Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Pentagon Papers Charges Are Dismissed; Judge Byrne Frees Ellsberg and Russo, Assails ‘Improper Government Conduct’
By Martin Arnold, The New York Times, 5/11/1973
New Trial Barred But Decision Does Not Solve Constitutional Issues in Case
Los Angeles, May 11 — Citing what he called “improper Government conduct shielded so long from public view,” the judge in the Pentagon papers trial dismissed today all charges against Dr. Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony J. Russo Jr.
And he made it clear in his ruling that the two men would not be tried again on charges of stealing and copying the Pentagon papers.
“The conduct of the Government has placed the case in such a posture that it precludes the fair, dispassionate resolution of these issues by a jury,” he said.
David R. Nissen, the chief prosecutor, said, “It appears that the posture is such that no appeal will be possible.”
Mother’s Day Turns 100: Its Surprisingly Dark History
By Brian Handwerk, National Geographic
As Mother’s Day turns 100 this year, it’s known mostly as a time for brunches, gifts, cards, and general outpourings of love and appreciation.
But the holiday has more somber roots: It was founded for mourning women to remember fallen soldiers and work for peace. And when the holiday went commercial, its greatest champion, Anna Jarvis, gave everything to fight it, dying penniless and broken in a sanitarium.
It all started in the 1850s, when West Virginia women’s organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis-Anna’s mother-held Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk contamination, according to historian Katharine Antolini of West Virginia Wesleyan College. The groups also tended wounded soldiers from both sides during the U.S. Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
In the postwar years Jarvis and other women organized Mother’s Friendship Day picnics and other events as pacifist strategies to unite former foes. Julia Ward Howe, for one-best known as the composer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”-issued a widely read “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870, calling for women to take an active political role in promoting peace.
Around the same time, Jarvis had initiated a Mother’s Friendship Day for Union and Confederate loyalists across her state. But it was her daughter Anna who was most responsible for what we call Mother’s Day-and who would spend most of her later life fighting what it had become.
Breakfast Tunes
Breakfast News
There is more on this from Marcy Wheeler in The Blogs
Yemen Shooting Opens Window on U.S. Clandestine Operations By Shuaib Almosawa and Eric Sschmitt, The New York Times
SANA, Yemen – The kidnappers pulled up in a pickup truck outside the Taj barbershop in an upscale neighborhood here in the Yemeni capital. One held an AK-47 assault rifle and the other carried a stun gun. As the men went inside, nearby shopkeepers heard shots.
Then a foreigner – tall, with the physique of a body builder, and holding a black gun – was seen standing over one of the mortally wounded attackers in the doorway of the barbershop, witnesses said. The foreigner kicked an automatic weapon out of the man’s hands, looked right and left down the street, jumped into a nearby sport utility vehicle and drove away.
Those new details emerged Saturday about a shooting last month in which the Obama administration said two Americans from the United States Embassy killed two armed Yemenis who were trying to kidnap them from the barbershop.
Employers Eye Moving Sickest Workers To Insurance Exchanges
by Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News
Can corporations shift workers with high medical costs from the company health plan into online insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act? Some employers are considering it, say benefits consultants.
“It’s all over the marketplace,” said Todd Yates, a managing partner at Hill, Chesson & Woody, a North Carolina benefits consulting firm. “Employers are inquiring about it and brokers and consultants are advocating for it.”Health spending is driven largely by patients with chronic illness such as diabetes or who undergo expensive procedures such as organ transplants. Since most big corporations are self-insured, shifting even one high-cost member out of the company plan could save the employer hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — while increasing the cost of claims absorbed by the marketplace policy by a similar amount.
And the health law might not prohibit it, opening a door to potential erosion of employer-based coverage.
digby had her say on these people who just think that rules don’t apply to them.
Dozens of Protesters Ride in off-Limits Canyon
By Martin Griffith and Brady McCombs, Associated Press
Dozens of people rode their ATVs and motorcycles on an off-limits trail in southern Utah on Saturday in a protest against what the group calls the federal government’s overreaching control of public lands.
San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge said from 40 to 50 people, many of them waving American flags and some carrying weapons, drove about a mile down Recapture Canyon near Blanding and then turned around. Hundreds attended a rally at a nearby park before the protest. [..]
Recapture Canyon is home to dwellings, artifacts and burials left behind by Ancestral Puebloans as many as 2,000 years ago before they mysteriously vanished.
The riders may have damaged artifacts and dwellings that “tell the story of the first farmers in the Four Corners region” of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, BLM Utah State Director Juan Palma said in a statement. [..]
A 14-mile section of trail in the canyon is closed to motorized vehicles, BLM officials said, but there are more than 2,800 miles of trails open to them on public lands around Blanding.
You Can Now Donate Bitcoins to Political Campaigns
By Kayla Ruble, Vice News
Just in time for the 2014 midterm elections, the Federal Election Commission has voted to allow political action committees to accept campaign contributions in the form of bitcoin.
In a unanimous vote, the six-member commission approved a request from a PAC called Make Your Laws to allow bitcoin donations of up to $100 per donor per campaign.
The bitcoin funds will be considered in-kind contributions – similar to stocks and bonds – and the amount will be based on the value at the time of donation. While the committee can decide whether to cash out immediately or hang on to the bitcoin as an investment, they must convert it into US dollars before depositing it into a campaign account or spending it. Addressing concerns of anonymity, the FEC ruled that detailed information about the donor must be reported.
There are no laws prohibiting the use of bitcoin as political donations, but the cryptocurrency’s use was up in the air after the FEC was split in a November vote on whether campaigns could accept it. Especially with the increased importance of cryptocurrencies in the recent times with investments and trading in this exchange like Independent Reserve or similar others all over the world, it has gained an extra precedence.
That being said many people find it easier to use Bitcoin currencies because of things like Bitcoin Era Erfahrungen, which makes it easier for people to navigate through Bitcoin investments.
Ukraine: deaths in the east fuel tension as separatists push ahead with poll
By Shaun Walker, The Guardian
Donetsk on the brink of civil war as army, police and pro-Russia forces exchange fire in port city of Mariupol
A hastily organised referendum on creating the quasi-independent statelet of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine will go ahead on Sunday, as violence and chaos rage in the region in what increasingly resembles the beginning of a civil war.
At least seven people died in the southern port city of Mariupol on Friday when the Ukrainian army entered the city in armoured vehicles, apparently to regain control of the city’s police HQ, where separatist fighters were exchanging fire with barricaded police. The assault ended with the police building burning to the ground, deaths on both sides and a hasty retreat through the city, when unarmed civilians were shot at by Ukrainian forces.
In the Breaking Bad city, trust in the trigger-happy police has broken down
By Rory Carroll, The Guardian
Albuquerque’s people are struggling with poverty, mental illness and drugs – and have had enough of a police force that has killed 25 in four years
The bloodstains have faded but bullet holes remain etched in the peach-coloured wall where Mary Hawkes, a troubled 19-year-old, died in a blast of gunfire. Two crosses, a teddy bear, some candles, plastic flowers and polystyrene cups – she liked her soda – formed an improvised shrine on the pavement this week.
A poster showed an image of her hugging a dog, and messages read: “RIP Mary. God bless U and your family”; “Never forgotten”; “She was never unloved”; and “Beautiful girl lost. Don’t shoot to kill.” Municipal workers have painted over other messages, which accused the Albuquerque police department of murder.
Michael Sam is first openly gay NFL player as St Louis Rams Draft pick
By Martin Pengelly, The Guardian
Michael Sam, the college defensive end who made headlines earlier this year by coming out, is set to become the first openly gay player to play in the National Football League.
Sam was picked in Saturday’s final round of the NFL Draft, by the St Louis Rams.
The annual selection process continued with rounds four to seven, beginning with the 101st pick and concluding with the 256th. The University of Missouri Tigers star was picked 34th in the round and 249th overall.
Must Read Blog Posts
Here’s Marcy on the shooting in Yemen
Days after Last American Journalist Expelled from Yemen, Ray Davis-Like Story Breaks by Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
and what digby said about ATV’s and guns
Their last stand? by digby, Hullabaloo
SEC Official: Over Half Of All Private Equity Audits Revealed Crimes by DSWright, FDL News Desk
Wheeler is about to get an earful
FCC’s Tom Wheeler Says He’ll Ask For Public Comment On Whether It’s Appropriate To Reclassify Broadband by Mike Masnick, Techdirt
Raytown (MO) Elementary School outs transgender student by rserven, Daily Kos
What Is Your Problem?: Errands on the Weekend by poligirl, Daily Kos
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Praises John Kenneth Turner’s Series, “Government by Gunmen.” by Jaye Raye, Daily Kos
The Daily Wiki
Something Amazing You Need to See
First prosthetic arm wired to muscles approved by the FDA
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale and marketing of a prosthetic arm called the DEKA Arm System, which uses electronic signals from the wearer’s muscles to induce up to 10 different movements in the prosthetic.
Electrodes attached to the arm above the prosthesis detect muscle contractions and send those signals to a processor, which translates the contractions into movements that the arm should execute. The prosthetic weighs the same as an adult arm, and its design is modular so that it can be fitted to accommodate many different needs. Specifically, the FDA notes that the prosthetic can be used for “limb loss occurring at the shoulder joint, mid-upper arm, or mid-lower arm. It cannot be configured for limb loss at the elbow or wrist joint.”
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.
Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
Cross posted at The Stars Hollow Gazette, Voices on the Square and GOS
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