Tuesday: 4/23/13

Boston and Terrorism

Boston

Boston bombing suspect cites U.S. wars as motivation.  "The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews."  Scott Wilson, Greg Miller, and Sari Horwitz in the Washington Post.

Jon Stewart, on CNN and Boston coverage.  "While other networks used a studio anchor to keep Boston bombing coverage from going adrift, CNN instead went with a sandlot football approach."  Video.

Terrorism

Hapless, disorganized, and irrational: What the Boston bombers had in common with most would-be terrorists.  "Amazingly, the Boston perpetrators apparently thought they could somehow get away with their deed even though they chose to set their bombs off at the most-photographed spot on the planet at the time. ... They do not seem to have had anything that could be considered a coherent plan of escape ... no reliable means of transport and no money ... And while the scope of the tragedy in Boston should not be minimized, it should also be noted that, if the terrorists’ aim was to kill a large number of people, their bombs failed miserably."  John Mueller and Mark Stewart at Slate.

I suspect that Sen. McCain may not understand how Miranda rights work in cases of terrorism, or - for that matter - how they work, period.  "Sen. John McCain ...claimed ... the Obama administration, by making the decision to read Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, threw away any chance to interrogate him and glean information about potential future plots ... A federal judge read the bombing suspect his rights on Monday, but that doesn’t mean the Obama administration gave up the right to ask Tsarnaev questions." Ben Armbruster at ThinkProgress.

Politics

Baucus

Sen. Max Baucus to join the 'retiring in 2014' club.  "Senator Max Baucus will be the latest Senator to announce his retirement from the Senate at the end of the current term: ... Baucus joins colleagues Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey in exiting the 2014 race. His Montana seat is likely to be one of the toughest on that list for Democrats to defend."  Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.

Democrats are slightly favored to keep the Senate seat.  "Bottom line: If Schweitzer runs, the race probably leans Democratic for now. If he doesn’t, it’s probably a tossup, with an edge to Republicans."  Sean Trende at RealClearPolitics.

Baucus leaves behind a mixed legacy.  "Baucus will have left a mixed legacy. Yes, he helped build one of the most expansive pieces of domestic legislation since the Great Society, but in his caution—characteristic of red state Democrats—he helped empower the forces that want to dismantle it."  Jamelle Bouie at the Plum Line.

Ron Wyden ascending.  "Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) announcement that he’ll retire in 2014 clears the way for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to become chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. If Baucus annoyed Democrats for being too cautious, Wyden will annoy them by being too ambitious — and too ceaselessly interested in brokering big, bipartisan deals."  Ezra Klein at Wonkblog.

Campaign Finance Reform

A new bipartisan campaign finance bill might be on the way.  "Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are poised to unveil legislation to reform the country’s much-maligned campaign finance rules. ... Under their plan, groups involved in political activity – whether directly through a campaign or via outside advocacy – would be required to disclose their donors in real time. ... The bill draws on state laws already enacted in Oregon and Alaska. It would be applicable to all federal candidates and “every billionaire hoping to influence an election,” they said."  Ben Goad in the Hill.

Economic inequality meets politics.  "At any point in our history, the disproportionate policy influence of the wealthy has been a serious problem for our democracy. But in today’s America, two factors intensify this threat: the increased concentration of economic resources, and the increased access those resources have to the political system.  There’s yet another piece to this puzzle, however ...What are the political preferences of the wealth and how do they differ from those of the rest of us?"  Jared Bernstein at On the Economy.

Climate Change

Environment vs economics, Louisiana edition.  "Climate change presents Louisiana with an existential crisis—and its lawmakers with a wrenching political problem. The Pelican State is at the nexus of two profoundly conflicting forces: fossil fuels and global warming. Oil is the economic lifeblood of the economy in this state ... thousands of jobs at refineries, ports, construction firms, and other industries that together account for up to 20 percent of Louisiana’s jobs.  That’s why many of its lawmakers don’t even acknowledge the science of climate change, and why even those who do are opposed to tough regulations on fossil-fuel pollution."  Coral Davenport in the National Journal.

Disaster Aid

Hypocrisy on the Hill.  "Officials are still coming to terms with the scope of the disaster in West, Texas, where a fertilizer plant exploded last week, leaving at least 14 dead. And while investigators still search for clues as to what caused the disaster, Texan lawmakers in Washington are looking for disaster aid to bolster the devastated community.  Had these same officials not opposed post-Sandy relief, their position might not seem so jarring. ... I will, of course, look forward to Cruz and Flores explaining why federal emergency aid in New Jersey and New York was unwarranted, while federal emergency aid in West, Texas, is fair."  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

The Economy

The big winner of the recession is the shadow economy.  "Based on historical patterns, current retail sales are actually what you’d expect if the unemployment rate were around five or six per cent ... The difference ... probably reflects workers migrating into the shadow economy.  This 'underground economy' could include anything from illicit activities — selling drugs, say — to off-the-books jobs in things like construction."  Brad Plumer at Wonkblog.

Robot recruiters to the rescue.  "Software that crunches piles of information can spot things that may not be apparent to the naked eye. In the case of hiring American workers who toil by the hour, number-crunching has uncovered some surprising correlations."  The Economist.

Education

Jindal backs teaching creationism.  "Asked about the role of creationism in public-school science classes, Jindal argued, "I've got no problem if ... a local school board, says we want to teach our kids about creationism.  As a matter of proper education, this is ridiculous. Classrooms are hardly the appropriate setting to expose kids to lessons known to be wrong."  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

Elections

Guns may not be a huge booster for Dems in 2014.  "Democrats are not in much of a position to capitalize on the vote from the standpoint of individual seats in Congress in 2014. To the extent that the issue plays favorably for Democrats in 2014, it is likely to be for symbolic reasons — because they are able to persuade voters that it reflects a Republican Party that is outside the mainstream."  Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.

Too early to know whether Democrats will fall prey to second-term jinx.  "Historically, we have seen unfortunate political patterns appear during second presidential terms. The party occupying the Oval Office has suffered significant House and/or Senate losses in five of the last six second-term, midterm elections. Since World War II, the party holding the White House for two consecutive terms has also lost it in five out of the six subsequent elections."  Charlie Cook in the National Journal.

The Massachusetts Senate race is back on.  "More quietly, politics is resurfacing in the Bay State as the candidates vying for Secretary of State John Kerry’s vacated Senate seat return to the campaign trail in earnest with just one week to go until the April 30 special election primaries.  A new poll shows that the front-runner when the race began, Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, remains in the driver’s seat for his party’s nomination and is the clear favorite to win the general election on June 25."  Scott Conroy at RealClearPolitics. 

No, immigration reform was never going to deliver a Latino 'bonanza' for the Democrats.  "The truth of the matter is that passing immigration reform won't be a votes 'bonanza' for the Democratic party because of potentially or newly enfranchised undocumented immigrants. That doesn't mean passing immigration reform will help the Republican party among Latinos; the GOP should probably still be worrying about its Latino voter appeal. But it's not facing a landslide from a new citizen electorate."  Harry Enten in the Guardian.

Fiscal Fights

The deficit is coming down.  "John Makin, ... argues that 'American fiscal austerity has been moderate and probably . . . has proceeded far enough for now.' A budget deficit that was more than 10 percent of GDP in 2009 is on track to be about half that this year. 'The federal budget deficit is shrinking rapidly,' writes Jan Hatzius, the chief economist of Goldman Sachs ... “There is still a great deal of room for the economic recovery to reduce the deficit for cyclical reasons.”  In other words, if policymakers can just not blow it and keep the recovery on track, that alone will do a good bit of the heavy lifting of deficit reduction."  Neil Irwin at Wonkblog.

GOP

Is the GOP post-policy?  "At some point a new custom evolved to save H.R. 1 through H.R. 5, and then through H.R. 10, for important party agenda bills.  Which leads to the embarrassing fact that no one seems to have noticed about this year’s House Republicans. Over 100 days into the current Congress, their agenda is … almost completely empty.  In fact, of the 10 reserved slots, there’s only one bill filed. That’s H.R. 3, a bill to force the building of the Keystone XL pipeline."  Jonathan Bernstein at Salon.

House accuses Clinton of lying about Benghazi.  Can't we just govern the country without manufacturing fake scandals?  "The chairmen of five House committees today in an interim report to Speaker John Boehner, R-Oh, accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of lying to Congress about reducing security in Benghazi, Libya, before last September's attacks, vowing to continue reviewing what it described as a 'cover up' over the nature of the attacks and hold administration officials accountable."  Kevin Baron at the E-Ring.

Guns

Guns and terrorism, the double standard.  "Imagine what our laws would be like if the nation were losing 30,000 lives each year to Islamist terrorism. Do you think for one minute that a young man named, say, Abdullah or Hussein — or Tsarnaev — would be able to go to a gun show and buy a semiautomatic AR-15 knockoff with a 30-round clip, no questions asked? Would the NRA still argue, as it essentially does now, that those thousands of lives are the price we must pay for the Second Amendment?  When we say 'never again' about terrorism, we really mean it. When we say those words about gun violence, obviously we really don’t."  Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post.

Modern Republicans are radicals.  Do we still need more proof?  "There have been certain moments during the last few years that have been widely acknowledged as a sign of the radicalization of the Republican Party. Among them: The debt ceiling fights; the absolute refusal of Republicans to accept any tax hikes on the wealthy until the fiscal cliff showdown forced them to; Jim DeMint’s declaration that defeating Obamacare was crucial because it would be Obama’s 'Waterloo'; and Mitch McConnell’s claim that the GOP’s single overriding goal should be to render Obama a one-term president. The defeat of Toomey-Manchin should be added to that list."  Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.

When gun conspiracies go wild.  "In retribution against a Missouri agency’s record-keeping of concealed carry gun permits, the state Senate voted Monday to eliminate all funding for the Department of Revenue’s driver’s license bureau and slashed funding for several other agencies. If the measure became law, it would halt the issuance of driver’s licenses in the state, and would hobble the core functioning of several other agencies that senators believe played a role in collecting gun permit information."  Nicole Flatow at ThinkProgress.

LGBT Rights

Are workplace rights the next Congressional battleground?  "Senator Jeff Merkley, one of the lead sponsors of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, says he intends to introduce ENDA ... along with several other Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. ENDA would federally prohibit discrimination in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity ... Senator Tom Harkin, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has vowed to move the bill forward this year. Most observers expect that it will eventually come to the floor for a vote. 'We’re ready to roll,' Merkley said."  Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.

The Nevada Senate voted to repeal their constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage.  "The Nevada Senate became the first legislative chamber in the country to vote to overturn a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying."  Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed.

SCOTUSwatch

Water wars.  "On Tuesday in Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, the Court will consider whether thirsty residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas can tap into water resources located in Oklahoma in order to slake their growing need for water."  Thomas Merrill at SCOTUSblog.

International

Asia

New reports of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.  "The Human Rights Watch ... documents the clash between two ethnic groups in Myanmar’s Arakan State. The majority ethnic Arakanese population, ... sought to remove the disenfranchised Rohingya group living within the Arakan state from their communities. The Arakanese are majority Buddhist, while the Rohingya are Muslim.  Further, the report accuses the Myanmar government and local authorities of not only complicity with efforts to forcibly evict the Rohingya from their homes, but also overt support for the campaign."  Hayes Brown at ThinkProgress.

Europe

France approves same-sex marriage.  "With a definitive vote by the lower house of Parliament, France on Tuesday became the world’s 14th nation, and the third in just two weeks, to approve marriage rights for same-sex couples.  The legislation is expected to be approved by the Constitutional Council and signed into law by President François Hollande in time to allow the country’s first same-sex weddings this summer."  Scott Sayare in the New York Times.

Middle East

Israel says Syria has used chemical weapons.  "Israel declared Tuesday that it had found evidence that the Syrian government repeatedly used chemical weapons last month ...  In making the declaration — which went somewhat beyond recent suspicions expressed by Britain and France — Israeli officials argued that President Assad had repeatedly crossed what President Obama said last summer would be a 'red line.' But Obama administration officials pushed back, saying they would not leap into the conflict on what they viewed as inconclusive evidence."  David Sanger and Jodi Rudoren in the New York Times.

What does Assad's arsenal look like?  "The United States' Intelligence Community's 2013 Worldwide Threat Assessment released last month states that Syria has a "highly active chemical weapons program" maintaining a stockpile of sarin, VX, and the longtime staple of chemical warfare, mustard gas. These weapons can be delivered a number of ways, via cluster bombs dropped from jets and helicopters to chemical warheads placed atop Scud ballistic missiles. They can even be fired via shorter-range artillery guns or missiles systems, like the Soviet-made BM-27 Uragan."  John Reed at Killer Apps.

Catching up on the Iranian presidential elections.  "On 14 June, Iran will hold one of the most critical presidential elections in the history of the Islamic Republic.  On 23 May the Guardian Council, all 12 members of which have been either directly or indirectly appointed by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will announce which candidates have been permitted to run in this year's poll."  Rana Rahimpour at BBC.

After U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, drones will still be patrolling.  "Armed drones, operated by the U.S., will remain over Afghanistan after 2014. ... 'You’ll have that hybrid ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] as I call it, that armed ISR, remotely piloted aircraft capability all the way through ’14,' Polumbo said, 'and then once [the follow-on Operation] Resolute Support mission and operations is fully understood and agreed upon by our coalition partners and our leadership, you will likely see it into 2015 to provide force protection.'"  Spencer Ackerman at the Danger Room.

Economics

We tried austerity.  Can we move on yet?  "The case for austerity is coming apart for another and more important reason: The results are in, and they're terrible, especially where central banks have failed to offset the fiscal cuts with monetary easing."  Evan Soltas at Bloomberg.

Science

The end of sleep?  "Since stimulants have failed to offer a biological substitute for sleep, the new watchword of sleep innovators is ‘efficiency’, which means in effect reducing the number of hours of sleep needed for full functionality."  Jessa Gamble in Aeon Magazine.

Miscellaneous

Financial markets are jittery.  Very jittery.  "The stock market briefly plummeted Tuesday afternoon after a bogus tweet sent Wall Street into a temporary tailspin, a sign of the fragile state of market psychology and the susceptibility of even the multi-trillion dollar financial markets to bad information. The official Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked, the AP reported, and the hacker tweeted out 'Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.'"  Neil Irwin at Wonkblog.

CNN - I know you're already a subpar news network, but don't do this.  Don't do this.  "Earlier this month, news broke that CNN was looking to relaunch Crossfire, the famous debate show that pitted two pundits -- one liberal, one conservative -- against one another on the political issues of the day.  Sources now tell POLITICO that the network is in discussions with former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter about roles on the show."  Dylan Byers at Politico.

How the builders of the Giza pyramid were fed.  "Based on animal bone findings, nutritional data, and other discoveries at this workers' town site, the archaeologists estimate that more than 4,000 pounds of meat — from cattle, sheep and goats — were slaughtered every day, on average, to feed the pyramid builders."  Owen Jarus at LiveScience.

Tigers, oh my.  "A central Kansas woman likely won't remember her first circus for the clowns or performances — it'll be the tiger in the bathroom.  The big cat had escaped briefly after its turn in the ring Saturday at the Isis Shrine Circus in Salina. Staff members blocked off the concourses at the Bicentennial Center as the tiger wandered into the bathroom."  Chris Oberholtz at KCTV.