The Commentariat -- April 19, 2013

Nedra Pickler of the AP: "Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Barack Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons."

Katharine Seelye & Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. released still and video images of two men whom they characterized as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings on Thursday evening and asked for the public's help in identifying them. One of the men was captured on video setting down a backpack at the site of the second explosion, said Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Boston field office."

Suspects 1 & 2.

Two images of Suspect 2.More photos on Boston Globe liveblog, beginning at 5:26 pm. ...

"If you have visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere, submit them on https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/ No piece of information or detail is too small. You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) prompt #3, with information." -- FBI Website

     ... Update: the FBI site now has high-res versions of the photos. You can access them here.

... The related surveillance video:

... Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "It didn't take long for a lawmaker to pick up the latest right-wing conspiracy theory about the Boston Marathon bombings. Just hours after controversial terrorism expert Steve Emerson reported last night on Sean Hannity's show that unnamed 'sources' told him the government was quietly deporting the Saudi national who was initially suspected in the bombing, South Carolina GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan grilled Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the rumor at a hearing this morning." Here's how the exchange ended:

Duncan: Wouldn't you agree with me that it's negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing?

Napolitano: I am not going to answer that question, it is so full of misstatements and misapprehensions that it's just not worthy of an answer.

      ... Like that idiot Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) who thought he outsmarted Energy Secretary & physicist Steven Chu, Duncan is so dumb he thought he got the best of Napolitano & proudly posted to his Website video of his "questioning" of Napolitano:

... Bag Men! Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "Move over, CNN -- The New York Post wants to reclaim its spot as the most unreliable source of information in America.... Even though they [admitted they] had no idea their front page was accurate, The Post decided to run with it anyway. I guess they figured the photo told a great story, whether or not there was any evidence connecting it with the bombing. Two guys with bags, one of whom looks like he might even be of Middle Eastern ancestry? Print it! It would be irresponsible not to! Of course, the real story isn't what The Post was hoping":

... Shahriar Rahmanzadeh, et al., of ABC News: "The teenage boy authorities once investigated as possibly being connected to the Boston Marathon bombing told ABC News today he was shocked to see his face pop up on television and all over social media. Salah Barhoun, 17, said he went to the police yesterday to clear his name after he found himself tagged in pictures online." ...

... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "It's hard to express how massive a fail this is -- but it's surpassed by the even more massive fail of the right wing blogs, who universally jumped all over the Post's latest fake story even though they were just burned by the last fake story." ...

... "The Boston Bombing Witch Hunt Bags Another Innocent Kid." Barry Petchesky of Deadspin: "On Monday, the New York Post doggedly stuck to its claim that 12 were killed in the Boston Marathon bombings. On Tuesday, CNN (among others) reported that a suspect had been arrested, before walking that all the way back. Today [Thursday], the Post wrests back the 'what the fuck are you doing?' crown by putting two 'potential suspects' on the cover of the newspaper.... But maybe there was a reason for them to be at the marathon, wearing track jackets and carrying bags: they're runners."

Alina Selyukh of Reuters: "The House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday designed to help companies and the government share information on cyber threats, though concerns linger about the amount of protection the bill offers for private information.... The bill drew support from House Democrats, passing on a bipartisan vote of 288-127, although the White House repeated its veto threat on Tuesday if further civil liberties protections are not added." ...

... Republicans, who have been howling like banshees about privacy issues surrounding the relatively small (but potentially dangerous) number of Americans purchasing guns, are completely unconcerned about a bill that puts every American's expectation of a certain level of privacy right in the dumpster. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments ...

... ** How Our "Public Servants" Become Multi-Millionaires. Tech Dirt: "It would appear that Rep. Mike Rogers, the main person in Congress pushing for CISPA, has kept rather quiet about a very direct conflict of interest that calls into serious question the entire bill. It would appear that Rogers' wife stands to benefit quite a lot from the passage of CISPA, and has helped in the push to get the bill passed." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Chamber of Ironies

(1) Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "All that remained of a broad package of measures representing the most serious changes to the nation's gun laws in 20 years were two amendments: one that would address mental health care, and another that would penalize states that divulge information about gun owners except under very specific circumstances like a criminal investigation. Both passed overwhelmingly, the only two gun-related measures to clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold for passage. The vote on the amendments has no practical effect, since the underlying legislation has no immediate prospect of passing. Despite the push from proponents of stricter gun regulations, the amendments that received the most support in two days of voting were not the ones that tightened restrictions on weapons purchases, but the ones that loosened them. Fifty-seven senators voted on Wednesday to essentially nullify state laws that prohibit carrying concealed weapons. Fifty-six senators voted to restore gun ownership rights to veterans who have had them taken away."

(2) Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "'Shame on you!' shouted ... Lori Haas from the Senate gallery after ... [the Senate] refused to impose any new restrictions on gun ownership.... Haas's ... daughter Emily ... survived two bullet wounds to the head during the Virginia Tech massacre.... She and Patricia Maisch -- who also shouted 'Shame on you' but is better known as the hero who knocked a high-capacity magazine out of [Jared Lee] Loughner's hands before he could kill more people in Tucson -- were escorted out of the Senate gallery by Capitol Police. 'They detained us for about an hour and a half,' said Haas.... They had to turn over their IDs and wait. For what? A background check." ...

... Greg Sargent: New Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) takes hits from the state's largest paper -- the Arizona Republic -- from Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly -- and from Patricia Maisch -- for his "no" vote on the Manchin-Toomey amendment. ...

... CW: there's this, too:

Our own Sen. Marco Rubio keeps harping that the culture of violence must be changed, but he refuses to see the practicality of instant background checks that have, indeed, turned away scores of criminals from buying guns legally at stores. He voted No. Shameful. Right here in Miami we are witnessing a spike in gun violence, especially in poor neighborhoods. Where are those guns coming from? -- Miami Herald Editors

... Nate Silver does a statistical analysis -- natch! -- on why the Senators voted as they did on Manchin-Toomey. Worst Senator Award: Heidi Heitkamp. ...

... CW: I accidentally clicked on this New York Times story by Peter Applebome about Newtown, Connecticut, & its role in gun safety legislation. If you want to know how the NRA is winning, it's by convincing people that this is an accurate depiction of the ideological divide: '"The antigun sentiment is at a height because of the tremendous amount of emotion associated with it, but there's probably the same percentage of people who are in favor of the Second Amendment as those who are in favor of these stringent laws," said Daniel Cruson, the town historian. He puts himself in that first camp." That's pretty obvious. ...

... AND Dylan Byers of Politico is very, very upset about media bias against criminals & crazy people who purchase guns & ammo: "Even by the standards of today's partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly." CW: Wow! Even editorial boards! whose, um, job it is to express opinions. Just not gun safety opinions, I guess.

Another Reason to Be Glad Krugman Has a Job at the New York Times. His column today: "...the Reinhart-Rogoff fiasco needs to be seen in the broader context of austerity mania: the obviously intense desire of policy makers, politicians and pundits across the Western world to turn their backs on the unemployed and instead use the economic crisis as an excuse to slash social programs. What the Reinhart-Rogoff affair shows is the extent to which austerity has been sold on false pretenses. For three years, the turn to austerity has been presented not as a choice but as a necessity. Economic research, austerity advocates insisted, showed that terrible things happen once debt exceeds 90 percent of G.D.P. But 'economic research' showed no such thing; a couple of economists made that assertion, while many others disagreed.... So will toppling Reinhart-Rogoff from its pedestal change anything? ... I predict that the usual suspects will just find another dubious piece of economic analysis to canonize, and the depression will go on and on."

Obama 2.0. Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "The Senate energy committee formally approved the nomination of Ernest J. Moniz to be energy secretary, the committee announced on Thursday. The 21-to-1 vote is an indication that Mr. Moniz, who served as an undersecretary in the Energy Department in the Clinton administration, will have no trouble being confirmed by the full Senate. Some opponents had complained that an energy initiative he leads at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is financed heavily by the oil industry and other conventional energy industries." ...

... Obama 2.0 Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "Responding to sharp criticism from Republicans for his work on housing discrimination and voting rights at the Justice Department, Thomas E. Perez, President Obama's choice to head the Labor Department, on Thursday defended his record and said that if confirmed, his focus would be on tackling the nation's high unemployment rate."

News Ledes

ABC News: "At least 13 people, including firefighters and emergency medical workers, were killed and about 200 more injured in the massive explosion and fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, according to officials. The number of deaths and injuries could still grow as search and recovery efforts continue at the site of the plant, the Texas Department of Public Safety said." ...

     ... NBC News Update: "While the death toll from a horrific fertilizer plant explosion was raised to 14 Friday, after two additional bodies were found...."

... Washington Times: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he is declaring McLennan County a disaster area and calling for federal relief from President Obama in the wake of a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed up to 15 people and injured scores more.... Mr. Obama called the governor from Air Force One en route to Massachusetts.... 'We greatly appreciate his call and his gracious offer of support, of course, and the very quick turnaround of the emergency declaration that will be forthcoming and his offer of prayers,' Mr. Perry said."

The Hill: "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moved close to lifting the three-month grounding of the Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' airplane Friday by approving a redesign of the aircraft's lithium battery. U.S. airlines have been banned from flying the Boeing 787 on commercial flights since January, after a string of incidents in which the plane's lithium-ion batteries nearly caught fire."

Reuters: "Pakistani police took former president Pervez Musharraf into custody at their Islamabad headquarters on Friday, hours after a court had ordered him placed under house arrest, Musharraf's spokesman said. Mohammed Amjad said police had escorted the former army chief from his residence on the edge of the capital to a guest house at the city's police headquarters where he will spend two days on remand ahead of a court hearing."

The Commentariat -- April 18, 2013

Michael Shear & Julia Preston of the New York Times: the anti-immigration foment which right-wing talkshow hosts churned up in 2007 to defeat immigration legislation backed by President George W. Bush may not work this time around. Even some of the wingers, like Sean Hannity, have "evolved" on the issue. ...

... CW: Yeah, because there's this, for example. Jamie Self of the State: "Three out of four South Carolinians support immigration reforms that include giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, according to a Winthrop University poll released Wednesday. The results to that poll question -- asked exclusively for The State -- were nearly the same for registered voters who identified themselves as Republicans and Democrats." South Carolina!!

President Obama's remarks at a memorial prayer service in Boston:

... The text of the President's speech is here. The text of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's remarks is here. ...

... Andrew Ryan, et al., of the Boston Globe: "In a powerful, uplifting speech at an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Obama said he had come to join people to 'pray and mourn and measure our loss. We also come today to reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted and the spirit of this country shall remain undimmed.'" ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Thursday morning that the National Rifle Association 'made a big mistake' by opposing his gun background checks compromise legislation, saying the amendment would have gotten 70 votes without the NRA's interference." With video. ...

... President Obama made remarks following the Senate's defeat of the Manchin-Toomey background check amendment. See also yesterday's Commentariat, including some great post-vote commentary. I have been surfing the net in search of punditry as profound as that of Reality Chex contributors. No luck. ...

... Tho Charles Pierce does quite well in discussing the "World's. Greatest. Deliberative. Body." With special props for Heidi Heitkamp (SupposedDem-N.D.) & Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) -- "Sarah Palin with Verbs."

... Ed O'Keefe & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama's ambitious effort to overhaul the nation's gun laws in response to December's school massacre in Connecticut suffered a resounding defeat Wednesday, when every major proposal he championed fell apart on the Senate floor.... The national drive for laws that might prevent another mass shooting unraveled under intense pressure from the gun rights lobby, which used regional and cultural differences among senators to prevent new firearms restrictions." ...

... ** Gabrielle Giffords, in a New York Times op-ed: "We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like 'tough vote' and 'complicated issue.' I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending." ...

... Dana Milbank: "Courage was in short supply at the Capitol on Wednesday."

... Jonathan Cohn & Eric Kingsbury of The New Republic highlight how very undemocratic the Senate is. This, of course, is not news. ...

... BUT, as Jonathan Chait of New York writes, "Don't Blame the Founders for the Gun Debacle." ...

... DITTO from Ezra Klein: "It's typical to say that this is how the Senate's always been. It's also wrong. The filibuster didn't emerge until decades after the first congress, and its constant use is a thoroughly modern development. As for the small state bias, that, too, has changed over time. During the first Congress, Virginia, the largest state, was roughly 12 times the size of Delaware, which was, at the time, the smallest state. Today, California is 66 times the size of Wyoming. That makes the Senate five times less proportionate today than it was at the founding."

... Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times on "Harry Reid's Conscience." ...

... Mitch McConnell thinks the murders, suicides & mayhem that will result from the failure of this bill are a hoot. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "Late word has it that Harry Reid will pull the gun bill down from the Senate floor prior to a final vote in order to be able to bring it back at some point in the future." ...

... Tweet from Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "Howard Dean prediction on Morning Joe: Brian Schweitzer will either primary or replace Baucus over background check vote" Via Greg Sargent.

Linda Greenhouse: "If you read only one judicial opinion this year, you might consider skipping the Supreme Court entirely and going right to a decision issued early this month by Judge Edward R. Korman of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The ruling ordered the Obama administration to lift age restrictions on the over-the-counter availability of emergency contraception." ...

... AND NEWS FLASH! Crazy Old Bigot Still on Supreme Court. Luke Johnson of the Huffington Post: "Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday that the Voting Rights Act is an 'embedded' form of 'racial preferment.' ... He later criticized United States Supreme Court precedents that expanded the number of minority groups, positing that 'child abusers' could be a minority, but do not deserve special protection." CW: Pause for a moment & ponder the logic there. Also, Scalia seems to think homosexuality is a crime. ...

... Charles Pierce: "The 'emergency' to which the VRA was a response in 1965 began almost as soon as the Civil War ended.... And anyone who's been alive since 2010 ... knows that the "emergency" hasn't gone away. It's just put on a suit and gone to law school."

Outrage of the Day. Boing, Boing, Boing. You know those piddly checks the banks agreed to settle on mortgagors whom they'd screwed out of their homes? Well, the first ones have been going out, and they're bouncing. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "The mishap is just the latest setback to troubled homeowners. It took more than two years to resolve a federal investigation into the foreclosure abuses. Even after the settlement in January, the checks were delayed for weeks. 'It's the perfect ending for such a debacle,' said Michael Redman, a paralegal who runs a Web site for victims of foreclosure abuse. He said he had received 15 e-mails on Tuesday from homeowners whose checks bounced."

Obama 2.0. Sam Youngman of Reuters: "President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget appeared Wednesday to be on a clear path toward Senate confirmation. Sylvia Mathews Burwell/strong>, a former official in the administration of President Bill Clinton and until recently head of Wal-Mart Stores' philanthropic wing, sailed through committee votes without Republican opposition on Wednesday, virtually assuring her confirmation as the next head of OMB."

Thomas Edsall, in the New York Times: "Obama is unlikely to achieve top-rank historic status based on his legislative agenda. What he does have is a shot at using the platform of the presidency to jumpstart the process of economic adaptation by strengthening public awareness. People need to understand that the economic problems facing the country -- wage polarization, inequality and lost middle class jobs -- are structural, not just cyclical.... He can nurture greater empathy for workers, encourage majoritarian opposition to the conservative anti-regulation-anti-tax agenda, and reactivate dormant instincts of self-determination among the previously marginalized."

"The Kids Are Not All Right." Charles Blow: "According to a Unicef report issued last week -- 'Child Well-Being in Rich Countries' -- the United States once again ranked among the worst wealthy countries for children, coming in 26th place of 29 countries included. Only Lithuania, Latvia and Romania placed lower, and those were among the poorest countries assessed in the study."

You might be surprised to learn that Paul Kevin Curtis, the suspect in the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama & Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R)(name sounds like a patio store; h/t Stephen Colbert) seems to be crazy as a loon who is "on the front lines of a secret war." Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed reports. ...

     ... UPDATE: Aaron Davis & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "As Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was about to appear in a federal courtroom in Oxford, Mississippi, a lawyer who once represented him said Curtis had suffered for years with a mental illness, and that his family had struggled to keep him on medication to treat it."

Edward Krudy of Reuters: "How a student took on eminent economists on debt issue -- and won."

In New Zealand, Government Works. "As the votes are announced in the New Zealand Parliament that affirm the Definition of Marriage Amendment (allowing equal marriage rights for the gay community), spectators in the gallery break into a Maori love song which most of the Members of Parliament then join in with":

... New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson makes a speech prior to the vote:

Andy Borowitz: "Authorities who have spent the past forty-eight hours combing CNN in the hopes of finding any information whatsoever have called off their search, they confirmed today." ...

... CW: Actually, you get plenty of news on CNN. It's just totally unreliable. Note the crawl in the screenshot above. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Wednesday afternoon has seen a flurry of contradictory reports about the status of an alleged suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, but for the past hour or so, CNN has been going all-in with sources that said an arrest had already been made. A few minutes ago, though, CNN's chyron went from 'Sources: Arrest In Boston Bombing' to 'Defcon: Oh, Crap,' as CNN contributor Tom Fuentes came on the air to tell Anderson Cooper that two 'highly-placed sources' say there has been no arrest, followed by Fran Townsend reporting that 'two administration officials' have confirmed that there has been no arrest." ...

... The FBI is cautioning media outlets -- CNN -- to cut said crap: "Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting."

Kevin Drum on why the Republican brand isn't dead.

Right Wing World

CW: This post by Florida winger Javier Manjarres of Shark Tank, in which he squeals about the MarcoPhone, is hilarious. ("Move over 'Obama phone,' we present the new 'Hola, Como Estas?!' MarcoPhone.") At least Manjarres backs down with his updates, the gists of which are self-evident to anyone who reads the damned bill in the first place. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "I'm having trouble feeling bad for Rubio getting a taste of what it's like to be on the receiving end of a Tea Party delusion."

I knew it. Obama bugged McConnell's office. John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "White House logs and the Twitter feed of Shawn Reilly, one of two men at the heart of the McConnell wiretapping scandal, show he met with White House officials on Dec. 5, just days before his organization Progress Kentucky began a messaging blitzkrieg against the Republican leader." Oh. Near the end of his post, Stanton writes, "... a source familiar with the situation said Reilly was one of 83 other people from Kentucky and Tennessee who attended the event. An administration official addressed the attendees, discussing the then-looming fiscal cliff fight and other items on the White House's upcoming agenda. Neither Reilly nor any of the other people in attendance had 'intimate' one on one meetings with [Valerie] Jarrett or other senior White House officials.... Still, Republicans pointed to the evidence of the visitors logs to argue that Reilly is far more connected to the Democratic establishment than leaders would have the public believe."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A former justice of the peace who had been convicted of robbery was charged Thursday with the revenge killings of the prosecutors who handled his case, closing a chapter in one of the more chilling cases of assault on American law enforcement officers."

Washington Post: "A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas Wednesday night left more than 160 people wounded and killed an estimated five to 15 people, officials said, likely including firefighters who had been battling the blaze at the factory that triggered the explosion." ...

     ... New York Times UPDATE: "Rescue workers searched the rubble of a fertilizer plant on Thursday, looking for missing firefighters and survivors of a huge explosion that tore through this small central Texas town on Wednesday night, killing as many as 15 people and injuring more than 160 others, laying waste to buildings and potentially sending toxic fumes into the air, the authorities said.... Homes and businesses were leveled in the normally quiet town of West, just north of Waco, and there was widespread destruction in the downtown area, Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department said Thursday morning."

Boston Globe: "In a potential breakthrough in the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing, investigators have isolated images of a suspect carrying and perhaps dropping a black bag believed to have held one of two bombs that exploded 12 seconds apart Monday near the finish line of the historic race, said an official briefed on the investigation. Authorities were 'very close' Wednesday in their pursuit of the bomber, said the official...." ...

     ... UPDATE: "Authorities have clear video images of two separate suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings carrying black bags at the explosion sites and are planning to release the images today in an appeal for the public's help in identifying the men, according to an official briefed on the case. The official said that the two suspects were seen separately on videotape -- one at each of the two bombing sites, which are located about a block apart."

... New York Times: "... a senior law enforcement official ... said the authorities were trying to boil down the number of people of interest in the videos and would then decide whether to ask the public's help in locating them." ...

... Boston Globe: "President Obama will speak at an interfaith prayer service to honor victims of the Boston Marathon bombings Thursday morning at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.... Four former governors will attend, Governor Deval Patrick said: Mitt Romney, William F. Weld, Michael S. Dukakis, and Jane M. Swift."

AP: "A Chicago-area transportation agency on Wednesday alleged that some of the nation's largest and best known companies including AT&T, Sears Holdings Corp., Verizon and Target are running 'sham' offices as part of a scheme with two small northern Illinois communities to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes in Chicago and Cook County."

AP: "Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf and his security team pushed past policemen and sped away from a court in the country's capital on Thursday to avoid arrest after his bail was revoked in a case in which he is accused of treason. Local TV broadcast footage of the dramatic scene in which Musharraf jumped into a black SUV and escaped as a member of his security team hung to the side of the vehicle. He sped away to his large compound on the outskirts of Islamabad that is protected by high walls, razor wire and guard towers." CW: luckily, Obama has seen to it that Dubya will never have to hide out behind barbed wire surrounding his Crawford ranch.

Reuters: "Ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ordered to be transferred back to prison from a military hospital on Wednesday on the recommendation of a medical team after he appeared fitter at his aborted retrial."

The Commentariat -- April 17, 2013

All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington. -- Barack Obama ...

... President Obama just lashed out at the Senate & the gun lobby. I'll get up video when it becomes available. Update: C-SPAN has the video here. The President begins speaking about 5 min. in. ...

... John Bresnahan of Politico: "A visibly angry President Barack Obama blasted the Senate's rejection of a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks on gun sales, a vote that essentially ends any hope for major gun control legislation for the time being."

NEW. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama's agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks. It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with 5 Democrats voting against it. Only 4 Republicans supported it. Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) voted against it. Reid supported the measure but voted against it to preserve his ability to bring the measure up again. GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) voted yes."

NEW. C-SPAN2 is carrying the Senate "debate" (& upcoming) vote. Right now (@3:42 pm ET) Ted Cruz is saying something, so naturally I have the sound off. Update: I tuned in about an hour later, & Cruz was speaking again. Total camera hog.

NEW. Amy Davidson of the New Yorker writes an eloquent piece on "The Saudi Marathon Man."

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg News: "We weigh the senseless carnage in Boston (death toll thus far: 3) against the senseless carnage of domestic gun violence (annual death toll: 30,000) and wonder why American society mobilizes with such impressive force against the smaller threat [link fixed] while shrugging at the larger one. (Gun violence produces the same number of victims as the Sept. 11 attacks almost every month, year in and year out.)"

     ... CW: what Wilkinson doesn't discuss -- and it is an important factor -- is the difference in our sense of personal control. Generally speaking, we think we are smart enough to stay away from gun-wielding loons, but we feel everyone is vulnerable to random terrorist attacks. It's the same reason people who suffer from fear of flying feel safe driving a car even though "There are more than 30,000 motor-vehicle deaths each year, a mortality rate eight times greater than that in planes." ...

... Heather Hurlburt, director of the National Security Network, in USA Today: "... the bombs killed fewer people than guns, automobiles or saturated fats in America today. Terrorists in Iraq killed 10 times as many people today as the Boston murderer(s) managed to do.... Not turning on each other, or our institutions, or our own freedoms, whatever the truth behind these terrible attacks proves to be ... can we keep it up?" ...

... Brian Beutler of TPM on the networks making a big story out of whether or not the President said "terrorism." CW: let me add that at the forefront of the enthusiasm for presidential rhetoric was NBC News' ever-brilliant UpChuck Todd.

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of lawmakers formally filed an 844-page immigration bill on the Senate floor early Wednesday morning, setting the stage for months of public debate over the proposal." ...

... Nakamura & Aaron Davis of the Post: "Leading Capitol Hill opponents of a Senate proposal to overhaul the nation’s immigration system are coalescing around a strategy to kill the bill by delaying the legislative process as long as possible, providing time to offer 'poison pill' amendments aimed at breaking apart the fragile bipartisan group that developed the plan, according to lawmakers and legislative aides." ...

... Jeff Mason of Reuters: "President Barack Obama put his weight behind legislation unveiled by a bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday to reform the U.S. immigration system and urged lawmakers to advance it quickly. 'This bill is clearly a compromise, and no one will get everything they wanted, including me. But it is largely consistent with the principles that I have repeatedly laid out for comprehensive reform,' Obama said in a statement after being briefed by two of the senators involved in crafting the bill, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican John McCain."

... This Zucks. Peter Wallsten, et al., of the Washington Post: FaceBook lobbied itself into a carveout on the immigration bill, a provision which will allow it & other big tech companies to hire cheap foreign labor in lieu of U.S. workers.

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Supporters of a bipartisan background check plan were struggling Tuesday to find enough support as Senate leaders neared a deal to allow votes on other proposed changes to gun legislation.... The Senate will begin voting Wednesday on nine proposed changes to federal gun legislation, including efforts to expand background checks, ban assault weapons and increase funding for mental health programs." ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "Like many lawmakers who are opposing the Manchin-Toomey amendment for background checks, [Sen. Jeff] Flake [R-Arizona] needed an excuse to say no, so he simply invented one.... Many lawmakers of both parties would rather hide behind these flimsy excuses than offend the gun lobby and the credulous voters who follow it, putting passage of Manchin-Toomey in serious doubt." CW: they're not just lapdogs of the NRA; they are lying for the NRA & they know it.

I honestly just didn't believe GOP Senators would turn their back on 90% of Americans. I was naive. -- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

... Steve Benen: "Republicans don't just intend to defeat the measure; they intend to filibuster it. I stress the distinction because today isn't a vote on the Toomey/Manchin amendment; it's a vote on whether to have a vote." Benen also exposes Sen. Dean Heller's (R-Nev.) ridiculous "objections" to the Manchin-Toomey amendment.

... ** The Internet Gun Bazaar. Michael Luo, et al., of the New York Times: "With no requirements for background checks on most private transactions, a Times examination found, Armslist and similar sites function as unregulated bazaars, where the essential anonymity of the Internet allows unlicensed sellers to advertise scores of weapons and people legally barred from gun ownership to buy them.... The examination of Armslist raised questions about whether many sellers are essentially functioning as unlicensed firearms dealers, in contravention of federal law."

Believe it or not, the second-biggest politics-related story on the Intertoobz Tuesday was about a couple of Harvard professors who fucked up big-time, which might upset the Very Serious People who relied on the professors' fucked-up data. But it won't upset the VSPs because their only interested in "facts" that justify or support their previously-held beliefs. The easiest-to-understand exposition comes from Matt Yglesias of Slate.

... The most thorough is by Mike Konczal. ...

... Paul Krugman cuts to the chase: "... this is embarrassing and worse for [the professors]. But the really guilty parties here are all the people who seized on a [previously] disputed research result, knowing nothing about the research, because it said what they wanted to hear." Krugman has a follow-up post here; the full response from Profs. Reinhart & Rogoff is here. ...

... Dean Baker: "If facts mattered in economic policy debates, this should be the cause for a major reassessment of the deficit reduction policies being pursued in the United States and elsewhere. It should also cause reporters to be a bit slower to accept such sweeping claims at face value."

Krugman recommends Barry Ritholtz's "12 Laws of Goldbuggery." Here No. 7 (in part): "Gold is the ultimate currency.... Get yourself some gold coins and a Glock and you will be just fine when the whole world goes to shit."

Maureen Dowd writes a book report on Mark Mazzetti's book, The Way of the Knife, which examines the CIA's killer drone program: "President Obama, who continued nearly every covert program handed down by W., clearly feels tough when he talks about targeted killings, and considers drones an attractive option. As Mazzetti says, 'fundamental questions about who can be killed, where they can be killed, and when they can be killed' still have not been answered or publicly discussed."

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a House bill that would allow private companies to share information about computer security threats with government agencies, signaling once again how difficult it is to balance civil liberties and security interests in the digital era."

Local News

AP: "Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed into law a measure that outlaws abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the disputed premise that at that point a fetus can feel pain. The law signed Tuesday is the latest among a raft of measures passed in North Dakota this session that are meant to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks." ...

... Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: North Dakota State Rep. Bette Grande, a primary backer of the bill, claims that the law "will effectively convince women that they don't want to have an abortion after all." ...

... Kat Stoeffel of New York: "As for all the women who don’t change their minds, the ongoing trial of Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell is a good reminder of what happens when women can't access abortions, either because they can't afford them or laws restrict them: They get them illegally and in life-threatening conditions."

Congressional Race

Let's See How the Bickersons' Divorce Is Going. Bruce Smith of the AP: "Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's ex-wife has accused him of trespassing at her home in violation of their divorce settlement, and a judge set a hearing two days after the Republican will stand for election in his effort to mount a political comeback by winning a vacant congressional seat.... The complaint says Jenny Sanford confronted the former governor leaving her Sullivans Island home on Feb. 3 by a rear door, using his cell phone for a flashlight." According to Jenny Sanford's attorney, Mark Sanford repeatedly trespassed, despite his ex-wife's asking him to desist. CW: I'm guessing that sneaking into his former wife's house in the middle of the night is just one of the things that God told Mark would be A-okay. ...

     ... UPDATE. Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "National Republicans are abandoning former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) in the wake of his latest personal controversy, saying they won't help his House campaign in light of recent allegations from his ex-wife that he'd trespassed in her home." ...

     ... UPDATE. The Super Bowl Made Him Do It. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Former South Carolina governor and congressional candidate Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he entered his ex-wife's home in early February -- an apparent violation of the terms of their divorce settlement -- but said he did it so his son wouldn't have to watch the Super Bowl alone."

News Ledes

AP: "The wife of a former North Texas judge was charged with capital murder after confessing to her involvement in the three shooting deaths of the local district attorney, his wife and an assistant prosecutor, authorities said Wednesday. Kim Williams was arrested early Wednesday, a day after she told investigators that she and her husband, Eric Williams, were involved in the shootings of the Kaufman County district attorney, his wife and one of his prosecutors, according to documents in the case."

The Hill: "Authorities said Wednesday they had intercepted a letter to the White House that tested positive for ricin poison. The Secret Service acknowledged the letter addressed to President Obama contained a suspicious substance, and the FBI later said tests showed it was ricin, the same deadly toxin sent in a letter addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The Wicker letter was made public on Tuesday.... Fox News reported that like the letter to Wicker, the letter to Obama was sent from Memphis, Tenn. Fox News said the letters to Obama and Wicker contained similar language and are signed identically." ...

... New York Times UPDATE: "Federal agents arrested a man on Wednesday who is suspected of sending letters believed contaminated by the poison ricin to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials with knowledge of the case. The suspect was identified as Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Miss."

Boston Globe: "An official briefed on the Boston Marathon bombing investigation said today that authorities have an image of a suspect carrying, and perhaps dropping, a black bag at the second bombing scene on Boylston Street, outside of the Forum restaurant." ...

... Washington Post: "Graduate student Lingzi Lu, who came to the United States from China to study mathematics and statistics, was identified Wednesday as the third person killed in the Boston Marathon bombings."

... NEW. The New York Times The Lede has updates; the latest, at 3:07 pm ET, is that the Boston Federal Courthouse has been evacuated.

** NEW. New York Times: "Investigators have found video footage of a man who they believe may have planted the deadly bombs at the Boston Marathon, a person briefed on the matter said Wednesday, saying that they had pinpointed the image on video that was captured shortly before the blast." ...

... Fox News Atlanta has crime-scene photos of fragments of the suspected bomb device -- pressure cookers -- in the Boston Marathon bombings, & a related story. ...

... The Boston Globe's lede story on developments in the investigation & public reaction to the bombings is here. ...

... AP: "Law enforcement agencies pleaded Tuesday for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170...."

Reuters: " Two rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai peninsula struck Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on Wednesday, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said, in an attack claimed by Islamist militants.... Israel deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in Eilat some two weeks ago.... But on Wednesday, the system did not intercept the incoming missiles 'for operational reasons', the spokeswoman said, without elaborating. The attack was carried out a day after Israel celebrated its 65th anniversary."

AP: " Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Iron Lady, was laid to rest Wednesday with a level of pomp and protest reflecting her status as a commanding, polarizing political figure. Queen Elizabeth II, prime ministers and dignitaries from 170 countries were among the mourners at St. Paul's Cathedral, where Bishop of London Richard Chartres spoke of the strong feelings the former prime minister still evokes 23 years after leaving office." The Guardian is liveblogging the funeral.