The Commentariat -- July 22, 2013

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on lawmakers across the country, including in his home state of Arizona, to review the Stand Your Ground law that allowed George Zimmerman to walk free in the days after he killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and conceded that the country still has 'a long way to go' towards achieving full equality for African Americans.... The senator also praised the remarks Obama delivered about the Zimmerman case on Friday...":

John Whitesides of Reuters: "House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner refused on Sunday to say whether a comprehensive immigration overhaul should include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, declaring that the House debate is 'not about me.' Boehner, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," dodged repeated attempts to get him to spell out his personal views on a path to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants now in the United States...."

Brendan Sasso of the Hill: "The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing to fast-track legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing emails and other private online messages. Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) goal is for the Senate to unanimously approve his bill before the August recess, according to one of his committee aides. Any opposition could delay a vote until after Congress returns in the fall." ...

... David Lightman, et al., of McClatchy News: "Congress is growing increasingly wary of controversial National Security Agency domestic surveillance programs, a concern likely to erupt during legislative debate _ and perhaps prod legislative action _ as early as next week." ...

... "Underwear 2." Michael Crowley of Time: "... in remarks at a national security forum on Friday, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole illustrated why the federal government is still on high alert. Speaking in unusual detail, Pistole offered specifics about an underwear bomb devised by a master al Qaeda bomb-maker in Yemen meant to be exploded in an airliner over the United States last year. The plot was foiled thanks to a double-agent inside al Qaeda's Yemen branch, in a case that has also become the subject of a controversial Justice Department leak investigation."

David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "The maneuvering in markets for oil, wheat, cotton, coffee, [aluminum] and more have brought billions in profits to investment banks like Goldman, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, while forcing consumers to pay more every time they fill up a gas tank, flick on a light switch, open a beer or buy a cellphone. In the last year, federal authorities have accused three banks, including JPMorgan, of rigging electricity prices.... Using special exemptions granted by the Federal Reserve Bank and relaxed regulations approved by Congress, the banks have bought huge swaths of infrastructure used to store commodities and deliver them to consumers -- from pipelines and refineries in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas; to fleets of more than 100 double-hulled oil tankers at sea around the globe; to companies that control operations at major ports like Oakland, Calif., and Seattle.... All of this could come to an end if the Federal Reserve Board declines to extend the exemptions that allowed Goldman and Morgan Stanley to make major investments in nonfinancial businesses — although there are indications in Washington that the Fed will let the arrangement stand."

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "... researchers identified four broad factors that appeared to affect income mobility, including the size and dispersion of the local middle class. All else being equal, upward mobility tended to be higher in metropolitan areas where poor families were more dispersed among mixed-income neighborhoods. Income mobility was also higher in areas with more two-parent households, better elementary schools and high schools, and more civic engagement, including membership in religious and community groups.... In Atlanta, the most common lament seems to be precisely that concentrated poverty, extensive traffic and a weak public-transit system make it difficult to get to the job opportunities."

We should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. -- John Boehner ...

... ** "Anarchists of the House." Jonathan Chait: "... a regular feature of life in the Republican House: the party leadership draws up a bill that's far too right-wing to ever become law, but it fails in the House because it isn't right-wing enough.... Chaos and dysfunction have set in so deeply that Washington now lurches from crisis to crisis, and once-dull, keep-the-lights-on rituals of government procedure are transformed into white-knuckle dramas that threaten national or even global catastrophe.... The Republican fringe has evolved from being politically shrewd proponents of radical policy changes to a gang of saboteurs who would rather stop government from functioning at all." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "With major battles looming in the fall over the federal budget and the debt ceiling, President Obama is trying to regain the initiative, embarking on a campaign-style tour of the Midwest this week to lay out his agenda for reinvigorating the nation's economy, administration officials said Sunday."

The Wrong Guy Retired

** John Paul Stevens, in the New York Review of Books, lays out the many ways the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision is in error. Here's one biggie: "Not only is Congress better able to evaluate the issue than the Court, but it is also the branch of government designated by the Fifteenth Amendment to make decisions of this kind." Stevens' conclusion is a powerful rebuke:

This case is about power in several respects. It is about the power of our people to govern themselves, and the power of this Court to pronounce the law. Today's opinion aggrandizes the latter, with the predictable consequence of diminishing the former. We have no power to decide this case. And even if we did, we have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation. The Court's errors on both points spring forth from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.*

* Ironically, the justice who actually wrote Stevens' powerful conclusion was none other than Antonin Scalia. Only he wrote it in his dissent in the DOMA case, which overturned the odious Defense of Marriage Act. ...

... BUT. Still Crazy, Scalia Blames Activist Judges for the Holocaust. Bob Ward of the Aspen Times: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia used the twin terrors of Nazi Germany and radical Islam to warn a Snowmass Village audience Saturday about the dangers of judicial activism....Scalia received a standing ovation." CW: you have to jump through some hoops to gain access to the story.

Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE (Carl Jr.'s & Hardee's), in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "I am concerned that the ACA could actually cause the number of our covered employees to decrease, particularly in the first year. The penalty for declining coverage will be low compared with the cost of coverage; and employees will know that if they happen to get sick, they can get insurance after that. So the economically rational decision for young people, like our crew employees, is to pay the penalty and forego the insurance." CW: Hmm, this sounds right. If I find out differently, I'll let you know. ...

... I'm skeptical because it's usually a mistake to believe anything published in a right-wing opinion forum. To wit, David Weigel of Slate: "The [conservative] Illinois Review makes a find that's been bouncing around conservative social media all day. 'Nine years ago,' argue the authors, 'then-State Sen. Barack Obama actually co-sponsored a bill that strengthened Illinois' 1961 "stand your ground" law.' If true, this would render hypocritical or null so much of the presidential palaver about the NRA-supported gun law. Wouldn't it? ... No: 'Stand your ground' is substantively different than what Obama backed in Illinois. He backed a tweak to the 'castle doctrine,'" which applies only to home or property invasion.

Sticking by Their Four-Pinocchio Whopper. Despite the fact that both Dean Baker & Paul Krugman have pointed out that the Washington Post's lede editorial claims that unfunded state & local pension plans are nearly quadruple what they actually are, the Post has not appended a correction. Krugman writes, "I'll be curious to see how the paper's correction policy works here." Apparently, not at all. Glenn Kessler, the WashPo fact-checker, should check his paper's opinion editors. ...

... The WashPo's War on Public Pensions? Doug Milhous of Balloon Juice points out that a couple of weeks ago WashPo editorial writer Charles Lane exaggerated Detroit's unpaid pension indebtedness by a factor of (nearly) two in assessing why the city went bankrupt. CW: So far the Post editors are exaggerating unfunded pension liabilities exponentially with each new editorial. Shall we look for a factor of 16 next time? ...

... Steven Yaccino & Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "Kevyn D. Orr, [Detroit's] emergency manager, has called for 'significant cuts' to the pensions of current retirees. His plan is being fought vigorously by unions that point out that pensions are protected by Michigan's Constitution, which calls them a contractual obligation that 'shall not be diminished or impaired.'"

... Paul Krugman: "... the deficit scolds have a new case to misinterpret" -- Detroit. ...

... Enter right, Bill Keller, warning that New York City could become the next Detroit -- "The issue [for NYC] is the same one that helped send Detroit toward bankruptcy last week and has put other American cities on the disabled list: the immense pile of promises made over the decades to the city's employees -- the teachers and cops and firefighters and bus drivers and sanitation workers and maintenance crews who labor to keep the city, physically and socially, in working order."

Li'l Randy's Top White Supremacist Aide Quits. Justin Sink of the Hill: "An aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who has come under fire for statements about the Civil War has resigned. Jack Hunter, who previously worked as a shock jock known as the 'Southern Avenger' and said Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth's heart was 'in the right place,' said he did not want to be a distraction for the senator, who is openly considering a White House run in 2016." ...

... Maybe because Hunter's attempts to get his "former self" deleted from the record wasn't working out. Lorraine Wilke of Addicting Information: "According to Chris Haire, his former editor at the Charleston City Paper, Hunter recently got in touch to ask (beg?) that Haire remove columns he'd written which 'no longer reflected his current worldview.' Haire didn't take kindly to the request: 'While I told him that I would have removed one or two posts -- it's not uncommon for writers to hastily pen a column they later regret -- I found the breadth of the request to be excessive, and to be honest, quite cowardly.'"

John Hooper of the Guardian: "On 15 June, the pope appointed Monsignor Battista Ricca, an Italian cleric and former Vatican diplomat, to be 'prelate' of the [Vatican] bank.... As such, Ricca is entitled to attend meetings of both the bodies that oversee the scandal-ridden IOR's operations -- its board and a five-strong commission of cardinals.... According to the latest edition of the weekly news magazine L'Espresso, Ricca has a past punctuated with scandal. Its report, which the pope's spokesman branded as 'not trustworthy', claimed Ricca lived more or less openly with a Swiss army officer while at the Holy See's nunciature (embassy) in Uruguay. It said he arrived with his lover and, while running the post between nuncios, provided him with both accommodation and a job."

Local News

Stephanie Condon of CBS News: "Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., said Sunday on 'Face the Nation' that granting Detroit a government bailout would be the wrong way to help the bankrupt city."

David Chen of the New York Times: "Fed up with what he views as a pattern of obstructionist behavior, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken the rare step of filing a lawsuit against the city comptroller, John C. Liu, for rejecting two municipal contracts.... The lawsuit ... is the latest and perhaps most pronounced skirmish between Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Liu, a Democrat who is now running for mayor."

News Ledes

AP: "A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new North Dakota law that bans abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected -- as early as six weeks into pregnancy. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck granted a temporary injunction Monday that blocks the law from taking effect on Aug. 1."

Washington Post: "Seventy-one detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay will get parole-board-style hearings at the Navy base in Cuba, the Pentagon said Sunday, though it did not say when the panels will meet, whether the media can watch and which of the long-held inmates will go first. The disclosure followed a flurry of e-mails after 10 p.m. Friday from Pentagon bureaucrats notifying attorneys for some of the 71 inmates that the government was preparing to hold the hearings, which were ordered by President Obama two years ago."

Guardian: "The Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted to the private Lindo wing at St Mary's hospital in London in preparation for the birth of her first child. In a brief statement released at 7.30am, Kensington Palace said: 'Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted this morning to St Mary's hospital, Paddington, London, in the early stages of labour.'" ...

     Update: It's a Boy! Full Kensington Palace statement, via the Guardian:

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm.

The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz.

The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news.

The Commentariat -- July 21, 2013

** Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker on what Alexander Hamilton would have thought of the filibuster. In this short post, Hertzberg dissects & discards every single speech & remark about the "wisdom of the Founders" in creating a Constitution in which a minority compromises majority rule....

... CW: Our government would be functioning in a much different -- and more liberal -- way if we had true representative government. (And before you say, "Oh, yeah; look at the House," let me remind you that more Americans voted for Democrats than Republicans in the last Congressional election AND the Constitution does not contemplate the "Hastert Rule," in which a majority of the majority party must favor a bill before the speaker will bring it to the floor for a vote, an invention which gives a small minority of the House veto power over majority preferences. So, ferinstance, the Senate's immigration bill would likely pass the House today, but Speaker Boehner is bowing to the Tea Party nativist racist bloc & refusing to move on it.)

The Half-Life of the Religious Right. Steve Benen: a new Brookings Institution study "document[s] an important trend: religious social conservatives represent about 28% of the population, but they're slowly being eclipsed by a younger, diverse group of religious progressives.... It's a similar demographic issue that's facing the Republican Party: among Americans 66 and older, 47% self-identify as religious conservatives and only 12% consider themselves religious progressives. Among Americans 33 and younger, religious conservatives not only trail religious progressives, the right also finds itself outnumbered by secularists."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times has the backstory on the Obama administration's aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers & leakers.

CW: Driftglass has a fine post on the hypocrisy of Glenn Greenwald & the Outrage Caucus. "even the slightest, actual debate style-pushback against anything that flows from the keyboard of Mr. Greenwald is instantly shredded and dismissed by the Outrage Caucus as a 'vicious and vehement' attack by the obedient slaves of imperial power." Read the whole post. For some while, I thought I was alone in being sick of Glenn, but Greenwald's recent celebrity has brought attention to "his stampeding ego and petty grudges," which many liberals -- including those he attacked -- have ignored in the past. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

     ... P.S. It should go without saying (but unfortunately I have to write special messages to Glennbots) that left-leaning critics of Greenwald's particular sociopathy still appreciate the useful facts & issues he brings to light.

The Corporate Person Prevails Again. Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "A key plaintiff against the Obama administration's birth control mandate won a temporary court injunction Friday allowing it not to provide birth control as part of its employee health plan. Hobby Lobby, a national, for-profit chain of arts and crafts stores, was granted the preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton." Via Steve Benen.

Lauren French of Politico: "For J. Russell George, Thursday was about damage control. Testifying before the deeply divided House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Treasury inspector general responsible for penning the report that fueled the IRS scandal went to great lengths to defend his findings -- and his credibility." ...

... One great way for George to regain credibility is to investigate whether or not Tea Partier Christine I-Am-Not-a-Witch O'Donnell was the victim of an IRS campaign of "political intimidation."

Maureen Dowd is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the history of "stand your ground" a/k/a "no duty to retreat," a peculiarly-American, pro-violence cultural tradition. ...

... President Polyanna Experiences a Moment of Clarity. Charles Pierce on the President's "breaking the redemptive covenant." CW: Pierce hits the right notes here, & he writes them into a riff that explains pretty much every Obama failure. ...

... Biographer David Maraniss of the Washington Post on Barry Obama & his experiences as a young black man. ...

... Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Conservatives didn't even wait for President Obama to finish his deeply personal remarks on Trayvon Martin's killing and the role of race in America to go ballistic, accusing the president of being a 'Racist in Chief' who is 'trying to tear our country apart.'"

Missed this one. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post (July 17): "An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said. The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May. It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions."

Gubernatorial Race

Katie Glueck of Politico: "Virginia's gubernatorial hopefuls bashed each other for 90 minutes Saturday over jobs, the ethics scandal that has consumed Gov. Bob McDonnell and social issues as they faced off in their first debate of the most closely-watched election of 2013. Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli depicted Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as a Washington insider with a business record that's much less impressive than the Democrat has claimed. McAuliffe painted Cuccinelli as an ideologue on social issues who should not be believed when he says his priority is jobs. ...

... Robert McCartney of the Washington Post writes that McAuliffe -- who's never held elective office -- managed to look "mostly gubernatorial" in the debate.

Presidential Race

Jonathan Bernstein argues in Salon that Ted Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton. CW: Bernstein doesn't say so, but I think the major reason Cruz would be a viable candidate is that -- unlike Michele Bachmann & Herman Cain, fer instance (both of whom Bernstein compares unfavorably with Cruz), Cruz is not stupid. So far he hasn't seen any reason to pretend to be a mainstream politician, but I'll bet he knows how.

News Ledes

AP: "Searchers rummaging through vacant houses in a neighborhood where three female bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags should be prepared to find one or two more victims, a police chief said Sunday.... A 35-year-old registered sex offender in custody is a suspect in the deaths...."

Guardian: "Two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week, when a training exercise went wrong, the US Navy said, angering environmentalists."

New York Times: "Chris Froome, the lanky Kenya-born Briton who has dominated professional stage-race cycling all year, rode to victory in the 100th Tour de France on Sunday, cheered by thousands who gathered near the Arc de Triomphe in the race's first-ever twilight finish."

New York Times: "Japanese voters appeared to hand a decisive victory on Sunday to the governing Liberal Democratic Party in upper house elections, restoring the once-discredited party to a virtual monopoly on political power for the first time in six years."

Guardian: "King Philippe I has become Belgium's seventh monarch after the abdication of his father, Albert II, amid uncertainty about the power of the monarchy to heal the fractured country."

The Commentariat -- July 20, 2013

Mark Landler & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "On Friday, reading an unusually personal, handwritten statement, Mr. Obama summed up his views with a single line: 'Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.' That moment punctuated a turbulent week marked by dozens of phone calls to the White House from black leaders, angry protests that lit up the Internet and streets from Baltimore to Los Angeles, and anguished soul-searching by Mr. Obama. Aides say the president closely monitored the public reaction and talked repeatedly about the case with friends and family":

     ... The transcript is here.

... Charles Blow: "On Friday the president reached past one man and one boy and one case in one small Florida town, across centuries of slavery and oppression and discrimination and self-destructive behavior, and sought to place this charged case in a cultural context." ...

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. -- W. E. B. Du Bois

Substitute 'woman' for 'Negro.' Trust me, gentlemen; it works. -- Marie ...

Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: David Brooks listened to the President's speech, & though he learned something he absolutely never ever thought of because, well, freeeeedom, he managed to mishear or misinterpret about everything else. ...

... By contrast with President Obama, we could have President Limbaugh. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link:

... Ta-Nehisi Coates in the New York Times: because President Obama has been repeatedly subjected to racial profiling, "it is hard to comprehend the thinking that compelled the president, in a week like this, to flirt with the possibility of inviting the New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, the proprietor of the largest local racial profiling operation in the country, into his cabinet. Kelly's name has been floated by New York politicians of both parties as the ideal replacement for Janet Napolitano, who resigned last week. The president responded by calling Kelly 'well-qualified' and an 'outstanding leader in New York.'" CW: racial profiling aside, the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's an A-No. 1 prick. No matter who you are, he's better than you are. Just ask him. ...

... Digby has more: Kelly's "dabbling in the neocon swamp completely disqualifies him for anything remotely associated with anti-terrorism policy. Remember: this is their credo: 'Anyone can go to Baghdad. Real men go to Tehran.' This person shouldn't be anywhere near a national police agency charged with monitoring terrorism. Who knows what his agenda is?"

Harriet Sherwood of the Guardian: "The US is to host talks with Israel and Palestinian negotiators in the next week following a breakthrough in the drive to revive the moribund Middle East peace process. John Kerry, US secretary of state, called the move a 'significant step forward'. The agreement, announced on Friday evening after four months of intensive diplomacy, fell short of a hoped for face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two sides."

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sharply and repeatedly challenged the Obama administration's claim that courts have no power over targeted drone killings of American citizens overseas. Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the United States District Court here was hearing the government's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by relatives of three Americans killed in two drone strikes in Yemen in 2011: Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric who had joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; Mr. Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who had no involvement in terrorism; and Samir Khan, a 30-year-old North Carolina man who had become a propagandist for the same Qaeda branch. Judge Collyer said she was 'troubled' by the government's assertion that it could kill American citizens it designated as dangerous, with no role for courts to review the decision."

Matt Zapotosky & Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "In a divided decision that will probably rile journalists across the country, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that reporter James Risen [of the New York Times] can be forced to testify at the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with 10 felony counts in a federal leak case. The majority of judges ruled, effectively, that neither the First Amendment nor common law offer protection to journalists who promise anonymity to their sources from having to testify about them in criminal proceedings."

In case you missed Paul Krugman yesterday, he writes that "China is in big trouble." Economy-wise, that is.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Helen Thomas, a wire service correspondent and columnist whose sharp questions from the front row of the White House press room annoyed nine presidents but pried loose information about the workings of the federal government, died July 20 at her home in Washington. She was 92." The Post's slideshow is here. ...

... Thomas's New York Times obituary is here. The Times has a slideshow here.

AP: " Israel will release some 'hardcore' Palestinian prisoners as part of the new breakthrough by Secretary of State John Kerry in efforts to restart Mideast talks, a senior Israeli official said Saturday. The remarks by Yuval Steinitz were the first Israeli comment detailing the terms for the negotiations since Kerry on Friday night announced that the two sides will meet soon in Washington to formalize an agreement on relaunching peace talks that collapsed in 2008."

Guardian: "Venezuela said it was ending efforts to improve ties with Washington after the Obama administration's nominee for envoy to the United Nations vowed to oppose what she called a crackdown on civil society in the 'repressive' OPEC nation."

Reuters: "Trayvon Martin's parents joined celebrities and hundreds of protesters on Saturday in rallies across the country to express anger over the acquittal of the man who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager."

AP: "Five employees of an Italian cruise company were convicted Saturday of manslaughter in the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 people, receiving sentences of less than three years that lawyers for victims and survivors criticized as too lenient. The guilty verdicts for multiple manslaughter and negligence were the first reached in the sinking of the cruise liner carrying more than 4,000 crew and passengers near the Tuscan shore in January 2012."