Wednesday: 8/7/13

Elections

2014

The Obamacare shutdown fight is also a fight for the GOP's electoral future.  "Long-serving Republicans aren't engaged in an increasingly public smackdown of their tea party colleagues because they disagree with them -- it's more that they don't want a few hotheads to blow their party's best chance in years to retake control of the ... Senate. Several tea party ... senators have laid down a gauntlet ... saying the GOP should refuse to pass a bill to fund the government ... unless all funding for the implementation of the health care reform law is cut ... Republican leaders said that ... following the path of Cruz, Lee and Rubio could produce a ... derailment -- of the GOP's electoral chances in 2014."  Michael McAuliff at the Huffington Post.

The top ten lawmakers who could lose a primary next year.  Shane Goldmacher at the National Journal.

The high profile 2014 races with challengers trying to primary incumbent Senators.  Stuart Rothenberg at the Rothenberg Political Report.

2014 - Colorado

Buck is back.  "Republican Ken Buck, who in 2010 lost narrowly to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), will seek to challenge Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) in 2014 ... Buck lost to Bennet by less than 2 percent in 2010 — a strong year for Republicans nationally. But, as with some other GOP candidates that year and in 2012, Buck committed some gaffes that appeared to cost him — including comparing homosexuality to alcoholism and making a remark about high heels while running in the GOP primary against former lieutenant governor Jane Norton."  Aaron Blake at the Washington Post.

2014 - Texas

Wendy Davis, governor?  Why she should and shouldn't run.  Sean Sullivan at the Fix.

2016

It's a mistake to think that immigration reform killed Rubio's presidential hopes.  "Even if Republican primary voters hate Rubio’s position on immigration, don’t expect that to sink his presidential campaign. Just as Romney’s health care record didn’t sink his nomination. Besides ... there’s good reason to believe Republican rank-and-file voters have a more nuanced view of immigration reform anyway. And remember that important organized groups within the GOP are split on this issue, and are not monolithically against a bill."  Jonathan Bernstein at the Plum Line.

Politics

California

If you thought the Filner saga couldn't get worse, you were wrong.  "More women have come forward with sexual harassment allegations against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D), and have revealed that he may have specifically targeted victims of military sexual assault. At least eight of the women who have come forward with allegations are military veterans, and most of them were victims of sexual assault while serving."  Marina Fang at Think Progress.

Eight school districts receive a special NCLB waiver.  "Eight large urban school districts in California will open the school year with new flexibility to reduce the emphasis on standardized tests and set their own standards for student success, under an unprecedented waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act that the U.S. Department of Education granted on Tuesday. The districts, which include Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, will also have more freedom to decide how to spend about $150 million in federal funds meant to help low-income and low-performing students."  Stephanie Simon and Nirvi Shah at Politico.

CIA

Congress

The Economy

The plight of the middle class. "President Obama is working hard to refocus attention on the middle class, and rightly so. While a decent society will provide opportunity and, when necessary, direct assistance to the poor, the long-term health of our economy and our democracy depends on a prosperous, self-confident middle class ... We can argue about how squeezed the middle class was in the decades between the end of the postwar expansion and the onset of the Great Recession. But two things are clear: The coping mechanisms the middle class employed in those decades (fewer children, more hours worked, more borrowing against home equity) are played out, and it will take middle-class households years to recover from the recession-induced blow to their income and wealth." William Galston at the Wall Street Journal.

How airlines explain the economy.  "Airline seating may be the best concrete expression of what’s happened to the economy in recent decades. Airlines are sparing no expense these days to enlarge, upgrade and increase the price of their first-class and business-class seating. As the space and dollars devoted to the front of the planes increase, something else has to be diminished, and ... it’s the experience of flying coach. The joys of air travel ... have been redistributed upward and are now reserved for the well-heeled few ... The upgrading of business and the downgrading of coach present a fairly faithful mirror of what’s happening in the larger economy: the disappearance of the middle class."  Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post. 

Everything you need to know about Obama's housing plan.  Lydia DePillis at Wonkblog.

US to sue Bank of America.  "Traders at Bank of America willfully misled investors about the quality of the residential mortgages tucked into the securities the bank sold at the start of the financial crisis, according to separate lawsuits filed Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges are the latest reckoning for the nation’s second-largest bank ... Now Bank of America faces civil charges for allegedly hiding the risks associated with $850 million worth of securities backed by home loans."  Danielle Douglas at the Washington Post.

Energy and the Environment

The EPA moves to adjust ethanol guidelines.  "When it comes to ethanol, the United States appears to have reached its limit ... Back in 2007, Congress passed a law that would essentially require the nation to use more and more ethanol and other biofuels each year. But for reasons of chemistry and economics, those targets are becoming increasingly difficult to fulfill. That helps explain why, on Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency took the rather unusual step of announcing that it would look into ways to adjust those targets in the years ahead."  Brad Plumer at Wonkblog.

Fiscal Fights

The GOP's latest fight pits the insanely obstructionist against the suicidal.  "The ... Republican conflict du jour is whether Congress ought to shut down the government unless President Obama agrees to end Obamacare ... Conservative organizations are mobilizing behind ... Rubio ... Cruz ... Lee, and other shut-it-down conservatives. Establishment Republicans are flaying them as suicidal. But ... the premises left intact are still highly crazy. The position of the Establishment Republicans — the non-suicidal ones ... is that a government shutdown may fail, but all other measures to attack Obamacare are fully justified."  Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.

And their base is turning on the insanely obstructionist.  "Republicans almost certainly realized that their last chance to repeal 'Obamacare' was the 2012 presidential election, which they lost badly. But they kept fanning the flames anyway ... Therein lies the problem: conservative activists thought the party was serious, and saw neither the winks nor the nods. The result ... isn't pretty. The GOP base seems to be waking up and saying, 'What do you mean you're not willing to shut down the government over Obamacare funding? If Rubio, Cruz, and Lee have a plan, why are you betraying us by rejecting their idea?'"  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

Foreign Policy

The call that sparked the embassy closures.  "The crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of several of the group’s affiliates ... The discussion ... happened in a conference call that included the leaders or representatives of the top leadership of al Qaeda and its affiliates calling in from different locations, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence. All told, said one U.S. intelligence official, more than 20 al Qaeda operatives were on the call."  Eli Lake and Josh Rogin at the Daily Beast.

Benghazi charges filed.  "The Justice Department has filed sealed criminal charges against a number of suspects in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, according to people familiar with the matter."  Devlin Barrett at the Wall Street Journal.

Reactions to Obama's decision to cancel the summit with Putin.  Joshua Tucker at the Monkey Cage.

Fort Hood

Well, this is getting interesting.  "On the first day of his military trial on Tuesday, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told jurors that he was the gunman responsible for a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base ... At the start of the second day of the trial ... Major Hasan’s former lead Army defense lawyer, who sits by his side in the courtroom as his standby counsel, told the judge that Major Hasan’s goal was to receive a death sentence, and that helping him achieve that goal violated his ethical obligations."  Manny Fernandez at the New York Times.

GOP

The party of anti-governance.  "The House passed the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act on a largely party-line vote ... [REINS] would require that every 'economically significant' federal regulation ... be affirmatively approved by Congress ... No rule would go into effect until it has been voted through by both houses of Congress and signed by the president ... It would subject fifty to a hundred regulations a year to the partisanship ... and gridlock of Congress ... Worse, legal observers say the bill does not clearly prohibit a filibuster in the Senate, raising the possibility that a determined minority of forty senators could effectively shut down federal rule making."  David Roberts at Grist.

Guns

NRA vs. science.  "There is a consensus among scientists that lead-based bullets poisons millions of animals per year and have the potential to kill American children — yet the ... (NRA) is launching a major effort, reminiscent of the campaign against science waged by the tobacco and oil lobbies, to deny the scientific facts ... The NRA announced a public campaign against scientists ... who supported banning bullets made of the toxic element ... in reaction to California legislation that would prohibit the ammunition throughout the state. The targeted groups, in the NRA’s mind, are ... 'a conspiracy theory involving crooked scientists, phony research, and a shadowy network…conspiring to ban hunting.'"  Zack Beauchamp at Think Progress.

Health

Anti-ACA mania vs. GOP-friendly groups that really want the law to be fixed.  "There are plenty of elements of the Affordable Care Act that Democratic officials would love to tweak to make the law more effective, but it's not an option -- congressional Republicans have refused to consider any and all changes ... But ... 'For the first time, a constituency group to whom the GOP normally pays close attention -- religious institutions -- is asking for a legislative 'fix' of the Affordable Care Act to make it work as intended...' It's left Republicans with a choice: help churches or try to further undermine the health care system. Sahil Kapur reported yesterday that GOP officials appear to prefer Door #2."  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

Scandals

Goodbye Scandalmania ... kinda.  "The 'White House rocked by scandals' narrative clearly didn't work out well for President Obama's critics. The Benghazi conspiracy theories proved baseless; the IRS story quickly evaporated ... and the AP subpoenas and NSA surveillance programs turned out to be policy disputes -- on which many Republicans agreed with the administration's position. As Jon Chait recently put it, 'The entire scandal narrative was an illusion.' But a funny thing happened after Scandal Mania 2013 ended: the right decided to pretend the narrative remained intact."  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.

SCOTUSwatch

NRA wants the Supreme Court to lift the ban on selling handguns to teens.  What a great idea...  "The National Rifle Association is asking the Supreme Court to strike down decades-old regulations prohibiting the sales of handguns to those under the age of 21 ... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the current regulations are consistent with a long-held view that young adults between the ages of 18 and 20 'tend to be relatively immature and that denying them easy access to handguns would deter violent crime.' 'Categorically restricting the presumptive Second Amendment rights of 18-to-20-year-olds does not violate the central concern of the Second Amendment,' the court found."  Ben Goad at the Hill.

Transportation

Want to improve mass transit? Focus on busing.  "When it comes to moving large numbers of people efficiently through urban areas, it’s hard to beat good old-fashioned heavy rail subways and metro lines. But these projects come at a steep price, especially in the United States, and don’t make sense in many areas. Yet, politicians looking for cheaper options too often fall for the superficial idea that anything that runs on train tracks must be a good idea. The smarter strategy in many cases is to look instead at the numerically dominant form of mass transit—the humble bus—and ask what can be done to make it less humble."  Matthew Yglesias at Slate.

International

Africa

Things in Tunisia are getting heating up.  "A troubled economy, rising Islamist extremism, political polarization and the assassination of two opposition leaders and killing of eight soldiers in an ambush by militants have tarnished the Ennahda Islamist-led government and fueled opposition calls for its dissolution. The opposition has accused Ennahda, led by Rached Ghannouchi, of being overly tolerant of a rising violence carried out by radical Islamists, and of supporting efforts to instill an Islamic identity in what has long been known as one of the most secular countries in the Arab world."  Mohamed Elshinnawi at Voice of America.

Given the post-election mess, Mugabe could use some more lobbyists on his side.  "Two men were charged in a Chicago court on Tuesday for violating U.S. laws forbidding lobbying for Zimbabwe ... Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner stand accused of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in taking money from the Zimbabwean government to 'provide consulting, public relations, and lobbying services' without informing the Treasury Department ... The two allegedly attempted to sway the U.S. to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and other officials to the tune of $3.4 million in exchange for their efforts."  Hayes Brown at Think Progress.

Asia

North Korea's nuclear program continues to expand.  "North Korea appears to have doubled the size of the area used to enrich uranium at its Yongbyon reactor complex in recent months, a proliferation monitoring group reported Wednesday, raising new concerns that the country could increase production of weapons-grade fuel — even as it says it wants to relax tensions with South Korea and the United States."  Rick Gladstone and Gerry Mullany at the New York Times.

What we know, or think we know, about the new Chinese aircraft carrier.  Peter Singer and Jeffrey Lin at Defense One.

India has a new addition to its naval forces, as well.  "The first aircraft carrier to be made within India, the INS Vikrant, will be launched on August 12 at the Kochi shipyard. With its debut, India will become just the fifth country in the world to build aircraft carriers after US, Russia, Britain and France ... Extensive sea trials will begin in 2016 and the carrier is expected to be delivered to the navy in 2018."  NDTV.

I don't even...  "A Lion Air jet carrying 117 people hit a cow while landing and skidded off a runway in eastern Indonesia, an official said Wednesday. No injuries were reported, but the incident forced the cancellation of flights, stranding hundreds of passengers traveling for the Eid holiday."  Associated Press.

Middle East

Saudi Arabia offers Russia a deal to back off on support for Assad.  "Saudi Arabia has offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday. The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria's devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, they said."  Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Amena Bakr at Reuters.

North America

Landmark Mexican energy reform.  "President Enrique Peña Nieto is planning to unveil landmark energy-reform legislation as early as Wednesday, a package of measures aimed at inviting private investment into Mexico’s giant state oil monopoly that is already provoking emotional debate. The chief element of the legislation would allow foreign energy companies to partner with Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, in oil and gas exploration and production, ending virtually absolute state control of the process after 75 years."  Tracy Wilkinson at the LA Times.

Science

The wasp that turns spiders into mindless drones.  "The tropical wasp species Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga is a parasite, and it takes advantage of an unlikely host. The web of the orb weaver spider Plesiometa argyra is normally a place where bugs meet their untimely death and become spider snacks. Using an arsenal of toxins and mind-altering chemicals, though, H. argyraphaga is able to turn the spider into a slave and a meal, and its web into a safe haven."  Matt Soniak at Mental Floss.

Miscellaneous

The chart guide to pasta.  Slate.