Middle East
Iraq
Iraq took down an Al Qaeda cell trying to create chemical weapons. "The Iraqi military announced today that it arrested five members of an al Qaeda cell that was seeking to manufacture chemical weapons, including sarin nerve gas, and plotting to conduct attacks within Iraq, Europe, and North America." Bill Roggio at Long War Journal.
China is the largest beneficiary of the Iraqi oil boom. "Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer. China already buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for an even bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq’s largest oil fields." Tim Arango and Clifford Krauss in the New York Times.
Jordan
Missile defense, deploy! "The Pentagon has decided to leave a sophisticated missile defense system in Jordan after it is used in a training exercise there ... a move that could position the U.S. military to play a more assertive role in the outcome of Syria’s civil war. ... Patriot batteries were built to intercept Scud missiles, a type of long-range weapon the Syrian government has used to target rebel strongholds. Although there is no sign Damascus intends to attack its neighbors ... batteries in neighboring countries sends a powerful message of support from the West. They probably also convey to President Bashar al-Assad that the international community is logistically positioned to enforce a no-fly zone." Ernesto Londono in the Washington Post.
Syria
Unfortunately for the rebels, Hezbollah is winning. "Hezbollah and Syrian government forces have seized most of the strategically important town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border ... a huge setback for the rebels fighting to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad ... The battle for Qusayr is considered a key test for the rebels, who’d held the city for more than a year, and for the government, which has been mounting a fierce counteroffensive ... Qusayr sits astride a key route for rebels bringing weapons and other supplies into the country from Lebanon. The city also is an important link between Syria’s capital, Damascus, and government-held areas along the country’s Mediterranean coast." David Enders at McClatchy.
Sectarianism is running rampant in the region. "A prominent Sunni Muslim cleric influential in the Syrian uprising has issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling on Muslims around the world to help Syrian rebels in the embattled town of Qusayr and labeling Hezbollah and Iran, which support the Syrian government, enemies of Islam 'more infidel than Jews and Christians.'" Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad in the New York Times.
Turkey
The Turkish protests and social media. "What is unique about this particular case is how Twitter is being used to spread information about the demonstrations from the ground. Unlike some other recent uprisings, around 90% of all geolocated tweets are coming from within Turkey, and 50% from within Istanbul ... In comparison ... only 30% of those tweeting during the Egyptian revolution were actually in the country. ... Approximately 88% of the tweets are in Turkish, which suggests the audience of the tweets is other Turkish citizens ... What this trend suggests is that Turkish protesters are replacing the traditional reporting with crowd-sourced accounts of the protest expressed through social media." Pablo Barbera and Megan Metzger at the Monkey Cage.
Want to be a journalist? Avoid Turkey. "Turkey's record on press freedom is deeply troubling. With 47 journalists imprisoned for their work, the country is the world's leading jailer of journalists -- ahead of Iran and China. Most of those imprisoned were employed by media outlets that support Kurdish autonomy; others are accused of supporting an ultra-nationalist conspiracy to topple the government. Thousands more journalists are battling punitive lawsuits for reporting on a wide range of sensitive issues, exposing corruption or simply criticizing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)." Christophe Deloire and Joel Simon at Foreign Policy.
We think of Turkey as a democracy. Recent trends are indicating that might be a mistake. "Even as the AKP was winning elections at home and plaudits from abroad, an authoritarian turn was underway. In 2007, the party seized upon a plot in which elements of Turkey's so-called deep state ... sought to overthrow the government and used it to silence its critics. Since then, Turkey has become a country where journalists are routinely jailed on questionable grounds, the machinery of the state has been used against private business concerns because their owners disagree with the government, and freedom of expression in all its forms is under pressure." Steven Cook and Michael Koplow at Foreign Policy.
The limits of Turkey's Occupy movement. "Unless something changes soon, Turkey’s Occupy movements ... will be just as forgettable. Like the Occupy protests that have already come and gone, the protest in Turkey is directionless and leaderless ... A movement that began making one focused demand is now demanding all the rights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights and all the treaties and covenants it encompasses ... The lack of focus of this Occupy movement may lead it in the direction of the Occupy movements that preceded it: towards insignificance." Stephanie Soiffer at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.
Even if he wins, Erdogan's response probably harmed ... Erdogan. "In soccer, an 'own goal' is scored when a player accidentally hits the ball into his own net. The poor handling by Turkish authorities of demonstrations ... constitutes an own goal that now undermines the political prospects of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party. Its uniting of the opposition seems more likely to be temporary than not. But the affair undoes the confident image of democratization, stability and sound management that Erdoğan and his colleagues have assiduously and fairly successfully cultivated during their decade in office." Ross Wilson at New Atlanticist.
Health
The Affordable Care Act
Calling out the mendacious. "The thing you want to bear in mind is that Roy is widely considered a ... reformist conservative, not to mention a health policy wonk ... Roy claims that Obamacare will cause soaring insurance rates, using a comparison that is completely fraudulent — and I say fraudulent, not wrong, because he is indeed enough of a policy wonk here to know that he is pulling a fast one ... He points out that the insurance premiums that will apparently be charged on the California exchange will be higher than the lowest rates being offered by some insurers in California right now ... This isn’t just comparing apples and oranges; it’s comparing apples with oranges you can’t even buy." Paul Krugman at the New York Times.
Corporations are NOT people and do not have the same rights. Can some judges please point this out? "In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. asked a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argued that businesses ... should be allowed to seek exception from that section of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs." Kristen Wyatt at the Associated Press.
How insurance premiums will change in the exchanges. "What happens when you turn the individual market into the exchanges? A few things, mainly: - No more raising prices or refusing to offer insurance to sick people; - Less price discrimination allowed against old people; - More regulation of what counts as 'insurance'; - About $950 billion in subsidies to lower-income participants over the first 10 years; - More direct and transparent competition between insurers; - An individual mandate that pushes the uninsured-by-choice to purchase insurance or pay a penalty." Ezra Klein at Wonkblog.
The conservative replacement won't pass. But it's still a joke. "The altered version wipes out Obamacare’s prevention fund entirely and uses the money to fund state-based high-risk pools which have nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act ... So if you have a preexisting condition and live in one of the 35 states running a high-risk pool offering access to individual insurance policies with astronomical premiums for really, really bad insurance, here’s the great news from House Republicans: 'conservative policy' holds that propping up these pools is a better option for you than being guaranteed access to affordable and adequate health insurance! " Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly.
Some GOP responses to the Medicaid expansion are, frankly, repulsive. "Republican governors and state legislatures in half the states have either rejected or intend to reject ... billions in federal dollars to extend Medicaid coverage to their poorest citizens ... When the law goes into full effect next year, millions of Americans will be left on the outside looking in, denied coverage for no other reason than the misfortune of residing in a red state ... If we lived in a country where both major political parties shared a sense of social empathy, the Medicaid expansion piece of Obamacare would be among its least controversial provisions. " Michael Cohen at the Guardian.
Not convinced? It's also fiscally irresponsible to not expand Medicaid. "States that refuse to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care reform law not only will deny health coverage to poor residents and lose access to a huge influx of federal dollars, they also will see increased spending on uninsured people's unpaid medical bills ... The Rand Corp. analyzed 14 states with governors who oppose the Medicaid expansion. It found their actions will deprive 3.6 million people of health coverage under Obamacare, forgo $8.4 billion in federal funding, and cost them $1 billion for programs that partially compensate medical providers who care for the indigent." Jeffrey Young at the Huffington Post.
Suicide
A simple way to cut suicide rates. "We should not be selling big bottles of Tylenol and other drugs that are typically implicated in overdoses ... Pills should be packaged in blister packs of 16 or 25. Anyone who wanted 50 would have to buy numerous blister packages and sit down and push out the pills one by one. Turns out you really, really have to want to commit suicide to push out 50 pills. And most people are not that committed. Sound ridiculous? Consider some data. In September 1998, Britain changed the packaging for paracetamol, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to require blister packs for packages of 16 pills ... The result ... suicide deaths from Tylenol overdoses declined by 43 percent." Ezekiel Emanuel at the New York Times.
Politics
The Economy
Even with surpluses, the states are having a rough time. "While the fiscal picture is brightening around the country, with many states expecting surpluses this year after years of deficits and wrenching budget crises, mounting Medicaid costs and underfunded retirement promises are continuing to cloud their long-term outlook. And some of the surpluses that are materializing, as welcome as they are, are not as robust as they appear at first glance — especially as bills come due for some of the costs that states put off during the long economic downturn." Michael Cooper and Mary Walsh in the New York Times.
Going to Wall Street might be a path for doing good in the world. But that seems unlikely. "The problem with the consequentialist argument for wealth-generation is that as people get rich, their priorities change. They give to charity for all kinds of self-motivated reasons ... rather than look for where their money will have the maximum impact ... This phenomenon isn't limited to Wall Street ... The temptation among rich people — regardless of how they make their money — will always be to reward causes they believe in, regardless of the relationship between those causes and the absolute humanitarian gains they enable." Kevin Roose at New York Magazine.
Don't be too optimistic - inequality is still a huge problem. "The bulk of the market’s gains accrue to the rich: the top 1% holds over a third of equity market wealth, the top 10% holds about 80%; the bottom half holds well under 10% ... Trends in real paychecks and household incomes reveal a quite different story than all the good vibes from home starts, market indexes, GDP, and so on ... If the recovery accelerates, unemployment should come down more quickly and the tighter labor market will enforce a more equitable distribution of growth. But that’s not in the near-term cards." Jared Bernstein at On the Economy.
Elections
The Fix's top 5 races of 2013. Sean Sullivan, Rachel Weiner, and Aaron Blake at the Fix.
Lack of qualified GOP candidates is a Democratic advantage for some Senate races in 2014. "Convincing the right candidates to run is a top priority for the national committee. But so far, Republicans haven't been able to entice their first choice candidates into races even in states where Democrats are potentially vulnerable. All seven statewide and federal officeholders said no to GOP entreaties to run for a seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa; no major Republican candidates are running for open seats in Michigan and Montana, or against Democratic incumbents in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico and Virginia." Reid Wilson at the National Journal.
Why Ted Cruz's attacks on Republicans may not doom his presidential prospects. "Where Cruz stands out, and where he gets in trouble with his Senate colleagues, is in his willingness to use demagogic rhetoric ... and his frequent attacks on 'Republican leaders' or the 'Republican establishment.' Many members of Congress may see themselves as targets of those attacks ... Even if those who actually have to work with Ted Cruz may not like him, there are still plenty of party leaders who may interpret his attacks on 'party leaders' as those of an ally ready to help them storm the gates, rather than as a threat to their insider status." Jonathan Bernstein at Salon.
And why they might. "Here is the historical pattern that Cruz confronts. First, in every contested Republican presidential primary since 1980, the party has nominated a relative moderate in the field. See 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, and 2012. Cruz is not a moderate, relative to the rest of his party ... Nevertheless, based on the historical pattern, Cruz starts out as a relative underdog to win the GOP nomination in 2016, even before he’s opened his mouth on the Senate floor. It seems worth his while to think about that fact if he wants to be president." John Sides at the Monkey Cage.
Charlie Crist's comeback. "Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has spoken in recent weeks with multiple national political consultants about assembling a team to run for governor in 2014, accelerating his deliberations about a possible comeback bid, according to several Democratic sources closely watching the race. Crist, who left the Republican Party in 2010 and campaigned last year for Obama’s reelection, has been in no outward rush to jump into the race formally. But operatives familiar with his thinking say a gubernatorial run against GOP Gov. Rick Scott has become less a question of if than when." Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman at Politico.
Energy and the Environment
MSM, you could do better on climate change. "While there is some excellent climate reporting in the mainstream media, many—if not most—members of the mainstream media have been AWOL on the issue. The statistics of the 2012 presidential campaign, for example, are telling ... One has to go back all the way to 1984 ... to find a debate season where global environmental threats received so little attention ... It’s not necessary to only blame the public’s ignorance about the climate on individuals’ values or deep-seated beliefs. Blame it on what they see and hear in the news as well. Until we fix that, we won’t be able to fix the climate either." Eric Alterman at RealClearPolitics.
Filibuster Fights
Everything you need to know about the nominations fight in one FAQ. "Obama is gearing up to appoint three more judges to the D.C. Circuit, which currently has eight confirmed judges but a total of 11 seats ... And whether or not those judges make it onto the court could make or break Obama’s second-term agenda. They’ll be the ones ruling on decisions coming from the EPA on how to regulate carbon emissions, and from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission on how to implement the Dodd-Frank law. And if Obama runs into hurdles getting his nominees confirmed, that could trigger filibuster changes that will affect policy decades from now." Dylan Matthews at Wonkblog.
Fiscal Fights
Forget about the welfare state. It's all about the tax break state. "This, then, is the fight in American politics. Democrats want to expand the tax break state for the poor and cut it for the rich. Republicans want to keep it for the rich, or possibly use it to lower tax rates on the rich, but they’re uncomfortable with the part of the tax break state that benefits the poor. Although shrouded in arcane tax terminology, this is one of the most important battles over who will benefit from our economic progress, and how." Mike Konczal at Wonkblog.
Frank Lautenberg
The accomplishments of Frank Lautenberg, health edition. "Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has passed away at the age of 89. He was the last World War II veteran serving in the Senate and has been in the chamber almost continuously since 1982 ... Lautenberg has had an enormous impact on public health policy in the United States during his 29 years in the Senate. He’s responsible for the smoking ban on airplanes, the minimum drinking age, and the current laws against drunk driving. Just for starters." Brad Plumer at Wonkblog.
A true liberal champion. "Unabashedly pro-choice and pro–LGBT rights, Lautenberg was a leading champion of gun control ... The senator was, as well, a fierce defender of affirmative action ... 'He was also one of the great environmental champions in Congress.' Lautenberg’s liberalism was robust ... His commitment to the ideology was of the broad-spectrum variety ... The New Jersey senator sided with organized labor ... Lautenberg fought for minimum-wage hikes, factory safety and fair trade ... But his biggest fight was for a renewal of the New Deal commitment of government to invest in job creation." John Nichols at the Nation.
The Senate lost its last WWII vet. And is, historically speaking, low on veterans. "The death Monday of Frank R. Lautenberg ... brought the number of World War II veterans in the Senate to zero, the first time the Senate has been without a World War II veteran since the war itself. Mr. Lautenberg’s death also continues the decline in the Senate of military veterans generally. The number of senators who had served in the military has been dropping since the late 1970s. In the 95th Congress, which convened in 1977, 81 of the 100 senators were veterans. That was a record high ... In contrast, only 16 current senators have served in the armed forces." Micah Cohen at FiveThirtyEight.
Still, Lautenberg's death is an outlier, not the rule. "Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s passing on Monday marked the first death in the U.S. Senate this year. If recent history is a guide, it could be the last. Whether it’s modern medicine, earlier retirements, or voters looking for a change, senators just aren’t dying in office like they used to. Every decade between the 1890s and 1960s, at least 15 senators passed away. But in the nearly three and a half decades since 1980, only 14 U.S. senators have died in office." Shane Goldmacher at the National Journal.
Frank Lautenberg will be missed. But, his death won't have a large legislative or electoral impact. "Anything that the House can pass and Barack Obama will sign is going to get through the Senate easily, with or without Lautenberg ... In the long run, too, it’s unlikely that Lautenberg’s death will really change much ... New Jersey is a strong Democratic state ... that sets the basic context for the eventual control of the Senate seat after 2014 to remain with Democrats, with whatever happens in between not really changing much." Jonathan Bernstein at the Plum Line.
GOP
Lessons from Britain for the GOP. "Three years ago, newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron was seen as a possible model for Republicans ... Today, he provides an object lesson in the stumbling blocks that can lie in wait. ... The GOP’s economic policy prescriptions, while not an exact replica of what Cameron has offered, share the same broad objective, which is to attack government spending and cut the deficit sharply. ... The British economy has responded to this prescription with a second recession, after the major downturn in 2008, and narrowly avoided a triple dip this spring. The stuttering recovery in the United States has looked strong by comparison." Dan Balz at the Washington Post.
The Medicaid wars: GOP governors vs their own GOP-controlled legislatures. "Despite expressing distaste for the new law, some GOP governors have endorsed an expansion of Medicaid, and three — Jan Brewer of Arizona, John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan — are trying to persuade their Republican-controlled legislatures to go along. The governors are unwilling to turn down Washington’s offer to spend ... billions, in their states to add people to the state-federal program for the poor. But they face staunch opposition from many GOP legislators who oppose the health-care law and worry that their states will be stuck with the cost of adding Medicaid recipients." Sandhya Somashekhar in the Washington Post.
The Tea Party is coming back. "The tea party is as fired up as ever, even though the movement is smaller now than in its heyday of 2010. In one recent poll, only 22% of American voters said they considered themselves tea party supporters ... But the grass-roots small-government movement has proved remarkably resilient. ... More than 350 tea party organizations are still operating ... roughly two-thirds of the number that sprang up in 2009 and 2010. And they have been recently reenergized by the outbreak of scandals ... including one that amounts to a political windfall: the discovery that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups' applications for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny." Doyle McManus in the LA Times.
The GOP and the young. "In the report, the young Republican activists acknowledge their party has suffered significant damage in recent years ... Another interesting aspect of this study ... is the finding that 'our focus on taxation and business issues has left many young voters thinking they will only reap the benefits of Republican policies if they become wealthy or rise to the top of a big business.' ... Young people think this because it is broadly true. And ... the cultural issues can be a bit more easily papered over than economic ones ... where eventually you have to settle on a set of numbers (for tax rates, what have you), and numbers mean something." Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast.
Who are the GOP leaders? Young voters weigh in. "In focus groups in January, the report said, young voters were asked to list leaders of the Democratic Party. 'They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.'" Andrew Rosenthal at Taking Note.
Immigration
E-Verify could also create problems for legal workers. "The idea is simple: Citizens and legal immigrants should be able to work, undocumented immigrants shouldn’t ... And the answer Congress has come up with is a system called E-Verify. But critics say the system could create headaches for hundreds of thousands of Americans who do have authorization to work in the United States ... If E-Verify says you’re not authorized to work, you have eight days to visit the appropriate government agency and begin an appeal. If you’re not able to go in time, or you can’t convince the agency that a mistake was made, your employer is supposed to fire you." Timothy Lee at Wonkblog.
Scandals
The media seems like it's getting tired of these 'scandals.' "The goal of Issa and others here is to create an atmosphere of scandal, with the deliberate aim of obscuring the importance of the details of the actual scandals themselves ... But there does seem to be a real media effort underway in some quarters to point out that that the smoke coming from the GOP smoke machine doesn’t mean there’s necessarily any fire there. That’s a far sight better than the 1990s, when scores of reporters would eagerly clamber aboard their shiny red fire truck to chase even the thinnest wisp of smoke whenever Republicans told them to." Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.
How Ted Cruz justified the IRS, while arguing for abolishing it. "The people doing all this need to sit somewhere. The place they sit doesn’t need to be called 'The Internal Revenue Service.' It can be called 'The Agency of Tax Freedom.' But it is, in effect, the Internal Revenue Service. Which is all to say that Cruz doesn’t really want to abolish the IRS. He wants to reform the tax code — and, given the sparse details he offered, his reforms will be hugely regressive. But even his tax code will need someone, somewhere, to enforce it." Ezra Klein at Wonkblog.
And the IRS scandal isn't linked to Obama, says Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday became the latest Republican to reject Darrell Issa's comments that White House press secretary Jay Carney is a 'paid liar' in relation to the IRS controversy. But Graham went further than his Republican colleagues, saying there's no evidence that the White House ordered the tax agency to target conservative groups." Sabrina Siddiqui at the Huffington Post.
SCOTUSwatch
The four big decisions left on the Supreme Court's docket. Peter Landers in the Wall Street Journal.
And one important one that was just announced. "Law enforcement officials can take routine DNA samples from those they arrest, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. A 5-4 majority held that doing so is little different from taking fingerprints, and therefore does not intrude on a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights." Ned Resnikoff + Video at MSNBC .
Trayvon Martin
Here's how Zimmerman's case is shaping up: badly. "Well, this isn’t something you want to have to admit to less than three weeks before your client goes on trial for murder: Attorneys for George Zimmerman apologized Sunday for mischaracterizing evidence they said boosted their theory that Trayvon Martin was the aggressor in his fatal meeting with their client last year." Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.
War on Drugs
Surprise, surprise - marijuana arrests aren't black and white, but mostly black. "Black Americans were nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession in 2010, even though the two groups used the drug at similar rates, according to new federal data. This disparity had grown steadily from a decade before, and in some states, including Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, blacks were around eight times as likely to be arrested." Ian Urbina in the New York Times.
International
Global
That new avian flu from China - is rapidly becoming drug resistant. Bad news. "According to a new study published in the medical journal Lancet, the H7N9 strain of bird flu circulating in China appears to have rapidly developed resistance to antiviral drug treatment. This has caused concern among the medical community. The BBC has reported that the H7N9 strain has been confirmed in 131 people and has caused 36 deaths since it was first detected. As the Lancet article details, three out of fourteen patients treated with antiviral drugs ... which had helped control infection in other flu patients, became resistant to the treatment and failed to respond." Tim Sandle at the Digital Journal.
US fails to sign the the UN Arms Trade Treaty. "The U.S. didn’t join the U.K., France, and other major Western allies ... to sign the first international treaty regulating the $85 billion-a-year global arms trade. The absence of the world’s top arms dealer ... casts a shadow over a decades-long push to stop illegal cross-border shipments of conventional weapons ... While supporters say the treaty wouldn’t affect U.S. domestic sales or impinge on the constitutional right to bear arms, it would be a political minefield at home. The accord wouldn’t muster enough votes for approval by the U.S. Senate, and the National Rifle Association ... has lobbied against it." Flavia Krause-Jackson at Bloomberg Businessweek.
The death consensus, or lack thereof. "Improvements in technology mean the line between life and death is less clear ... The World Health Organisation has begun work to develop a global consensus. In the majority of cases in hospitals, people are pronounced dead only after doctors have examined their heart, lungs and responsiveness, determining there are no longer any heart and breath sounds and no obvious reaction to the outside world. But ... more than 30 reports in medical literature, describing people who had been determined dead but later found to be alive, had driven scientists to question whether the diagnosis of death can be improved." Smitha Mundasad at BBC.
Africa
Political power struggles continue in Egypt. "Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that the laws that governed the election of the country’s only operating house of Parliament as well as the body that drafted the country’s postrevolutionary Constitution were invalid. While the ruling is unlikely to have any immediate practical effects, it further erodes the legal standing of President Mohamed Morsi and the legislature, which is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood ... The ruling is also a new volley in the battle between Egypt’s government and the country’s judges, most of whom were appointed under former President Hosni Mubarak and distrust Mr. Morsi and his allies." Ben Hubbard in the New York Times.
Sounds like a great guy. "The Central African Republic has issued an international arrest warrant for former president Francois Bozize on charges of crimes against humanity ... Some of the charges fell under the scope of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and included 'crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide'. Bozize - who fled the country after rebels seized power in a coup in March - also stands accused of 22 murders and 119 'summary executions', the prosecutor said. Bozize is also accused of a string of arrests, abductions and arbitrary detentions as well as the destruction of nearly 4,000 homes." Al Jazeera.
So much headdesk. "Islamist rebels are opposing a campaign in Somalia to administer a polio vaccine, alleging that it contains the virus that causes AIDS or could make children sterile, a battle of words that is frustrating health workers ... Health workers are gaining access to more children to give the life-saving polio vaccine. But some parents are refusing the inoculation, apparently heeding the advice of the Islamist militants who warn that the vaccination exercise is part of a foreign conspiracy to kill or weaken Somali children." Associated Press.
And even more protests in even more countries. "Thousands of Ethiopian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Sunday demanding the immediate release of jailed journalists and activists in a rare show of public opposition to the ruling party which maintains strict control over the East African nation ... The peaceful rally was the first major demonstration since 2005 post-election unrest when security forces killed hundreds of protesters." Kirubel Tadesse at the Associated Press.
And even more protests in even more countries. "Thousands of Ethiopian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Sunday demanding the immediate release of jailed journalists and activists in a rare show of public opposition to the ruling party which maintains strict control over the East African nation ... The peaceful rally was the first major demonstration since 2005 post-election unrest when security forces killed hundreds of protesters." Kirubel Tadesse at the Associated Press.
Europe
Law change kills Germany's longest word. "A tweak to state laws in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to conform with current EU regulations has caused an unexpected casualty: the longest word in the German language. The Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz is no more. The 'law delegating beef label monitoring' was ... removed from the books last week because European Union regulations have changed. German still has words like the very robust Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe to fall back on — meaning 'widow of a Danube steamboat company captain.'" The Associated Press.
The Pacific
The complicated relationship between the U.S. and New Zealand. "The U.S.-New Zealand military relationship is actually more complicated than you might think. It all dates back to 1985, when New Zealand, citing its strict nuclear-free policy, denied port access to a U.S. destroyer because Washington would not confirm or deny whether the ship was nuclear-powered. In retaliation, New Zealand's warships have been barred from U.S. ports for the last 28 years. This issue reared its head in the summer of 2012 when two New Zealand ships were barred from entering Pearl Harbor during the 22-nation RIMPAC excercises." Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy.
Polisci
The legitimacy fallacy. "Legitimacy may have some value as a summary concept in casual discussions of politics, but ... it just doesn’t work as an element of explanatory or even normative political theory. As Xavier puts it, explanations of political stability that appeal to legitimacy 'are strictly speaking tautological: they do not so much explain stability as restate the problem of stability in different terms.'" Jay Ulfelder at DartThrowingChimp.
Miscellaneous
In defense of lines - aka: Why 'skip the line' passes are evil. "Skip-the-line passes ... are, very simply, profit-maximizing mechanisms that allow people with more money to avoid annoyances that less-wealthy individuals must stomach. They result in the opposite of what lines usually provide us: the certainty that people are ordered based on arrival time rather than disposable income. Even worse than returning us to some pre-line state of nature wherein the strong and young can push past the weak and the old, these line-cutting options enable those with more money to jump ahead of everyone." Matthew Malady in the New York Times.
As much as I usually dislike Fox News, Megyn Kelly is pretty awesome when she schools Erick Erickson on female breadwinners and women in the workplace. Video.
As much as I usually dislike Fox News, Megyn Kelly is pretty awesome when she schools Erick Erickson on female breadwinners and women in the workplace. Video.
IHOP America and Waffle House America. "We calculated the density of all 1,543 IHOP locations (as of this February) and 1,661 Waffle House locations (as of last December) across the United States ... showing who in America is eating cheap waffles for breakfast, and who's eating cheap pancakes. There is a pretty ridiculous North-South split, although Maryland, northern Virginia, and southern Florida (which is pretty much the North anyways) fall into pancake territory, while Waffle House has made inroads into Ohio and Indiana." Reuben Fischer-Baum at Deadspin.
Most popular baby names, by state. "First, for boys, there’s a lot more regional variation in name choice than there is for girls. Second, for girls, there seems to be a fight to the death going on between Emma and Sophia. Third, for both boys and girls Florida seems to be an outlier." Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.
Florida's animals are crazy. "When Scooter the llama busted out of his penned-in yard in Tallahassee, it took three county sheriff's deputies and a taser gun to get him back in again. The 6-foot-tall, 7-year-old llama outran the authorities in Tallahassee for a while, even leaping over a 4-foot fence to avoid capture ... Outside of Tampa, meanwhile, authorities chased an errant kangaroo for 10 hours before finally getting close enough Sunday to stop him with tranquilizer darts ... Authorities also heard from concerned residents. One reported a camel on the loose; another claimed to have spied an alpaca trotting by." Associated Press.
And bike sharing is 'totalitarian.' "In a bizarre video posted to the Wall Street Journal‘s website ... editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz railed against New York City’s plan to create a public for-pay biking infrastructure, ominously warning that 'the bike lobby is an all powerful enterprise.' After the host of the video segment asked Rabinowitz why New York might want to make bikes more accessible to its citizens, Rabinowitz snaps: “Do not ask me to enter the mind of the totalitarians running this government of the city.' She goes on to suggest that the nefarious program is 'what happens when you are run by an autocratic mayor or government before which you are helpless'." Zack Beauchamp at Think Progress.
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