News Nuggets 358

A newly discovered pink handfish. See the Fish Nugget below. From National Geographic News.

"It's BP's Oil": Running the Corporate Blockade at Louisiana's Crude-Covered Beaches (Kevin Drum) from Mother Jones Magazine

"It wasn't BP that was yelling at us, it was the sheriff's office," we say. "Yeah, I know, but we have…a very strong relationship." "What do you mean? You have a lot of sway over the sheriff's office?" "Oh yeah." "How much?" "A lot.""

BP Oil Spill: A Deadly, Brown Beach Leaves a Bitter Trail from the Miami Herald

"Grand Isle, a mile wide, hardly eight miles long, offers a brutal model in miniature of what a giant oil spill brings to a tourism economy built around the beach and the sea. The town, with only 1,500 permanent residents, lives off the 300,000 visitors a year who come to fish and swim and play on the beach and bath in the Gulf of Mexico waters. None of that was evident Friday. ``The only paying people I have at Cajun Holiday are workers helping with the clean-up,'' Rhobus said. ``This could just about kill Grand Isle.'"

How They Did It (Part Four) (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic

"How Obama saved the House bill from near-death and what Olympia Snowe really wanted from Congress."

Deal Reached for Ending Law on Gays in Military from the New York Times

"President Obama the Pentagon and leading lawmakers reached agreement Monday on legislative language and a time frame for repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, clearing the way for Congress to take up the measure as soon as this week."

The Hotbed that Produced Obama (Terence Samuel) from The Root

"In an exclusive excerpt of his new book, "The Upper House," Terence Samuel reveals the workings of the U.S. Senate and the young senator from Illinois who used it to his own benefit."

Hispanics Swing to Democrats in the West (Ben Smith) from Politico

"This has always been Democrats' belief about immigration politics: That among the voters for whom this is a single, motivating issue, whites may get more attention, but Hispanics are more numerous."

See also Public Policy Polling's findings HERE.

Study: Excluding Cellphones Introduces Statistically Significant Bias in Polls (Nate Silver) from FiveThirtyEight.com

"This is not a new problem -- in fact, it's one we've written about on several occasions. But it's continuing to get worse. The percentage of people who have replaced their landlines with cellphones has climbed at a remarkably steady rate. ... Bear in mind that these figures are already somewhat out of date. The fraction could be in the high 20s by the time we get to November."

RNC Document Reveals Bleak Financial Standing from CNN

"An internal Republican National Committee document obtained by CNN paints a damning picture of the committee's financial standing compared to the past five election cycles."

The GOP Establishment Turns on the Tea Party (Gabriel Winant) from Salon

"In wielding the Tea Party as a rhetorical cudgel against the president and his party, elite Republicans made a crucial miscalculation. By making the approval of the Tea Partiers the measure of legitimacy, they entrusted their own fate to this new group of activists. And now the establishment of the GOP is stuck trying to wrest control of the party back from these ruffians, whom they wanted to exploit without actually empowering."

WHO CALLED IT!?

Jim DeMint's Capitalist Fairy Tales (Thomas Frank) from the Wall Street Journal

"Who is Jim DeMint, this hero of the tea partiers? One way to find out is to read his 2009 manifesto, "Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide Into Socialism." The book hit the best-seller lists last summer, and if we want to understand the thinking of the newest right, it may be the place to start. ... The hero of the tea partiers is not much of a historian."

Rand Paul and the Limits of the 'Tea Party' Revolution from the Christian Science Monitor

"Rand Paul, Republican candidate for US Senate from Kentucky, is perhaps the closest thing there is to a 'tea party' candidate. In that light, his recent controversial comments are telling."

FISH NUGGET!!

New, Pink and Rare from National Geographic News

"Using its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family."