• Nominations: Thanks to McConnell insisting that Democrats vote against a law to punish sex traffickers, Loretta Lynch, Obama's nominee to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, is not due to be voted on until mid-April at the earliest, making her soon to be the nominee who has waited the longest for confirmation since Bill Clinton took office. Recent counts of likely votes suggest that Lynch may be broadly rejected by Republicans, and will require Biden to tiebreak a 50/50 vote. Lindsay Graham is one of only four Republicans who has announced his support for Lynch's nomination, which puts him at odds with good friend John McCain, who has vowed to vote against. McCain and others' lobbying of fellow Republicans may make or break Lynch's nomination.
  
• Obamacare: Surprise! Some people actually like Obamacare! Even Ted Cruz is jumping on board (sorta)! But that doesn't mean that Republicans aren't thinking about shoving an end to Obamacare into this year's budget through reconciliation. Meanwhile, SCOTUS heard King v. Burwell earlier in the month. Some unrelated comments from Kennedy later in the month have some people wondering if this really is the case that will kill Obamacare dead. (Other pundits think not.)
  
• Banking and Finance: Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) would like Dodd-Frank and CFPB regulations require review every 10 years, under the same terms as the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996., paving the way for their repeal after they are deemed "outdated" by the FFIEC, a body incorporating the Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, NCUA, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and CFPB.
  
• Budget and Appropriations: Well, John Boehner caved, and DHS funding was passed with no strings and Democratic support at the last minute, ending the 2015 fiscal budget battles. Don't worry though, because the 2016 battle is just heating up! Tom Price's House Budget Committee put out their proposed budget last month, but not without controversy, as Republican in-fighting seemed to affect even the Budget committee. As the committee could not decide on whether to offset extra military spending or require cuts in other spending in the long term, the House ultimately had to use an obscure legislative procedure known as "Queen of the Hill" in which the budget with the most votes would be approved as the official budget resolution of the House. It should come as no surprise that both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucus budgets were voted down, but in the end funding Lockheed Martin and other military contractors won out. The budget resolution is non-binding, but as passed contains a litany of Republican wishes, including voucherizing Medicare, turning Medicaid into block grants, repealing Obamacare, cutting food stamps by 1/3, freeze Pell grant funding levels for 10 years, cut another $1.1 trillion dollars from other mandatory spending, boost defense spending, and reform taxes to lower rates for the highest earners. Debate on the budget will continue to heat up as we head later in the year, and we may very well see another chance at a Grand Bargain, if not another shutdown as fights between fiscal conservatives, Democrats and hawks continue. One thing's for sure though: it's very likely that Congress will use the power of the purse to the greatest degree possible, killing any and every Democratic program they can by defunding them. The FCC, EPA, and immigration have all been mentioned as possible targets. Oh, and as for the debt ceiling? It's now in play again, as the suspension was ended on March 15. Turns out that's okay though, since we can employ emergency measures again... Which should end right after the budget is supposed to be done...
  
• Trade: TPP "fast track" authorization is moving ahead, but slowly, as Sen. Wyden (D-OR) refuses to give his approval. Meanwhile, Wikileaks has returned to the scene to leak the chapter on investments (which contains widely expected language authorizing corporations to sue countries who hurt their business).
  
• Cybersecurity and Telecommunications: As mentioned last month, Republicans are very angry about net neutrality passing, and are tossing around the idea of defunding enforcement efforts. A Republican FCC member has officially called on Congress to undermine his own agency by doing just that. (You won't be surprised to learn who's backing the astroturf efforts.) Meanwhile, the latest version of CISPA cleared a crucial hurdle in a Senate committee, with only Wyden voting against, expressing concern that it would legitimize additional surveillance by not offering privacy protections on information shared with the government.
  
• Social Security and Entitlements: Entitlement reform is back on the table, as the House has approved a permanent "doc fix", at the cost of some abortion language and a shorter re-up of the Children's Health Insurance Program than normal. The bill institutes a deductible for Medigap plans as well as means-testing for some Medicare programs.
  
• Gun Control: No word on the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, but the NRA did cause the ATF to shelve a briefly discussed plan to ban one of over 168 types of bullets that can be used in an AR-15. Meanwhile, Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have once again floated the Sportsmen's Act, which, among other things, provides a permanent exemption for the use of lead shot with respect to environmental laws.
  
• Environment: The Senate failed to override Obama's veto on Keystone XL, 62-37. Oh well, there's plenty else to pass, like two bills regarding "secret science" and scientific advisory boards (read: scientific studies with confidential patient information withheld for privacy reasons) which passed the House this month. Changes to the advisory boards would effectively ban scientists from the boards from referencing their own work, while explicitly permitting industry-paid scientists on the boards. Obama has vowed a veto of both bills. For McConnell's part, the Senate has signalled that it too will continue to fight EPA regulations, with McConnell passing a non-binding amendment to the Senate budget resolution preventing the White House from withholding highway funds for not filing plans on how to meet EPA emissions targets and calling on governors to do just that.
  
• Immigration: After much last-minute concern, John Boehner finally relented and passed the Senate DHS funding bill with Democratic help, though Republicans swear its not over. Meanwhile, Obama finally appealed the hold on his immigration plans at the end of last month.
  
• War on Terror: Obama's call for an AUMF against ISIS has fallen on deaf ears.] At the same time, following his open letter (more on that in a bit), Tom Cotton called for an end to the sequester (on the military only) positioning himself clearly as the leader of the new hawks in the Senate. In making this request, Cotton asked for more than $600b for the military, more than the $534b requested by Obama or even the $577b proposed by elder hawk McCain. The House budget proposal that recently passed also added $56b more than the Joint Chiefs of Staff requested in the off-budget war account, with no cuts to offset the expenses.
  
• The Torture Report and the NSA: It turns out that even the NSA had misgivings about the phone tracking program, before turning to defend it fiercely after the Snowden leaks. Meanwhile, Wikimedia is suing the NSA for spying, as it believes that its mention in an NSA document leaked by Snowden will give them standing to oppose the NSA's actions. it won't
  
• Foreign Policy: Following Netanyahu's speech to Congress at the beginning of the month, Senate Republicans shocked the country by largely lining up behind freshman Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and signing a letter which threatens to revoke any executive agreement Obama makes after they take the presidency in 2016. But the letter appears to have done what it was intended to do, and it will likely keep working its magic for years to come.
  
• War on Drugs: A bipartisan effort to okay medical marijuana is unlikely to leave committee, as elder Senators appear to oppose it.
  
• Abortion: Congress has been relatively quiet on the issue following the bruise received in January (which has angered pro-life advocates who want that bill back on the table now, not later), though an anti-human trafficking bill is stalled in the Senate for Hyde Amendment-like language, and the latest Medicare "doc fix" has suffered criticisms for similar language. Rest assured though, the states have got you covered (although Republicans in Wisconsin recently suffered a defeat in that regard). Yes, you read those two last ones right, Kansas and Oklahoma are currently on the verge of de facto banning second-trimester abortions.
  
• New! Gay Rights: While Republicans aren't exactly chomping at the bit to follow Indiana's lead on saying that being a bigot is AOK, Ted Cruz doesn't like two pro-gay rights laws passed by Washington DC.
  

• 2016.
  
• No really, Ted Cruz launched his campaign, and Rand Paul and Rubio are not far behind.
  
• And Harry Reid is retiring and won't be running again in 2016. Right wing conspiracy theorists know that Reid was done in by the mob he had to have been working for for years. Either way, this is good news for Republicans, as it now gives them a leg up on holding the Senate.
  
• While discussions about 2016 election news in the USPol thread is inevitable, please remember that we do have a 2016 Presidential Primary thread and a 2016 Senate elections thread, too.
  
• Court analysts see SCOTUS likely striking down independent redistricting commissions passed by citizen initiative, which would invalidate Arizona and California district maps.
  
• The Florida House Civil Rights Subcommittee approved a bill to jail transgender people who use the restroom of their true gender and permit civil suits against business owners who look the other way when they do.
  
• ~racism is dead~
  
• The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, has been getting stonewalled when he's asked to visit places where known terrorist suspects have been or are currently being housed. This is probably not surprising given what he reported on from his visit to California's pioneering supermax prison, Pelican Bay.
  
• The DOJ released its report on the Ferguson police department at the beginning of the month. Its mayor wants to let us know that maybe that report is a little too focused on race, don't you think?
  
• Republicans are very angry that Hillary ran her e-mail on a private server. While there are legitimate issues raised by this poor OpSec practice, most Republicans are really just interested in taking down the Democratic frontrunner for 2016.
  
• Obama told the UN he basically wants to commit to the agreement he signed with China on global warming. Florida would rather stick their heads in the sand.
  

• Slavery by Another Name
  
• Citizenfour (Laura Poitras's companion pieces My Country, My Country and The Oath are useful for additional context on the impact of the US war on terror in the Middle East)
  

• The Atlantic
  
  • "The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    
  • "The Tragedy of the American Military" by James Fallows
    

• Punishment and Inequality in America by Bruce Western
  
• The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
  
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  
• Matt Taibbi's
  
  • The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap and
    
  • Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
    
• Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow
  
• Rick Perlstein's trilogy on the history of the modern conservative movement:
  
  • Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
    
  • Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
    
  • The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
    
• Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party by Geoffrey Kabaservice
  

• @costareports (Robert Costa, Washington Post, formerly National Review): Conservative-leaning journalist to whom Republican sources often leak backroom stories (Republican retreats, Presidential campaigns, etc.)
  
• @daveweigel (Dave Weigel, Bloomberg Politics, formerly Slate): "Idiosyncratic libertarian" journalist who is second only to Robert Costa in connections/interviews with Republican officials. Contrary to popular belief, not D&D superstar Joementum.
  
• @BruceBartlett (Bruce Bartlett, ex-Reagan/Bush official): "Lifelong conservative who now thinks the GOP panders to fools, whom he calls wankers. My tweets should not always be taken seriously."
  
• The following are semi-random selections from a list offered by Rygar201 and may be good or bad.
  
  • @owillis (Olivier Willis, research fellow, Media Matters)
    
  • @mattyglesias (Matt Yglesias, executive editor, Vox)
    
  • @JuddLegum (Judd Legum, Editor-in-Chief, Think Progress)
    
  • @dick_nixon "37th President of the United States. Messages from the President are unsigned, others from Ronald Ziegler. "
    
  • @EricBoehlert (Eric Boehlert, Media Matters)
    
  • @JamilSmith (Jamil Smith, senior editor, The New Republic)
    
  • @jonathanchait (Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine)
    
  • @nielslesniewski (Neils Lesniewski, Senate coverage, Roll Call)
    
  • @abwhite7 (Abraham White, former comms for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY))
    
  • @DSenFloor (Senate D Floor Watch): "Live floor updates from the Senate Democrats"
    
  • @billmon1 (Billmon)
    
  • @ebruenig (Elizabeth Bruenig, The New Republic)
    

Spaceman Future! fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Apr 1, 2015

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Spaceman Future! fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Apr 1, 2015