News Nuggets 1386

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Crab-eater Seal swimming in the waters off of Antarctica.  From National Geographic.

China has Not Replaced America — and it Never Will (Zack Beauchamp) from The Week
"China faces too many internal problems and regional rivals to ever make a real play for global leadership. And even if Beijing could take the global leadership mantle soon, it wouldn't. China wants to play inside the existing global order's rules, not change them."
While this may be true for the Chinese leadership, the problem is that, for decades, the Chinese leadership has created the expectation among the Chinese people that China WILL be a global player.  The gap between the reality (as outlined in this article) and the expectation has the
potential of being a serious problem both for the US and for China's neighbors.

'Saudis, Israelis Developing New ‘Super Stuxnet’ Against Iran Nuclear Program' from rt.com
"Saudi Arabia and Israel’s Mossad intelligence division are co-conspiring to produce a computer worm “more destructive” than the Stuxnet malware to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, according to a report from the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency."

Virginia is for Lovers, Finally (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast 
"A federal judge in Virginia strikes down the state's same-sex marriage ban. America's come a long way in eight years."

The Obama 8: Stories from the Prisoners whose Sentences Obama Commuted from Time Magazine
"TIME talks to five of the federal crack-cocaine offenders whose sentences were commuted by President Obama."

This is How Citizens United Dies from Daily Kos
"In the wake of the Citizens United case, critics of the ruling, which lifted prohibitions on direct campaign spending by corporations, raised the prospect of this allowing foreign nationals to influence US elections. Very serious people dismissed this trusting the our "robust" election laws would be up to the task of keeping foreign influence out of US elections. They were dead wrong."

The GOP’s Health Crisis (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post 
"Oh dear. The Republican Party’s worst nightmare is coming true. Obamacare is working. ... Wednesday’s status report on the health-insurance reforms was by far the best news for Democrats and the Obama administration since the program’s incompetent launch."

GOP Wrong about Obamacare Again: How the Law’s Changed Life with Epilepsy (Elizabeth Stoker) from Salon
"I'll never love having epilepsy. But here's the story of how those who do can get treated -- thanks to the new law."

Obamacare: Economic Boon? (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"Duncan Black makes an argument that liberals haven’t emphasized nearly enough about the Affordable Care Act: that it could well be a shot in the arm for the economy. It is, in truth, a conservative argument–a freedom argument."

Snow Falls on Sunny Obamacare News Reports from Politico
"Obamacare got its first sunny headlines in months. But they were buried in snow. The news that the pace of enrollment in the health insurance exchanges had picked up after its lousy start earned the health law some of its most favorable coverage."

The GOP is Moving Backward on Gay Rights: So Much for that Big Rebranding Effort (Jon Terbush) from The Week
"Less than a year after the GOP launched a major rebranding effort, which was followed months later by the Supreme Court issuing two landmark rulings in favor of gay marriage, the Republican Party remains stuck at a crossroads on marriage equality. Though party leaders have indicated they want to move forward on the issue, some members are pulling the party back to a less tolerant time.

John Boehner’s Sunshine Band (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post 
"Feb. 11, 2014, was , in fact, a wonderful day. It marked the end of a dismal experiment that saw the right wing of the conservative movement do all it could to make the United States look like a country incapable of governing itself rationally."

Biden: ‘There Isn’t a Republican Party’ from the Washington Post
""There isn’t a Republican party. I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican party. I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from and make a deal and make the compromise and know when you got up from the table that the deal was done," Biden said in remarks at the House Democratic policy conference being held here."

Cruz Senate Stunt Goes Unpunished as Old Tools Don’t Work from Bloomberg 
"A growing group of Ted Cruz’s Republican Senate colleagues are infuriated with his tactics."

Monica Lewinsky, Reconsidered (Liza Mundy) from Politico Magazine
"Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul and the new politics of an old sex scandal. ... dropped into a modern context, the seemingly ancient episode maybe says more about the eternal mystery of what makes for a long-running marriage, especially the singularly fascinating—and impenetrable—Clinton union."

News Nuggets 1385

DAYLEE PICTURE: Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset in the UK.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Cruz Demand on Debt Limit Puts McConnell in Tough Spot from Bloomberg 
"Republicans struggled to round up the votes until McConnell and his top lieutenant, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, stepped forward to vote “yes.” Both men face primary election challenges this year from the small-government Tea Party movement that propelled Cruz to the Senate in the 2012 election."

Before O-Care debacle, Sebelius made many trips to White House from The Hill
"While Sebelius has said the president was not aware of HealthCare.gov’s problems, more than 750 pages of documents obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request show she made scores of visits to the White House."
I find it interesting how this reporter makes the story a knock on Obama's story that he didn't know about the website problem, something that this new information doesn't address directly.  Never mind the widely reported story at the same time that Sebelius never met with Obama before the rollout.  This new info completely debunks the latter story.

Obamacare Finally Clears the Tower from Politico
"The Obamacare rollout is changing in front of our eyes — turning from a running joke into one big shoulder shrug. And that’s good news for the White House, because at this point, even basic competence is good news."

Obamacare Gained More Young Adults in January, U.S. Says (Alex Wayne) from Bloomberg
"Obamacare health plans enrolled 3.3 million people through January, with young adult participants increasing 65 percent from a month earlier, the U.S. government said."

As the Media Gets Bored With Obamacare, Is the Public Starting to Get on Board? (Charles Ornstein) from ProPublica
""...we are close to being able to say that the March 31 open enrollment period is already a success. And let me break it down for you."

House Republicans Say Cruz Scuttled Immigration Reform [subscription wall] from the San Antonio Express News
"Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may have scuttled a compromise on immigration reform with just one sound bite."

Ted Cruz Just Made Life Miserable for Republican Leaders Once Again (David Graham) from the Atlantic
"The Senate passed a measure to raise the debt ceiling, but not before two Republican leaders had to cast perilous votes."

Tea Party's Fringe Isolation (Paul Rosenberg) from Salon
"From economics to immigration, fear of mythical evil characterizes the loony right -- and now they'll pay the price."
Easy to say!  We'll see if we see these type of headlines after the GOP primaries.  This emerging meme about the "decline of the Tea Party" stinks of beltway conventional wisdom - the same wisdom that put Chris Christie as the 2016 "frontrunner".  The Tea Party may be somewhat marginalized ... in DC.  But out in the states they are very much a force to be reckoned with.  State Republican parties continue to bleed long-time centrist establishment types in droves.

How Progressives can Turn the Deep South Blue (Benjamin Jealous) from MSNBC
"There are more than 600,000 unregistered black Americans in Georgia, plus thousands of unregistered Latinos, Asian-Americans, women and millennials. At an average cost of $12 per registration, it would cost less than $8 million to register virtually all of Georgia's unregistered black voters. If even half of them had voted for President Obama in 2012, we would be having a very different conversation today."

How House Republicans Screwed Their Next Presidential Nominee (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The white share of the vote is rapidly collapsing in Florida, having fallen from 72 percent of the vote in 2004 to under 66 percent in 2012, and is projected to keep dropping fast. Only a precipitous spike in white support for Republicans, probably in keeping with the general white southern reaction against Barack Obama, has kept the state even close..."

With Hastings Retirement, Republican Revolutionaries Mostly Gone (Alex Roarty) from National Journal
"Only five of 73 House Republicans elected in the class of 1994 will be in Congress after this year."

Chris Christie's Entire Career Reeks: It's Not Just the Bridge from the New Republic
"What is remarkable about this meltdown is that it isn’t the result of some deep secret that has been exposed to the world, revealing a previously unimagined side to the candidate. Many of the scandals and mini-scandals and scandals-within-scandals that the national media is salivating over have been in full view for years."

Speaking of has-beens:
In the Darkness of Dick Cheney (Mark Danner) from the New York Review of Books
"Launching an immediate surprise attack on Syria, Cheney tells us in his memoirs, would not only “make the region and the world safer, but it would also demonstrate our seriousness with respect to nonproliferation.” This was the heart of the Bush Doctrine: henceforth terrorists and the states harboring them would be treated as one ..."

OBSCURE KNOWLEDGE NUGGET!!
41 Things You Need To Know Right Now, For No Reason In Particular from the Huffington Post
"How have you lived this long without seeing a walrus sleeping on a submarine? All of these are picture based so there's really no excuse to refrain from spending the roughly two minutes it'll take to learn everything. We expect you to nod your head slightly and say, "hmm," or "oh, so that's what that looks like," in a mildly amused tone quite a few times throughout this post."

DOG NUGGETS!!
This Bulldog Says You Best Not Be Messing With His Rescue Kitten Family from the Huffington Post
""When Hammie first met [the kittens] he was so gentle," Parden told HuffPost. "He would gently try to round them up like he was going to nurse them. He very carefully would lift his paw over them and caress the kittens.""

These 15 Insanely Enormous Dogs Remind Us That Beauty Can Come With Lots Of Slobber from the Huffington Post
"There are big dogs, and there are really big dogs. Some people may view a 100-pound, slobbering ball of fur as an inconvenience, but we know a massive pup is just chock full of extra lovin'. Don't believe us?"

CHIMP RESCUE NUGGET!!
The Touching Moment Jane Goodall is Hugged by Rescued Chimp from YouTube 
The Daily Mail has the story here.

News Nuggets 1384

DAYLEE PICTURE: An anemone fish in Kimbe Bay in Papua, New Guinea.  From National Geographic.

The Nuggetsman will be traveling Wednesday and Thursday so the next posting will be on Friday at the earliest.

China and Taiwan Hold First Talks Since Civil War from the New York Times 
"The official discussions, the first since 1949, were not expected to produce major breakthroughs, but they were an important symbolic development in the easing of the two sides’ rivalry."

Indisputable Evidence That Millennials Have It Worse Than Any Generation in 50 Years... at least, when it comes to unemployment (Jordan Weissman) from the Atlantic
"...  at least when it comes to the job market, I think we can all agree by now that today's young adults are deserving of at least a few extra pity points. And should there be any doubt, here's a wonderful, one-chart demonstration of why from a new Pew report."

What Do the Jobless Do When the Benefits End? from the Washington Post 
"Studies show that about a third of the people cut off from long-term unemployment benefits will find help from Social Security or other government programs. Others will cobble together dwindling savings or support from family. But most baffling to economists are the people who appear to come up with more-idiosyncratic solutions, which are tough to identify and almost impossible to track."

The Jim Crow Zombie That Won’t Die (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast 
"Felon disenfranchisement laws are, literally, a vestige of Jim Crow. It’s time for them to go."
I completely agree with Bouie's comment here.  

The Left Fights Back in NC (Dahlia Lithwick) from Slate
"This weekend’s massive protest in North Carolina shows that the GOP doesn’t own morality. ... As state governments limit reproductive rights, gerrymander voting districts, harm workers and the environment, and suppress the vote, we are all North Carolina now. The answer to the second question is that I don’t really know why the major national media, with a few notable exceptions, keeps ignoring this story."

The Era of Republican Hostage-Taking Is Over (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"Boehner is going to be leaning hard on every single member he can who he thinks can get away with casting a "pro-Obama" vote and still survive a Tea Party challenge in his district. But of course the rage machinery is already cranking up. But the vote will happen today, so we'll know soon enough. Assuming passage, it's a huge victory for Obama."

How John Boehner Decided to Give Up on the Debt Limit Fight (Robert Costa) from the Washington Post
"The room of Republicans sat up, stunned that Boehner was abruptly shifting away from the leadership’s plan, which had been championed 12 hours earlier at a Monday night meeting in the Capitol basement. But there were no outcries or boos."

Why the Tea Party Is Folding on the Debt Limit from the New Republic
"They can be forced to reconsider a particular tactic if you persuade them it’s politically catastrophic. It just requires an epic level of public anger to break through their epistemically-stunted consciousness."

Why Republicans Are Surrendering on the Debt Ceiling (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"In the three years they've been in power, Tea Partiers have gone through the stages of grief—from denial to acceptance of how Washington works."

Immigration Put on Hold, for Politics from the Editorial Board of the Times-Union [of Albany, NY]
"Millions of lives kept on hold, again, all so some politicians can hedge their political bets. If the sheer immorality of it doesn't shame House Republicans, perhaps they should consider that this could be one of the most damaging things they've done to their party in years."

Immigration Groups Turn to Anger from Politico
"Immigration reform advocates are done playing nice with House Republicans. After holding their fire for years at the urging of the Obama administration, several immigration reform groups now plan to unleash their anger at the right. A new, more aggressive campaign kicks off Tuesday, when these groups say they will begin confronting Republican lawmakers at public appearances, congressional hearings and events back in home districts."

How The GOP Plans To Crush The Tea Party Revolt from Talking Points Memo 
"After House Republicans conceded on Tuesday that they would bring a debt ceiling bill to the floor for a vote without attaching policy concessions, the tea party seemed in open revolt, calling for the replacement of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Meanwhile, incumbent Republican senators have quietly been working behind the scenes to cut off their funding sources."

Team Clinton Started Talks on 2016 Run Night of Obama's Victory from The Hill
"While Clinton didn’t formally approve the political action committee, Black believed she had Clinton’s blessing, according to a book published Tuesday by The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Bloomberg’s Jonathan Allen."

The Arrogance of Mitt (Mark Bowden) from the Atlantic
"The recent Romney documentary succeeds in making its subject more human, but it also makes it clear that the country is better off without him as president."

News Nuggets 1383

DAYLEE PICTURE: A herd of reindeer in Murmansk, Russia.  From National Geographic.

The Post Office Banks on the Poor (Mehrsa Baradaran) from the New York Times
"... these lenders charge much more for their services than traditional banks. The average annual income for an “unbanked” family is $25,500, and about 10 percent of that income, or $2,412, goes to fees and interest for gaining access to credit or other financial services. But a possible solution has appeared, in the unlikely guise of the United States Postal Service."

A Brutal Translation of the 'Disincentive to Work': If Obamacare isn't the biggest drag on the workforce (and it isn't), what is? (Ron Fournier) from National Journal
"The Affordability Care Act is far from perfect. It needs to evolve with bipartisan thinking. But it's at least a step toward recognizing that the employee-based insurance system built for the 20th century is inadequate for this one. Rather than an honest debate about the future of the U.S. health care system, the conversation in Washington has been derailed by the Republican Party's cynical interpretation of a Congressional Budget Office analysis."
This right-leaning, no-friend-to-Obama columnist/reporter finally gets the hammer near the nail with this unusually (for him) blunt critique of Republicans.

Gabrielle Giffords Takes the Wheel from Politico
"Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords drove a car for the first time since she was shot three years ago, saying 2014 “will be a year of many wins” and sharing the news on Facebook on Friday. “2014 will be a year of many wins for me—moments when I do something I thought I might never be able to do again,” Giffords wrote."

Justice Department To Launch Push For Full Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriage from Talking Points Memo
"In an assertion of same-sex marriage rights, Attorney General Eric Holder is applying a landmark Supreme Court ruling to the Justice Department, announcing Saturday that same-sex spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other, should be eligible to file for bankruptcy jointly and are entitled to the same rights and privileges as federal prison inmates in opposite-sex marriages."


Conservatives Shocked Obamacare Is Working Like It's Designed To from Talking Points Memo
"... the point is: Obamacare can still be working even if Humana receives a payout because it underperformed. That's part of the law's design. Using one's company experience as evidence that health care reform as a whole is failing ignores the rest of the story."

A Coke ad Crystallizes GOP’s Immigration Problems (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
"For this reason, effective ethnic politics (and not just ethnic politics) is actually a form of hospitality: Please make yourself at home. “People don’t care how much you know,” said my old boss, the late Jack Kemp, “until they know how much you care.” Sometimes politics really is this simple."
Very perceptive observation -- and one of the reasons why the GOP is such trouble right now.  For virtually all of America's minorities, the Republican Party can't fake it that they care about anyone except older white men. Period.

Pete Sessions and the GOP’s ‘Immoral’ Conservatism (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"Limbaugh and his congressional apostles are justifying indifference to the unemployed much the way one denies a panhandler under the rationale that he would use the money only to buy more booze. But these are not panhandlers; these are, by definition, people who had been working and are trying to work again. The Sessions/Inhofe/Limbaugh definition of morality is based in the ideal world of universal productivity they’d like to see, but it offers little help for human misery in the real world."

Why the Christian Right’s Persecution Fantasies are so Dangerous (Amanda Marcotte) from Salon
"Religious conservative groups invest an insane amount of energy in the myth that they're an oppressed minority."

2016 Presidential Ratings Update: Nothing but Questions on the Republican Side (Larry Sabato et al.,) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"We bumped Christie down a peg in our Republican presidential ratings, but we still are putting him in our top tier. Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) leads our list, as he has since we introduced it last year. In reality, though, this is a completely wide-open field with no one even approaching
frontrunner status."

Hillary’s No Slam Dunk in 2016: Why She’s More Vulnerable than Everyone Thinks (Larry Sabato) from Politico
"NBC News’s First Read called it “a reminder that Hillary Clinton will probably face little to no serious competition if she runs.” Possible? Sure. But history’s guide tells us otherwise. A consensus choice for a major-party presidential nomination is exceedingly rare—and this is where the Nixon comparison comes in."
I completely agree with Sabato's assessment here.  

Chris Christie’s Loss is [Someone’s] Gain from Politico
"We asked leading conservatives from Newt Gingrich to Mary Matalin to fill in the blank."

Evidence Mounting that Walker Campaign Is at Center of Criminal Probe from PR Watch
"Newly-unsealed court documents and media leaks add to a growing body of evidence that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign is at the center of a wide-ranging secret probe into campaign finance violations during the state's contentious 2011 and 2012 recall elections."
Boy -- his moment on someone's 2016 topi tier lasted about two seconds!

GOP Base Would Rather Take Out Incumbent Republicans Than Beat Democrats (Ron Christie) from the Daily Beast
"Interviews with those on Capitol Hill and in the conservative movement reveal antipathy toward each other that could cost the party the midterms."

Todd Akin 2.0? Georgia’s Senate Race Is GOP’s Worst Nightmare from Talking Points Memo
"Republicans have struggled to try and avoid campaign-crippling remarks that could snatch away an otherwise easy win in 2014 -- but that may be impossible in the Georgia Senate race. With eight candidates vying for the nomination, you'd think Republicans would have their pick for the next Georgia senator. Instead the field is filled with a mess of candidates who drudge up the worst stereotypes of an anti-science, anti-woman, anti-Obama, anti-immigrant Mr. Moneybags candidate -- a reputation the party has desperately been trying to shed. ... "I mean, the runoff is going to be a shitshow," a Democratic campaign official told TPM. "In the past six weeks we've seen 'sweep the floor,' we've seen 'impeach Obama,' we've seen Paul Broun raffle off a rifle.""
Oh happy day!

Another GOP senator in trouble:
Senator Races to Renew Ties, if Not Make a Home, in Kansas from the New York Times
"Mr. Roberts is now desperate to re-establish ties to Kansas and to adjust his politics to fit the rise of the right in the state. But his efforts underscore the awkward reality of Republicans who, after coming of age in an era of comity and esteem for long-term service, are trying to remake themselves to be warriors for a Tea Party age."

And another one:
Not a Good Day for Mitch McConnell: Yet Another Poll Shows him Trailing (Laura Clawson) from Daily Kos
"Mitch McConnell has got to be sweating bullets about now. Yet another poll shows the Kentucky senator and Republican leader trailing in a close race for reelection: ... If you're keeping count, this makes 11 polls showing the race tied or McConnell trailing slightly."


Tea Party Brings The Knives Out For Mitch McConnell from Talking Points Memo
"Conservatives are bringing out the torches and pitchforks for Mitch McConnell. Long-simmering tension between the tea party and Senate minority leader has again risen to the surface as a swath of conservative activists redouble their efforts to help Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin oust McConnell in the Republican primary on May 20, before he even makes it to the general election."


Some other good news for the Dems on the Senate front:
Montana Lt. Gov. John Walsh Appointed to Replace Baucus (Kyle Trygstad) from Roll Call
"Gov. Steve Bullock appointed his former running mate to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who is leaving the Senate early after being confirmed Thursday as ambassador to China. Walsh was already running for the seat, but he’ll now run as the incumbent senator. That change could provide some inherent advantages in his quest to hold one of the party’s most vulnerable seats."

News Nuggets 1382

DAYLEE PICTURE: Menindee Lake in New South Wales in Australia.  From National Geographic.

The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World from the New York Times
"As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away."

The Benefits of the Closet (Vanessa Vitiello) from Slate
"Often perceived as a barrier to equality, at times the closet was anything but. Instead, it allowed a gay fifth column to flourish, far behind enemy lines, among the privileged and the powerful in American society."

Obamacare Cures 'Job Lock' (Theda Skocpol and Katherine Swartz) from USA Today
"Over the next ten years, they envision millions of new jobs in a growing economy – but up to 2.5 million fewer full-time equivalent workers by 2024 compared with what would have been the case without the Affordable Care Act. This was decried by opponents of health reform as evidence that the law is a "job killer." Quite the opposite is true. ... People won't have to stay at jobs they hate in order to obtain health insurance."

Health, Work, Lies (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"On Wednesday, Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said the obvious: losing your job and choosing to work less aren’t the same thing. If you lose your job, you suffer immense personal and financial hardship. If, on the other hand, you choose to work less and spend more time with your family, “we don’t sympathize. We say congratulations.”"

What Obamacare’s Critics Mean by ‘Dignity of Work’ (Ned Resnikoff) from MSNBC
"When Cooke, Ryan and others bemoan the work-killing properties of Obamacare, they’re really saying that low-wage workers should be compelled to stay in these jobs or risk losing basic health coverage. That’s how important it is to keep people behind the counter at McDonald’s, even if it means those same people have less time to spend rearing their children or engaging in other forms of personally enriching, socially beneficial work."

Obamacare is Disproportionately Hurting Republicans and Conservatives (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"... only 19 percent of Americans say the law has hurt them or their family, while 64 percent say it has had no effect, and another 13 percent say it has helped. But who are those 19 percent? It turns out those telling Gallup the law has hurt them or their family are very disproportionately Republican and conservative."

It's over: Jeb Bush Will be the GOP Nominee in 2016 And That would be Horrible for American Democracy (Damon Linker) from The Week
"... it's beginning to dawn on me that Jeb Bush is probably going to be the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2016. ... Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker — the list of viable fire-breathers is longer (and less dominated by incompetents, crazies, and one-note sideshow acts) than establishment types would like. What are the alternatives?"
Hate to gloat -- but this had dawned on me before the 2012 election if not earlier.

But then there's this:
Why Jeb Bush Isn’t Going To Be the Next Republican Nominee (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"The two issues that have interested him most (education, immigration) don’t really work to his advantage in the primaries, and on immigration his position will provoke more resistance than support. Like his brother when he ran for president, Jeb Bush has no foreign policy experience to speak of, and to the best of my knowledge he has never shown much interest in the subject."
Larison discounts the larger issue here:  in a world of pygmies, an oversized midget can rule.  It is the "bear and sneakers" story: All Bush needs to do is run a better campaign than the cavalcade of GOP clowns that is currently lining up for 2016.  With the support of the national Bush political machine, his chances are pretty good in my estimation. Like Romney in 2012, even the GOP as currently constituted will turn to Jeb -- if he's the only semi-rational person on the bus.  Marco Rubio has hinted that he will not run if Jeb runs (because Jeb was a key mentor for him); Christie will be lucky if he can hang onto his governorship at this point; and, while Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal have their fans, they compete with Tim Pawlenty in their anti-charisma, and, let's be clear, neither of them could compete with the Bush machine if it gets up and rolling.

TWO PITTSBURGH NUGGETS!!
The Political Makeover of a Rust Belt City: Pittsburgh Finally Banished the Old Boys' Network—But it Took a Generation from Politico Magazine  
I think it is an overstatement to say that it has been "banished" -- safer to say that it has been put in "time-out" for a while thanks to the knuckleheads from Ravenstahl's tenure.  Peduto will have to create a different long-term governing coalition to really call the old machine kaput.
"Bill Peduto told a left-leaning crowd that his very arrival heralded a new dawn. “There has become a chasm, a canyon, between the haves and the have-nots,” he said. “Tuesday, Pittsburgh changed from an old boys’ network city to a progressive city.” That may have been premature, and a bit self-congratulatory, but it was not too far off the mark."

The Robots That Saved Pittsburgh: How the Steel City Avoided Detroit’s Fate from Politico Magazine
"It’s hard to pinpoint the moment Pittsburgh began its three-decade climb back from the dead, but Red Whittaker marks the comeback from the instant he heard the ominous clack of a door closing behind him when he entered a secured building near the melted heart of Three Mile Island back in 1983

PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY NUGGET!!
Take a Road Trip and Tour of Presidential Homes from the WESA program, Essential Pittsburgh
"Ohio and Virginia are both nicknamed the home of presidents. From Mount Vernon to Monticello presidential homes are great places to visit and learn about history. "

NATURE AND SCIENCE NUGGET!!
De-Extinction: Could Technology Save Nature? from the Oxford University Press Blog
"... if humans are part of nature, then what is unnatural, exactly, about the human activity that supposedly threatens nature, and why try to protect nature as something apart from humans? This is the foundational challenge posed by de-extinction. It plays into criticism of the very idea of nature. To preserve nature has mostly meant to restrain or limit human interference with it. But with de-extinction, preservation is interference with nature."

An AWESOME video primer on de-extinction!!

News Nuggets 1381

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Skogafoss Falls in Iceland.  From National Geographic.

Is Inequality Approaching a Tipping Point? (Mark Buchanan) from Bloomberg 
"What if we could shed all our political prejudices and take a more scientific approach, setting up an experimental world where we could test our thinking about what drives inequality? Crazy as the idea might sound, it has actually been done. The results are worth pondering."

Pope Under Pressure After UN's Scathing Report On Child Abuse from the Associated Press via Talking Points Memo
"In a scathing report that thrilled victims and stunned the Vatican, the United Nations committee said the Holy See maintained a "code of silence" that enabled priests to sexually abuse tens of thousands of children worldwide over decades with impunity."

How John Podesta is Changing Obama's White House from Politico
"In the month since he returned as a senior counselor, Podesta has quickly picked up the kind of long-term, big-picture strategic thinking that this White House has always talked about priding itself on but struggled to do in its 2013 year of hell. Still frantically trying to turn things around, Podesta brings what it needed: fresh but experienced perspective, and the clout that comes from having the confidence of the president ..."

Anatomy of a Media Disaster: Why the Press is Botching the Latest Obamacare Story (Brian Buetler) from Salon
"Mix of innumeracy, vulnerability to spin and thirst for controversy explains lame coverage of CBO Obamacare report."

CBO Director: Obamacare Will Reduce Unemployment (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Under questioning today before the House Budget Committee from Dem Rep. Chris Van Hollen, CBO director Douglas Elmendorf confirmed that in reality, his report suggests Obamacare will reduce unemployment:"

Catch of the Day: Voters Don't Care About CBO (Jonathan Bernstein) from Bloomberg
"The entire ability of electioneering and campaigns, everything from TV ads to candidate image to get-out-the-vote, only matters a few percentage points in fully contested elections, so it’s just not remotely plausible that a talking point produced (fairly or not) out of a Congressional Budget Office report in February is going to change the way people vote in November."

From Obamacare to the IRS Scandal, Republicans are Ignoring the Facts (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"Rubio’s fact-free approach to Obamacare is puzzling because plenty of damning things can be said about the health-care law that are perfectly accurate: It does little to curb entitlements, it disrupts insurance plans for millions, it leaves 31 million Americans without coverage and, as the CBO forecast, it would take the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time workers out of the workforce. Yet the law’s opponents seem to have an uncontrollable urge to make stuff up. Issa, a frequent offender, began Wednesday’s hearings by claiming, falsely, that the CBO had said 2.5 million jobs would be lost."

GOP O-Care Delusions (Brent Budowski) from The Hill 
"If the CBO projection is correct, once these workers choose to leave their jobs, new workers currently looking for jobs will be hired to replace them! Who wins in this deal? The workers who leave win because they want to leave. The workers who are hired win because they want jobs. The national economy wins because more of those who want jobs find them. This is good news for America."

http://thehill.com/opinion/james-carville/197452-james-carville-days-ahead-for-democrats-not-so-dark

Days Ahead for Dems Not So Dark (James Carville) from The Hill
I suspect Carville is, as usual, off base here.  I think the Dems in the Senate have plenty to worry about.
"I don’t care who you are, your party is in serious trouble if just one in five voters tells NBC’s pollsters they want to be identified with you. The differential between those who want to be Republicans and those who want to be Democrats persistently and consistently is at or near all-time highs."

GOP Strategy on Debt Ceiling Stalls (Robert Costa) from the Washington Post
"House Republicans on Wednesday acknowledged that their two leading options for dealing the  federal debt-limit do not have sufficient support inside the GOP caucus, strengthening the hand of the people who argue for a clean debt limit bill."

The GOP's Unforced Errors (W. James Antle III) from the National Interest 
"So facing opponents with such a dismal record and weak arguments, what do you do? Well, if you are a leader of the Republican Party, you promote policies that will anger your base while winning over no one else."

Christie and the 7 Dwarves (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"So much for his fairytale campaign. In the wake of Bridgegate, the New Jersey Governor stands to lose much more than his dignity, and there are quite a few candidates willing to prove it."

EARLY MIDDLE AGES NUGGET!!
Charlemagne's bones identified: 1,200-year-old remains in a German cathedral belong to 'Europe's father', claim scientists from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"After 26 years of research, German scientists are satisfied that bones held for centuries at Aachen Cathedral, are those of the king of the Franks. A total of 94 bones and fragments were analysed.  Researchers studied the thigh, shin and arm bones to get an idea of the skeleton's height and build – which match descriptions of the emperor."

News Nuggets 1380

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Grizzly Bear in the Yukon.  From National Geographic.

Once more, the Nuggetsman will be traveling on Tuesday -- so the next post will be Wednesday at the earliest.  See you then!

The Loneliness of Vladimir Putin (Julia Ioffe) from the New Republic 
"He crushed his opposition and has nothing to show for it but a country that's falling apart."

The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World from the New York Times
"As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away."

Rebels in Party Lead Way in Republican Fund-Raising from the New York Times
"Underscoring a potential shift of power in the Republican Party, candidates are counting on outside conservative groups critical of the leadership for campaign muscle, which could have a huge effect on House and Senate primaries in 2014."

Republicans Face 2016 Turmoil from the Washington Post
"The party is divided and in turmoil, with a civil war raging between its establishment and insurgent factions. For the first time in memory, there is no obvious early favorite — no candidate with wide appeal who has run before, no incumbent president or vice president, no clear establishment pick. Meanwhile, an enormous number of potential contenders are looking at the race, including, perhaps, a return of virtually everyone who ran in 2012."

Is the GOP Giving Up Tea? (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post 
"The GOP is looking like a person emerging from a long binge and asking, “Why did I do that?” The moment of realization came when last fall’s government shutdown cratered the party’s polling numbers. Staring into the abyss can be instructive."

How Do Tea Parties End? from Politico
"The Tea Party is but one example of a common form of political insurgency—one that almost always loses in the long run. This kind of counter-establishment movement is common enough that comparative politics has a term for it: the “anti-system party”"

No End to Scandal in Sight for Chris Christie from Politico
"Even the best-case scenario for Chris Christie isn’t pretty: It could take weeks or months to sort out new allegations that he knew more about a growing New Jersey traffic scandal than he has let on, casting an even larger pall over a man thought a few weeks ago to have a decent shot at becoming the next president."

Chris Christie's Bridgegate Response has Been a Debacle (Jon Terbush) from The Week
"In flailing for cover, Christie has only exposed himself to accusations of incompetence."

A Tale of Two Bullies: Why Chris Christie Is No Lyndon Johnson (Michael Zuckerman) from the Atlantic
"Americans may admire a politician who can play hardball, but it matters whether his victim is a political opponent or an innocent citizen."

Chris Christie’s Ignorant Bullying: His Real Miscalculation is Not Understanding Today’s GOP (Eric Stern) from Salon
"He destroyed his ambitions for nothing. The wingnuts who vote in GOP primaries despise moderation, bipartisanship."

The 1 Percent’s Most Ruinous Sin: How They Sap our Politicians of All Decency (Elias Isquith) from Salon
"How the sad story of Mitt Romney explains everything that's wrong with American democracy."

Here, Let Ezra Explain (Benjamin Wallace) from New York Magazine
"What is D.C.’s most famous young policy wonk doing leaving the Washington Post? Trying to start a news organization he thinks could one day eclipse it."

Another Nevada Republican Leaves The GOP from the Huffington Post
"Days after Nevada's first female lieutenant governor left the GOP, a member of a notable Silver State Republican family is following suit. The Associated Press reported Friday that lobbyist Neena Laxalt, daughter of former Nevada governor and U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt (R), decided to register as nonpartisan. Laxalt's decision comes two days after Nevada Republican Sue Wagner announced she was jumping ship as a "symbol" that she does "not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today.""

News Nuggets 1379

DAYEE PICTURE: Sunset at Riffelsee Lake near Zermatt, Switzerland.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

The Champion Barack Obama: How Black America talks to the White House (Ta-Nahisi Coates) from the Atlantic
"When Barack Obama steps into a room and attacks people for presumably using poverty or bigotry as an excuse to not parent, he is channeling a feeling deep in the heart of all black people, a frustration, a rage at ourselves for letting this happened, for allowing our community to descend into the basement of America, and dwell there seemingly forever."

Millions to Go Uninsured ... to Spite Obama? (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"38% say they are more likely to pay the fine the government will assess most Americans who lack health insurance. That 38 percent generally approximates the conservative fringe of America, you know, the ones who clung to George W. Bush to the bitter end, the ones who believe Obama was born in Kenya, the ones sickened by America's creeping communism."

Avoiding Obamacare Financially Difficult for Employers from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"It doesn’t make sense for employers to try and get out of the health care business completely in order to cut down on the costs that will come with the Affordable Care Act, said panelists in a discussion on the topic Thursday morning."

GOP is Melting Down: The Real SOTU Story (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"To work with Republicans Obama would need actual Republican leaders, and instead he’s dealing with hundreds of freelance potentates and kooks. The GOP is splintering in real time, and that’s a bigger story than anything the president said in his 70-minute address."

Civil War Cometh: GOP Prepares For Explosive Immigration Debate from Talking Points Memo
"Republicans are preparing for an explosive debate over immigration that appears likely to spark a civil war within the party. House GOP leaders are preparing to unveil a set of "principles" for reform as early as Thursday after discussing it with their members at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Maryland. The imperatives: No Senate bill -- or even negotiations on it. Enhance border security. Overhaul legal immigration. No "amnesty" -- however they choose to define it. And the most explosive part: legal status of some sort for the 11 million people living in the country illegally, a politically necessary component of reform."

How Pressure Mounted for Development in Hoboken from the New York Times  
"... according to newly obtained emails sent among the participants, the first topic of discussion on the agenda was “review of concepts for flood control measures at Rockefeller property,” a reference to a billion-dollar office complex proposed at the north end of town. The developer, the Rockefeller Group, which had long been trying to gain approval from local officials, sent two executives, two lobbyists and an engineer to the meeting."

BUSTED: Chris Christie Appointee Wildstein Says Governor Knew About Bridge Closings from Raw Story
"David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who ordered the lane closures near the George Washington Bridge, said Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) approved of what was happening. Wildstein claimed in a letter released by his lawyer that the lane closures were “the Christie administration’s order,” the New York Times reported."

Chris Christie Falls Apart (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"As a new report finds him looking at '16 general election, he loses a top promoter and polls show him fading fast."

Christie Scapegoat Fights Back (Joan Walsh) from Salon
Walsh gets a three-fer today!
"David Wildstein says "evidence exists" that Christie knew about Bridgegate, says he can prove Governor lied."

Stick a Fork in Chris Christie (Josh Kraushaar) from National Journal 
"If Chris Christie knew, his presidential ambitions are kaput. ... Friday's allegation that Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures, coming from the lawyer for his Port Authority official, David Wildstein, suggests he was lying during his epic two-hour press conference by claiming no knowledge of the situation."

Jeb Bush Still Undecided On 2016 Presidential Run from CBS Local [in Miami]
"Bush continued, “I’m deferring the decision to the right time which is later this year and the decision will be based on, can I do it joyfully, because I think we need to have candidates lift our spirits. It’s a pretty pessimistic country right now; and, is it right for my family? So I don’t even want to think about that till it’s the right time and that’s later on.”"
This early in the game, this is exactly what someone says when they are clear they actually are running.  
Why Jeb Bush is the Single Biggest Question Mark in the 2016 Sweepstakes (Sean Sullivan) from the Washington Post
"There are a great many unanswered questions about the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. But at this point, none are as big as this one: Will Jeb Bush run?"
FINALLY!  A pundit asking the right question about the GOP race!

Climate Scientist’s Lawsuit Could Wipe Out Conservative National Review Magazine from Raw Story
"The National Review magazine, longstanding house news organ of the establishment right, is facing a lawsuit that could shutter the publication permanently. According to The Week, a suit by a climate scientist threatens to bankrupt the already financially shaky publication and its website, the National Review Online (NRO)."

NIXON NUGGET!!
How Richard Nixon Would Deter China (Zachary Keck) from The Diplomat
"By using the “madman theory,” the U.S. and its allies could inject a degree of risk into China’s strategic calculus."

ANCIENT EGYPT NUGGET!!
Ancient Egyptian ruins unearthed of a once bustling barracks and port unearthed next to the Giza Pyramids from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Researchers have been excavating remains near the city of Giza since 1988. Last year they found a cemetery believed to contain pyramid builders. Yet, a large basin found nearby suggests the region may have been a port. There is also evidence of barracks just south of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Therefore the site may have been used by troops or sailors visiting the port."

SKATING NUGGET!!
From Michelle Kwan as a political wife to Nancy Kerrigan as a TV commentator: The surprising careers that famous Olympic figure skaters chose after winning gold from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Post-Olympics, though, the question often becomes – what do the figure skaters do now?"

News Nuggets 1378

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Sea Star at Pomene Estuary, Mozambique.  From National Geographic.

REACTIONS TO OBAMA'S SOTU!!
Live-Blogging The SOTU 2014 (Andrew Sullivan) from The Dish
"If he persists on healthcare and persists on Iran and persists on grappling, as best we can, with the forces creating such large disparities in wealth, he will look far, far more impressive from the vantage point of history than the news cycle of the Twitterverse sometimes conveys. This was True Grit Obama. And it was oddly energizing."

SOTU 2014: Relaxed, Good-Natured, and Pretty Effective (Kevin Drum) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Before the speech, the big buzz was about how Obama was going to focus on executive powers. ... But in reality, there was very little of that in the speech itself. Obama repeatedly used phrases like "if Congress wants to help me, they can _____" but very few of them sounded to me like
ultimatums. They sounded like pretty sincere desires to work with Congress, and I'm pretty sure that's how they came across to viewers who listened to the speech..."

Obama’s Toughest Job (Jeff Madrick) from the New York Review of Books 
"By making jobs the centerpiece of the speech, President Obama gave one of his best, most politically adroit State of the Union addresses."

GOP Ready to Surrender on Debt Ceiling from Politico
"The reason for the shift in dynamics in this fight is clear. Congress has raised the debt limit twice in a row without drastic policy concessions from President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats, essentially ceding ground to Democrats."

Principles? What Principles? (Bill Keller) from the New York Times 
"To help appreciate the president’s speech, let’s take a preliminary visit to that citadel of reason, the Republican Party."

Obama and the One Percent (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"... there’s a danger, especially for progressives, of confusing the proposition that Obama’s billionaire haters are stark raving mad — which is true — with the proposition that Obama has done nothing that hurts the plutocrats’ interests, which is false. Actually, Obama has been tougher on the one percent than most progressives give him credit for. ... So the one percent does have reason to be upset. No, Obama isn’t Hitler; but he is turning out to be a little bit of FDR, after all."

Snow Job: It's Time to Blow the Whistle on Edward Snowden (Edward Lucas) from Politico
"In judging the action of whistle-blowers, three criteria apply. They must have clear and convincing evidence of abuse. Publishing the information must not pose a disproportionate threat to public safety. And the leak must be as limited in scope and scale as possible. Snowden failed all three of these tests."

The GOP is Ignoring its Right-Wing Base (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"Conservative activists who brought Republican lawmakers to power are feeling betrayed."

Colleges Are Failing Their Biggest Group of Students (Lila Selim) from the Atlantic
"Adults who are juggling school, kids, and jobs aren't getting the support they need."

The New Nullification Movement (Ari Berman) from the Nation
"Some states are reviving disenfranchisement schemes that date back to the antebellum South."

Two Attacks on Hillary Clinton That Won't Work (Marc Ambinder) from The Week
"Both attacks have superficial plausibility. But if they're the best that Republicans have, then Clinton is an even stronger presidential candidate than she appears to be."

We Need a New Supply-Side Economics. Here Are 8 Things We Can Do (Josh Barro) from Slate
"These are policies that would would encourage more investment and job creation while supporting rises in standards of living for people with low and moderate incomes. In most cases, these policies don't have to wait: They could be implemented today, alongside demand-side policies that are still needed for now, such as emergency extended unemployment insurance."

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH NUGGET!!
Gallup Poll Finds Democrats More Compassionate; Republicans More Psychopathic from the Huffington Post
"Clearly, selfish fears swept concerns on the Republican side, whereas concerns for others (and especially the weak) swept concerns on the Democratic side."

HOUSING NUGGET!!
Could YOU build a flatpack house? Home in a box costs just £6,500. But is it really as easy to build as an IKEA bookcase? We gave one brave dad a week to try from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"So when I heard that a British company has begun selling a flat-pack mini-house, which is said to be as easy to assemble as an Ikea bookcase, I couldn’t resist the challenge."

News Nuggets 1377

DAYLEE PICTURE:  A polar bear in Hudson Bay.  From National Geographic.

Tuesday will be a travel day for the Nuggetsman -- so look for the next posting on Wednesday at the earliest.

UP-FRONT GLOBAL ECONOMICS NUGGET!!
Emerging Markets Spook Investors from Marketplace
""It's been a pretty gloomy start to 2014, and I guess to sum it up in a nutshell, two reasons: less Fed, and less China," he says. "I think in particular, it's the less China that we should focus on, and the real worry is that Chinese growth is slowing. And that's why many analysts believe we're seeing the sea of red across the trading boards.""
A fairly innocuous headline masking a big story.  The nut of this story: analysts are beginning to question whether the economic numbers China has been reporting are accurate or not.  Regular readers here know we've been tracking this story for several years now -- and China's numbers are not accurate and often they have been substantially off!  To me, that any analysts are only now beginning to wonder about this is STUNNING!

Harry Reid Earns an Assist on Iran: The Nevada Senator Staved Off New Sanctions — for Now (Doyle McManus) form the Los Angeles Times
"The problem is that Iran has said it would consider passage of the bill as a violation of the agreement the U.S. signed in November, which promised no new sanctions while negotiations were underway. ... By last week, it was clear that Reid had prevailed; the Senate isn't likely to vote on new sanctions any time soon."

The Populist Imperative (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"If, as has been widely reported, President Obama devotes much of his State of the Union address to inequality, everyone should be cheering him on. They won’t, of course. Instead, he will face two kinds of sniping. The usual suspects on the right will, as always when questions of income distribution come up, shriek “Class warfare!” But there will also be seemingly more sober voices arguing that he has picked the wrong target, that jobs, not inequality, should be at the top of his agenda. Here’s why they’re wrong."

A Nation of Redistributionists and Class Warriors (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"With inequality and economic populism expected to be central to Obama’s State of the Union speech and Dem campaigns in the midterms, expect Republicans to argue Dems are wielding a familiar “class warfare” weapon to distract from the failure of the ”Obummer economy.” But a new Pew poll digs into public opinion on inequality in a way I haven’t seen before, and it suggests Dems are on solid political ground with this focus."

Who Says Liberal Arts Majors Can't Make a Good Living? from Marketplace
"A new study from the Association of American Colleges and Universities says liberal arts majors eventually close the earnings gap with workers who chose a “professional” major like accounting. Who knew? Given all the focus and support for STEM education, do the liberal arts need a campaign to fill prospective students and parents in on the facts? "

New Report Shows Few Finish Free Online Courses from Marketplace
"In a new report from Harvard and MIT faculty involved with the online learning programs there, researchers find that only about 5 percent of the more than 800,000 people signed up for the free courses through the online platform edX actually finished enough coursework to obtain a completion certificate."
Gee -- I'm so surprised.  It is my observation that online courses (even those you pay for) are the next step down from community colleges -- even if they are from MIT and Harvard.  Good learning happens in an active environment, not a passive one.  What's next?  Learn while you sleep.

Moral Mondays Rekindle the Civil Rights Movement (Jim Hightower) from the Progressive
I almost never post anything from this predictable knee-jerk progressive talking head -- but this is interesting.
"Steadily building broad grassroots coalitions of civil rights groups, labor, church leaders, students, teachers, environmentalists, retirees, and others, this movement is literally moving through southern states. It is gaining popular support by directly confronting the immorality of extremist governors, legislators, and corporate lobbyists who're denying health care to poor families, preventing both the elderly and students from voting, gutting state funding for public education, and generally legislating a permanent state of inequality and injustice for millions of people."

Democratic Candidates for Governor Unite Against Corbett, UPMC in Debate from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"UPMC was nearly as prominent a pinata as Gov. Tom Corbett as UPMC's employee relations and its standoff with Highmark were repeatedly denounced during a debate Sunday among eight Democratic candidates for governor. In the 90-minute forum at Carnegie Mellon University, the candidates were united in criticizing the Republican administration's education policies. Most voiced support for easing prohibitions against marijuana use in the state, and for stricter regulation and taxing of natural gas fracking. But some of the more affecting moments of the encounter came as the hopefuls were asked to describe failures in their lives."

FBI Questioning Witnesses Over Claims Chris Christie Threatened To Withhold Sandy Relief: Report from the Huffington Post
"The FBI has started questioning witnesses about whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration threatened to withhold Hurricane Sandy relief money unless Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer (D) agreed to support a billion-dollar development project backed by the governor's office, reports Michael Isikoff at NBC News."

Painting Wendy Davis as a Bad Mother is Political Sexism at its Worst (Jessica Luther) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Davis is a Democrat running for governor of Texas. Opponents are trying to smear her life story, and the media isn't helping."

Old Democratic Name (Nunn) Stakes Bid on Shifting Georgia from the New York Times
"Two of his closest Republican friends, former Senators John W. Warner of Virginia and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, are now donors to Ms. Nunn. Mr. Warner attended the breakfast, he said, and walked away impressed. So did Mr. Nunn; watching his daughter tackle military policy questions changed his view of her race..."That morning," he said, "was when I said to myself, 'Hey, she's got as good a shot as anybody in this race, maybe better.' ""

Dinesh D’Souza’s Series of Unfortunate Events from the Daily Beast 
"Author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza was indicted for encouraging fraudulent campaign donations—just the latest in a spiral that has all but sunk his career in the conservative movement."

ORGANIZED RELIGION NUGGET!!
Justin Bieber and Other Celebs You Didn't Know were Religious from CNN 
Yes, religious -- a surprising number of these folks are Buddhists.