memeorandum: America's Capital Punishment Crisis (Mark White/Politico)

1:05 AM ET, May 6, 2014

Top Items:

For Justices, Free Speech Often Means ‘Speech I Agree With’ — WASHINGTON — Justice Antonin Scalia is known as a consistent and principled defender of free speech rights. — It pained him, he has said, when he voted to strike down a law making flag burning a crime.

Discussion: CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Week, Concurring Opinions and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Town Meetings Can Have Prayer, Justices Decide — WASHINGTON — In a major decision on the role of religion in government, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Constitution allows town boards to start their sessions with sectarian prayers. The ruling, by a 5-to-4 vote …

Discussion: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Reaction, Gothamist, How Appealing and susiemadrak.com

Richard Wolf / USA Today:
Supreme Court upholds prayer at government meetings

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Liberaland and How Appealing

CNN: Justices allow public prayers at New York town's council meetings

Joe Hagan / New York Magazine:

Benghazi and the Bombshell — Is Lara Logan too toxic to return to 60 Minutes? — Eleven years ago, the 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan was sitting in the InterContinental hotel in Amman, Jordan, watching her career flash before her eyes. — She was 31 years old, a rookie at CBS News …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politico, CANNONFIRE, The Daily Caller, The Moderate Voice, Daily Mail, The Daily Banter, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:
CBS News Asked Nexis To Delete Transcript Of Discredited Benghazi Report

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Cosmopolitan:

Why I Filmed My Abortion — When Emily Letts got pregnant, she knew she would get an abortion. Then she decided to film it. Letts, 25, is an abortion counselor at Cherry Hill Women's Center in New Jersey, which is where she had her abortion. The non-graphic video focuses on her face …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, National Review and The Other McCain

Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:

This Woman Filmed Her Abortion To Show Other People It Doesn't Have To Be Scary — Emily Letts speaks to the camera in her video about her abortion procedure — Emily Letts, a 25-year-old abortion counselor at a clinic in New Jersey, knew that she wanted to use her own abortion story …

Discussion: LifeNews.com and The Gateway Pundit

Politico:

Trey Gowdy picked to lead Benghazi panel — Speaker John Boehner is tapping South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy to chair a House select committee which will investigate the attack in Benghazi. — Gowdy, a second-term Republican, is a former federal prosecutor and has been a key figure …

Discussion: Washington Post, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, CNN, Daily Mail and Daily Kos

Speaker.gov:
Boehner Taps Gowdy to Lead Select Benghazi Panel

Discussion: Hot Air, Power Line, ThinkProgress, CBS DC and National Review

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo: Boehner Taps Trey Gowdy To Lead Special Benghazi Committee

CNN:

‘I will sell them,’ Boko Haram leader says of kidnapped Nigerian girls — (CNN) — Fears for the fate of more than 200 Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of the Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell them. — “I abducted your girls.

Discussion: KTLA 5, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hinterland Gazette, NPR, The Lead with Jake Tapper and National Review

BBC:
Boko Haram ‘to sell’ Nigeria girls abducted from Chibok

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Ottawa Citizen, Mediaite and News24

Tim Cocks / Reuters:
Nigeria's Boko Haram threatens to sell schoolgirls on market

Discussion: Fox News and Outside the Beltway

Jenna Levy / Gallup:

U.S. Uninsured Rate Drops to 13.4% — Uninsured rate down nearly four percentage points since late 2013 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The uninsured rate for U.S. adults in April was 13.4%, down from 15.0% in March. This is the lowest monthly uninsured rate recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008.

Discussion: ACASignups.net, Daily Kos, Liberal Values, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, ThinkProgress, Shakesville, The Week, Business Insider, The Dish, Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Real Clear Politics, The New Republic and Mediaite

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Midterm Election Indicators Daunting for Democrats

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Views of the Affordable Care Act and Its Future

Discussion: Daily Kos

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Tennessee State Senator Compares Obamacare To The Holocaust — On Monday, a Tennessee state senator apparently likened Obamacare's individual mandate to Nazi Germany's slaughter of Jews. — A brief post published at the blog of state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) read: “Democrats bragging …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Booman Tribune and CNN

The Sen / Camp4u:
Thought of the day. … Older Post — Home — Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Discussion: News, Nashville Scene, CNN, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Washington Post and The Raw Story

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Judicial Nominee's Memos on Drones Stirring Bipartisan Concern in the Senate — WASHINGTON — President Obama's choice for a powerful appeals court appointment is in peril from both the left and the right, highlighting how the fraught politics of an election year are threatening …

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Paul starts new drone war

Discussion: Bloomberg View and Power Line

Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters:

What If Fox News Instead of MSNBC Had Pulled This Cinco de Mayo Stunt? — ¡Ay caramba! Imagine the cries of offensive ethnic stereotyping or worse if Fox News had observed Cinco de Mayo by having one of its yanqui persons of pallor staggering across the set in a sombrero while chugging from a pint bottle of tequila?

Discussion: The Daily Caller

ThinkProgress:
UC Davis Students Dressed As Border Agents To Promote Cinco De Mayo Event

Discussion: Recently posted, Los Angeles Times and The Gateway Pundit

Liz Kowalczyk / The Boston Globe:

Mass. says flawed health website is too broken to fix — Massachusetts plans to completely scrap the state's dysfunctional online health insurance website, deciding that it would be too expensive and time-consuming to fix the overwhelming number of flaws. — Instead, officials will buy …

Discussion: Boston Herald, Daily Mail, The Heritage Foundation, Hit & Run and The PJ Tatler

Heather Digby Parton / Salon:

GOP's demented “Benghazi!” disease: Why conservatives so desperately need a scandal — Has anyone ever seen a full-blown marketing campaign replete with full-color graphics used to announce a House committee investigation? You have now: … I'm going to guess that was in development for a while.

Jon Swaine / Guardian:

Occupy Wall Street activist found guilty of assaulting police officer — An Occupy Wall Street activist is facing up to seven years in prison after being convicted by a jury in Manhattan of assaulting a New York police officer as he led her out of a protest.

Discussion: VICE

Pete Thamel / Sports Illustrated:

Source: Coach Craig Robinson fired by Oregon State — Craig Rohinson's teams failed to reach the NCAA tournament during his six seasons at Oregon State. — Oregon State fired head coach Craig Robinson on Sunday night, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.