Tag Archives: New York Times

May 22, 2013 · 11:18 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 22, 2013

“I don’t have this burning, overriding desire to go out and run for office,” said Anthony Weiner in April.

The Week

A Senate committee approves immigration reform, Anthony Weiner launches his political comeback bid, and more

1. OKLAHOMA BEGINS CLEARING TWISTER DEBRIS

Rescue teams are winding down their search for survivors of the tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., and authorities are expected to start the mammoth task of clearing away debris. The mayor of Moore, Glenn Lewis, said he expected the death toll to remain at 24 people, including nine children. Officials had originally put the number of deaths at 51, but the state medical examiner’s office said that in the chaos after the storm some victims appear to have been counted twice. [NBC News, CNN]
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2. SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill Tuesday. The legislation would provide a path to citizenship for up to 11 million people who entered the U.S. illegally. It would also include tougher border control. President Obama, who has made immigration reform a second-term priority, said the bill was “largely consistent” with his own proposals. The landmark legislation goes to the full Senate next month. [Washington Post]
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3. ANTHONY WEINER ANNOUNCES HE’S RUNNING FOR NYC MAYOR
Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner on Wednesday launched a bid to become mayor of New York City. In a campaign video, he said he would fight to create jobs and reduce regulation on small businesses. He alluded to the sexting scandal that derailed his career two years ago, saying, “Look, I made some big mistakes… but I’ve also learned some tough lessons.” Polls show him ahead of all but one rival in the Democratic primaries, and he has a $5 million war chest. [New York Times]
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4. NORTH KOREA SENDS SPECIAL ENVOY TO CHINA
North Korea sent a “special envoy” of leader Kim Jong Un to China on Wednesday in an apparent bid to mend frayed relations between the communist allies. Ties between Pyongyang and Beijing were hurt by North Korea’s February nuclear test, then worsened again when China agreed to United Nations sanctions. The visit is considered important for North Korea, as the diplomatic crisis has made Pyongyang more reliant than ever on China for exports of food and fuel. [Reuters]
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5. GOVERNMENT SEIZED FOX NEWS PHONE RECORDS, TOO
Court documents indicate that the Justice Department seized records on several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation, according to The New Yorker. The document was filed in the case against Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of illegally leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Prosecutors obtained records on two White House phone lines and five others associated with Fox, including what appears to be Rosen’s personal cellphone. [New Yorker]
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6. TSARNAEV ACQUAINTANCE KILLED DURING QUESTIONING
An FBI agent shot and killed a man believed to have had ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Little information was available early Wednesday, but the man, Ibrahim Todashev, reportedly was being questioned in his Orlando apartment when an altercation erupted. Investigators believe Todashev had spoken to Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shoot-out three days after the deadly April bombing, and had recently visited him in Boston. [CBS]
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7. ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE FRENCH HISTORIAN KILLS HIMSELF IN NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL
A far-right French historian committed suicide on the altar of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday in an apparent protest of gay marriage. Shortly after writing a blog post calling for radical action to oppose same-sex marriage in France, Dominique Venner, 78, walked into the famed cathedral, placed a letter on the altar, put the barrel of a handgun into his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Hundreds of visitors were immediately evacuated. Police did not immediately disclose what was in the letter. [Guardian]
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8. JUDGES RULE ARIZONA ABORTION LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A panel of Ninth Circuit appeals judges struck down Arizona’s strict abortion law on Tuesday. The law, enacted in April 2012, made abortions illegal 20 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period, even if the fetus had no chance of surviving. The judges said the Arizona law was unconstitutional because Supreme Court rulings guarantee women the right to end pregnancies until a fetus is deemed viable outside the womb, which typically occurs around 24 weeks. [New York Times]
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9. U.S. IDENTIFIES BENGHAZI SUSPECTS
The U.S. has identified five suspects in the attack on diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last year. The men remain at large, however. Investigators have enough evidence to justify seizing them as suspected terrorists, but not enough to try them in civilian courts, as the Obama administration prefers to do, so the FBI will continue gathering proof. [Associated Press]
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10. GARCETTI WINS ELECTION TO BECOME L.A. MAYOR
City Councilman Eric Garcetti has won Los Angeles’ mayoral race. Rival candidate Wendy Greuel called Garcetti early Wednesday to concede, ending a two-year, $33 million battle to determine who would succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the massive city’s political leader. Garcetti will be L.A.’s first Jewish mayor, and, at 42, its youngest in a century. He takes office in July. [Los Angeles Times]

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May 21, 2013 · 8:32 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 21, 2013

Apple really doesn't like paying taxes.

Apple really doesn’t like paying taxes.

The Week

1. 91 FEARED DEAD AFTER OKLAHOMA TORNADO
A massive tornado killed at least 51 people, including 20 children, as it blasted through Moore, Okla., on Monday. President Obama declared the area a major disaster, qualifying it for federal aid, as rescuers searched through the night for survivors and bodies. A state official said early Tuesday that as many as 40 more people might have died as the twister, with 200 mph winds, cut a two-mile-wide path through the Oklahoma City suburb, wiping out entire neighborhoods and two schools. [USA Today]
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2. SYRIAN REBELS FIRE ROCKETS AT HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON
Israeli and Syrian troops exchanged fire over their shared border on Tuesday. The skirmish came after Syrian rebels fired rockets at Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday. Hezbollah fighters over the weekend reportedly helped Syrian government forces retake the strategically important border town of Qusair. President Obama called Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to stress his concern about Hezbollah’s involvement, which diplomats say might help turn the civil war into a regional conflict. [Associated Press, CNN]
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3. SENATE PANEL SAYS APPLE SAVED BILLIONS WITH TAX SHELTERS
A Senate investigation unveiled Monday accused Apple of using a “complex web” of offshore shell subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes on $74 billion in profits earned overseas between 2009 and 2012. Such schemes are common, but Senate staffers said Apple’s tax strategy was unprecedented in its use of multiple affiliates with no employees or offices. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly plans to forcefully defend the tech giant in testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. [Washington Post]
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4. SECTARIAN VIOLENCE SURGES IN IRAQ
A string of car bombings and suicide attacks killed more than 70 Shiite Muslims across Iraq on Monday. It was the worst single day of sectarian violence since U.S. forces withdrew from the country in 2011. The attacks pushed the death toll from clashes between Shiites, who now rule Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims to 200 over just the last week, raising fears that the country could be spiraling back into all-out civil war. [Reuters]
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5. GUATEMALAN COURT THROWS OUT RIOS MONTT’S CONVICTION
Guatemala’s highest court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, 86, who had been sentenced to 80 years for massacres of members of the Maya-Ixil ethnic group in 1982 and 1983. The ruling marked a setback for human-rights activists, who had hailed the May 10 conviction as a blow against impunity. Rios Montt will remain under house arrest, though, and prosecutors will try to re-do the disputed final weeks of the trial. [New York Times]
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6. OBAMA URGES MYANMAR LEADER TO CONTINUE REFORMS
President Obama welcomed President Thein Sein of Myanmar to the White House on Monday in the first visit by a leader from the once-pariah Asian state, also known as Burma, in 47 years. Obama urged Thein Sein to continue allowing democratic reforms. Obama also pointedly said that violent repression against minority Muslims “needs to stop.” Myanmar’s leader responded by saying that the country’s democracy is just two years old, and needs more time to take hold. [New York Times]
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7. MUSHARRAF GETS BAIL IN BHUTTO CASE
Former Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf was granted bail on Monday in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. Musharraf has been accused of failing to provide proper security for the former prime minister after she returned from self-imposed exile in 2007. Musharraf will remain under house arrest, as he faces several other charges, but legal experts said the decision to grant him bail suggested that the military might be exerting pressure to get him out of his legal troubles. [BBC News]
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8. NORTH KOREANS RELEASE CHINESE FISHING BOAT
Gunmen in North Korean military uniforms released a Chinese fishing boat on Tuesday after holding the vessel’s crew for two weeks. The hijacking of the boat, which owner Yu Xuejun said was in Chinese waters, was the latest in a series of incidents that frayed relations between Pyongyang and its increasingly frustrated allies in Beijing, although foreign-policy experts said ransom-seeking rogue border guards — not the North Korean regime — were probably responsible. [Associated Press]
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9. VOLCANO DISRUPTS FLIGHTS IN ALASKA
An eruption from one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes has forced the cancellation of regional flights, local officials said Monday. Pavlof Volcano has been sending ash as high as 22,000 feet, and lava flowing from its 8,261-foot peak is sending up clouds of steam as it hits snow on the mountain’s sides. Commercial airliners, which fly higher than the small planes serving remote fishing towns and villages in the area, still haven’t been affected. [Reuters]
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10. DOORS KEYBOARDIST RAY MANZAREK DIES
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist for the Doors, died Monday in Germany after a battle with bile-duct cancer. He was 74. Manzarek and Jim Morrison met at UCLA in 1965, and put together the band. Manzarek’s electric organ contributed to the Doors’ music its unmistakable sound. By the time Morrison died in 1971, the Doors had released six Top 10 albums and 15 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Light My Fire,” “Hello, I Love You,” “Touch Me,” and “Riders on the Storm.” [Los Angeles Times]

 

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May 19, 2013 · 7:53 AM

Bill Maher, ‘The Obama administration isn’t dirty. The air is dirty.’ (Warning: Language is “dicy”…Hey, it’s Bill Maher!!!)

Truly one of Bill Maher’s best “New Rules” segments…

PoliticusUSA

Bill Maher summed up the difference between the bogus Obama scandals that are being pushed and the real scandal of conservative climate change denial, ‘The Obama administration isn’t dirty. The air is dirty.’

Here’s the video:

Maher said,

Please don’t tell me that freedom died because Susan Rice broke the sacred bond between citizens and talk shows. In a poll this week, four in ten Republicans said Benghazi is the worst scandal in history. Second worst, Kanye West snatching the mic from Taylor Swift.

If you think Benghazi is worse than slavery, the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment, Tuskegee, purposefully injecting Guatemalan mental patients with syphilis, WMDs, and the fact that banks today are still foreclosing on mortgages that they don’t own, then your hard on for Obama has lasted for more four hours, and you need to call a doctor.

And while the press has been occupied with scandal, the biggest scandal, and the most important story of the century so far happened last week. Scientists reported that the level of carbon dixoide in the atmosphere has passed the long feared milestone of 400 parts per million, and unless you’re a chimney sweep, that’s bad news. Because humans have never lived through it.

You think Susan Rice gave bogus talking points about Benghazi? What about the bulls**t talking points the entire Republican Party has been spewing on climate change since the 90s? I wanna see the emails to find who came up with the talking points that global warming is just a theory, and that it needs more study, and that climate change is hoax.

The Obama administration isn’t dirty. The air is.

The fact that Republicans are more interested in chasing imaginary Obama scandals than doing something about climate change isn’t a coincidence. The right’s talking points on climate change came directly from the fossil fuels industry. In 1991, The New York Times reported, “Coal-burning utility companies and coal producers, disturbed by public acceptance of the idea that burning fossil fuels will change the climate, are deciding whether to go national this fall with an ad campaign they tried in three markets earlier this year…The goal of the campaign, according to one planning document, is to “reposition global warming as theory” and not fact.”

The debate over climate change isn’t really about science. For Republicans, and the special interests who fund them, the climate change issue is all about money, and maintaining our dependence on fossil fuels. From 2002-2010, conservative billionaires spent $120 million to fund a network of more than 100 climate change denial organizations. The purpose of the effort is to deny the human role in climate change, and to oppose environmental regulations.

The air is dirty because Republicans are taking dirty (dark) money. Until people connect the dots, and demand that special interest money be removed from our politics, our planet will continue to die. The Obama scandals are a smokescreen to cover up the fact that Republicans would rather destroy the planet to enrich the few.

The air is definitely dirty, and Republican greed is the reason why.

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May 14, 2013 · 8:42 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 14, 2013

Angelina Jolie at a conference in London in April.

The Week

1. LAWMAKERS SLAM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR SPYING ON AP
Lawmakers from both parties sharply criticized the Obama administration late Monday after The Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had spied on some of its reporters. The AP said officials obtained two months of telephone records — on more than 20 cell, office, and home lines — in an apparent attempt to crack down on internal leaks. The AP called the move a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” House Speaker John Boehner said Justice “better have a damned good explanation.” [Fox News, NPR]
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2. MINNESOTA BECOMES 12TH STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
Minnesota’s Democrat-controlled state Senate has approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. The state House has already signed off, and Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law on Tuesday, making the state the 12th in the nation to legalize gay marriage. The measure’s success marked a stark reversal over two years ago, when the legislature was controlled by Republicans who tried to write the state’s ban on same-sex marriage into its constitution. [Reuters]
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3. GOSNELL FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER
A jury found Dr. Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for killing three babies born alive after botched abortions. He was also convicted of manslaughter for the death of a patient from a drug overdose. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty as the case’s sentencing phase begins Tuesday. Anti-abortion activists have used the trial as a rallying cry; abortion-rights supporters called it a reminder of why women need access to safe, sanitary care. [New York Times]
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4. OBAMA COUNTERS CRITICS OVER BENGHAZI, JOINS THEM OVER THE IRS
President Obama, facing mounting Republican criticism on several fronts, on Monday dismissed GOP questions of his administration’s handling of September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya, as a partisan “sideshow.” Obama, however, joined angry politicians on the right and left in slamming the Internal Revenue Service for singling out conservative groups for special scrutiny. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Obama was displaying “faux outrage” over the IRS scandal, which he said really proved Obama is “drunk on power.” [New York Times, Real Clear Politics]
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5. BOATS CAPSIZE FLEEING STORM IN MYANMAR
Several boats carrying as many as 150 people reportedly capsized near the western coast of Myanmar, a United Nations agency said Tuesday. The boats were ferrying members of the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority away from low-lying areas ahead of the potential arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, a storm that could hit parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh later this week. The boats were battered by high seas Monday night. Rescuers have recovered some bodies, but some passengers reached land. [CNN]
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6. VERMONT DECRIMINALIZES POSSESSION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF POT
Vermont lawmakers on Monday gave their final approval to a bill that decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Under current state law, a first time conviction for misdemeanor pot possession carries a sentence of up to six months in jail. The new legislation, which Gov. Pete Shumlin plans to sign, replaces the criminal penalties with a $300 fine. Shumlin said now the state’s police can “focus their limited resources” on more addictive drugs. [Times Argus]
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7. TWO MEN ARRESTED IN MURDER OF MALCOLM X’S GRANDSON IN MEXICO
Mexican police on Monday arrested two men for last week’s beating death of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X. The suspects, David Hernández Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesús, were waiters at a Mexico City bar where Shabazz, 28, was killed in an apparent dispute over an excessive ($1,200) bill. Shabazz, who lived an erratic life after setting a fire that killed his grandmother when he was 12, was in Mexico to support a labor activist recently deported from the U.S. [New York Times]
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8. JOYCE BROTHERS DIES
Pioneering TV psychologist Joyce Brothers died Monday in New York City. She was 85. On her 1950s TV show, Brothers addressed personal topics that had rarely, if ever, been discussed on television. She published 15 books and wrote a syndicated column that kept her in the public eye for decades. She became a fixture in popular culture with cameo appearances on Happy Days, The Simpsons, and other TV shows, and visited Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show nearly 100 times. [USA Today]
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9. POLICE NAME SUSPECT IN NEW ORLEANS PARADE MASS SHOOTING
New Orleans on Monday identified a 19-year-old man, Akein Scott, as the suspect in a shooting that injured 19 people, including two 10-year-old children, at a neighborhood parade on Sunday. As the city’s residents expressed outrage, tips pointing to Scott poured in after police released photos from a surveillance camera showing a young man firing into a crowd. Three of the wounded remain in critical condition, although all were expected to survive. [Reuters]
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10. JOLIE REVEALS SHE HAD A DOUBLE MASTECTOMY TO PREVENT CANCER
Angelina Jolie, 37, revealed in The New York Times that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy this year after learning she carries a “faulty” gene that sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The Academy Award-winning actress said her mother died of cancer at age 56, and she wanted to be proactive for the sake of her children. “I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,” she said. [New York Times]

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May 6, 2013 · 6:09 PM

How to Weaken a President

I agree with David Firestone’s assessment below.  Among other things, Republicans are trying to destroy Obama’s legacy as he envisioned it…

The Root

In the New York Times, David Firestone argues that by trying to weaken President Barack Obama by blocking his proposals, Republicans are also insulting American voters.

Republicans are clearly looking to do more than just deprive Mr. Obama of victories, however. The ultimate goal is to make him appear powerless and weak, a flailing figure who is unable to affect the midterm elections or give the next Democratic nominee a boost. Taking heat on a gun vote is worth it if it leads to a reporter asking the president whether he still has any “juice” left with Congress, as one did yesterday. And it leads to an even bigger payoff if the president stumbles in his response, forced to assert that rumors of his demise are premature.

The president is representing the vast majority of the American people when he advocates for stronger gun laws, or immigration reform, or a budget that includes tax hikes for the rich and greater spending on national priorities. When Republicans try to make him look bad by resisting all these things, he’s not the only one who’s being insulted.

Read David Firestone‘s entire blog entry at the New York Times.

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April 19, 2013 · 8:57 AM

How the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were hunted down [Updated]

The Week

Thursday night and Friday morning turned the sleepy Boston suburb of Watertown into a war zone. And one suspect is still at large

The hunt that led to the death of one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and, as of Friday morning, the full-bore manhunt for the second suspect in a sleepy Boston suburb, began Thursday night at a 7-Eleven in Cambridge. On Friday morning, police shut down all transportation in the area and urged residents of Watertown and the surrounding suburbs, including Cambridge, to stay home, and businesses to close. Here’s a recap of the incredibly dramatic chain of events Thursday night and Friday: (Latest updates below)

THURSDAY NIGHT:
According to The New York Times, it started this way: “The pursuit began after 10 p.m. Thursday when two men robbed a 7/11 near Central Square in Cambridge. A security camera caught a man identified as one of the suspects, wearing a gray hoodie.”

At about 10:48 p.m. — roughly five hours after the FBI released photos and video of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects — an unidentified MIT police officer was shot multiple times in his car in Cambridge. A short while later, two men carjacked a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge, keeping the driver in the car for half an hour and then releasing him at a gas station.

FRIDAY MORNING:
The police tracked down the SUV in Watertown, about 4 miles away from Cambridge. The suspects reportedly threw grenades or other explosives out of the window and engaged the police in a long, intense gun battle.

Here’s amateur video of the gunfight:

During the gun battle, an MBTA transit police officer was shot, as was one of the suspects. Early Friday, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said the MIT and Watertown events were probably related, and could be tied to the marathon bombings. The FBI early Friday released new photos of the Boston bombing suspects:

The wounded suspect, the “dark cap” on on the right, was taken to Beth Israel hospital. He was pronounced dead at about 1:35 a.m. He had multiple gunshot wounds and trauma consistent with bomb blasts. The second suspect, the “white cap” one, escaped. The Boston police released this photo of the white cap suspect, taken at the 7-Eleven:

At 3:02 a.m., Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed media speculation:

Police, federal agents, and bomb squads swarmed Watertown and shut down a roughly 20-block perimeter to search for “white cap.” At a subsequent press conference, Commissioner Davis urged Watertown residents to stay indoors and not answer their doors or stop their cars for anyone but uniformed police officers. “We believe this is a terrorist, we believe this is a man that’s come here to kill people,” he said.

Continue at 6:55 am update…

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April 15, 2013 · 2:34 PM

What country does the Tea Party represent?

What country does the Tea Party represent?

Salon

House Republicans are no longer swayed by public opinion, imperiling the GOP and grinding government to a halt

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

With an assist from some long-term demographic trends, House Republicans have redistricted, propagandized and policed themselves into another country.

As a result, they have become unmoored from the political incentives that typically drive law-makers’ decision-making process. Public opinion no longer sways them, and that is creating a potentially insurmountable problem for the party establishment’s efforts to broaden the GOP’s appeal beyond angry old white people.

House Republicans may care about the GOP’s national fortunes in the abstract, but too many are impervious to what the public at large wants because of the nature of the districts they represent. At the same time, a steady stream of spin from the conservative media provides insulation from the realities of American politics, and deep-pocketed outside groups punish Republicans for any deviation from right-wing orthodoxy.

This isn’t just a serious problem for establishment Republicans. It’s ground our government to a halt, as Congress is virtually incapable of action, even on issues where there is something approaching a consensus among the public at large — like universal background checks for firearm purchases, for example. They’re supported by 80-90 percent of voters, but face a steep uphill climb in the House.

How did this happen?

The Great Gerrymander of 2010

In 2012, Democratic House candidates got 1.4 million more votes than Republicans, but came away 33 seats short of the majority – only the second time since World War Two that such a reversal has taken place. That was the fruit of a well-funded, multi-year plan by the Republican State Leadership Committee to take over state houses before the 2010 Census, and control the redistricting process that followed.

And they gerrymandered with a vengeance. As Princeton University scholar Sam Wang noted, “although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense… partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties.”

By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: [Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin] plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often.

Surprisingly absent from the guilty list is California, where 62 percent of the two-party vote went to Democrats [which] exactly matched the [proportion of the] newly elected delegation.

Democrats Are “Inefficiently Distributed”

But, as a number of observers pointed out after the mid-terms, even this aggressive effort to redraw districts in their favor wasn’t quite enough to lock in Republicans’ control of the House. This is where the organic trend comes in. Political scientists Jowei Chen of the University of Michigan and Jonathan Rodden of Stamford explain (PDF) that as a result of migration and urbanization, Democrats tend to be “highly clustered in dense central city areas, while Republicans are scattered more evenly through the suburban, exurban, and rural periphery.” This results in what the authors call “unintentional redistricting,” with “a skew in the distribution of partisanship across districts such that with 50 percent of the votes, Democrats can expect fewer than 50 percent of the seats.”

Hyper-Partisan Districts

Those two trends have resulted in a dwindling number of competitive districts. As the New York Times’ numbers-guru Nate Silver pointed out, the number of “landslide districts” – which he defined as those that went for one party by 20 or more percentage points than the electorate as a whole – has doubled since 1992, while the number of swing districts has fallen from 155 to just 64 over the same period.

When you look at the racial composition of districts, the trend becomes even more pronounced. According to the Census Bureau, 111 House republicans represent districts that are at least 80 percent white.

Continue below the chart, here…

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April 11, 2013 · 10:12 AM

Tweet of the Day

Ta-Nehisi Coates referencing Sen. Rand Paul’s lecture and Q&A at Howard University.

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April 5, 2013 · 9:41 AM

10 things you need to know today: April 5, 2013

The Week

1. ROGER EBERT DIES
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died Thursday at age 70, after a long battle with cancer. Ebert was considered the nation’s most influential film critic, after reviewing films in the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years. He passionately celebrated movies he admired, and, with an observant eye and sharp wit, tore down those he found lacking. “No good film is too long,” he once wrote. “No bad movie is short enough.” In 2006, Ebert, fighting cancers of the thyroid and salivary glands, lost part of his lower jaw and the ability to speak, but he continued writing and stayed in the public eye, chronicling his illness and winning new admirers. [The Week (2), Chicago Sun-Times]
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2. OBAMA PLANS TO OFFER COMPROMISE IN HIS BUDGET
President Obama is preparing to unveil an annual budget proposal next week that includes politically risky cuts to Social Security and Medicare, administration officials say. House Republicans have dismissed Obama’s past budgets as spending wish lists, but this time around he’s including the compromise offer on entitlement program cuts that he made to House Speaker John Boehner before their negotiations broke down late last year. Administration officials say Obama is showing that he’s willing to meet Republicans half way to get a long-term budget reduction deal, although his plan also calls for higher taxes on the wealthy that most Republicans still oppose. [New York Times]
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3. NORTH KOREA’S LATEST MILITARY MOVES STOKE ANXIETY IN SOUTH KOREA
South Korean media said Friday that North Korea had stepped up its threatening military posturing by hiding two mobile missiles on its east coast, where they could theoretically fire at Japan or U.S. bases in the Pacific. The increasingly ominous war threats from Pyongyang, coming after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, sent South Korean stocks falling on Friday, as jittery foreign investors sold off holdings. South Korean economic officials held an emergency meeting to come up with a plan in case the conflict destabilizes the country’s markets. [Reuters]
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4. CHINA SLAUGHTERS BIRDS AS FLU DEATHS RISE
Chinese authorities slaughtered more than 20,000 birds at a Shanghai poultry market on Friday in an increasingly aggressive effort to contain an outbreak of a new strain of bird flu. The market, where the H7N9 virus was detected in pigeons, was shut down, and other Shanghai live poultry markets will be closed starting Saturday. The death toll from the virus rose to six, with 14 cases overall, up from 10 a day earlier. The outbreak is sparking concern abroad, but Chinese officials say patients diagnosed early can be cured with the flu drug Tamiflu. [Reuters]
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5. OBAMA COMMENT RENEWS BOYS-CLUB TALK
President Obama faced renewed questions about whether his administration is too influenced by men after he praised California Attorney General Kamala Harris at a fundraiser by saying she’s brilliant, tough, dedicated — and, “by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.” The remarks prompted opposing responses on social media, with some commenters appalled and others dismissing the criticism as undeserved. Shortly before the furor, Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s most influential advisers, said: “When people say it’s a boys club, it’s a little insulting to the women who are actually playing very critical roles.” [Washington Post]
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6. DOCTOR WARNED HOLMES WAS DANGEROUS BEFORE AURORA MASSACRE
A psychiatrist who treated James Holmes warned police that he had confessed homicidal thoughts and was a danger to the public — 38 days before the July attack that left 12 people dead and 58 injured in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. The psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, also told an officer that Holmes, now on trial for the shooting rampage, had stopped seeing her and was sending her threatening text messages and e-mails, according to search-warrant affidavits made public this week. The documents indicate that the police officer deactivated Holmes’ key-card access to secure areas of University of Colorado medical campus, where he had studied. [Denver Post]
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7. MISSING CALIFORNIA HIKERS FOUND
Rescuers found two teenage hikers who had been lost since Sunday in Southern California’s Cleveland National Forest. A search team found Kyndall Jack clinging to a rock outcropping on a nearly vertical slope, severely dehydrated and drifting in an out of consciousness. “She wouldn’t have made it much longer,” said sheriff’s Deputy Jim Moss, a paramedic who was dropped to her by helicopter to airlift her out. “She’s really lucky.” Jack was found hours after her companion, 19-year-old Nicolas Cendoya, was found 500 feet from a gravel road. The pair got separated shortly after calling 911 on Sunday before their cell phone died. [Associated Press]
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8. DEADLY BUILDING COLLAPSE NEAR MUMBAI
At least 41 people were killed in India when a building under construction near Mumbai collapsed on Thursday night. The dead included construction workers as well as women and children — work crews often live with the families in shacks at construction sites. Rescuers were still pulling survivors from the wreckage early Friday. The collapsed structure was being built on protected forest land, highlighting India’s problem with illegal, shoddy construction in fast-growing areas. “Because these buildings come up so quickly,” a local official said, “the quality is always very bad.” [New York Times]
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9. COP, SUSPECT KILLED IN POLICE BUILDING
An Alabama detective and a murder suspect he was interviewing were killed on Thursday inside the Jackson, Miss., police headquarters. Officers outside the room heard gunshots and rushed in. Both men — Det. Eric Smith, a tall, fit veteran homicide detective, and the 23-year-old murder suspect, Jeremy Powell — were dead. Both had been shot several times. Police did not immediately say how they believed the tragedy happened. [ABC News]
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10. FUKUSHIMA NUKE PLANT COOLING SYSTEM FAILS
The cooling system for a storage pool for spent fuel at Japan’s tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant failed on Friday. It was the second such incident in a month at the shuttered plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 tsunami knocked out the primary and backup power systems for all cooling systems, including those for the reactors themselves. The outage didn’t pose any immediate danger — the cooling pools can be turned off for two weeks before temperatures reach dangerous levels. But the incidents stoked fears about the safety of nuclear power that have risen in Japan since the disaster. [CBS News]

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March 14, 2013 · 3:40 PM

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes to replace Ed Schultz

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes

Personally, I’m quite pleased with MSNBC’s programming decision…

Politico

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes has been tapped to replace outgoing host Ed Schultz in the 8 p.m. weeknight slot, according to network sources.

In just a year and a half, Hayes has generated a cult following as host of the weekend program “Up with Chris Hayes,” which takes a progressive policy wonk’s approach to the news. He will now host a show directly ahead of his mentor Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s marquee name, and, at age 34, will be the youngest primetime host in cable news television.

The move, first reported by Brian Stelter of the New York Times, was confirmed by sources for POLITICO. MSNBC is expected to make a formal announcement later today, and would not reply to a request for comment.

Schultz announced on Wednesday night hat he would be ending his weeknight program and moving to a two-hour slot on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Schultz, a talk radio personality, has served as an MSNBC primetime host since 2009, and became best-known as an advocate for unions, labor and the middle class. His new show will air on weekend nights from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. — a relative no-man’s land for cable news programming.

Like former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan, Schultz suggested that the move was his choice and that he wanted “to get out with the people and tell their stories.” Sources at MSNBC told POLITICO that Schultz was more likely pushed out to make way for new — and younger — talent. By tapping Hayes, MSNBC is continuing its push to bring cable news to a younger demographic.

Hayes has long been seen as a primetime host-in-waiting at MSNBC, given his rapid success, though in Nov. 2012 he told POLITICO he’d be “reluctant” to give up the freedom and autonomy that comes with hosting a two-hour weekend show.

Hayes’ replacement on Saturday and Sunday mornings has yet to be named. Sources had long speculated that Ezra Klein might get Schultz’s primetime spot, so it is conceivable that he could take over on weekend mornings.

UPDATE (10:00 a.m.): And now it’s official.

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