News Nuggets 1007

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Peacock Katydid.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT BREAKING NEWS!!
*Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare (Howard Kurtz) from the Daily Beast 
"A major victory for the president stuns the capital."
Andrew Sullivan live-blogged and comments on the decision HERE.

*In 5-4 Verdict, Court Upholds Health Care Law: The Ruling's Winners and Losers (Kate Pickert) from Time Magazine
"In a landmark decision issued Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld President Obama's health reform law. TIME considers the biggest winners and losers of the controversial verdict."

*A Paradigm Of Leadership: Obama Versus Romney On Health Care Reform (Joe Conason) from the National Memo
"Having upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act under the Congressional taxation power, by a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court has also delivered a personal vindication to Barack Obama  – and given the lie to Mitt Romney’s accusations about the president’s lack of “leadership."

*Court Upholds Mandate, Limits Medicaid Expansion (Richard Kim) from the Nation
"The other thing is that remarkable about the ruling is that the conservative Justices would have invalidated the entire law based on one provision, the individual mandate. It would have put us way back, well beyond square one."

The Truth About the Fast and Furious Scandal (Katherine Eban) from Fortune Magazine via CNN
"A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust."

Fast and Furious: Failed Scandal (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"John Boehner seems to realize his party’s effort to use Fast and Furious to embarrass Obama has failed."

Justice Scalia Must Resign (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"So often, Scalia has chosen to ignore the obligation of a Supreme Court justice to be, and appear to be, impartial. He’s turned “judicial restraint” into an oxymoronic phrase. But what he did this week, when the court announced its decision on the Arizona immigration law, should be the end of the line."

Last Tour of the Rock-Star Diplomat from the New York Times
"What’s the future for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton? Given the problems facing the world, it’s hard to look past the next six months."

GOP in No Rush to Legislate if ACA Goes Down from Politico
"Earlier this month, top GOP officials were privately deliberating what legislation they would push to fill the gap caused by a full strike-down of Obama’s health care law. Corralling lawmakers behind hefty legislative proposals in an election year would also be a tough task. But major insurance companies may have given Republicans some political cover, saying they would voluntarily keep some of the law’s results in place if it is struck down."
Until ... after the election.  This new GOP position showcases so much that is profoundly dysfunctional about our politics right now.  How much can the GOP get away with without exposing the depths of their cynicism and base-level indifference?  

Obama Leads Romney In Polls Of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania (Mark Blumenthal) from the Huffington Post
"The Quinnipiac polls find evidence of movement since May in Obama's direction in Ohio and Florida and voter support for Obama's newly announced immigration policy, particularly in Florida."

Texas Republican Party Calls For Abstinence Only Sex Ed, Corporal Punishment In Schools, and No 'Critical Thinking Skills' from the Huffington Post
"The position causing the most controversy, however, is the statement that they oppose the teaching of "higher order thinking skills" -- a curriculum which strives to encourage critical thinking -- arguing that it might challenge "student's fixed beliefs" and undermine "parental authority.""

ALASKA NUGGET!!
The Lust Frontier from the New York Times
Two D.C. women spend four days looking for love in Alaska, where the “odds are good, but the goods are odd.”