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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.

Dick Armey, the wingnut grifter who just bamboozled FreedomWorks out of a cool $8M--was asked a pretty awesome question by Norah O'Donnell--why did so many of your Teabagger candidates lose?

O'DONNELL: You are leaving FreedomWorks, an organization of Tea Party people, and I want to ask you about that record because FreedomWorks spent $40 million dollars in the last election, and you had less than one in four of a winning record on the candidates that you backed. Was it the organization or is the Tea Party weakened?

ARMEY: No, I don't think that's at all, we had a lot of candidates quite frankly that did dumb things out there...I don't think the Republican Party schooled their candidates very well or supported their candidates very well.

Got that? FreedomWorks epic fail isn't Dick Armey's fault. The candidates screwed up, the GOP screwed up. But Dick Armey is blameless.

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.

Once again, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock didn't say "stupid" things--they accurately and honestly reflected their party's extremist views on choice. And a party that relies on fundie shock troops to win at the polls simply can't "stay away" from the abortion issue.

So to review: Dick Armey spends $40M on Teabagger candidates, loses over 75% of those races--then parachutes out with $8M for himself, while blaming everyone but himself on the way out.

The Party of Personal Responsibility strikes again!

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

Open thread below...

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!

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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Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach doesn't like brown people very much at all, and he dislikes immigration reform even more. That didn't stop Sunflower Community Action from paying a visit to his home and inviting him to stop spreading his hate.

Kobach declined and ramped up the hate meter a few notches in the process:

Kobach told Fox News radio host Todd Starnes that he and his family had been out of town at the time, but he was “just appalled” because “they don’t have a right to enter someone’s private property and engage in this kind of intimidation.”

“If we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid – because it took the police 15 minutes to show up,” he explained. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment. There are situations like this where you have a mob and you do need to be able to protect yourself.”

“The Second Amendment is the private property owner’s last resort.”

Kobach vowed not to let the “illegal aliens” change his mind about opposing comprehensive immigration reform.

Kris, show me in the video where the brown people touched you. It'll be ok. They weren't there to hurt you, just to show you they're people too.

The next time Kobach claims he's not racist, please remember his reaction to this incident of peaceful people doing peaceful, lawful things.

While speaking on the use of humor in political activism at this year’s Left Forum Conference in New York City, filmmaker Michael Moore says “the majority of Americans are already on our side,” and speaks of the use of humor in his filmmaking. John Fugelsang of CurrentTV’s Viewpoint also participated in the panel and, in this video, speaks of the peril and challenge involved in pushing for morality “from some very comfortable people in the 1st world.”

The panel / training also included John Hlinko of LeftAction.org and was presented by Julianna Forlano from CrooksandLiars.com and Absurdity Today. If you were unable to make it to the conference, we will bring the conference to you. Comments welcome.

Woot! Hump day! :)

Sorry, Rick Perry, but Ted Cruz is the current toast of Texas.

Marmel: It's time for Sen. Jeff Flake to focus on his family.

Bulletin of Atomic Sciences: "Pandora's Promise," a pro-nuclear energy documentary is chock full of problems - mainly by completely ignoring any nuclear power problems.

Michael Wolraich: Is Hassan Rouhani,Iran's last chance?

We the People: A look at the Supreme Court's voter registration ruling.

Finally, The U.S. media will report on a lot of things, except what it's really like to live in the U.S. ".

Round-up by Bill Wolfrum of William K. Wolfrum Chronicles. Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

The tweet is fake, but still perfect.

Open thread below...