Brown) from the National Journal
"The Ohio tea party's fracturing of the state GOP could be a serious worry, we noted last Friday, if the harsh rhetoric is followed by real action. Today, a report in the Columbus Dispatch shows just how bad things have gotten in the Buckeye State. Tea party groups, writes Joe Hallett, are considering three options: a clean split (either to form a new party or join another), primary challenges to "anybody who every crossed us" or under-voting to punish Republicans who don't pass the tea party litmus test."

Mediaite Learns: ‘Vast Majority Of National Advertisers Now Refuse To Air Ads During Limbaugh’s Show’ from Mediaite
"The company’s CEO has blamed ad revenue losses on the conservative talkers’ controversial 2012 “slut” comments about Georgetown student Sandra Fluke. Mediaite’s own sources confirm that the ad troubles in connection with Limbaugh’s show are, indeed, severe."

TORNADO PHOTOS NUGGET!!
A Colossal Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana and Other Astonishing Photos of the Massive Storm Systems from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"The images below may seem like something from out of this world, but they are actually rare thunderstorm clouds called a supercells. The colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones, which are rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes."
These are AMAZING pictures of very menacing-looking supercells!!

News Nuggets 1229

DAYLEE PICTURE: The day's end on Oahu in Hawaii.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT POLITICS NUGGET!!
House of Un-Representatives (Timothy Egan) from the New York Times 
"This Republican House is almost like a parallel government, sitting in for some fantasy nation created in talk-radio land. ... The Beltway chorus of the moment blames President Obama for his inability to move his proposals through a dunderheaded Congress. They wonder how Republicans would be treating a silken-tongued charmer like Bill Clinton if he were still in the White House. We already know: not a single Republican voted for Clinton’s tax-raising budget, the one that led to our last federal surplus. Plus, they impeached him; his presidency was saved only in the Senate."

Watching Iraq on the Edge, and Wondering What the United States Will Do (Thomas E. Ricks) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Iraq is spiraling out of control. ... Last week, the Iraqi Army entered Hawija, near Kirkuk, to arrest people accused of attacking Iraqi Security Forces. In the ensuing violence, 200 people were killed. There are reports of desertions from the Iraqi Army. Kurds have moved peshmerga into positions in the disputed territories. Tribes are forming militias to protect themselves from the Iraqi Army."

Mapped: The U.S. Military's Presence in Africa (John Reed) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The United States may be deploying 10 additional troops to Mali, but that's just a drop in the bucket of the U.S. military's presence in Africa, which has been quietly building for the last decade."

‘Yes’ Gun Control Vote Pays Off for Two Senators: Polls (Michael Keller) from the Daily Beast
"Read it and weep, Kelly Ayotte. As senators who voted ‘no’ on background checks see their approval ratings dive, two legislators are seeing dividends for their support. See the numbers."

The Democratic Comeback To Voter ID (Reid Wilson) from the National Journal 
"In Colorado, Democrats looking to liberalize voting laws to their advantage. ... Now, after taking control of the state legislature earlier this year, Colorado Democrats have become the vanguard of a new movement to tinker with voting rules. The proposal under consideration now would require elections to take place entirely through the mail -- in essence, signing every Colorado voter up for an absentee ballot."

New America Held hostage by Old America (Joy-Ann Reid) from the Miami Herald
"It’s an ironic twist after a presidential election in 2012 in which a Democratic president was resoundingly re-elected, and in a country which is rapidly becoming more progressive on issues like gay rights and marriage. New America may have won the White House and the culture wars, but Old America has a gun to our heads."

This Isn’t Obama’s Malaise, It’s GOP Intransigence (Robert Shrum) from the Daily Beast
"It doesn’t matter what the president says or does or whom he drinks with—Republicans are bent on opposing it all. That may be good news for Democrats in 2014 and beyond."

Why Does Ted Cruz Inspire Such Animosity? (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"... seriously there cannot be any doubt about Ted Cruz's "smarts." He's just smart for different ends - his own ends. It's this that rubs so many conservatives the wrong way, and that may yet prove Cruz's undoing. A little while ago I asked a Texas conservative I know to unpack the antipathy aroused by Cruz."

Ted Cruz Will Never be President (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Breathless staffers say he’s got 2016 plans, but the Tea Party bully will never win a national election. Bank on it."

The Bachmann Scandal: "This Could Be a Career Ender" (Alex Seitz-Wald) from Salon 
"The ethics questions swirling around the Tea Party lawmaker are a "big problem," experts say."
What a SHAME.

It’s Time for Democrats to Ditch Andrew Jackson (Steve Yoder) from Salon 
"As Biden speaks at event named for Old Hickory tonight, more appalling stories show party should dump him as icon.

APPALLING TV NUGGET!!
Is This the Most Sexist TV Programme in History? Chat Show Where Women Strip Off as Two Men Critique Their Naked Bodies from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Creator Thomas Blachman claims that the female body 'thirsts for the words of a man'.  Critics brand vile show, which uses derogatory comments about the female figure, as sexist and humiliating.  Creator says this will open a debate about men's views of women's bodies without having to be 'politically correct'."

DRONE NUGGET!!
The Flight of the RoboBee: Tiny Winged Craft that Could be Used as Surveillance Drone Takes to the Air for the First Time from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"80 milligram device has a pair of buzzing fly-like wings that flap 120 times a second.  Robot is the first working model of a flying insect.  Future uses include search and rescue, surveillance, and environmental monitoring applications."