The Commentariat -- August 14, 2014

Internal links, defunct videos & photos removed.

Katie Zezima & Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is considering a range of military options to rescue the thousands of refugees from the minority Yazidi sect trapped atop a mountain in northwestern Iraq, a senior official said Wednesday. The president and his national security team are expected to review those options 'in a matter of days,' said the official, Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser." ...

... Michael Shear & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "American military advisers landed on Mount Sinjar in Iraq early Wednesday to begin assessing how to organize an evacuation of the thousands of Yazidi refugees under siege from Sunni militants, an American official said. News of the landing, which involved fewer than 20 advisers, came hours after a senior White House official said that the United States would consider using American ground troops to assist in the rescue if recommended by the military team." ...

     ... Update. New lede: "Defense Department officials said late Wednesday that United States airstrikes and Kurdish fighters had broken the Islamic militants' siege of Mount Sinjar, allowing thousands of the Yazidis trapped there to escape. An initial report from about a dozen Marines and Special Operations forces who arrived on Tuesday and spent 24 hours on the northern Iraqi mountain said that 'the situation is much more manageable,' a senior Defense official said in an interview." ...

... Karen DeYoung & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "A team of about 20 U.S. troops and aid workers who landed Wednesday on Iraq's Mount Sinjar determined that a rescue operation of besieged minorities stranded there is probably unnecessary, the Pentagon said. 'There are far fewer' refugees left at the northern Iraq location, where tens of thousands were said to have been surrounded by Sunni Muslim extremists, and they 'are in better condition than previously believed,' a Pentagon statement said."

** Dana Milbank on the National Republican Congressional Committee's new fake news websites (National Journal story on the sites linked here yesterday, plus commentary by Akhilleus): "The Republican Party has finally admitted what has been fairly obvious for much of the past six years: It produces fake news. This is not an earth-shattering revelation to anybody who has been paying attention, but, still, it's an important step for the party to embrace the phoniness.... Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the select committee on Benghazi, told CNN's Deirdre Walsh last week that, despite what the [Republican-led House] Intelligence Committee found [-- it reportedly exonerates the Obama administration --], 'there is more work to be done and more to be investigated.' Excellent. Maybe he can post his phony accusations on some fake news Web sites."

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "... the recovery in housing is fueling a niche market for newly minted bonds that are backed by the most troubled mortgages of them all: those on homes on the verge of foreclosure. And it is not just vulture hedge funds swooping in to try to profit from the last remnants of the housing crisis. The investors making money off these obscure bonds -- none are rated by a major credit rating agency -- include mutual funds. And one of the biggest sellers of severely delinquent mortgages to investors is a United States government housing agency." HUD is selling FHA mortgages, & "Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage finance firm that operates under government control, also got into the act...."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A State Department official, [John] Tye worked on Internet freedom issues and had top-secret clearance. He knew the Obama administration had also considered a proposal to impose what an internal White House document, obtained by The New York Times, portrayed as 'significant changes' to rules for handling Americans' data the N.S.A. collects from fiber-optic networks abroad. But Mr. Obama said nothing about that in his speech. So in April, as Mr. Tye was leaving the State Department, he filed a whistle-blower complaint arguing that the N.S.A.'s practices abroad violated Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. He also met with staff members for the House and Senate intelligence committees. Last month, he went public with those concerns, which have attracted growing attention."

Katie Zavadski of New York has more on James Bamford's interview of Ed Snowden (CW: which I know I should read, but I just won't): "It seems that Snowden didn't suddenly abscond with the materials available with to him at that moment, but instead gathered them over years, building his private cache -- and presumably, his courage -- for the right moment. With his higher and higher levels of clearance, Snowden had access to increasingly reprehensible plans. Eventually, a program that would effectively grant the NSA access to 'virtually all private communications coming in from overseas to people in the US' tipped him over the edge." Also, "Bamford wonders whether all of the recent revelations about NSA programs really originate with Snowden." Neither Snowden nor Laura Poitras will say.

"How Libertarians Snooked The New York Times Magazine." Jonathan Chait, after poking holes in Robert Draper's New York Times Magazine cover story about a libertarian surge among young people, heard from "Draper and his primary source..., and their replies show that the article's erroneous conclusions turn out to be even worse than I initially described.... Draper's story presents the self-presentation of such figures as Nick Gillespie, Rand Paul, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and other libertarians almost entirely at face value. That's his judgment call to make. But the glue that holds the story together is the factual claim that younger voters lean libertarian. That claim is simply false." Alan Murray of Pew Research backs Chait's analysis: Pew "found little evidence of a surge of libertarian views in the US."

Michael Howard of Esquire: The NRA opposes a proposed Texas ruling [link fixed] that would allow alcoholic beverages at gun shows because they realize "that's too dangerous" it would disallow gun shows in private residences, outlaw live ammo at the shows, force attendees to disable their firearms & cause other assorted "hassles." "It just would have been nice to see that eighth point: 'Also, drunk people with guns is moronic.'" No such luck.

Beyond the Beltway

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Expressing concern over the 'violent turn' of events in this St. Louis suburb, President Obama said on Thursday that he wanted an open and transparent investigation into the shooting death on Saturday of an unarmed 18-year-old black man by the police.... Minutes earlier, Gov. Jay Nixon promised that residents of Ferguson were going to see a different tone in the response by the police after five nights of unrest during which the authorities have used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowds. Officials said that Governor Nixon would soon remove the St. Louis County police from handling the protests in Ferguson." ...

... Dave Weigel: Obama dances while Ferguson burns. Jay Nixon cancels fun day at the state fair to visit someplace near Ferguson. ...

... CW: I noticed on a Twitter feed that a tweet claiming (probably accurately) that Jay Nixon received 90 percent of the black vote. ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is calling for the 'demilitarization' of the police in Ferguson, Missouri, deeming the response by law enforcement 'the problem instead of the solution.' McCaskill, who was in Ferguson on Thursday morning meeting with community leaders, said the community needs to do 'better' to respond to the unrest in the St. Louis suburb." ...

... Anna Palmer & Jake Sherman of Politico: Hank Johnson, "a [U.S.] House Democrat from Georgia, plans to introduce the first piece of legislation responding to the shooting in the suburb of St. Louis that would focus on stopping a program providing machine guns and free military equipment to local law enforcement." ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery slammed MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Thursday morning for suggesting he and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly should have more closely followed police instructions when they were arrested Wednesday night in Ferguson, Mo.:

Well. I would invite Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he's sitting sipping his Starbucks smugly. I invite him to come down here and talk to residents of Ferguson where I have been Monday afternoon having tear gas shot at me, rubber bullets shot at me, having mothers, daughter, a 19-year-old boy, crying, running to pull his 21-year-old sister out from a cloud of tear gas thinking she would die. I would invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground, and then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what's happening down here.

... CW: An individual has claimed, & Daily Kos has posted a tweet, that Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has confirmed that state & federal authorities will relieve (& dismiss) the St. Louis County PD presence in Ferguson, Mo. I'm trying to find confirmation, & haven't had any luck, so this may not be true. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

     ... Update: See link to New York Times report by Julie Bosman above. ....

.. CW: This is such a stereotypical development that it's almost beyond belief:

"Ferguson police chief turns to Hannity to handle his PR." Karoli of Crooks & Liars: "Police Chief Thomas Jackson took a breather from all of his responsibilities in Ferguson to make a brief appearance on Hannity.... If you're trying to bring a sense of calm to the community, Hannity's show is the last place on earth you should want to show your face. If, on the other hand, you're interested in playing your side of the story to a bunch of nasty bigots, Hannity's show is exactly where you'd go":

Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Despite its ubiquity across the globe and in United States, tear gas is a chemical agent banned in warfare per the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which set forth agreements signed by nearly every nation in the world -- including the United States. The catch, however, is that while it's illegal in war, it's legal in domestic riot control.... Some scientists and international observers contend the tactic of spraying people with tear gas, which commonly uses the chemical agent 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS), can pose serious dangers." ..

... Jim Suhr & Jim Salter of the AP: "Protests in the St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent Wednesday night, with some people lobbing Molotov cocktails and other objects at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd." (Emphasis added.) ...

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A heavily armed, militarised police force fired teargas and rubber bullets to force hundreds of protesters out of the centre of a small Missouri town on Wednesday, as a crackdown on demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed 18-year-old intensified. Dozens of officers, some carrying assault rifles, advanced with a pair of armoured trucks on the young and predominantly African American crowd in Fergsuon, after two glass bottles were thrown at their lines from a largely peaceful protest against the shooting of Michael Brown, who was black, by an officer from the city's overwhelmingly white police department. For hours, police snipers trained their weapons on demonstrators who protested with their hands up as an emblem of peaceful protest. When events escalated on a fourth night of tension in this city of just 21,000 people, protesters described being subjected to military-style tactics as they fled through gas-filled residential side-streets." (Emphasis added.) ...

... CW: Hard not to notice the difference in emphasis in the two preceding accounts of events. ...

... Wesley Lowery, et al. of the Washington Post: "The [Ferguson, Mo., police] department bears little demographic resemblance to the citizens of this St. Louis suburb, a mostly African American community whose suspicions of the law enforcement agency preceded Saturday afternoon's shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who this week had been headed to technical college. But while the racial disparity between the public here and its protectors has come to define the violent aftermath of Brown's death, the department's problems stretch back years and include questions about its officers' training and racial sensitivity." Read the whole story. ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "St. Louis Alderman Antonio French emerged Thursday morning from a night in jail after his arrest at the Ferguson protests to say that the police officers' 'heavy-handed' approach on the streets is making the situation worse. French said he has no documentation that says why he was arrested, and that he was released about 7 a.m. today without having to post any bail." ...

     ... CW: Oh, look. Alderman French is black. Alleged Crime: Driving While Black. (See St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, linked below.) ...

... Rachel Maddow spoke to Wesley Lowery, whom police arrested in Ferguson, Mo. Here are some tweets from Lowery, describing his arrest. They released him with no charges. The police also arrested & released the Huff Post's Ryan Reilly. ...

     ... Update. Here's Lowery's account in the Post. ...

... Video of Lowery's arrest. CW: I'm having a really hard time understanding why any police officer would think a reporter can't quietly sit in a McDonald's & write his story. Apparently Ferguson is a First Amendment-free zone:

... Huffington Post: "The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly and the Washington Post's Wesley Lowery were arrested Wednesday evening while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer last week.... SWAT officers roughed up the reporters inside a McDonald's, where both journalists were working. Reilly snapped a photo, prompting cops to request his identification." ...

... The Huff Post's Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim writes the site's statement on the arrests. ...

... Here's the statement from Marty Baron, the Post's executive editor, on Lowery's arrest. ...

... Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "The police chief [of Ferguson, Missouri], Thomas Jackson, said that minutes before the shooting on Saturday, the officer and the young man, Michael Brown, had engaged in a violent confrontation, in which the officer was hit in the face. 'The side of his face is swollen,' Chief Jackson said at a news conference, adding that the officer, who has been put on administrative leave, was treated at a hospital.... The police say Mr. Brown was shot after he assaulted the officer and tried to take his gun -- an account disputed by a witness, a friend of Mr. Brown's who said his hands were raised when the last of several shots were fired." ...

... Paul Szoldra of Business Insider: "... it's worth discussing the police response to the outrage. In photos taken Monday, we are shown a heavily armed SWAT team. They have short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the military M4 carbine, with scopes that can accurately hit a target out to 500 meters. On their side they carry pistols. On their front, over their body armor, they carry at least four to six extra magazines, loaded with 30 rounds each. Their uniform would be mistaken for a soldier's if it weren't for their 'Police' patches. They wear green tops, and pants fashioned after the U.S. Marine Corps MARPAT camouflage pattern. And they stand in front of a massive uparmored truck called a Bearcat, similar in look to a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, or as the troops who rode in them call it, the MRAP.... The scene is tense, but the presence of what looks like a military force doesn't seem to be helping. 'Bring it. You fucking animals, bring it,' one police officer was caught on video telling protesters." ...

... Charles Blow: "... the sheer morbid, wrenching rhythm of [the Michael Brown killing & its aftermath] belies a larger phenomenon...: The criminalization of black and brown bodies -- particularly male ones -- from the moment they are first introduced to the institutions and power structures with which they must interact." Blow cites studies that demonstrate how African-American children receive discriminatory treatment from the time they hit kindergarten. The upshot, of course, "A May report by the Brookings Institution found: 'There is nearly a 70 percent chance that an African American man without a high school diploma will be imprisoned by his mid-thirties.'" ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editors: "Last year, for the 11th time in the 14 years that data has been collected, the disparity index that measures potential racial profiling by law enforcement in the state got worse. Black Missourians were 66 percent more likely in 2013 to be stopped by police, and blacks and Hispanics were both more likely to be searched, even though the likelihood of finding contraband was higher among whites.... Nearly every black man in America has a story of being pulled over, stopped or harassed as a young person for doing something that a white teenager would never imagine might end in being on the wrong end of a police officer's gun. Driving While Black. Walking While Black. Wearing a Hoodie While Black."

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: "Prosecutors have cast Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia, as a desperate politician who was short of cash and more than willing to promote a donor's product if it meant that he and his wife, Maureen, could live a more lavish life.... Prosecutors said they would rest their case on Thursday, believing they have sufficiently shown that the McDonnells took 'official action' to benefit the donor and businessman, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., and his dietary supplement, Anatabloc, in return for those gifts. On Monday, the defense will begin to call its own witnesses...." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "When Robert F. McDonnell took office as Virginia’s 71st governor, he and his wife were mired in nearly $75,000 in credit card debt, records show. That figure soon grew to more than $90,000 -- and came down because of insurance proceeds, a family trust and the generosity of a wealthy Richmond businessman, the records show. On the 13th day of the federal corruption case against McDonnell (R) and his wife, prosecutors presented the evidence about the family finances as a striking wrap-up to their case, as they began working to connect the dots for jurors." ...

... Here are the Washington Post's live updates of the McDonnell trial testimony Wednesday. "Using the particular timing of phone calls, texts and visitors checking in at the governor's mansion, prosecutors are methodically building their case against Robert F. McDonnell, who they accuse of conspiring, along with his wife, to solicit businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr.'s largess." ...

     ... Update: Here are the Post's live updates of the trial for today.

Senate Races

Kurtis Lee of the Los Angeles Times: "U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Hawaii Office of Elections in an effort to push back a scheduled make-up vote later this week that will decide the Democratic primary election between her and appointed incumbent U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. 'As of this filing, voters in the affected area are still without power and local roads remain blocked,' Hanabusa’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in the state's Circuit Court against chief election officer, Scott Nago.... Residents of two Big Island precincts in the Puna area were unable to cast ballots on Saturday because of Tropical Storm Iselle. Initially, state officials had said they would mail ballots to those who had not voted before the storm. However, on Monday, Nago announced voting would be held Friday and storm-ravaged residents could only vote at a local elementary school. Schatz holds a lead of 1,635 votes -- out of 230,000 cast.... About 8,000 voters live in the two precincts, and many either already cast ballots or don't regularly vote." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Ian Lovett, is here.

Geoff Pender of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: "A spokesman says Chris McDaniel on Thursday will file his court challenge of the June 24 GOP primary he lost to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran. Thursday is the deadline to file." ...

... CW: I forgot to link this story -- also by Pender -- yesterday, but it kinda makes me think McDaniel doesn't have much of a case, despite his claim that his case is "rock-solid": "As Chris McDaniel's team continues to scour voting records to add to an expected legal challenge of his loss to Thad Cochran, it has listed McDaniel's lead lawyer in the challenge, and his wife, as irregular votes that should be tossed out."

Presidential Race

Li'l Randy and Cousin Alec. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "An Iowa evangelical Christian leader stood on stage and told the 1,200 conservatives in the audience and the dozens of reporters that U.S. Sen. Rand Paul had told him he couldn't be at the event Saturday because of a 'family commitment.' Then the New York Post's 'Page Six' published the news that Paul was in the Hamptons on Saturday with Alec Baldwin. Paul was 'among the intellectual elite' at a fundraiser for a library in East Hampton that Baldwin co-sponsored, the column says.... Aides for Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told The Des Moines Register this evening that Paul and his wife, Kelley, did indeed have a family commitment. It was in New York, and they took one of their three sons with them. The party with Baldwin was just an extra event...." CW: Yeah, Randy, I'll be you're telling the truth this time. ...

... Hunter of Daily Kos suggests, "The first rule of dodging ultra-religious, ultra-conservative voters is that you can't let them find out you're dodging them." ...

... Alec Baldwin: It wasn't a party; it was a fucking book fair! ...

Scenes from Baldwin's Hamptons Book Fair:

... Rand Paul Does Some Beach Reading. Amanda Gordon of Bloomberg News: "Rand Paul has been reading his first [Nelson] DeMille thriller, one inspired by 'The Great Gatsby,' about a WASP couple's entanglement with the mob on the gilded North Shore of Long Island." ...

... CW: As I've said before, Aqua Buddha Boy is (a) a constant source of amusement, & (b) an inveterate liar. I'm going to miss him when the "ultra-religious, ultra-conservative" Christians throw him to the lions early in official GOP primary season. ...

... MEANWHILE, on a nearby island, another likely presidential contender is signing books. Gail Collins reflects on Hillary Clinton's foreign policy views.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Embattled Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki stepped aside Thursday, ending a tense political standoff and clearing the way for a new prime minister tasked with steering the country out of its security crisis. Maliki appeared on state television flanked by senior members of his party, including rival Haider al-Abadi, who has been appointed to form a new government. Maliki said he would back 'brother' Abadi for the sake of Iraq's unity."

New York Times: "Rob Manfred, a high-ranking executive in Major League Baseball for many years, was chosen Thursday by the league's owners to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner, one of the most powerful positions in sports. Mr. Manfred was confirmed after several ballots by baseball's 30 owners, who convened in a closed-door ballroom in downtown Baltimore."

Washington Post: "On Thursday, [actor-comedian Robin Williams'] wife, Susan Schneider, released a statement that said Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease when he died." The Los Angeles Times story is here.

"Ocean's 11." AP: "A recently fired casino security guard used his knowledge of when and where large sums of money would change hands to help plan and pull off a daring robbery that netted more than $180,000, authorities said Thursday. Eight people were arrested in the July 21 gunpoint robbery of Caesars Atlantic City that touched off a three-state manhunt, New Jersey State Police said. The search ended with a Delaware state trooper being shot; the bulletproof vest he was wearing saved his life."

New York Times: "A Russian aid convoy destined for rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine resumed its disputed southward journey on Thursday, in apparent defiance of demands by the government in Kiev that the shipment be stopped." ...

     ... Guardian UPDATE: "... while the trucks [supposedly carrying humanitarian aid] came to a halt well short of Ukraine's border, a different Russian convoy did make the crossing into Ukrainian territory late on Thursday evening. The Guardian saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, travelling towards the border near the Russian town of Donetsk -- about 200km away from Donetsk, Ukraine." ...

     ... Los Angeles Times UPDATE: "A Russian convoy carrying aid for civilians trapped in separatist-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine diverted from its agreed route to the Ukrainian border Thursday, drawing warnings from Kiev that it will be blocked 'with all the forces available' unless its cargo is first inspected."

AFP: "Israel secured supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon last month without the approval of the White House or the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Since officials there were caught off guard as they tried to restrain Israel's campaign in Gaza, the administration of President Barack Obama has tightened controls on arms shipments to Israel, the newspaper said, quoting US and Israeli officials."

The Commentariat -- August 13, 2014

Internal links, photo & related text removed.

Fred Kaplan of Slate: What President Obama is doing to protect the Kurds "has nothing to do with getting drawn back into the Iraq war.... The main reason for Kurdistan's stability is that in 1970 the U.S. and Iraqi governments decreed it an autonomous area. More relevant still, after the 1991 Gulf War, the U.N. Security Council, in, Resolution 688, declared the area a 'safe haven' to protect Kurds from Saddam Hussein's wrath. (He had killed thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.) And the United States agreed to enforce the resolution with a 'no-fly zone.'" ...

... Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Tuesday that open-ended military actions, like President Obama's airstrikes in Iraq, should require congressional approval, and that a bill he's proposed would ensure that is the case. Kaine said that while he supports the U.S. humanitarian mission underway in Iraq, 'it is now up to the administration to receive Congressional authorization for the current air campaign against' the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

Bryce Covert of Think Progress: "The jobs that have been added to the economy during the recovery pay 23 percent less, on average, than those that were lost in the recession, according to a report from The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).... The report is the latest to confirm that while job growth has been strong lately, the types of jobs being added may not support working families.... The USCM report also highlights growing income inequality, as the richest bracket saw a $490 billion gain in total income in 2012 while all of the lower groups saw a decline.... Things are only forecast to be worse, though. One in four workers are projected to be in low-wage jobs over the next decade."

Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: "More than 300,000 people who bought subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act could lose it next month if they do not provide proof that they are living in the United States legally, the Obama administration said Tuesday."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A legislative year in which Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio set out to publicly marginalize the more vocal right-wing members of his conference ended with them emboldened, and with new leaders ready to bring the right back into the fold.... On Capitol Hill, the Tea Party wing continues to drive the party's agenda." ...

... White-White-Whitey-White. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "According to U.S. Census data, only 13 out of 234 Republican-held districts are majority-minority (that is, districts where white non-Hispanics make up less than 50 percent of the population). That's about 5 percent of all Republican districts. In contrast, fully 49 percent of Democrat-held districts are majority-minority." Thanks to Nisky Guy for link.

Immigration attorney David Leopold in the Hill: "As long as the administrative decision to defer the removal of a group of undocumented immigrants is legitimately aimed at more efficient use of law enforcement resources, it arguably falls well within the president's discretion.... In fact, presidents of both parties have used categorical grants of deferred action to postpone the deportation of large groups of undocumented immigrants, including abused women, hurricane victims and refugees. Therefore, to violate the constitution, the president's action must be a dramatic, extraordinary departure from universally accepted exercises of executive discretion. DACA or its expansion don't even come close." ...

... Elise Foley & Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "In a newly released memo, the Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge highlights 10 instances in which past presidents have used their authority to apply selective prosecution of immigration laws. More often than not, those instances targeted specific populations caught up in complex and dangerous foreign policy crises. But immigration lawyers sympathetic to the White House say that these actions still provide sound principle on which the current administration can act." The American Bridge memo is here. ...

... ** Alberto Gonzales! in a USA Today op-ed: "In spite of this humanitarian crisis and the economic burdens it creates for state and local governments, recently members of Congress failed to pass legislation to address these issues before heading home for the August recess. In response, the President announced that he will take executive action even though he previously professed publicly his power to deal with the influx of young immigrants was limited. I support the President's commitment to address this issue provided his actions are consistent with his duty under the Constitution to faithfully execute our laws." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Oh, and This: AP: "Looking to make inroads with the rising number of Hispanic voters, conservative activists are offering English classes, health checkups and courses to help Spanish-speakers earn high school diplomas. Picking up part of the tab: Charles and David Koch.... Enter the Libre Initiative, an organization that has collected millions from the Kochs' political network. Libre, which means 'free,' pushes a message of limited government and economic freedom between lessons on how to build family-run businesses and prayer breakfasts with Hispanic pastors.... In effect, it is a shadow GOP -- one with a gentle emphasis on social services and assimilation over a central party often seen as hostile to immigrants and minorities."

James Bamford of Wired has a long piece on an interview with Ed Snowden, which begins with a lot of stuff on how the author arranged the meeting, etc. CW: That's as far as I got. Also, artsy photos of Ed, including a ridiculous cover wherein Ed fondles a bunched-up American flag while staring blankly into the abyss through crooked Russian-issue glasses. ...

... Apparently somewhere in the profile those who bother to read it learn that, according to Snowden, NSA hackers are monumental fuck-ups. Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "The National Security Agency inadvertently brought Syria's Internet to a screeching halt nationwide in 2012 after a failed attempt to hack into the war-torn country's communications data, according to a new claim by Edward Snowden.... It is unclear which blackout Snowden is referencing, but any blackout would have the potential to disrupt communications among fractured rebel groups and aid the Assad regime." ...

... AND the Fuck-ups Are Dangerous. Kim Tummarello of the Hill: "The United States has a secret cybersecurity program dubbed 'MonsterMind' that is designed to detect and automatically respond to threats, according to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The program -- which had never before been revealed -- is capable of intercepting all foreign communications to people in the U.S., detecting and disarming cyberattacks and can 'automatically fire back, with no human involvement,' Wired reported in a lengthy profile of Snowden published Wednesday. The program was the 'last straw' for Snowden, who remains a wanted man in the United States for leaking reams of information about secret intelligence programs. Snowden warned an automatic program like MonsterMind could harm innocent countries, as cyberattacks are often routed through computers in other places. 'You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia,' Snowden said. 'And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?'"

Congressional Races

Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "The National Republican Congressional Committee, which came under fire earlier this year for a deceptive series of fake Democratic candidate websites that it later changed after public outcry, has launched a new set of deceptive websites, this time designed to look like local news sources. The NRCC has created about two dozen of these new faux news sites targeting Democrats, both challengers and incumbents, and is promoting them across the country with localized Google search ads." CW: Just another iteration of traditional GOP phony.

AP: "Businessman Mike McFadden has won Minnesota's Republican Senate primary and will take on Sen. Al Franken in November. McFadden defeated retiring state Rep. Jim Abeler and several lesser-known candidates in Tuesday's primary." ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: McFadden "will begin the general-election campaign as an underdog against Sen. Al Franken (D). Franken easily defeated his primary challenger."

Greg Sargent: The Iraq War becomes an issue in the Iowa Senate race, with Republican Joni Ernst arguing that the U.S. should not have withdrawn troops from Iraq, & Demo Bruce Brayley characterizing her as a Dick Cheney Republican.

Rebecca Berg of the Washington Examiner: The Koch brothers-funded "Freedom Partners, this week canceled its reserved television air time in Michigan for the remainder of the summer and the fall, according to one Democrat who monitors ad buys -- effectively conceding the [Senate] fight [between Democrat Gary Peters & Republican Terri Lynn Land] in a state some Republicans are cautiously optimistic could turn in their favor.... The ad time the group had reserved in Michigan totaled roughly $1 million." Peters has been ahead in most polls by only 4 points. Via Greg Sargent.

Thanks, Wingnuts! Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Republicans are in a hurry to stop talking about impeachment ... because it's killing the GOP among swing voters.... The House GOP's lawsuit against Obama's use of executive orders is turning out to be a political loser too. In fact, it's not much more popular than impeachment.... What's even worse for Republicans when it comes to both impeachment and the lawsuit is that they don't even have the effect you might think on the GOP base. They do, however, motivate liberals."

Mark Sommerhauser of the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times: "Republican Tom Emmer coasted to victory Tuesday night in the primary election for the GOP nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.... Emmer advances to the November general election with DFL candidate Joe Perske and the Independence Party's John Denney. Perske and Denney were unopposed in the primary.... Emmer now becomes the general-election favorite in the solidly Republican 6th District."

Gubernatorial Races

Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Mary Burke cruised to victory Tuesday in the Democratic primary race for governor, setting up one of the most closely watched midterm races in the country between the former bicycle executive and Gov. Scott Walker. Burke, a Madison School Board member and former state commerce secretary, never faced a threat in her primary race against state Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison)." ...

... Sean Sullivan: "Polls show Walker has a real race on his hands against Burke. A recent Marquette Law School survey showed Walker (46 percent) and Burke (47 percent) in a dead heat."

Patrick Condon of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Republicans chose Jeff Johnson on Tuesday to be their candidate for governor, betting that the mild-mannered political veteran is the party's best chance to unseat Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton in November. Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner from Plymouth, led a four-man field throughout the night and, with 99 percent of the counted, emerged victorious with 30 percent of the vote." According to Sean Sullivan (story linked above), Dayton "is favored to win."

Karyn Bruggeman of the National Journal: "Less than two years after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School..., the package of gun laws passed posthaste by the Connecticut Legislature in April 2013 is poised to play a significant role in the race between Gov. Dan Malloy and his Republican opponent, Tom Foley.... Connecticut's gun laws played almost no role in the state's gubernatorial contest four years ago, when Malloy narrowly beat Foley by 6,404 votes, but that's bound to change this year now that the governor is focusing on his leadership in the aftermath of the shooting and using the issue as a wedge in an otherwise deadlocked race. The most recent public opinion poll, conducted in May by Quinnipiac University, had the candidates tied at 43 percent apiece.... Malloy's embrace of the issue could vex Foley, who has yet to articulate a clear stance on the state's bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, in the fall campaign. Indeed, the May Quinnipiac survey found that 56 percent of Connecticut voters support the state's new, stricter gun laws, while just 38 percent stand opposed." ...

     ... Update. Christopher Keating, et al., of the Hartford Courant: "Greenwich business executive Tom Foley roared to victory Tuesday night in a low-turnout Republican gubernatorial primary, setting up a potentially contentious rematch with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this fall that polls show will start off as a dead heat."

Presidential Election

Frank Rich compares & contrasts Hillary Clinton's boring book Hard Choices to Edward Klein's "complete crap" book Blood Feud: the Clintons vs. the Obamas. "You can't fault a reader for wanting to spend time with Klein's two-fisted Hillary rather than the often robotic self-­censoring bureaucrat of Hard Choices. Both these Hillarys are in essence fictional creations crafted for the marketplace -- one embellished with camp to sell books, the other embalmed with civic virtue to win votes -- so in the end, it all comes down to which kind of fiction you prefer. The real Hillary, whomever [sic!] she may be, is scantly visible in either book." Thanks to MAG for the link. ...

... CW: The only Hillary we wil ever see is the one reacting to her most recent bad press. After we made fun of her for a foreign policy platform that consisted of "telling America's story," which she proffered on the "Daily Show," her response was (a 100 percent scripted Colbert performance &) a tough-broad foreign policy interview. When people criticized her for dissing the President in the Goldberg interview, Clinton let it be known that she planned to "hug it out" with Obama at a posh Vineyard party. And so it goes. It is unreasonable to expect a presidential candidate to be candid, but Hillary's canned persona is not the usual product of campaign ops, like the fake Michelle Nunn her campaign proposed to present; rather, the fake Hillary is a reactive -- and therefore inconsistent (nearly amorphous) -- charade.

Paul Waldman in the American Prospect: Hillary "Clinton says that a [foreign policy] doctrine is necessary (though she doesn't use that word). The trouble is, she won't actually say what hers would be, other than to say she'd have one.... The appeal and the danger of doctrines is that they simplify decision-making, assuring you that there's only one reasonable choice in complex situations and unintended consequences aren't something to worry your head over." ...

... Maureen Dowd: "Hillary Clinton was one of the 29 Democratic senators who voted to authorize that baloney war.... It's not that she's too old.... It's that she's too old-think, thrusting herself forward as a hawk at a time when hawks -- in the season of Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul -- aren't so cool. Americans are sick of the idea that we should plunge in and plant our flag in the ground and work out the details later.... Besides, a Times article by Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt [also linked here yesterday] demonstrated that 'at every turn' the rise of ISIS's self-styled caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been shaped by the United States’ involvement in Iraq -- putting the ball of blame back in Hillary's court.... David Axelrod tartly tweeted: 'Just to clarify: "Don't do stupid stuff" means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.'" ...

... Sam Stein: "... several Democrats insisted the rift [between Hillary Clinton & President Obama] may underwhelm.... On the issue of Syria, Obama and Clinton ended up largely in the same place. While Obama clearly moved slower than Clinton wanted, he did end up sending arms to the rebels -- even if he thought it was futile. In June, he asked for $500 million more.... And while Clinton may have expressed regret that the administration moved slowly to put its imprint on Syria's civil war, she peppered her position with skepticism ('I totally understand the cautions that we had to contend with') and drew limits to U.S. involvement."

Beyond the Beltway

Trymaine Lee of msnbc reports the account of Dorian Johnson, the closest eyewitness to the police shooting death of Michael Brown. The Ferguson, Missouri, police are still withholding the identity of the shooter. ...

... Marina Koren of the National Journal: "President Obama released a statement late Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer on Saturday 'heartbreaking.' ... Also on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration announced flight restrictions over Ferguson, banning pilots from flying less than 3,000 feet above the St. Louis suburb until Monday. The reason given for the no-fly was 'to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities.'"

The Brownback "Miracle," Ctd. Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said it would file charges against the state of Kansas, alleging that bond documents failed to disclose just how much of the state's pension system was underfunded.... It's the latest blow to Kansas's bond ratings, which have already been downgraded this year by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Those downgrades had to do with projected budget deficits after a [Gov. Sam] Brownback-supported tax cut left a projected $330 million hole in the state budget."

Andrew Cain of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Bob McDonnell and his sister were desperate to unload costly Virginia Beach rental properties as the economy tanked in 2009, according to newly released emails today." ...

... Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky have the Washington Post story. CW: I have not been able to access the WashPo all day. I was finally able to call up this story using a trick (Control+F5), but I can't copy & paste text. The link may not work for you, either. ...

... I'm not the only one having trouble. Commenters at this site complain, too. One of them has diagnosed the problem: "Dana Milbank wrote a column that is unfavorable to the Obama Administration today. Maybe that's why we can't access the site." Yeah, that's probably it. ...

... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Today on 'The 700 Club,' Pat Robertson and Jay Sekulow did their best to paint the former Republican governor of Virginia as the victim of a 'political prosecution,' decrying his corruption trial as a 'political witch hunt' spearheaded by Attorney General Eric Holder. Robertson alleged, without any evidence, that Holder wanted to stop Mitt Romney from tapping McDonnell as his running mate in 2012 and is 'behind all of this stuff.'" ...

... More from Right Wing World

Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday tied Robin Williams' death, which sheriffs believe was a suicide, to the 'leftist worldview.'" CW: Curiously, Rush claims that leftists are never happy; we're "always angry about something." Um, doesn't Rush spend most of his show yelling & haranguing about stuff? Doesn't he seem -- angry? All the time? Maybe he's a leftist in disguise. Excellent disguise. He has me fooled.

News Ledes

Guardian: "Hamas and Israel have agreed five more days of truce to allow further talks after a tense final countdown to the end of the current 72-hour ceasefire on Wednesday night. The current truce, which is the eighth bid to stop the five-week long war, had been due to expire at midnight, and rocket fire on Israel two hours before its end prompted fears of a new outbreak of violence." ...

... AFP: "Israeli aircraft carried out air strikes across Gaza early Thursday in response to Palestinian rocket fire and shortly after a new ceasefire brokered by Egypt came into effect, officials said."

Los Angeles Times: "Militants with the Islamic State group seized several towns in northern Syria's Aleppo province early Wednesday, dealing a blow to rival rebel factions who were forced to withdraw from areas they took this year, according to fighters reached near the front line. With the capture of the strategic town of Akhtarin and a few surrounding villages, fighters with the breakaway Al Qaeda group have moved farther west and now threaten to cut off the rebels' main access highway to neighboring Turkey."

Guardian: "The death toll from conflict in eastern Ukraine has doubled in the past fortnight, the UN's human rights office said on Wednesday, as international wrangling continued over a controversial Russian aid convoy to the region. The UN office said its 'very conservative estimates' suggested the death toll has risen to 2,086 by the beginning of this week, up from 1129 on 26 July. About 5,000 people had been injured, it said, in figures that represented 'a clear escalating trend' of violence in the east." ...

... AFP: "After earlier vowing to block a massive Russian convoy headed for its borders, Kiev said it could allow the aid to enter the country after it was inspected by Ukrainian border guards and foreign monitors."

AP: "An Associated Press video journalist and a freelance Palestinian translator were killed Wednesday when ordnance left over from the Israeli-Hamas war exploded as they were reporting on the conflict's aftermath. Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash died when an unexploded missile believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up as Gaza police engineers were working to neutralize it in the northern town of Beit Lahiya."

Consent of the Governed

Jonathan Chait, in New York:

Obama's immigration plan should scare liberals, too.... The extremism of the Republican Party may have precipitated Obama’s confidence in unilateralism. To think that the cycle will end here, and that a future president won’t claim more expansive and disturbing powers to selectively enforce the law, requires an optimism not borne out by history. In the short run, we will rejoice in the sudden deliverance of massive humanitarian relief to people who have done nothing more than try to create a better life for their families. In the long run, we may look back on it with regret.

Chait is partially right. Any of the three branches of government can easily run amok. Right now we are seeing two branches -- the Congress & the Supreme Court -- do just that. House Republican leadership refuses to bring bills to the floor that would pass with bipartisan support. Many Senate Republicans refuse to cooperate in the writing of legislation. The Supreme Court is dismantling decades of Constitutional law. The only person who has any Constitutional authority to push back on conservative dysfunction, obstructionism, and yes, lawlessness is the President of the United States.

Strikingly, Chait leaves the most important party to governance out of his deliberations. He is forgetting the people: implicit in our Constitution (and explicit in the Declaration of Independence) is the Enlightened principle that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Currently, Congress will not put forward popular legislation. A good example is Congress's refusal to write gun control legislation last year, despite poll after poll that suggested the vast majority of the public -- including gun owners -- favored certain restrictions. Another good example: the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United & McCutcheon cases, each of which drastically cut back campaign finance regulation. Here again, the vast majority of citizens want campaign finance restrictions.

This is not to suggest that popular opinion is always just or wise. It isn't. But in our Constitutional system of government, the governed have little say in what the governors do. We can throw the bums out only at certain prescribed intervals, not -- as with parliamentary government -- in unscheduled votes of no-confidence. In addition, because of the structure of the nation, of the Constitution & of voting districts, we don't throw the bums out even when the majority agrees they're bums.

As a result, the governed actually oppose a good deal of what the governors are doing (or not doing). Today, they disapprove of the Congress by historically huge margins, & the majority also now disapproves of President Obama. The Supreme Court, historically well-respected, now can't muster a majority approval rating. These poll numbers point to the obvious: the governed are highly-dissatisfied with the performance of the governors.

I also do not suggest that governing-by-polling is just or wise. At times in our history (or perhaps even now), the majority of Americans favored an anti-flag-burning Constitutional amendment -- which would be so peripheral as to offend but a tiny aspect of our Constitutional values -- & a balanced-budget amendment -- which would wreak havoc upon our economy during downturns.

Still, it is not "dangerous," as Chait argues, for one branch of government -- in this case, the executive -- to unilaterally enact the will of the people when that will is inherently reasonable & fair. I cannot, for instance, think of any law-abiding Americans who would suffer under an assault-weapons ban. Similarly, the Supreme Court was merely playing catch-up with public opinion when it struck down part of DOMA in U.S v. Windsor. 

Our form of representative democracy assumes that legislators will legislate, presidents will preside & judges will rule impartially. The Constitutional structure, as it has developed under the two-party system, breaks down, however, if one of the two parties becomes essentially nihilistic, as the Republican party is now.

If the government is to function as the Founders intended, & as the people expect, somebody has to do something. That is the argument President Obama has been making for the past few months. He is suggesting, in a way, a limited form of parliamentary government, the structure of which permits the ruling or dominant party to enact pretty much what it wants, while the opposition has little recourse but to (a) try to sway public opinion against the government, & (b) shout at the prime minister.

In fact, most Americans seem to think we have a pariliamentary form of government. Presidential elections always get the highest voter turnout: that's when the unwashed masses rouse themselves to do their Constitutional duty to vote for the person whom they believe will do the best job of solving problems & moving the country forward. Voting for members of Congress & state representatives, etc., are usually afterthoughts except among highly-engaged voters.

Indeed, as numerous liberal pundits have pointed out recently, Americans think that if there is a problem, it is up to the president to fix it. If the problem persists because of Congressional inaction, the president still bears the blame. In regard to the surge of children crossing the border from Central America, for instance, polls have showed that the public blames President Obama, even though the Congress has refused to fund Obama administration proposals to alleviate the influx.

It is important to stipulate that we have no idea what sort of executive action President Obama will take in regard to immigration reform. But my guess is that whatever he does will fall within the range of the popular consensus. That is, he will use "the will of the people" as his guide, taking into account the limits of his Constitutional authority. This does not mean of course that all Americans will be happy with Obama's edict or that Republicans won't squeal. We have a substantial continent of xenophobes. isolationists & mean-spirited ignoramuses among us, the vast majority of whom vote Republican.

Chait's argument that liberals won't like it when a Republican president goes all-in for executive actions is correct. But I would counter that if we elect a Republican president, the voters will expect him (and it will be "he/him") to "fix things" in a conservative/antediluvian manner. Further, they will squawk if he fails, no matter how complicit the other branches of government. George W. Bush, after all, blew foreign policy big time, and he did it with plenty of help from Congress. But Americans are not blaming Hillary Clinton, et al., for greenlighting the Iraq War (as most Democrats did); the public still blames Bush. (Further weakening Chait's position, Steve M. argues that "a Republican president will do whatever the hell he wants no matter what.")

President Obama has received two huge mandates (2008 and 2012) to run the country. He seems ready, at last, to do so, and to do so by the only means possible when the Congress will not perform its Constitutional functions. Even if I may disagree with the substance of whatever executive actions he takes, I applaud Obama's newly-founded determination to take them.