The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Adam Nossiter, et al., of the New York Times: "President François Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State for the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, as the death toll rose to 127 victims, with 200 others hospitalized. He declared three days of national mourning, and said that military troops would patrol the capital. France remained under a nationwide state of emergency":

The Times' live updates are here. The Times is providing free digital access to its stories about the attack. From the liveblog at 10:02 am ET: President Obama will convene the National Security Council this morning ahead of his trip to Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia. ...

... Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for the catastrophic attacks in the French capital, calling them 'the first of the storm' and mocking France as a 'capital of prostitution and obscenity,' according to statements released in multiple languages on one of the terror group's encrypted messaging accounts. The remarks came in a communiqué published in Arabic, English and French on the Islamic State's Telegram account and then distributed via their supporters on Twitter, according to a transcript provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist propaganda."...

... The Local's liveblog for today is here. The Local's front page currently [9 am ET] has news on the reactions of other European countries to the Paris attacks. The Guardian's new liveblog is here. ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog is here. At 8:40 am ET: "The [U.S.] State Department says American citizens were among those injured in the Paris attacks.'

... Adam Nossiter & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking that President François Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack on France. He closed the borders and mobilized the military in a national emergency." ...

... Friday, 10:04 pm ET: "The Paris police prefect, Michel Cadot, said all the assailants directly involved in the attacks around the city were believed to be dead, though they may have had accomplices who were still at large. It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved in total." (from the Times liveblog) ...

... The Local's liveblog is here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...

... Francois Hollande declares a state of emergency & closes borders:

... President Obama reacts to the attacks:

... Timothy Cama of the Hill: "A Paris concert hosted by former Vice President Al Gore to advocate for global climate change action was suspended Friday as the city was hit by multiple terrorist attacks that killed dozens. The climate event near the Eiffel Tower was still happening around 6:30 p.m. eastern United States time, but it was stopped shortly thereafter. The web-based livestream for the event was replaced with a statement. 'Out of solidarity with the French people and the city of Paris, we have decided to suspend our broadcast,' it says." ...

... Jon Swaine of the Hill: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Friday directed the One World Trade Center's spire to light up in blue, white and red in solidarity with the French following multiple attacks in Paris."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would leave the state with about 10 abortion clinics, down from more than 40. The court has not heard a major abortion case since 2007, and the new case has the potential to affect millions of women and to revise the constitutional principles governing abortion rights." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... New York Times Editors: The "entire purpose [of the Texas law] -- like that of similar laws around the country -- is to end legal abortion services. At an anti-abortion rally before he signed the Texas bill, known as H.B. 2, Rick Perry, then the governor, said that an 'ideal world' is one without abortion. 'Until then,' he said, 'we will continue to pass laws to ensure that abortions are as rare as possible under existing law.'... First-trimester abortions, which account for the overwhelming majority of all abortions, are already among the safest medical procedures available. What endangers women's health is when legal abortions are made harder or impossible to obtain, because women will be forced to wait until later in their pregnancies.... The justices ... have the opportunity to make clear that courts cannot simply uphold clearly deceptive legislation without questioning its actual function, as the Fifth Circuit did." ...

... Steve M. has a conspiracy theory: "... the Roberts Court took this case with the understanding that it would drive voter turnout on ... the Republican side.... And what kind of decision would do that? Obviously a decision that rejects the conservative position.... I'm betting on a full or partial rejection of the Texas law."

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a case out of Virginia that questions whether state lawmakers unlawfully considered race when they drew congressional district lines."

Paul Ryan Turns Down Full-Time Job for Part-Time Work. Dana Milbank: "House Republican leaders this month ... declared that the people's representatives will be working only two days a week next year. The House will be in session just 111 days in 2016. This means the chamber will be closed more weekdays (150) than open, and many of the 111 are partial days. That's upward of 30 weeks of paid vacation for all 435 members of the House.... Worse..., lawmakers have awarded themselves essentially unlimited travel budgets so they can spend more time at home.... 'It's a great irony, really, that by every measurement it looks as if Congress is more out of touch with constituents than ever before,' [former GOP Rep. Vin] Weber said, 'and yet they've been back with their constituents more than they've ever been.'"

Griff Witte, et al. of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military is 'reasonably certain' that an American drone strike in Syria killed the Islamic State executioner known as 'Jihadi John,' an official said Friday as British and U.S. officials seek to confirm the details of the attack." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charles Pierce was fairly unimpressed with the piece I linked yesterday, by Chris Whipple, on the Bush administration's failure to heed the CIA's pre-9/11 warnings about an imminent Al Qaeda attack because Pierce doesn't trust George Slam-Dunk Tenet & the Boyz. "This piece just reeks of score-settling and of ass-covering, and by the time it gets to Jose Rodriguez, the CIA's torture expert, who belongs in a fcking cell, and he starts talking about how what we did to people wasn't torture, it was all I could do to keep from throwing the laptop out the DB Cooper door at the back of the airplane. None of these guys -- from C-Plus Augustus on down -- is ready to accept responsibility for the worst national-security disaster since Pearl Harbor...." Pierce has a point.

Ben Terris & Stephanie Kirchner of the Washington Post tell the heartbreaking story of the Binder twins, the boys conjoined at the head whom Ben Carson separated. The operation made Carson a star, but the boys never developed normally. "Years later, neither boy could get around on his own, nor feed himself.... [Their mother] brought them to a home for disabled children, where they became wards of the state.... Patrick Binder died sometime in the past decade.... Benjamin is 28 now and still cannot speak but ... is doing 'relatively well.'... 'My job as a doctor is to make sick people well, and when I fail to do that, regardless of exactly why, I still failed, Donlin Long, the former head of neurosurgery, said in a phone interview about the Binder surgery. 'So in that way, the simple answer is no, I do not think it was a success.'"

Presidential Race

Emily Steel of the New York Times: "In the hours after the deadly attacks in Paris, CBS News significantly reworked its plans for the Democratic presidential debate it is hosting [in Des Moines, Iowa,] on Saturday night to focus more on issues of terrorism, national security and foreign relations." ...

... Date Night with Bernie, Hil & Marty. Gail Collins: "This weekend's Democratic debate is going to be a tough sell. Two hours on a Saturday night, and not a single candidate who appears to be certifiably deranged. There are only three Democrats left in the contest, and none of them has compared the competition to a child molester. None seems to have an unusually creative theory on why the pyramids were built. Yawn." ...

... Reminder. Noah Weiland of Politico: "The second Democratic presidential debate will be Saturday, Nov. 14, live from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.... The debate will last two hours and begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.... The debate will air on CBS and stream for free at www.cbsnews.com/live/. No cable subscription is necessary. CBS will also air the debate on its radio affiliates...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Beutler: "The cardinal imperative of electing a Democrat in 2016 is to prevent Republicans from consolidating control of government and using it to regressive ends. Against that backdrop, the question of who's best equipped to advance progressive goals fades into near-irrelevance, behind the less-inspiring question of which candidate has the best chance of winning.... If Clinton can best O'Malley and Sanders on the electability question, or fight them to a draw, subsequent questions become much less tricky for her. If she's the most electable candidate, her appeal to Democrats is obvious. And if all three candidates are electable, then the argument that Democrats should nominate another male candidate, rather than the first female major-party candidate, becomes a very tough sell. (Point, Hillarybots.)"

Hadas Gold of Politico with another Hillary conspiracy theory: the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz scheduled all the Democratic debates at a time hardly anyone would watch "since having fewer viewers reduces the chances of a rival delivering a serious blow to front-runner Hillary Clinton.... A broadcast network executive, speaking on background, said broadcast networks are much more limited on time slots than cable, so they have to work within the schedule in place. Wasserman Schultz insisted that the DNC's goal was to reach more viewers" by airing the debates on broadcast networks rather than on cable.

Ezra Klein: "Anyone watching the fourth Republican debate would be excused for thinking America is mired in a deep recession -- that the economy is shrinking, foreign competitors are outpacing us, more Americans are uninsured, and innovators can't bring their ideas to market.... They would be surprised to find that unemployment is at 5 percent, America's recovery from the financial crisis has outpaced that of other developed nations, the percentage of uninsured Americans has been plummeting even as Obamacare has cost less than expected, and there's so much money flowing into new ideas and firms in the tech industry that observers are worried about a second tech bubble.... Republicans are stuck between a description of the economy that seems increasingly detached from the reality of the recovery and a set of economic plans that actually worsen many of the problems Republicans say they want to solve. It's a pickle." ...

... Kevin Drum: Klein is "completely correct, but ... Republicans aren't really talking about the economy when they adopt this 'apocalyptic' rhetoric. In fact, so far this hasn't been an election about the economy at all.... It's a culture war election. The topics that have really driven the campaign so far are illegal immigration, political correctness, abortion, Obamacare, Vladimir Putin, the war on Christianity, and so forth." ...

... CW: The GOP has nothing to sell. Scapegoating Mexicans or gay couples or Starbucks works only if the economy totally sucks & there's no hope of recovery. Democrats are suggesting myriad ways to improve the personal financial positions of middle- & lower-income Americans; Republicans are saying a minimum living wage is too damned high. I had this argument with my neighbor today: he too thought $15/hour was too high, & I conceded that I didn't know what the exact best figure would be. But I said (a) everybody who is willing to do what the boss tells him to do should earn a living wage for doing it, even if the skill & experience level required to do the job is low; & (b) right now you're subsidizing WalMart & McDonalds, etc. whose low-wage employees only get by with the help of food stamps & other social services. Most of the people who use social welfare programs are working, I said. Why should your taxes, I asked my neighbor, go to feeding WalMart employees when the Waltons are the wealthiest people in the U.S.? (My rant was longer than that, but that was the gist of it.) Oh yeah, sez he.

Greg Sargent: Donald Trump's "meltdown [at an Iowa rally Thursday] represents something much greater than merely a cringeworthy spectacle. In a way Trump's rambling monologue amounts to an indictment of the fundamental stupidity and arbitrariness of American politics in general. And as such, we may look back at this moment and see it in a different light, as crossing from sheer buffoonery into a semi-poignant glimpse into the foibles of human vanity.... Trump is right to rail at the profound absurdity of the Carson spectacle. But the problem is that in so doing, he's also railing at the same absurdities that have been holding him aloft, too." ...

... Lisa Lambert of Reuters: "... Ben Carson recommended praying for rival Donald Trump after the real-estate mogul..., in a 95-minute rant in Iowa, likened him to a child molester, Carson's business manager said on Friday."When I spoke with Dr. Carson about this yesterday how we should respond, you know he was so sad about it. He said: 'Pray for him." He feels sorry for him because he really likes Mr. Trump,' Armstrong Williams, who often acts as Carson's surrogate in the media, told CNN. 'To see him just imploding before our very eyes - it's just sad to watch,' Williams said." ...

... Bethany Karn, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Ben Carson the doctor saved my daughter's life, but now I worry that Ben Carson the president could put others' lives in jeopardy.... Like most of the Republican field, he promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But Carson has outdone the others, calling it 'the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.'... As we prepared my daughter for brain surgery eight years ago, Carson was right to tell me not to worry about insurance. No one should worry about cost when a child's life is on the line. Indeed, that was the whole point of the ACA, which Carson and his rivals pledge to undo." ...

... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "... the more fundamental question -- the scarier question -- about Carson isn't whether the retired neurosurgeon is a fabulist, and therefore whether he has the right character to be president. It's whether he has the knowledge and understanding to be president. The evidence is rather conclusive that he doesn't.... Carson doesn't just need fact-checking. He needs thought-checking.... The tripartite architecture of [Carson's] non-answers [to debate questions] has become apparent: duck the actual question; revert to a comfortable, if irrelevant, talking point; finish with patriotic platitude." ...

... Ben Carson Knows Guys Who Know. Katherine Krueger of TPM: "Carson said his campaign would release 'some material on that' before the end of the weekend when asked about National Security Adviser Susan Rice saying there's no evidence to support his claims that the Chinese are involved in Syria. 'I have several sources that I've got material from, I'm surprised my sources are better than theirs,' he told reporters after a town hall event." ...

     ... CW: What's the trait most dominant here: arrogance or delusion? Ole Doc's assumption is that a few of his crackpot friends have more reliable information than the Pentagon, the CIA & the NSA combined. I'll bet the "material" Carson releases "before the end of the weekend" is a grainy photo of a guy who works at Damascus's all-you-can-eat China Buffet. ...

... We discovered that we were so much alike and shared the same values and principles that govern our lives. -- Ben Carson, in a 2007 letter to the court in support of Alfonso Costa, after Costa pled guilty to health insurance fraud ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Ben Carson is continuing to stand by his business associate and 'best friend' Alfonso Costa following revelations that Costa pleaded guilty in federal court in 2007 to healthcare fraud. Costa, a former dentist from Pittsburgh, is a self-employed real estate speculator.... 'Al Costa is my very best friend. I know his heart. I am proud to call him my friend. I have always and will continue to stand by him. That is what real friends do!' [Carson said in a statement.] Carson and Costa are also business associates, with Costa's firm managing a suburban Pittsburgh office building owned by Carson that last year earned the former neurosurgeon between $200,000 and $2m, according to financial disclosure forms cited by Mother Jones.... In a break from the campaign trail earlier this fall, Carson spent a week at one of Costa's properties, a villa on Italy’s Amalfi coast.... Carson has for years been a frequent visitor to the villa, which rents for between $30,000 and $50,000 per week...." In a 2012 book, Carson alleged that the Justice Department unfairly targeted Costa because "the lead agent was either jealous of his success or incorrectly concluded that he had organized crime connections that produced his wealth." (CW: i.e., Costa was a victim of racial stereotyping). ...

... Here's Costa, giving a tour of the villa. Carson claimed Costa "lives modestly compared to the lifestyle he could have had if he so desired.":

Director Judd Apatow supports Carson for president. Sarah Burris of Salon elaborates:

Doctor Ben Gets Something Right (and Indirectly Criticizes Jeb!). Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "After speaking at a Republican Party conference [in Orlando, Florida,] on Friday, a reporter asked Carson what he thought of the infamous [Terry Schiavo] case.... 'We face those kinds of issues all the time and while I don't believe in euthanasia, you have to recognize that people that are in that condition do have a series of medical problems that occur that will take them out,' he said. 'Your job [as a doctor] is to keep them comfortable throughout that process and not to treat everything that comes up.' When the reporter asked whether Carson thought it was necessary for Congress to intervene, he said: "I don't think it needed to get to that level. I think it was much ado about nothing.'"

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Friday took a sharp turn to the right by laying out a plan that would place new limits on legal immigration, increase deportations of undocumented immigrants, end birthright citizenship and build a wall along the US-Mexico border. The Texas senator unveiled his proposal at a fiery campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, where he echoed the hardline immigration rhetoric of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump." CW Translation: Nobody's gonna out-asshole me. P.S. to the GOP base: When Donald Deport'em's meltdown is complete, I'm your guy. ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "In an interview while taping a 'Candidate Cafe' segment for radio station WMUR in New Hampshire, Mr. Cruz acted out an entire scene from the movie" "Princess Bride." CW: If Ted had pursued an acting career instead of becoming the conniving creep he is today, you might even like him (although I have a feeling directors would typecast him in villain roles):

Jeb! Visits a Home He Can't Recall. Tom Dart of the Guardian on the Bush family home in Midland, Texas, which is now a shrine (you can visit!) to George W. Bush. CW: Look for the threads of this story (which I liked) in an upcoming MoDo column.

Beyond the Beltway

Kim Chandler of the AP: "The conservative Republican governor of Alabama, a Deep South state where 'Obamacare' is often reviled, said Thursday that his administration is mulling an expansion of the state's Medicaid program under the federal health care law. Gov. Robert Bentley, a dermatologist turned governor, emphasized that he was in the exploratory stages -- and said funding the state's share of costs could be a major stumbling block -- but his comments were the strongest to date about the possible acceptance of expansion dollars in the deeply red, high-poverty state."

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "A Utah judge has put a hold on his order to remove a foster child from the home of a married lesbian couple, whom he had said were unfit to keep the girl because of their sexual orientation.... The original order to remove the child from the home of the Carbon County couple drew an outcry from around the country, with former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton chiming in and even the state's Republican governor declaring himself 'puzzled' and concerned that Johansen was not following the law." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Tracy of the New York Times: "Saying that he has cancer and wants to focus on his family and his treatment, the head coach of the University of Missouri football team, Gary Pinkel, announced his resignation Friday. The move shocked the campus after racial protests had put it in the national spotlight and Pinkel had backed his players' threatened boycott of a coming game."

License & Registration, Please. Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Beep, beep. A Google driverless car was pulled over in California. The problem? It was going too slow. An officer in Mountain View, Calif., apparently saw traffic backed up behind the little, white vehicle. The car was traveling 24 mph in a stretch where the posted speed limit was 35 mph.... It was unclear whether a ticket was issued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Victor Mather New York Times: "Russia was provisionally suspended from track and field on Friday by the sport's world governing body in the wake of sweeping doping allegations against the country's athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and officials."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 13, 2015

Internal links & defunct videos removed.

Afternoon Update:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would leave the state with about 10 abortion clinics, down from more than 40. The court has not heard a major abortion case since 2007, and the new case has the potential to affect millions of women and to revise the constitutional principles governing abortion rights."

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "A Utah judge has put a hold on his order to remove a foster child from the home of a married lesbian couple, whom he had said were unfit to keep the girl because of their sexual orientation.... The original order to remove the child from the home of the Carbon County couple drew an outcry from around the country, with former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton chiming in and even the state's Republican governor declaring himself 'puzzled' and concerned that Johansen was not following the law."

Griff Witte, et al., of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military is 'reasonably certain' that an American drone strike in Syria killed the Islamic State executioner known as 'Jihadi John,' an official said Friday as British and U.S. officials seek to confirm the details of the attack."

License & Registration, Please. Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Beep, beep. A Google driverless car was pulled over in California. The problem? It was going too slow. An officer in Mountain View, Calif., apparently saw traffic backed up behind the little, white vehicle. The car was traveling 24 mph in a stretch where the posted speed limit was 35 mph.... It was unclear whether a ticket was issued."

*****

** Tim Egan: "... let's try to pull some larger meaning from perhaps the most absurd moment of 2015: that professor at one of the nation's top journalism colleges who threatened to use force against a student journalist for doing the things taught in that school.... [This episode] goes to a more troubling trend -- the diminishment of a healthy, professionally trained free press.... The true media elites are in talk radio and right-wing television -- multimillionaire gasbags from Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity. Every day, nearly every hour, they attack reporters, using verbal assaults more consequential than the muscle play by an amped-up academic.... The main reason that Republican politicians sound so crazy of late is because they get their information, and validation, from the twisted world of partisan media outlets."

Paul Krugman: "... what we saw in Tuesday's presidential debate was something relatively new...: an increasingly unified Republican demand for hard-money policies, even in a depressed economy. Ted Cruz demands a return to the gold standard. Jeb Bush says he ... is open to the idea. Marco Rubio wants the Fed to focus solely on price stability, and stop worrying about unemployment. Donald Trump and Ben Carson see a pro-Obama conspiracy behind the Federal Reserve's low-interest rate policy. And let's not forget that Paul Ryan, the new speaker of the House, has spent years berating the Fed for policies that, he insisted, would 'debase' the dollar and lead to high inflation.... This turn wasn't driven by experience. The new Republican monetary orthodoxy has already failed the reality test with flying colors...." CW: Sounds like GlennBeckonomics to me. Invest in gold! Hide it under your mattress! Get a shotgun!

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to a soldier who rushed a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2012 and saved perhaps dozens of American and Afghan lives at a devastating cost to his own. The soldier, Capt. Florent A. Groberg, has spent much of the last three years recovering from 33 surgeries, but he stood at attention in the East Room of the White House as the commander in chief bestowed on him the highest commendation available to members of the American military":

Michael Gordon & Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "Kurdish and Yazidi fighters retook Sinjar on Friday morning, on the second day of a major offensive to retake this city in northern Iraq, which has been under the brutal domination of the Islamic State for more than 15 months." ...

... Michael Gordon & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The United States and its allies have sharply increased their airstrikes against the sprawling oil fields that the Islamic State controls in eastern Syria in an effort to disrupt one of the terrorist group's main sources of revenue, American officials said this week."

Eric Schmitt: "The Pentagon said late Thursday that it had targeted Mohammed Emwazi, a member of the Islamic State often referred to as Jihadi John, in an airstrike near Raqqa, Syria. Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the military was 'assessing the results' of the strike to determine if Mr. Emwazi had been killed. Mr. Emwazi, considered the most prominent British member of the militant group, was shown in videos in late 2014 and early 2015 killing several American and other Western hostages." ...

... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "The ISIS terrorist dubbed 'Jihadi John', who oversaw the brutal executions of American and Western hostages, was hit by a U.S. air strike Thursday night and is believed to have been killed, U.S. officials told ABC News." ...

... BUT. Sewell Chan & Kimoko de Freytas-Tamura of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said on Friday that they did not yet know the outcome of an airstrike the American military launched on Thursday to kill Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State's most notorious executioner."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday called the Islamic State 'the gravest extremist threat faced by our generation and the embodiment of evil in our time,' describing the group as combining 'medieval and modern fascism' and comparing it to the enemies the United States faced in last century's world wars."

Bryan Bender of Politico: "Defense Secretary Ash Carter has fired his top military aide after learning about 'allegations of misconduct,' he said in a statement late Thursday, and has asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate the matter. 'Today I made the decision to remove my Senior Military Assistant Lieutenant General Ron Lewis from his position after learning about allegations of misconduct,' Carter said, without divulging the details of the allegations. Fox News, citing an unnamed defense official, reported the allegations involved an 'improper relationship.'" ...

... MEANWHILE, Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "A Secret Service officer has been charged with soliciting a minor for sex after authorities said he texted an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. Court documents say he admitted to sending some of the texts from his job at the White House. Lee Robert Moore ... faces a federal charge of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor. He surrendered to the Maryland State Police on Monday...."

Gregor Aisch & Josh Keller of the New York Times: "In response to mass shootings in the last few years, more than 20 states, including some of the nation's biggest, have passed new laws restricting how people can buy and carry guns. Yet the effect of those laws has been significantly diluted by a thriving underground market for firearms brought from states with few restrictions. About 50,000 guns are found to be diverted to criminals across state lines every year, federal data shows [sic!], and many more are likely to cross state lines undetected."

Bill Turque of the Washington Post: "About 20 percent of the 829 U.S. firefighter fatalities over the last decade occurred while firefighters were responding to or returning from calls, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association. Traffic accidents cause more firefighter deaths than smoke, flame or building collapses. Only heart attacks from overexertion kill more firefighters in the line of duty.... Risky driving practices, including excessive speed and dangerous passing maneuvers, are contributing factors, experts say."

** "My Brother Kept Us Safe." -- Jeb! Chris Whipple, in Politico Magazine: "By May of 2001, says Cofer Black, then chief of the CIA's counterterrorism center, 'it was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.' 'There were real plots being manifested,' Cofer's former boss, George Tenet, told me.... 'The world felt like it was on the edge of eruption. In this time period of June and July, the threat continues to rise. Terrorists were disappearing [as if in hiding, in preparation for an attack]. Camps were closing. Threat reportings on the rise.. The crisis came to a head on July 10." Read on.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "A Bloomingdale's ad encourages date rape. Also, buy Bloomie's pricey, sexy outfits. ...

... Oh, that reminds me. Here's Neiman's Christmas catalog. For $90,000, you & five friends can travel "to the edge of space" in the capsule tethered to what looks like a super-duper, sleek hot-air balloon. Better hurry; supplies are limited.

Presidential Race

Noah Weiland of Politico: "The second Democratic presidential debate will be Saturday, Nov. 14, live from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.... The debate will last two hours and begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.... The debate will air on CBS and stream for free at www.cbsnews.com/live/. No cable subscription is necessary. CBS will also air the debate on its radio affiliates...."

Brent Budowsky of the Hill: "In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by a landslide margin of 12 percentage points, 53 to 41. In the McClatchy poll, Sanders also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) by a landslide margin of 10 points, 51 to 41."

Stephen Ohlemacher & Hope Yen of the AP: "Hillary Rodham Clinton has locked up public support from half of the Democratic insiders who cast ballots at the party's national convention, giving her a commanding advantage over her rivals for the party's presidential nomination." ...

... Sabrina Saddiqui of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton on Thursday unveiled a $30bn plan to help America's coal communities adjust to a climate agenda increasingly driven by renewable energy sources." ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "Several companies that worked on Hillary Clinton's private server are refusing interview and document requests from congressional investigators, even as they are cooperating with the FBI." CW: Seems mean, doesn't it?

Steve M. finds out from reading the Right Wing News that the reason the Democratic candidates are so old is that all the liberal moms back in the day aborted the 17 other potential candidates.

Worse Than Hillary. We're potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn't fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job. It';s not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president? -- Anonymous Republican strategist

... As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap. Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.... There are similar concerns about Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is gaining steam and is loathed by party elites, but they are more muted, at least for now.... The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines." ...

... Anne Laurie of Balloon Juice gathers some humorous responses to GOP panic story. Possible white knights: Mitt (already suited up), Bob Dole, Warren Harding clone, Reagan zombie. CW: How could they forget Paul Ryan? He's already saved our beloved House of Representatives, he was second-runner up for the veep slot last time around, & he thinks he knows how to force everybody on his team to play nice.* Also, he's very, very smart & a wonk who knows everything there is to know about economic policy. Just ask Krugman. Also, he's very, very buff & can catch fish with his bare hands -- he can invite Putin to a Catfish Summit & solve all our international problems, too, with one deft swoop into the catfish pond. Draft Paul Ryan, Reluctant Hee-ro. ...

     ... * Or Maybe Not. Billy House of Bloomberg: "U.S. House Republican hard-liners who helped force out former Speaker John Boehner are readying their next act: a multi-point manifesto demanding quick action on long-time conservative priorities."

Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "Donald Trump's proposal to use a 'deportation force' to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is unrealistic, President Obama said in an exclusive interview today with ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. 'The notion that we're gonna deport 11, 12 million people from this country -- first of all, I have no idea where Mr. Trump thinks the money's gonna come from. It would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to execute that,' the president told Stephanopoulos.... 'Imagine the images on the screen flashed around the world as we were dragging parents away from their children, and putting them in what, detention centers, and then systematically sending them out,' the president said." With video. ...

To have a leading candidate propose a new federal police force that is going to flush out illegal immigrants across the nation? That's very disturbing and concerning to me about where that leads Republicans. -- Dick Wadhams, former Colorado GOP chairman

... I never said what I said Tuesday & repeated Wednesday. -- Trump, Thursday. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Trump said on Tuesday night. 'Taxes too high, wages too high, we're not going to be able to compete against the world.' But on Fox News' 'Special Report' Thursday he insisted that he never said wages were too high, just that the minimum wage should not increase." CW: As Maggie Haberman of the NYT wrote Wednesday, "Donald J. Trump on Wednesday morning repeated a statement he made the night before in the Republican presidential debate: that wages are 'too high' in the United States, an argument he made to explain his opposition to raising the minimum wage." ...

Ben Carson never did what he said he did. -- Trump, Thursday. Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump unleashed a torrent of insults on Thursday against his main rival, Ben Carson, comparing him to a child molester in a television interview and suggesting that the people of Iowa are 'stupid' if they believe Mr. Carson's claim that he tried to stab a close relative during his childhood." CW: I suppose Trump figures he is the only candidate permitted to lie thru his teeth.

... ** Behold the Meltdown. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "For an hour and 35 minutes, Republican front-runner Donald Trump vented about everything that's wrong with this country and this election. He said he would 'bomb the s---' out of areas controlled by the Islamic State that are rich with oil and claimed to know more about the terrorist group than U.S. military generals. He ranted about how everyone else is wrong on illegal immigration and how even the 'geniuses at Harvard' have now backed his way of thinking. He accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of playing the 'woman's card,' and said Marco Rubio is 'weak like a baby.' He signed a book for an audience member and then threw it off the stage. He forgot to take questions like he promised. And he spent more than 10 minutes angrily attacking his chief rival, Ben Carson, at one point calling him 'pathological, damaged.'" ...

... Kevin Drum: "Can you imagine what Trump would be like if he ever had a genuinely stressful job, like, um, you know?" ...

... Gregory Krieg of CNN: In an interview, "Donald Trump said on Thursday that Marco Rubio favors 'amnesty' for undocumented immigrants because the Florida senator and his parents are Hispanic." ...

... If you think the Donald was crazy-mad yesterday, wait till he hears this. Joanna Rothkopf of Jezebel: "Trump's 169-page Crippled America will debut on the nonfiction list at #5, one whole spot below Carson's A More Perfect Union, according to BuzzFeed News, which goes to show that Americans don't like to be told they are bad or dysfunctional -- they like to be told that they are perfect and will only get perfecter."

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The White House on Thursday pushed back against Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson's claim that China is involved in the conflict in Syria. 'I have not seen any evidence of Chinese military involvement in Syria,' National Security Adviser Susan Rice told reporters when asked about Carson's remarks. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who grinned when ABC News's Jonathan Karl asked the question, later appeared at the lectern and said China generally does not involve itself in Middle Eastern conflicts. 'It's worth stepping back and noting China makes it a practice to not get extended into military conflicts in the Middle East,' he said. 'Their policy over many years and decades has been to not be overextended in military exercises.'" ...

... Oh, Yeah? Caitlin Cruz of TPM: "Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson's business manager and adviser Armstrong Williams attempted to support Carson's bizarre debate claims on Syria during a Wednesday interview with MSNBC by assuring the anchor that the Chinese are, in fact, in Syria.... 'From our own intelligence and what Dr. Carson's been told by people who are on the ground who are involved in that region of the world, it has been told to him may times over and over, that the Chinese are there.' Williams said in the 'next few days' a story may come out to reinforce Carson's claim of a Chinese presence in Syria." CW: Just you wait. ...

... Kevin Drum: "Carson -- or Williams -- really ought to tell us who these experts are that keep briefing the campaign on foreign policy issues. Are these the same guys who told him that seizing the Anbar oil fields in Iraq could be done 'fairly easily' and that ISIS could then be destroyed in short order?"

Marco Rubio points out that Ted Cruz has supported some pro-immigrations legislation. CW: Because Ted is a reasonable man.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post on Ted Cruz's & Rand Paul's tax plans, both of which include a VAT tax (which they call something else, of course).

Everything Is Obama's Fault, Ctd. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Asked about the protests at the University of Missouri and Yale University, where complaints of racism or racial insensitivity have pitted students against administrators..., [Chris Christie] said that President Obama had created an atmosphere of 'lawlessness.'" It must have been very disappoint to Gov. Crisco that he couldn't think of a way to blame Hillary Clinton, too.

Beyond the Beltway

Sarah Larimer & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "A onetime civil rights lawyer and longtime administrator at the University of Missouri's flagship campus will take over the helm of the university system, replacing a president who was forced out amid heated protests over racism and bigotry there. Michael Middleton, a lawyer and who served as deputy chancellor of the University of Missouri at Columbia before retiring this summer, will come back to serve as interim president, the Board of Curators announced Thursday afternoon."

Academic Freedom Is So Wrong. Massoud Hayoun of Al Jazeera: "A University of Missouri doctoral student plans to continue research for her dissertation on the effects of the state's recently imposed 72-hour waiting period for abortions, despite a state legislator's push to block the research, the student told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.... State Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Republican from Columbia, Missouri, who chairs the Missouri state senate's interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life, sent a letter in late October to the University of Missouri calling [the] dissertation 'a marketing aid for Planned Parenthood -- one that is funded, in part or in whole, by taxpayer dollars.'... Schaefer called for the university to hand over documents regarding the project's approval and said that, because the University of Missouri is a public university, it should not fund research that he said would promote elective abortions. Missouri law prohibits the use of public funds to promote non-life-saving abortions." ...

... Zandar, in Balloon Juice: "It's pretty weird how that whole theocratic crushing of ideas thing kicks in for Republican Conservative Champions Of Free Speech whenever the subject turns to a woman's reproductive system.... Republicans have long stated that waiting periods, required counseling, forced ultrasounds, etc. before abortions are to be allowed are good for women.... Somebody finally decided to take that theory, which is a testable theory, and decided to research and test that theory scientifically as part of a doctoral research project at a university.... But instead of even waiting for the findings, Sen. Schaefer is effectively saying that research cannot even be done on this subject because it might support the notion that women may be harmed by all these restrictions."

Adam Chandler of the Atlantic: "On Thursday, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reached a settlement with Steven Salaita, a professor who had a job offer revoked by the school after he tweeted incendiary statements about Israel during the country's war with Hamas in Gaza last summer.... Salaita's job offer is still off the table, but he will receive $600,000, in addition to $275,000 in legal fees."

News Ledes

CNN: "A pair of suicide bombings struck southern Beirut on Thursday, killing 43 people and leaving shattered glass and blood on the streets, Lebanese authorities said. At least 239 others were wounded, according to state-run National News Agency.... Lebanese intelligence believes the bombers could be part of a cell dispatched to Beirut by ISIS leadership, the source said, but investigators are still working to verify the surviving suspect's claim. The three other bombers were killed in the explosions."

New York Times: "Gene Amdahl, a trailblazer in the design of IBM's mainframe computers, which became the central nervous system for businesses large and small throughout the world, died Tuesday night at a nursing home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 92."

New York Times: "Myanmar's election commission said on Friday that the party of the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had won 348 seats in Parliament, giving her democracy movement a majority and the power to select the country's next president."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 12, 2015

Internal links removed.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "While [President] Obama's 2008 election helped usher in a political resurgence for Democrats, the president today presides over a shrinking party whose control of elected offices at the state and local levels has declined precipitously. In January, Republicans will occupy 32 of the nation's governorships, 10 more than they did in 2009. Democratic losses in state legislatures under Mr. Obama rank among the worst in the last 115 years, with 816 Democratic lawmakers losing their jobs and Republican control of legislatures doubling since the president took office -- more seats lost than under any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower."

Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "President Obama focused his Veterans Day remarks on the growing ranks of former troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now searching for new ways to serve their country at home.... At Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, Obama spoke of progress in reducing wait times for veterans and a plummeting unemployment rate among vets. He stressed the country's continuing obligation to do more to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs and help veterans find work":

... Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "A couple dozen servicemen and women marched to the White House this Veterans Day and dumped a large box of empty pill containers, calling on the president and other federal officials to make medical marijuana accessible to veterans."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The White House endorsed legislation Tuesday that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration had been reviewing the bill 'for several weeks.'"

Austin Wright of Politico: "Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain is threatening a court battle if President Barack Obama tries to go around Congress in a last-ditch attempt to achieve his campaign pledge of closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

Jennifer Haberkorn & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Moderate Senate Republicans are voicing new opposition to a conservative-backed plan to defund Planned Parenthood -- a move that could imperil the GOP's long-cherished goal of sending an Obamacare repeal to the president's desk.... If the Planned Parenthood provision is in the final bill -- Senate Republican aides say no final decisions have been made -- a handful of votes from the moderate wing could also break away. They include [Lisa] Murkowski [Alaska], and Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine." ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republicans are divided over how far to go with an ObamaCare repeal bill they plan to send to the president's desk by year's end. Senate GOP leaders have told their members they will repeal as much of the 2010 healthcare reform law as possible, but some Republicans are balking at a proposal to repeal the expansion of Medicaid."

Linda Greenhouse: A "2-to-1 decision in State of Texas v. United States held that the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program would likely be found after a trial to have exceeded the president's authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act.... The majority opinion is as cynical an exercise of judicial authority as I can remember -- and no, I haven't forgotten Bush v. Gore.... Assuming the [Supreme Court] justices agree to hear the case, it will be fascinating to see how they respond to a decision that reads like a judicial version of the old Woody Allen movie 'Sleeper,' in which everything that used to be bad for you is now good, and vice versa."

Spam Is More Disgusting than You Knew. Roberto Ferdman of the Washington Post: "An undercover video taken at one of the nation's largest pork producers shows pigs being dragged across the floor, beaten with paddles, and sick to the point of immobility. By law, pigs are supposed to be rendered unconscious before being killed, but many are shown writhing in apparent pain while bleeding out, suggesting that they weren't properly stunned. 'That one was definitely alive,' a worker says. The video also appears to show pigs with puss-filled abscesses being sent down the line. Others are covered in feces.... The graphic video -- available on YouTube in an edited form -- was covertly filmed by a contracted employee of Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal rights group that claims to have infiltrated an Austin, Minn., facility run by Quality Pork Processors (QPP), a supplier of Hormel Foods, the maker of Spam and other popular processed meats. The group has turned over the 97-minute unedited video to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has raised serious concerns about the conditions at the QPP facility and pledged a thorough investigation." ...

     ... See also Kate M.'s comment in today's thread.

Curtis Skinner of Reuters: "Students were set to walk out of classrooms across the United States on Thursday to protest ballooning student loan debt for higher education and rally for tuition-free public colleges and a minimum wage hike for campus workers. The demonstrations are planned just two days after thousands of fast-food workers took to the streets in a nationwide day of action pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for the industry. Events for Thursday's protests, dubbed the Million Student March, have been planned at colleges and universities from Los Angeles to New York."

Mireya Navarro of the New York Times: "Smoking would be prohibited in public housing homes nationwide under a proposed federal rule to be announced on Thursday, a move that would affect nearly one million households and open the latest front in the long-running campaign to curb unwanted exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. The ban, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, would also require that common areas and administrative offices on public housing property be smoke-free."

Stephen Colbert remembers the Three Wise Snowmen:

Presidential Race

Nick Gass of Politico: "Bernie Sanders snagged a major union endorsement on Thursday, with the American Postal Workers' Union announcing its backing of the Democratic presidential candidate. Sanders' largest union pickup comes as his chief rival, Hillary Clinton, has earned several significant labor endorsements in recent weeks."

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton slammed GOP rival Donald Trump on Wednesday for his latest remarks about illegal immigration. 'The idea of tracking down and deporting 11 million people is absurd, inhumane, and un-American. No, Trump,' Clinton wrote on Twitter." ...

... Most Important Campaign News of the Day: Donald Trump agrees with confederate radio star Mark Levin that Hillary Clinton is wearing a wig. ...

... CW: Maybe thats' fair because "Clinton this summer poked fun at Trump's hair and questions swirling around the brash billionaire's do." ...

... People: "Political blogger Matt Drudge has alleged in a series of tweets to his 321,000 followers that wears a wig -- a claim her hairstylist is calling 'ridiculous.'" ...

... CW: Coming next week: Hillary undergoes chemo, confederates allege.

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "One Clinton story that has often been greeted with skepticism is her claim, first made in 1994, that she once tried to join the Marines in 1975. On the campaign trail [this week], she brought up the story again.... So far, we do not have enough documentary proof to say the incident never happened.... But the circumstances are in question. She pitches it as a matter of public service, but her friends suggest it ... happened in the context of the lack of opportunity for women.... So at this point Clinton's story is worthy of Two Pinocchios, subject to change if more information becomes available." CW: I don't see how it makes much sense to call a candidate half-a-liar when you can't disprove a claim she has made.

From Hillary Clinton's campaign:

... Brett LoGiurato & Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "Fox Business Network moderator Maria Bartiromo was briefly booed by a Republican-friendly debate crowd Tuesday night when she brought up former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ...'impressive résumé.'" CW: Hey, it was a tough, unfair, liberal question. ...

... Frank Rich comments on last night's GOP "debate": "The least substantive candidates were the two leading the polls: Trump and Ben Carson, both of whom are running on sheer ego. Dealing with questions about national security and financial regulation, Carson spoke in generalities and non sequiturs that suggest he has no intention of learning the most rudimentary information he needs to execute the job he seeks. Asked, with kid gloves, to address the controversies attending his own biography, the good doctor said, 'People who know me know that I'm an honest person.' Well, that settles that! Trump also had little to offer beyond braggadocio and his usual self-congratulation on his ability to vanquish any adversary through sheer lung power and his Art of the Deal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gail Collins seems to think the debate would make a lovely topic of conversation around the family Thanksgiving dinner table. ...

... Mister Mix of Balloon Juice: "Trump kicked it off by saying that the princely sum of $31,000, which is the fortune that one lucky enough to pull down 15 US American Dollars per hour would make, is too high. We can't be competitive in the global Happy Meal toys and iPhone assembly race to the bottom if we are paying our workers a barely living wage. Ben Carson agreed: we can't effectively build and stock pyramids with the life-giving sustenance of grain by paying three pictures of Lincoln every backbreaking hour. And repeal Obamacare."

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "This debate is the logical outcome of the blow up after the CNBC debate. CNBC is a generally right leaning network on economic issues. But simply pressing the candidates to answer questions or noting when they're making demonstrably untrue claims made them liberal. So now we have a debate structured around letting candidates say absolutely anything - because scrutinizing candidates is liberal." ...

... Brian Beutler thinks a GOP debate structure where candidates get to make all the false claims they can, without being called out, is a boon for Democrats. "Jeb Bush, an exception to this overall dynamic, tried to bring a modicum of sobriety to the discussion by scolding his unrealistic adversaries. 'They're doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this,' he said. Republicans should have listened to him." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "White working-class voters have been a key building block of the Republican coalition since the rise of the Reagan Democrats 35 years ago. You would think that the party's presidential candidates would want to respond to the heartbreaking crisis these Americans are facing.... The candidates were all about flat or flatter taxes, or levies on consumption, which tend to disadvantage lower-income Americans, who are suffering most in this economy. The GOP hopefuls often sounded as if they were addressing a convention of Mercedes owners." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: As the debate illustrated, many of the candidates' positions are more revolutionary than conservative. ...

... Emily Steel of the New York Times: "More than 13 million people tuned in to Fox Business Network to watch the fourth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, according to Nielsen ratings data provided on Wednesday by the business news network. The viewership was the most ever in the history of the business news network, but less than previous debates in the 2016 presidential race. The highest rated debate so far this campaign season was the first on Fox News in August, which drew 24 million viewers. A subsequent debate on CNN in September drew nearly 23 million viewers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Activist billionaire Charles Koch, who with his brother David has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to advance 'conservative' causes from voter ID laws to for-profit prisons to stand-your-ground gun laws, has no plans to endorse a Republican candidate in the presidential nominating race."

Dana Milbank: Ben Carson sees himself as the Anointed One (CW: a/k/a the Messiah) & so do many evangelicals. ...

... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Ben Carson on Wednesday evening said the stories in his best-selling books that have come under question by the media give a 'general flavor' as to what happened in his life, adding that it would be impossible to recount the exact details of events from decades ago." CW: Yes, the "general flavor" of my autobiography (which won't be an autobiography once I've written it -- see next story) will be that I am absolutely awesome & the hero of every event in my life. You will never have met anyone as terrific as the "flavor" of my story, even if you have met me.

... When Does an Autobiography Cease to Be an Autobiography? When It's Already Been Written. Hunter Walker of Yahoo News: "Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is ready to tell people who ask questions about his history to 'go jump in a lake,' he said[, following Tuesday night's debate.]... Carson elaborated on his rationale for not addressing skepticism about his biography when a reporter asked whether he felt that the moderators had let him 'off the hook' during the debate by not pressing him on the issue. 'From this point on, I get to determine what the hook is. I get to determine whether I'm going to answer what I consider silly questions,' Carson explained.... Yahoo News pointed out that many of the stories that have raised questions came from Carson's own books and speeches.... 'Yeah, but I'm not going to talk about them,' Carson said. '... I'm not going to let people drive this....' Yahoo then asked Carson why he wrote stories about his past that he no longer wants to discuss. 'Because before it was an autobiography, and it's not an autobiography now because it's already been written,' Carson said." Emphasis added.

... CW: By this logic, written autobiographies do not and cannot exist. One can say, "I am writing an autobiography." But it is not possible to say, "I wrote an autobiography," because once "it's already been written," it ceases to be an autobiography. What is the precise moment the autobiography dies? Is it when the author sends it to her publisher? Or when the editor sends it to print? Or at some other point? Ole Doc has waded deep into gibberish, people, and he cannot get out. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "It's an abiding tragedy to me that fundamentalists of every religious faith typically think they are expressing humble obedience to God by lording it over other people. It becomes more sinister when that kind of believer wants secular power over the 'secular' people they despise." ...

... James Bamford in Foreign Policy: "Carson's foreign-policy experts are likely part of his problem. The candidate's most outrageous statements on national security -- including his shocking declaration in September that he believes Muslims are unfit to serve as president -- aren't merely a collection of ill-informed gaffes. They are a reflection of the troubling worldview of the people he has turned to for advice. Chief among them is Robert F. Dees, a retired Army officer who has indulged in anti-Muslim bigotry and advocated for a national security strategy centered on Christian evangelism." ...

... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Ben Carson took a shot at Bernie Sanders in an address to students at the nation's largest Christian college on Wednesday, warning against 'unscrupulous politicians' offering free college that will add to the national debt and hasten 'the destruction of the nation.' Just 12 hours after the fourth Republican presidential debate concluded Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Carson told students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., that a successful democracy depends on 'a well-informed and educated populace.'" Also, too, the Liberty U. kidz wouldn't get free tuition because Bernie would apply it only to public colleges & universities. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Too bad that under Ole Doc's "plan," the "populace" won't be able to afford an education. As for "Unscrupulous Bernie"'s plan, it would not "add to the national debt" & hasten "the destruction of the nation." Bernie would pay for the plan by "imposing a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street." So who's unscrupulous? Maybe your friends know you as Honest Ben Carson (see Frank Rich's comment above), but the rest of us are onto your grift. As for that picture of you & Jesus you have hanging in the front hall -- take a second look. That guy with his hand on your shoulder might just be the devil in a white nightgown. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Operation Wetback," Writ Yuuuuge. Washington Post Editors: Donald "Trump, who has stirred up so much enthusiasm for mass deportations, is now offering what he evidently regards as an exemplary template: the far more modest but still massively cruel round-'em-up-and-throw-'em-out program carried out, mainly in the summer of 1954, under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.... Operation Wetback was a disgraceful episode that involved inhumane treatment of Mexican migrants, an unknown number of whom died or were sickened by being forcibly relocated and in many cases deposited in sweltering, remote locations with little food or water." ...

... Remembering the Good Old Days. Philip Bump of the Washington Post has more on Ike's deportation program, which was a human horror show.

... Even Bill O'Reilly is calling out Trump on his plans to emulate this "humane" deportation. With video. ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump on Wednesday morning repeated a statement he made the night before in the Republican presidential debate: that wages are 'too high' in the United States, an argument he made to explain his opposition to raising the minimum wage." ...

... ** Digby in Salon: "Under questioning from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday's 'Morning Joe,' Trump explained that he would have to create a 'deportation force' to round up all these people, and has said before that it would have to include a number of American citizens, the children of these undocumented workers, because we can't be expected to take care of them. Also, it would be cruel to separate families. Just like Ike, he is so gosh darned nice."

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Marco Rubio has a three-step plan on illegal immigration. Trouble is, it's a three-step plan for Rubio to gain the Republican nomination, not to address illegal immigration." ...

... BUT Marco's plan is not bad enough for Tailgunner Ted. Greg Sargent: "... Cruz has unleashed what may be his most aggressive and sustained assault on Rubio yet, and the topic is indeed immigration." ...

... William Saletan of Slate: Marco Rubio's competitors are paving his way to the nomination. And "The debate's moderators might as well have been on Rubio's payroll.... In the end, it will be a two-man race between Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. And in that personality contest, Rubio can't lose."

Leigh Ann Caldwell & Kasie Hunt of NBC News: "Former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole announced his support of [Jeb Bush]. Announced on Veteran's Day, Dole will also serve as national veterans chairman for the Bush campaign."

Amanda Marcotte in Salon: Rand Paul trolls the GOP's "small government" farce. Apparently, Li'l Randy doesn't know that "'small government' is a code term for 'squash the little guy'..."

Eric Kleefeld of the National Memo: "One subject was conspicuously absent from the Republican debates on Tuesday night: The fact that the previous weekend, three of the candidates had attended a conference in Iowa run by a fringe religious-right minister who was actively advocating the death penalty for gays -- and, oh, saying that if his son married a man, he would show up for the wedding and smear his body in cow manure." Kleefeld goes to relate some of Kevin Swanson's other views. His post is titled, "It Gets Worse."

Beyond the Beltway

Elliot Hannon of Slate: "The University of Missouri on Wednesday announced Director of Greek Life, Janna Basler, one of the staff members involved in forcibly preventing a student journalist from covering Monday's protests on campus, has been place on administrative leave." ...

... Richard Perez-Pena & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Dr. [David] Kurpius[, dean of the University of Missouri's journalism department,] said in a message on Twitter late Tuesday that [Melissa] Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school during a faculty meeting that day. It was unclear whether her status within the department of communication, which is in the College of Arts and Sciences, had changed." See Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. below for links to background stories. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Hassen of the conservative Campus Reform: "Dr. Dale Brigham, considered one of the most beloved professors at the University of Missouri, has resigned after refusing to cancel an exam for students who claimed to feel 'unsafe.'" ...

... Whyever would "those students" feel unsafe? ...

... Yamiche Alcindor & Doug Stanglin of USA Today: "Police arrested two college students in Missouri on Wednesday for making threats to black students that heightened tensions as the state's flagship University of Missouri-Columbia campus has been roiled in recent weeks by racial strife." ...

... Here's the kind of messages we're talking about: 'I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see,'" read one post on the anonymous message app Yik Yak."...

... Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon elaborates, calling out Brigham for "shaming black students." Read her whole post, especially the message instructor Bradley Smith sent to his students.

Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: Judge Scott Johansen, a Utah juvenile judge with a history of weird & harsh decisions. removed an adopted child from the care of a lesbian couple because he believes "the child would be better off with heterosexual parents, he said." He said he did research! That was secret! "'On the one hand, I'm not going to expect my caseworkers to violate a court order,' Brent Platt, director of the Utah's Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), said, 'but on the other hand I'm not going to expect my caseworkers to violate the law.'"

Way Beyond

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: Krzysztof Charamsa, who is a Vatican official, came out as gay in a melodramatic announcement right before Pope Francis's big synod. He is now living in an apartment in Rome with his partner. Gay Roman Catholics are divided on the effects of his stunt. CW: I have no problem with his coming out in a theatrical manner to highlight the Church's perverted view of homosexuality. But Faiola's story gives no indication that Charamsa addresses the issue of celibacy, & Charamsa is not celibate. The Church's problem with sexuality is far bigger than gay sexuality, & its expectations of priests & nuns are unnatural.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "An Ohio man was arrested and charged with trying to solicit the murder of members of the U.S. military in their homes and communities in a series of posts on social media, the FBI announced Thursday. The FBI said Terrence J. McNeil, 25, of Akron, repeatedly professed his support for the Islamic State and in September distributed a file on Tumblr that contained the photographs and names and addresses of dozens of U.S. military personnel."

New York Times: "Vincent Asaro, the reputed mobster charged in connection with the notorious 1978 Lufthansa robbery, walked out of federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday a free man after a jury cleared him of racketeering and other charges. The verdicts, delivered after little more than two days of deliberations, left many in the courtroom stunned, most visibly prosecutors from the United States attorney's office, which had spent years building a case against Mr. Asaro, 80, with testimony from high-ranking Mafia figures and recordings made by an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Reuters: "A man who sought a predawn psychiatric evaluation at a Bronx hospital was taken into custody by police on Thursday in connection with a fatal shooting this week near New York's Penn Station transportation hub, authorities said. Vincent Arcona, 27, who had been identified as a person of interest in Monday's shooting that left one man dead and two others wounded, was being held by police, a New York Police Department spokeswoman said.Arcona was not arrested or charged...."

New York Times: "Kurdish forces aided by thousands of lightly armed Yazidi fighters captured a strategic highway on Thursday in northern Iraq in the early stages of an offensive to reclaim the town of Sinjar from the Islamic State, which seized it last year and murdered, raped and enslaved thousands of Yazidis."

New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands of Greeks walked off their jobs on Thursday to protest austerity economics, as officials of the leftist-led government wrangled with the country's international creditors over the terms of Greece's third bailout. At least one Athens protest turned violent."