US Politics

The entire Jewish world has heard of Krystallnacht. Yet very few have even heard of the Farhud, where Nazi sympathizers in Baghdad, killed, maimed and committed numerous atrocities aginst the Jewish population on the two days of Shabu'oth in 1941. The Farhud took place Sunday and Monday, June 1st and 2nd 1941, the two days of Shabu'oth. The word Farhud denotes the breakdown of law and order, where life and property are in peril. Jews lived in Babylonia (modern Iraq) for over 2,400 years, since the destruction of the first Beth Hamiqdash. Jews were treated tolerantly by the Moslems and, while abuses (such as hooliganism, snatching of men's fez caps and even murders) had been recorded from time to time, the Farhud is the only sad event of sizable magnitude. - Eric from Bookmarklet

"New Poll Reveals 37 Percent Of Americans Feel Negative Impact From Sequestration. A May 24 ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 37 percent of Americans reported feeling the effects of sequestration, up 12 percentage points from a poll conducted in March." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"Fifty-Six Percent Of Americans Now Disapprove Of Sequestration. The ABC News/Washington Post poll also revealed a sizeable and growing majority -- 56 percent -- opposed to the across the board spending cuts, a significant change compared to a March poll that showed the public supported sequestration by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio, at 61-33 percent." - Andrew C (✓)

"Media Mentions Of Sequestration Fall. From March 4 to May 26, segments on broadcast and cable evening news mentioning the across the board spending cuts dropped precipitously. In the week of March 4 to March 10, 105 total segments mentioned sequestration, while during the week of May 20 to May 26, only seven segments mentioned sequestration." - Andrew C (✓)

"1.5 million low-income Texans may go without health care coverage after lawmakers in the state voted against expanding Medicaid using $100 billion in federal funds offered under President Obama’s health care law. The decision comes almost a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot require states to enroll more Medicaid beneficiaries. The proposal, sent to Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Sunday, says state health officials “may only provide medical assistance to a person who would have been otherwise eligible for medical assistance or for whom federal matching funds were available under the eligibility criteria for medical assistance in effect on December 31, 2013.”" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

yup, sounds like the Texas GOP. burn in Hell, fuckers. - Joe Silence

""So, you may have a question for me," Whitehouse said. "Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I'll tell you why. We're stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn't just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we're in this together."" - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"Frankly, it's about damn time for this [a Constitutional amendment to provide an affirmative right to vote], and it's long past time for the entire Democratic party, its fractious universe of progressive auxiliaries, and the president of the United States to get behind it and give it one mighty shove. It might also be the last chance they have to do anything about what's going on out in the states." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"My money says that the Supreme Court is poised next month to gut the Voting Rights Act. The hair-curling contempt demonstrated by Antonin Scalia toward the franchise -- both during the oral arguments about the VRA a few months ago, and in the Bush v. Gore decision -- is the clearest indication of the attitude on the other side of this debate. [...] If the Court goes he way I think it... more... - Andrew C (✓)

Fighting a pre-emptive war against foreign jihadists is not the usual mission for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group best known for confronting Israel. So when its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, explained why he was sending fighters into Syria, he took care to remind his followers that they were not “living in Djibouti” but on the border of a country whose two-year uprising Hezbollah sees as a threat to its existence. - Eric from Bookmarklet

This spring's cold is not simply about magnitude, but also persistence. The map above at right shows the incredible persistence of the cold since April 1. Through May 16, Fairbanks has registered 43 straight days colder than average. When is the last time you saw such a cold streak elsewhere in the Lower 48 States? April was the coldest on record in Fairbanks and the coldest since 1985 for the state. Oh yes...and then there's a forecast of snow! Record Late Snow Ahead In records dating to 1916, the latest-in-season one-inch-plus snowfall in Anchorage was May 9, 1963. It may be time to rewrite that record. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Cabela’s sells everything from fishing rods to wool slippers. But guns are the real moneymaker, and while fears of future gun restrictions have spurred sales for the entire industry, no company has benefited quite like Cabela’s. Shares have increased by 95% in the last year and are up more than 70% already in 2013. That makes Cabela’s stock the best-performing in the firearms industry and one of the top-performing stocks in the U.S. in the last year. The company’s two biggest shareholders, founders Richard and James Cabela, have seen the value of their combined 25% stake jump to $1.2 billion from $750 million at the start of 2013. About one-third of Cabela’s $3.1 billion in sales last year came from firearms, ammunition and accessories, and a substantial amount of its all-important sales growth came from its gun business. Cabela’s first-quarter 2013 same-store sales growth was 24%, but it was only 9% excluding firearms and ammunition. The company set a new record for first-quarter revenue, which increased 28.7% to $802.5 million. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Translation: the hype created by the people who would benefit the most from the hype actually turned out to benefit them the most. - Todd Hoff

I wrote several years ago that Japan is a bug in search of a windshield. And in January I wrote that 2013 is the Year of the Windshield. The recent volatility in Japanese markets is breathtaking but characteristic of what one should come to expect from a country that is on the brink of fiscal and economic disaster. I don't mean to be trite, from a global perspective; Japan is not Greece: Japan is the third-largest economy in the world. Its biggest banks are on a par with those of the US. It is a global power in trade and trade finance. Its currency has reserve status. It has two of the world’s six largest corporations and 71 of the largest 500, surpassed only by the US and comfortably ahead of China, with 46. Even with the rest of Asia's big companies combined with China's, the total barely surpasses Japan's - Eric from Bookmarklet

"More than any other group, the high-tech industry got big wins in an immigration bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, thanks to a concerted lobbying effort, an ideally positioned Senate ally and relatively weak opposition." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"For quite some time, I have been predicting that Obamacare would likely mean higher insurance rates in the individual market for the “young immortals” and others under the age of 40. At the same time, my expectation was that those who fall into the older age ranges would benefit greatly as their premium charges would be lowered thanks to the Affordable Care Act. It is increasingly clear that I had it wrong." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

GMTA - Joe Silence

"As Gov. Bobby Jindal tries again to fund his controversial school voucher program, new test scores indicate that many of the current students educated with public money in private schools are not thriving. Or at least they aren't yet. Released Wednesday, LEAP scores for third- through eighth-graders show only 40 percent of voucher students scored at or above grade level this past spring. The state average for all students was 69 percent. For accountability purposes, students attending private schools at taxpayer expense take the same standardized tests as their peers in public schools. In 2011, when the voucher program operated only in New Orleans, students averaged 33 percent proficiency. Now seven schools in Jefferson and Orleans parishes have results so low -- less than 25 percent of voucher students proficient for three years running -- that they have been barred from accepting new voucher students in the fall, as per state policy. In Orleans, the schools are Life of Christ... more... - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Accountability! - Andrew C (✓)

But seriously, what's going to happen to those kids? I would assume schools barred from taking voucher students are going to close -- why would people who could afford them send their kids there? -- and presumably public schools are going to have to take in the displaced students. - Andrew C (✓)

"So what is it with New Republic alumni? First Michael Kinsley, then Charles Lane, weigh in with defenses of austerity that aren't just wrong, but painfully ill-informed. Kinsley not only makes a really bad analogy between current events and the 1970s, he seems not to know anything about what happened in the 1970s either. Lane attacks stimulus advocates for failing to address an argument that I actually discussed, at length, in my last column but one." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"And if this leads to hurt feelings - well, this is not a game. We're having a discussion about policies that affect tens of millions of people. And you have no business participating in this discussion if you're so busy trying to sound clever that you can't be bothered to do your homework." - Andrew C (✓)

"PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the office of America’s self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people. The 142-page decision by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in Phoenix backs up allegations that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s critics have made for years that his officers rely on race in their immigration enforcement. Snow also ruled Arpaio’s deputies unreasonably prolonged the detentions of people who were pulled over." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

In other news, water wet. - Jonas, Leper of FF

"By now, most folks have heard about Rep. Tom Cotton, a rising conservative star from Arkansas who is already being touted as being central to the new young guns -- the old young guns, like Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, already apparently disappearing into the mists of Dirksenland -- who will help re-brand the Republicans for the next part of the new millennium. You may also have heard that young Tom Cotton has an interesting position on the concept of "collective guilt," which, of course, did practically no damage in the previous century whatsoever." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

more from the same HuffPo piece: ""Iranian citizens do not have constitutional rights under the United States Constitution," Cotton said. "I sympathize with their plight if they are harmless, innocent civilians in Iran. I doubt that that is often the case." The Fifth Amendment reads "no person ... shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and makes no... more... - Andrew C (✓)

[re the Detroit emergency manager suggesting that maybe Detroit's museum collection could be sold off to pay the city's debts:] "Our Galtian Overlords are going to steal everything that isn't nailed down, then everything that is." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

The emergency manager's spokesperson: ""The creditors can really force the issue," Nowling said. "If you go into court, they can object and say, 'Hey, I'm taking a huge haircut, and you've got a billion dollars worth of art sitting over there.' " Nowling said that some creditors already have asked Orr whether the DIA collection is "on the table." Nowling would not identify which... more... - Andrew C (✓)

"House members writing a bipartisan immigration bill said Thursday they had patched over a dispute that threatened their efforts" - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

A single-edition "Chuck Card," good for life, is being stamped in Ramsey's honor. Anytime that Ramsey takes the card into one of the participating restaurants, he'll get a free burger. - Eric from Bookmarklet

"Sen. Bernie Sanders called on Tuesday for an investigation into oil price manipulation. He also proposed a 30-day deadline for federal regulators to use emergency powers to curb excessive speculation in crude oil markets. Over the past five months, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline has gone up by more than 41 cents. The price hikes come at a time when U.S. oil inventories reached a three-decade high while demand for gasoline is lower than four years ago when prices averaged less than $2.30 a gallon. Sanders spoke about rapidly rising gas prices during a Senate floor speech on two amendments he proposed to the farm bill." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

"More than 100 conservative economists will call on Congress to approve an immigration overhaul, highlighting the potential economic benefits." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

[In an April 28, 2011 statement while he was a Senate candidate,] ""Rev. [Charles Wallace] Smith must not have understood the 3/5ths clause was an anti-slavery amendment. Its purpose was to limit the voting power of slave holding states," Jackson, an African-American, [and the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in Virginia] said in his statement. This is a deeply misleading telling of American constitutional history." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"The clause was demanded by Southern proponents of slavery as a way of enhancing their congressional representation. They wanted slaves to be counted as full persons but settled on three-fifths. People of African descent would have had no real rights either way. The inclusion of the clause greatly enhanced the South's political power and made it harder to abolish slavery. The clause was effectively eliminated after the Civil War by the Thirteenth Amendment." - Andrew C (✓)

"When the Senate Judiciary Committee meets on Monday to resume marking up an immigration bill, it will have two weeks of solid achievement to build on. The bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that drafted the deal has so far held together. The full committee has rejected an array of amendments designed to cripple or kill the bill, while adopting technical fixes and other amendments to make the system fairer, smarter and more generous." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma voted against the Hurricane Sandy relief package, arguing at the time that the bill was a "slush fund." But on MSNBC this morning he suggested that he would support disaster aid for Oklahoma, because that process will be "totally different."" - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

"The Sandy bill, he said, was unnecessarily expansive. [...] But "that won't happen in Oklahoma," he said, not specifying why he was so sure." - Andrew C (✓)

"Mr. Inhofe's Oklahoma colleague, Senator Tom Coburn, who also voted against Sandy relief, seemed more sensitive to possible allegations of hypocrisy. He stressed that he would "absolutely" demand budget cuts to offset federal assistance. Of course he also promised that "any and all available aid will be delivered without delay." That's exactly as it should be. Residents of New York and New Jersey, however, certainly did not get that treatment. They had to wait out months of Republican obstruction."" - Andrew C (✓)

"We could build the California HSR [a 16+ year project] for this, basically. And we spend it every year [on the war in Afghanistan]." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

Some figures put California's HSR phase 1 at $68B, so I don't know if he's counting phase 2, transposed the digits, or just assumes phase 1 will overrun its projected costs. - Andrew C (✓)

"What happened is clear. [Jonathan] Karl lied to us [about the stupid Benghazi thing] because he trusted his source. His source, however, burned him, and Karl's lie was exposed. Instead of burning his source to show that he takes this matter seriously and won't be lied to again, he is doubling down and protecting his source, because as we all know with our current media, access is more important to accuracy. If the editors at ABC News had any damned integrity, Karl would be forced to expose his source, apologize, and then take a couple weeks off. Maybe some summer school ethics course." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet

Many factors are acknowledged as contributing to GM’s decline: it juggled too many brands, over-extended its dealer network, failed to respond rapidly to market cues, and struggled to work with its union, the United Auto Workers. But the extent of its problems with the UAW is astonishing—and the problems themselves warrant explanation. Consider some of the onerous arrangements that GM’s management agreed to. Labor costs for a typical UAW worker at a GM plant were by some estimates $73 per hour—compared to the $44 per hour for workers at non-unionized Toyota and Honda plants in the U.S. Or take the infamous “jobs bank”: surplus workers, rather than getting laid off, would receive 95% of their full salaries plus benefits while the company waited to reassign them. But instead of being temporarily idle, thousands of “bankers” would be there for months, if not years, while they watched movies, solved crosswords, and just passed the time. Some senior employees would even pull strings to get... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet

"Doug Altner is analyst and instructor at the Ayn Rand Institute" - and now I understand why he left out those points. - Andrew C (✓)

"The Senate Judiciary Committee will almost certainly pass the sprawling immigration overhaul bill by the end of the week" - LANjackal from Bookmarklet