"I am not Maliki and Afghanistan is not Iraq." Afghan candidate tells AP's @jdaniszewski that vote deal will work
http://t.co/...
— @TamerFakahany
Michael Catalini:
Inside the offices of Republican gay-rights groups, a strategy is forming to convince party leaders to strip opposition to gay marriage from the GOP platform.
The target, operatives say, is to see party leaders drop their support for a gay-marriage ban in time for the Republican National Convention in summer 2016.
It's a long shot, but Republican gay-rights lobbyists think they can build on the momentum provided by courts nationwide and the belief that, philosophically, the GOP's social conservatives are fighting a battle that puts them well out of step with the majority of the country, and that could demographically doom national aspirations.
Kathryn Pogin/NY Times:
Much to the chagrin of women’s rights advocates, Hobby Lobby has won its legal battle — but claims of “victory” for religious freedom must be emended. Make no mistake: This is no victory for the freedom to exercise Christian principles. Though employers like Hobby Lobby are now free to deny women access to contraceptives through their employer-subsidized health plans on the basis of religious objection, they will be violating their own purported Christian principles if they do. While Christians are not compelled by their faith to engage in religious practices that impose upon the freedoms of others, they are compelled — by their belief that all persons, men and women, are created in the image of God — to oppose discrimination.
This is pretty scary (
Fiscal Times):
Young people are generally healthy. But when 36-year-old Jessica Rich was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this year, she didn’t choose the conventional medical treatment and prescription drugs that would have attempted to slow the disease’s progress, prevent disability, and control pain. Instead, she opted for alternative treatments.
Rich’s traditional Chinese doctor prescribes herbs, and she’s also seen other alternative medicine experts, including a naturopath, a medic intuitive, and an energy healer – all at a whopping cost of $5,600. Her parents paid for most of this.
Sometimes I think alternative medicine is just for rich people. But, you know, they deserve better, too.
More politics and policy below the fold.
BREAKING: Americans hate complexity. Want simpler world. Blame Obama but hate Republicans. News at 6.
— @DemFromCT
Alex Roarty:
This month's surprisingly strong jobs report elicited fresh optimism that at long last, the economy was poised to recover its full strength. And in Washington, naturally, the question quickly became: Would Democratic candidates receive an unexpected boost from a late-in-the-election-cycle economic surge?
The short answer? Don't count on it. Even if job gains do spike—and there's plenty of reluctance to predict an accelerating recovery after years of stop-and-start growth—it's unlikely voters will feel demonstrably better about the economy in time for November. Ultimately, how voters feel about the economy and their own financial situation is what matters when they step in the polling booth—not abstract economic data.
Emma Roller:
It's a well-worn piece of conventional wisdom: The economy is the dominant factor in presidential elections. But what about in midterm years?
It's easy to get caught up in the gaffe-of-the-day coverage that congressional campaigns attract, but if you want to have a good handle on the state of the midterm elections, it's more useful to think about the fundamentals. As Ezra Klein wrote in 2010, "We think of campaigns in terms of people, but they're often decided by circumstances."
For midterms, the economy may not matter as much as you'd think. But while the state of the economy may not be the deciding factor in midterms, as it often is during presidential elections, it's often the issue at the forefront of voters' minds.
Helen Branswell:
There had to be a sinking feeling in the chest of every researcher who works in a high-containment research laboratory last Friday when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its report on three worrisome incidents that raised safety questions at two well-respected government facilities. But it is likely the sensation was most acute for the influenza scientists who work in a controversial field known as gain-of-function research.
On Friday Director Tom Frieden revealed that someone in the CDC's influenza division had accidentally contaminated a vial of a relatively mild bird flu virus with the worst one known, H5N1. The Atlanta-based CDC then shipped the vial to unsuspecting researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory up the road in Athens, Ga., who used its contents to infect some unlucky chickens.
There is no suggestion the unfortunate event was anything other than human error, and no one—except the chickens—was made ill as a result of the mistake. But the fact that it happened, and could happen again, has given valuable ammunition to a group of scientists who have been arguing for the past couple of years that gain-of-function work on influenza viruses is too dangerous to undertake.
We've written about this and the work of Marc Lipsitch (mentioned in the article )
here and
here.
Lastly, a trio of education pieces:
First off, Tim Fournier's License to Loot: How Michigan charter schools became prime feasting ground for edu-vultures. Next, Why many Democrats have turned against teachers unions featuring Jeff Bryant. And finally, Governors group skirts ‘radioactive’ Common Core. That Common Core was developed in part by the governors in 2009 should not be lost on anyone.
Ron Brownstein:
HALF OF AMERICA
Why it's becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to be president of the entire United States.
Good piece, but Brownstein left out this from
Emily Swanson:
Two-Thirds Of Republicans Think Impeaching Obama Would Be Justified
With that many nutters, of course it's difficult.
Mike Weisser on proposed Massachusetts gun law changes:
Last week the Massachusetts Assembly voted on a gun bill that was initially submitted to the legislature last year by Governor Deval Patrick following Sandy Hook. The bill was debated at a half-dozen public forums attended by advocates on both sides, went through any number of iterations and finally appears to be making its way for final passage and approval before this year's legislative ends on July 31st.
In fact, the bill doesn't contain a single change in the current law covering how state residents purchase or transfer guns. The only change that has any application to gun ownership clarifies the manner in which town police chiefs, who are the "issuing authority" for gun licenses, can determine how and when an applicant for a gun license could be denied either the license itself or the Concealed Carry (CCW) privilege even if they meet the legal requirements for the basic license or, as it is known, the LTC-A.
So the changes in current gun law as it impacts gun owners are benign and slight. But the changes were very significant in areas that have never been the focus of gun bills before; namely, in issues relating to safe schools, mental health and, most of all, suicide and guns. The law requires every school district to create a plan to deal with in-school emergency events; to develop a "safe and supportive school" plan to help identify and treat troubled student who might become risks to themselves or others; and to hire a resource office to help implement safety and security in the schools.
First Read:
Democrats hold single-digit leads in the key Senate contests of Colorado and Michigan, as well as in Colorado’s gubernatorial race, according to new NBC News/Marist polls of these two states.
But with less than four months to go until Election Day, Republicans are narrowly ahead in the race for Michigan governor.
Read that with this, nice state by state look from
Stu Rothenberg.