The Commentariat -- May 9 & 10

All internal links removed.

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron, having achieved a smashing and unexpected outright victory in Britain's general election, heads into his second term facing severe -- even existential -- challenges to his nation's identity and place in the world: how to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union and Scotland in the United Kingdom." ...

... Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: "... if the [U.K.] election produced an unexpectedly clear outcome, it may only have heightened the degree to which the country faces a period of internal debate, inward-looking politics and potential instability, with questions about the durability of the United Kingdom and its place in both Europe and the world still to be answered." ...

... Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Britain's political landscape was left transformed as a triumphant David Cameron hailed the sweetest victory of his career after defying his critics by securing the first Conservative working majority since 1992 and forcing three of his vanquished rival party leaders to resign in the space of two hours. With the Conservatives winning an overall majority -- confounding all the opinion poll predictions -- Labour's Ed Miliband, the Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage of Ukip all announced their resignations in quick succession on Friday morning."

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: President Obama expressed frustration yesterday with Democrats who are opposing the transpacific trade agreement:

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The White House is moving to address two of the most common consumer complaints about the sale of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act: that doctor directories are inaccurate, and that patients are hit with unexpected bills for costs not covered by insurance. Federal health officials said this week that they would require insurers to update and correct 'provider directories' at least once a month, with financial penalties for insurers that failed to do so. In addition, they hope to provide an 'out-of-pocket cost calculator' to estimate the total annual cost under a given health insurance plan. The calculator would take account of premiums, subsidies, co-payments, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, as well as a person's age and medical needs.

Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper wasn't lying when he wrongly told Congress in 2013 that the government does not 'wittingly' collect information about millions of Americans, according to his top lawyer. He just forgot." The lawyer, Robert Litt, said Clapper had not reviewed the questions Sen. Ron Wyden had sent to him the prior day, so Clapper was "hit unaware" by the question. Litt added that he himself "also erred after the hearing by not sending a letter to the panel to correct the mistake." ...

... CW: I find the I-forgot excuse fairly credible in Clapper's case. He is not the brightest bulb, & his staff has a history of not briefing him timely on critical security matters.

Gail Collins on spineless Texas politicians who are encouraging crazy conspiracy theorists. CW: The one hope for Texas is that sane people -- maybe from someplace else -- take over the government. Or secession. I'm for that, too. Really, as far as Texas goes, I'm totally with the crazy.

NEW. Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times reports the strange case of Sherry Chen, whom federal prosecutors accused of spying for China -- until they didn't. "Mrs. Chen was caught in a much broader dragnet aimed at combating Chinese industrial espionage." CW: Their "evidence" against Chen sounds pretty flimsy to me. Of course they did ruin Chen's life. As of now, "Mrs. Chen's benefits and pay have been restored, but she is waiting to hear whether the Commerce Department will allow her to return to work."

NEW. Everything Is Obama's Fault, Ctd. Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "Representative Steve King was in his element at the South Carolina Freedom Summit on Saturday, saying after a speech to raucous conservatives that the fault for riots in Baltimore lies with President Barack Obama." Something about Obama "instinctively ... driving wedges people."

The Essential Rectitude of Nepotism. Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: "Today, The New York Times' David Brooks gave family dynasties a hearty endorsement in one of his increasingly deranged fireside chats, suggesting that since some 'powerhouse families' regularly produce successful members, 'we should be grateful that in each field of endeavor there are certain families that are breeding grounds for achievement.... I bet you can trace ways your grandparents helped shape your career,' Brooks advises, proving once again he knows zero people who are not rich.... Combine a heavy emphasis on family values with an equally intense desire for money, and the outcome is what we from the South recognize as good ol' boy networks, wherein a hapless dweeb who can barely manage a baseball team stumbles into the presidency because his daddy made a good run of it."

NEW. Karoli of Crooks & Liars notices that Dylan Byer, Politico's media reporter, mentions -- almost as an aside -- that "the national media have never been more primed to take down Hillary Clinton (and, by the same token, elevate a Republican candidate)." ...

... NEW. digby: "I am always grateful when Village scribes are upfront with their agenda. 'Taking down' Clinton (either or both) is the Village's Holy Grail. And the young Village turks, eager to prove their manhood, are taking up the challenge and joining the crusade. Maybe they'll be the ones who'll finally get 'er done."

Presidential Race

NEW. Jeff Greenfield in the Daily Beast: "Throughout their public lives, Bill and Hillary Clinton have benefitted enormously from the fury of their ideological enemies. Making a case that will persuade Democrats to move away from Clinton on character grounds will be the political equivalent of defusing a ticking bomb." ...

... NEW. Steve M.: "The right just can't let go of any scandal, real or fake. This actually works for Republicans in non-presidential years, because it keeps the GOP voter base fired up and ready to turn out when Democratic voters won't. But it fails them in presidential elections -- as Greenfield says, the constant attacks on the Clintons actually boost their popularity, and help them downplay what might otherwise be legitimate scandals."

NEW. Friends of Marco, Part 1. Michael Barbaro & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "As [Marco] Rubio has ascended in the ranks of Republican politics, [billionaire Norman] Braman has emerged as a remarkable and unique patron. He has bankrolled Mr. Rubio's campaigns. He has financed Mr. Rubio's legislative agenda. And, at the same time, he has subsidized Mr. Rubio's personal finances, as the rising politician and his wife grappled with heavy debt and big swings in their income. Now..., Mr. Braman is ... expected [to contribute] ... approximately $10 million for the senator's pursuit of the White House." ...

... NEW. Friends of Marco, Part 2. Ben Terris of the Washington Post: David Rivera, whom Rubio calls his "most loyal friend and supporter," and "who won a U.S. House seat in 2010, the year of Rubio's come-from-behind Senate victory — has left politics under an ethics cloud. Rivera, who failed to win reelection, has been a target of state and federal investigations looking into his alleged failure to disclose income as well as his alleged role in support of a 2012 shadow campaign designed to undercut his chief Democratic rival for Congress." CW: I don't find this a big deal. While Charlie Rangel probably isn't Hillary Clinton's BFF, I doubt she would snub him because of his ethical lapses. Politics is shady & politicians have plenty of friends & supporters who are or should be "under an ethics cloud."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: Jeb Bush's superPAC, "Right to Rise, is said to be on track for raising an historic $100 million by the end of May, and its budget is expected to dwarf that of Bush's official campaign many times over." ...

... Jeb Ditches the .1 Percent Solution. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Jeb Bush didn't want to look like he was bought and paid for by one specific billionaire, so he limited donations to his super PAC to a puny $1 million per person. Bush wasn't going to be seen as the candidate of Sheldon Adelson or Foster Friess or Robert Mercer — he was going to be the candidate of the entire .1 percent, or at least as much of it as he could persuade to give him money. But screw that. Time is running short, other Republicans are raising more money than expected, and Bush is now ready to ditch his $1 million contribution cap." ...

... Digby in Salon: Jeb "Bush's recent comment about listening to Junior's advice on Israel was made to [a] group of potential big money donors, some of whom presumably had some of the same concerns as [Sheldon] Adelson. Considering how unpopular his brother remains with the public, it's a testament to just how important winning the donor primary is that he would evoke his name in any gathering other than George or Barbara's birthday parties." CW: I admire digby for consistently figuring out candidates' real motives. I think she's right on this one: Jeb pretends to be Bigger than Billionaires, but he's courting them all the same, if in a more oblique way than are some of his competitors.

Lauren French of Politico: "Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will host a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus next week to discuss criminal justice reform.... He's teaming up with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and other black lawmakers, to craft a strategy for advancing legislation as law enforcement issues have taken center stage following the death of several unarmed black men at the hands of police."

There are a few Republican ideologues up with which climate-change denier George Will will not put: one of them is a Bible-thumping, Constitution-nullifying presidential candidate from Hope, Arkansas (and of course he doesn't like those other "seedy" politicos from Hope, either).

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney ... will ... host GOP presidential hopefuls and some of the party's biggest donors in Utah ... June 11-13.... Confirmed speakers from the likely 2016 Republican field include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.). Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, long seen as a Romney rival due to tensions between their camps, was invited but will not attend, per a Romney ally."

Beyond the Beltway

Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Delaware police have released the dashboard camera video of a 2013 incident in which an officer kicked a suspect in the face, knocking him unconscious and breaking his jaw. A grand jury initially declined to indict the officer, Dover Police Cpl. Thomas Webster, in March 2014, and Webster was allowed to return to full duty that June. But on Monday, Webster was arrested on felony second-degree assault charges after a second grand jury was convened to review the case. Days later, Dover police released the dashboard camera video after a federal judge ruled that it was no longer confidential." CW: Here's hoping this is another sign that prosecutors are beginning to get that the public won't put up with brutality as routine police procedure.

CBS Miami/AP: Florida Gov. Rick Scott first said he vehemently opposed ObamaCare, then -- after his mother's death in 2013 -- he said he favored the Medicaid expansion component of ObamaCare, then this week he said that was a ruse, now he says the AP reporter who reported his latest remark "incorrectly characterized" his admission. CW: Thank you, my fellow Floridians, for twice electing a guy you knew was a lying, crooked jerk.

Let Us Now Praise Small Businessmen. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "The owner of a Colorado barbecue restaurant is beginning to feel the heat over plans for a 'White Appreciation Day,' where only white customers will receive a 10 percent discount on their orders.... The owners, both of whom are Hispanic and who recently purchased the restaurant, said the idea began as a joke, but now it has been scheduled for June 11." Because Black History Month & Hispanic Heritage Month. CW: As a promotional gimmick, this is superb. Look at the attention it's generating.

News Lede

New York Daily News: "Bernie Madoff's right-hand man -- who snitched to federal investigators about the historic Ponzi scheme -- has died before he could be sentenced for his crimes. Frank DiPascali was 58. He died Thursday of lung cancer, his lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said."

The Commentariat -- May 8, 2015

Internal links & defunct video have been removed.

Michael White of the Guardian: "British prime minister David Cameron has confounded pollsters and pundits by winning a sensational second five-years term in office for his Conservative party. This time Cameron looks set to be free from the constraints of coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats. His partners in office since 2010, the Lib Dems were almost wiped out, and their leader, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, resigned on Friday morning. Cameron's victory in Thursday's general election obliterated opposition leader Ed Miliband's hopes of eking out a small win for Labour. He also resigned in the wake of the defeat." ...

... CW: While British elections may have little to do with Americans' choice, this goes to show that bad economic policy -- policy that particularly harms the voters themselves -- is a winner. (See Krugman for context.) So the Brits' decisions don't bode well for our future unless we assume that American voters are way smarter than Great Britain's ignorant jamokes. ...

... Steven Erlanger & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party was projected by a national exit poll to have done well in the British general election on Thursday, but the nation still faced the likelihood that there would be no outright winner." ...

... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Nate Silver fared terribly in Thursday's UK election: In his pre-election forecast, he gave 278 seats to Conservatives and 267 to Labour. Shortly after midnight, he was forecasting 272 seats for Conservatives and 271 for Labour. But when the sun rose in London on Friday, Conservatives had an expected 329 seats, against Labour's 233. The fault, Silver claimed, was with the polling.... [So] what is Silver's added value in an election cycle? His ability to forecast elections is largely dependent on the accuracy of polling. Without that, what is his raison d'etre -- other than to point out how bad polling caused him to make inaccurate forecasts?"

... The Guardian currently (7:40 pm ET) has parliamentary election results on its front page.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to campaign for a Pacific free-trade zone on Friday by visiting the headquarters of Nike, where executives will announce that they will create 10,000 jobs in the United States if the accord is approved. Nike for years has been used as a case study by opponents of trade liberalization for its reliance on low-wage workers in Asia. But Mr. Obama hopes that the company's announcement will help him argue that a new 12-nation trade agreement could foster more manufacturing jobs at home, rather than shipping more jobs overseas." ...

... Doug Palmer of Politico: "When President Barack Obama visits Nike's headquarters in Oregon to tout trade on Friday, he'll be striding into a feud between the giant sneaker maker and its smaller East Coast rival New Balance.... New Balance, which is headquartered in Boston and has factories in Maine..., employs more than 1,350 of the few thousand workers who still make shoes in the United States, and its officials fear those jobs could be lost if tariff cuts under the deal lead to an influx of cheaper wares from Vietnam. Meanwhile, Nike is pushing to completely eliminate tariffs on shoes made in Vietnam, one of several Southeast Asian countries where it has operations. Those duties amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, the industry estimates." ...

... Greg Sargent: President "Obama's basic bet is that he can re-frame the globalization debate on his own terms. As he put it recently, the globalization horse 'has left the barn.' Thus, the best hope for American workers is to try to put in place a set of rules that creates better labor standards for workers in participating countries -- such as Vietnam -- which would help level the playing field for American workers in ways that would reverse the problems in previous trade deals." ...

... Robert Reich: "Nike isn't the solution to the problem of stagnant wages in America. Nike is the problem.... Americans made only 1 percent of the products that generated Nike's $27.8 billion revenue last year. And Nike is moving ever more of its production abroad. Last year, a third of Nike's remaining 13,922 American production workers were laid off. Most of Nike's products are made by 990,000 workers in low-wage countries whose abysmal working conditions have made Nike a symbol of global sweatshop labor.... Trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership protect corporate investors but lead to even more off-shoring of American jobs." Thanks to Janice for the link. ...

... Seung Min Kim & Burgess Everett of Politico: Senate "Republicans are pressing ahead with trade votes, even though Democratic resistance could block the measures." ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "President Obama and Harry Reid are battling one another for Democratic support ahead of an important vote on trade next week. Reid ... is trying to hold his caucus together and stop Republicans from moving quickly to legislation giving Obama fast-track trade authority."

Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "Two of the nation’s biggest banks will finally put to rest the zombies of consumer debt -- bills that are still alive on credit reports although legally eliminated in bankruptcy -- potentially providing relief to more than a million Americans. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have agreed to update borrowers' credit reports within the next three months to reflect that the debts were extinguished."

Charlie Savage & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court in New York on Thursday ruled that the once-secret National Security Agency program that is systematically collecting Americans' phone records in bulk is illegal. The decision comes as a fight in Congress is intensifying over whether to end and replace the program, or to extend it without changes. In a 97-page ruling, a three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a provision of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, known as Section 215, cannot be legitimately interpreted to allow the bulk collection of domestic calling records." ...

... Dan Roberts & Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The judges opted not to end the domestic bulk collection while Congress decides its fate, calling judicial inaction 'a lesser intrusion' on privacy than at the time the case was initially argued." ...

... Mark Stern of Slate: "As the Second Circuit candidly admits, its decision on Thursday is entirely the result of Edward Snowden's decision to leak details of the bulk collection program two years ago. Before that leak, Americans hoping to challenge NSA surveillance were unable to establish standing -- that is, legal authority to challenge a law -- because they couldn't prove the surveillance targeted them. The documents Snowden leaked, however, proved that the NSA forced Verizon 'to produce detail records, every day, on all telephone calls made through its systems or using its services where on or both ends of the call are located in the United States.' Thanks to that leak, Verizon customers have standing to challenge that surveillance in court, since they can now be certain the government spied on their phone records." ...

... Tom Sullivan in Hullabaloo: "Just because the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday ruled the NSA's bulk collection of phone data illegal is no reason not to reauthorize it. Or so believe leading Senate Republicans.... Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid returned fire.... Not that Reid's bipartisan I Can't Believe It's Not Freedom Act would likely stop all domestic spying. Especially not since, as Dan Froomkin revealed [linked below], spy agencies have got a nifty, new gizmo for turning your phone conversations into searchable text.... As several people pointed out, you can't really re-authorize a practice that was never authorized in the first place." ...

... Dan Roberts & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Senate Republicans have conceded they may have to temporarily suspend plans for a long-term reauthorisation of the Patriot Act after a court ruling against its use by the National Security Agency dramatically turned around the prospects for surveillance reform in Washington.... A spokesman for [Mitch] McConnell's office insisted he continued to back the Patriot Act renewal and pointed to support for its use by judges in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) courts that were designed to deal with such questions." ...

... digby: "Meanwhile, everyone in DC is doing high fives over the possible passage of the new revamped USA Freedom Act, which will extend certain aspects of the PATRIOT Act while reforming some pieces of it. This is a compromise bill between those who would like to see the Patriot act extended indefinitely and those who want it thrown entirely on the scrapheap of history. The president says he'll sign it. The ACLU says that it does include some reforms so it isn't all bad. The mood seems to be that this is altogether terrific.... This problem of government surveillance is not going to be solved by a congress that is both frightened and corrupt and an executive branch which has no incentive to give back any power it has accrued for itself."

... They Can Hear You Now. Dan Froomkin of the Intercept: "Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored. The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called 'Google for Voice' nearly a decade ago. Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community's 'holy grail,' the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and 'extract' the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "A bill that would give Congress a voice in any nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran passed the Senate overwhelmingly on Thursday afternoon. The measure, which was approved 98 to 1, withstood months of tense negotiations, White House resistance, the indictment of one of its sponsors and a massive partisan kerfuffle over a speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just as an accord was coming together. The lone vote against the bill was cast by Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas. The House is expected to take up the Senate measure as early as next week." ...

... Greg Sargent: "One hundred and fifty House Democrats have now signed a letter expressing strong support for President Obama's ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, I've learned, improving the chances that an eventual nuclear deal could survive the Congressional oversight process.... If a deal is reached that looks like the recently-announced framework, and the GOP-controlled Congress votes to disapprove of it, it's now more likely that there will be enough House Democrats to sustain Obama's veto of that disapproval legislation, allowing the deal to move forward." ...

... Lauren French & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Picking up where Sens. Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio left off, House conservatives plan to press House GOP leaders to allow a series of hard-to-oppose amendments to the Iran nuclear review bill. The move by the conservative House Freedom Caucus could put Speaker John Boehner in a bind. He'll have to decide whether to clamp down on attempts to change the bill as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did in the Senate, angering his right flank -- or to allow votes on their amendments at the risk of tanking the legislation authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.)."

Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "FBI Director James B. Comey said Thursday his agents learned hours before the start of a cartoon contest and exhibit depicting the prophet Muhammad that one of the gunmen had expressed interest in going to the controversial event in Texas, but there was no indication he was planning an attack. Comey said the FBI sent an intelligence bulletin to local authorities through its Dallas field office that included a picture of Elton Simpson, 30, and other details such as his associates and possible license plate numbers."

Thomas Edsall of the New York Times: "Insofar as conservatives identify the erosion of the traditional family as a cause of civic disorder, the erosion is not limited to minority communities in Democratic cities. These trends are increasingly characteristic of white communities in red states.... The high pregnancy and birthrates among white teenagers in states where the Christian right and Tea Party forces are strong reflect the inability of ideological doctrines stressing social conservatism to halt the gradual shift away from traditional family structures.... While right wing commentators are demonizing the social and cultural values of the distressed citizens of Baltimore and their political leaders, they are oblivious to the vulnerability of their traditional moral agenda during a time of inexorable demographic change. The problems of majority black Baltimore are extreme, but many of the trends found there are as extreme or more so in majority white Muskogee [County, Oklahoma].... If conservatives place responsibility on liberal Democrats, feminism and the abandonment of traditional family values for Baltimore's decay, what role did the 249 churches in and around Muskogee play in that city's troubles?" [Emphasis added.] ...

... CW: Nonetheless, this analysis has an odor of putting the cart before the horse. Middle-class & wealthy young people also commonly rear children in non-traditional families, but because they have the means to do so, most people don't find their personal decisions problematic. The cause of both Muskogee's & Baltimore's difficulties is poverty, not "lifestyle" choices. ...

... YEAHBUT. No need to worry about poor people. Jessica Roy of New York: "America's Richest Congressman [-- Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) --] Thinks America's Poorest People Are the 'Envy of the World.'" CW: Lucky duckies. ...

... AND, coincidentally, Tamar Lewin of the New York Times helps make my point: "The share of highly educated women who are childless into their mid-40s has fallen significantly over the last two decades.... While finding the right balance of work and family may not be easy, [demographers] say, it has become an everyday challenge, rather than an unusual strain." Lewin's story focuses on these women's interest in "family." She never mentions whether or not "family" includes a husband or wife. Because these women can afford to rear children, their family decisions are personal, not a reflection of "a breakdown of society."

Presidential Race

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Republican candidates for president lined up on different sides of the debate over whether the nation's intelligence agencies should be allowed to collect data about Americans after a court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency had acted outside the law. The divisions among the candidates reflected the larger debate inside the Republican Party about reauthorizing the Patriot Act, which will expire in June unless Congress votes to extend it. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky ... cheered the decision.... Coming down on the opposite side of the issue was Senator Marco Rubio.... Senator Ted Cruz of Texas took the middle ground." CW: This must be the first time in history you have read a sentence like that last one, & likely you will never read it in any other context.

** Tim Egan: "Last election cycle, the Republican presidential field was a clown car, holding the thrice-married Newt Gingrich lecturing about values, the pizza magnate Herman Cain fending off sexual harassment claims, and Michele Bachmann confusing John Wayne with a serial killer. That was just the front seat. This time around it's a clown bus, with as many as 17 Republicans expected to compete for the nomination.... For many Republicans, crazy is the new mainstream."

Sara Murray of CNN: "Jeb Bush cited his brother, former President George W. Bush, as one of his main advisers on the Middle East in a private meeting in Manhattan on Tuesday, according to three people who attended the off-the-record event. The comment came as a shock to some who were in the room because Jeb ... has taken pains to publicly distance himself from his brother and his controversial policies, particularly in that area of the world."

Katie Glueck of Politico: "Lindsey Graham is telling donors that June 1 is the likely date for his presidential announcement, according to several sources familiar with the conversations." CW: Be still, my beating heart.

David Sirota, in Salon, sees a new Chris Christie scandal looming on the horizon, one involving hundreds of millions of dollars in high fees New Jersey is paying to increasingly underperforming Wall Street "pension managers," who just so happen to be donors to Christie's campaigns. Apparently the state has to slash pensions so Christie's friends can make higher profits "managing" them. And, oh yeah, Christie just vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have made the payment of pension management fees more transparent.

Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "A group of two dozen young activists working out of homes and coffee shops around the country has achieved something rather unusual: mainlining an idea into the upper echelons of the Democratic Party -- including its top presidential contenders -- in just four months. The phrase 'debt-free college' was hardly present in the national political lexicon until the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched a campaign in January to push Democrats to support the idea of federal assistance to help Americans graduate from college without debt."

Beyond the Beltway

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch has decided to launch a federal investigation into whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a 'pattern or practice' of excessive force. Lynch's announcement about the Justice Department's probe -- the latest in a string of municipalities that are being investigated by the federal government for civil rights violations -- could come as early as Friday, according to two law enforcement officials."

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "Prosecutors here are expanding an investigation into criminal cases that might have been compromised by revelations of police officers' racist and homophobic texts, Dist. Atty. George Gascon announced Thursday. Gascon's probe has identified 3,000 criminal cases that could have been affected by perceived bias by 14 officers. Investigators will comb through each case to determine whether some convictions must be overturned or pending cases dismissed."

Max Blau of the Guardian: "North Carolina currently has 149 people on death row, but carried out its last execution in August 2006. Since then, North Carolina doctors have refused to work with the state's corrections department to carry out executions even though the death penalty remains legal. Under a proposed law, conservative state lawmakers are hoping to break through that stalemate by letting physician assistants, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and other healthcare workers oversee executions.... [The] measure that would no longer require doctors to be present during executions."

News Lede

Bloomberg: "Payrolls rebounded in April following an even bigger setback a month earlier than previously estimated, a sign companies are confident the U.S. economy will reboot after stagnating early this year. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent. The 223,000 net increase in employment followed an 85,000 gain in March that was the smallest since June 2012."

The Commentariat -- May 7, 2015

All internal links removed.

** New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a New York Times op-ed on why a raise for fast-food workers in good for them & good for the economy.

"The Worst Ex-Chairman Ever." Paul Krugman: "... as the Fed holds its annual meeting in Jackson Hole, [Alan] Greenspan will address a counter-conference organized by a group called the American Principles Project. The group combines social conservatism -- it's anti-gay-marriage, anti-abortion rights, and pro-'religious liberty' -- with goldbug economic doctrine." ...

... MEANWHILE, Mrs. Worst Ex-Chair Ever is dawging Mrs. Ex-Big Dawg: Hadas Gold of Politico: Andrea Mitchell is "one of the most senior reporters covering the [presidential] race, and one of the most aggressive, calling [Hillary] Clinton out, chasing her down, asking her questions -- and occasionally getting a roundabout answer. Some sources suggest she's getting under the Clinton camp's skin, a rope-line irritant constantly shouting after the former secretary of state to answer questions."

Dreamers Deferred. Kristina Wong of the Hill: "The Army has already allowed almost 50 illegal immigrants to enlist as members of Congress debate whether to allow them to seek citizenship through military service." The program is designed to allow "highly-skilled legal immigrants to enlist in the military as a fast-track to citizenship.... The program, called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), was meant to recruit people with medical training or who speak a critical language, such as Mandarin, Urdu or Arabic." Some Congressional Democrats want to expand the program to accept less specialized recruits "in the interest of national security," but Republicans oppose the expansion.

Bryan Bender of Politico: "An audit by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which is to be made public in coming weeks, found that both civilian and military employees [of the Pentagon] used [government] credit cards at casinos and for escort services and other adult activities -- in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. A Pentagon official briefed on some of the findings stressed that the federal government did not necessarily pay the charges; holders of the cards pay their own bills and then submit receipts to be reimbursed for expenses related to their government business."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "President Barack Obama hosted a group of Senate Democrats at the White House on Wednesday, hoping to shore up support for his free-trade efforts before a critical vote next week." ...

... Ben White of Politico: "So far in her battle against President Barack Obama's trade agenda, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has raised the specter of shady international courts invalidating U.S. laws and a cabal of business interests writing trade agreements in secret, smoky rooms. Now she has a new complaint: If Congress gives Obama what he wants on fast-track trade authority..., some future Republican president could use that power to gut the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.... White House, Congress and the business community [say ... Warren's arguments ... are increasingly wide of the mark and easily rebutted.... Obama has already called Warren 'wrong' on trade. But in private, administration officials fume in much more colorful terms over Warren's attacks, calling them 'baseless' and 'desperate,' with 'no bearing or relation to anything we are doing.'" ...

... Robert Reich, a former secretary of labor, characterizes the TPP as trickle-down economics gone wild. Thanks to Janice for the link. CW: I have a lot of respect for Reich, so his short post has moved me from high-octane skeptic to non-believer. Sorry, Mr. President. This is one I hope you can't deliver for your big business buddies.

Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Iran is wooing American oil companies in anticipation of a time when Western interests can take advantage of the Middle Eastern nation's vast crude reserves. A delegation of U.S. oil company leaders and investors heads to Tehran this week to discuss opportunities to operate there if the U.S. lifts sanctions on Iran this summer as part of a deal to restrict its nuclear capabilities, Iran's state media reported."

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Around 17 million people have gained health insurance since the core of ObamaCare took effect in 2013, according to a RAND Corporation study released Wednesday.... While there was much concern about plans being cancelled because of ObamaCare, the study notes that the number of people losing coverage was close to the same level it was before ObamaCare. 'We found that the vast majority of those with individual market insurance in 2013 remained insured in 2015, which suggests that even among those who had their individual market policies canceled, most found coverage through an alternative source,' the study states."

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "... for all [Paul] Ryan's rhetoric on poverty, he's also the author of a series of budgets that would absolutely wreck programs for the American poor, inflicting massive human suffering on the nation's most vulnerable residents.... His appearance on Face the Nation suggests he's going to try to make his poverty programs work with his budgets, which is to say he's going to argue that taking trillions away from the poor is somehow actually good for them."

Leader McClueless & Speaker J. B. O'Blivious.... Hannah Hess of Roll Call: "House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., might never have known their bodyguards left guns in the bathroom without CQ Roll Call's report, which has launched a Capitol Police investigation into the source of the leak. Spokesmen for the two GOP leaders on Tuesday made their first comments on the security lapses that were revealed May 1...."

Sasha Goldstein & Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News: "ISIS appears to declare war on controversial blogger Pamela Geller on Tuesday in an ominous online message claiming it has fighters across America ready to attack 'any target we desire.' The threat, posted on anonymous message board JustPasteIt, singles out Geller, who helped plan a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that was attacked by two gunmen in Garland, Texas, over the weekend." ...

.. New York Times Editors: "There is no question that images ridiculing religion, however offensive they may be to believers, qualify as protected free speech in the United States and most Western democracies.... But it is equally clear that the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Tex., was not really about free speech. It was an exercise in bigotry and hatred posing as a blow for freedom." ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post, in criticizing Greta Van Susteren for scolding Pam Geller, doesn't seem to get the Times' distinction.CW: Yes, police have a duty to protect protesters, but protesters have a civic duty to make their case without resorting -- in the main -- to incendiary techniques, especially when those techniques are aimed at minority groups. A "protest" organized around hate speech is not exactly a "peaceful protest" nor is it a noble expression of a First Amendment right. I'm not sure why so many people have trouble grasping this fairly evident principle. I make fun of fundamentalist Christian beliefs all the time, but I do so mainly because those beliefs have taken hold of a powerful political party & are being employed to trample the rights of others & to dismantle an orderly, secular society. I don't think fantastical Muslim beliefs -- including restrictions on depictions of people in sacred art -- are any more defensible than Christian mythologies, but what is the point of showing disrespect for religious beliefs that don't affect the rest of society?

... Scott Shane & Fernanda Santos of the New York Times on the FBI's 2009 case against Elton Simpson, who attacked the Geller hate event. ...

... Now add that costly, bungled effort to this story. Scott Shane: "Elton Simpson, in the weeks before the attack. Mr. Simpson, a convert to Islam with a long history of extremism, regularly traded calls for violence on Twitter with Islamic State fighters and supporters, as well as avowed enemies of Pamela Geller, the organizer of the cartoon contest.... Several months ago, after Mr. Simpson began posting on Twitter about the Islamic State, the F.B.I. and the police in Phoenix opened a new investigation, officials said. As part of that inquiry, the authorities monitored his online postings and occasionally put him under surveillance.... Yet with dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of people across the United States expressing online sympathy for the Islamic State, authorities are unable to keep them all under physical surveillance or track them online." ...

... Now, add this. Holly Yan of CNN: "A ... law enforcement source said the two long guns and four handguns found in their car were bought legally." CW: Since Yan uses the passive voice, we don't know if Simpson or his accomplice Nadir Soofi or someone else bought the firearms. ...

... CW: As long as we glorify the Second Amendment & encourage people of all stripes to obtain firearms, murderous attacks are going to happen. The attack against the hate "cartoonists" is as much about American violence as it is about Middle Eastern violence. ...

... Of course Republicans think the answer to terrorist attacks such as this one is more surveillance. CW: I'm finding it a little difficult to see the freeedom in this approach. But, hey, I'll go along with this so long as Republicans promote the surveillance of all the whackos who own guns. One problem: since, according to Shane, it takes up to 25 agents to surveil a single suspect, "perfect" surveillance would be mathematically impossible.

Presidential Race

Charles Pierce thinks Hillary Clinton has her progressive act together. & all that "appearance of impropriety" handwringing is evidence that her detractors have got nothing. ...

... Apparently voters agree. Jonathan Martin & Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have initially weathered a barrage of news about her use of a private email account when she was secretary of state and the practices of her family's foundation, an indication that she is starting her second presidential bid with an unusual durability among Democratic voters. Americans now view Mrs. Clinton more favorably and more see her as a strong leader than they did earlier in the year, despite weeks of scrutiny about her ethics, a New York Times/CBS News poll has found. And nearly nine in 10 Democrats say the nation is ready to elect a woman president." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin personally courting donors for a 'super PAC' supporting her candidacy, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has fully embraced these independent groups that can accept unlimited checks from big donors and are already playing a major role in the 2016 race. Her decision is another escalation in what is expected to be the most expensive presidential race in history, and it has the potential to transform the balance of power in presidential campaigning, where Republican outside groups have tended to outspend their Democratic counterparts." ...

... Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "President Bill Clinton on Wednesday conceded that over-incarceration in the United States stems in part from policies passed under his administration. Clinton signed into law an omnibus crime bill in 1994 that included the federal 'three strikes' provision, mandating life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes.... 'The problem is the way it was written and implemented is we cast too wide a net and we had too many people in prison,' Clinton said Wednesday.... [Last week] Hillary Clinton delivered one of the first policy addressees of her presidential campaign on criminal justice reform, saying that the system focuses too much on incarceration." ...

... ** Rebecca Traister of the New Republic: "The best thing Hillary could do for her campaign? Ditch Bill."

Matea Gold & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush & his strategists believe he will "peak late," letting others enjoy being "the presidents of August.... Bush, who has already stockpiled record sums, intends to hold back from officially declaring his bid for at least another month, according to people familiar with the plan. The strategy is being driven by a confident, tightly knit group of Bush advisers who are focused on amassing as much money as possible for his allied super PAC on the theory that a considerable cash advantage will enable Bush to outlast his competitors." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: Scott Walker "retains his advantage among Iowa Republican caucus-goers, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, with 21 percent of likely participants saying they would vote for him if the caucus were held today.... [Jeb] Bush ... comes in seventh -- with just 5 percent responding that they would vote for him. Only 39 percent said they viewed him favorably, compared with 45 percent who said they did not."

However. Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Nationally, Walker's support peaked at 17.3 percent on April 1 and dropped to 12.3 percent on Wednesday, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. He's been overtaken by two candidates seeking to appeal to establishment-minded Republicans. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush now leads the field at 15.5 percent support, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 14.3 percent."

"It's Still Good!" Steve Benen writes a funny post on Chris Christie's presidential chances, likening them to a "Simpsons" episode in which Homer & Bart go on a wild barbecue chase. ...

... Marianne Levine of Politico: "The expectation within the legal community is that Christie will lose" a legal case challenging his self-proclaimed "biggest governmental victory": "reforming" New Jersey's state pension plan. CW: But "It's still good!"

Jonathan Easley: "Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said Wednesday he’ll make a 'big announcement' regarding his 2016 presidential campaign plans May 27 in Pittsburgh." CW: I guess he's looking for another gig on Fox "News." Because he sure as hell isn't going to be the POTUS.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will not run for president in 2016, according to two sources familiar with his planning. Snyder, a Republican who was first elected in 2010, has been traveling across the country in recent weeks but has decided against a White House bid."

Gail Collins: "People who run for president boasting that they aren't politicians are frequently just trying to compensate for a lack of political skill. [Ben] Carson (who presumably wants to run government like an operating room) is going to appeal to the folks who think the military is plotting to take over Texas, but otherwise, his only political gift seems to be for making outrageous statements. [Carly] Fiorina ran for the Senate in 2010 and was beaten by Barbara Boxer, who was thought to be a vulnerable incumbent until Fiorina got hold of her, racking up a grand total of 42 percent of the vote." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "One day after the former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O. Carly Fiorina announced her candidacy for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, a new poll shows that she enjoys extremely high name recognition among the tens of thousands of former H.P. employees she fired."

AND Ben Carson turns out to be a brilliant Constitutooshunal scholar. Daniel Strauss of TPM: "... Ben Carson said in an interview with Newsmax that the President of the United States doesn't have to follow the Supreme Court if the high court were to rule in favor of same-sex marriage. 'First of all, we have to understand how the Constitution works. The president is required to carry out the laws of the land, the laws of the land come from the legislative branch,' Carson said on Tuesday. 'So if the legislative branch creates a law or changes a law, the executive branch has a responsibly to carry it out. It doesn't say they have the responsibility to carry out a judicial law. And that's something we need to talk about.'" CW: Apparently Dr. Ben skipped class the day the teacher explained the significance of Marbury v. Madison & the principle of judicial review (which predates Marbury). But, hey, what's 200-plus years of established law when one can don a tricorn & pretend he's living in the 18th-century? ...

... PLUS, Mike Huckabee is still a Tenther. A tricorn for that man, too! And a musket!

Beyond the Beltway

Joseph Serna, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "An aide to California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and two others [are] accused of operating a rogue police force.... Los Angeles County prosecutors said the whole effort was a ruse, though for what purpose remains unclear. The investigation is continuing."

Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Baltimore's Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that she plans to put in place police body cameras by the end of the year and to have the Justice Department review whether the city's police department has a pattern of excessive force..... Also Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan lifted Baltimore's state of emergency, which was imposed April 27 after violence erupted...." The New York Times story, by Stephen Babcock & Richard Perez-Pena, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fenit Nirappil of the AP: "California water regulators adopted sweeping, unprecedented restrictions Tuesday on how people, governments and businesses can use water amid the state's ongoing drought, hoping to push reluctant residents to deeper conservation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "Facing a midnight deadline to form a government or step aside, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was under intense pressure on Wednesday from the conservative Jewish Home party over powerful ministerial posts and contentious policy positions. Mr. Netanyahu, who exulted in what looked like a strong mandate for a fourth term after the March 17 elections, instead was scrambling to form a coalition with the slimmest possible majority in Parliament. Many analysts said such a coalition would be able to do little and would be unlikely to last long." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel barely met the legal deadline to form a new government on Wednesday night, and will start his fourth term with the slimmest of parliamentary majorities, made up of right-leaning and religious parties."

News Ledes

NBC Connecticut: "A suspended Connecticut Roman Catholic priest who authorities say dealt pounds of methamphetamine and bought a sex shop intending to launder his drug money will spend another three years in prison after being sentenced on Thursday. Around 75 people were in court on Thursday to support Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 63, dubbed 'Monsignor Meth' in some media reports, and the judge called it an 'unprecedented' turnout for a drug trafficking sentencing."

Guardian: "Twelve years and nine months after he was captured at the age of 15 by US troops in Afghanistan and taken to Guantánamo Bay, Omar Khadr -- now 28 -- has walked out of jail. A judge rebuffed the conservative Canadian government's attempt to block bail for Khadr, the youngest person ever held by the US at Guantánamo, who was transferred to his home country in 2012.... Yet Khadr's legal ordeal is far from over. The government has given notice that it intends to challenge the bail order itself, while Khadr appeals his conviction in a US military tribunal for the murder of an army special forces medic, Sgt First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr will also go before a parole board on 25 June."

It's election day in Great Britain. The Guardian is liveblogging results & other developments. ...

     ... Update: Here's the Guardian's new liveblog of the results.