* The U.S. and European Union announced new sanctions on Russian and Crimean officials. In a shocker, John McCain declared the move insufficiently tough.
* A bipartisan group of senators is rebelling against Senate rules banning iPads and Kindles from the floor. “I started this effort in the last century,” said Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), “and I’ll continue into the next if that’s what it takes to adapt this Senate rule to the times.” For the record, when the next century rolls around, Enzi will be 165 years old. But his resolve is inspiring.
* Speaking of resolve, Lindsey Graham’s new ad says he’s “a conservative leader who gets things done,” but judging by the rest of the ad, “getting things done” means going on TV a lot to talk about Benghazi.
* One of America’s most colorful politicians, former Louisiana governor and former felon Edwin Edwards, has announced that, at the age of 86, he’s running for Congress. Edwards, who is married to a woman more than 50 years his junior, once said, “The only way I can lose this race is to be caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl.” But he may have a tougher race this time around.
* Over at my other home (The American Prospect), I have a piece on the racial makeup of America’s poor. The largest group? White people. And, yes, there’s a chart.
* The Fix’s Jaime Fuller has a very particular set of skills. But unlike Liam Neeson, she doesn’t snap bad guys’ necks; instead, she assembles weird and wonderful compilations of things you didn’t know you’d find fascinating. Today’s entry: times politicians have actually come to blows with each other, other people and, in one case, a bear.
* As Alyssa Rosenberg says in the introduction to her new pop culture blog Act Four, “the best case for public service these days comes less from federal officials in Washington than from ‘Parks and Recreation,’ a low-rated, obsessively friendly sitcom that has stayed alive for six seasons by sheer force of pluck and determination.” Indeed. Part of what’s so inspiring about Leslie Knope is that the people of Pawnee, Ind., are unfailingly awful, and awful to her — selfish, irrational, downright stupid — and she keeps begging them to let her serve them.
* The Guardian asks, “Could Robots Be the Journalists of the Future?” Perhaps, but in the meantime, maybe they could master doing the dishes and the laundry, because that would be a big help.
