Republican Effort to Unpack the Court

Liberals are tearing into a Republican plan to reduce the number of judges on the country’s most important appeals court, calling it a political ploy to keep President Obama from making the court less conservative.

The plan, drafted by Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and supported by at least a half-dozen other Republicans, would prevent Mr. Obama from filling three of the four vacant seats on the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Currently, four of the court’s full-time judges are Republican appointees and three are Democratic appointees. There are supposed to be 11 full-time judges.

If the president’s current nominee for one of those vacancies, Sri Srinivasan, a top official in the solicitor general’s office, is confirmed, the Republican-Democrat balance on the court would be even.

And that is where the Republican plan would have the court remain.

“There is more than one way to pack a court to suit one’s ideological preferences,” said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal nonprofit group. “Now that they are facing increasing pressure to stop blocking President Obama’s nominees, Republicans have come up with a new plan: just get rid of the vacancies.”

Mr. Grassley has blamed Mr. Obama for waiting so long to fill the court’s vacant seats â€" since he took office in 2009, he has nominated only two people, one of whom went down in a Republican-led filibuster. Mr. Grassley argued that the court could do without those seats because it had a lighter workload than other circuit courts.

“It is an efficient allocation of resources,” Mr. Grassley said of his bill during Mr. Srinivasan’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “It saves taxpayer dollars. And it will be a significant step towards addressing the severe imbalance in the workloads between some of these circuits.”

There would still be three vacancies even if Mr. Srinivasan is confirmed. Mr. Grassley’s bill would redistribute two of those seats to other circuit courts, the Second and 11th Circuits, and eliminate the third seat.

Romney Visits New York to Thank Donors

Since losing the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney has pumped his own gas (with wind-tousled hair), navigated Costco with his wife, Ann (stocking up on everything from bottled water to paper towels) and welcomed grandchildren 19 and 20 (twins, from his youngest son, Craig).

And on Thursday, Mr. Romney hit Manhattan for what several people with knowledge of his trip described as a “thank you” tour for donors and fund-raisers from his recent campaign.

In the afternoon, Mr. Romney attended a large meeting with fund-raisers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges â€" a law firm on Fifth Avenue that was a finance team meeting spot during the campaign â€" and in the evening, he is expected to attend a smaller dinner for top fund-raisers and donors at the home of Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group.

Though the visit was largely designed for Mr. Romney to express his gratitude to donors and others who helped raise money for his campaign, one person with knowledge of the meetings said that at the dinner, attendees were hoping discuss ways to keep him part of the political conversation.

“We’ll be plotting out the future, keeping Mitt relevant, talking about 2016,” this person said. “Not for Mitt, but if he can keep this group of fund-raisers together, that’s a powerful calling card to Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.”

With a few exceptions, Mr. Romney has kept a low profile since the November election. He returned to the political spotlight most recently in March, when he addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and received a warm welcome.

Attendees at the dinner are expected to include some of his top money men: Joshua Harris, a co-founder of Apollo Global Management; Emil W. Henry Jr., a former Treasury official under President George W. Bush and an economic adviser to the Romney campaign; Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets; David H. Koch, who, along with his brother, is a major benefactor of conservative causes; Wilbur L. Ross Jr., an investor; Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital; Dan Senor, a senior policy adviser to Mr. Romney’s campaign who also advised Representative Paul D. Ryan, the vice presidential nominee; Paul Singer, founder and chief executive of Elliott Management Corporation; and Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s finance chairman and a founder of Solamere Capital.

In June, Mr. Romney will host a retreat in Park City, Utah, for his donor and fund-raising base, which at least two 2016 hopefuls â€" Mr. Ryan and the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie â€" are expected to attend. The gathering is being sponsored by Solamere, the investment firm co-founded by Mr. Zwick and Mr. Romney’s oldest son, Tagg.

In addition to helping out Solamere, where Mr. Romney recently took on a modest role as chairman of the executive committee, an associate said Mr. Romney’s retreat would allow him to play a larger role in 2016 Republican politics.

“I can guarantee you whatever 2016 hopefuls he invites, they will show up,” the associate said.

Follow Ashley Parker on Twitter at @AshleyRParker.

Senate Republicans Describe Cordial, if Not Convincing, Dinner With Obama

President Obama threw his second dinner party of the year for Republican senators Wednesday night, but if the first such venture in March yielded a few rounds of “Kumbaya,” the second was apparently more “Hit the Road Jack.”

“It certainly promotes a relationship that’s more conducive to getting something done,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and a dinner guest at the White House. “But you also come away from it realizing how far apart we are.”

Mr. Obama’s continuing charm offensive is aimed at finding some bipartisan accord with the Senate on major deficit reduction legislation, an agreement that could isolate House Republican leaders and drive them back to the bargaining table. But the window for that so-called Grand Bargain is extremely narrow. A showdown looms this July, when Congress must raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit, and political currents will grow only stronger as the 2014 Congressional elections approach.

But at this point, even some Republicans say the president doesn’t have a bargaining partner.

“The problem is that even amongst Republicans - and Democrats also - there’s no consensus,” said Senator John Boozman, Republican of Arkansas, who also attended the White House dinner. “It depends on who you talk to in the Republican caucus Senate, or the Republican caucus House, or the Democratic caucus, House or Senate. There’s such a disparate sense of what we need to do.”

That discord has been evident for much of the week. On Wednesday, the president released his broad budget plan for fiscal 2014, which included substantial changes to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as a new way of calculating inflation that would slow down the growth of many government benefits, including Social Security. Those proposals were supposed to be an overture to Republican leaders, who have been loudly demanding presidential leadership to slow the growth of entitlement programs.

While most Republican leaders dismissed the proposals as far too tepid, Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, who is chairman of the committee charged with electing House Republicans, called it “a shocking attack on seniors.”

The House speaker, John A. Boehner, told reporters Thursday that he disagreed with Mr. Walden’s assessment, and that the two “had a conversation about it.”

The Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, added Mr. Walden on Thursday to a list of Republicans the group hopes to challenge with a more conservative Republican next year.

Mr. Boozman said the president and the senators met for several hours Wednesday in casual conversation that was “almost like sitting around a cafe table.” Some senators started fairly uptight, “just because of the power of the office,” he said, but Mr. Obama “was very, very relaxed with this group.”

The meal “was very tasty,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee.

That didn’t mean Mr. Obama broke through, however.

“Honestly, we have strong disagreements based on the budget and economics,” said Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. “We have a difference of opinion on the role of government, but it was respectful, honest and open.”

But, he added, “I don’t think any minds were changed.”

“It’s fine that people talk,” Mr. Rubio said, shrugging. “You’re not going to change anybody’s principles.”

Jay-Z Responds to Cuba Trip Critics With Political Rap

Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press Jay-Z and Beyoncé in Cuba.

Jay-Z lashed out on Thursday at members of Congress who have raised questions about the legality of his recent trip to Cuba with Beyoncé, his wife. He released a scathing rap aimed at those critics and suggested he had been falsely accused of breaking the law because of his friendship with President Obama.

The rapper mocked the two Miami Republicans â€" Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart â€" who demanded last week that the Treasury Department explain why the trip was licensed by the American government. Under the longtime embargo, Americans are not allowed to spend money in Cuba “unless authorized by a general or specific license” by the Office of Foreign Asset Control.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department said the trip had been officially sanctioned as an educational exchange. Though the couple were seen wining and dining in Havana to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, Jay-Z and Beyoncé also met with a theater group and visited an art institute on the trip.

In the lyrics of “Open Letter,” which was released online, Jay-Z took the politicians to task for suggesting the trip was illegal:

Wanna give me jail time and a fine
Fine, let me commit a real crime
I might buy a kilo for Chief Keef
Out of spite, I just might flood these streets.

Jay-Z, a brilliant businessman who has founded several lucrative ventures, also suggested supporters of restrictions on trade with Cuba were hypocrites, since the United States trades with China:

I’m in Cuba, I love Cubans
This Communist talk is so confusing
When it’s from China, the very mike that I’m using

He also said he had become a target because he was “getting too much bread” and was a “boy from the hood” with “White House clearance.”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z were greeted by big crowds as they strolled hand in hand through the Havana last week. They ate at some of the city’s best restaurants, danced to Cuban music, walked through historic Old Havana and posed for pictures with admiring Cubans.

On Friday, Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart said in a letter to Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, that the trip looked like a tourist visit. “Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple’s trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda,” the letter said.

But the Treasury Department responded that sight-seeing was allowed during the off-hours on an educational visit and Jay-Z and Beyoncé had fulfilled their educational obligations by meeting with the La Colmenita theater group and talking with students at the Superior Art Institute.

A Scale That Measures Your Heart

The Quantified Self movement, which advocates measuring and tracking physiological data, has a new tool. A Withings scale not only measures your weight when you stand on it, but also your heart rate, and it sends the findings to a personal Web page and your phone.

The scale, the Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer, connects by Bluetooth to Android and Apple phones through an app, as well as connecting to the Web by Wi-Fi to send your results to a Withings Web page called a dashboard. That allows you to track fluctuations over time.

The scale also calculates your body mass index. And it has a CO2 monitor, to give you indoor air quality. Elevated CO2 can raise your heart rate and affect sleep quality.

The data from your scale can be shared with other apps, and other devices can share with the Withings app. If you are using a BodyMedia monitor, your activity and sleep data can be linked to the Withings dashboard.

It connects with other devices as well, like Withings’s own blood pressure monitor and some popular apps like the exercise tracker RunKeeper.

If you don’t want to get all of those extra tracking devices, some of the data, like blood pressure, can be typed in manually. Withings doesn’t track your food intake, but will send its data to sites that do, like Daily Burn.

In a test, using the scale was a little complicated. For instance, when someone else stepped on it, the scale stopped recognizing me. It took quite a few steps to get reconnected. When reconnected, at first it wouldn’t record my heart rate (when it finally did, I was so exasperated my ticker rate was abnormally high). When it did read my heart rate again, at first it didn’t send it to the phone, and then later it did.

The Smart Body Analyzer is available online for $150.

Wireless Stereo That Really Is Stereo

The ability to separate left and right speakers gives the Soundfreaq Sound Platform 2 true stereo sound.

The problem with most speaker docks is that the left and right speakers are inches apart in a single box, even fancy ones like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin. They might as well be monaural. Not so the Soundfreaq Sound Platform 2. When you buy two of the wireless docks ($150 each) they recognize each other and become left and right speakers that can be separated by whatever distance Bluetooth and your room allow.

Each 13- by 5- by 7-inch cabinet houses a 40-watt amplifier and two 3-inch speakers, according to the manufacturer.

The setup instructions were understandable, requiring pressing of specific buttons for a specific time. That was all it took for the docks to link.

You can run the docks remotely using your phone and tablet with the Soundfreaq app, but I found the app a bit half-baked. You can advance and replay songs, pause and change volume, but you can’t choose any particular song from your playlist - just take what is offered, one song at a time (the company said an update will fix this). You can skip the Soundfreaq app and just use iTunes instead.

There were some glitches. The left and right speakers sometimes played at different volumes until I made a manual adjustment, for example.

The sound quality can be altered through a few settings. One called UQ3 is supposed to enhance stereo separation, although it sounded like a slight bass and treble boost to me. It also has a “warm” and “bright” setting. Overall sound was good, but if you aren’t living in a dorm it probably won’t be your primary hi-fi.

One other thing this dock manages that many others don’t is a prodigious volume level. Crank up a pair of these and prepare for complaints from the neighbors.

A Headphone That’s an Oldie but a Goodie

You’d think newer always means better. Especially for headphones, where it seems a new model is minted every hour.

But doing some research a few months ago, I spoke to a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, Jim Anderson, who recommended an age-old headphone, the Sony MDR-7506.

The 22-year-old Sony MDR-7506 headphones remain a favorite of audio pros.

The MDR-7506 has been sold for two decades as a headphone for studio professionals. These “cans” are a common sight at mixing boards because of their balanced sound, portability and modest price. So I tried a pair.

First thing, they are an over-the-ear closed design. That means padded cups isolate you from outside sound. That can be good for you and for seatmates in planes, trains and automobiles. The drawback is they can get hot during prolonged listening - the kind you are apt to do in planes, trains and automobiles.

I found them a good fit over my smallish ears and lightweight enough to wear an hour or so before my lobes cried out for a break.

The sound is nicely balanced, lacking the thudding bass of many popular headphones, although some electric bass sounded a bit muddy. Some say the higher tones are harsh. I didn’t think so except on the crunchy guitar licks of Joe Bonamassa’s version of “Jockey Full of Bourbon.” Not a dealbreaker.

Even though these are full-size headphones, they fold in on themselves to reduce size by about half. Too large for a pocket, but easy to stow in a backpack or messenger bag.

The price is $80 online. A “consumer” version of the headphone, the MDR-V6 is $68 online. The specifications are somewhat different, and you miss out on niceties like gold plated plugs, but the consensus is that they sound nearly identical.

For at-home listening, I still give a slight edge to the $100 on-ear Grado SR80i headphones, which I find more comfortable and to have better soundstage - a sort of audio 3-D effect that makes individual instruments seem to come from different spots in a room. But for travel, I might go with the MDR-7506.

Tracking Hastert Rule Violations in the House

In a largely unnoticed vote on Tuesday, the House passed legislation without the support of a majority of Republicans, the fourth time in 2013 that the so-called “Hastert Rule” was broken by the majority party.

Named for the former House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the “rule” is more of an informal guideline in which the majority party typically does not bring bills to the House floor unless they have the support of more than half of the majority party’s lawmakers. Such votes are fairly rare: the most recent vote was the 36th time it has happened since 1991, according to a tally by The New York Times.

Tuesday’s vote was on a bill authorizing the acquisition of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields under a federal program to preserve historical sites. The bill, sponsored by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, was debated under suspension of the rules, which means that a two-thirds majority was required for passage. Behind the support of 182 Democrats and 101 Republicans, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the bill achieved the necessary majority by 13 votes. One hundred and twenty-two Republicans voted against the bill, which the conservative group Heritage Action urged lawmakers to oppose.

The four bills passed over the objections of a majority of Republicans this year are the most since 2008, when the House approved three bills without the support of a Democratic majority. The practice attracts debate among political scientists and other observers of the House leadership and the role of the minority party in passing legislation.

Here is a list of votes that broke the Hastert Rule back to 1991.

Tracking Hastert Rule Violations in the House

In a largely unnoticed vote on Tuesday, the House passed legislation without the support of a majority of Republicans, the fourth time in 2013 that the so-called “Hastert Rule” was broken by the majority party.

Named for the former House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the “rule” is more of an informal guideline in which the majority party typically does not bring bills to the House floor unless they have the support of more than half of the majority party’s lawmakers. Such votes are fairly rare: the most recent vote was the 36th time it has happened since 1991, according to a tally by The New York Times.

Tuesday’s vote was on a bill authorizing the acquisition of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields under a federal program to preserve historical sites. The bill, sponsored by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, was debated under suspension of the rules, which means that a two-thirds majority was required for passage. Behind the support of 182 Democrats and 101 Republicans, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the bill achieved the necessary majority by 13 votes. One hundred and twenty-two Republicans voted against the bill, which the conservative group Heritage Action urged lawmakers to oppose.

The four bills passed over the objections of a majority of Republicans this year are the most since 2008, when the House approved three bills without the support of a Democratic majority. The practice attracts debate among political scientists and other observers of the House leadership and the role of the minority party in passing legislation.

Here is a list of votes that broke the Hastert Rule back to 1991.

Tracking Hastert Rule Violations in the House

In a largely unnoticed vote on Tuesday, the House passed legislation without the support of a majority of Republicans, the fourth time in 2013 that the so-called “Hastert Rule” was broken by the majority party.

Named for the former House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the “rule” is more of an informal guideline in which the majority party typically does not bring bills to the House floor unless they have the support of more than half of the majority party’s lawmakers. Such votes are fairly rare: the most recent vote was the 36th time it has happened since 1991, according to a tally by The New York Times.

Tuesday’s vote was on a bill authorizing the acquisition of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields under a federal program to preserve historical sites. The bill, sponsored by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, was debated under suspension of the rules, which means that a two-thirds majority was required for passage. Behind the support of 182 Democrats and 101 Republicans, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the bill achieved the necessary majority by 13 votes. One hundred and twenty-two Republicans voted against the bill, which the conservative group Heritage Action urged lawmakers to oppose.

The four bills passed over the objections of a majority of Republicans this year are the most since 2008, when the House approved three bills without the support of a Democratic majority. The practice attracts debate among political scientists and other observers of the House leadership and the role of the minority party in passing legislation.

Here is a list of votes that broke the Hastert Rule back to 1991.

The iPad as Child’s Easel

IPad cases for children abound these days, but if your intention is to create a child’s easel, ArtSee Studio from WowWee (www.artseestudio.com, $40) is the best bet. Designed to offer both protection against drops and reduce the chance a preschooler might end up in your email, the plastic case includes a home button lock, a rubber-tipped stylus and five stamps of the variety you might find at the post office. Instead of ink, each stamp has a unique dot pattern that triggers an artistic effect when placed against the iPad’s screen. Want to add a swimming dolphin Use the sticker stamp. Want to make your dolphin move Use the Arrow stamp, and trace a course. After you snap your iPad into the holder and download the free app, called ArtSee Studio, your child is free to sketch. One weak point â€" our testers found it hard to “undo” a sticker once it has been placed. But they were impressed by the powerful drawing options, which include such wonders as a rainbow crayon. Saving projects is automatic, a there is a set of games like connect the dots and concentration. The case fits all generations of iPads.
Download the app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/artsee-studio/id549729375mt=8
Video (CTR) at http://www.youtube.com/watchv=JJI_9cklTKI

Q&A: Installing Microsoft Office on Multiple Machines

Q.

I just bought a new computer, but plan to keep my old one. I still have the original discs for Microsoft Office 2010 â€" can I also install the program on the new PC

A.

Microsoft released a few versions of Office 2010, so the number of computers on which you can install the software varies. According to the company’s Web site, if you have the Office Home and Business 2010 edition or the Office Professional 2010 suite, you are allowed to install a copy on one PC and a second copy on a portable device “such as a laptop.”

If you have the more consumer-oriented Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 edition of the suite (the version that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote â€" but not the Outlook mail program), you have more flexibility. This version of the software can be installed on up to three computers designated for noncommercial use in a single household.

To install the program on the new machine, you will need the Office 2010 product key â€" that lengthy 25-character string of letters and numbers usually affixed to the DVD case â€" to activate the software. If you have problems with product activation, Microsoft offers some support.

The Early Word: Budget

In Today’s Times:

What does it mean to be “a progressive Democrat in the age of austerity” Jackie Calmes writes that it’s the debate President Obama set off Wednesday with his budget proposal for 2014, in which he puts cost-saving changes to Medicare and Social Security â€" signature Democratic entitlement programs â€" on the table with demands for concessions from Republicans on taxes and spending. The president had dinner with a group of Senate Republicans on Wednesday night to press his case on the budget, gun control and immigration.

A Democratic senator has reached a deal with a Republican colleague that will allow the full Senate to begin considering legislation requiring background checks for gun purchases, Jennifer Steinhauer writes in explaining the deal, how it came together and the outlook in the Senate.

As advocates for an overhaul of immigration laws rallied on Capitol Hill and around the country, an evenly split bipartisan group of eight senators announced a legislative deal on Wednesday. Julia Preston and Ashley Parker explain a central tenet of the proposed bill  that would link a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants to enforcement goals for border control.

The nomination process for Sri Srinivasan to serve on the powerful federal appeals court in Washington is going much smoother than it did for Caitlin Halligan, who withdrew from consideration in March. Jeremy W. Peters reports that Mr. Srinivasan appears headed toward easy confirmation after he breezed through a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, despite differences between Democrats and Republicans over using the filibuster on judicial nominees.

The Postal Service is blaming Congress for forcing the agency to shelve plans to cut mail delivery to six days a week from five, a move it said was necessary to cut costs, Emmarie Huetteman writes.

Happening in Washington:

Economic reports expected Thursday include weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by weekly mortgage rates.

President Obama’s schedule includes a meeting with members of the Financial Services Forum at 11 a.m. at the White House and a conference call focused on youth summer employment at 12:05 p.m. He will award the Medal of Honor to Capt. Emil J. Kapaun, an Army chaplain, in an East Room ceremony at 2:10 p.m., before meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, at 2:55 p.m.

At 9:30 a.m., the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the defense budget for 2014 and beyond from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen.  Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The House intelligence committee will conduct a hearing at 10 a.m. focused on worldwide threats with Mr. Hagel, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence; John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency;  Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Robert Mueller, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will take up Gina McCarthy’s nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency at 10:30 a.m.

The roster of administration officials testifying on Capitol Hill about the president’s budget proposal include Treasury secretary Jacob J. Lew ( at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.); Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano (10 a.m.); Education secretary Arne Duncan (10 a.m.); Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan (10 a.m.); and Jeffrey Zients, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (2 p.m.).