Paul Ryan held hearings on poverty, but wouldn’t let poor people testify. But in his defense he was worried poverty might be contagious.

Showdown in North Carolina primary between guy who wants poor to die of preventable diseases and guy who wants to poor to starve to death.

Rand Paul: "Hillary should testify at the latest Benghazi hearings. My campaign needs more footage of her and I before we face off in 2016."

Scott Walker: "National Teacher Day just demonstrates the corrupt power of the Teachers' Union. If I had my way, they'd all be in jail."

Hey guys, remember that time Hillary Clinton's husband cheated on her but she kept her family together? Yeah, let's smear her for that.

John Sides, Ben Highton and Eric McGhee of The Monkey Cage have started Election Lab, a Senate forecasting model at The Washington Post. Their model gives Republicans more than an 80 percent chance of retaking the Senate; that’s much more than the 54 percent chance that Leo, The Upshot’s Senate model, gives the G.O.P. It’s also better odds than many Republican strategists give their party. In a recent survey by Reid J. Epstein of The Wall Street Journal, Kevin Madden, a former aide to Mitt Romney, gave the party a 65 percent chance of taking the Senate. John Brabender, Rick Santorum’s former campaign manager, put the odds at 75 percent.

As we’ve written before, we plan to tell you not only about the assumptions behind The Upshot’s Senate model but also to explain why and how it differs from others. So what explains the difference between Election Lab and Leo? Some of the biggest discrepancies are in less obviously competitive races, where The Post tends to give Republicans a far greater chance of victory. The Post gives the G.O.P. a 12 to 24 percent chance of defeating Democratic incumbents in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon and Minnesota. Leo, on the other hand, gives Republicans a one to six percent chance of winning in these states.

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The Post is also more optimistic about the G.O.P.'s chances in New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown is an impressive challenger on paper to Jeanne Shaheen, the incumbent senator, but trails by a significant margin in public opinion polls. Similarly, The Post is more optimistic about Republicans’ odds in Iowa. In a message on Twitter, the Monkey Cage modelers said that they had not yet incorporated fund-raising data there, but that when they add such data, the Democrats’ chances will appear to be stronger.

Leo and The Post also take different approaches in dealing with races in which the primaries have yet to take place. Instead of incorporating information about the candidates who are running and estimating each candidate’s odds of winning the nomination, the Post model assumes that a candidate of “typical” quality will emerge.

After FOUR AMERICANS DIED in Benghazi, Obama should've resigned, just like Reagan did after 241 Americans died in Beruit.

Unemployment and uninsured at lowest point in years, but only because Obamacare Death Panels have killed so many already.

Obama is a dangerous man, say people who buy George Zimmerman paintings.

New poll finds 40% of Republicans believe that getting Obama to say Benghazi backwards will imprison him in Mxyzptlk’s dimension.

Rep. Chris Taylor spent the weekend in Kansas City, Mo., for her second go-around in less than a year as an undercover agent, of sorts, attending an American Legislative Exchange Council event. Better known as ALEC, the powerful conservative group’s members include lawmakers and corporations that together write model bills that are then disseminated to conservative state legislators around the country to pass into law. Taylor, a Madison Democrat, witnessed the process up close when she attended ALEC's annual conference last August. On Thursday and Friday, she attended the Spring Task Force Summit, which she described as a “smaller, quieter ALEC.”

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“A lot of its ‘facts’ don’t really mesh with how things actually are,” Taylor said. “Most economists would not be using those same factors.” Taylor said she attended a workshop where renewable energy was discussed by panelists. She said she was struck by the internal inconsistency. “ALEC is for the free market and no government interference, except when it comes to things like solar energy or electric cars,” Taylor said. “They won't outright say they want to stop it, they’ll just say it will be more expensive for rate payers and it is not as cost-effective."

She said the only reception of the event was sponsored by Koch Industries, an energy company whose owners contribute heavily to ALEC. “ALEC is all about protecting its members,” Taylor said.

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She said the anti-local government rhetoric she heard at a summit workshop echoed what has been happening in Wisconsin. Republicans have long cited local control as a core party principal. But since taking over the state in the November 2010 elections, they have been moving to restrict local control. “They’ve declared war on local control. What I heard was much more blatant than what I’ve heard in the past,” Taylor said. “They believe local governments and local school boards take away liberties just like the federal government.”

Author Nomi Prins is a “class traitor.” She worked as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, as a Lehman Brothers strategist, and as a Chase Manhattan Bank analyst. She also ran the international analytics group as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London, before she began writing books exposing the financial sector’s secrets and wrongdoing. But Wall Street’s loss has been the people’s gain.

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Her growing disenchantment was compounded by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which Prins called an “aha moment because I was working down on Wall Street at the time -- Goldman was very close to the World Trade Center. I was in the building that morning after the planes came by and there was smoke and nobody really knew what was going on. Was it a terrorist attack? The guys on the oil desk were making market. Not only were they doing that -- they weren’t doing that out of their own instinct necessarily -- the head of the commodities desk, one of the top guys in the division who’s now the number two guy at Goldman generally, was telling them to do that. It was really off-putting, because people were trying to figure out what was going on. It was just really strange.”

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“The public has become isolated from, and cynical about, the political process,” Prins said. “This, coupled with the fact that the big banks got away with a big, expensive scam, rampant inequality, and that most individuals are not seeing their personal finances rise in anything like the trajectory of the stock market (all Washington and mainstream media rhetoric of a recovery aside) has led people to seek the truth about the state of the economy through these various individual voices. It’s actually a good sign that people from the far left to the far right are purchasing these books and listening to the perspectives and insights of these authors, because a more informed society is a better-armed society.”

The Progressive asked Prins if she thinks that a form of socialism is the solution for the problems she details in All The Presidents’ Bankers? “Financial capitalism, which took hold in the early 1900s as I write in my book, has shown itself to be dangerous to the public welfare, particularly in the unrestrained manner in which it operates today,” she said. “Every crisis, followed by ‘remedies’ that consist of socializing the losses of banks while privatizing their gains, weakens democracy and the populations of the world. A form of socialism for the people, rather than for these institutions, that seeks to minimize this inequity and its associated risks would benefit everyone, including those at the top of the wealth chain, but on a much fairer, juster, and safer basis.”

Armed supporters of Cliven Bundy, a rancher embroiled in a land dispute with the federal government, at a check point near Bundy's ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., April 19, 2014. (Ronda Churchill/The New York Times)

But the phenomena takes on an even more sinister self-appointed "militias" used a show of arms to intimidate opponents, and the threat of violence to affect policy making and law enforcement. That's what happened in GIlberton, Pennsylvania, where embattled police chief Mark Kessler, who was running for sherif was put on suspension after disturbing videos surface of him shooting automatic assault rifles and ranting against "libtards" and other perceived political enemies, as well as videos of Kessler in uniform, repeatedly shooting at a target he called "Nancy Pelosi."

Kessler also happened be the head of a private militia force called the Constitutional Security Force. When the city/county council met to consider disciplinary action against Kessler, more than 100 armed members of his personal "militia" gathered outside the meeting. Some patrolled the meeting area, telling the media they were there to provide extra "security." They also angrily confronted a member of Keystone Progress, who petition signatures from more than 20,000 who wanted Kessler fired. Rather than fire Kessler, the council decided to suspend him for 30 days without pay. What's unfolding in Nevada hasn't become quite as extreme, yet. But give it time.

Let's be clear. Clive Bundy is basically a criminal. After losing in court for over 20 years, Bundy employed the threat of violence to continue illegally grazing his cattle without paying the grazing fee that other ranchers pay. A simple review of county records proves Bundy's claims on the land are bogus. Whipped into a frenzy by Fox News, Bundy now has armed "militia" supporting him in flouting the law.

If Bundy and his supporters were black or Latino, and wore hoodies instead of cowboy hands, they wouldn't be called a "militia." They would be called a gang of armed "thugs." Instead of hailing them as heroic patriots, the talking heads at Fox News would be calling for them to be arrested, if not shot on sight.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On the afternoon of the Kentucky Derby, Rand Paul, the state’s junior Republican senator and likely presidential candidate, spilled out of an elevator in the exclusive Jockey Club Suites of Churchill Downs with an entourage of women with flower-adorned hats, men in seersucker suits and Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Paul’s guest was a special one. The libertarian brand of politics championed by Mr. Paul and his deep reservations about American intervention overseas have prompted more than a bit of wariness in The Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages, on Fox News and in other influential media outlets owned by Mr. Murdoch. For Mr. Paul, the would-be candidate, and Mr. Murdoch, arguably the most powerful broker in Republican politics, Saturday’s day at the races was filled with betting, losing, drinking and a long chat over kettle corn. It was part getting-to-know-you and part political audition, and marked a potential turn in the race for president.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky greeted students in Chicago, where he participated in a discussion on school choice.Rand Paul and Wealthy Libertarians Connect as He Weighs RunningAPRIL 24, 2014
That Mr. Murdoch, no novice when it comes to matters of political imagery, allowed himself to be paraded for six hours around the boisterous and bourbon-drenched grounds like a prize horse behind a proud jockey, amounted to a message to more establishment Republicans that, as Mr. Murdoch put it, “I’m very open minded.”

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The often hawkish editorial page of Mr. Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has been more full throated in its disappointment with Mr. Paul, suggesting that he was not serious about national security. But Saturday’s outing was notably more congenial, even as the two Republicans stepped precariously through a tunnel that smelled heavily of manure. Mr. Murdoch expressed interest in Mr. Paul’s views. And when Mr. Paul mentioned his efforts to reduce the prison sentences for possession of crack cocaine, Mr. Murdoch agreed, saying, “They should be there six months at the most.”

Interesting! And kind of humorous: As Hobbes said to Calvin, "Language is the greatest obstacle to communication." I understood it pretty much as Mister Ed does, but it could have been worded more like he did and still have generated a lot of heat. We all bring so much baggage to whatever we encounter, it's not surprising that 1) we understand things very differently, and 2) we're constantly at some kind of war with one another.

That's because we're so reactive, ruled by our limbic systems -- we don't allow those 'fight or flight' hormones to calm down, move our thought processes into our neo-cortexes and analyze not only what's really being done/said/thought, but why we react the way we do: "What kind of unresolved issues are triggering my initial reaction?"

We are not very evolved creatures.