Happy Friday morning! The weekend is fast approaching. In the meantime, here are some of the stories we’re reading this AM at Moyers & Company HQ…
Nuclear winter –> The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein offers nine reasons why the filibuster reform Senate Dems accomplished yesterday is a big deal. ALSO: At Slate, John Dickerson writes that the old senate we learned about in school was already dead. AND: TAP’s Paul Waldman says Republican threats of retaliation are hollow because they were already pursuing a strategy that brooked no compromise.
Collateral –> Ismail Khan reports for The New York Times that a suspected US drone strike on a seminary in Pakistan killed both alleged militants and some students.
Didn’t go according to plan –> John Boehner signs up for Obamacare as a political stunt. The speaker got enrolled with some minor hassles and, according to Brian Buetler at Salon, he got a pretty good deal. ALSO: Jeff Shesol argues at The New Yorker that the ACA has been hobbled from the start by an opposition that no longer cares about competence in government.
Police Gone Wild –> The Miami Herald’s Julie Brown has an eye-opening, must-read report about police harassing and repeatedly arresting the workers at a grocery store in a high-crime, predominantly black area. All of it was caught on tape after the store’s owner installed cameras to catch the cops in action.
LIZ!! –> At The New Republic, David Dayen says financial reform is going to get a second wind, and Elizabeth Warren will be leading the fight.
No privacy for you! –> Foreign Policy’s Colum Lynch on US efforts to derail a UN movement to establish a right to online privacy.
Cruelest cuts –> Mother Jones’ Erika Eichelberger reports that some House Democrats are trying to kill the farm bill in order to spare deep cuts to the food-stamp program. ALSO: Dave Lindorff feels a tectonic shift is underway as Americans coalesce behind the idea of improving “entitlements” rather than slashing them.
Meanwhile –> Joe Conason writes at AlterNet that Paul Ryan is trying to revive “compassionate conservatism,” but that the policies he’s promoting espouse volunteering and charity — and slashing government programs for the poor. ALSO: Scott Keyes looks at Fox News’ endless derision of the homeless for ThinkProgress.
Two-tiered –> ACLU challenging Arkansas split voting system, with different standards for federal and state races.
Tea partiers =/= Socialist Workers Party members –> FEC rejects tea party group’s request for an exemption from disclosure laws; rules that its members aren’t facing harrassment or retribution. Byron Tau reports for Politico.
Market price –> Joseph Romm reports for ThinkProgress that Shell Oil internally prices carbon emissions at a rate that would bring radical change to the world’s energy consumption patterns were it the law of the land.
Obama told those turkeys, “If you like your life, you can keep it” –> At National Journal, Matt Berman and Brian Resnick report that all eight of the turkeys pardoned by this president have died shortly afterwards because factory-farmed turkeys are just too fat to live.
Oklahetera –> Stephen Colbert looks at Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s decision to stop issuing spousal benefits to all National Guard troops in order to withhold them from same-sex spouses.
What else is going on? Tell us in the comments!
