ED DRISCOLL: Jesse Jackson Goes Out On A Limb.

ANOTHER FILNER PROBLEM FOR THE DEMOCRATS? Kentucky House Democratic Leaders Knew of Sexual Harassment Claims, Filing Says. “A Democratic state lawmaker says some of his colleagues told him to keep quiet allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a fellow legislator to protect the party’s majority in upcoming elections. After WFPL News reported the accusations against state Rep. John Arnold, D-Sturgis, early Wednesday, Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, took to the House floor to speak out against what he described as a culture of intimidation and sexism in the legislature.”

TRANSPARENCY: SF fire chief bans helmet cameras in wake of crash. “San Francisco’s fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted video cameras, after images from a battalion chief’s Asiana Airlines crash recording became public and led to questions about first responders’ actions leading up to a fire rig running over a survivor.”

IT’S THE LATE, GREAT JOE STRUMMER’S BIRTHDAY. He was pro-war back in the Bush era. “I think you have to grow up and realise that we’re facing religious fanatics who would kill everyone in the world who doesn’t do what they say. The more time you give them the more bombs they’ll get.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The War-Fighting Powers of Coffee.

IN 34 STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, welfare pays better than a minimum-wage job.

THE TABLES HAVE TURNED: The Tesla Model S Is So Safe It Broke the Crash-Testing Gear. “The reason for the insanely high marks isn’t just the stiff structure, but the electric drivetrain. With no engine up front taking up valuable crumple zone space, Tesla’s engineers were able to maximize the amount of sacrificial space, and with the battery mounted oh-so-low in the floor, that increases rigidity around the occupants. The rear crash test — particularly important given the rear-facing child jump seats — was another high score, with no ‘permanently disabling injury to the third row occupants’ thanks in part to what Tesla calls a ‘double bumper’ to absorb additional impact. And before you ask, the lithium-ion battery handled it all with aplomb, with no leakage or fire.”

WORD IS THAT MARK LEVIN’S The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic will come in at #1 on next weeks’ NYT bestseller list in all three categories — hardcover, e-book, and combined hardcover/e-book. Not too shabby!

SPYING: Court: NSA violated Constitution by gathering domestic emails with no connection to terrorism.

RISKY BUSINESS: Closeted Republican Infiltrates Obama White House.

AT LEAST “THE BUTLER” WAS PAID: White House urged to pay interns.

THE PROBLEM WITH BIKES IS LACK OF WEATHER PROTECTION: Bike Commuting With the Waterproof Chrome Barrage Cargo Backpack.

AT AMAZON, Coupons Galore on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.

Also: Warehouse Deals in Tools & Home Improvement.

CAMILLE PAGLIA: Excuse me, but what, exactly, does Hillary Clinton actually bring to the table? “It’s time to put my baby-boom generation out to pasture! We’ve had our day and managed to muck up a hell of a lot. It remains baffling how anyone would think that Hillary Clinton (born the same year as me) is our party’s best chance. She has more sooty baggage than a 90-car freight train. And what exactly has she ever accomplished — beyond bullishly covering for her philandering husband? She’s certainly busy, busy and ever on the move — with the tunnel-vision workaholism of someone trying to blot out uncomfortable private thoughts. . . . Democrats have got to shake off the Clinton albatross and find new blood.”

Plus, the benefits of unregulated Internet capitalism: “I am of course delighted that the fanatical puritan feminists of the anti-pornography crusade of the 1980s have been forced to eat dirt!”

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Cougar sighting reported on residential street.

DE-PROFESSIONALIZATION: NHS Gives Non-Docs the Power to Prescribe. “It’s obvious that patients stand to benefit from the sharing of medical power: not only can they get the medication they need easier, but allowing non-doctor providers to assume more responsibility will reduce costs throughout the system. But doctors will benefit as well. With the more routine tasks passed along to other professionals, doctors can be freed up to devote more time to complex cases and patient interaction, both of which were probably what attracted them to the medical field in the first place.”

EXERCISE: Wearing a Weighted Vest While Exercising Can Boost Bone Mass. “Several small studies have shown exercise with a weighted vest increases bone-mineral density in older women and improves balance. The evidence isn’t conclusive, says Felicia Cosman, senior clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, but it’s logical to think the vests would be beneficial because ‘bone responds to the magnitude of the force put on it.'”

NO SURPRISE: Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison.

SCIENCE: Rigorously controlled studies may soon give us a definitive answer about what causes obesity—excessive calories or the wrong carbohydrates. My own sense is that carbs tend to make you hungrier, which leads to excessive calories. And people who follow the Taubes approach do seem to lose weight.

GREENTECH UPDATE: Despite denials, docs show McAuliffe company asked feds to fast-track visa for investor tied to spy list. Note that the Anthony Rodham involved is Hillary’s brother.

PAUL RAHE: China Chooses Despotism.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 104.

CENK UYGUR CALLS IT “BRAZEN,” AND HE’S RIGHT: Shakedown! Congress-sleazebag Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Voicemail To A Lobbyist. If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t the first time.

MEGAN MCARDLE: How Democrats May Lose Their Media Edge.

Yesterday saw a spate of stories arguing that Republicans are — quietly, off the record — a bit worried about their ability to hold the House of Representatives come 2014. Not panicking, by any means; the electoral map still looks challenging for Democrats. But a mite anxious. After all, they underperformed in 1998 and 2006; what if the same thing happens this time around?

I don’t have a useful answer to this worry, I’m afraid. Still, it does give me an excuse to discuss something I’ve been noodling around for a bit: With the news media landscape rapidly fracturing, should the Democrats be worried about losing their own electoral edge? Those of us in Washington live in an era of Democratic triumphalism. Most of the Democrats I talk to are convinced that their destiny is almost upon them. To be sure, they thought that before, in 2008, and that turned out to be incorrect. But ultimately, they expect changing U.S. demographics to deliver the sort of rock-solid control of the political process that they enjoyed between 1932 and 1968.

If the Republican Party isn’t worried about this, they should be. But should Democrats be worried too? . . .

See that last sentence there, about political parties re-entering the news business? I think Shafer is exactly right about where we’re heading. While outlets like my employer, and Jack’s, and maybe ESPN, may invest in commercial news, most of the political and international journalism that we’re used to seeing is going to be ideological, if not explicitly partisan. People will come to the news assuming that the people making it have an agenda — and they will seek out outlets that match their own agenda, if they see political news at all.

This matters for Democrats because, of course, the majority of people in the news media right now are Democrats, whose sympathies naturally lie with social liberalism, government programs and so forth. A more ideological media will be hiring more conservatives, and that will change what a large portion of the country gets as news.

Read the whole thing. According to research, without media bias, the politics of this country would look more like Texas or Kentucky. And everybody knows you can’t argue with research.