Open Thread

Here is some polling goodness for our open thread today.... 2013 MASSACHUSETTS--U.S. SENATE--PPP: Rep. Ed Markey (D) 47, Gabriel Gomez (R) 39. MASSACHUSETTS--U.S. SENATE--University of Massachusetts: Markey 51, Gomez 40. 2014 PENNSYLVANIA--GOVERNOR--Quinnipiac: Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D) 45, Gov. Tom Corbett (R) 45; State Treasurer Rob McCord (D) 43, Corbett 35.

"Already unpopular with Pennsylvania women, Gov. Tom Corbett trails the leading female challenger, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, and State Treasurer Rob McCord," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Election Day is 17 months away, but Schwartz is in a strong position to become Pennsylvania's first female Governor."

More inside...

Yesterday, President Obama strongly defended the NSA's Big Surveillance program:

Obama, who ran for president in 2008 on a platform of reversing some of the Bush administration’s encroachments on civil liberties, instead defended the programs. ”I came in with a healthy skepticism about these program,” Obama said, noting his administration has strengthened some program safeguards. “My assessment and my team’s assessment is that they help us prevent terrorist attacks.”

The news of the day seems to be the blockbuster story reported by Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian of a court order that authorized the NSA to collect a good deal of phone call information from Verizon customers:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), "the leading Republican behind the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill, says he will not vote for the legislation he helped write and has staked his political future on, unless substantial changes are made before final Senate consideration," Byron York reports. What a tool, and such an amateur. And what a coward.

Let's get the important stuff out of the way -- the Holy Trinity Greek Festival starts tomorrow at 11AM. If you are in town (even if not, my office orders carry out once during this week), you can FAX in an order and pick it up curbside for a killer lunch. And there is even a shuttle bus to bring cubicle dwellers from downtown to the festival for lunch.

This Sunday's NYT provides a must-read for those of us interested in resolving the long-term problem of reducing health care costs. This piece take a look at how colonoscopies are performed and charged to demonstrate the scope of the problem. And basically the scope of the problem comes down to Profit incentives, rather than health incentives. It also shows how hard it is to even get cost data for procedures -- even by a physician doing the procedure. Certainly our health care system pays dearly for heroic end-of-life care, but it certainly looks as though basic procedures done by our physicians in their offices or their physician centers are ripe for cost review.

Today's Open Thread is in the form of a Chart of the Day. Chart of the War on Drugs era, most probably. But this chart comes from a 2005 study, taking a look at trends in incarceration of drug offenders. It was cited over at Wonkblog this week, noting some of the small changes in the War on Drugs:

Yesterday, there was a protest at the Sallie May HQ down in Newark:

They carried signs, chanted and sang as they marched to Sallie Mae's offices before the company's annual shareholder meeting. They came demanding to meet with company leaders in hopes of airing their concerns with rocketing student loan debt. "We were sold degrees that aren’t worth what they were worth," said Sara Fitouri, a first year law school student at the University of Denver who is $145,000 in debt. "We don’t believe students should have to pay those debts." The students were successful in getting company officials to agree to a sit down meeting with leaders. Sallie Mae Board Chairman Anthony Terracciano told the students they would get their meeting, but not today because company leaders were all busy in board meetings.

If you haven't been following the saga of Toronto's alleged crack-smoking and murdering mayor, you should start here with Josh Marshall, who has been following the story in depth. Sometimes our enemies reveal why they are our enemies. Exxon's CEO on his opposition to alternative energy and cutting our dependence on oil:

"What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?"

So you may have heard yesterday that President Obama has tapped a former Bush official to lead the FBI and you may have screamed a little bit to yourself. But there is a good reason why....

NY Congressman Peter King (R):

"We know the type of suffering that people go through during these types of crises and we're not going to hold - I'm certainly not going to hold the good people of Oklahoma hostage because they may have some hypocrites in their delegation. [...] We had to wait over 100 days before we even got the aid approved to New York and New Jersey. Now, we find the senator from Oklahoma who voted against aid to New York and New Jersey saying that aid should be sent to Oklahoma because there's a difference between tornado assistance and hurricane assistance. This is absolute hypocrisy."

And we have some polling goodness inside..

Memorial Day has come to be a day when we are all urged to remember those armed services members who have served and who are currently serving the country. This is important and I hope we all have some time to reflect on the sacrifices made by these men and women on our behalf.

Even more details of how DelDOT was organized as a conduit of taxpayer dollars directly to developers is in this morning's News Journal. This is a remarkable story -- including some detail on how DelDOT specifically locked in higher appraisal values just to ensure that developers could loot the Treasury for the maximum amount.

In case there is anyone taking a break from holiday festivities long enough to check in here, here's an Open Thread for you!