Honestly, our political system is pretty pathetic if it can't pass legislation that >85% of Americans support.
— @TomLavinNH via web
NY Times:
The Senate will vote Wednesday afternoon on a series of gun measures that may determine the shape of legislation inspired by the shootings in Newtown, Conn. By late Tuesday night, a bipartisan amendment to the legislation, which would expand background checks for gun buyers, seemed all but doomed as two members the measure’s sponsors had hoped would support it announced they would not.
And yet...
TPM:
Senate Democrats were desperately working Tuesday to keep alive the modest bipartisan legislation to expand mandatory background checks to some gun sales, claiming momentum in public and offering new concessions to skeptical senators in private.
The epic struggle to pass even a minimal tightening of gun laws — a scaled-back version of the universal checks that 90 percent of Americans support — is yet another testament to the power of the gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, which opposes the compromise.
Add Murkowski and expect some Dem defections. But win or lose, and no matter how bitter a pill to swallow, this is not over. The gun responsibility lobby, created from nothing 4 months ago, will continue to work for change at state and federal level. There will be no free votes on this bill. Senators will be held accountable. We are not going away.
Helen Branswell:
An influenza A virus called H7N9 exploded onto the global infectious-diseases radar on April 1 when the World Health Organization revealed China had found three people infected with a new form of bird flu. Since then 77 cases (as of 1 P.M. EDT, April 16) have been confirmed, and the virus has spread from China’s largest megalopolis, Shanghai, and several surrounding provinces to the capital, Beijing, more than 950 kilometers to the north. And cases have proliferated at a startling pace: Infections with H7N9 have already outstripped the total number of H5N1 bird flu cases seen in all affected countries last year.
Whereas the new virus doesn’t seem quite as deadly as H5N1 (fatal in about 60 percent of known cases), it still packs a scary punch. To date 16 people have died from H7N9, and many others remain in critical condition. So far, at least, mild infections from this new strain are in the minority.
Helen is one of the best health reporters in the business. No reason to expect another pandemic, but this virus has pandemic potential.
More politics and policy below the fold.
NY Times:
As an orthopedic surgeon, we see patients like this, with mangled extremities, but we don’t see 16 of them at the same time, and we don’t see patients from blast injuries,” Dr. Peter Burke, the trauma surgery chief at Boston Medical Center, said.
The toll from the bombs Monday at the Boston Marathon, which killed at least three and injured more than 170, will long be felt by anyone involved with the city’s iconic sporting event. For the victims, the physical legacy could be an especially cruel one for a group that was involved in the marathon: severe leg trauma and amputations.
Yes. This was deliberate maiming of runners; the bomber(s) aimed at their legs.
Kathleen Parker:
You know the feeling. You wake up filled with dread but, still groggy, you can’t put your finger on the reason.
Possibilities flitter across the landscape of near-consciousness: An exam? A deadline? A speech? What day is it?
Oh my God, Boston.
For longer than usual, you linger, head on pillow, breathing, thinking, I have my legs. Oh my God.
Coffee.
“Boston will survive,” someone is saying on TV. The papers lead as expected. Drudge, Lucianne, Beast, HuffPo, Twitter. Two brothers each lost a leg. Horror.
Breathe.
The response will be muted and delayed for some, immediate for others. It's perfectly okay to turn off the TV for a while, especially given that there's no credible information to share. We learned that after Newtown.
Finally, for that big picture on American politics, see Greg Sargent:
I already touched on today’s new Post poll this morning, but there are a bunch of numbers in here that really deserve their own post.
To wit: It finds that only 23 percent of Americans — that would be fewer than one in four — believe the Republican Party is “in touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today,” while 70 percent believe that it is “out of touch.” Among independents, those numbers are 23-70. Among moderates they’re 20-75.
By contrast, Americans say by 51-46 that Obama is in touch. Among moderates that’s 56-42 (he fares worse among independents, 44-53, though far better than Republicans).
Greg's done great reporting on the gun legislation issue, and that small piece is part of this bigger picture.