The Commentariat -- March 14, 2013

** Floyd Abrams & Yochai Benkler, in a New York Times op-ed: "Anyone who holds freedom of the press dear should shudder at the threat that the prosecution's theory [in the Bradley Manning case] presents to journalists, their sources and the public that relies on them."

** John Podesta, chairman of the Center for American Progress & formerly Bill Clinton's chief-of-staff, in a Washington Post op-ed: "In refusing to release to Congress the rules and justifications governing a [drone] program that has conducted nearly 400 unmanned drone strikes and killed at least three Americans in the past four years, President Obama is ignoring the system of checks and balances that has governed our country from its earliest days. And in keeping this information from the American people, he is undermining the nation's ability to be a leader on the world stage and is acting in opposition to the democratic principles we hold most important."

Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "As the Obama administration pushes for gun-control legislation, it will have to contend with the changed legal understanding of the Second Amendment that culminated in Heller. That transformation was brought about in large part by a small band of lawyers and scholars backed by the NRA."

** "Stuck on Cruz Control." Dana Milbank: "Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result, it has been said, defines insanity. But among Senate Republicans, the lunatics are running the asylum. A few of the most junior members, with support from conservative activists, are calling the shots, while the caucus's nominal leaders, intimidated by the newcomers' power, have become followers."

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Wednesday..., Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a budget blueprint that proposes only minor trims to Medicare and Medicaid -- the biggest drivers of government spending -- and vows to make the cuts 'without harming beneficiaries.' Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats have declared their opposition to a proposal that has emerged as Obama's biggest selling point to Republicans: his offer to apply a less-generous measure of inflation to Social Security, resulting in slightly smaller annual cost-of-living increases." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "The Ryan budget was on the ballot last November not only because Ryan was on the ticket with Mitt Romney but also because Romney offered a similar approach. It takes nerve to dismiss the results of an election that Ryan himself called a 'referendum.' ... [Sen. Patty] Murray, [who presented the Senate budget,] has done a service by asking for more revenue than Obama did in his most recent offer. This should help make clear that the 'center; in this debate is ... roughly where the president is right now."

Our biggest problems in the next 10 years are not deficits. -- President Obama, to House Republicans ...

... Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times on President Obama's meeting with House Republicans yesterday.

Nicholas Confessore & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama joined former campaign staff members and some of his most ardent supporters on Wednesday night, headlining a two-day meeting of an independent group, Organizing for Action, that is intended to bolster his agenda in Congress. The new group hopes to cut through Washington's legislative logjams by harnessing the millions of volunteers and donors who helped elect Mr. Obama to a second term last fall, turning their enthusiasm and money to grass-roots lobbying on issues like immigration, climate change and the expansion of Medicaid."

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "On the day he named a replacement for the United States ambassador slain at the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September, President Obama also met with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan of Libya and emphasized the need for his country's help in finding the attackers who carried out the assault that led to death of the envoy and three other Americans.... Mr.Obama ... announced that he was naming a career diplomat, Deborah K. Jones, as the new envoy to Tripoli, filling a job that has been vacant since the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Ms. Jones previously served as ambassador to Kuwait, and in posts in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Turkey, Ethiopia and Iraq."

** CW: I missed this report, which should have been headline news EVERYWHERE. Instead, I had to back into it from other commentary: Brad Johnson, writing in Grist: "The State Department's 'don't worry' environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, released late Friday afternoon, was written not by government officials but by a private company in the pay of the pipeline's owner. The 'sustainability consultancy' Environmental Resources Management (ERM) was paid an undisclosed amount under contract to TransCanada to write the statement, [emphasis added] which is now an official government document. The statement estimates, and then dismisses, the pipeline's massive carbon footprint and other environmental impacts, because, it asserts, the mining and burning of the tar sands is unstoppable." Here's another report from Lisa Song of Inside Climate News.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Scott Prouty revealed himself on MSNBC's 'The Ed Show' Wednesday night as the bartender who shot a damaging video of Mitt Romney dismissing President Obama's supporters during a closed-press fundraiser last year." ...

     ... I really like this guy. You can watch the whole interview (in segments) on "The Ed Show" site.

Hope Yen of the AP: "A record number of U.S. counties -- more than 1 in 3 — are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere... The U.S. [is encountering] its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents.... Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas ... would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year."

Emily Schmall & Larry Rohter of the New York Times:" Jorge Mario Bergoglio ... is in some ways a history-making pontiff, the first from the Jesuit order and the first non-European to fill the post in more than 1,200 years. But Cardinal Bergoglio is also a conventional choice, a theological conservative of Italian ancestry who vigorously backs Vatican positions on abortion, gay marriage, the ordination of women and other leading issues of the day -- leading to heated clashes with Argentina's current left-leaning president." ...

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "... the first Latin American pope also represents a cultural bridge between two worlds -- the son of Italian immigrants in a country regarded by some as the New World colony Italy never had.... Bergoglio remains a fierce critic of socially progressive trends, including gay marriage, representing a continuity of BenedictXVI's conservative doctrine. Though questioned for some of his actions during Argentina's Dirty War, he may also be a target hard for progressives to hit. In recent decades, he has emerged as a champion of social justice and the poor who has spoken out against the evils of globalization and slammed the 'demonic effects of the imperialism of money.'" ...

... Michael Warren of the AP: "It's without dispute that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, like most other Argentines, failed to openly confront the 1976-1983 military junta while it was kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a 'dirty war' to eliminate leftist opponents. But the new pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that this was a failure of the Roman Catholic Church in general, and that it's unfair to label Bergoglio with the collective guilt that many Argentines of his generation still deal with.... Bergoglio twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court in trials involving torture and murder inside the feared Navy Mechanics School and the theft of babies from detainees. When he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman told the AP."

... CW: As contributors Akhilleus & Dave S. remarked in yesterday's Comments, Charles Pierce has the goods on Pope Francis. Best hope: he'll be a fascist for the poor & excommunicate Paul Ryan & John Boehner. My advice to liberal Roman Catholics remains -- become an Episcopalian. They've got apostolic succession AND incense. It's okay if you say your Rosary & go to confession, too. And you could be gay &/or a girl & become a priest or bishop. In other words, Catholicism without the Beanie Boys & their Main Man. ...

... BUT, Francis does carry his own luggage. The AP reporter, Nicole Winfield, describes this as a "display of humility." CW: this reminds me that President Jimmy Carter also occasionally carried his own luggage. Republicans criticized him for this "display of humility," calling it "undignified." If Francis doesn't get a little more "dignified," he may end up a one-term pope.

Gail Collins sees the only way to get a budget compromise will have to involve white smoke & red beanies. CW: I was cool with it till she got to the part where Paul Ryan ascends into heaven. I don't foresee that happening. Under any circumstance. Even the concept of miracles has limitations.

Local News

The lieutenant governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll, abruptly resigned on Tuesday, the result of a criminal investigation into an Internet sweepstakes company for which she once served as a consultant.... Her tenure as lieutenant governor has been marred by scandal and poor judgment, and Ms. Carroll was increasingly viewed as an embarrassment to the man who chose her for the job. Gov. Rick Scott" CW: Ha! America's Worst Governor AND Worst Lieutenant Governor. The Tampa Bay Times story, by Tia Mitchell, is here.

Steve Neavling of Reuters: "Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is expected to announce on Thursday an emergency state takeover of Detroit, putting a lawyer with extensive experience managing corporate bankruptcies in charge of the destitute city's finances. The dramatic move will culminate the long decline of the once thriving center of the U.S. auto industry and birthplace of the Motown trend in popular music." The Detroit Free Press story is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Matthew Keys, a 26-year-old deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters, has been charged with assisting the hacking collective Anonymous in an attack on the Web site of The Los Angeles Times, the Justice Department said Thursday. A federal indictment of Mr. Keys, formerly a Web producer at KTXL Fox 40, which, like The Los Angeles Times, is owned by the Tribune Company, said that he went by a user name of 'AESCracked' and assisted in a cyberattack on the newspaper's Web site. The attack reportedly allowed the group to gain access and alter a news feature."

Reuters: "Authorities on Thursday killed a man suspected of shooting dead four people a day earlier in separate incidents at a barbershop and a car wash in neighboring upstate New York towns, Governor Andrew Cuomo said."

New York Times: "The American commander in Afghanistan quietly told his forces to intensify security measures on Wednesday, issuing a strongly worded warning that a string of anti-American statements by President Hamid Karzai had put Western troops at greater risk of attack both from rogue Afghan security forces and from militants. The order came amid a growing backlash against Mr. Karzai's public excoriation of the United States, including a speech on Tuesday in which he suggested that the government might unilaterally act to ensure control of the Bagram Prison if the United States delayed its handover."

New York Times: "China’s new Communist Party leader,Xi Jinping, completed his formal transition to power on Thursday, assuming the presidency during a parliamentary meeting which has sent signals that his government will try to be more responsive to an impatient public while defending the party's top-down control."

New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to sign agreements Thursday to form a government with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, two dynamic, first-time politicians...."

A representation of traces of a proton-proton collision measured in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience in the search for the Higgs boson, or as contributor Patrick asserts, a Flying Spaghetti Monster.AP: "Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape. The elusive particle, called a Higgs boson, was predicted in 1964 to help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang. The particle was named for Peter Higgs, one of the physicists who proposed its existence, but it later became popularly known as the 'God particle.'"

The Commentariat -- March 13, 2013

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

NEW. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "President Obama headed back to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to win over his loudest critics in Congress: the restless and resistant House Republican majority.... The president was to spend an hour with Speaker John A. Boehner and the 231 other House Republicans...."

"Parallel Universes." Jeremy Peters & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats and House Republicans on Tuesday outlined vastly divergent approaches to shoring up the government's finances, a reminder of how far apart they remain on fiscal policy even as both sides insist publicly that a bipartisan compromise is possible.... President Obama made a rare appearance at a gathering of Democratic senators -- his first of four meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week -- to explore ways that the two parties could overcome differences.... The Republican plan sets out to balance the budget in a decade and would cut spending by $4.6 trillion through 2023, in large part by rolling back many of Mr. Obama's signature legislative accomplishments." ...

... CW: The plan is here, and it comes with a picture of Smilin' Ryan suitable for framing & reminiscent of Tom DeLay's mugshot. As you may recall, DeLay explained his upbeat mugshot thus: "Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile." Wonder who it is we're supposed to see through Ryan there whose budgets are so anti-Christian that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (Ryan is a Roman Catholic) called him out. ...

... ** All this is of course better illuminated by Charles Pierce: "Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from Wisconsin and most recent first runner-up in the vice-presidential pageant, has released his latest 'budget,' which is only a budget in the same way that what the guy says to the pigeons in the park is a manifesto. It is constructed from the same magical thinking, the same conjuring words, the same elusive asterisks, and the same obvious obfuscations of its actual intent that Paul Ryan and his running mate put forward in the last campaign, in which they were so thoroughly rejected that Ryan couldn't even carry his home town.... [His philosophy] has blinded him to the very real human effects of what would occur if his 'budget' ever was adopted, it also has blinded him to his own staggering hypocrisy -- a man seeking to demolish the very safety net that got him through high-school and college, a man talking about the perils of government who's never had a real job outside of it." ...

This to us is something that we're not going to give up on, because we're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people. -- Paul Ryan, in his presser yesterday, via Jed Lewison of Daily Kos

Freud lives! -- Constant Weader

... Ezra Klein does well, too: "Ryan's budget is intended to do nothing less than fundamentally transform the relationship between Americans and their government. That, and not deficit reduction, is its real point, as it has been Ryan&'s real point throughout his career.... The opening paragraph is a recitation of ills that Ryan's budget does little to fix, and the first chapter is an attempt to justify his cuts through a horror story that doesn't add up.... It is Ryan's unusual ideology, and not the specific state of our finances, that justifies this budget.... These ideas are ... deeply unpopular, and considered quite radical. That's why Newt Gingrich rejected Ryan's initial budget as 'right-wing social engineering.'" ...

... Neil Irwin & Ezra Klein on Ryan's Morning in America Apolcalyptic vision:

... Dana Milbank: Ryan's "budget eliminates ___ loopholes in the tax code, cutting the ___ and the ____ deductions. It reduces spending on the ____ program by _____ and the _____ program by _____. Retirees would see ____, students would experience ____ and the poor would be _____. There are so many blanks in Ryan's budget that it could be a Mad Libs exercise. But this is not a game. It's black-box budgeting -- an expression of lofty aims, with binders full of magic asterisks in lieu of specific cuts to government benefits.... Mostly, Ryan would achieve his aims through sleight of hand."

... The Misogynist's Plan. Bryce Covert of The Nation: Ryan's budget "would especially take an enormous toll on the country's women.... Women voters roundly rejected him and his running mate in 2012." CW: so maybe this is Ryan's Revenge?

... Wherein Kevin Drum sez, "At this point, I honestly have only one wish for all this: that the press finally wises up and refuses to call [Ryan's budget] a "deficit reduction" plan. It's not. It's a plan to dramatically cut domestic spending, full stop, mostly on the poor, the middle class, and the elderly. Every other component of the plan increases the deficit." ...

... CW: Sorry, Kevin, but the New York Times reporters (article linked above) repeatedly mentioned the deficit reduction aspects of the plan. And Lori Montgomery, who wrote the Washington Post report on Ryan's budget, & who has long taken dictation from the Granny Starver, is still at it: ergo, she has no qualms about writing shit like this, "That would let him wipe out deficits by 2023 without raising taxes." Clearly, Montgomery doesn't listen to Irwin & Klein & isn't as smart as Dana Milbank, who -- though not the expert Montgomery is supposed to be -- can read a so-called budget, as apparently she cannot. Too busy filling steno pad pages with "Paul Loves Lori," I guess. ...

     Update: Now comes Annie Lowrey, a/k/a Mrs. Ezra Klein, with a New York Times piece that claims "Mr. Ryan's budget balances by 2023." Lowrey admits Ryan's budget is short on details, & the point of her analysis is that many/most economists say a balanced budget isn't necessary -- ever. However, the he-said/she-said quality of her piece is ultimately misleading. ...

     ... A more reasoned analysis comes from Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: "... in critical ways the budget is exceedingly vague -- and, as a result, its claim to reach balance in ten years is hard to take seriously.... Make no mistake: his budget is extreme. And, in its reverse Robin Hood policies, its ideological rigidity, and its calculated vagueness, it sadly reflects some of the worst features of American politics at this crucial time."

... Paul Krugman sez, in "Flamflam Forever," "I took Paul Ryan's measure two and a half years ago. All the Very Serious People were very angry with me -- Ryan was the Serious, Honest Conservative, the guy centrists demonstrated their centrism by praising. But he was an obvious phony. His 'plan' was all smoke (I couldn't even find any mirrors).... Meanwhile, he was pursuing radical redistribution away from the needy to the wealthy.... Nothing has changed, except that the plan has gotten even crueler.... The only really interesting question is how the VSPs will react. Have they had enough of the Flimflam Man? Or does hype spring eternal?"

... New York Times Editors: "Mr. Obama should have no illusions about the core beliefs of some of his Republican dining partners.... That was made clear on Tuesday when the House Budget Committee chairman, Representative Paul Ryan, unveiled his 2014 spending plan: a retread of ideas that voters soundly rejected, made even worse, if possible, by sharper cuts to vital services and more dishonest tax provisions." ...

... Andy Rosenthal of the New York Times: "The Republicans have hit a sour spot in politics -- they are 180 degrees opposed to what most Americans want on just about any issue you care to name.... The budget is not merely terrible policy, but also bears no resemblance to what Americans want -- at least judging from their rejection of the G.O.P. presidential ticket last year as well as more recent public opinion surveys." ...

... CW: Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker takes the most stunningly positive view of House Republicans that anyone who isn't batshit crazy could make. I'm not buying it, but I thought you might want a second opinion ...

... As for me, I'm going with Lizza's colleague at the New Yorker, John Cassidy: "The plan is a joke. It's dead on arrival, and nobody should pay much attention to it, except as another exhibit in the indictment of latter-day Republicanism. Ryan's numbers don't add up. His proposals -- cutting domestic programs, converting Medicare to a voucher program, returning Medicaid to the states, reducing the top rate of income tax to twenty-five per cent -- were roundly rejected by the voters just five months ago. And the philosophy his plan is based upon -- trickle-down economics combined with an unbridled hostility toward government programs designed to correct market failures -- is tattered and shopworn.... He's been trotting out this pablum for six years now." Apparently, the New Yorker editors do not allow their writers to use terms like "horseshit." ...

... George Zornick of The Nation has an interesting piece on Obama v. Bernie Sanders & Tom Harkin on chained CPI, part of the discussion in Tuesday's meeting between Obama & Senate Democrats. ...

... ** George Stephanopoulos talks to President Obama about the budget & stuff. Transcript. .

CW: we've covered this before, but it bears repeating. Steve Benen: "Congressional Republican leaders are now saying they won't even talk to the president unless Obama agrees -- before any meetings even take place -- to give them what they want. In other words, when the White House announces that all efforts at deficit reduction in the coming years will include literally nothing but 100% spending cuts, then GOP leaders will be prepared to negotiate with the president. Please, Beltway pundits, remind me again how all the president has to do to resolve political paralysis is 'lead' and offer good-faith compromises." ...

... Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Republicans will use the expiration of the debt limit this summer as leverage to get President Obama to consider entitlement reforms." CW: that is, Congressional Republicans enjoy destroying the government & it is something they intend to do as a matter of course until they get their way. The question for me still remains, when does irresponsibility cross over into treason?

Robert Scheer of TruthDig, in The Nation: "... according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, [U.S. corporations] 'parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year' shielding more than 40 percent of their profits from US taxes. They all do it, including Microsoft, GE and ... Abbott Laboratories. Many, like GE..., have avoided taxes altogether in some recent years. But they all still expect Uncle Sam to come to their aid with military firepower in case the natives abroad get restless and nationalize their company's assets. We still have a blockade against Cuba because Fidel Castro more than a half century ago dared seize an American-owned telephone company."

Senators Totally Cool with Revolving Door. Dina ElBoghdady of the Washington Post: "For all the rumblings about Mary Jo White's ties to big interests on Wall Street..., not a single senator voiced even slight opposition to President Obama's pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, despite previous concerns by some about her ability to effectively police Wall Street."

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "The $2.3 billion federal E-Rate program, which subsidizes basic Internet connections for schools and libraries, should be overhauled and expanded to provide those community institutions with new, lightning-fast connections to the Web, [Jay Rockefeller {D-W.Va.},] the chairman of a Senate committee that oversees the F.C.C., said Tuesday.... The initiative is one that Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, has already endorsed, but with a less-aggressive goal."

Wherein veteran journalist Charles Pierce explains professional journalism to that young whippersnapper Ezra Klein. Thanks to contributor Diane for the link.

Local News

Drew Singer of Reuters: "Two high school football players accused of raping a girl will face trial in Steubenville, Ohio, on Wednesday in a case that has become a national example of social media's powerful influence in modern society." The New York Times story is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "... a gathering of Catholic cardinals picked a new pope from among their midst on Wednesday -- choosing the cardinal from Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first leader of the church ever chosen from South America. The new pope, 76, to be called Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, is also the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years." The Times' Lede blog has updates. ...

... Here's a profile by John Allen of then-Cardinal Bergoglio, published in the National Catholic Reporter March 3.

New York Times: "Google on Tuesday acknowledged to state officials that it had violated people's privacy during its Street View mapping project when it casually scooped up passwords, e-mail and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users."

New York Times: "Black smoke billowed from a makeshift chimney atop the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, signaling that the 115 cardinals of the Roman Catholic church eligible to vote for a new pope had again failed to elect a successor to Benedict XVI.... A first ballot also ended inconclusively on Tuesday, signaled by the inky black smoke from the copper chimney jutting from the chapel's roof. Two ballots had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. Voting is set to continue -- up to two rounds each morning and afternoon -- until the cardinals reach a two-thirds majority of 77 votes." ...

     ... Update: for those of you transfixed by news from the Vatican, ABC News accommodates you with a live smoke-cam. CW: Go ahead, just sit there & watch it. I can't think of a more fruitful way to spend your day.

AP: "Now, more than two years after [civil rights attorney Mary] Han was found dead in her garage in what authorities deemed a suicide, the [Albuquerque police] department is under scrutiny amid questions over whether officers mishandled the investigation into the death of their former adversary. The state attorney general's office is looking into the matter. It has also asked federal officials, who last year launched a civil rights probe into the department's high number of police shootings, to look at the case." Han was a frequent critic of the Albuquerque police.

The Commentariat -- March 12, 2013

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

CW: I will post very lightly for the next few days as my long-standing time crunch just got crunchier.

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Constitution has always given residents of states with small populations a lift, but the size and importance of the gap has grown markedly in recent decades, in ways the framers probably never anticipated.... The Senate may be the least democratic legislative chamber in any developed nation."

Jeff Toobin: "... senatorial entropy has taken an enormous toll on President Obama's judicial appointments. This was the second time that Halligan received majority support, but, because she never passed the threshold of sixty, her nomination now appears doomed. And so, in the fifth year of his Presidency, Obama has failed to place even a single judge on the D.C. Circuit, considered the second most important court in the nation, as it deals with cases of national importance."

** Steve Benen: "Merrill Lynch said [Monday] morning that job creation will likely shrink to below 100,000 in April and May as 'sequester-related job cuts are implemented.' I mention this for a couple of reasons. The first, obviously, is the mind-numbing realization that Americans' own elected officials are choosing to deliberately make the economy worse. [Emphasis added.] But the other reason is that it offers an important rejoinder to those who spent last week asking whether President Obama 'cried wolf' over the dangers associated with sequestration."

Justin Sink of The Hill: "White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday said Obama's budget will seek to put the U.S. on a 'fiscally sustainable path' that brings the deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product. He said Obama's proposal would not attempt to hit an arbitrary target, however, and that it will only project over the next decade." ...

... Paul Ryan, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, explains how he plans to balance the budget in 10 years. CW: I'll bet only "urban people" who were counting on "the free stuff" so they could loll around in their "hammock" will be shocked out of their "complacency." ...

... Jill Lawrence of the National Journal: "Even though President Obama won the 2012 election, Ryan's new plan to balance the federal budget in 10 years relies on repealing the Affordable Care Act." CW: the National Journal is not a liberal site. Ryan's budget is just a bad joke that forces straight reporters & analysts to snicker. ...

... Gene Robinson: "Ryan ... is coming back with an ostensibly new and improved version of the framework that voters rejected in November. Judging by the preview he offered Sunday, the new plan is even less grounded in reality than was the old one.... From the evidence, Ryan cares less about deficits or tax rates than about finding some way to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.... It's hard to take him seriously as long as he refuses to come clean about his intentions."

Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times sort of argues that prosecuting big corporations -- including big banks -- is terribly unfair to the corporations' other employees who are faultless. CW: accepting that argument does not preclude prosecuting the big fish at the big banks. That. Has. Not. Happened. ...

... Mike Konczal of the Washington Post: Sen. Sherrod Brown wants to break up the big banks.

Joe Nocera: in Oregon, gun extremists harass legislators pursuing sensible gun-safety measures. ...

... Gary Langer of ABC News: "While Senate negotiators struggle for a deal on mandatory background checks at gun shows, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds vast public support for the measure, as well as for a committee-approved step to make illegal gun sales a federal crime. A smaller majority, 57 percent, also continues to favor banning assault weapons, a measure said to be less likely to prevail in Congress." ...

... CW: the problem is that we live in a quasi-progressive country with a government controlled by the right and far-right. More people voted for Democrats than for Republicans in 2012, despite the best efforts of Republicans to suppress Democratic vote. The result? The House is majority Republican, & the Speaker has no control over the nut jobs, who effectively run the party. The Senate is minority Republican -- 45 to 55 -- which today means they also control the Senate. (Also see Adam Liptak above re: small-state advantage.) So that's Congress. The Supremes are a majority wacko winger party, though both Kennedy & Roberts have occasional fits of reality-connect. Remember that before Souter & Stevens left the court, 7 of the Justices were Republican appointees. So the only branch of government Democrats control right now is the executive, & despite what all the pundits pretend, the President doesn't write laws, & he has limited control on how the vast agencies operate. In addition, both he & Congress are largely controlled by the vast capitalist-wing conspiracy. That is to say, we live under a non-democratic system. American exceptionalism, my ass.

Unemployment Rate for New England's Conservative Ex-Senators: 0.0 Percent

Peter Lattman of the New York Times: "Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator who lost his seat to Elizabeth Warren last year, said on Monday that he was joining the law firm Nixon Peabody. He will work in the firm's Boston headquarters and focus one the financial services industry and commercial real estate matters, according to firm." Emphasis added.

Byron Tau of Politico: "Former Sen. Joe Lieberman is joining the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, the organization announced Monday. Lieberman -- Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000 and a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 -- will co-chair AEI's American Internationalism Project, an effort to rebuild a bipartisan consensus about big foreign policy questions." ...

     ... Ed Kilgore: "He is extremely unlikely to create any 'bipartisan consensus' around his own national security views. This self-appointed role, however, will give him plenty of opportunity to nurse grudges and settle scores, or if nothing else, to bask in the praise of Republicans...."

     ... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "... one of the Right's strategies is to go trolling for morally deficient, easily corrupted neoliberal 'Democrats' to assist their efforts at creating a 'bipartisan consensus' to override popular will and common sense in the service of the conservative agenda. Fifty years ago, Joe Lieberman would have been seen for exactly what he is: a hardline rightwing conservative.... But then, we're not the same country we were fifty years ago. We're still battling the deep, horrific wounds caused by the Southern Strategy and the Powell Memo."

Dana Milbank: Jay Carney puts the "offense" in "charm offensive." But, really, overall, White House staff are getting more charming: "White House reporters [say] ... the phone calls and e-mails from the president's aides have become less confrontational and less vulgar...."

Senator Robert Byrd (1917-2010) of West Virginia (fiddle and vocals) is accompanied in this 1978 recording by Doyle Lawson (guitar), James Bailey (banjo) and Spider Gilliam (bass). Recorded this track from the LP, 'U.S. Senator Robert Byrd - Mountain Fiddler,' produced in 1978. See yesterday's Comments for context. Thanks to James S. for the inspiration:

AND Krugman gets Breitbarted! Breitbart "News" reports Krugman filed for personal bankruptcy. Krugman's response: "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go give a lavishly paid speech to Friends of Hamas." CW: seriously, winger "news" sites like Breitbart & Daily Caller have settled on a new journalistic standard: if a rumor puts a liberal in an unfavorable light, publish. I wish Krugman would sue Breitbart & put the site out of business. And, in case you're wondering, Andrew Ross Sorkin, there are no innocent employees at Breitbart. Also, I wonder why ARS news uses three names. ...

... Max Read of Gawker: "When a Washington Post columnist fell for a fake news story on the "satire" site Daily Currant a few weeks ago, Breitbart.com's John Nolte suggested the paper was without 'a shred of self-awareness, integrity, and dignity' and wrote that it 'never... let facts get in the way of a good Narrative.. Of course, that was before his own outlet got fooled by the exact same 'satire' site." ...

... Ben Dimiero of Media Matters: "In his post, [Breitbart's Larry] O'Connor jabbed Krugman for supposedly spending '$84,000 in one month' on Portuguese wines and 'a dress from the Victorian period,' and concluded that 'apparently this Keynsian [sic] thing doesn't really work on the micro level.'"

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: the fake Krugman story also appeared on Boston.com, a Boston Globe site. "Brian McGrory, the Globe's editor, explains that no editorial official at his paper ever made a decision to post the piece. 'The story arrived deep within our site from a third party vendor who partners on some finance and market pages on our site,' says McGrory.... 'We never knew it was there till we heard about it from outside.' Since the posting went up, McGrory attests to having done 'urgent work to get it the hell down.' ... McGrory ... vows to 'address our relationship with that vendor.'"

What a meeting of the Clan looks like. European Pressphoto Agency.Anthony Faiola & Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "The sacred politicking to elect the next pope moved into its final phase Tuesday, as 115 cardinals checked into isolated quarters, attended a reverent Mass and prepared to lock themselves into the Sistine Chapel to begin the secret and highly ceremonial conclave to choose Benedict XVI's successor." New York Times story, with links to related stories, is here. ...

... CW: to get myself in the mood for all this, I started watching "The Borgias" series this morning, as I've seen only a few episodes of it. In the first episode, which I watched when I finished working -- at about 3 am -- the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. In this episode, Rodrigo Borgia begins with very few votes, but over the next days he buys off enough cardinals to get the job.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States government is buying enough of a new smallpox medicine to treat two million people in the event of a bioterrorism attack, and took delivery of the first shipment of it last week. But the purchase has set off a debate about the lucrative contract, with some experts saying the government is buying too much of the drug at too high a price."

Reuters: "Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum aimed at winning global sympathy as Argentina intensifies its sovereignty claim. The official count on Monday showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day poll, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. There only three 'no' votes out of about 1,500 cast."