The Commentariat -- February 22

** Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "State records also show that Koch Industries, their energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., was one of the biggest contributors to the election campaign of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican who has championed the proposed cuts. Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown...." ...

... Dee Hall of the Madison, Wisconsin State Journal: "The state constitution prohibits lawmakers from being arrested while the Legislature is in session, unless they're accused of serious crimes. That raises questions about whether Wisconsin's runaway senators, on the lam since Thursday, can be forcibly hauled back to the Senate.... Laura Rose, deputy director of the state's Legislative Council, and two private attorneys who have handled cases involving legislative immunity, said the lawmakers are probably protected by a clause in the constitution barring arrest during a legislative session for all but 'treason, felony and breach of the peace.'" ...

... ** Kevin Drum of Mother Jones writes a comprehensive article on "how screwing unions is screwing the entire middle class." CW: it's Econ 101 all on one page.

... A Rasmussen poll found that 48 percent of "likely voters" around the country agreed with Gov. Walker & 38 percent agreed with “the union for teachers and other state employees.” But Nate Silver shows how Rasmussen, a Republican-friendly pollster, skewed the questions to get the answer it wanted. CW: this looks close to push-polling to me. ...

... Patience John, writing in DailyKos, points to a suspicious subsection of Gov. Walker's proposed "austerity"/union-busting bill that would allow Walker to unilaterally

sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or ... contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department [of energy, I presume] determines to be in the best interest of the state.

     ... John asserts that this is the groundwork for Walker's plan to turn state-owned power plants over to the Koch brothers, who were Walker's second-biggest (or biggest if you count the money they funneled to him thru the Republican Governors' Association) donors to Walker's campaign & whose company, Koch Industries, own multiple energy operations in Wisconsin. CW: John goes over the top rhetorically, and is wrong, I think, in her assertion that the union-busting part of the bill is just a cover. Still, the language in Walker's bill is ominous, and it didn't get there by accident. I'd say John is onto something big.

As the events in Cairo, and now Wisconsin, show us, this is a moment of extraordinary possibility. It is a time for global, nonviolent challenge to anti-democratic forces, wherever they may be -- forces that have enriched themselves while promising stability based on coercion, suppression of rights and profound corruption. -- Katrina Vanden Heuvel of The Nation

Julie Mason of Politico: everybody is waiting for President Obama to make a statement about Libya. ...

... Mary Beth Sheridan & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "... American appeals are likely to have little effect on Gaddafi.... Although the United States has been able to leverage its deep ties with Egypt's armed forces, it has no significant military-to-military relationship with Libya. It also has little economic leverage: For the past fiscal year, U.S. aid to Libya has been less than $1 million, and most of that has gone toward helping the country's disarmament program. There is not even a U.S. ambassador at the moment."

Michael Slackman of the New York Times: "The United States military undermined efforts to improve relations with Bahrain’s Shiite majority and understated abuses by the Sunni royal family, according to one present and one former American government adviser and a Bahraini human rights advocate."

Damien Paletta of the Wall Street Journal: the White House, led by the OMB, is doing "due diligence" in preparing for a government shutdown if Congress fails to pass a temporary funding bill by March 4.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: today the Supreme Court will hear a soap opera-like case -- love, betrayal & lots of poison -- that invokes the "Tenther" defense.

Right Wing World

CW: I did not know about this, but it's pretty clever & pretty funny:

     ... Here's more on the backstory from Carlos Santostoy of On Top. ...

     ... AND if you'd like to help ensure that the new definition of "santorum" stays, well, on top, here's the link to Savage's site SpreadingSantorum.com. OR you can just Google "santorum," then click on Savage's site.

Kasie Hunt of Politico: "Haley Barbour said on Monday for the first time that he wouldn’t sign legislation in Mississippi to honor a former Ku Klux Klan leader with a state-issued license plate." This is "a change from when he had earlier declined to take a position against the measure.... Barbour had previously come under fire for refusing to condemn the bill — 'I don't go around denouncing people,' he said — after the Mississippi NAACP called the plate 'absurd' and opposed honoring such a 'racially divisive' figure." CW: this is at least the third time within the last year that Barbour has had to walk back his pro-racism remarks. Can we now just state as fact? -- Haley Barbour is a racist.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock will launch his primary challenge to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) on Tuesday with the support of a majority of both the state's 92 Republican county chairmen and its state party executive committee.... 'I feel bad that he's going to be humiliated by this list,' Murdock said." CW: yeah, I'll bet. Cillizza notes "That such a large contingent of the party establishment should come out against or withhold support from an incumbent senator is highly unusual...."

News Ledes

This is Gaddafi's address in which he supposedly proves he has not fled Libya. It's the damnest "speech" I've ever seen & should hasten his departure if he hasn't already departed. He claims he is standing in front of his palace:

Da Mayor. AP: "Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago on Tuesday, easily overwhelming five rivals to take the helm of the nation's third-largest city as it prepares to chart a new course without the retiring Richard M. Daley. With 89 percent of the precincts reporting, Emanuel was trouncing five opponents with 55 percent of the vote — a margin that allowed him to avoid an April runoff. He needed more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright." Chicago Tribune story here. The Trib's election results summary is here.

AP: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warns that state employees could start receiving layoff notices as early as next week if a bill eliminating collective bargaining rights isn't passed soon." ...

... Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker will address Wisconsin residents at 6 p.m.[7 pm ET]  Tuesday.... Walker is taking the action on the same day the Assembly is expected to debate his budget-repair bill."

AP: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says failing to pass a bill stripping union rights for Wisconsin public workers would have 'dire consequences.' Walker said in a speech broadcast live statewide Tuesday evening that if lawmakers don't pass the bill up to 1,500 state workers could be laid off by July with another 6,000 forced out of work over the next two years."

... Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch: "The State Highway Patrol limited access to the Statehouse today as thousands of protesters stood outside in the cold, many angry they could not get inside to register their opposition to a bill that would eliminate collective bargaining for state employees." ...

     ... Cleveland Plain Dealer Update: "Moments before a hearing on Senate Bill 5 was scheduled to start at 4 p.m., the Statehouse doors were opened to thousands of protesting union workers who had waited outside all afternoon. A short time earlier, Democratic legislative leaders said they were prepared to head to Franklin County Common Pleas Court to get an order opening the doors."

Washington Post: "Democratic state legislators in Indiana have fled the statehouse in an effort to stall anti-union legislation being pushed by Republicans, and they are saying they won't come back until the offending provisions are taken off the table...."

AP: "Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Tuesday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years."

New York Times: "Trying to calm turbulent oil markets, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said on Tuesday that the OPEC cartel was ready to pump more oil to compensate for any dropoff caused by unrest in the Middle East."

New York Times: "More than 100,000 demonstrators packed the central Pearl Square [in Manama, Bahrain] on Tuesday in what organizers called the largest pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Gulf nation has ever seen, as the monarchy struggled to hold onto its monopoly on power."

Al Jazeera: "Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are waging a bloody operation to keep him in power, with residents reporting gunfire in parts of the capital Tripoli and other cities, while other citizens, including the country's former ambassador to India, are saying that warplanes were used to 'bomb' protesters. Nearly 300 people are reported to have been killed in continuing violence in the capital and across the North African country as demonstrations enter their second week."

AP: "One of New Zealand's biggest cities lay in ruins Tuesday after a powerful earthquake toppled tall buildings and churches on a busy weekday, killing at least 65 people in the country's worst natural disaster in decades." ...

... New Zealand Herald: "At least 100 people remain trapped in the ruins of Christchurch tonight following a devastating earthquake which claimed at least 65 lives."

Washington Post: "Egypt's top prosecutor on Monday asked the Foreign Ministry to seek help from foreign governments to seize ousted president Hosni Mubarak's assets, Egyptian state media reported."

This video has little to do with politics & nothing to do with Presidents' Day, but it's so enjoyable, I'm sharing it anyway. If you love language, you'll love linguist Steven Pinker's, well, animated lecture on veiled language:

... AND, since we're fooling around with language today, here's Irish novelist & short-fiction writer Anne Enright reading John Cheever's "The Swimmer." Enright also talks with New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman about the Cheever story:

... Here's the trailer for the 1968 film "The Swimmer":

... And here's Cheever himself in an Alfred Hitchcock-style cameo in the film (this clip is dubbed in Italian):

Okay, here's something about language and Presidents' Day. Clyde Haberman of the New York Times: "The apostrophe is accustomed to abuse, since long before there was a holiday called Presidents’ Day or President’s Day or Presidents Day."

The Commentariat -- February 21

New York Times map.The New York Times has a brief rundown of unrest around the Middle East (& China) with links to related stories here. ...

... Walter Pincus of the Washington Post highlights WikiLeaks cables that demonstrate the close relationship between the U.S. & Bahrain, especially with ties to Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.

... Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "For Morocco, a kingdom on the western edge of North Africa, the calls for change sweeping the region are muted by a fear of chaos, a prevalent security apparatus and genuine respect for the king, Mohammed VI. Since he took the throne in 1999, the king, who is only 47, has done much to soften the harsh and often brutal rule of his father, Hassan II."

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "The Obama Administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders...."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Across the nation, cities and states are trying myriad ways of righting their fiscal ships as the recession plods on. But locking the mayor out of City Hall is generally not one of them." A state-appointed receiver took control of Central Falls, Rhode Island last July. State police went to Mayor Charles D. Moreau's home, " demanded his city-owned car and cellphone and keys to City Hall and handed him a letter announcing his salary of $71,736 was being cut to $26,000. His role was now advisory," they told him.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has recalculated the cost estimate of HR-2, the bill the House passed to repeal the Affordable Care Law:

CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 2 would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $210 billion over the 2012-2021 period. By comparison, last March CBO and JCT estimated that enacting PPACA and the health-related provisions of the Reconciliation Act would reduce federal deficits by $124 billion over the 2010-2019 period.... Under H.R. 2, about 33 million fewer nonelderly people would have health insurance in 2021....

     ... CW: please, somebody, tell that to so-called fiscally-conservative Republican Teabaggers.

If they come into the house of labor and try to burn it down, we've got to come in and put the fire out. If it does fall, we'll help rebuild it.
-- Mahlon Mitchell, President of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. His union is exempt from the union-busting bill, but he stands with the protesters

Adam Nagourney & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "... in the view of officials from both major political parties, Republicans may be risking the same kind of electoral backlash Democrats suffered after they were perceived as overreaching. Public surveys suggest that most voters do not share the Republicans’ fervor for the deep cuts adopted by the House, or for drastically slashing the power of public-sector unions. And independent voters have historically been averse to displays of political partisanship that have been played out over the last week." ...

BUT E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post observes, "... Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue." ...

... Only a body dominated by millionaires could define 'shared sacrifice' as telling nurses' aides and coal miners they have to work until age 69 while sharply cutting tax rates on wealthy people. -- E. J. Dionne, on the bipartisan Senate effort to resurrect the Catfood Commission

Map by Talking Points Memo.... Krugman commenter Jeremy (#3) of Chicago reports on the ranking of ACT/SAT scores for the five states where collective bargaining is illegal: "South Carolina, 50th; North Carolina, 49th; Georgia, 48th; Texas, 47th; Virginia, 44th. Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is 2nd." CW: if you think that's a coincidence, you're a candidate for a dunce cap.

E. S. Browning of the Wall Street Journal: "The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement.... Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings.... The financial crisis has made things worse."

If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation. -- President Barack Obama, on the deficit. His own family is not "trying to cut back":

Michelle & Sasha Obama in Vail, Colorado, this weekend. Vail Daily photo.Vail, Colorado, where the Obama family is staying in the Sebastian Hotel. Rooms, according to the Daily Mail, cost up to $2,400 a night.

Right Wing World

Sean Cockerham & Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News: "A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned. The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday. The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying 'I hate this damn job' shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term."

Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: as white people in Montgomery, Alabama commemorate the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy, some passing fifth-graders describe the celebratory parade as "messed up." CW: the kids got that right.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been in power for more than 20 years and faces international charges of genocide, will not run for office again after his current term ends in four years, a Sudanese government spokesman said Monday."

... Al Jazeera: "Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on state television to signal his defiance in the face of a mounting revolt against his 41-year rule." ...

... Washington Post: "Senior Libyan officials and diplomats resigned in outrage over the attacks against civilians, while soldiers fled their units and joined the opposition. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, accused Gaddafi of killing his own people and urged the international community to act against the regime." ...

... ** New York Times: "Members of Libya’s mission to the United Nations renounced Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Monday, calling him a genocidal war criminal responsible for mass shootings of demonstrators protesting against his four decades in power. They called upon him to resign." ...

... AP: "Deep cracks opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protest in the capital of Tripoli. World leaders were outraged at the 'vicious forms of repression' used against the demonstrators." ...

... New York Times: "The faltering government of the Libyan strongman Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi struck back at mounting protests against his 40-year rule, as security forces and militiamen backed by helicopters and warplanes besieged parts of the capital Monday... By Monday night, witnesses said, the streets of the capital, Tripoli, were thick with special forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi as well as mercenaries. They shot freely as planes dropped what witnesses described as 'small bombs' and helicopters fired on protesters." ...

... Washington Post: "... the Libyan government's grip on Benghazi, the second-largest city, appeared to be slipping. Security forces there opened fire on mourners attending funeral marches for 84 protesters killed the day before, their harshest response yet to the recent round of demonstrations. They also swiftly clamped down on smaller uprisings that spread to the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli, where protesters seized military bases and weapons.... Protests also broke out Sunday in Morocco and Tunisia..., while authorities in Iran and Bahrain continued to confront calls for reform." ...

     ... AP Update: "Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Moammar Gadhafi's son vowed that his father and security forces would fight 'until the last bullet.'" ...

     ... Human Rights Watch: "The estimated death toll from four days of protests in cities across Libya has risen to at least 233 according to information from hospital sources in Libya...."

... New York Times: "President Ali Abdullah Saleh, looking shaken at a news conference here on Monday, said he would not give in to the demands of protesters who have sought his ouster during 10 days of sustained demonstrations around Yemen." ...

... Guardian: British Prime Minister "David Cameron has flown into Cairo amid tight security, becoming the first world leader to visit Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president in the revolution 10 days ago." ...

... AP: "Some of the young activists who launched the Egyptian uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak say they are skeptical about the military's pledges to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

... New York Times: "The head of a Tunisian government commission on political reform warned on Monday that the country risked falling into 'anarchy' as it passed through what he described as a very dangerous post-revolutionary transition toward multi-party democracy." ...

... Washington Post: "Thousands of Iranian security forces dispersed anti-government demonstrators who tried to gather Sunday in Tehran's main squares to commemorate the deaths of two men killed during a protest Monday, witnesses reported." ...

AP: Hopes for compromise in Wisconsin rest with Republican state legislators, as Gov. Scott Walker refuses to budge from his anti-labor position. ...

... Wall Street Journal: "... a group of moderate Republican senators [may try to] negotiate a compromise to the stalemate" in Wisconsin. A "proposal, written by [Republican] Sen. Dale Schultz ... calls for most collective bargaining rights of public employee unions to be eliminated – per Mr. Walker's bill – but then reinstated in 2013...." ...

... Huffington Post: Wisconsin's Democratic state senators "are ready to stick it out in Rockford, Ill. until Walker agrees to negotiate. 'We'll be here until Gov. Walker decides that he wants to talk,' said state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D).... He added that so far, the governor refuses to meet with them or even return the phone calls from members of the Democratic caucus." ...

... Here's the Madison, Wisconsin State Journal story on the protests. ...

     ...AP Update: "Walker said at a news conference ... on Monday afternoon that he won't accept any compromises."

Guardian: Raymond Davis, "the American who shot dead two men in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and the US, is a CIA agent who was on assignment at the time.... Pakistani authorities charged him with murder, but the Obama administration has insisted he is an 'administrative and technical official' attached to its Lahore consulate and has diplomatic immunity." ...

     ... The New York Times picked up the story today, with this caveat: "The New York Times had agreed to temporarily withhold information about Mr. Davis’s ties to the agency at the request of the Obama administration, which argued that disclosure of his specific job would put his life at risk."

New York Daily News: "More than half the members of the Texas House are listed as co-authors of a bill that would allow concealed weapons on the campuses of state universities there in a bid to protect students from mass shootings...."