The Commentariat -- April 29, 2013

AP: "Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said he would re-introduce a measure that would require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online. The West Virginia Democrat says that if lawmakers read the bill, they will support it." ...

... Here's the piece by John Cassidy of the New Yorker, which contributor MAG also linked in the Comments section. "In a country where each life (and death) is supposed to count equally, surely the victims of gun violence should be accorded the same weight as the victims of bomb violence. And the perpetrators should get equal treatment, too. But, of course, that's not how things work."

Obama 2.0. CNN: "President Barack Obama will tap Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday to become his next transportation secretary, a White House official with knowledge of his decision said Sunday. If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace Ray LaHood, who said in January he wouldn't serve a second term."

Jonathan Chait: "House Republicans are prepared to refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to let them cut tax rates without increasing revenue. Their extraordinary threat, first presented as a way to force a reduction in the deficit, is now being wielded to prevent a reduction in the deficit." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Led by conservative Republicans and whipped into a froth by right-wing radio talk-show hosts, opponents of [immigration] reform are banking on derailing the measure with a strategy of delay and dismemberment.... On Thursday, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and an opponent of a pathway to citizenship, served notice that the delay-and-dismemberment plan was under way. Rather than wait for a comprehensive immigration bill to wend its way through the Senate, or for a roughly similar plan to emerge from a bipartisan group in the House, Mr. Goodlatte said his committee would consider a series of smaller bills. That strategy gives conservatives a chance to say they were for immigration reform before they were against it."

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Millions of Americans suffered a loss of wealth during the recession and the sluggish recovery that followed. But the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families, starkly widening the already large gulf in wealth between white Americans and most minority groups, according to a new study from the Urban Institute."

If It's Working, Shut It Down. Ezra Klein: "Health Quality Partners [of Doylestown, Pennsylvania,] enrolls Medicare patients with at least one chronic illness and one hospitalization in the past year. It then sends a trained nurse to see them every week, or every month, whether they're healthy or sick.... According to an independent analysis..., HQP has reduced hospitalizations by 33 percent and cut Medicare costs by 22 percent.... Now Medicare is thinking of shutting it off.... Keeping [people] from getting very sick ... requires someone who has a relationship with them to stop by once a week to see how they're doing. The problem is, it's hard to make money off it."

E. J. Dionne states the obvious: "It's outrageous that Congress and the administration are moving quickly to reduce the inconvenience to travelers -- people fortunate enough to be able to buy plane tickets -- by easing cuts in air traffic control while leaving the rest of the sequester in place. What about the harm being done to the economy as a whole? What about the sequester's injuries to those who face lower unemployment benefits, who need Meals on Wheels or who attend Head Start programs?"

** Let He Who Is without Sin Google the Neighbors. Bill Keller: if your arrest &/or conviction record is erased, should published reports on them be erased, too? CW: I agree with Keller's conclusion on this. If you are as old as I am, there is probably some record somewhere of your doing something way back when that you wouldn't want the neighbors -- or potential employers -- to know. AND, if you're as old as I am, you're probably in luck; those records are buried in some archive somewhere or have been completely lost to time. But younger people, who are busy cooking up their own youthful transgressions, are likely to find reports of those mistakes perched on the Intertoobz forever -- & forever accessible to inquiring minds smart enough to use a search engine. ...

... Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Facebook and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur.... Driven by FBI concerns that it is unable to tap the Internet communications of terrorists and other criminals, the task force's proposal would penalize companies that failed to heed wiretap orders.... There is currently no way to wiretap some of these communications methods easily, and companies effectively have been able to avoid complying with court orders."

Paul Krugman: "... would it really be ... easy to end the scourge of unemployment [by increasing government sending]? Yes — but powerful people don't want to believe it. Some of them have a visceral sense that suffering is good, that we must pay a price for past sins (even if the sinners then and the sufferers now are very different groups of people). Some of them see the crisis as an opportunity to dismantle the social safety net. And just about everyone in the policy elite takes cues from a wealthy minority that isn't actually feeling much pain." ...

... Ben White & Tarini Parti of Politico write a well-balanced piece on the great divide between deficit doves & hawks. Maybe their report makes up for this:

... Perhaps -- like me -- you thought reporters ask their subjects all those dumb questions because they're not too good at thinking on their feet. Nope. It's worse than that. The dumb questions are planned in advance. Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker found a copy of "Politico's White House Correspondents Dinner memo, left behind at a party last night and obtained by Gawker.... Rhe lengthy section of the memo focused on questions for visiting celebrities like Jon Bon Jovi ('What was Air Force One like?'), Kerry Washington ('Do you think the Obamas have a strong marriage?'), Conan O'Brien ('Are you nervous?'), and Scarlett Johansson ('Do you ever e-mail with President Obama anymore?')." Bluestone reproduces the whole Politico memo with her post. I hope Charles Pierce doesn't get the memo. He'll die of anti-freeze poisoning.

"Ghost Money." Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president -- courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai.... The C.I.A. ... has long been known to support some relative and close aides of Mr. Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing. Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan."

Scott Shane & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "F.B.I. agents are working closely with Russian security officials to reconstruct Tamerlan Tsarnaev's activities and connections in Dagestan during his six-month visit last year, tracking meetings he may have had with specific militants, his visits to a radical mosque and any indoctrination or training he may have received, law enforcement officials said Sunday. At the same time, the bureau is also still looking for 'persons of interest' in the United States who may have played a role in the radicalization of Mr. Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19...."

Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "The bankers' men on the [Chicago] Tribune board likely view the sale of the papers [it owns] as a financial transaction, pure and simple. But [Los Angeles] Times readers (and the Koch brothers themselves) would view a sale to the Kochs as a political transaction first and foremost, turning L.A.'s metropolitan daily into a right-wing mouthpiece whose commitment to empirical journalism would be unproven at best. A newspaper isn't just a business; it's also a civic trust. The money men who have been plunked down on the Tribune board should remember that as they sell off the civic chronicles of some of America's great cities."

Wayne Parry of the AP: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama 'has kept every promise he's made' about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy. Speaking on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program on the 6-month anniversary of the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall."

Mary Wisniewski of Reuters: "In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority. Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations."

News Ledes

The Hill: "Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was hospitalized after a bicycle accident on Friday.... Breyer had surgery at a Washington hospital after fracturing his collarbone when he fell off his bike...." This is at least Breyer's third serious cycling accident. CW: Time for a stantionary bike, Mr. Justice.

New York Times: The trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who is charged with murdering live-born infants during late-term abortions, "wrapped up [in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] on Monday with summations by both sides."

AP: "A powerful explosion badly damaged an office building in the center of [Prague,] the Czech capital, Monday, injuring up to 40 people. Authorities believe people may still be buried in the rubble. It was not certain what caused the blast in Divadelni Street, in Prague's Old Town, at about 10 a.m., but it was likely a natural gas explosion...."

New York Times: "Syrian official, Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi survived what appeared to be an assassination attempt Monday in an upscale neighborhood of the capital, Damascus, when a car bomb exploded near his convoy, according to state-run media and opposition reports saying that a bodyguard was killed."

New York Times: "The collapse of the [Bangladesh garment] building, the Rana Plaza, is considered the deadliest accident in the history of the garment industry. It is known to have claimed at least 377 lives, and hundreds more workers are thought to be missing still, buried in the rubble. The Rana Plaza building contained five garment factories, employing more than 3,000 workers, who were making clothing for European and American consumers. Labor activists, citing customs records, company Web sites or labels discovered in the wreckage, say that the factories produced clothing for JC Penney; Cato Fashions; Benetton; Primark ... and other retailers."

The Week: "On Saturday, anonymous law enforcement sources ... [said] the FBI had identified Misha, they told The Associated Press, but found he had no ties to terrorism generally or the Boston bombings specifically. On Sunday evening, Christian Caryl at the New York Review of Books introduced the world to the man he says is Misha." According to Caryl's report, Misha "confirmed he was a convert to Islam and that he had known Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but he flatly denied any part in the bombings. 'I wasn't his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this.'" The NYRB post is here.

The Commentariat -- April 28, 2013

Unstable People. Both the Washington Post, here, and the New York Times, here, have long pieces examining the lives of the Tsarnaevs. Bottom line: things weren't working out all that well for them, even though they got a lot of public help, so they decided to bomb the place. I'm liking the crazy mother as a co-conspirator.

C-SPAN has live coverage of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night, beginning at 6:15 pm ET, at which time everyone has the opportunity to see Mr. & Mrs. David Gregory waltz down the red carpet. Sadly, Tom & Mrs. Tom Brokaw will be no-shows. ...

     ... Update. President Obama's full remarks:

... If you don't watch Obama's entire remarks, at least watch this behind-the-scenes trailer for "Obama," the movie, wherein Steven Spielberg proves the old adage that a good director can get a fine performance out of any actor:

... Joel Achenbach & Amy Argetsinger of the Washington Post: "Washington, New York and Hollywood held their annual schmoozefest Saturday night, and the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (#nerdprom on Twitter) showed new evidence of being completely overrun by red-carpet-posing actors, singers, sports superstars, models and other outsiders who couldn't possibly name the ranking Democrat of the House Ways and Means Committee, much less its chairman." *

Paul Krugman on why George W. Bush was a terrible president: he uses words like "lies," "fraud" and "con man." CW: I suspect he'd find worse words if he weren't writing in the New York Times. ...

... Wherein Maureen Dowd accidentally says something nice about President Obama: "For the first time, [Barbara Bush,] the 87-year-old former first lady acknowledged, in essence, that W. had worn out the family's welcome in the White House. W. and other Bush officials continue to say they could not possibly have known that Saddam had no W.M.D. But I'm now told that Saddam sent word through the Saudis to the Bushies over and over that he had no W.M.D. and was only blustering to keep his nemesis in the neighborhood, Iran, at bay. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld weren't looking for the truth, and they weren't hitting the pause button the way President Obama is with Syria right now, sensitive to the quicksand nature of the region.

Sorry, Nino, Sir Thomas More was smarter than you are. And he still lost his head.Prof. Gary May in a Washington Post op-ed: Antonin "Scalia is woefully ignorant of the [1965 Voting Rights Act]'s history.... The act protects all voters, especially in the states and districts covered by Section 5, from any obstacles that might be put in their way. That was true in 1966 and remains true today as efforts to suppress the minority vote continue. Scalia needs to do his homework before the court determines the act’s future."

Will Weissert of the AP: "Gov. Rick Perry is expressing 'disgust and disappointment' at a cartoon in a California newspaper that depicts him boasting about business booming in Texas just before a major explosion.... In a letter to the Bee's editor Friday, Perry said he wouldn't stand for 'someone mocking this tragedy.' He demanded an immediate apology for the newspaper's 'detestable attempt at satire.'" See yesterday's Commentariat for context. I stand with the cartoonist Jack Ohman. Ohman wasn't "mocking the tragedy"; he was mocking a clueless governor who has been lobbying on the very laissez-faire policies that allowed the owner of the fertilizer plant to operate in a highly-unsafe and careless manner. ...

... Here's Perry's letter, published in the Bee, and an apt response from editorial page editor Stuart Leavenworth.

Sometimes even Paul Ryan is right -- as when he blamed the Romney-Ryan loss on "the urban vote." Hope Yen of the AP: "America's blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time.... Had people voted last November at the same rates they did in 2004, when black turnout was below its current historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have won narrowly, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press." Thank you, urban people. Keep up the good work. The vote suppressors, busy as they were in 2012, will try harder next time.

* Sander Levin (D-Mich.); Dave Camp (R-Mich.) CW: yeah, I hadda look it up.

Congressional Race

Kim Severson of the New York Times tries to get past the sleaze & find the candidates' positions on the issues in South Carolina's special Congressional race between Mark Sanford & Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

Right Wing World *

John Avlon of Newsweek: "... conservative state legislators and even congressmen [are] entertaining conspiracy theories that are creepy and unseemly coming from average citizen, but a sign of civic rot when they start getting parroted by elected officials.... [Last week] Republicans Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jason Chaffetz of Utah held a hearing 'to examine the procurement of ammunition by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General.' Despite the innocuous language, the hearing represented a capitulation, if not an outright endorsement, of conspiracy theories ... that the Homeland Security Department is stockpiling ammunition to use against Americans in a massive imposition of martial law.... Perhaps the highest profile impact of conspiracy theories to date on national policy was the defeat of the universal background check bill -- specifically the widespread claims threat that closing existing loopholes would be a first step toward a national gun registry that would in turn bring Hitler-style confiscation to America." ...

... Tyler Hansen of Media Matters: "The [Jordan-Chaffetz] hearing ... inspired new legislation that's now before Congress. On April 26, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced bills in both chambers of Congress in order to limit federal agencies from stockpiling ammunition."

* The only thing we have is fear itself.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Gunmen surrounded Libya's foreign ministry on Sunday to push demands that officials who had worked for deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi's regime be banned from senior positions in the new administration. At least 20 pick-up trucks loaded with anti-aircraft guns blocked the roads while men armed with AK-47 and sniper rifles directed the traffic away from the building, witnesses said." Al Jazeera story here.

Reuters: "The owner of a factory building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing hundreds of garment workers was arrested on Sunday trying to flee to India, police said, as fears grew that the death toll could rise sharply with as many as 900 still missing. Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, was arrested ... in the Bangladesh border town of Benapole...."

Al Jazeera: "The Taliban has claimed re[s]ponsibility for two bomb blasts have killed nine supporters of two Pakistani politicians at their campaign offices in the country's northwest, the latest violence ahead of polls next month. Violence has marred the campaign for the landmark May 11 general election, with more than 50 people dead in blasts and suicide attacks since April 11, according to a tally by the AFP press agency, including more than 20 in the past three days."

The New York Times has more on the 2011 phone calls between Tamerlan & Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, which the Russians intercepted. (The original AP story is linked in yesterday's Ledes.) ...

... Boston Globe: "U.S. officials say investigators have found no evidence that a conservative Muslim friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev ... known to the family as Misha ... had any connection to the Boston Marathon bombing.... Two U.S. officials close to the investigation say the FBI has identified an individual believed to be Misha. The officials would not say whether the FBI has spoken to him but say they've found no ties to the attack or terrorism in general." ...

... AP: " The father of the two Boston bombing suspects says he is postponing a trip to the United States because of poor health. Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press on Sunday that he is 'really sick' and his blood pressure had spiked."

The Commentariat -- April 27, 2013

Making the Planes Run on Time

Convenient Desequestration. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House gave quick and overwhelming approval Friday to legislation to give the secretary of transportation enough financial flexibility to bring the nation's air traffic control system back up to full strength and end the mounting flight delays that had become a political headache for Congress. The vote came despite objections from some lawmakers that the nation's air travel was being given special treatment. The 361-to-41 vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate reached accord on the measure, which effectively undoes one of the thorniest results of 'sequestration,' $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect March 1. That is remarkable speed for an issue that has been brewing for more than a year, with ample warning of the consequences. Once signed, the law, which passed the Senate without objection Thursday night, will allow as much as $253 million to be moved from other parts of the Transportation Department to the Federal Aviation Administration." ...

     ... Update. New lede: "President Obama and Congressional Democrats on Friday abandoned their once-firm stand that growing airport bottlenecks would be addressed only in a broader fix to across-the-board spending cuts...." And atop the 3rd graf: "Republicans claimed victory." ...

... The President's Weekly Address, in which he declares he is not amused (but will sign the bill anyway):

     ... The transcript is here. Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern even as he prepared to sign the legislation they hurriedly pushed through Congress. Wary of letting Republicans set a precedent he might later regret, Obama dubbed the bipartisan bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to this year's $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester." ...

... . New York Times Editors: "Congress can't pass a budget or control guns or confirm judges on time, but this week members of both parties found something they could agree on, and in a big hurry: avoiding blame for inconveniencing air travelers.... Catering to the needs of people with money, such as business travelers, is the kind of thing the country has come to expect in recent years from Congressional Republicans. But Democrats share full responsibility for this moment of cowardice." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Did I miss a memo, or wasn't the whole point of the sequester to give Congress the choice of acting like adults on the budget, or visiting enough inconvenience on ordinary citizens so that they demand that same thing? Now, it appears, the point was to visit inconvenience only on those ordinary citizens who have no lobby to inconvenience you in return. Airport delays were what was supposed to happen." ...

... AND the Losers Are ... Democrats. Ezra Klein: "In effect, what Democrats said Friday was that in any case where the political pain caused by sequestration becomes unbearable, they will agree to cancel that particular piece of the bill while leaving the rest of the law untouched. The result is that sequestration is no longer particularly politically threatening, but it's even more unbalanced: Cuts to programs used by the politically powerful will be addressed, but cuts to programs that affects the politically powerless will persist. It's worth saying this clearly: The pain of sequestration will be concentrated on those who lack political power." ...

... Robert Reich: "Washington ... has now adopted the same kind of austerity economics that's doomed Europe -- cutting federal spending and reducing total demand. And the sequester doesn't end September 30. It takes an even bigger bite out of the federal budget next fiscal year. Earth to Washington: The economy is slowing. The recovery is stalling. At the very least, repeal the sequester." ...

... To Hell with Those People. Travis Waldron & Bryce Covert of Think Progress list "12 programs that have experienced devastating cuts because Congress insists on cutting spending when it doesn't need to -- and that have been ignored by the same lawmakers who leaped to action as soon as their trips home were going to take a little longer." Among them, long-term unemployment compensation, Head Start & cancer treatment. ...

... Bill Moyers & Michael Winship, in Salon: "If you want to see why the public approval rating of Congress is down in the sub-arctic range -- an icy 15 percent by last count -- all you have to do is take a quick look at how the House and Senate pay worship at the altar of corporations, banks and other special interests at the expense of public aspirations and need." CW: read it and weep. None of this will change without a Constitutional Amendment eliminating corporate financing of political campaigns. ...

... Dana Milbank: "This last weekend of April displays the very best and the very worst of Washington. The worst is the part most of the country sees most of the time in the capital: the triumph of money and power [at the White House Correspondents' dinner].... In Meadowbrook Park in Chevy Chase, just a few hundred feet from the D.C. line, about 500 people will assemble Saturday morning in a Race to End Poverty. Sponsored by the local nonprofit A Wider Circle, the race is a 4K -- a nod to the group's hope of furnishing 4,000 homes this year for people living in poverty in the Washington area." ...

... Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "When all is said and paid for after all the parties surrounding the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this weekend, some media organizations will drop as much as $200,000 each to entertain an elite list of guests." ...

... "The Annual Versailles Cotillion." Charles Pierce again: "These would be the same 'media organizations' that are laying people off by the carload, slashing the benefits of those they don't lay off, and making people do more work in less time for smaller salaries."

Katie McDonough of Salon: "President Obama addressed more than a thousand Planned Parenthood supporters at the organization's national conference on Friday, becoming the first sitting president to do so. After reaffirming his longstanding support of Planned Parenthood, the president denounced Republican efforts to turn the organization into a 'punching bag.' ... Despite his spirited defense of abortion rights, Obama did not use the word 'abortion' once during his remarks":

Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "After years of insisting that the primary cure for Europe's malaise is to slash spending, the champions of austerity, most notably Chancellor Angela Merkel find themselves under intensified pressure to back off unpopular remedies and find some way to restore faltering growth to the world's largest economic bloc.... The flurry of activity comes after an influential academic paper embraced by austerity advocates as evidence that even recessionary economies should cut spending to avoid high debt levels, written by the Harvard scholars Carmen m. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, has come under attack for errors that opponents of austerity say helped lead European policy makers astray." Thanks to MAG for the link.

Adam Serwer explains the federal rules of criminal procedure to law professor & torture-memo author John Yoo., who never met a Constitutional right he didn't want to trample.

Kevin Bogardus of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain on Friday pleaded with business leaders to rally behind the immigration reform bill that he negotiated as part of the Senate's Gang of Eight. Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's immigration reform summit, McCain (R-Ariz.) said the bill needs the full-throated support of industry to make it to President Obama's desk."

Sam Baker of the Hill: "Democratic leaders said Thursday they're not seeking an exemption from a central requirement of ObamaCare -- that members of Congress and their staff purchase healthcare coverage through insurance exchanges. Republicans spent the day hammering Democrats for allegedly seeking to carve themselves out of a requirement in the healthcare law."

Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee.... Joack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee: "Several readers wrote me ... expressing varying levels of concern about the cartoon depicting Gov. Rick Perry's marketing of Texas' loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Their comments ranged from 'you are a sick human being' to 'insensitive and tasteless.' ... What I am trying to do is make readers think about an issue in a striking way.... What makes me angry, and, yes, I am driven by anger, is that it could have been prevented." CW: if those readers are looking for sick & tasteless, they should latch onto Rick Perry, who doesn't see anything wrong about lobbying for Texas on the very basis of Texas's willingness to look the other way at industries that compromise the safety of workers & neighboring citizens. ...

... Here's the ProPublica report, by Theodoric Meyer, which Ohman links in his post. It includes gems like this: "Has Congress introduced any new regulation legislation? Yes, but it would roll back regulations rather than strengthen them. Eleven representatives -- one Democrat and 10 Republicans -- sponsored a bill in February that would limit the EPA's regulatory authority over fertilizer plants. It has been endorsed by industry groups such as the Fertilizer Institute." ...

... "The Koch Brothers Bill." Tim Murphy of Mother Jones, in the Huffington Post: "In February, 11 congressmen ... joined some two dozen industry groups, including the Fertilizer Institute, the American Chemistry Council, and the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration, to back the General Duty Clarification Act. The bill is designed to sap the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to regulate safety and security at major chemical sites, as prescribed by the Clean Air Act. 'We call that the Koch brothers bill,' Greenpeace legislative director Rick Hind says, because the bill's sponsor, GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo, represents the conservative megadonors' home city of Wichita, Kansas. (The sponsor of the sister legislation in the senate, GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, represents the Kochs' home state of Kansas.) The brothers have huge investments in fertilizer production...." ...

... HOW did the Koch boys become "the world's largest producer of nitrogen the fertilizer? ... Thanks to the advent of fracking (hydrofracturing), natural gas is now the #1 source for ammonia (which is used to supply the nitrogen portion of most fertilizers) in the world."

Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "President Obama said Friday that he would respond 'prudently' and 'deliberately' to evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons, tamping down any expectations that he would take swift action after an American intelligence assessment that the Syrian government has used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale in the nation's civil war." ...

Speaking of "deliberate" & "prudent," we now remember our former deliberator-in-chief ...

** Our Misunderestimated Former President. Do Watch. (If you listen closely, you'll hear Fugelsang take a crack at Al Gore, too):

Congressional Races

Thomas Beaumont of the AP: "Republicans are struggling to recruit strong Senate candidates in states that present the party's best opportunities to reclaim the majority, a sign that the GOP's post-2012 soul-searching may end up creeping into the midterm congressional elections." ...

... Scott Bland of the National Journal: "House Democrats now have candidates lined up in about half of the Republican-held seats that Obama also carried in 2012, part of the DCCC's concentrated effort to get an early start on recruiting this election cycle after redistricting kept potential candidates on the sidelines until relatively late in the process in 2012. Democrats would need to gain 17 seats to retake the House majority in 2012."

Gohmert Weekly News

This administration has so many Muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America. -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)

... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "I don't care about condemning Gohmert -- but mainstream conservatives are making a big mistake, it seems to me, by allowing themselves to be defined by the worst Republicans out there."

News Ledes

AP: "U.S. officials say Russian authorities secretly recorded a conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother. Officials say a second call was recorded between the suspects' mother and a man under FBI investigation living in southern Russia.... They say the Russians shared this intelligence with the U.S. in the past few days."

New York Times: "Ending a crushing two-month political stalemate that had spooked European leaders, Prime Minister-elect Enrico Letta formed a rare coalition government on Saturday uniting left and right -- and including a record number of women and Italy's first nonwhite minister -- to steer Italy, with the euro zone's third-largest economy, out of the doldrums."

AP: "A Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has been arrested in the case, according to the FBI. Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50 a.m. Saturday at his Tupelo home by FBI special agents in connection with the letters...."

AP: "Police in Bangladesh took five people into custody in connection with the collapse of a shoddily-constructed building this week, as rescue workers pulled 19 survivors out of the rubble on Saturday and vowed to continue as long as necessary to find others despite fading hopes. At least 340 people are known to have died...." CW: meanwhile, in the U.S., Donald Adair, the owner of the West Fertilizer Company, is facing only private lawsuits. Well, shuck, Don is "a prominent member of the community." Suing him don't seem sportin'.

Reuters: "The economy regained speed in the first quarter, but not as much as expected, heightening fears it could struggle to cope with deep government spending cuts and higher taxes. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, after growth nearly stalled in the fourth quarter. Economists had expected a 3.0 percent growth pace." ...

... Washington Post: "A steep slowdown in defense spending tied to the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is undercutting the country’s economic recovery, new government data released Friday revealed." CW: oh. Government spending has an impact on the economy.

AP: "North Korea announced Saturday that [Kenneth Bae,] an American detained for nearly six months, is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted."