The Commentariat -- Dec. 22, 2013

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "For most Americans, Monday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance that takes effect on Jan. 1. It was supposed to be a turning point in the troubled history of the new health care law, the moment when the spotlight would shift from the federal government's online marketplace to the insurance companies providing coverage to hundreds of thousands and eventually millions of people. But as the date approaches, a series of decisions by the Obama administration to delay some of the law's most important provisions and to extend some deadlines has caused uncertainty among insurers and confusion among consumers." ...

... CW: Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly explains why I didn't bother to read past the blurb, much less link Friday's New York Times front-page story: "I see the New York Times has published yet another article about very privileged people whining about the ACA. In this case, said article features a couple making $100,000 a year who, under the ACA, will be paying $1,000 a month for health care covering themselves and their two sons." ...

... Atrios: "The NYT's perpetual pity party for its affluent readership is genuinely annoying." ...

... CW: In fairness to the Times whiners, it is tougher for a Manhattan couple earning $100K to drop $1I/month on health insurance than it is for a couple in, say, Fort Myers, Florida, where the cost-of-living is lower. ...

... Science Daily: "Using simulated exchanges modeled on the design of the actual exchanges, alarming new research from Columbia Business School suggests that more than 80% of consumers may be unable to make a clear-eyed estimate of their needs and will unknowingly choose a higher cost plan than needed." Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

... Brent Hunsberger of the Oregonian: "Oregon's troubled health insurance exchange began robocalling applicants Friday, warning them that if they don't receive enrollment confirmation by Monday, they should seek coverage elsewhere for Jan. 1.... It's yet another sign that the health insurance exchange's technological breakdowns will prevent some -- perhaps many -- Oregonians from getting subsidized coverage Jan. 1, despite Gov. John Kitzhaber's previous assurances otherwise."

Mark Mazzetti & Robert Worth of the New York Times: A "Dec. 12 [Pentagon drone] strike [on a convoy of trucks carrying a wedding party in Yemen]..., launched from an American base in Djibouti, killed at least a half-dozen innocent people, according to a number of tribal leaders and witnesses, and provoked a storm of outrage in the country. It also illuminated the reality behind the talk surrounding the Obama administration's new drone policy....The murky details surrounding the strike raise questions about how rigorously American officials are applying the standards for lethal strikes that Mr. Obama laid out in a speech on May 23...."

Dana Priest of the Washington Post: "The 50-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once considered the best-funded insurgency in the world, is at its smallest and most vulnerable state in decades, due in part to a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according to interviews with more than 30 former and current U.S. and Colombian officials. The secret assistance, which also includes substantial eavesdropping help from the National Security Agency, is funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget. It is not a part of the public $9 billion package of mostly U.S. military aid called Plan Colombia, which began in 2000."

** Marc Fisher & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "This year, in the months since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret documents detailing U.S. surveillance programs, it has become clear that there are not yet widely accepted norms about who may watch whom and when and where tracking is justified. The Post's poll found that Americans' attitudes about surveillance are anything but consistent, whether the sample is the entire nation or a single, conflicted person." ...

... Charlie Savage & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Obama administration moved late Friday to prevent a federal judge in California from ruling on the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance programs authorized during the Bush administration, telling a court that recent disclosures about National Security Agency spying were not enough to undermine its claim that litigating the case would jeopardize state secrets." ...

... AP: "The director of national intelligence is declassifying more documents that show how the National Security Agency was first authorised to start collecting bulk phone and internet records in the hunt for al-Qaida terrorists. James Clapper explained in a statement Saturday that President George W Bush first authorised the spying as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, just after 9/11. Bush's presidential authorisation eventually was replaced by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- a law that requires a secret court to OK the spying." The agency's statement is here. ...

... David Cole in the New York Review of Books: "Judge Leon's decision ... shows the inadequacy of the secret, one-sided review that has until now been the NSA program's only oversight. From 2006 to 2013, fifteen different judges on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reviewed the program and every one of them deemed it lawful. But they did so in proceedings closed to the public, and in which they heard from no one representing the hundreds of millions of Americans whose privacy is at stake." ...

... Margaret Atwood is afraid of real spies invading virtual reality. Or so she says. Can you be sure that a fiction writer isn't writing fiction just because she implies she isn't? Verisimilitude is her stock in trade, after all. Thanks to contributor Whyte O. for the link.

Ari Rabinowitch of Reuters: "Israeli officials said on Saturday they were not surprised by allegations the United States and Britain had spied on the country's leaders and played down the importance of any information its allies may have gleaned. Leaked documents from former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden published on Friday showed the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ had in 2009 targeted an email address listed as belonging to the Israeli prime minister and monitored emails of senior defense officials." ...

... Dan Williams of Reuters (analysis): "By ramping up his demands of any final nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to stem the tide of international diplomacy which has turned against him in recent weeks. Netanyahu was stung by an interim agreement last month for Tehran to curb its nuclear program in return for a limited easing of sanctions, calling it a historic mistake. His reaction has been to call for the dismantling of Iran's nuclear projects, as opposed to their containment, and a halt to its development of ballistic missiles, an issue not addressed in the interim accord signed in Geneva on November 24."

Jed Rakoff in the New York Review of Books: "... the Department of Justice has never taken the position that all the top executives involved in the events leading up to the financial crisis were innocent; rather it has offered one or another excuse for not criminally prosecuting them -- excuses that, on inspection, appear unconvincing.... The government was deeply involved, from beginning to end, in helping create the conditions that could lead to such fraud, and that this would give a prudent prosecutor pause in deciding whether to indict a CEO who might, with some justice, claim that he was only doing what he fairly believed the government wanted him to do." CW: a measured, methodical analysis of the failure to prosecute top financial executives for their actions that caused the 2008 financial crisis.

** Michael Luo & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "A systematic review ... [by the Times] underscores how easy it is for people with serious mental health problems to have guns. Over the past year in Connecticut..., there were more than 180 instances of gun confiscations from people who appeared to pose a risk of 'imminent personal injury to self or others.' Close to 40 percent of these cases involved serious mental illness. Perhaps most striking, in many of the cases examined across the country, the authorities said they had no choice under the law but to return the guns after an initial seizure for safekeeping."

Humor Break. CW: I can't embed the Humor Break which contributor Barbarossa linked yesterday. Mark Fiore, who created the video, blogs here. In the linked post, he elaborates on the elements that went into the video.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "The Rev. Frank Schaefer, a Methodist minister, was stripped of his clerical credentials on Thursday for violating church law by presiding at his son's same-sex wedding. The punishment, imposed by the United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania, was requested by the church prosecutor to deter other ministers from blessing same-sex marriages. But far from intimidating others, the trial and defrocking of Mr. Schaefer have galvanized a wave of Methodist ministers to step forward to disobey church prohibitions against marrying and ordaining openly gay people." Via Steve Benen.

Local News

Heidi Brandes of Reuters: "Oklahoma has put a halt to new monuments at its Capitol after groups petitioned to have markers for Satan, a monkey god and a spaghetti monster erected near a large stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission voted on Thursday to ban new monuments on statehouse grounds until a court battle is settled with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is seeking the removal of the Ten Commandments...." Also via Benen. ...

... Lisa Garza of Reuters: "A panel of experts has rejected concerns by religious conservatives in Texas that a high school biology textbook contained factual errors about evolution and a state board approved the book on Wednesday for use in public schools." Via Benen.

Matthew Hendley of the Phoenix New Times: "The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors this afternoon voted unanimously to approve a $3.75 million settlement for New Times' co-founders, whose false arrests in 2007 were orchestrated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and jailed on misdemeanor charges alleging that they violated the secrecy of a grand jury -- which turned out never to have been convened."

Mitch Sneed of the Douglas County (Georgia) Sentinel: Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller says his office will no longer provide support for A&E projects in the wake of the cable network's suspension of the "Duck Dynasty" patriarch. "A&E has produced more than a half dozen programs with the assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office."

Tom Precious of the Buffalo (New York) News: "Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak is being accused of sexually harassing three now-former legislative staffers, according to court papers filed Thursday. Gabryszak, D-Cheektowaga, is the subject of three separate complaints by former aides, all in their 20s, who accuse him of making repeated sexually charged comments and suggestions to female staffers and, in the case of one, bringing her to a massage parlor in her first two weeks on the job." ...

... The complaint is here. Jordan Sargent of Gawker recaps of the worst stuff.

News Ledes

New York Times: "After an attack on three United States aircraft attempting to evacuate American citizens from South Sudan, President Obama sent a letter Sunday to top congressional leaders in which he said he might take 'further action' to support United States citizens and interests in the contested region."

New York Times: " After a decade of incarceration that transformed Russia's wealthiest man into its most famous political prisoner, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky faced journalists in Berlin on Sunday following a head-spinning 36-hour journey to freedom."

AP: "Apple says it has reached a deal to bring the iPhone to China Mobile, the world's biggest phone carrier."

New York Times: " The police in Bangladesh charged the owners of a garment factory and 11 of their employees with culpable homicide in the deaths of 112 workers in a fire last year that came to symbolize the appalling working conditions in the country's dominant textile industry."

AFP: "Swiss banks are scrambling ahead of a December 31 deadline to decide whether to join a US programme aimed at zooming in on lenders that helped Americans dodge taxes. Around 40 of Switzerland's some 300 banks have already said publicly they will take part in a US programme set up to allow Swiss financial institutions to avoid US prosecution in exchange for coming clean and possibly paying steep fines."

AP: "The United Nations Mission in South Sudan says it is relocating all non-critical staff from the capital, Juba, to Uganda amid escalating violence as the country's military battles rebel forces."

AP: " A suburban Denver high school student who was shot in the head by a classmate died Saturday afternoon, hospital officials and her family said. Claire Davis, 17, was in critical condition after being shot at point-blank range at Arapahoe High School on Dec. 13."

AP: "A storm system swept across the central and southern U.S. on Saturday, bringing tornadoes and wind gusts that ripped roofs from barns and hurled trees into power lines, officials said. At least two people were killed."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 21, 2013

Justin Greiser of the Washington Post: Today "is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, marking our shortest daylight period and longest night of the year. At 12:11 p.m. EST on December 21, the sun appears directly overhead along the Tropic of Capricorn, at 23.5 degrees south latitude. With the Earth's north pole at its maximum tilt from the sun, locations north of the equator see the sun follow its lowest and shortest arc across the southern sky."

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama highlights the bipartisan budget agreement that unwinds some of the cuts that were damaging to the economy and keeps investments in areas that help us grow, and urges both parties to work together to extend emergency unemployment insurance and act on new measures to create jobs and strengthen the middle class":

Philip Rucker & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Friday that he would review the National Security Agency's far-reaching surveillance programs over the holiday break and would make a 'pretty definitive statement' in January about possible reforms.... He signaled that he may end the NSA's collection and storage of millions of Americans' phone records and instead require phone companies to hold the data. More broadly, Obama indicated that his views on the viability of the NSA's surveillance programs have changed significantly since they were publicly revealed in June." CW: The President's remarks lend weight to POV conveyed in the WashPo piece I questioned yesterday.

Here's the full transcript of the President's remarks. ...

... Abby Phillip of ABC News: "President Obama acknowledged that his administration 'screwed it up' on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act in an end-of-year news conference at the White House today but, eager to pivot to 2014, suggested that the new year should be a 'year of action' on his economic priorities.... He announced that more than 1 million people had signed up for health insurance through federal and state marketplaces." ...

... AP: "The Obama administration says nearly 3.9 million people have qualified for coverage through the health care law's Medicaid expansion. The numbers released Friday cover the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 and underscore a pattern of Medicaid outpacing the law's expansion of private insurance. Through the same time period, about 365,000 people had signed up for subsidized private insurance through new federal and state markets." ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "After the Obama administration announced Thursday that it would exempt Americans whose health plans had been canceled from Obamacare's individual mandate, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said Friday morning that the mandate should be delayed for everybody for one year." ...

... Dylan Scott: "... some of the law's most ardent supporters acknowledge that the administration seems to have cracked open a door that could be difficult to close. 'I think by itself this is a not a huge problem. This group should be relatively small,' Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped craft Obamacare, told TPM. 'But I think that the administration has to hold the line here. More widespread cracks in the mandate could start to cause enormous problems for insurers.'"

James Ball & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "British and American intelligence agencies had a comprehensive list of surveillance targets that included the EU's competition commissioner, German government buildings in Berlin and overseas, and the heads of institutions that provide humanitarian and financial help to Africa, top-secret documents [provided by Edward Snowden] reveal. The papers show GCHQ, in collaboration with America's National Security Agency (NSA), was targeting organisations such as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity Unicef and Médecins du Monde, a French organisation that provides doctors and medical volunteers to conflict zones. The head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) also appears in the documents, along with text messages he sent to colleagues." ...

... Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "Documents from the archive of whistleblower and former NSA worker Edward Snowden show that Britain's GCHQ signals intelligence agency has targeted European, German and Israeli politicians for surveillance." ...

... The New York Times story, by James Glanz & Andrew Lehren is here.

Paul Kane & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In a series of largely party-line votes, the Senate approved the confirmations of a deputy to the Department of Homeland Security, a lower-level federal judge and a commissioner to the Internal Revenue Service, while setting up a final vote early next month for the confirmation of Janet Yellen to become chairman of the Federal Reserve."

Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Proponents of Senate legislation that threatens Iran with tough new sanctions if nuclear negotiators fail to reach a comprehensive agreement contend it will pressure the Iranians to honor the pledges they made.... But a number of American and Iranian political analysts say the legislation could have the opposite effect by undermining President Hassan Rouhani.... The Obama administration's condemnation of the legislation, introduced Thursday, was partly aimed at assuring Mr. Rouhani that it has little prospect of advancing."

In case you missed the disgusting stuff Phil Robertson of "Duck Nasty" said in his GQ interview, Taylor Berman has the rundown in Gawker. ...

... ** Ta-Nehisi Coates on "Phil Robertson's America." CW: Ignorant bigots like Phil Robertson are useful only in that they engender responses like Coates.' ...

... Paul Waldman on "the conservatives now rallying to Robertson's cause.... And my conservative friends, the next time you're wondering why gay people, black people, and pretty much anybody who is a minority of any kind all consider you intolerant? It isn't liberals unfairly maligning you. It's this kind of thing." CW: Sorry, Paul, I don't think they're paying attention:

Phil Robertson, star of the A&E series 'Duck Dynasty,' is the 'Rosa Parks' of our generation. In December 1955, Rosa Parks took a stand against an unjust societal persecution of black people, and in December 2013, Robertson took a stand against persecution of Christians. -- Ian Bayne, a Republican candidate for Illinois's 11th Congressional District, in a fundraising letter

Local News

Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune: "A federal judge in Utah Friday struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process. Ryan Bruckman, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, said its attorneys plan to appeal the decision and were currently drafting a motion to seek a stay of the ruling "as quickly as we can get it taken care of."

Brian Maffly of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Oil shale production can now move forward in Utah. Regulators on Friday issued a groundwater permit to Red Leaf Resources, a Utah company planning to develop a shale mine and below-grade ovens to heat ore mined from state land in the Uinta Basin.... The permit issued by the Utah Division of Water Quality is the last big hurdle for North America's first commercial oil shale mine. Red Leaf said it expects mining operations to begin in the spring."

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Former governor's mansion chef Todd Schneider, who provided authorities with the first tip about Virginia Gov. & Mrs. Bob McDonnell's acceptance of unreported gifts, disses on the McDonnells. The lovely Maureen is a screamer, sez he.

Senate Race or Something

"I Never Did Say Poor Kids." Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) on Friday told CNN's 'New Day' that he should have clarified his comments suggesting schools that subsidize students' meals make those students work for a free lunch.... The congressman told CNN that his comments weren't a 'policy statement,' and complained about a lack of open discussion on the matter. 'This is not targeted to any one group,' Kingston said. 'It would be very helpful for kids in any socio-economic group to do chores and learn the work ethic. Those kids aren't there because of any fault of their own and I never suggested that they were.' ... 'I never did say poor kids,' he added." CW: Ole Jack doesn't seem to know that rich & upper-middle-class kids don't get federally subsidized meals (children who receive free meals must live in families that receive no more than 130 percent of the poverty level). But, hey, when you've dug a hole for yourself, you might as well did it deeper.

News Ledes

New York Times: "United States aircraft flying into a heavily contested region of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens were attacked on Saturday and forced to turn back without completing the mission, American officials said. Four service members were wounded, one seriously. South Sudan officials said the attack had been carried out by rebel forces. President Obama had sent 45 American servicemen to South Sudan to 'support the security of U.S. personnel and our embassy,' he said on Thursday."

AP: "Astronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line. The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve -- well ahead of schedule."

Guardian: "Egypt has announced that 130 people who escaped from jail during the uprising against the former president Hosni Mubarak -- including former president Mohamed Morsi -- will face trial. These are the third set of charges brought against Morsi since he was removed by the army in July and they intensify the relentless repression of his Muslim Brotherhood group in the months that followed."

AP: "President Barack Obama is starting his annual winter vacation in Hawaii on a quiet note.... The president and his wife, daughters and two dogs arrived late Friday and headed to a beachside home in the sleepy Honolulu suburb of Kailua. Obama got a late start Saturday, and by early afternoon was golfing with friends. The Obamas vacation every year in Hawaii, where Obama was born. This is the first year that last-minute wrangling in Congress didn't prevent them from departing on schedule."

Las Vegas Sun: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was released from the hospital [Friday] after being diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion and not anything more serious...."

Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday gave President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin [John Hinckley, Jr.] modestly more freedom, allowing the 58-year-old who has lived and received mental health treatment for more than three decades at St. Elizabeths Hospital to spend 17 days a month visiting his mother's home town of Williamsburg, Va."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 20, 2013

Carrie Dann of NBC News: "President Barack Obama will hold his final press conference of 2013 on Friday, capping a year dominated by sagging approval ratings and controversies over his signature health care law and his administration's domestic surveillance programs."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Millions of people facing the cancellation of health insurance policies will be allowed to buy catastrophic coverage and will be exempt from penalties if they go without insurance next year, the White House said Thursday night. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, disclosed the sudden policy shift in a letter to Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, and five other senators." ...

... Ezra Klein looks at the implications of this move. His assessment is fairly dire.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Obama, expanding his push to curtail severe penalties for drug offenses, on Thursday commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who were convicted of crack cocaine offenses. Each inmate has been imprisoned for at least 15 years, and six were sentenced to life in prison. It was the first time retroactive relief was provided to a group of inmates who most likely would have received significantly shorter terms if they had been sentenced under current drug laws, sentencing rules and charging policies." ...

... President Obama's statement is here.

Richard Clarke, Michael Morell, Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein & Peter Swire in a New York Times op-ed: "The five of us came from diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.... Our recommendations, as members of the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, appointed in August, are designed to strengthen the protection of privacy and civil liberties without compromising the central mission of the intelligence community." ...

... David Sanger of the New York Times: "If President Obama adopts the most far-reaching recommendations of the advisory group he set up to rein in the National Security Agency, much would change underneath the giant antennas that sprout over Fort Meade, Md., where America's electronic spies and cyberwarriors have operated with an unprecedented amount of freedom since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.... While few in the White House want to admit as much in public, none of this would have happened without the revelations by Edward J. Snowden.... While Mr. Obama has said he welcomes the debate about the proper limits on the N.S.A., it is not one he engaged in publicly until the Snowden revelations began." ...

... Greg Miller & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "From the moment the government's massive database of citizens' call records was exposed this year, U.S. officials have clung to two main lines of defense: The secret surveillance program was constitutional and critical to keeping the nation safe. But six months into the controversy triggered by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the viability of those claims is no longer clear. In a three-day span, those rationales were upended by a federal judge who declared that the program was probably unconstitutional and the release of a report by a White House panel utterly unconvinced that stockpiling such data had played any meaningful role in preventing terrorist attacks." ...

     ... CW: In keeping with what I think will be a continuing discussion on journo-crit, I should point out that this article, presented as a straight news piece, is geared more toward analysis & opinion than a straight report. Keep in mind, too, that the WashPo has a lot of skin in the Ed Snowden game -- the Post has published, arguably, the most pertinent relevations about NSA snooping. I think Miller & Nakashima's analysis is more-or-less valid; at worst, it's worthy of consideration, even if they may give more weight than is due to factors they claim have "upended" spying rationales. ...

... Gene Robinson: "... the eminences appointed by President Obama to review the out-of-control National Security Agency (NSA) have produced a surprisingly tough report filled with good recommendations -- steps that a president who speaks so eloquently of civil liberties should have taken long ago. But before even releasing the 308-page report by his Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, Obama rejected one of the proposed reforms: ending the practice of having one person head both the NSA and the Pentagon's Cyber Command." ...

... Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post: "Verizon said Thursday it will publish reports beginning early next year on the number of government requests it receives for customer data, setting a significant precedent for the telecommunications industry, which has kept that information private. Verizon, the nation's biggest wireless provider, has been under immense pressure from shareholders and privacy groups after revelations that the National Security Agency obtained mountains of private information from the company and other telecom firms, including AT&T. Those disclosures, in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have damaged the reputation of U.S. communications companies around the world." ...

... Terri Rupar in the Washington Post: "In his annual marathon news conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for President Obama's surveillance programs, a day after a review group recommended curbing the National Security Agency's powers. Putin previously defended the programs, calling them 'generally practicable' and 'the way a civilized society should go about fighting terrorism' during a June interview. Below are some of Thursday's choice quotes from Putin, himself a former KGB agent." He says he has never met Edward Snowden.

Donna Cassata of TPM: "The Senate will vote on the nomination of Janet Yellen to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve in January. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday night that Republicans and Democrats had worked out an agreement on votes for several of President Barack Obama's nominees, including Yellen. The Senate plans a test vote to move ahead on Yellen's nomination on Friday and will then vote Jan. 6 on her confirmation."

E. J. Dionne: The Republican civil war is not between conservatives & moderates because their are no moderates in the GOP. It is between the Washington establishment & "conservative fundraising behemoths (they include FreedomWorks, Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity).... The new establishment is bolstered by conservative talk show hosts who communicate regularly with Republican loyalists and have challenged the party's elected leaders for control over its message."

Paul Krugman on austerity policy and politics: "... the correlation is very clear: the harsher the austerity, the worse the growth performance.... I'm well aware that the austerians may win political points all the same."

** It's Your Fault that You're Poor. Tim Egan: Here are "two of the most meanspirited actions left on the table by the least-productive Congress in modern history. The House, refuge of the shrunken-heart caucus, has passed a measure to eliminate food aid for four million Americans, starting next year. Many who would remain on the old food stamp program may have to pass a drug test to get their groceries. At the same time, Congress has let unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million people, beginning just a few days after Christmas. These actions have nothing to do with bringing federal spending into line, and everything to do with a view that poor people are morally inferior." ...

... CW: Hmmm. Wonder how Paul Ryan fees about that? McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed writes another, "No, really, Paul Ryan cares about the poor. He's the Pope Francis of the GOP. He's just as religious as Francis is, too." I'll believe it the day Ryan becomes a Democrat, burns a pile of Atlas Shrugged holy books & a makes a Jimmy Swaggart-style "I have sinned" speech.

Bradley Klapper of the AP: "More than a quarter of the Senate introduced legislation Thursday that could raise sanctions on Iran and compel the United States to support Israel if it launches a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian nuclear program, defying President Barack Obama and drawing a veto threat. The bill, sponsored by 13 Democrats and 13 Republicans, sets sanctions that would go into effect if Tehran violates the nuclear deal it reached with world powers last month or lets the agreement expire without a long-term accord." ...

... Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post: "In a remarkable rebuke to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), 10 other Senate committee chairs are circulating a joint letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, urging him to reject an effort by Menendez to tighten sanctions on Iran and warning that his bill could disrupt ongoing nuclear negotiations."

Annie Gowen & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "A major diplomatic row between the United States and India took a new turn Thursday as signs of a split emerged within the U.S. government over how to handle the case of an Indian diplomat and women's rights advocate who was arrested in New York on charges stemming from the alleged exploitation of her nanny. The Indian government, meanwhile, demanded that U.S. federal prosecutors drop their case against Devyani Khobragade, 39, India's up-and-coming deputy consul general in New York and the mother of two young daughters.... Secretary of State John F. Kerry made a conciliatory call to India's national security adviser Wednesday and 'expressed his regret' over the incident, according to the State Department. But the Justice Department appeared to be taking a harder line."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, who is "in charge of nuclear weapons, repeatedly drank too much and behaved like a boor last summer during an official trip to Moscow, where he insulted his Russian hosts and hung out with two suspicious women he met at a hotel bar, according to an investigative report released Thursday.... Carey was reassigned in October from his job as commander of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for maintaining and operating the country's intercontinental ballistic missiles."

Local News

AP: "New Mexico's highest court has legalized same-sex marriage, declaring it is unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples. The state Supreme Court issued its ruling Thursday. New Mexico joins 16 states and the District of Columbia in allowing gay marriage."

Matt Friedman of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Students who grew up in New Jersey but are in the country illegally will soon be able to pay in-state tuition at its public colleges and universities. After weeks of feuding between Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democrats who control the Legislature over the so-called 'DREAM Act,' the two sides ... today ... agreed to a compromise."

Senate Race

Tuck Chodd & Co. explain why appointing retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to be ambassador to China could help Democrats hold the Senate in 2014.

Congressional Fiasco

Marisa Kendall of the Fort Myers, Florida, News-Press: "U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fort Myers, made clear tonight he has no intention of resigning, and plans to get back to work after spending some time with his family this holiday season. Tonight's news conference was the second Radel held at his Cape Coral[, Florida,] office since pleading guilty to possession of cocaine. Radel was more animated tonight than at the first press conference - he has finished just under a month of rehab, and had his wife beside him at the podium. Radel began by thanking his supporters." With video that unfortunately loads automatically.

First Amendment News
By People Who Don't Know What It Means

Nature Watch: Ducks & Loons. Matea Gold of the Washington Post has a pretty good overview of how conservative politicians -- especially those who hope to be president -- are using the "Duck Dynasty" controversy to mobilize Christian conservatives.

Dean Obeidallah of the Daily Beast: "Conservatives think people should be held responsible for their actions -- until one of their own, like Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, has to pay a price for their bigoted views.... The First Amendment does not provide you immunity. [CW: This would be news to arah Palin. See Infotainment.] It simply means that the government can't prevent you from expressing yourself. But once you say something, you will be called to answer for it." CW: I remain mystified as to why anyone outside the Robertson family would spend as much as five minutes watching a show like "Duck Dynasty."

Here's how Red State winger Erick Erickson (late of CNN & now with Fox) sees the "Duck Dynasty" doodah: "Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant and then it seeks to silence good." CW: Where "evil" equals liberals & homophobic slurs equal "good." From this premise, Erickson seques to the notion that Robertson was just expressing his honest-to-God Christian views. Ergo, "The world is at war with Christ and those who put their faith in Christ.... The Church, however, must show it will stand with those who stand with Christ...." That, I guess means, that Pope Francis should encourage Robertson & his "Christian" opinions. It's a shocking thing, really, that this type of distorted, perverted thinking attracts a national television audience.

AND just as stupid as Palin (or completely phony panderers -- take your pick) Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. Ted Cruz.

The truth is it is a messed up situation when a governor rumored to have his sights on the presidency doesn't understand the breadth of the First Amendment. -- L. Z. Granderson, CNN contributor, on Bobby Jindal's comments

Zack Ford of Think Progress: "Free speech allows citizens to say things that are offensive and unpopular and it allows other citizens to disagree, as well as to choose whether to provide an ongoing platform for those remarks. If anything, the claim that Robertson's free speech has somehow been inhibited is just a straw man to avoid addressing the merits of what he actually said: that all gay people are going to Hell and that African Americans don't deserve a seat at the lunch counter."

See today's Comments:

... The film footage is from "The Laramie Project" HBO movie. The full film is here.

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "Uganda's parliament has passed an anti-gay law that punishes 'aggravated homosexuality' with life imprisonment."

Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D- Nev.) was hospitalized early Friday after not feeling well, according to his office.... Reid's hospitalization comes on the final scheduled day of the Senate for 2013 and after two weeks of late nights and early mornings amid a dispute over a recent change in Senate procedural rules...."

New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin issued a decree on Friday freeing Russia's most famous prisoner, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive of Yukos Oil whose arrest and imprisonment 10 years ago punctuated an authoritarian turn in Russia's modern history."