Obama’s clean-up-your-act message for blacks is getting old, critics say Vanessa Williams Even some supporters say the president needs to stop lecturing predominantly black audience.During the speech, Obama admonished black men to take care of their families and their communities and told the graduates that despite the lingering legacies of slavery and discrimination, “we’ve got no time for excuses.” Obama also used the occasion to talk about his own life, touching on the fact that he was raised by a single mother and that growing up he sometimes blamed some of his bad choices on “the world trying to keep a black man down.”

Can You Blame Moore on Global Warming? by Josh DziezaThe type of tornado that hit Oklahoma could become more common as the atmosphere warms. Or maybe not.....

The US Murder Rate Is on Track to Be Lowest in a Century And if we want it to keep declining, there's one simple thing we can do. Kevin Drum This is the exact same pattern we see in lead ingestion among small children, offset by 21 years (the black line). Lead exposure rises in the late 1800s, during the heyday of lead paint, reaching a peak around 1910; then declines through World War II; and then begins rising again during our postwar love affair with big cars that burned high-octane leaded gasoline. Lead finally enters its final decline in the mid-70s when we begin the switch to unleaded gasoline.

An Alabama senator’s lost cause Dana Milbank Jeff Sessions is on a one-man crusade to undo the Gang of Eight’s immigration compromise."Not since George Wallace, perhaps, has an Alabamian taken as passionate a stand for a lost cause as the one Jeff Sessions is taking now."Publisher's Note: We call foul on the comparison of Jeff Sessions with George Wallace's stand on intergration. Notice the "perhaps" in Milbank's quote. And.... since Milbank wasn't born until April 1968, all of his info is hearsay, at best, or did he learn it at Yale?So Much for Yale

Black Caucus chair asks for lenient sentence for Jesse Jackson Jr.  BY LYNN SWEET Eight of the letters argued for a break. The most prominent advocate for Jesse Jackson was Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Fudge wrote that even though she and some congressional colleagues in hindsight saw signs of his bipolar illness “during the last 4 to 5 years,” nevertheless, he was a “tireless advocate for the poor and underserved.” He was also the charming “highlight of our karaoke nights.” “As you weigh the fate of Congressman Jackson, please consider the many fine characteristics he possesses, and his dedicated and passionate service for the people he represented in the United States Congress for nearly 18 years."

Virginia Republicans Have a Vagina Problem By Kate SheppardOn Saturday, Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain clinched his party's nomination for attorney general in the November election. And much like the rest of the GOP ticket, he's got some baggage. Think Progress swiftly unearthed a bill he authored in 2009 that would subject women to legal penalties if they fail to report a miscarriage to the police.

Intelligence And Politics Have a Complex Relationship By Scott A. McGreal, MSc. The issue of how intelligence is related to political orientation naturally provokes controversy. Although some have claimed that liberals tend to be more intelligent than conservatives, the actual relationship appears to be quite complex and to vary according to social context. Both conservatives and liberals may have intellectually sophisticated reasons for their views.

Hillary's 'Scapegoat' Speaks Out by Josh RoginRaymond Maxwell, the only official at the State Department's bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to lose his job after the attacks, tells Josh Rogin that he’s been scapegoated by Hillary Clinton’s team. Since the leave is not considered a formal disciplinary action, Maxwell has no means to appeal the status, as he would if he had been outright fired. To this day, he says, nobody from the State Department has ever told him why he was singled out for discipline. He has never had access to the classified portion of the ARB report, where all of the details regarding personnel failures leading up to Benghazi are confined. He also says he has never been shown any evidence or witness testimony linking him to the Benghazi incident.

Iran policy reaches day of reckoning By Jennifer RubinIn the “not happening” department, even the administration no longer insists diplomatic progress is being made to end the Iranian weapons program. Nor do informed observers think the Iranian presidential elections in June are meaningful. Not only are the latter irrelevant since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei runs the nuclear show, but also the faux “moderate” in the race, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani “presided over some of the worst acts of terror ever committed by the Islamic Republic,” as former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams puts it. The Iranians will use both diplomacy and the upcoming elections to buy time, all the while racing forward with their nuclear weapons program. Israel’s government, now a broad-based coalition, and its citizens are united on this issue: Iran can’t get the bomb, and Israel will act if need be. Congress plainly recognizes the moment of truth is upon us. 

A heavy-handed White House Eugene Robinson The administration mistakes reporting for espionage.In my reading, the First Amendment prohibition against “abridging the freedom . . . of the press” should rule out secretly obtaining two months’ worth of the personal and professional phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, including calls to and from the main AP phone number at the House press gallery in the Capitol. Yet this is what the Justice Department did.