The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2013

"In his weekly address, President Obama says the economy is making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding opportunity for the middle class." -- White House:

Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that Republican senators should, in effect, filibuster the House-passed continuing resolution in the Senate. The Texas Republican is calling on his colleagues to oppose limiting debate on it, warning against what he calls procedural trickery.... Conservative senators, however..., know that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will move to strike out the Obamacare defunding language after getting the 60 votes needed to limit debate, but they can't stop him without effectively endorsing a government shutdown." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "With Washington facing a potential government shutdown, President Obama traveled to the heartland Friday and delivered a combative rebuke of congressional Republicans for 'trying to mess with me' instead of governing responsibly. Obama railed at length against Republican lawmakers, whom he accused of 'holding the economy hostage' by threatening not to fund the government and not to raise the government's debt limit":

... Tim Alberta of the National Journal claims Boehner has a secret plan to force the delay of implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year. CW: That might be the plan, but it's difficult to believe President Obama would fall for it. ...

... Ashley Parker & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... a rotating cast of characters -- often backbench newcomers whom few have heard of outside their [House] districts, and who were elected on a Tea Party wave -- has emerged to challenge Speaker John A. Boehner's leadership at every turn.... Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, did not mince words Thursday in calling the group a bunch of 'legislative arsonists' who had 'hijacked' the Republican Party." CW: Maybe Pelosi didn't mince words, but she mixed metaphors. ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Just to be clear: Obamacare implementation will likely continue even if the government shuts down this fall as Congress fights over the law's funding. That was the conclusion of a Congressional Research Service report sent to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) back in July. 'It appears that substantial ACA implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown,' the CRS wrote. The main reason for that, according to the report, is that the Obama administration could likely use alternative funding sources...." ...

... Paul Courson of CNN: "Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that his Republican colleague in the Senate, Ted Cruz, 'is a fraud' who will 'no longer have any influence in the Republican Party' after the House votes on a measure that could potentially lead to a government shutdown." CW: This would be a little more newsworthy if King & Cruz weren't both running for president. King has announced. ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "... according to King, the GOP scheme to defund Obamacare is a kamikaze fraud that is guaranteed to lose.... He voted for it." ...

... Jake Tapper of CNN introduces us to Jim Jordan, delusional Congressman, who is sure the Senate will "find the Lord," defund the Affordable Care Act & sign onto the Republican "alternative" joke.

... Ezra Klein : John Boehner is being even more irresponsible than Ted Cruz." ...

... Gail Collins Goes Wild: Ted Cruz as Democratic mole, John Boehner as Jesus & Delphic prophecies.

John Cassidy & Ryan Lizza talk to Amelia Lester about the Federal Reserve & Washington's part in ruining the economy:

CW: Just because we are witnessing Big Bizarro World coming down doesn't mean Regular Bizarro World does not continue apace. Ginger Gibson of Politico: "Darrell Issa is scheduled to travel to Libya next week as part of his investigation into the attack last year on the Benghazi consulate, according to documents obtained by Politico. The California Republican, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, did not invite Democratic counterparts on the trip, which has been in the works for over a week.... Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) -- the committee's ranking member -- called on Issa to postpone the trip to allow a Democrat to take part in the excursion. 'Stop your partisan efforts to deliberately exclude Democrats from this trip, and provide adequate notice to allow Democratic Members to join this delegation at a later date,' Cummings wrote in a letter to Issa sent on Friday afternoon."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "The growth of [federal] disability rolls has accelerated since the recession hit in 2007. As the labor market tightened, workers with disabilities that employers previously accommodated on the job -- painful hips, mental disorders, weak hearts -- were often the first to go. Finding new work often proved difficult, causing many to turn to the disability rolls for support. The migration of so many people from work to the disability rolls is raising concern among lawmakers in Congress.... Last week, the Government Accountability Office found that the program made $1.3 billion in potentially improper payments to people who had jobs when they were supposedly disabled. The allegedly improper payments represent less than 1 percent of disability payments."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, may meet Barack Obama in an informal, orchestrated encounter at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs of a rapidly softening stance in Tehran." ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The White House has left the door open to a personal encounter between Barack Obama and Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs that western powers plan to seize on recent diplomatic overtures from Tehran."

Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "Former employees [of USIS, the firm that supposedly vetted Edward Snowden & Aaron Alexis,] say the relentless demand to churn out background checks meant that even when USIS investigators wanted to do their best to follow up on red flags, there was limited time....No evidence has emerged that ... USIS cut corners when it vetted Snowden and Alexis. But the company, which has grown to become the biggest private contractor handling background checks for the government, has drawn the notice of lawmakers and the Justice Department. It is under criminal investigation over whether it misled officials about the thoroughness of its work. A number of former USIS employees have been charged with falsifying records in recent years. And Monday's Navy Yard shooting is raising questions about how the government vets employees who are given access to some of the country's most sensitive documents and facilities."

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The government and military are striving to put China at the forefront of drone manufacturing, for their own use and for export, and have made an all-out push [-- which includes hacking U.S. defense contractors' data] to gather domestic and international technology to support the program."

Zack Kopplin of Slate: "The Texas state Board of Education is in the process of adopting new science textbooks that will be used in public schools for the next decade. On Tuesday, the board held its first hearing for public comment on which textbooks should be adopted. Creationists came out in full force and demanded that 'biblical truth,' rather than evolution, be presented in the state's biology textbooks. These anti-science activists could compromise the teaching of evolution all across the country. They've been working toward this moment for years.... Because Texas buys textbooks for more than 4 million students, publishers tend [to] write textbooks designed to capture the Texas market. They then sell the same textbooks in other states."

Local News

What You Get with a Democratic Legislature & a Democratic Governor. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers' licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship."

News Ledes

Think Progress: "Anthony Badalamenti, Halliburton Energy Services Inc.'s cementing technology director, was criminally charged with one count of destroying evidence related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in federal court Thursday. This is the latest twist in a legal battle involving oil giant BP and Halliburton, the company consulted on the drilling site's cement wellhead." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

The Inquisition, Ctd. AP: "Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led the Vatican's department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church's crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response.... Francis left Archbishop Gerhard Mueller in the powerful role of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Mueller, originally appointed by Benedict XVI, directs the Holy See's crackdown on nuns suspected of undermining Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality. His office also shapes policy dealing with clergy who sexually abuse minors."

Guardian: "Iranian hardliners appear to have given their tacit support to president Hassan Rouhani as the moderate cleric prepares to travel to New York on what could be a critically important visit to the United Nations, which may include a historic meeting with his American counterpart."

Guardian: "At least 25 people have been killed in a suspected terrorist attack in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after gunmen opened fire and threw grenades in an upmarket shopping centre. On Saturday evening the Kenyan presidency tweeted that one of the gunmen had been arrested. The country's head of police, David Kimaiyo, said several assailants were also apprehended when police and military entered the mall following the attack."

** Guardian: "A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina [in 1961] that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima." The declassified doc is here.

Los Angeles Times: "Police are searching for a gunman who used an assault rifle to fire on a pickup basketball game in a Chicago South Side neighborhood, injuring 13 people and dragging the city back into the international spotlight for its violent crime problem At least 16 bullets were fired into Cornell Square Park late Thursday, wounding a 3-year-old boy and a dozen other people. All are expected to survive, many with wounds to their arms and legs. Shell casings found around the blood-soaked basketball courts were 7.62-millimeter rounds, which are typically used in AK-47 assault rifles."

Chicago Tribune: Chicago "Bears legend Gale Sayers sued the NFL on Friday, claiming the league negligently handled his repeated head injuries during his seven-year career. Sayers, a Hall of Fame running back who played with the Bears from 1965 to 1971, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago that he suffered headaches and short-term memory loss after retirement."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 20, 2013

NEW. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The House passed a short-term spending plan Friday morning that would continue funding government operations through mid-December but withhold funding for President Obama's signature health-care law, firing the opening salvo in what promises to be a contentious 10 days of debate on Capitol Hill over extending government operations by only three months." ...

... ** "The Crazy Party." Paul Krugman provides a history lesson that illuminates just how crazy the Republican party is. ...

... We Hope You & Your Children Starve! Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "House Republicans narrowly pushed through a bill on Thursday that slashes billions of dollars from the food stamp program, over the objections of Democrats and a veto threat from President Obama. The vote set up what promised to be a contentious fight with the Senate and dashed hopes for passage this year of a new five-year farm bill. The vote was 217 to 210." ...

House Republicans' vote to deny nutrition assistance to hungry, low-income Americans is shameful. The Senate will never pass such hateful, punitive legislation. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ...

     ... ** Tim Egan: "A Republican majority that refuses to govern on other issues found the votes to shove nearly 4 million people back into poverty, joining 46.5 million at a desperation line that has failed to improve since the dawn of the Great Recession. It's a heartless bill, aimed to hurt. Republicans don't see it that way, of course. They think too many of their fellow citizens are cheats and loafers, dining out on lobster." They're hurting their own voters: "Among the 254 counties where food stamp use doubled during the economic collapse, Mitt Romney won 213 of them, Bloomberg News reported." ...

... Charles Pierce: on the dangers of Chuck Todd-style "journalism": "According to Chuck's notion of what his job is, when conservative politicians latch onto a phony Fox News story [all SNAP recipients dine on lobster while you're whipping up mac & cheese for the kiddies!] in order to make policy, it is the job of the Democrats -- or, perhaps, of the SNAP recipients themselves, who have, as we know, virtually unlimited access to the airwaves -- to correct the arrant bullshit." ...

I guarantee you one thing, Mike [Lee] and I are going to fight with every breath in our body [the defund ObamaCare]. As Churchill said, we will fight on the beaches, we will fight in the streets, we will fight at every step to stop the biggest job killer in America. -- Ted Cruz (R-Texas), on Hannity Wednesday night

Or Not. Shutdowns are bad, shutdowns are not worth it, this law [the Affordable Care Act] is not worth causing a shutdown over. -- Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), at a press conference Thursday

... Dave Weigel of Slate explains the Republicans' "make-believe fight to defund ObamaCare." ...

... Ultra-conservative Byron York, writing in the Washington Examiner, explains an element of the ruse: under Senate rules, Cruz, Lee, et al., can't even filibuster for defunding ObamaCare. A Republican "Senate aide says no one should be surprised. 'This is not a gimmick or a scheme,' says the aide. 'It is Rule 22 of the U.S. Senate. Everybody knew this. This is an existing rule. It is taught in Senate class when you do your orientation. It is not a surprise. Nobody sprung it on him [Sen. Cruz].... As the prospect of an actual legislative battle over defunding nears, it's becoming more and more apparent that Sen. Cruz and his allies have very few options. In the end, it's not likely to be much of a battle at all." ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill explains how Harry Reid will nip the filibuster of the funding resolution in the bud -- without even allowing for the usual 30 hours of "debate" & at the same time sparing his Republican friends from having to vote for funding the Affordable Care Act. If this is how the story plays out, it's kinda fascinating. ...

... Jonathan Chait has an excellent long piece on "the plot to kill Obamacare.... The historical echo is fitting in the sense that Obamacare has come to fill the place in the conservative psyche once occupied by communism and later by taxes.... The transformation of Obamacare from a close relative of Republicans' own health-care ideas to the locus of evil in modern life is owing to several things, including the almost tautological political fact that its success would be Obama's.... [Obamacare] reforms have added up to a revolution in modern medical economics.... The contrast between the cautiousness of mainstream health-policy analysts and the perfervid certainty of those on the right reprises what has become a common pattern in American political debate.... The right has dominated the Obamacare public debate through blunt rhetorical force." ...

... This message brought to you by the Koch brothers: Ladies, if you sign up for ObamaCare, creepy Uncle Sam will rape you:

       ... Don't worry, gentlemen, creepy Uncle Sam is a proctologist, too:

     ... Jon Chait: "The rape-clown argument ... is the product of sheer fantasy. In what world does giving people tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance subject them to the risk of some kind of dystopian federal intrusion?" Read the post for wingers' answer to that question. ...

... We Hope You & Your Children Die of Curable Illnesses. Lizette Alvarez & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "As many states prepare to introduce a linchpin of the 2010 health care law -- the insurance exchanges designed to make health care more affordable -- a handful of others are taking the opposite tack: They are complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about the new program. Chief among them is Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature have made it more difficult for Floridians to obtain the cheapest insurance rates under the exchange and to get help from specially trained outreach counselors." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Florida has been shameless in attempting to destroy what top officials call 'Obamacare,' with tactics that will deprive its own poor and middle-income citizens of the benefits of the national reform law. Although almost 25 percent of Florida's population, or 3.8 million people, are uninsured, the state declined to expand its Medicaid program to cover more low-income residents despite extremely generous federal matching grants to pay for such expansions. And it refused to set up its own health care exchange, leaving that job to the federal government. A few months ago, the Republican-dominated Legislature and Republican governor stripped the state insurance commissioner's office of its broad powers to hold down premium increases to affordable levels. In the latest outrage, the state Department of Health on Sept. 9 ordered some 60 county health agencies, whose clinics treat large numbers of poor and uninsured people, to bar from their premises counselors, or 'navigators,' seeking to inform people how to enroll in insurance plans and get subsidies under the health reform law."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, provided on Thursday the most up-to-date account of the gunman's rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, saying that he was 'hunting people to shoot' as he made his way through the building but did not appear to have targeted a particular person or group of people." ...

... Jia Lynn Yang & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "USIS, the Falls Church government contractor that handled the background check for national security leaker Edward Snowden, said Thursday it also vetted Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis for his secret-level clearance in 2007. The company, which is under criminal investigation over whether it misled the government about the thoroughness of its background checks, said earlier this week that it hadn't handled Alexis' case." CW: Vetted? Make that "was paid to vet." ...

... Danielle Ivory, et al., of Bloomberg News: "Both the Snowden and Alexis cases have called attention to an underfunded, flawed vetting process for obtaining clearances, where quality is forfeited in favor of speed and underpaid investigators rush to keep up with demand, according to security specialists."

The Hon. Tom Delay. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "A Texas appellate court has overturned the conviction of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for allegedly scheming to influence Texas state elections with corporate money. A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to overturn the conviction, calling the evidence 'legally insufficient,' according to court papers released Thursday. The decision formally acquits DeLay of all charges, but it could still be appealed by the government." (Read the court's majority opinion and dissenting opinions.)" Read the whole story. ...

... Charles Pierce: "Let us not forget that, indicted or not, convicted or not, imprisoned or not, redeemed or not, Tom DeLay never drew a breath in public life when he wasn't making it infinitely worse than it was before he got elected."

Nicolle Gaouette of Bloomberg News: "The Kennedy mystique dominated a Senate hearing [Thursday] on Caroline Kennedy's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Japan, as lawmakers spent about as much time praising her family's legacy as they did asking questions." ...

Michigan Back Roads: Ionia, Michigan. "There is something going on all the time and much of it takes place in the historic downtown district. The historic architecture in downtown Ionia, Michigan is enough to encourage a day trip just to stroll along and admire the buildings. The museums and court house of Ionia sandstone are unique in the state.  The theatre is beautiful and will take you back in time." ...

     ... CW: Yes, indeed, there is always something going on in Ionia. That's why when you take that stroll, you might want to wear full-body armor. ...

     ... Responsible Gun Owners, Ctd. Angie Jackson of MLive: "Two men died Wednesday, Sept. 18, in a shootout that stemmed from a road rage confrontation, Ionia, [Michigan] police said.... Initial investigation shows the Ionia men, ages 43 and 56, pulled into the car wash parking lot after a road rage incident. They exited their vehicles and eventually drew handguns and exchanged fire, police said.... Police said both men ... held permits to carry concealed weapons." ...

     ... Digby: "... there is a lesson in this for all of us. Behave as though any nut you come across in public is armed and willing to use his gun whenever he's crossed. Because freedom." Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

     ... CW Note: authorities in Michigan -- which is not the craziest state in the Union -- decided these two violent, unstable men were fit to own firearms & to carry them into public places.

... Thanks to Jeanne B. for the above.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic Church had grown 'obsessed' with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics. In remarkably blunt language, Francis sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a 'home for all' and not a 'small chapel' focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Saying he was 'sorry it had to come to this,' Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said today that he was forming an 'independent search committee' to select a new Pope.... Justice Scalia said he had 'no other alternative' but to pick a new Pope himself after reading what he called a 'disturbing' interview with Pope Francis today: 'The Pope said he doesn't want to speak out against abortion and gay marriage. Well, sorry, my friend, but that's the entire job description.'"

News Ledes

Chicago Tribune: A three-year-old boy was among "13 people shot as neighbors played basketball in Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards Thursday night.... Witnesses told police a gray sedan pulled up to the park around 10:15 p.m. and two people opened fire in the 1800 block of West 51st Street. Thirteen people who were on the court or were watching the pick-up game were hit by gunfire, many of them in the arms or legs."

Reuters: "New rules limiting emissions from U.S. power plants that are expected to be proposed on Friday will "provide certainty" to the coal industry, environment and energy chiefs told lawmakers anxious about the fuel's future."

Guardian: "The Syrian conflict has reached a stalemate and President Bashar al-Assad's government will call for a ceasefire at a long-delayed conference in Geneva on the state's future, the country's deputy prime minister has said in an interview with the Guardian."

New York Times: "Iran's leaders, seizing on perceived flexibility in a private letter from President Obama, have decided to gamble on forging a swift agreement over their nuclear program with the goal of ending crippling sanctions, a prominent adviser to the Iranian leadership said Thursday."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2013

Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "More than a year after a group of traders at JPMorgan Chase caused a multibillion-dollar loss, government authorities on Thursday imposed a $920 million fine on the bank and shifted scrutiny to its senior management. Extracting the fines and a rare admission of wrongdoing from JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, regulators in Washington and London took aim at a pervasive breakdown in controls and leadership at the bank. The deal resolves investigations from four regulators..., but the bank has struggled to settle with another regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is investigating whether the bank's trading manipulated the market for financial contracts known as derivatives."

We have anarchists running the House of Representatives. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

We are completely united on this issue. We're not defunding ObamaCare and we're not negotiating on the debt ceiling.... If they think we're going to back off, they're wrong, they're on a different planet. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Senate Democrats

We can't let the government shut down. We can't be kamikazes and we can't be General Custer. -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who now passes for a moderate

... Any strategy to repeal, delay or replace the law must have a credible chance of succeeding or affecting broad public opinion positively. The defunding strategy doesn't. Going down that road would strengthen the president while alienating independents. It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it. -- Karl Rove, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed

... Paul Kane & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders announced Wednesday morning that they would take a risky double-barreled attack on President Obama's health-care law, making it the cornerstone fight over government funding due to expire Sept. 30 and the effort to lift the Treasury's borrowing authority. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), flanked by his leadership team, told reporters that the stopgap government funding bill that they will advance Friday would yield to conservative demands of including a rider to block funding for the law commonly known as Obamacare." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... all that has changed today is that GOP leaders have just confirmed they are not yet willing to face the inevitable reckoning that will take place when they admit House Republicans don't have the leverage they need to block Obamacare. House GOP leaders have simply confirmed that they can't overcome internal conservative demands for a Total War posture against the health law, and -- for now, anyway -- will continue to placate those demands, even though those leaders themselves think this posture is insane, unworkable, and self destructive." ...

... The New York Times Editors call Boehner's move a step in "the march to anarchy." ...

... Dana Milbank: "As House Republican backbenchers hurtle toward a government shutdown and a default on the national debt, their leaders remain in charge in title only.... The GOP followership surrendered without much of a fight Wednesday morning at a meeting of House Republicans in the Capitol basement. After rank-and-file members shot down their plan to avoid a shutdown, the followers announced to the media a new plan: Not only would they refuse to fund the government beyond Sept. 30 unless President Obama agrees to abolish Obamacare ... but they would allow the government to default on its debt in October if Obama does not meet their demands on taxes, energy policy and the health-care law." OR, as Nicole G. writes in today's Comments, "Oxymoron Alert!!! 'House Republican leaders...'" ...

... Gail Collins, with a little help from Ted Cruz, summarizes the Republican obsession with repealing ObamaCare: "The new health care law is going to be terrible, wreaking havoc on American families, ruining their lives. And they are going to love it so much they will never have the self-control necessary to give it up." CW: the real problem Republicans have with ObamaCare is that they know it's a fairly good law, one that every voting American knows Republicans oppose. ...

... MEANWHILE, Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "Tensions are rising between House and Senate Republicans over which conference will lead the fight to defund ObamaCare. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) each said Wednesday that the task is for Republicans in the other chamber as pressure rises to fund the government." ...

     ... Josh Marshall of TPM. "Truly in Lord of the Flies territory.... So [Cruz has] created this monster he can't control. Only he was the monster the last crew created. I can't keep up." ...

     ... Brian Beutler has an excellent piece in Salon on how Boehner has boxed in Senate Republicans -- like Ted Cruz & Mike Lee (Utah) who have been working the Defund ObamaCare circuit. "If they pass up the chance [to filibuster ObamaCare funding], they'll expose the defund campaign as a sham. And at the end of the process, some Senate Republicans are going to have to vote -- at least -- to give Reid and Democrats the power to strip the defunding measure. They'll be damaged goods. Either way, someone loses, and all because conservatives in the Senate thought they could demagogue the issue without ever having to put their credibility on the line." ...

... Bloomberg News Editors: "A mere 48 months after the law was introduced, only 42 months after it was signed, with just two weeks until one of its main provisions takes effect, Republicans today finally offered their alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Which would be cause for genuine (if belated) congratulations, except for one thing: It's not really an alternative.... Any plan billed as an alternative has to meet one definitional threshold, and only one: covering a similar number of Americans as Obamacare. To ... be a better alternative, a proposal should cover a similar number of Americans at a lower cost or with fewer unwanted consequences." Republicans provided no evidence their plan would do either.

... The Manchurian President. The good news out of all this is that John Boehner has finally found the smoking gun that proves once & for all that there is a commie-loving, anti-American imposter in the White House. Could be grounds for impeachment:

... Paul Krugman: "A decade ago..., I argued that the modern Republican party was a 'revolutionary power' in the sense once defined by, of all people, Henry Kissinger -- a power that no longer accepted any of the norms of politics as usual, that was willing not just to take radical positions but to act in ways that undermined the whole system of governance people thought they understood. At the time, I got a lot of grief for being so 'shrill'. The accepted thing was to criticize both sides equally.... So, now we face the imminent threat of a government shutdown and/or a U.S. government default because Republicans refuse to accept the notion that duly enacted legislation should be allowed to go into effect, and repealed only through constitutional means. Oh, and the cause for which most of the GOP is willing to threaten chaos is the noble endeavor of ensuring that tens of millions of Americans continue to lack essential health care." ...

... Tom Kludt of TPM: "MSNBC host Chuck Todd said Wednesday that when it comes to misinformation about the new federal health care law, don't expect members of the media to correct the record. During a segment on 'Morning Joe,' former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) speculated that most opponents of the Affordable Care Act have been fed erroneous information about the law. Todd said that Republicans 'have successfully messaged against it' but he disagrees with those who argue that the media should educate the public on the law. According to Todd, that's President Barack Obama's job.... Todd took to Twitter later in the morning to argue that his actual point was that 'folks shouldn't expect media' to do what the White House has failed to do in its rollout of the health care law." Thanks to contributor James S. for the heads-up. Includes video. You decide. ...

     ... Charles Pierce: "What is my profession's primary contribution to the fact that this country is utterly fked? Right there, folks." ...

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "As Congressional Republicans and the White House hurtle toward another showdown over federal spending, the Fed said it was concerned that fiscal policy once again 'is restraining economic growth,' threatening to undermine what the Fed had described just months ago as a recovery gaining strength. Stock markets jumped after the 2 p.m. announcement, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index touching a record high and the Dow Jones industrial average ahead more than 150 points." ...

... Kevin Drum: Bernanke to Republicans: stop being the stupid party." ...

... Patti Domm of CNBC: "Stocks roared to new all-time highs and bond yields retreated as the Fed defied the market's conventional thinking by keeping its unconventional bond-buying program intact. Most major Wall Street banks and firms expected the Fed to slightly pare back its $85 billion monthly bond buying program, by $10 billion to $15 billion. But the Fed said it wasn't ready to cut back, citing a tightening in financial conditions that it said could hurt the economy and employment." ...

... Neil Irwin of the Washington Post: "Why didn't the Fed taper? Because Congress is horrible."

CW: In today's issue of Obama the Weakling, Major Garrett of the National Journal (formerly of Fox "News") provides the copy, putting the onus on Senate Democrats for crippling Obama. I'd give Garrett the David Brooks Award for this little masterpiece of hyperbole, carefully woven around scraps of factual fabric.

Ernesto Londoño, et al., of the Washington Post: "Defense Department officials on Wednesday ordered a broad review of the procedures used to grant security clearances to ­employees and contractors, acknowledging that years of escalating warning signs about Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis went unheeded. Top intelligence and military officials concede that issuing millions of people security clearances for up to 10 years without regular reviews is a serious safety risk." ...

... Steve Vogel, et al., of the Washington Post: "Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis had sought treatment for insomnia in the emergency rooms of two Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past month, but he told doctors he was not depressed and was not thinking of harming others, federal officials said Wednesday.... Alexis had left records of his troubles in local police reports, in Navy files and in VA medical records. But it was never quite enough to set off broader alarms or to revoke any of the privileges that the government had extended Alexis as an IT contractor." ...

... Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: "Aaron Alexis carved bizarre phrases on the stock of his shotgun before he killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, and investigators are hoping the words provide clues to what prompted the shooting, two law enforcement officials said. The phrases were 'Better off this way' and 'My ELF weapon,' according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.... ELF generally stands for 'extremely low frequency' and can refer to weather or communications efforts, among other things." ...

... CBS News: "Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle at a Virginia gun store last week after test firing one, but the store wouldn't sell it to him right away, CBS News has learned. The reason for the refusal isn't clear. Alexis then purchased a shotgun he used in his rampage, sources tell CBS News." ...

... ** Frank Rich: "Perhaps the best thing we can do is at least call out the problem for what it is: state-sponsored terrorism. The American people and their elected representatives allow our own homegrown equivalent of suicide bombers -- suicide shooters -- legal access to weapons with which they can mow down innocents almost anywhere they please.... This country is soft on domestic terrorism." Rich also weighs in -- brilliantly -- on other topics. ...

... On Tuesday, Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed knocked out a piece titled "9 Potential Mass Shootings That Were Stopped by Someone with a Personally-Owned Firearm." ...

     ... Justin Peters of Slate: "The [Broderick] piece has been wildly popular on social media, which isn't surprising: it's a simple, provocative piece that ostensibly validates the gun lobby's contention that there’s an inverse relationship between private gun ownership and mass shootings. But like many simple and provocative things, the BuzzFeed story is more than a little misleading." Peters systematically, um, shoots down Broderick's post. Worth a read.

Chris Geider of BuzzFeed: "The Labor Department announced Wednesday that federal laws governing private employee pension and related benefit plans will be interpreted to recognize all legal marriages of same-sex couples, regardless of where the couple is living currently. The decision to utilize a 'place of celebration' rule, rather than a 'place of domicile' rule follows the lead set by the Treasury Department in recognizing marriages for purposes of the tax code so long as they were legal in the state where the marriage was granted."

Ray Hennessey of Entrepreneur: "Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is asking customers to no longer bring guns to the coffee chain, saying the presence of weapons in its stores is 'unsettling and upsetting' to too many of its customers. The request is not an outright ban. Customers who bring a gun will still be served, Schultz says. But it is a marked change in policy for the chain, which, up to now, simply respected state law on the issue. The vast majority of U.S. states allow the open carrying of firearms." Via Patrick Himes of Salon.

CW: Pravda.ru published this opinion piece by John McCain, which he wrote in response to Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed, published last week. McCain ignores Syria & focuses instead on this theme: "Russians deserve better than Putin." It's a powerful piece. ...

     ... Pravda.ru, however is not exactly Pravda. Vadim Gorshenim, the CEO of Pravda.ru, gives his characterization of what Pravda is. Or isn't.

David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Obama has accomplished goals that most Americans endorse [re: Syria], given the unpalatable menu of choices. Polls suggest that the public overwhelmingly backs the course Obama has chosen.... Yet the opinion of elites is sharply negative... He can propose what the country wants, succeed at it and still get hammered as a failure." Via Greg Sargent. ...

... A Step on the Road to Damascus. Barbara Starr of CNN: "The Pentagon has 'put a proposal on the table' for U.S. military forces to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition forces for the first time, two Obama administration officials told CNN. The idea has been under consideration since the August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, which the United States says was carried out by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. There are few specifics on troops or other aspects of the military proposal, but both officials said the effort envisions training taking place in a country near Syria." ...

... CW: There are back roads to my cottage in the Catskills. Taking them shortens my route, but the roads are not well-marked, & my car doesn't have a GPS. One of these routes takes me through the tiny town pf Damascus, New York. This year, I had to stop & ask a woman jogger, "Is this the road to Damascus?" This pleased me a great deal, but I did not experience a conversion, just a surer sense that I would not be getting lost in the backwoods. ...

... Nour Malas of the Wall Street Journal: "The spread of ISIS..., an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit..., illustrates the failure of Western-backed Syrian moderates to establish authority in opposition-held parts of Syria, some of which have been under rebel control for over a year. The proliferation of the Sunni jihadists and extremists has brought a new type of terror to the lives of many Syrians who have endured civil war in the north. Summary executions of Alawites and Shiites, who are seen as apostates, attacks on Shiite shrines, and kidnappings and assassinations of pro-Western rebels are on the rise." ...

... Sammy Ketz of AFP: "Syria and key ally Russia joined forces on Wednesday against any Western-backed United Nations resolution that would allow military action, as Moscow accused UN chemical weapons inspectors of bias. The United States, meanwhile, said it will maintain the threat of force if Damascus fails to abide by an accord to surrender its chemical arsenal, and the United Nations hit back at the Russian accusations." ...

... Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "On the eve of a visit by Iran's moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, to the United States, the Iranian authorities on Wednesday unexpectedly freed 11 of Iran's most prominent political prisoners, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer." ...

... Tracy Connor of NBC News: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "At the core of Iran's recent diplomatic charm offensive -- a process that has included the release of 11 prominent political prisoners and a series of conciliatory statements by top Iranian officials -- is an exchange of letters, confirmed by both sides, between Mr. Obama and President Hassan Rouhani. The election of Mr. Rouhani, a moderate, in June kindled hopes that diplomacy might end the chronic impasse with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. But the letters, and the cautious hope they have generated, suggest there is a genuine opportunity for change." ...

... Fareed Zakaria of Time: "This has been a particularly bad time for Obama officials to thump their chests about credibility because for the past few months, the Iranian government has been sending remarkably conciliatory signals."

Massimo Calabresi of Time: Rick "Perry's full-time job: taking credit for jobs he didn't create.... Unless Perry is claiming his policies would create more oil and gas, spike immigration or change the established borders of the United States, he might better serve Texans, and America, by cutting the amount of taxpayer-funded job posturing he engages in." CW: in fairness to Perry, he may be so damned dumb that he believes his own BS.

More Social Scientists Produce More Predictable Results. Tom Jacobs of Salon: "Writing in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, Indiana University researchers Paul Wright and Michelle Funk report people who admitted to watching pornography were less likely to support affirmative action for women...."