P.M. Headlines

(CNN): "Morsi out in Egypt coup"

(Weekly Standard): "Rubio to introduce Senate bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks"

(USA Today): "Oil spike could hurt stocks, economy"

(The Guardian): "Bolivian president's treatment stirs up fury in Latin America"

(New York Times): "U.S. Postal Service logging all mail for law enforcement"

Read More

Delayed but not denied

By Carl

I’m not sure if this is a brilliant tactical move on the part of the President or a tacit admission that getting Obamacare fully enacted will be more difficult than anticipated:

(CBS News) The delay of a key provision in President Obama's health-care law is being called a major setback for the president's signature issue.

The controversial provision that requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide coverage or face fines is being delayed by a year. The rule is now on hold until 2015 - after the 2014 midterm elections.

That last clause is the key: “after the midterm elections.”

This move prevents Republicans in Congress from running against the rollout of the legislation, especially as there will likely be hiccups and false starts along the way at the beginning of implementation.

And it gives the Democratic heir to the Presidency – because let’s face facts, no Republican is going to win in 2016 – a leg up to point to the successes of the Obama legacy, including his signature advance in progressive thinking.

Not surprisingly, Max Baucus, who is to Democratic politics what Vidkun Quisling was to Norwegian sovereignty, has called the entire piece of legislation a “train wreck.”

It probably wouldn’t have been such a train wreck if serious efforts to bring you and the other party-unfaithful into the fold.

Indeed, it’s particularly galling to see this parallel:

With next year's midterm elections looming, that kind of feedback troubled leading Democrats like Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who staked a lot of political capital on the law. He said, "I just see a huge train wreck coming down."

On Tuesday night, Republicans who remain staunchly opposed to the law, which passed without a single GOP vote, said the announcement was vindication. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "Even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse."

Weaker Boener. Senator Baucus. Both use the same blast-fax metaphor.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Read More

Good report card

By Mustang Bobby

This is very good news.

The nation’s 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds are posting better scores in math and reading tests than their counterparts did 40 years ago, and the achievement gap between white students and those of color still persists but is narrowing, according to new federal government data released Thursday.

The scores, collected regularly since the 1970s from federal tests administered to public and private school students age 9, 13, and 17, paint a picture of steady student achievement that contradicts the popular notion that U.S. educational progress has stalled.

“When you break out the data over the long term and ask who is improving, the answer is . . . everyone,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children. “And the good news, given where they started, is that black and Latino children have racked up some of the biggest gains of all.”

Imagine how much better they could do if they had good facilities to work in, if salaries for teachers and support staff were competitive with the private sector to keep them in the jobs, and the Jesus-freaks would stop trying to replace science with mythology.

HT to LGM.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Read More

A.M. Headlines

(Time): "Obama Administration delays health care law employer penalty until 2015"

(Washington Post): "Egypt's Morsi defiant under pressure as deadline looms"

(The Guardian): "Bolivian president's jet rerouted amid suspicions Edward Snowden on board"

(The Hill): "Intelligence chief Clapper apologizes for 'erroneous' statement to Congress"

(Maine Sun Journal): "LePage announces re-election campaign at private fundraiser"

Read More

Photo of the Day: Dilapidated house in Northern Ontario

By Richard K. Barry

Jim Kelley

A friend took this picture a few years ago, not far from North Bay, Ontario. The house, alas, has finally collapsed. 

Read More

P.M. Headlines

(USA Today): "Arizona officials seek answers after 19 firefighters die"

(Politico): "Glenn Greenwald: New bombshell coming"

(The Hill): "Conservative groups struggling to recruit candidates in key 2014 races"

(CBS News): "Morsi defiant after military's reported plan to overturn government"

(Roll Call): "Voting Rights Act puts GOP in pickle"

Read More

Hoist on his own petard

By Carl

The problem with becoming the story rather than a part of the story is this:

Snowden has been stuck in a Moscow airport's transit zone since arriving there on June 23 from Hong Kong after releasing explosive allegations about Washington's vast global spying programme.

The 30-year-old lashed out at the United States late on Monday, accusing US officials of pressuring foreign leaders to refuse him refuge after Washington charged him with espionage for going through with his leaks.

"These are the old, bad tools of political aggression," Snowden said in a statement published by the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks group.

"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

Actually, I think the purpose is to pressure you to come home and face criminal charges. Just like Daniel Ellsberg did. Just like Andrei Sakharov did in the Soviet Union. Just like Bradley Manning did.

Had you done that, stayed behind and took the heat, you could have given far more encouragement to future whistleblowers to come forward. You would have had a steadier platform to orate from.

Instead, you decided that wasn’t diva-ish enough. Meanwhile, your actions, including the leak, have done little if nothing to move the needle of public opinion. We were sheep before you revealed known facts, and we are sheep now. If anything, the backlash against you comes not from the government, but from the citizens of the United States.

And for what? You’re like the little boy in the back of the station wagon who points out the cop by the side of the road after he’s already turned on his lights and started his siren when dad is speeding. Gee…thanks for pointing that out, Captain Obvious!

You took an unnecessary risk, in other words, and then ran like a scared rabbit. And now that the trap has been snared, you don’t have a whole lot of ground to stand on here, whining about how unfair it is that your privilege to escape has been revoked. In other words, you planned to go in and steal “secrets” from the government without planning one step further down the road, there ain’t no one to blame but yourself.

Now you’ve become the story. Now any real discussion of the things you re-revealed will get lost because you’re just another fame-seeking moron look for his fifteen minutes.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Read More