Boston Bombing; Economy; Class War; Corporatocracy; Wall Street; Vote Machinations; Republicans; Racism; Politics

Boston Bombing

• Boston Marathon head: Race will go on in 2014—They've got 'one hell of a city.'
• Runners pay tribute to Boston victims
• Patton Oswalt: "The good outnumber you, and we always will."
• The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On—"It is easy to feel scared and powerless in the wake of attacks like those at the Boston Marathon. But it also plays into the perpetrators' hands."
• The Boston bombing privacy lesson—"The surveillance state thrives on acts of terror. All the more reason why we need more protections for our rights." Salon
• The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions—"As usual, the limits of selective empathy, the rush to blame Muslims, and the exploitation of fear all instantly emerge."
• Tea Party Officially Blames Obama For Boston Marathon Bombing
• Dozens of fake websites pop up after the Boston Marathon bombings to scam people trying to help victims—When in doubt, there's always the Red Cross.
• Yes, There Will Be Marathon Truthers—"More photos, more videos, and more witnesses mean more fodder for loony conspiracy theorists."
• The Onion (channeling The New York Post): This Is A Tragedy—Does It Really Matter Exactly How Many People Died Or What Any Of The Details Are?

Economy

• Shocking Paper Claims That Microsoft Excel Coding Error Is Behind The Reinhart-Rogoff Study On Debt—Thanks to this egregious error (NYT), did the ramifications of debt and necessity of austerity get blown out of proportion and trigger massive unemployment?
• The GOP's policy nihilism—"Mark April 11th, 2013, down on your calendars as the day that the GOP’s fiscal ruse was finally unmasked with total clarity: Republicans don’t actually want entitlement cuts. Or, to put it another way, they say they want entitlement cuts, but they want Dems to own them."
• How The GOP Demand For A Democratic Budget Just Backfired Big Time—"Now that Republicans have gotten their way, and the Senate has passed a budget, suddenly they’re the ones squeamish about 'regular order.' Instead of promptly appointing negotiators to convene a so-called conference committee and iron out the differences of the two wildly different budgets House Republicans are eager to either return to the smoke-filled back rooms of legend, or kill the budget process altogether."

Class War

• The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment—"It's an awful catch-22: employers won't hire you if you've been out of work for more than six months."
• Paycheck Fairness Act Vote Blocked By House GOP
• Math problems are a problem for job-seekers, employers say—Are schools even able to train students for today's jobs?
• The Pay Disparity Between CEO and US Worker is 354 to 1 and "Austerity" Will Make It Worse
• Bill Moyers Essay: The United States of Inequality

Corporatocracy

• The corporate 'predator state': How we can neutralize corporate greed
• The Corporate Betrayal of America—"Multinational corporations have built their businesses on the backs of American taxpayers. Yet they've turned around and mocked us with declining tax payments, low wages and dwindling retirement support."
• Taking the 'service' out of the service sector—"The Wal-Mart model of employment."
• Big Corporations Won't Be Sweating the IRS This Year—"According to a new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in the current fiscal year, the IRS plans to devote 18 percent less effort to auditing companies with more than $10 million in assets than it did just two years ago."
• Criticism of Sen. Roy Blunt’s role in agriculture provision illustrates concerns about Congress—"It's clear that Monsanto was lobbying for this and it's clear that Blunt went to bat for them.
• Carnival responds to Senator: No way we're paying for Triumph rescue—Why is the public footing the bill?
• T-Mobile, Wireless Carriers, and the Way to Fight Oligopolies—"The real problem in America isn't monopolies, it's oligopolies. Here’s how the F.C.C. and other government agencies should fight them."

Wall Street

• Note to New S.E.C. Chief: The Clock Is Ticking—"For a lot of cases involving questionable practices and disclosures arising from the mortgage bust of 2008, time is running out." NYT
• OCC Asks for Enforcement Powers Against Banks' Consultants—Elizabeth Warren said, "People want to know that their regulators are watching out for the American public not for the banks, and the only way that we can evaluate whether or not you're doing your job is if you make some of this information publicly available and so far you're not doing that."
• The Fed messed with the wrong senator—"If foreclosure victims get justice, trace it back to a bad decision to stonewall Elizabeth Warren last week."
• Goldman's Big Guns Fire Dud To Defend Megabanks
• Former KPMG Partner Is Charged With Insider Trading NYT
• Big Banks Attempt Secret Coup Against Cheap Loans
• Insider Trading in DC Just Got Easier

Vote Machinations

• Who Donated $11 Million to Proposition 30?—Follow the money.
• The Federal Election Commission Is Mocked—"Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS highlighted the F.E.C.’s impotence when it rebuffed the agency’s inquiry on its campaign spending." NYT
• How conservatives invented "voter fraud" to attack civil rights—"Phony complaints of voter fraud are the essence of a decade-long effort by the right to reverse civil rights law." Salon

Republicans

• 70 Percent Say GOP Not ‘In Touch With Most Americans’
• The 'Emerging Democratic Majority' Isn't Assured—Unless the GOP Refuses to Change
• Miffed by court decisions against them, GOP lawmakers want to limit impact of rulings—Legislative attack on the judiciary.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann Completely Baffles John Brennan With Bizarre Questions During CIA Hearing—You know she's more than a little bit dangerous.
• Ann Coulter "jokes" about killing Meghan McCain, Fox News deletes the blog post Salon

Racism

• Rand Paul tries to spread GOP gospel to black students —By engaging in some revisionist history where the GOP "has always been the party of civil rights and voting rights."
• Georgia's Republican governor won’t endorse town's first racially integrated prom—"This is a leftist front group for the state Democratic party and we’re not going to lend a hand to their silly publicity stunt," his spokesperson said. Tell that the four friends who put this together.
• County commissioner apologizes for 'n*gger rigging' remark
• Police sergeant fired for Trayvon Martin shooting targets
• Brad Paisley's Awkward and Earnest Song Accidental Racist

Politics

• The Problem of Ignorance: The Decline of Critical Thinking—"[T]he majority of any population will pay little or no attention to news stories or government actions that do not appear to impact their lives or the lives of close associates. If something non-local happens that is brought to their attention by the media, they will passively accept government explanations and simplistic solutions." In other words, "Fuck you, I've got mine."
• I was a political astroturfer—"The next time you see what looks like a grassroots rally, you may really be watching a form of performance art." Salon
• Magic trick transforms conservatives into liberals—"'Choice blindness' can induce voters to reverse their party loyalty."