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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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Wed Feb. 12, 2014
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant-do-while-black
These 21 things are based on events. You will be able to click on each one to learn what happened to each Black victim.
ALWAYS follow the money, folks.
Remember that Shaq endorsement of Governor Krispy Kreme?
Well, it seems as if one of the ‘investment groups’ that Shaq’s involved with was one of the big beneficiaries of Sandy Money – to the tune of $6 million bucks…
for a city that was hardly hit by Sandy.
Uh huh
Uh huh.
ALWAYS follow the $$$$$$
The University of Chicago just doesn’t need it. I would love to see it at the Bronzeville site, because, for transportation purposes, as well as the site itself…
crudely put..
they’ve already taken the land for the Bronzeville site,(for the failed Olympic Bid) so there will be no displacing of residents.
Whereas if it’s at UC, that means that some Black folk will be thrown out of their homes for it.
…………………………………………………………………….
Rival Chicago groups clash over Obama library bid
by Jason Keyser, Associated Press | February 13, 2014 at 11:50 AM
Barack Obama‘s journey from community organizer to lawmaker to president was also a journey through several different Chicagos, from the city’s isolated and neglected Far South Side to its elite centers of political and social power.
So it’s perhaps no surprise that the contest to host his presidential library has set off some classic Chicago infighting between activists in depressed neighborhoods and wealthy universities.
The library is “such a prize that nobody is going to yield power to anybody else,” veteran Chicago political analyst Don Rose said.
The squabble also puts Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, in the difficult position of trying to present a single, unified bid, lest the feuding weaken the city’s odds against rival campaigns to put the library in New York or Hawaii.
The main point of tension is between the University of Chicago, where Obama spent 12 years as a constitutional law professor until his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate, and a group advocating for Bronzeville, the city’s historic center of black culture, business and politics.
“They think that they can get whatever they want,” Bronzeville organizer Harold Lucas said of the university. “If you compare the cranes in the sky and that opulent growth of this university to the surrounding, predominantly African-American community, it’s a travesty. It’s a clear tale of two cities.”
Lucas and other critics of the university’s bid say the school has been secretly working its White House connections at the expense of a plan that would benefit more of the city and honor the black community’s role in electing the nation’s first black president.
http://thegrio.com/2014/02/13/rival-chicago-groups-clash-over-obama-library-bid/#s:obama-library-2
February 13, 2014 11:51 AM
Christie the Double-Dealer
By Ed Kilgore
TNR’s Alec MacGillis has trained his gimlet eye on the full record of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and its relationship to his current problems, and demonstrated pretty clearly that the “BridgeGate” scandal is not some act of hubris by an ambitious pol and/or his staff, but the logical culmination of Christie’s entire modus operandi. As a prosecutor, MacGillis shows, Christie was the master of using prosecutorial discretion to curry favor with some corrupt figures even as he went after others:
As governor, the same sort of get-with-the-program-or-I’ll-destroy-you approach has been key to his “bipartisanship” and his “reform” initiatives:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/christie_the_doubledealer049061.php
Kansas Bill Would Allow Companies To Refuse Service To Gay Couples
Dylan Scott – February 13, 2014, 1:01 PM EST
A bill passed Wednesday by the Kansas House would allow businesses and government employees to deny services to same-sex couples on the basis of their religious beliefs, the Kansas City Star reported.
It now heads to the state Senate; it has already earned the tacit endorsement of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
“Religious liberty issues are ones that I’ve been around for a long time. I’ve fought for religious liberty in many countries and with many different faiths,” Brownback told the Wichita Eagle last week, adding that he had not reviewed the bill’s specific language yet. “It’s basic in the Bill of Rights.”
The bill says individuals and religious entities would not be required, if they had “sincerely held religious beliefs,” to:
Provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges; provide counseling, adoption, foster care and other social services; or provide employment or employment benefits, related to, or related to the celebration of, any marriage, domestic partnership, civil union or similar arrangement
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kansas-gay-couples-refuse-services-bill
Morning Plum: GOP should cut right wing loose on immigration
By Greg Sargent
February 13 at 9:07 am
The Glorious Debt Limit Struggle of 2014 ended with a whimper, but it accomplished something important: it showcased the true nature of what’s driving today’s GOP with a level of clarity that even those most determined to ignore can no longer avoid.
This has major implications for another looming challenge: immigration reform.
Some of us have long argued that today’s GOP is in a kind of “post-policy” phase, in which underlying structural factors have rendered it mostly incapable of entering into normal give-and-take governing with Democrats — even when GOP leaders and mainstream conservatives want accommodation with them. The incentives push the other way: population distribution patterns and gerrymandering have locked individual lawmakers away in deep red districts, insulated from national opinion, where primaries are their number one threat; absolute resistance to Obama ensures plaudits from the Conservative Entertainment Complex.
Today’s New York Times has a great piece by Carl Hulse that spells this out, albeit politely. He pinpoints the root of today’s dysfunction: many Republicans “hope Yes,” but “vote No.” They were constrained by incentives from voting for the debt limit hike, even though they knew it was right for the country and their party:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/02/13/morning-plum-gop-should-cut-right-wing-loose-on-immigration/
February 12, 2014 3:45 PM
Cruz Forces McConnell’s Hand
By Ed Kilgore
There’s obviously no love lost between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and one of his ostensible underlings, Ted Cruz. But Cruz may have earned a special place on McConnell’s enemies list today by filibustering the “clean” debt limit bill, which meant that Senate GOPers couldn’t emulate their House colleagues by letting Democrats pass the measure with little or no help. Here’s how Roll Call’s Steven Dennis described the action:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/cruz_forces_mcconnells_hand049049.php
February 12, 2014 4:45 PM\
The Secularist Menace
By Ed Kilgore
Maybe I just travel in different circles from my old buddy Damon Linker. But as a Man of the Left who is also a Christian, I just don’t see the “broader, troubling trans-Atlantic trend of secular liberalism steamrolling competing, non-liberal visions of the good” that he laments at The Week. To get one thing out of the way, it’s highly questionable to use British and French examples of hostility to religion to deduce some “trans-Atlantic trend;” as Linker himself notes, anti-clericalism is deeply rooted in the French (and European) liberal tradition, and some European countries still have (even in an attenuated form) state churches.
More to the point, as Damon surely understands, the developments in the U.S. he is worrying about—the contraceptive coverage mandate and the rapid trend towards legalization of same-sex marriage—create gray areas in church-state relations, not some sort of “attack.” In the former case, aside from the Obama administration’s many efforts to accommodate religious organizations, there’s an inherent conflict between respecting the religious views of employers and those of employees—not to mention employees’ interests in obtaining health services. And when you get right down to it, much of the heat over the contraception mandate has involved the claims of religious organizations about scientific facts—particularly the claim that IUDs and Plan B birth control cause abortions rather than prevent pregnancies—where they are straying well into secular territory.
With respect to same-sex marriage, until we have clear-cut real-life examples of all the hypothetical cases of people losing their livelihoods for failing to participate in gay marriage ceremonies, I don’t see why this particular religion-based form of discrimination should gain more respect than prior (or contemporary) assertions of the inferiority of African-Americans or women.
In any event, these are conflicts, not acts of religious persecution, and the idea that it is liberals who are being intolerant here strikes me as partaking of the kind of “floodgates” argument that eventually leads one to equating exposure to “Happy Holiday” greetings to the stake and the cross.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/the_secularist_menace049050.php
February 12, 2014 5:44 PM
Did Wendy Davis “Flip-Flop” On Late-Term Abortions?
By Ed Kilgore
It was one of those political news stories that can be highly misleading if you don’t look at it carefully: Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is being widely quoted as issuing a modification of her views on abortion policy—the topic that made her a national political figure after she led a filibuster against a cookie-cutter antichoice bill in Austin—that is already being mocked by Republicans as a flip-flop.
MSNBC’s Irin Carmon, who is always an outstanding analyst of abortion politics, defends Davis from the “flip-flop” charge but does fear she’s fallen into a common trap: getting snarled in the complexities of deliberately deceptive language about abortion-ban “exceptions” instead of staying on clear and high ground. Reflecting the actual priorities of the antichoice movement, the intention of the Texas bill was to reduce the availability of abortion services across the board. But reflecting RTL mendacity, supporters focused all the attention on the tiny minority of abortions that occur—usually for medical reasons but sometimes because earlier abortions were not available or affordable—after “fetal viability.”
Now Davis is locked into a debate that will inevitably go down the rabbit hole into the meaning of exceptions she accepts and those she rejects. Among other things, this will obscure the rather important and vast gap between her and antichoicers (including most Republican officeholders everywhere) on the early-term abortions that represent the vast majority of procedures and that the GOP “supply-side” strategy really aims to inhibit until such time as an actual complete abortion ban can be enacted.
Carmon’s advice to Davis and others in her position is spot-on:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/did_wendy_davis_flipflop_on_la049052.php
Luxury CEO: The poor should stop whining
By: Robert Frank | CNBC Reporter and Editor
Bud Konheim, Nicole Miller co-founder & CEO, says the U.S. poverty level is wealth in most of the world, so people should stop complaining.
Bud Konheim has a message for all of the 99 percenters: You’re luckier than you think.
Konheim, CEO and co-founder of luxury-fashion company Nicole Miller, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that Americans not in the top 1 percent would be considered wealthy in most of the world. He said the 99ers should stop complaining and understand how lucky they are.
“We’ve got a country that the poverty level is wealth in 99 percent of the rest of the world,” he said. “So we’re talking about woe is me, woe is us, woe is this.” He added that “the guy that’s making, oh my God, he’s making $35,000 a year, why don’t we try that out in India or some countries we can’t even name. China, anyplace, the guy is wealthy.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101410955
Chris Christie’s Entire Career Reeks: It’s not just the bridge
BY ALEC MACGILLIS @AlecMacGillis
Has there ever been a political reversal of fortune as rapid and as absolute as the one just experienced by Chris Christie? At warp speed, the governor of New Jersey has gone from the most popular politician in the country to the most embattled; from the Republicans’ brightest hope for 2016 to a man with an FBI target on his back. One minute, he was releasing jokey vanity videos starring Alec Baldwin and assorted celebrity pals; the next, he was being ridiculed by his lifelong idol, Bruce Springsteen. Mere weeks ago, Christie was a straight-talking, corruption-busting everyman. Now, he is a liar, a bully, a buffoon.
What is remarkable about this meltdown is that it isn’t the result of some deep secret that has been exposed to the world, revealing a previously unimagined side to the candidate. Many of the scandals and mini-scandals and scandals-within-scandals that the national media is salivating over have been in full view for years. Even the now-infamous Bridgegate was percolating for months before it exploded into the first major story of the next presidential race.
Case in point: Last year, just before Thanksgiving, I traveled to Trenton to see Bill Baroni, Christie’s top staff appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, get grilled by state legislators about the closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September. It was clear that something fishy was going on. Baroni gave a command performance, defending the closures as part of a traffic study, but more than that, as a matter of justice. Discussing whether Fort Lee deserved three dedicated lanes during rush hour, Baroni demanded, “Is this fair?” His voice actually cracked with emotion. “And if it is not fair, how do you not study it?” But there were only a handful of reporters in the room to witness his melodramatics, and it was six weeks before the national media caught on to the story. Outside New Jersey, at least, it seemed inconceivable that Christie, good-government evangelist, scourge of Soprano State shenanigans, could preside over a piece of payback so outrageous and so petty.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116601/chris-christies-rise-and-fall
February 12, 2014 2:46 PM
Krystal Ball To HRC: Please Save Us From You!
By Ed Kilgore
Not being a frequent consumer of television political talk, I’m not familiar much at all with MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball; I’ve never once watched the show she co-hosts, The Cycle. So I can with impeccable objectivity look at her cri de coeur on the MSNBC site urging Hillary Clinton not to run for president.
If you haven’t read the piece and don’t want to now, here’s a precis: she expresses her passionate admiration for HRC (despite all sorts of pro-corporate connections and behavior which Ball just as passionately itemizes), but thinks she the wrong person to take up the cudgels in 2016. Here’s the money quote:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/krystal_ball_to_hrc_please_sav049047.php
February 12, 2014 12:37 PM
No Sure Formula For Winning Elections
By Ed Kilgore
Yesterday RealClearPolitics’ Sean Trende sought to administer a comprehensive smackdown to the “demographic/geographic destiny” scenario of worried Republicans and optimistic Democrats (he was specifically addressing one of the former, Commentary’s Peter Wehner), whereby GOP electoral prospects are being decisively eroded by a party base that’s too old and white and too confined to the South and interior West.
Trende has come at this hypothesis before, but via the narrower question of whether the GOP has actually “maxed out” on its white voting base. His argument last summer that a white voter “falloff” between 2008 and 2012 had as much to do with Mitt Romney’s defeat as the failure to attract minority voters drew a lot of positive attention from conservative opponents of immigration reform (many of whom did not pay attention to Trende’s warning that the “missing white voters” weren’t necessarily all that conservative). In the latest piece, Trende simplifies his analysis of demographic trends by suggesting that Democratic gains among minority voters and Republican gains among white voters are largely canceling each other out. But his main emphasis is on the idea that “fundamentals” like incumbency and economic growth can change the boundaries of what we can expect in party performance among various demographic categories.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/no_sure_formula_for_winning_el049045.php
February 12, 2014 10:20 AM
Has the Radical Conservative Fever Broken?
By Ed Kilgore
Yesterday House Republicans voted against a debt limit increase by a margin of 199-28. It was widely interpreted in the MSM and among progressive writers (examples: Molly Ball and Noam Scheiber) as a sign of Republican “pragmatism,” of a thaw in radical conservatism that might lead to other “bipartisan breakthroughs”—perhaps on immigration reform!
There was some disagreement (mainly on Twitter) as to whether the passage of a “clean” debt limit bill confirmed John Boehner’s status as a legislative wizard, or rather the playing out of a weak hand; I seemed to be the rare voice suggesting Boehner’s leadership credentials had been severely damaged.
You will forgive me for an enduring skepticism on this latest “proof” that “the fever” (as the president calls radical conservatism) has broken, the Tea Party has been domesticated, the grownups are back in control, and the storms that convulsed our political system in 2009 have finally passed away. We’ve been hearing these assurances metronomically from the moment “the fever” first appeared.
The evidence for this meme on this particular occasion seems to be that John Boehner felt free to bring up a debt limit bill and pass it with Democratic votes without fear for his political life. Having promised repeatedly that he would not allow a debt default, it is reasonably clear he had little choice but to pursue this course of action. But aside from the fact that he could only secure GOP votes from a handful of leadership allies (though not, significantly, Paul Ryan), committee chairs, and bicoastal quasi-moderates, it is not all that clear just yet that the GOP back-benchers racing to get out of Washington before a winter storm are satisfied with how the deal went down. Their level of equanimity will not improve after puzzled conservative constituents grill them on this “surrender,” and after they are congratulated by everyone else on the political spectrum for their abandonment of “conservative principles.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/has_the_radical_conservative_f049043.php
Joe Biden to Appear on Debut of Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’
Vice President Joe Biden will appear on the premiere of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Feb. 24.
His office announced via Twitter that he will be a guest on the show, once again underscoring the importance that the Obama administration has placed on reaching audiences beyond news junkies. First Lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on Feb. 20, its premiere week. President Obama taped a short tribute for Jay Leno’s final “Tonight Show” last week, but he has also appeared as an in-studio guest six times, including four as president.
Since late-night talk visits have become part of the routine for a presidential candidate, Biden’s appearance makes sense — there is speculation that he will run in 2016.
http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/joe-biden-to-appear-on-debut-of-seth-meyers-late-night-1201100460/#
February 10, 2014 1:25 PM
The Vast Shredding of America’s Moral Fiber
By Ed Kilgore
The only silver lining for the extended debate over extended unemployment insurance is that we are getting a good clear look at the standard conservative mindset about wealth and poverty, and fortune and misfortune. Paul Krugman calls it “hard-hearted and soft-headed,” an inversion of the famous formulation whereby the liberal reformers of the recent past pledged to conduct a fearless examination of what worked and what didn’t work in programs aimed at expanding economic opportunity. It’s based politically, as Krugman notes, on all sorts of counter-factual assumptions about the nature of the long-term unemployed (i.e., that they are mostly those people).
But what it most comes down to is the belief that economic success is almost invariably the product of virtue, and economic disaster is almost invariably the product of vice, especially sloth. When one is a Republican politician, these equations tend to flatter one’s voters at the expense of people who are less likely to vote and far less likely to vote Republican.
It’s always been preposterous, though. As I like to ask, when the Great Depression hit, did a quarter of the U.S. population collectively lose its moral fiber? Or worse yet, had these millions already fallen into decadence and sloth, causing a righteous God to smite them with unemployment and poverty? No, of course not. Yet there is a definite connection between recent conservative claims that the Great Recession was caused by the avarice and shiftlessness of low-to-medium income families—especially those people—who refused to live within their means, and today’s conservative claims the long-term unemployed could find work if they tried. What makes this approach so maddeningly persistent is that any concession to a more compassionate and factual way of looking at micro-economic catastrophe undermines the base-pleasing assurance that Americans fortunate enough to be doing well earned every damn penny via hard work and sturdy folk virtues. That’s why the “You Built That!” meme was so powerful among the Republican rank-and-file in 2012, beyond its ostensible audience of business owners.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/the_vast_shredding_of_americas049010.php
U.S. senator drops bombshell during VW plant union vote
Thu, Feb 13 00:33 AM EST
By Bernie Woodall
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Bob Corker of
Tennessee said on Wednesday he has been “assured” that if workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in his hometown of Chattanooga reject United Auto Worker representation, the company will reward the plant with a new product to build.
Corker’s bombshell, which runs counter to public statements by
Volkswagen, was dropped on the first of a three-day secret ballot
election of blue-collar workers at the Chattanooga plant whether to
allow the UAW to represent them.
Corker has long been an opponent of the union which he says hurts
economic and job growth in Tennessee, a charge that UAW officials say is untrue.
“I’ve had conversations today and based on those am assured that
should the workers vote against the UAW, Volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size SUV here in
Chattanooga,” said Corker, without saying with whom he had the
conversations.
In the past few weeks, Volkswagen officials have made several
statements that the vote will have no bearing on whether the SUV will be made at the Chattanooga plant or at a plant in Puebla, Mexico.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-volkswagen-corker-idUSBREA1C04H20140213?irpc=932
Corker, what a SLIMEY POS. It’s extortion!
The storm that Nathan Deal has to get right
If ever there was a winter storm that Gov. Nathan Deal had to get right, the one you’re in right now is it.
Yes, those 12-hour commutes two weeks ago were uncomfortable and even dangerous. And the memory of your kid overnighting on the floor of the school gym is still sticky.
But there is no doubt that the hazard posed by a far-from-finished ice storm is more dire. So are the political ramifications of a sheet of ice that stretches from Bremen to Augusta.
Ultimately, Snowjam ’14 was merely about metro Atlanta. The current storm covers the northern half of the state, with I-20 as a rough dividing line. And that’s precisely the footprint of the Republican party in Georgia.
Deal has both Republican primary opposition and a well-financed Democrat, Jason Carter, waiting for him in November. Lose this storm, and GOP control of the state Capitol could be truncated to a dozen years.
“Seventy percent of the Republican primary electorate is located in the Atlanta media market, which is basically everything north of Macon,” said Joel McElhannon, a GOP strategist who was iced into place in Athens. “The main swath of this storm is where you find your biggest concentration of both Republican primary voters and general election voters.
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2014/02/12/the-storm-that-nathan-deal-has-to-get-right/
This is a nice article. A little long, but very good.
………….
Can You Say…Hero?
Fred Rogers has been doing the same small good thing for a very long time…
By Tom Junod on February 12, 2014
ONCE UPON A TIME, a little boy loved a stuffed animal whose name was Old Rabbit. It was so old, in fact, that it was really an unstuffed animal; so old that even back then, with the little boy’s brain still nice and fresh, he had no memory of it as “Young Rabbit,” or even “Rabbit”; so old that Old Rabbit was barely a rabbit at all but rather a greasy hunk of skin without eyes and ears, with a single red stitch where its tongue used to be. The little boy didn’t know why he loved Old Rabbit; he just did, and the night he threw it out the car window was the night he learned how to pray. He would grow up to become a great prayer, this little boy, but only intermittently, only fitfully, praying only when fear and desperation drove him to it, and the night he threw Old Rabbit into the darkness was the night that set the pattern, the night that taught him how. He prayed for Old Rabbit’s safe return, and when, hours later, his mother and father came home with the filthy, precious strip of rabbity roadkill, he learned not only that prayers are sometimes answered but also the kind of severe effort they entail, the kind of endless frantic summoning. And so when he threw Old Rabbit out the car window the next time, it was gone for good.
YOU WERE A CHILD ONCE, TOO. That’s what Mister Rogers said, that’s what he wrote down, once upon a time, for the doctors. The doctors were ophthalmologists. An ophthalmologist is a doctor who takes care of the eyes. Sometimes, ophthalmologists have to take care of the eyes of children, and some children get very scared, because children know that their world disappears when their eyes close, and they can be afraid that the ophthalmologists will make their eyes close forever. The ophthalmologists did not want to scare children, so they asked Mister Rogers for help, and Mister Rogers agreed to write a chapter for a book the ophthalmologists were putting together—a chapter about what other ophthalmologists could do to calm the children who came to their offices. Because Mister Rogers is such a busy man, however, he could not write the chapter himself, and he asked a woman who worked for him to write it instead. She worked very hard at writing the chapter, until one day she showed what she had written to Mister Rogers, who read it and crossed it all out and wrote a sentence addressed directly to the doctors who would be reading it: “You were a child once, too.”
And that’s how the chapter began.
http://www.esquire.com/features/can-you-say-hero-esq1198?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=ESQ&link=http://www.esquire.com/features/can-you-say-hero-esq1198
Feb 12, 6:46 PM EST
Obama taps Ted Kennedy’s widow for USPS board
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama is nominating Vicki Kennedy to the board of governors for the U.S. Postal Service.
Kennedy is the widow of former Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died in 2009. The Massachusetts Democrat was a prominent supporter of Obama’s first presidential campaign.
Vicki Kennedy is a lawyer and co-founded the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. She’s also on the board of trustees for the Kennedy Center.
Kennedy’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. The board of governors chooses the postmaster general and controls the postal service’s spending, planning and policies.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_VICKI_KENNEDY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-12-18-46-28
As Beltway bickers over Obamacare, rate of uninsured continues to fall
By Greg Sargent
February 12 at 11:48 am
Gallup just released new data showing the percentage of uninsured Americans continues to fall, though it’s too soon to tell whether it’s because of Obamacare:
The percentage of uninsured Americans fell to 16.0% so far in the first quarter of 2014 from 17.1% in the fourth quarter of 2013. […]
The uninsured rate also dropped to the low-16% range in late 2012 before rising again in 2013, suggesting that there may be inherent variability in the rate or random fluctuation due to sampling error.
Still, if the uninsured rate continues to fall over the next several months, it may suggest that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement for most Americans to have health insurance, which took effect on Jan. 1, is responsible for the decline.
Gallup regularly releases findings on the percentage of uninsured, and as Jonathan Cohn explained the last time Gallup put out data showing a drop, you should treat it with skepticism, because it could reflect statistical volatility.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/02/12/as-beltway-bickers-over-obamacare-rate-of-uninsured-continues-to-fall/
Is a black candidate the best candidate?
By Jonetta Rose Barras, Published: February 12
Some people have begun to cast D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) as the default candidate for those looking to unseat Mayor Vincent C. Gray in the April 1 Democratic primary. It’s true that she has a bunch of money in the bank and has won straw polls in Wards 4 and 8; she didn’t win them by enough to snag the endorsements of the wards’ Democratic Party organizations, however.
So, is this crowning of Bowser based on two events in which only about 1,000 of the city’s more than 336,000 registered Democrats participated? Or is there a race-based calculation at play?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-a-black-candidate-the-best-candidate/2014/02/12/7b404d04-93f7-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
Good Morning Everyone
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone. The Dunn trial jury is in deliberation.