The Commentariat -- February 3

A Thousand Words. Camel tramples journalist in Tahrir Square Wednesday. Via Andrew Sullivan. Robert Springborg of Foreign Policy explains why the chance for democracy in Egypt is over. ...

... CW: Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution comments on Springborg's post. I think Bookman gets it exactly right vis-a-vis Obama: "... the Egyptian military wields a lot more power and influence over affairs in Egypt than anybody else on the planet, including the president of the United States, and it has used that power very cleverly. It is very difficult if not impossible for outsiders to overcome that, and it’s not even clear how hard they should try." ...

... Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "After days of delicate public and private diplomacy, the United States openly broke with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world on Wednesday, as the Obama administration strongly condemned violence by allies of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt against protesters and called on him to speed up his exit from power. Egypt’s government hit back swiftly. The Foreign Ministry released a defiant statement saying the calls from “foreign parties” had been “rejected and aimed to incite the internal situation in Egypt.” ...

... Michael Martinez of CNN: "In Egypt, Vice President Omar Suleiman issued a statement saying that dialogue with opposition forces, as ordered by Mubarak, won't begin until the demonstrations stop. Mubarak had incited another round of protests Tuesday when he said he would wait until the September elections to step down.... Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun a round of discussions with Suleiman as the Egyptian government has begun defending the pace of change and pushing back against American criticism...."

... CW: if you think the Egyptian army is on the side of the protesters, read Wendell Steavenson of the New Yorker who describes an encounter with a general at a makeshift first aid station in Cairo.

... ** Nicholas Kristof has a compelling and disturbing report from Tahrir Square in Cairo:

This was an organized government crackdown, but it relied on armed hoodlums, not on police or army troops. The pro-Mubarak forces arrived in busloads.... It should be increasingly evident that Mr. Mubarak is not the remedy for the instability in Egypt; he is its cause.

... Kristof interviews pro-Mubarak demonstrators in Cairo:

... George Packer of the New Yorker: "Administration policy in Egypt has allowed Mubarak to crush the few remaining pockets of breathing space for civil society and the political opposition. It’s a policy that goes back decades, one that neither Obama nor George W. Bush did much to change. The dramatic events of the past week have shown it to be an utter failure."

... Say What? Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "Tony Blair has described Hosni Mubarak ... as 'immensely courageous and a force for good' and warned against a rush to elections that could bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power. The former prime minister, now an envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, praised Mubarak over his role in the negotiations and said the west was right to back him despite his authoritarian regime because he had maintained peace with Israel."

... Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "As it braces for the likelihood of a new ruler in Egypt, the U.S. government is rapidly reassessing its tenuous relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an opposition movement whose fundamentalist ideology has long been a source of distrust in Washington." ...

... Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times profiles Amb. Frank Wisner, the diplomat President Obama sent to Egypt to talk with government leaders there. Wisner left Egypt Wednesday.

Diana Henriques of the New York Times: "Senior executives at JPMorgan Chase expressed serious doubts about the legitimacy of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment business more than 18 months before his Ponzi scheme collapsed but continued to do business with him, according to internal bank documents made public in a lawsuit on Thursday."

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today on 'The Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act,' President Ronald Reagan’s former Solicitor General — Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried — tore into the reasoning of Judge Roger Vinson’s decision striking down the Affordable Care Act, saying the issue should be a 'no brainer'”:

... AND Neera Tanden & Millhiser write a line-by-line interactive rebuttal to Judge Vinson's declaratory judgment. In their overview, they write:

... we show how he effectively writes an entire provision of the Constitution out of the document. How he butchers history, thumbs his nose at binding Supreme Court precedent, and relies on a constitutional theory that George Washington would find shocking. As we explain, even conservative legal scholars have questioned Vinson’s reasoning. And he wholly misunderstands health care and how it works.

... Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: the "psychology" of the members of the Supreme Court is becoming more important than precedent as right-wing justices pretzel even their own previous opinions to fit their ideology.

Dana Milbank: Rand Paul uses his maiden Senate speech to defame Sen. Henry Clay, known as the Great Compromiser & one of Kentucky's favorite sons. Clay died in 1852 so he wasn't there to defend himself.

Hope Yen of the AP: "U.S. racial minorities accounted for roughly 85 percent of the nation's population growth over the last decade — one of the largest shares ever — with Hispanics accounting for much of the gain in many of the states picking up new House seats."

News Items

** New York Times: "The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately, turning over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military.... Even though Mr. Mubarak has balked..., officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which, Mr. Suleiman, backed by Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the Defense Minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform."

ABC News: "A group of angry Egyptian men carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead them today in the latest and most menacing attack on foreign reporters trying to cover the anti-government uprising."  Time: "Sources have told TIME Magazine that Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, has been detained along with her crew by Egyptian police outside Cairo's Israeli embassy." ABC News has a list of journalists who have been threatened, attacked or detained by Egyptian security forces. It's a long list. Washington Post: "In multiple incidents, journalists covering Egypt's unrest were pummeled, hit with pepper spray, shouted at and threatened by loyalists to President Hosni Mubarak. The Committee to Protect Journalists described .. a series of deliberate attacks. The New York-based CPJ called on the Egyptian military to provide protection for reporters." ...

... AP: "Protesters and government supporters fought in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while more lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army rounded up foreign journalists."

... New York Times: "Security forces and gangs chanting in favor of the Egyptian government hunted down journalists at their offices and in the hotels where many had taken refuge on Thursday in a widespread and overt campaign of intimidation aimed at suppressing reports from the capital.... The cellphone service provider Vodafone acknowledged that the government had invoked emergency powers to force it to send out text messages. Some of the messages appeared to include calls for people to turn out in support of the government, and were sent before the violent clashes." ...

... AP: "President Barack Obama's response to the crisis in Egypt is drawing fierce criticism in Israel, where many view the U.S.leader as a political naif whose pressure on a stalwart ally to hand over power is liable to backfire." ...

... New York Times: "... protesters seeking the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak regrouped at Tahrir Square on Thursday after a night of gunfire and a day of mayhem that left at least five dead and more than 800 wounded in a battle for the Middle East’s most populous nation." ...

... New York Times: "The online group Anonymous said Wednesday that it had paralyzed the Egyptian government’s Web sites in support of the antigovernment protests. Anonymous, a loosely defined group of hackers from all over the world, gathered about 500 supporters in online forums and used software tools to bring down the sites of the Ministry of Information and President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.... The sites were unavailable Wednesday afternoon." ...

... From the State Department, via Politico: ""Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Egyptian Vice President Omar Soliman today [Wednesday and] ... urged that the Government of Egypt hold accountable those who were responsible for violent acts."

AP: Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas), who serves "on the House Financial Services Committee, has filed for personal bankruptcy." Evidently availed himself of a few too many financial services. Update: Politico has more.

Washington Post: "A Senate investigation into the Fort Hood shooting faults the Army and FBI for missing warning signs and failing to exchange information that could have prevented the massacre.... [Sen. Joe] Lieberman said that the report ... indicated that the FBI had compelling evidence of extremism that should have led to [Maj. Nidal] Hasan's military discharge and made him the subject of a counterterrorism investigation." 

AP: "Republicans controlling the House promised Thursday to slash domestic agencies' spending by almost 20 percent in their drive to bring it back to levels in place before President Barack Obama took office.House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan announced the move as the first salvo in a battle with Obama as they seek to keep a campaign promise to cut $100 billion from domestic programs."

Politico: GOP backtracks; deletes "forcible" qualifier from its definition of rape in its anti-abortion bill.

New York Times: "Thousands of pro- and antigovernment demonstrators held peaceful protests" in [Sana, Yemen].

New York Times: "Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, should not claim that he is fully independent of BP, a federal judge overseeing litigation against the company ruled on Wednesday. Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court in New Orleans ... issued an order in [which he] said [Feinberg] must make clear to potential litigants that he is 'acting for and on behalf of BP in fulfilling its legal obligations.'”

The Commentariat -- February 2

** A History Lesson. Jack Balkin: "All able bodied male citizens were part of the militia, and therefore were required to bear arms in defense of the state. In fact, the federal government passed a militia act in 1792 that required that every citizen purchase a weapon and ammunition.... Hence citizens were automatically made part of the militia, and this mean that they might be called upon to lay down their lives for their fellow citizens and the republic.... What is lost in the debate over the individual mandate is that the point of the individual mandate is also civic republican in nature. It requires citizens to make a far less significant but also public-spirited sacrifice on behalf of other Americans who cannot afford health insurance." Via Ben Smith.

It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. -- Judge Roger Vinson, in his ruling against the Affordable Care Act

On first read, the most striking aspect of Judge Vinson’s ruling today is not its remedy — striking the Affordable Care Act in its entirety — but the impression one gets that the opinion was written in part as a Tea Party manifesto. -- Mark Hall, law professor

CW: here's the immediate problem with Vinson's irresponsible ruling. Amy Goldstein & N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: there is "... striking disagreement over the ruling's practical effects, even for the states in which the decision has the greatest direct impact." The New York Times has a story on the same subject here. Some of these right-wing ideological governors & attorneys general plan to cut people out of ACA-mandated programs now. Assholes. ...

... BUT Richard Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "Most insurers, hospital executives and state officials expect they'll keep carrying out President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even after a federal judge cast its fate in doubt by declaring all of it unconstitutional." ...

... Ezra Klein interviews economist Mark Pauly, who first proposed the individual mandate to the Bush I administration, & which went on to be "promoted by congressional Republicans, the Heritage Foundation, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney." Pauly says his "fix" for the bouhaha over the individual mandate "would be to simply say raise everyone’s taxes by what a health insurance policy would cost -- Congress definitely has the power to do that -- and then tell people that if they obtain insurance, they'll get a tax break of the same amount." ...

... Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Democratic and Republican lawmakers believe the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of President Obama’s healthcare law, and some of them are already exerting pressure on the justices.... Republicans want the case to reach the Supreme Court swiftly. The Obama administration, however, is in no rush for it...."

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. Photos via Salon.Our Favorite Dictators. Alex Pareene of Salon on "where else in the world American taxpayer dollars are helping to prop up dictatorships with poor human rights records."

Mark Landler, et. al., of the New York Times: "The story of how Mr. Mubarak, an Arab autocrat who only last month was the mainstay of America’s policy in a turbulent region, suddenly found himself pushed toward the exit is first and foremost a tale of the Arab street.... But it is also one of political calculations, in Cairo and Washington, which were upset repeatedly as the crowds swelled. And it is the story of a furious scramble by the Obama White House — right up until Mr. Obama’s call Tuesday night for change to begin 'now' — to catch up with a democracy movement unfolding so rapidly that Washington came close to being left behind." ...

... Wall Street Journal reporters on how the U.S. & Egyptian governments were blindsided by the strength & persistence Egyptian uprising. CW: What isn't in the headline, but is in the report is acknowledgment that the protest leaders themselves were surprised at the success of the protest. ...

Tony Karon of Time: "... for all the words uttered Tuesday, the terms and duration of the political transition will not be decided by either Mubarak or the opposition.... The outcome of their battle of wills may be decided by other actors, first and foremost the country's armed forces." Read Karon on new Veep Suleiman's role in the "transition": Karon backs up my seat-of-the-pants take on the "Plan B" Mubarak & Suleiman have been engineering.

Politico: "A member of Norway’s parliament has nominated WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize."

Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Police brutality in Egypt is 'routine and pervasive' and the use of torture so widespread that the Egyptian government has stopped denying it exists, according to leaked cables released today by WikiLeaks. The batch of US embassy cables paint a despairing portrait of a police force and security service in Egypt wholly out of control. They suggest torture is routinely used against ordinary criminals, Islamist detainees, opposition activists and bloggers." Read the documents here. ...

... Greg Jaffe and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A mental health specialist recommended that the [Bradley Manning] ... not be deployed to Iraq, but his immediate commanders sent him anyway, according to a military official familiar with a new Army investigation."

John Schwartz & Mark Schrope of the New York Times: "The Gulf of Mexico should recover from the environmental damage caused by the enormous" BP oil spill last year faster than many people expected, according to new estimates in reports commissioned by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion compensation fund.  That prediction will be central to Mr. Feinberg’s plan for paying people who claim their livelihoods were devastated by the spill. It is certain to be controversial among those who believe the damage will be longer-lasting and therefore should result in higher payouts for the spill’s victims." CW: speaking of dictators, I'm not sure Feinberg is so benevolent.

Dina ElBodhdady of the Washington Post: "A record number of homeowners are kicking in cash when they refinance their mortgages, in most cases to qualify for interest rates that are now near historic lows, mortgage financier Freddie Mac reported this week. In the fourth quarter, 46 percent of borrowers who refinanced their primary mortgages brought cash to settlement to lower the balance on their loans, Freddie Mac said. That's the highest share of so-called 'cash-in' refinances since the company started tracking the numbers in 1985." CW: this is a good thing.

Dana Milbank isn't convinced Jay Carney, who will become President Obama's press secretary, is going to be as press-friendly as, well, the press thinks he'll be. Milbank cites as evidence an "official" e-mail he received from Carney while Carney was working for Vice President Biden: "'You are a hack.' ... The body of the message began with the phrase 'shamelessly misrepresented,' continued on to refer to 'your hackneyed storyline' and concluded: 'Fabrication is a legitimate tool - for fiction. You should try it; it suits you.'"

And now, for a history lesson from the Tea Party, brought to you by Tom Tomorrow, observer of "This Modern World":

FOR A SLIGHTLY LARGER IMAGE, CLICK ON THE CARTOON.

News Items

New York Times: "Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a bid by Republicans to repeal last year’s sweeping health care overhaul, as they successfully mounted a party-line defense of President Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.... Lawmakers in both parties joined forces, however, to repeal a tax provision in the law that would impose a huge information-reporting requirement on small businesses. That vote was 81 to 17, with 34 Democrats and all 47 Republicans in favor."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Calling the move risky, Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced on Tuesday anti-deficit legislation that could impose automatic cuts in Social Security and other entitlement programs. McCaskill, of Missouri, was the only Democrat to join with a group of Republicans to press for a far-reaching debt reduction plan that would tie federal spending to the nation's economic output."

Washington Post: "After months of resistance, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) announced Tuesday that he will enforce a ban on earmarks in all Senate spending bills, ending a cherished practice by lawmakers that had become a symbol of wasteful excess. The Senate moratorium, which will remain in place for two years, follows a similar move by the GOP-led House and a veto threat by President Obama in his State of the Union address last week."

The Hill: Darrell Issa "says the White House’s response to his first major request for documents and records was inadequate. As a result, [he] is refining his request and asking for copies of e-mails between key White House officials. He is also seeking a series of interviews with top-level staff at the Department of Homeland Security...."

New York Times: "Government-subsidized health insurance – one of many perks of serving in Congress – kicked in on Tuesday for new members. But a group of more than a dozen freshman Republicans who campaigned vigorously on overturning President Obama’s new health care law will be opting out."

President Obama signed the New START treaty this morning. No link.

New York Times: "Egypt’s powerful military signaled a shift on Wednesday, calling on protesters who have propelled tumultuous changes here to 'restore normal life.' On the streets, the tactics and calculations seemed to be shifting too, possibly spurring the military’s concern as pro-Mubarak demonstrators — some of them in apparently confrontational mood — turned out in larger numbers than in the past days of antigovernment tumult. By the early afternoon, a potentially combustible mood seized Tahrir Square as hundreds of pro-Mubarak protesters converged on what has been the epicenter of the antigovernment demonstrations." ...

... AP: "Hundreds of pro-government supporters attacked protesters Wednesday in Cairo's central square, where thousands were pushing ahead with demonstrations demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. ...

... NBC News Update: "Several thousand supporters of embattled President Hosni Mubarak, including some on horses and camels and wielding whips, charged into a crowd of anti-government protesters Wednesday, instigating violent clashes as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn." ...

... New York Times Update: "As chaos gripped Cairo’s central Tahrir square on Wednesday, journalists covering the scene on the ground found themselves the targets of violence and intimidation by demonstrators chanting slogans in favor of President Hosni Mubarak. One prominent American television correspondent, Anderson Cooper of CNN, was struck in the head repeatedly." See video above.

New York Times: "President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said on Wednesday that he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013, a stunning concessions to protesters that marked yet another reverberation of the anger that has rocked the Arab World. Mr. Saleh, an American ally who has been in office for 32 years, also said that his eldest son, Ahmed, who heads the elite Republican Guard, would not seek the presidency, as government opponents had feared."

The Commentariat -- February 1

Tahrir Square, Cairo, February 1. CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE.

For the first time in Egyptian history, from the pharaohs till now, Egypt is having a real revolution. -- Man in Tahrir Square

I think the Tunisia [uprising] was at least fueled by [the release of WikiLeaks documents]. The accepted version of how things happened in Tunisia was that a fruit seller who was mistreated by the government set himself on fire, and this began an uprising.... That all seems to be true, but it also seems to be true that the circulation of the WikiLeaks documents that talked about how the Ben Ali regime lived high off the hog ... clearly did circulate widely, and if it didn't start what happened in Tunisia, it certainly fueled it. -- Bill Keller, New York Times Executive Editor ...

     ... Read excerpts from an NPR "Fresh Air" interview of Keller conducted by Terry Gross. The audio will also be available at this link later today (Tuesday).

Paul Kane & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Congress has taken an unusually bipartisan approach toward the mounting crisis in Egypt, with House and Senate leaders standing behind the Obama administration's message that Egyptians should make an 'orderly transition' to avoid a violent conclusion to the week-long standoff." ...

... CW: then I guess this is the Congressional consensus. John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a New York Times op-ed: "President Hosni Mubarak must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure." ...

... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration, after initially underestimating the force and determination of anti-government demonstrations in Egypt, appeared Monday to have settled on a public and private course of action that officials hope will lead to President Hosni Mubarak's departure from office sooner rather than later. Senior officials moved to further define the 'orderly transition' they called for over the weekend, and made clear in public statements that they were not impressed by the steps Mubarak has taken to respond to the protests." ...

... Tony Karon of Time: "Monday's announcement by the Egyptian army that it recognized the 'legitimacy' of the demonstrators' demands and refused to use force to disperse them (despite their protest being illegal under existing laws) could mark a turning point in the popular rebellion aimed at bringing down" Mubarak." ...

... Helene Cooper & Scott Shane of the New York Times: Mohamed "ElBaradei ... had a fractious relationship with the Bush administration, one so hostile that Bush officials tried to get him removed from his post at the atomic watchdog agency. But as Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition on the streets of Cairo have increasingly coalesced around Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on their behalf, the Obama administration is scrambling to figure out whether he is someone with whom the United States can deal." ...

     ... CW: but what about this, from cooper & Shane's report? -- "Since the protests in Egypt erupted, Obama administration officials have been trying to reach Mr. ElBaradei, but they had not made contact as of Monday afternoon." How is it that Bob Scheiffer & Fareed Zakaria could have ElBaradei on air, but the State Department can't find him? ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The Obama administration has sent [former Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner,] a diplomatic troubleshooter with close ties to Egypt, on a mission to Cairo to meet with President Hosni Mubarak and other senior officials, as the administration struggles to gauge Mr. Mubarak’s intentions amid the fast-moving events there.... The choice of Mr. Wisner, 72, a respected elder of the foreign policy establishment, raised questions about whether the administration was using him as an emissary to gently prod Mr. Mubarak to resign. Administration officials declined to say whether they had sent Mr. Wisner with any kind of message." ...

... Dan Lyons in the Daily Beast: "Hours after the government in Egypt shut down that country’s access to the Internet, hackers around the world started banding together to craft some kind of workaround. And one group claims to be only a day or two away from delivering a partial solution. Their initiative is called the Open Mesh Project and it began when Shervin Pishevar, an Internet entrepreneur in Palo Alto, California, posted a message on Twitter calling for help...." ...

... Google: "Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection. We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow.... Anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet." ...

... Jon Stewart assesses U.S.-Egyptian relations:

... Of course Stephen Colbert supports Mubarak:

Worried about the Egyptian protests? Well, according to Fox "News," you should be because the protesters are radical, Al Qaeda-sponsoring, Jihadist suicide-bombing terroist theocrats. Thanks to the Salon staff for putting together this Montage a Faux:

Stan Collender of Roll Call puts the $1.5 trillion budget deficit in perspective & says the breathless news coverage of the CBO's projection was wa-a-a-y over the top: "

The CBO report was not news because it did nothing more than confirm what was completely understood when the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 was negotiated, debated, passed and signed into law last year. A small story on Page 37 (Is there still a Page 37 in any section of a newspaper these days?) would have been understandable. But there was nothing that justified the front-page, above-the-fold treatment the projection received. Six tax cuts and an extension of unemployment benefits were enacted in December, and the known budget effect of each was to — wait for it — increase the deficit.

** Jason Linkins on H.R. 3, the House Republicans' anti-abortion law, which will severely limit the definition of rape. Linkins charges that the bill's authors hold "the deep and abiding belief among its cosponsors that women are chattel." CW: I won't argue with that.

John Broder of the New York Times: "When he releases his new budget in two weeks, President Obama will propose doing away with roughly $4 billion a year in subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies, in his third effort to eliminate federal support for an industry that remains hugely profitable.... But ... his policies continue to provide for substantial aid to oil and gas companies as well as billions of dollars in subsidies for coal, nuclear and other energy sources with large and long-lasting environmental impacts."

Truthout has serialized Thom Hartmann's book Rebooting the American Dream. Here's the last chapter, in which Hartman concludes:

Our economy is in tatters, the result of more than 30 years of Reaganomics and Clintonomics. Our democracy is hanging by a thread, the result of 40 years of radical Supreme Court decisions steadily advancing the powers of corporations and suppressing the rights of individuals and their government. And our environment is trembling....

     ... You can link to all of the chapters here.

David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "New American intelligence assessments have concluded that Pakistan has steadily expanded its nuclear arsenal since President Obama came to office, and that it is building the capability to surge ahead in the production of nuclear-weapons material, putting it on a path to overtake Britain as the world’s fifth largest nuclear weapons power. For the Obama administration, the assessment poses a direct challenge to a central element of the president’s national security strategy, the reduction of nuclear stockpiles around the world."

New York Times Editors: "... the federal Office of Special Counsel found that the Bush White House routinely violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. It depicts the Bush Office of Political Affairs, run by Karl Rove, as virtually indistinguishable from the Republican Party.... The Office of Special Counsel does not have the power to discipline former government employees, and it is not clear that any law enforcement agency will look into prosecution.... The Office of Political Affairs should be abolished...."

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Barbara Bush, one of the twin daughters of George W. Bush, will endorse same-sex arriage< on Tuesday, publicly breaking ranks with a father who, as president, pushed for a constitutional amendment banning such unions":

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "It was a tough year for Bank of America, what with the foreclosure mess and a sagging stock price. Its chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, nonetheless received $10 million in his first year on the job."

Roger Vinson, Extreme Activist Judge. Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo: "Vinson tossed the entire [Affordable Care Act] because it lacked a 'severability clause,' which would have compartmentalized the legislation itself and forced judges to weigh individual sections on their own merits. But the standard is not that an unseverable law should be stricken in its entirety. Noted liberal activist judge John Roberts recently struck a sole provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which likewise lacks a severability clause." ...

... Jonathan Cohn: in his illogical, ideological ruling, Judge Vinson gives the Tea Party a shout-out & tosses the conservative mantra of "judicial restraint." ...

... Orrin Kerr, who knows everything about Constitutional law, explains how Vinson's arguments about the commerce clause & the necessary-and-proper clause defy Supreme Court decisions. ...

... BUT Kerr's colleague ato the Volokh Conspiracy Ilya Somen really, really disagrees. ...

... Kate Pickert of Time writing on the same subject: even recent precedent suggests the Supremes will rule that the Affordable Care Act is Constitutional. ...

... Stephanie Cutter of the White House: "Today’s ruling – issued by Judge Vinson in the Northern District of Florida – is a plain case of judicial overreaching. The judge’s decision contradicts decades of Supreme Court precedent." ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Judge Vinson based a central part of his argument on a Family Research Council brief. ...

... Melissa Nelson & Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "In one of Vinson's more high-profile trials, he ruled against medical benefits for thousands of military veterans. ... [Their attorney ] argued the veterans were promised lifetime care by recruiters when they enlisted and that military health benefits shouldn't stop at age 65. The ruling was later overturned by an appeals courts."

News Items

Guardian: "The British government is under pressure to take up the case of Bradley Manning, the soldier being held in a maximum security military prison in Virginia..., on the grounds that he is a UK citizen.... Manning is a UK citizen by descent from his Welsh mother, Susan. Government databases on births, deaths and marriages show she was born Susan Fox in Haverfordwest in 1953."

President Obama just spoke (6:45-6:50 pm ET) in support of "an orderly transition" in Egypt. Here's a synopsis from Politico. Washington Post story here. From the White House, here's the text of the speech. Update: New York Times story here. AND here's the speech:

Mubarak says he won't seek another term. New York Times story here. Story has been updated. Protesters say Mubarak's concessions don't go far enough. ...

... New York Times: "President Obama has told the embattled president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, that he should not run for another term in elections in the fall, effectively withdrawing American support for its closest Arab ally, according to American diplomats in Cairo and Washington." ...

...  AP: "More than a quarter-million people flooded Cairo's main square Tuesday in a stunning and jubilant array of young and old, urban poor and middle class professionals, mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power."

... New York Times: "... hundreds of thousands of people crammed into Cairo’s vast Tahrir Square on Tuesday, seeking to muster a million protesters demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Their mood was jubilant, as though they had achieved their goals, even though Mr. Mubarak remained in the presidency a day after the Egyptian military emboldened the protesters by saying they would not use force against them and the president’s most trusted advisor offered to negotiate with his adversaries." ...

... New York Times: "Egypt’s economy approached paralysis on Monday as foreign commerce, tourism and banking all but halted, placing acute pressure on President Hosni Mubarak to find a way out of the weeklong chaos." ...

... New York Times: China reacts to the Egyptian uprising by censoring the Web & news items which present the protests as the embodiment of "the pitfalls of trying to plant democracy in countries that are not quite ready for it — a line China’s leaders have long held."

NBC News: "Jordan's Royal Palace says the king has sacked his government in the wake of street protests and has asked an ex-army general to form a new Cabinet. King Abdullah's move comes after thousands of Jordanians took to the streets -- inspired by the regime ouster in Tunisia and the turmoil in Egypt -- and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Samir Rifai who is blamed for a rise in fuel and food prices and slowed political reforms. The Royal Palace says Rifai's Cabinet resigned on Tuesday." ...

... Reuters: "Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday asked his former ex-military adviser Marouf Bakhit to form a new cabinet, an official said." Update: the New York Times has more.

New York Times: "Hundreds of people packed into a downtown ballroom on Monday afternoon to watch Governor Patrick J. Quinn, a Democrat, sign a law making civil unions legal for same-sex couples in this state.... The law, which goes into effect on June 1, will provide same sex couples many legal protections now given to married couples, such as emergency medical decision-making powers, inheritance rights, pension benefits, adoption and parental rights, and the ability to share a room in a nursing home."

Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday introduced a measure aimed at repealing the national health care overhaul as an amendment to the first Senate bill of the new Congress. McConnell proposed the repeal measure as an amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration funding bill."

CNN: "Democrats have chosen Charlotte, North Carolina, as the host city for the 2012 Democratic National Convention." They'll announce the decision today. More expansive New York Times story here.

New York Times: "South Korea announced on Tuesday that it will hold military talks with North Korea next week — the first inter-Korean dialogue since a deadly artillery exchange in November — while President Lee Myung-bak said for the first time that a future summit meeting with Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, was a possibility."

AP: "American diplomats and other mission employees may not be safe in Iraq if the U.S. military leaves the volatile country at the end of the year as planned, according to a new report ... by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

The Commentariat -- January 31

Ezra Klein's view of what should happen if Florida Judge Roger Vinson's opinion that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional prevailed in the Supreme Court is similar to mine: extend Medicare, S-CHIP, etc. to cover most of the population. The problem of course is that we currently have a Congress that would not do so. Klein also notes the absurdity of a "legal theory currently in vogue in conservative circles ... [that] permits the government to establish a single-payer health-care system that every American pays into through payroll taxes and that wipes out the private insurance industry but forbids the government from administering a regulated market in which individuals purchase private insurance plans and pay a penalty if they can afford coverage but choose to delay buying it until they're sick...."

... Klein comments on the nature of Vinson's ruling: "The full ruling has a very Bush v. Gore feeling, as Vinson concedes that his position is activist in the extreme and a break from the court's usual preference for limited rulings, but says, in effect, that he's going to do it just this once." You can read Vinson's ruling here. ...

Steve Benen puts Vinson's ruling into perspective:

... two Republican-appointed federal district court judges have now found that the individual mandate -- an idea Republicans came up with -- is unconstitutional.... Let's not forget two other federal district court judges, appointed by Democratic presidents, came to the opposite conclusion.... Overall, about a dozen federal courts have dismissed challenges to the health care law. ...

... Suzy Khimm of The New Republic: "The Republican attorneys general who brought the lawsuit wanted an unabashedly right-wing judge to rule on the case, so they deliberately filed in a very conservative jurisdiction of the state. Vinson delivered." ...

... Backstory. New York Times: Judge Roger Vinson of Federal District Court in Pensacola, Florida "... ruled on Monday that it was unconstitutional for Congress to enact a health care law that requires Americans to obtain commercial insurance, evening the score at two-to-two in the lower courts as conflicting opinions begin their path to the Supreme Court."

Helena Cobban in Salon: "Pro-Israeli groups and individuals in Congress and the rest of the American political elite have worked hard, for decades now, to demean and marginalize the work of anyone who seeks to understand trends in the Arab world on their own terms. They sowed the wind of our government’s current, stunningly evident impotence regarding events in Egypt. Now we are reaping the whirlwind." ...

... David Kirkpatrick & Mona El-Naggar of the New York Times: in Egypt, "political organizers, many younger than 30, are taking the lead in efforts to topple a regime older than they are." ...

... Nicholas Kulish & Soaud Mekhennet of the New York Times: "For four days now, containers arriving on ships have been stacking up at [Alexandria,] Egypt’s largest port.... With distribution networks barely functioning and the Internet down since Thursday night, much of business in Egypt has nearly ground to a halt.... The political crisis could turn into a humanitarian one if the current economic paralysis continues." ...

... Peter Nicholas of the Los Angeles Times: "A tight-lipped White House is taking an even-handed approach to the crisis in Egypt, suggesting that President Mubarak might be able to hold onto power if he allows competitive elections and restores individual freedoms. But inside the Obama administration, there are signs that officials are preparing for a post-Mubarak era after three decades." ...

... Jeffrey Fleishman of the Los Angeles Times: "The Muslim Brotherhood..., the Arab world's largest Islamic organization..., is muting its religious message amid a popular revolt that is not driven by Islam or politics. The organization's strategy became more apparent Sunday when it announced support for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei as a transitional president if the Mubarak government is toppled. The move was recognition that ElBaradei, a secularist with Western democratic principles, is the most potent symbol for change in a nation desperate for fresh voices." ...

... NEW. Nathan Brown, director of Middle Eastern Studies at Georgetown U., talks to Justin Elliott of Salon about the history & organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. As Elliott suggests, you won't hear this on Fox.

... Massimo Calabresi of Time: "Political change is not always what it seems in the Arab world.... From the Western perspective it is not clear whether to fret about it or to embrace it. In truth, Washington has to do both, since it has little or no control over the situation, especially in the most volatile of the uprisings, in Egypt." ...

... Karl Vick of Time: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly ordered his government not to comment on events in Egypt, but the headlines in the Sunday morning papers got the main point across well enough: 'A 30-Year Step Backward,' 'What Frightens Us,' 'All Alone.' ... Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak observed the 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state, helped put pressure on Hamas from Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, nursed peace talks with the Palestinians, worked to thwart Iran and along the way provided Israel with 40% of its natural gas."

... Looks as if the Blue Texan at Firedoglake has been reading the right-wing blogs so we don't have to. Here's her/his post on the five stupidest things right-wingers have written about the Egyptian uprising. Oh, they're stupid. ...

... If you're wondering why you don't get Al Jazeera-English on your cable, Ryan Grim has the answer. Meanwhile, you can watch it here.

Dexter Filkins, now of the New Yorker, on the failure of Kabul Bank. New York Times story by Alissa Rubin & James Risen here. ...

... Joe Klein of Time: "The answer, I think, is bail out Kabul Bank, but only if Karzai steps aside in favor of Abdullah Abdullah, who finished second in the rigged presidential election -- or a respected technocrat like Ashraf Ghani, who could lead a caretaker government until new elections are held."

Whatever happened to Barack Obama's longstanding enthusiasm for curbing global warming? Rick Hertzberg has a very smart, compact comment on the subject.

Kate Brumback of the AP: "A study by the nonpartisan Migration Policiy Institute "examined a program that allows participating local agencies to enforce federal immigration law>," and found that the law was being enforced unevenly. "Several agencies in the Southeast were turning over every illegal immigrant taken into custody ... while others are focused on deporting more violent criminals."

Mark Lacey of the New York Times: "... New York City sent undercover investigators to an Arizona gun show and found instances in which private sellers sold semiautomatic pistols even after buyers said they probably could not pass background checks, city officials said.... Private, unlicensed sellers are not required to run federal background checks, but it is a violation of federal law to sell guns to people if sellers suspect they are felons or mentally ill or are otherwise prohibited from buying.... In two instances, the New York undercover officers specifically said before buying a gun, 'I probably couldn’t pass a background check,' but were still sold guns, city officials said."

Does Connecticut Want to Replace One Preening, Sanctimonious Blowhard with Another? Sean Miller of The Hill: "Liberals want Keith Olbermann to run for retiring Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) seat." CW: just say no, Keith.

CW: I normally pay absolutely no attention to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, but since he writes this time on the major flaws of the potential Republican candidates for president, let's have at it. ...

... Jim Fallows says Chinese Amb. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, can't stay on the job if he's contemplating a run against President Obama in 2012, as reports suggest. ...

... CW: I think Ben Smith gets it right: "... if you assume that the primary will be defined by and against Mitt Romney, Huntsman will be to Romney what Obama was to Clinton: A purer, more credible version." ...

... Backstory. Politico: "The White House expects Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China, to resign his post this spring to explore a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, top Democrats said. GOP allies of Huntsman have already begun laying plans for a quick-start campaign should the former Utah governor decide to" run. New York Times Update: "Jon Huntsman, the United States ambassador to China, has informed the White House that he plans to step down in the next few months, further stoking speculation about his presidential ambitions." Washington Post story here.

Steve Kroft of CBS News interviews Julian Assange for "60 Minutes":

     ... You can watch the rest of the interview & link to related content on the "60 Minutes" page here.

News Items

New York Times: "Egyptian opposition groups gathered on Monday for a seventh day in the central Liberation Square, seeking to maintain the momentum of their uprising against President Hosni Mubarak as the army struggled to control a capital seized variously by fears of chaos and euphoria that change may be imminent." ...

... Washington Post: "Egyptian police reappeared on the streets of this embattled capital Monday, after virtually disappearing over the weekend and leaving the military to maintain order in the face of anti-government demonstrations." ...

... Haaretz, Reuters: "Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has instructed his government to begin talks with the opposition parties.... Mubarak told his new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, to start talking to the opposition and find out their specific demands.... Egyptian military officers and soldiers promised Monday that they will not hurt any of the protesters in Tuesday's 'million man march'." ...

... Globe and Mail: "Cairo's international airport was a scene of chaos and confusion Monday as thousands of foreigners sought to flee the unrest in Egypt and countries around the world scrambled to send in planes to fly their citizens out." ...

... AP: "Israeli officials say they have agreed to allow Egypt to move several hundred troops into the Sinai Peninsula for the first time since [1979].... Under the 1979 peace treaty, Israel returned the captured Sinai to Egypt. In return, Egypt agreed to leave the area demilitarized. With street protests threatening the Egyptian regime, the unnamed officials say that Israel agreed to allow the Egyptian army to move two battalions, about 800 soldiers, into Sinai." ...

... CNN: "While discontent, resentment and nationalism continue to fuel demonstrations, one vital staple is in short supply: food. Many families in Egypt are fast running out of staples such as bread, beans and rice and are often unable or unwilling to shop for groceries." ...

... New York Times: "While Egypt’s banks and stock market closed Monday because of the chaos there, the uncertainty weighed on markets elsewhere. Most Asian markets fell, although trading was already low ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday this week, analysts said. Shares opened lower across Europe as well, but Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures were flat, suggesting stocks would be little changed at the opening on Wall Street." ...

... AP: "Egypt needs a peaceful transition to democracy, EU foreign ministers urged Monday, warning the country's citizens to be on guard against a takeover by religious militants." ...

... AFP: "Former US president Jimmy Carter, who brokered the existing peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, predicted Sunday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will have to resign because 'the people have decided....'" ...

... AP: "International Mideast envoy Tony Blair said Monday that a change in Egypt's leadership is inevitable after the week of anti-government protests that have gripped the country."

AP: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is convening an unprecedented mass meeting of U.S. ambassadors. The top envoys from nearly all of America's 260 embassies, consulates and other posts in more than 180 countries will be gathering at the State Department beginning on Monday. Officials say it's the first such global conference."

New York Times: "Fraud and mismanagement at Afghanistan’s largest bank have resulted in potential losses of as much as $900 million — three times previous estimates — heightening concerns that the bank could collapse and trigger a broad financial panic in Afghanistan, according to American, European and Afghan officials." ...

... Washington Post: "The acting chief financial officer and other Pakistani employees of Kabul Bank have fled Afghanistan amid an investigation into the scope of the bank's reckless lending and allegations that its shareholders paid large bribes to many senior Afghan officials, according to Afghan officials and others familiar with the issue."