The Commentariat -- July 11, 2013

Linda Greenhouse writes a marvelous post on Justice Ginsberg's lonely dissent the Fisher v. the University of Texas. If you tie Greenhouse's argument to Scott Lemieux's excellent little dissertation on the resurfacing of Dred Scott in the Shelby County v. Holder decision (which Greenhouse does not do), what you'll find is that, in the interest of compromise, in 2009 even the liberal justices on the Court tacitly endorsed Dred Scott. Dissent matters. ...

** ... Tom Edsall, in the New York Times, "To understand the depth of the damage that the Supreme Court's June 25 decision, Shelby County v. Holder, has inflicted on the voting rights of African-Americans, you have to measure it against the backdrop of the takeover of state legislatures, primarily in the South, by the Republican Party.... What stands out, looking at the data, is how effective, in purely political terms, the Republican's 'white' strategy has turned out to be at the state level."

The disclosures of the last few weeks have made it clear that a secret body of law authorizing secret surveillance overseen by a largely secret court has infringed on Americans' civil liberties and privacy rights without offering the public the ability to judge for themselves whether these broad powers are appropriate or necessary. -- Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) ...

... Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers tasked with overseeing national security policy say a pattern of misleading testimony by senior Obama administration officials has weakened Congress's ability to rein in government surveillance. Members of Congress say officials have either denied the existence of a broad program that collects data on millions of Americans or, more commonly, made statements that left some lawmakers with the impression that the government was conducting only narrow, targeted surveillance operations." CW: worth reading the fine print. ...

... CW: The Accidental Whistleblower. The Wallsten article crystallizes the utility of Snowden's revelations. While I won't disagree with those who argue that Snowden is more leaker than whistleblower, he is certainly a whistleblower to the extent that he helped expose the Obama administration's misleading & untruthful statements to Congress -- apparently during classified briefings as well as in public testimony. In reading over the various interviews Snowden has given, it isn't clear that he was aware of specific misstatements or perjurious Congressional testimony, so the whistleblowing aspect of his leaks appears to be somewhat inadvertent. The closest Snowden comes to acknowledging whistleblowing is at the point he tells Glenn Greenwald, "we were actually involved in misleading the public and misleading all publics, not just the American public, in order to create a certain mindset in the global consciousness, and I was actually a victim of that." In toto, his rationale for leaking the documents seems to be personal pique: "I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talked to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded." Nonetheless, one doesn't have to hold a whistleblower (or his obnoxious cheerleaders) in high esteem to appreciate the beneficial effects of -- in this case, at least some of -- his revelations.

Michael Scherer of Time: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to meet Thursday with his fellow Democrats to discuss taking extraordinary measures--commonly called the 'Nuclear Option'--that would do away with filibusters of some of the President's nominees facing Senate confirmation." Scherer provides a pretty good history on how Reid got to where he is (wherever that is).

Jonathan Chait: "... a hatred for lawmaking has emerged in the Obama years, first as a Republican tactic, and then as an apparently genuine belief system.... [Conservatives] Rich Lowry and William Kristol ... urge House Republicans to kill immigration reform, because passing it would involve legislating, and legislating is bad.... The hatred for legislating has gained a strong enough hold over the conservative mind as to render them unable to consider the merits of any bill at all." See also yesterday's Commentariat. ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "... the lawmaking process -- you know, bills being written, introduced, voted on, that sort of thing -- has, in the House at least, been given over almost entirely to this legislative kabuki, where the point of the exercise isn't passing laws but making statements and taking positions. The current Congress is on pace to be the least productive in history when you measure by actual laws passed.... This reached its apogee when they took their 37th vote to repeal Obamacare a couple months back, in part because freshman Tea Party members hadn't had the chance to perform the ritual." ...

... Steve Benen catches a new pitch from Republicans desperate to think of an excuse (CW: other than "we hate Mexicans") to tank immigration reform: "Republicans have to kill immigration reform because of the delay in the employer mandate in health care reform. Does this make sense? I'm afraid not.... So why bother with this nonsense at all? Because Republicans aren't just looking for an excuse; they're also looking for a way to avoid blame.... Republicans are, in effect, hoping to say it's the White House's fault that they killed immigration reform...." ...

... Alec MacGillis of The New Republic: "... by attempting to sabotage a law of the land they reject [-- the Affordable Care Act --], Republicans have made it increasingly easy for their more outspoken members to argue against legislation many of their leaders support [-- like immigration reform]. No one said nullification isn't volatile stuff to play with." ...

... Dana Milbank on hearings the House GOP is conducting to get to the bottom of why Obama is delaying the employer mandate portion of the law they've voted 37 times to repeal: "In the case of the 'employer mandate,' even a number of liberals agree that it's a bad policy. Republicans could probably find support for repealing that provision, if they weren't hellbent on repealing the whole law. But it's so much more cathartic to call a hearing, assume a posture of umbrage, and use words such as 'calamity' and 'fiscal time bomb,' and 'socialism' and 'dictatorship.'" ...

... Russell Berman, et al., of the Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urged their House Republican colleagues to pass immigration reform legislation in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, with the Speaker arguing his conference would be 'in a much weaker position' if it failed to act. A divided House Republican conference met for more than two hours in the basement of the Capitol to begin hashing out a response to the sweeping immigration bill the Senate passed last month." ...

... CW: I love this Politico headline: "GOP Reaching out to Dems on Immigration." Remember, Politico is not supposed to be the Onion. There actually is some substance to the article: Boehner is trying to get Pelosi to fall for the piecemeal plan. I guess that would be BORDER SECURITY but no path to citizenship. There are ways Pelosi could finesse this approach, but only if Boehner were as stupid as he sometimes seems. And he isn't.

... Michael O'Brien of NBC News: "Former President George W. Bush waded ever so gently into the fierce debate in Washington over immigration reform, urging lawmakers to reach a 'positive resolution' on the issue, and warning against disparaging immigrants."

Peter Kasperowicz of the Hill: "The House on Wednesday voted to block the enforcement of light bulb standards that many say would effectively force people to buy more expensive compact fluorescent bulbs.... The government was authorized to impose standards for bulbs under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, although Congress has delayed implementation of the standards for several years." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "Obamacare repeal? Check. Abortion? Check. Gee, what other pointless distraction could House Republicans return to for the pointless umpteenth time? Of course. Back from 2011, and 2012, ladies and gentlemen: The Light Bulb War of 2013.... Because gawd knows the American people don't need to be saving money on energy bills if it means that we have to live in the 21st century and acknowledge that saving energy and money is a good thing." ...

... Steve Benen: "Not long after President Obama took office -- it's interesting how the radicalization of the GOP just happened to coincide with the Democrat's inauguration -- Republican policymakers began looking at the Bush/Cheney-backed energy bill as an authoritarian scourge that sought to take away Americans' light bulbs. By 2012, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, and others insisted that the 2007 law 'bans' traditional incandescent bulbs, which in turn takes away consumers' choices. In case reality makes any difference at all, there is no 'ban' on the old bulbs, only a policy that makes bulbs more energy efficient -- a policy that's working." ...

... AND to Hell with Hungry People. Erik Wasson of the Hill: "The House will vote Thursday on a new farm bill in a major test for Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and the rest of the House GOP leadership team. The new bill includes updated subsidies for farmers but strips a reauthorization of the food stamp program that was included in the last farm bill."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "To the growing frustration of those who won a long and contentious internal administration debate over the issue of supplying arms [to the Syrian opposition], members of the Senate and House intelligence committees remain divided on the proposal to send light weapons and ammunition to the rebel forces. Although administration officials initially estimated that supplies would be distributed 'within weeks,' delivery has not begun. Briefings and personal calls to Capitol Hill this week from top-level officials, including Vice President Biden, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and CIA Director John O. Brennan, have failed to shake strongly held views, according to administration officials and committee members."

Did Mubarak Bureaucrats Take a Page from the GOP Playbook? Ben Hubbard & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "... since the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, life has somehow gotten better for many people across Egypt: Gas lines have disappeared, power cuts have stopped and the police have returned to the street. The apparently miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role -- intentionally or not -- in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Mr. Morsi."

Winfield House, the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James.Business as Usual. Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Barack Obama has rewarded some of his most active campaign donors with plum jobs in foreign embassies, with the average amount raised by recent or imminent appointees soaring to $1.8m per post, according to a Guardian analysis.... Career diplomats in Washington are increasingly alarmed at how [the practice] has grown. One former ambassador described it as the selling of public office. On Tuesday, Obama's chief money-raiser Matthew Barzun became the latest major donor to be nominated as an ambassador, when the White House put him forward as the next representative to the Court of St James's, a sought-after posting whose plush residence comes with a garden second only in size to that of Buckingham Palace....In total, nine sought-after postings in Europe, the Caribbean or Asia have been given to major donors in recent weeks, with a further three in France, Switzerland and Hungary earmarked to come soon." ...

... Alex Spillius of the London Telegraph writes a rather glowing -- and brief -- profile of Barzun.

A Friend of Ron Paul's. Molly Redden of The New Republic: "Recording a video of yourself loading a shotgun in a public park on the 4^th of July, in D.C., (as [Adam] Kokesh did), where carrying a loaded weapon is illegal, and posting it on YouTube for your 75,000 some-odd subscribers, then insisting to news outlets that the gun was real as police are investigating the video -- that's a pretty sure way to draw the U.S. Park Police to your house and wind up arrested, particularly if you're holding onto a controlled substance (hallucinogenic mushrooms) while in possession of a firearm.... Kokesh, a former Marine and activist of six years, is like a one-man libertarian Code Pink.... His closest flirtations with the establishment were his Ron Paul-sponsored run for Congress in 2010, a tape of interviews with Occupy D.C. that he edited for maximum idiocy, and a brief-lived show with the Russian-American network RT." See also Wednesday's News Ledes. ...

... CW: In fairness to Ron Paul, I should have written "Former Friend": Kokesh "had fallen out of favor with Paulites -- in part, by shoving his way onstage as Ron Paul was preparing to give a speech, alarming Paul's security detail," Redden writes. For those of you so enamored of the "right to be left alone" aspect of libertarianism, maybe Kokesh is a better exemplar than Ed Snowden, although Snowden himself claimed to be gun-crazed: "... that’s why I'm goddamned glad for the second amendment. Me and all my lunatic, gun-toting NRA compatriots would be on the steps of Congress before the C-Span feed finished." It is curious, isn't it, that quite a few people who say they want to be left alone also make extraordinary efforts to gain media attention?

Chuck Todd is not happy with All Zimmerman All the Time:

... Dumb Down the News! Matthew Cooper of the National Journal on MSNBC's declining ratings. One theory to explain the slide: the evening hosts are "too erudite, too sophisticated and too earnest to hook a wide swath of viewers."

Local News

Craig Jarvis, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Hours after Gov. Pat McCrory threatened to veto a controversial abortion bill unless his concerns about it were addressed, a House committee approved on Wednesday a new version of the bill that apparently answers the governor's questions.... The main changes were relaxing the proposed standards that abortion clinics would have to meet ... and allowing pregnant women to take abortion-inducing medicine at home after taking an initial dose at a clinic under a doctor's supervision. Most other provisions in the bill were left intact.... The new bill was worked into an unrelated bill and brought up in a House judiciary committee meeting without any advance notice."

... Under Turner's bill, "men taking the drugs would continue to be tested for heart problems, receive counseling about possible side effects and receive information about 'pursuing celibacy as a viable lifestyle choice.'"

Workers Trump WalMart. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "D.C. lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill requiring some large retailers to pay their employees a 50 percent premium over the city's minimum wage, a day after Wal-Mart warned that the law would jeopardize its plans in the city. The retail giant had linked the future of at least three planned stores in the District to the proposal. But its ultimatum did not change any legislators' minds. The 8 to 5 roll call matched the outcome of an earlier vote on the matter, taken before Wal-Mart's warning." ...

... MEANWHILE ... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "According to [multibillionaire] Charles Koch, the U.S. needs to get rid of the minimum wage, which he counts as a major obstacle to economic growth. On Wednesday, the Charles Koch Foundation launched a $200,000 media campaign in Wichita, Kansas, with a hint of expanding it elsewhere.... The Kansas ad does not specifically mention the minimum wage, but it does claim that Americans earning $34,000 a year should count themselves as lucky, because that puts them in the top 1 percent of the world. 'That is the power of economic freedom,' the ad concluded.... Although he deems low-wage workers part of a 'culture of dependency' on the government, Koch Industries is on the receiving end of oil subsidies, government contracts, and bailouts.... Koch maintained his and his brother's political efforts are not for their own benefit, but for the country's greater good." ...

... OR, as Digby rephrases "The Koch philosophy: You're richer than the average Somali so STFU."

Regina Medina of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Attorney General Kathleen Kane [D] is expected to announce Thursday that her office won't defend the state in a federal lawsuit that challenges Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage."

Do as I Say, Not as I Do. Amber Sutherland & Carl Campanile of the New York Post: "Eliot Spitzer failed to vote in last year's presidential election -- just four days after penning a column proclaiming 'Why I Am Voting for Barack Obama.' ... A spokeswoman said Spitzer couldn't make it to the polls because he had to high-tail it to San Francisco to serve as a paid co-anchor of Current TV's round-table election coverage.... Any voter can show up in person at the local board office to fill out an absentee ballot up to a day before the election, according to a Board of Elections spokeswoman." CW: evidently the redemptive exercise does not require a stint performing extraordinary public service, such as bothering to pick up & complete an absentee ballot. ...

... Nevertheless, Spitzer is ahead in the first poll taken since his announcement. ...

... Sex & the City. Gail Collins: "Nobody knows what drove Spitzer to jump in. Did Weiner's entry trigger a case of disgraced-politician competitiveness? Is he bored? Did the fact that he's run through every possible cable news show option send him into a panic? He said that people were always coming up to him on the street and urging him to get back in the game.... Anthony Weiner said people were always coming up to him saying he should run. (Although some, Weiner added, also said: 'Spitzer! You're Governor Spitzer!') New York is a liberal place, but can there be that much hunger for sex-scandal-scarred candidates?"

News Ledes

New York Times: "The judge in the George Zimmerman trial agreed on Thursday to instruct jurors to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter against Mr. Zimmerman in addition to the second-degree murder charge he is facing. The prosecution presented closing arguments, and the defense is expected to do the same on Friday morning. The jury could begin deliberations as early as Friday."

New York Times: "Investigators said Thursday that they had linked the man believed by many to have been the Boston Strangler to DNA found in the home of a woman thought to be the Strangler's last victim in a string of unsolved murders that petrified this city in the early 1960s and has perplexed it ever since.... They identified a near-certain match with Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to the murders (and two more), but was never prosecuted for the crimes." ...

... Boston Globe: "Albert H. DeSalvo's body will be exhumed to allow for new forensic testing that may conclusively prove DeSalvo murdered Mary Sullivan in her Boston apartment in 1964, the last killing attributed to the Boston Strangler who terrorized Greater Boston for two years in the early 1960s."

The Commentariat -- July 10, 2013

A Real Scandal. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "... at least three planned Wal-Marts will not open in [Washington, D.C.,] if a super-minimum-wage proposal becomes law. A team of Wal-Mart officials and lobbyists, including a high-level executive from the mega-retailer's Arkansas headquarters, walked the halls of the John A. Wilson Building on Tuesday afternoon, delivering the news to D.C. Council members. The company's hardball tactics come out of a well-worn playbook that involves successfully using Wal-Mart's leverage in the form of jobs and low-priced goods to fend off legislation and regulation that could cut into its profits and set precedent in other potential markets. In the Wilson Building, elected officials have found their reliable liberal, pro-union political sentiments in conflict with their desire to bring amenities to underserved neighborhoods."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "James B. Comey, President Obama's nominee for F.B.I. director, said on Tuesday that he no longer believed it was legal to waterboard detainees under United States law. His statements contrasted with the position he took in 2005 when, as President George W. Bush's deputy attorney general, he oversaw the government's legal opinions." ...

... Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "James B. Comey ... defended the National Security Agency's surveillance programs Tuesday as a critical tool for counterterrorism but said he would be open to more transparency with the secret court that oversees the government's collection operations." ...

A judge has to hear both sides of a case before deciding. What Fisa does is not adjudication, but approval. This works just fine when it deals with individual applications for warrants, but the 2008 amendment has turned the Fisa court into administrative agency making rules for others to follow. It is not the bailiwick of judges to make policy. -- Former FISC Judge James Robertson ...

... Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "A former federal judge who ... has broken ranks to criticise the system of secret courts as unfit for purpose in the wake of recent revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. James Robertson, who retired from the District of Columbia circuit in 2010, was one of a select group of judges who presided over the so-called Fisa courts.... But he says he was shocked to hear of recent changes to allow more sweeping authorisations of programmes such as the gathering of US phone records, and called for a reform of the system to allow counter-arguments to be heard."

NEW. Greg Sargent: "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act just easily passed out of the Senate Health and Education Committee -- with three Republican Senators voting for it. The measure, which would end discrimination in hiring decisions based on sexual orientation for all but the smallest businesses, got Yes votes from co-sponsor Mark Kirk (a gay marriage supporter), as well as Lisa Murkowski and ... Orrin Hatch.... This is going to put Republicans in a difficult spot, both in the Senate and (if it passes the Upper Chamber) perhaps even more so in the House." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The federal government is moving quickly to extend benefits like health care and life insurance to gay and lesbian married couples in response to the Supreme Court decision that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. And in a sign that the political momentum from that ruling is being felt elsewhere, a Senate committee is expected to approve a bill on Wednesday that would grant protection from discrimination to people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It would be the first measure of its kind to advance to the floor in either house of Congress."

Jeremy Peters: "In a move that could bring to a head six months of smoldering tensions over a Republican blockade of certain presidential nominees, Senate Democrats are preparing to force confirmation votes on a series of President Obama's most contentious appointments as early as this week. If Republicans object, Democrats plan to threaten to use the impasse to change the Senate rules that allow the minority party wide latitude to stymie action." CW: get that? Democrats "plan to threaten." They do not plan to actually change the rules.

The Saboteurs. Greg Sargent: "It's now become accepted as normal that Republicans will threaten explicitly to allow harm to the country to get what they want, and will allow untold numbers of Americans to be hurt rather than even enter into negotiations over the sort of compromises that lie at the heart of basic governing.... On Meet the Press this weekend, [Chuck] Todd ... accus[ed] Republicans of 'trying to sabotage [ObamaCare].' The current GOP campaign ... is about making it harder for uninsured Americans to gain access to coverage under a law passed and signed by a democratically elected Congress and President, and upheld by the Supreme Court...." ...

     ... To wit: Jonathan Weisman & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders on Tuesday seized on the Obama administration's one-year delay of a mandate for larger employers to offer health insurance or face penalties, demanding the same postponement for the mandate on individual insurance purchases and promising a series of showdowns aimed at dividing Democrats from the White House." ...

... Emma Dumain & Meredith Shiner of Roll Call: "House GOP leaders head into a crucial immigration meeting with their rank and file Wednesday without a clear strategy for passing a bill and a host of competing factions to corral. Though the afternoon conference is being heralded as a step toward building consensus within the rank and file, members acknowledge it's unlikely to produce a unified path forward." Via Greg Sargent. ...

... Brian Beutler of TPM: "The already narrow path to enacting comprehensive immigration reform pretty much disappeared in the past 24 hours." ...

... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "In a joint article on Tuesday, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol and National Review's Rich Lowry urged House Republicans to kill comprehensive immigration reform 'without reservation,' claiming there is 'certainly no urgency to pass it.' ... The pundits do not think Hispanic voters would help the GOP in 2014 and 2016 elections. Rather than bring 11 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, Kristol and Lowry argue that Republicans would be better served appealing to 'working-class and younger voters concerned about economic opportunity and upward mobility.'" CW Translation: "Stick with white people." ...

... Like Li'l Randy's Favorite White Person. Alana Goodman of the "hyper-conseervative" Washington Free Beacon: "A close aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) who co-wrote the senator's 2011 book spent years working as a pro-secessionist radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist.... Jack Hunter ... joined Paul's office as his social media director in August 2012. From 1999 to 2012, Hunter was a South Carolina radio shock jock known as the 'Southern Avenger.' He has weighed in on issues such as racial pride and Hispanic immigration, and stated his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. During public appearances, Hunter often wore a mask on which was printed a Confederate flag. Prior to his radio career, while in his 20s, Hunter was a chairman in the League of the South, which 'advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.'" Hunter says he's changed some of his views (CW: apparently sometime between August 2012 & now -- must have been quite an epiphany). ...

... Jonathan Chait on why racists love Li'l Randy & Big Ron: "One strange thing about Ron and Rand Paul is that racists keep popping up in their inner circles for no apparent reason. Ron Paul was surrounded by neo-Confederates and published a virulently racist newsletter.... The deep connection between the Pauls and the neo-Confederate movement ... is a reflection of the fact that white supremacy is a much more important historical constituency for anti-government ideas than libertarians like to admit." ...

... Jamelle Bouie in the American Prospect: "In 2009, [Rand Paul's] campaign spokesperson resigned after racist images were discovered on his MySpace wall, and in 2010, Paul landed in a little hot water during an interview with Rachel Maddow, when he told her that he would have opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act for its impositions on businesses, i.e., they were no longer allowed to discriminate against blacks and other minorities.... Hiring a John Wilkes Booth sympathizer fits the picture of the Pauls as a political family that -- regardless of what's in their hearts -- is comfortable working with right-wing racists." ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "The question I have is whether being branded as a conservative who tolerates neo-Confederate racism will be an asset or liability. In today's Republican Party, the answer isn't entirely clear." ...

... ** CW: Don't delude yourself with the notion that the Pauls are rare birds. As Scott Lemieux lays out in a Lawyers, Guns & Money post, there are five Tenthers sitting on the Supreme Court. Lemieux points out that the logic of the Roberts decision on the Voting Rights Act is exactly the same rationale that the Taney court applied in the notorious Dred Scott case, which was, um, overturned by a Civil War & two Constitutional Amendments: "Roberts's opinion rests on an utterly anachronistic vision of federal power that was highly dubious before the Civil War Amendments and was rendered completely nonsensical after they were passed. And while the moral implications of compact theory were worse in the antebellum era, as a matter of constitutional law the argument is even worse in the 21st century than it was in the middle of the 19th. The fact that this anachronistic states' rights interpretation of federal power has consistently been used to oppose federal protections of civil rights and is still being used to do so isn't a coincidence, but it's wrong on every level. We fought a civil war against the premises that Shelby County uncritically invokes. But striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is the latest example of the party of Lincoln transforming into the party of Calhoun."

Your Government Actually at Work. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "Federal regulators are cracking down on questionable debt collection practices by some of the nation's biggest lenders. The push comes after revelations that some of the same practices that have haunted the foreclosures of homes -- like robo-signing and faulty documentation -- have cropped up in efforts to recoup delinquent credit card debt.... On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to assert at a hearing that it has the authority to regulate banks' debt collection practices under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. The act bars the firms from employing 'unfair, deceptive or abusive acts.'"

"A Coup Is a Coup Is a Coup." Dana Milbank: "How long can the euphemisms endure? Egypt's interim government said Tuesday that it hopes to hold elections in six months -- at which time Egypt would again be a democracy eligible for foreign aid. It's theoretically possible the Obama administration could hold out for that long without naming the Situation in Egypt -- but that would be quite a coup."

Maureen Dowd has a date with a sexy French Socialist politician, Arnaud Montebourg. Nice working vacation.

Congressional Races

Tal Kopan of Politico: "Newark Mayor Cory Booker is blowing away the rest of the field in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s Senate seat, according to a new poll on Tuesday. Booker had the support of 52 percent of those Democrats surveyed in the Quinnipiac poll, compared with 10 percent for Rep. Frank Pallone, who on Monday got the endorsement of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg's family. The other candidates in the race were in single digits: Rep. Rush Holt was supported by 8 percent and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver got 3 percent. Booker also topped potential Republican challengers."

I've considered it because people have requested me considering it. I'm still waiting to see, you know, what the lineup will be and hoping that, there again, there will be some new blood, new energy -- not just kind of picking from the same old politicians in the state. -- Former Alaska Half-Governor & 2008 U.S. Vice Presidential Runner-Up Sarah Palin, on whether or not she will run for the U.S. Senate next year

There again, no estimate on what fraction of a grueling six-year term she could, you know, be persuaded to serve. -- Constant Weader (Thanks to Julie L. for the link.)

Local News

New York Times Editors: North Carolina "state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in th courtroom and access to the ballot.... North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build."

Bad News Bob Gets More Bad News. Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Sean McDonnell, the 21-year-old son of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, was arrested Saturday in Charlottesville and charged with public swearing and intoxication.... The arrest is the latest trouble for Virginia's first family, beset by inquiries into its acceptance of personal gifts from the governor's political donors and its use of mansion resources over the last three-and-a-half years." ...

... Hot Pockets. Alix Bryan of WTVR Richmond: "On Friday, July 5, Gov. Bob McDonnell reimbursed the Commonwealth almost $2,400 for food and supplies taken by his children from the kitchen of the Virginia Executive Mansion.... Most of the items were given to three McDonnell children when they returned to college after weekend or holiday visits.... Virginia Executive Mansion chef Todd Schneider faces four felony counts of embezzlement for allegedly removing food from the kitchen. In the court documents for his own case, Schneider alleged that the governor's family took items from the executive kitchen." But the kids' pilfering is decidedly small potatoes compared to ...

... Update. Bigger Bad News for Bad News Bob. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan.... The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor's wife, Maureen, in 2011.... The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 -- funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations....All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor's company and its products." ...

... CW: maybe McDonnell should follow the advice of those apparently false rumors that he would resign shortly.

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Eliot Spitzer is back, and for late-night comedy writers, he might as well be manna from heaven."

News Ledes

CNN: "Iraq veteran turned pro-gun activist Adam Kokesh was arrested on two charges, including having a gun while in possession of an illicit drug, police said Wednesday. His arrest comes after authorities late Tuesday searched the suburban Washington home of Kokesh, who recently made headlines with his July Fourth video posted to YouTube in which he loaded a shotgun in the middle of the national capital's Freedom Plaza." The Washington Post story is here.

Guardian: "The defence has rested its case in the trial of the WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, rounding off its portrayal of the US soldier as a young man who accepted that he was wrong to have leaked a vast trove of state secrets but who had no 'general evil intent' to 'aid the enemy'."

New York Times: "The new military-led government [of Egypt] accused Mohamed Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday of a campaign to incite violence against their foes before and after his ouster as president, offering a new explanation for the week-old takeover and hinting that the group might be banned once again."

New York Times: Joseph "Massino, the former boss of the Bonanno crime family [who was serving two life sentences], will be released from federal custody in 60 days, a period the government requested to put in place security arrangements to keep Mr. Massino safe from what are presumed to be a considerable number of enemies. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had sought a reduction of Mr. Massino's sentence, citing his extensive cooperation: while incarcerated, Mr. Massino had recorded conversations with a Mafia captain, and he has provided investigators with information about hundreds of people associated with not only the Bonanno family, which Mr. Massino took control of in 1991, but also the other crime families across New York."

Orlando Sentinel: "By early Friday afternoon, jurors should be deliberating whether Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman is a murderer. After nearly a year and a half of public debate about racial profiling and gun rights, six jurors ... will decide whether Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in self-defense or committed a crime."

Boston Globe: "Escorted by a Humvee filled with heavily armed law enforcement officers, a white prisoner van carrying Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev roared into US District Court in Boston today, rushing past about a dozen people who shouted encouragement to the alleged Islamic terrorist." ...

     ... Update: "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, made his first public appearance since the April 15 attack Wednesday in a federal court room and pleaded not guilty to a sweeping terrorism indictment that carries the possibility of the death penalty. With 30 bombing victims in the courtroom, some wearing the Boston Marathon gear, Tsarnaev entered 'not guilty' pleas in a thick accent seven times to groups of charges including using a weapon of mass destruction."

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday found that Apple violated antitrust law in helping raise the retail price of e-books, saying the company 'played a central role in facilitating and executing' a conspiracy with five big publishers."

The Commentariat -- July 9, 2013

... sex sells on Reality Chex, too, and best of all to me, it was free. -- Ken Winkes, on yesterday's Comments thread

Okay, Ken, closed for business. This bitch will not be servicing you people today. -- Constant Weader

Mark Mazzetti & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Increasingly frustrated by his dealings with President Hamid Karzai, President Obama is giving serious consideration to speeding up the withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan and to a 'zero option' that would leave no American troops there after next year, according to American and European officials." CW: this piece exemplifies the strategic leak.

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Seeking to reassure Egyptians and the world about its intention to return to civilian democracy, the military-led interim government on Tuesday laid out a brisk timetable to overhaul Egypt's suspended Constitution, elect a new Parliament and choose a new president, all in the space of about six months." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the Obama administration would study the events in Egypt to determine whether the military seizing of power constitutes a military coup d’état under law. But he added that the administration planned to take its time in making such a determination and ruled out any suspension of aid in the near term." ...

... Matthew Lee of the AP: "While not directly ordering a pre-cooked outcome of a legal review into Mohammed Morsi's ouster last week, [U.S.] officials said Monday that the White House has made clear in inter-agency discussions that continued aid to Egypt's military is a U.S. national security priority that would be jeopardized by a coup finding."

Ginger Gibson of Politico: "House Speaker John Boehner is sticking to his position: The House will not vote on the Senate-passed immigration bill." CW: hilariously, he also said, "It's time for Congress to act."

The Menu. Kevin Drum on the House Republicans' latest debt-ceiling hostage-taking plan: "The tea partiers have painted themselves into a corner. The economy is slowly recovering, and the deficit is falling, but they've promised ever more hostage taking anyway, and now they have to follow through. But their proposals combine arrogance and amateur-hour theatrics in a way that practically guarantees failure. They sound like a bunch of eight-year-olds who think they've come up with an oh-so-clever way to trap dad into raising their allowance or something." ...

... Alain Sherter of CBS News: "The White House on Monday revised downward its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year, citing government spending cuts, the ongoing recession in Europe, and slowing expansion in China and other emerging markets.... The federal budget deficit is shrinking faster than forecast, the budget office also said. The White House estimates the current budget gap at $759 million, or 4.7 percent of GDP, down from its April estimate of $973 million. 'That is down from a deficit of 10.1 percent four years ago -- representing the fastest period of deficit reduction since the years immediately following World War II,' wrote OMB chief Sylvia Mathews Burwell...." ...

... Katrina vanden Heuvel, in the Washington Post: "Few commentators even mention that most of the 195,000 jobs added last month, as well as the ones added in the last few years, are low-paying, temporary, part time and usually without benefits. Much of the job growth we have seen is in restaurant, retail and temporary work -- the sort of jobs that rarely offer basic security, let alone a foothold for people to climb into the middle class.... The crisis is disproportionately affecting minorities and younger Americans.... The Congressional Progressive Caucus has stitched together an array of strong proposals in its Back to Work Budget, which ought to be a starting point for a serious jobs push by Congress."

ACLU: " The Senate Judiciary Committee should thoroughly examine the record of James Comey, President Obama's choice to be the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during his first confirmation hearing tomorrow, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. As deputy attorney general during the Bush administration, Comey twice approved memos authorizing torture, including waterboarding, which President Obama outlawed when he took office in 2009."

Hayley Tsukayama of the Washington Post: "The Electronic Privacy Information Committee has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court on Monday questioning whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had the authority to order Verizon to turn over data from domestic phone records.... The privacy group joins several other organizations that have filed lawsuits objecting to the NSA's surveillance program. In addition to several cases filed by the American Civil Liberties Union at state and district levels, Google and Microsoft have both challenged gag orders that prevent them from disclosing what data they are forced to give the government under a separate surveillance program, called PRISM. The companies say that the gag order inhibits their First Amendment right to free expression." ...

... The Ed Snowden Interview, Part 2:

... The accompanying Guardian story, by Glenn Greenwald & others, is here. ...

... Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake has the full transcript of the interview.

... Tom Hamburger & Robert O'Harrow, Jr., of the Washington Post: "... if the past is a guide, the government is not likely to scale back its reliance on Booz Allen or other large contractors anytime soon.... Although intelligence agency reliance on outside firms has declined some in recent years, the latest available estimates still show that about 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget is spent on contractors. And big, well-established companies continue to have outsize influence. That is particularly true for Booz Allen.... Nearly half of the company's 24,500 workers have top-secret clearance. The company also has deep connections within the defense and intelligence communities, including James R. Clapper Jr., a former Booz Allen executive who is the current director of national intelligence, and R. James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA, who was a senior vice president at the firm until 2008. The man currently heading Booz Allen's intelligence operations, retired Vice Adm. John Michael McConnell, was the head of the National Security Agency in the mid-1990s and was appointed in 2007 by President George W. Bush to lead the government's newly established Office of the Director of National Intelligence...."

Asad Hashim of Al Jazeera: "Following the [bin Laden] operation, which [the U.S.] deliberately conducted without the knowledge of the Pakistani government or its military, a Commission was set up in Pakistan to examine 'how the US was able to execute a hostile military mission, which lasted around three hours, deep inside Pakistan', and how Pakistan's 'intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden] was residing in [Abbottabad]'.... The Commission's 336-page report is scathing, holding both the government and the military responsible for 'gross incompetence', leading to 'collective failures' that allowed Bin Laden to escape detection, and the United States to perpetrate 'an act of war'." ...

... Noah Rayman of Time summarizes the commission's major findings.

AND Driftglass summarizes whatever it was David Brooks wrote for today's NYT.

Local News

Jonathan Tilove of the Austin American Statesman: "Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday he won't seek re-election as governor." With video. ...

... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Texans will likely not go into mourning. In a poll conducted in February by the University of Texas, only 26 percent said they'd vote for Mr. Perry, a third said they would vote against him and another third said it depended on his opponent." Rosenthal highlights some of Perry's reactionary actions, remarks & policies.

Pictured below: "The Washington Monument is encased in 500 tons of scaffolding while it undergoes repairs. Starting this week, the obelisk will glow at night, with 488 lamps illuminating the 1.4 acres of blue fabric that have been draped on the metal braces that encase the structure." AP photo. What a perfect day to republish the double image of a well-lit phallic icon.

** Frank Bruni: Anthony Weiner is a delusional prick. ...

... Michael Barbaro & David Chen of the New York Times: "From corporate boardrooms to the headquarters of the city's Democratic political campaigns, phone lines lighted up and strategy sessions were organized on Monday with a single mission in mind: stopping Eliot Spitzer.... Some of the leaders expressed acute regret over their failure to swiftly undercut the mayoral campaign of former Representative Anthony D. Weiner.... They quickly zeroed in on what they claimed were Mr. Spitzer's vulnerabilities: an out-of-control ego; his lawbreaking patronization of prostitutes, which led to his resignation as governor in 2008; and his combative, go-it-alone style." ...

... Michael Barbaro, et al., of the Times: Eliot "Spitzer ... spent nearly an hour fielding questions from journalists and voters, enduring hecklers and unsolicited compliments as he made an awkward return to retail politics after a five-year hiatus." Here, Barbaro reports excerpts of a Times interview with Spitzer, conducted Sunday night. ...

... Kenneth Lovett of the New York Daily News: "In an odd twist, the ex-governor -- who resigned in 2008 amid a high-priced call girl scandal -- will be competing against Kristin Davis, the ex-madam who says she supplied him with hookers and who is running on the Libertarian line.... 'This is going to be the funnest campaign ever,' said Davis, who went to prison for three months for her role in running a high-end escort service.... 'I've been waiting for my day to face him for five years,' Davis said. 'I sat ... in Rikers Island, I came out penniless and nothing happened to him. The hypocrisy there is huge.'" CW: you can't make up this stuff. ...

... M. J. Lee of Politico: "As comptroller [Spitzer] could play the role of activist investor while managing the city's almost $140 billion in pension funds, pressure money managers to accept reforms if they want to do business with New York and audit city agencies' various dealings with financial companies and make headlines if he thinks the taxpayer is getting a raw deal." ...

... Josh Barro of Business Insider: "He'll probably win. And fortunately for those of us who live in New York City, he'll probably be good at it.... It sounds like he intends to set up a shadow mayor's office. Given the mayoral administration that we're likely to get with any of the front-running candidates -- lacking imagination and hemmed in by tight fiscal and political constraints -- a prominent shadow mayor could be very useful." ...

... Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "Eliot Spitzer is nothing like Anthony Weiner."

Greg McCune of Reuters: "... Illinois, the only one in the United States to have a law prohibiting the carrying of concealed guns, could lift the ban on Tuesday when lawmakers are expected to vote on the measure." The Chicago Tribune story is here.

Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "After a hastily called hearing, a federal judge Monday put a 10-day freeze on a new state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital-admitting privileges. In a 19-page opinion issued Monday evening, U.S. District Judge William M. Conley cited a 'troubling lack of justification' for the law and said he would stay enforcement of the admissions provision until July 18, a day after a more deliberate courtroom hearing scheduled before him next week."

Rob Christensen, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Speaking several days after his administration shut down a Durham abortion clinic for health violations, [North Carolina Gov. Pat] McCrory [R] said he would move aggressively to protect women's health. But he acknowledged a campaign promise that he would not support new restrictions on abortions.... McCrory left in doubt whether he would support the bill" passed by the Senate last week -- an anti-Sharia-law bill onto which Republicans attached anti-abortion amendments in the final hours. ...

... Marti Maguire of Reuters: "North Carolina's 'Moral Monday' protesters, now in their tenth week, objected to a bill that could limit abortion access - the latest move to counter a conservative shift by the state's first Republican-led government in more than a century. The rally at the state capitol in Raleigh on Monday night was one of the largest since the protests began this spring, drawing about 2,000 people, including 64 protesters who refused to leave the legislative chambers and were arrested." The News & Observer story, by Anne Blythe & John Frank, is here.

Anne Blythe & Lynn Bonner of the News & Observer: "North Carolina's legislative and congressional boundaries were upheld Monday by a three-judge panel, a decision lauded by state Republicans who oversaw the drafting of the maps in 2011. The unanimous ruling came as a blow to Democrats, civil rights groups and voting rights advocates who contend the districts are racial gerrymanders designed to weaken the influence of black voters across North Carolina. Though they have 30 days to decide, attorneys representing the groups say the case is likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court."

AP: "The American Civil Liberties Union said it will file the first known legal challenge today seeking to overturn a state law effectively banning same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania, the only northeastern state that doesn't allow it or civil unions. The lawsuit, to be filed in federal court in Harrisburg, also will ask a federal judge to prevent state officials from stopping gay couples from getting married."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "Officials said 30,000 California inmates refused meals Monday at the start of a prison strike involving two-thirds of the state's 33 lockups, as well as four out-of-state facilities.... The protest was organized by a small group of inmates held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border. Their complaints focus on policies that put inmates in isolation indefinitely, some for decades, if they are suspected of having ties to prison gangs."

New York Times: "Egypt's military-led interim government laid out an accelerated six-month timetable on Tuesday for a return to civilian democracy, and chose a liberal economist as temporary prime minister, part of an intensified effort to assure Egyptians and the world about its intentions in the aftermath of the mass killing of more than 50 Islamist protesters."

Las Vegas Sun: "Firefighters had a 'break-even' kind of day Monday in battling the vast wildfire at Mount Charleston, getting some containment in some areas, losing ground in others, but so far managing to save every structure, according to an official in charge of the operation. However, as drier and hotter weather settled into the area on Monday, along with strong southwest winds, officials also said they don't expect to contain the fire until July 19 -- almost three weeks from when it was first sparked by lightning."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: "For the first time, we see the faces and hear the words of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight in a four-minute video in which they thank the community for its support after their escape from a decade of captivity." Includes video.