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RIP, Tony Soprano:

James Gandolfini, the New Jersey-bred actor whose Mafia-boss character survived six seasons of mob hits and panic attacks on “The Sopranos,” died Wednesday in Italy. He was 51.

The man behind Tony Soprano was with his teenage son, Michael, 13, when he suffered a massive heart attack, a source close to the barrel-chested actor said.

He was a brilliant actor beyond the seminal role of Tony Soprano. Galdolfini leaves a wife and two children.

Dolphins playing with bubble rings. This activity serves no purpose but having fun. Hope your summer has some of that!

Open thread below...

With The Lights Out
	Artist: Nirvana Price: $33.50 (As of 06/19/13 06:19 am details)

Twenty-two years ago, Nirvana played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time in public, at the OK Hotel in Seattle. This is video of the performance, five months before the release of "Nevermind." The video is included on the box set "Nirvana: With The Lights Out."

Enjoy!

By Nikole Hannah-Jones, ProPublica

It took numerous courtroom battles, a contempt of court threat and the withholding of millions in federal dollars, but Westchester County finally has a law banning discrimination against those who pay their rent with federal assistance.

The Board of Legislators for the suburban New York county voted 15-2 Monday night to pass the legislation required by a 2009 settlement with the federal government over Westchester's failures to comply with fair housing laws.

The Board's vote ends one critical scuffle in an escalating conflict chronicled last fall by ProPublica that began three years ago this month when Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino vetoed legislation that would have banned housing discrimination based on income.

The federal government, which negotiated the 2009 settlement with the county, contended that Astorino's veto violated the terms of the deal. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began withholding millions in federal grants over the veto and other issues, Astorino turned to the courts.

He lost.

Still, Astorino persisted in his efforts to scuttle the ban – one that made it unlawful for landlords to deny housing to potential renters simply because they received financial assistance from the federal government.

In April, the U.S. Attorney's Office turned up the heat when it threatened to seek a contempt of court ruling against the county if Astorino did not agree to reintroduce and sign the law.

Facing large fines against both him and the county, Astorino submitted the legislation a few days later.

Still, Astorino's fire wasn't doused. As the board contemplated the law, Astorino asked last week for funding to work on an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The board tabled his request and then passed the legislation days later.

The federal government won't have long to relish its victory. The battle with Astorino will now center on requirements that the county dismantle zoning that makes it difficult for African Americans and Latinos to find housing in white areas.

And the zoning issue, which is largely seen as having the greatest potential to integrate housing in the highly segregated county, could well prove to be the greater conflict.

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I'm sure Lawrence O'Donnell will be crowing over this, since he led the charge to shine light on how the word "exclusively" was transformed into the now-famous "51 percent" test. Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he and two campaign finance watchdog groups would sue the IRS, challenging regulations that allow nonprofit groups to be involved in politics if they're "primarily" devoted to a social welfare purpose.

Van Hollen said he and watchdog groups Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 would sue to clarify an IRS regulation that he said was at odds with the law, which requires certain groups to "exclusively" engage in social welfare to earn nonprofit status. The IRS regulation permitting groups “primarily” engaged in social welfare allows the organizations to participate in an undefined amount of political activity, said the congressman, a leading advocate of campaign finance reform and ranking member of the House Budget Committee.

The 1959 IRS regulation has become an issue since the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door for nonprofit groups organized under section 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax code to raise and spend corporate and union money on elections without disclosing donors. The scandal involving the agency's singling out conservative groups applying for nonprofit status has increased attention to the regulation, especially among Democratic lawmakers.

"The statute is very clear," Van Hollen said during the keynote address at a conference on money and politics held by the Brennan Center for Justice. "It says that a 501(c)(4) organization is reserved for entities that are engaged 'exclusively' in social welfare activities, and it's not clear to me what part of 'exclusive' the writers of the regulation didn't get when it came to this particular provision of the law."

What a mess this could make, unless lawmakers step up and deal with it before it winds its way through the courts. Every 501c4 organization going back to 1959 could be open to scrutiny. I understand why this approach is being undertaken, but I hope some leverage to actually change the law is the outcome. The hairball this would leave to untangle would be huge and take decades to sort out.

Meanwhile, the Kochs et al have abandoned the 501c4 approach and are going with the 501c6 model, which allows their bogus trade associations to engage in the same activities as previous groups with even less transparency. Think US Chamber of Commerce on steroids. Frightening!

Remember back in December when Dick Armey blamed the GOP's 2012 losses on a few candidates saying "stupid things"?

ARMEY: We had a least two candidates that should've won, that frankly lost because they said some stupid things on a subject that their party's leaders should've schooled them to stay away from in the first place.

Uh-huh. Just a couple of candidates, eh Dick?

...the trend of self-destructive, largely marginal Republicans seizing the spotlight has only continued in 2013.

In January, it was Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey trying to explain how Akin was “partly right” about rape and pregnancy, after all. In March, it was Alaska Rep. Don Young referring to immigrant farm laborers as “wetbacks” on a radio show. The first week in June saw Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant blaming the decline in American education on the advent of “both parents … working.”

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A natural gas line explosion early Tuesday morning in Louisiana evacuated about 55 people from their homes and closed off roads leading to the area near Enon, outside New Orleans.

WWL TV reports:

The amount of scorched earth near the explosion made it appear as if a bomb was detonated, Seal said.

An approximate 80-foot segment of the pipeline was blown away, causing a nearly 300-foot heavily-wooded radius to be completely leveled, according to Louisiana State Police Trooper Nick Manale.

Florida Gas, who owns the line, shut down the gas line around 6:45 a.m.
Seal said the company released more gas in an attempt to get the remaining "residual gas out of the pipeline. So you may be hearing a few more explosions, but nothing serious is going to happen."

"Crews have isolated and contained the west end of that pipeline, basically the ignition source is now gone from that pipeline, and all of the residual natural gas has been drained," Manale said.

He said there is still a small amount of ignition aflame on the east side coming from the Bogalusa area. Crews are working to drain the pressure and residual gas out of the segment.

The report from the Louisiana State Police and Department of Environmental Quality Hazmat indicated the suspected cause of the explosion was a rupture of a 30-inch natural gas line, according to the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. The cause of the explosion remained under investigation.

Amazingly, there were no injuries and no fatalities as a result of the explosion. Approximately 10,000 area residents lost power.

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Many of the cost-saving measures of the Affordable Care Act were modeled after the Swedish health care system, which has proven itself to be efficient and cost-effective. Robert H. Frank wrote a great NYT column outlining how these provisions could streamline and ultimately reign in our out-of-control health spending here, if it scales properly. That's a big "if", and one that won't be answered for years to come. Here are the highlights:

But when illness strikes, the Swedish health care system responds efficiently. Managers have exploited economies of scale by consolidating services into fewer but larger hospitals. The American system has also gone through consolidation, but, by contrast, boutique hospitals are also more common here — partly in response to demands from patients with very high-cost health plans. In large hospitals, CT scanners and other expensive diagnostic and treatment machines are in nearly constant use, versus only a few hours of weekly use in some small ones.

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The Daily Show hosted by John Oliver -- himself an immigrant -- on Tuesday night mocked the Republicans Party's resistance to comprehensive immigration reform.

He begins by pointing out that some Republicans are in favor of immigration reform because, as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) explained, "We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party and the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community in my view is pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Or, as Oliver put it, “We choose to help you not because we want to, but because mathematically we feel we have to.”

Mapping out various obstacles the legislation will have to overcome to make it out of the Senate, Oliver laments that the final obstacle to reaching President Obama's desk might prove too high: The House GOP's "1,000-foot high border fence built out of ignorance and spite."

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H/T to Scarce for the video.

Anti-abortionists may have some compelling arguments to support their views,but I haven't heard one yet and Republicans can’t seem to find one. As the House prepares to debate outlawing all abortions after 20 weeks, Texas Republican Michael Burgess has come out with possibly the most bizarre case for fetal sentience yet.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” he said. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

Before joining Congress, Burgess was...an OB-GYN.

Adele M. Stan writes:

The rationale for the Republican bill, which advanced through the House Judiciary last week on a near-total party-line vote, is one scientifically disputed study, touted by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) in his opening remarks at today’s Rules Committee hearing, that asserts fetuses can feel pain as early as 20 weeks after sperm meets egg.

“Well, I think all the members are cognizant of the fact that this is not a Congress that cares much about science,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Rules Committee’s ranking member, in her questioning of Goodlatte, who refuted that claim by saying that since 1973, the year when the Supreme Court legalized abortion, much more had been learned about fetal development.

Major medical bodies in the United States and the United Kingdom have refuted the claim of fetal pain before the third trimester.

The 20-week abortion ban, if passed into law, would set up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, which allows abortion up to the point of fetal viability outside the womb, and mandates exceptions for abortions in the case of pregnancies that threaten the life or health of the woman.

Now before anyone thinks the Republicans have been generous with these mandates, there's an "exception" for victims of rape and incest as long as the victim has previously reported the crime and doesn't mind having a third party notify law enforcement that she is going to have an abortion.

“So, the authors of this bill apparently believe that women are too dishonest to be believed when they say they were raped or the victims of incest,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said. “It is Congress siding with her abuser…”.

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