The Commentariat -- August 15, 2014

Internal links, photo removed.

... Matt Berman of the National Journal: "President Obama announced 'progress' in the American military's targeted operations in Iraq in a press statement Thursday from Martha's Vineyard, Mass. That said, the United States will continue airstrikes 'to protect our people and facilities in Iraq.' On Wednesday night, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters that a humanitarian operation to send in U.S. ground troops to help escort thousands of Yazidi Iraqis off Mount Sinjar was 'far less likely now' because of seemingly successful airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops." ...

... The Guardian story, by Spencer Ackerman, is here. ...

... Rod Nordland of the New York Times: "Yazidi leaders and emergency relief officials on Thursday strongly disputed American claims that the siege of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq had been broken and that the crisis was effectively over, saying that tens of thousands of Yazidis remained on the mountain in desperate conditions."

Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "The FBI unintentionally spied on the communications data of some Americans who were not targets of investigations because of typographical errors, according to a government watchdog."

Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "Nearly 70,000 people in the Central Valley's Kern County have gotten health care coverage this year because of Obamacare. But their congressman, new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, faces no danger of those newly insured kicking him out of office for voting dozens of times to repeal the law. It's a sharp disconnect, one that is taking place not just in McCarthy's deep-red Bakersfield district but in many other Republican districts throughout the country ahead of the 2014 midterm elections: Constituents benefiting from Obamacare coverage aren't turning against the politicians who want to repeal it." ...

... CW: I wonder if the reason ACA beneficiaries aren't opposing Congressional Republicans is that they know -- even if they don't much follow the news -- that radical House bills never become law. Or, alternatively, they've heard about the do-nothing Congress. Some may be in tune enough to realize that President Obama would veto any anti-ObamaCare bill that made it through Congress (which it could, with a GOP majority in the Senate). But Obama is a short-timer, & these blase voters (or non-voters) would do well to think of their futures.

Paul Krugman: Europeans listened to deficit hawks -- the "too-muchers" -- & as a result are in a "forever slump."

Beyond the Beltway

CW: Perhaps the optimal response to protests against use of excessive force (in this case, shooting a person to death) is not a massive display of excessive force. ...

... John Schwartz, et al., of the New York Times: "Capt. Ronald S. Johnson, the highway patrol official appointed by the governor to take over the response, immediately signaled a change in approach. Captain Johnson told reporters he had ordered troopers to remove their tear-gas masks, and in the early evening he accompanied several groups of protesters through the streets, clasping hands, listening to stories and marching alongside them. On Thursday night, the armored vehicles and police cars were gone, and the atmosphere was celebratory. A street barricaded on previous nights was filled with slow-moving cars blasting their horns.

Wesley Lowery, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the heavy riot armor, the SWAT trucks with sniper posts and the gas masks were gone from the streets of Ferguson Thursday night, and Johnson marched with the crowd, eliciting cheers from the protesters. Johnson vowed to not blockade the streets, to set up a media staging center, and to ensure that residents' rights to assemble and protest were not infringed upon." ...

... CW: This is pretty interesting, because yesterday afternoon, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson gave a news conference in which he said protesters would be allowed on the sidewalks only, & the streets would be blocked off with cones. (This sounds on the face of it like a plan to pick off protesters who would, quite naturally, step into the street.) Either the state was keeping that jackass out of the loop even yesterday when we were hearing Ferguson authorities were receiving advice from federal & state experts on crowd management, or Jackson was ignoring their advice. ...

... Jack Jenkins of Think Progress: "A group of local clergy and religious faithful took to the streets of Ferguson, Missouri on Thursday evening, joining a mass of peaceful protestors.... Sporting clerical collars and brandishing signs inscribed with slogans such as 'We are praying with our feet' and &'End police brutality,' pastors and priests filed in with hundreds of other Ferguson residents to decry the killing of Michael Brown." ...

... Top Cop Politicizes Ferguson Demonstrations. Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized President Obama Thursday for his remarks about law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo. 'I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha's Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation,' director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.... The officer involved in the Ferguson shooting is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and is being represented by one of its lawyers. His name has not been released to the public." CW: How is criticizing President Obama for calling for "calm & peace" helping the shooter? Partisan remarks like this are intended to fuel the fire, not restore calm & peace. Just fucking stupid. ...

... David Lieb & Jim Salter of the AP: "Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says the Missouri State Highway Patrol will take over the supervision of security in the St. Louis suburb that's been the scene of violent protests since a police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager. Nixon made the announcement at a news conference Thursday. Nixon says security will be overseen by Capt. Ron Johnson of the Highway Patrol. Johnson, who is black, said he grew up in the community and 'it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence.'" ...

... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch report is here. The New York Times story is here. ...

... "The Late Show with Jay Nixon." Katie Glueck of Politico: "Sometimes a politician's biggest sin is failing to show up. Gov. Jay Nixon waited five days after a black teen was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, to visit the area.... It doesn't help that Nixon has had a rocky history with the African-American community. The relatively conservative Democrat won 92 percent of the black vote in his 2012 reelection, a state President Barack Obama lost. Still, some black political leaders harbor resentment from the 1990s, when, as state attorney general, Nixon was involved in backing an end to some school desegregation programs."

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Eric Holder called on authorities in Ferguson, Mo., to keep the peace 'without relying on unnecessarily extreme displays of force,' emphasizing in a statement Thursday that things have to change in the city. Holder also announced that Missouri officials had on Thursday accepted an offer of 'technical assistance' from the Justice Department aimed at helping these local authorities improve their response to the crowds in suburban St. Louis." ...

... Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The American Civil Liberties Union sued St. Louis County and the county police Thursday morning to obtain copies of initial police reports surrounding the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Mike Brown by Ferguson police.... The ACLU lawsuit says that the incident report is an open record under Missouri law, and that the police department's refusal is either a knowing or purposeful violation of the law." ...

... Richard Leiby & Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post: "... across the country, experts say, many police forces have yet to adopt some of the most basic techniques to curb the possibility of police brutality and subsequent unrest. These strategies include having police live in the communities where they enforce the law and building connections with the residents." ...

... Brian Beutler: "... it's worth noting that the right began stoking white resentment over Ferguson well before Obama said anything about it." ...

How Steve King (RXenophobe-Iowa) Says the "N" Word in Public: ... they all appear to be of a single, you know, of a single origin, I should say, a continental origin might be the way to phrase that.

CW: Cumbersome, but oh so politically-correct.

... Alexia Campbell of the National Journal on how police in Ferguson are using intimidation, threats of arrest, and claims of impending violence to keep [journalists] away from covering the news.... It was ... the first time I had ever felt afraid of a police officer." CW: Clearly, Campbell is white. ...

... CW: Yesterday, based on a video of the incident, which I posted, I posited that the police appeared to have purposely targeted an Al Jazeera news crew with tear gas, though I acknowledged that since I couldn't see what was going on outside the frame, this might not have been the case. As it turns out, my supposition was correct. John Cassidy of the New Yorker writes that the crew was a mile from the demonstrators, setting up for a stand-up report. The Al Jazeera reporter Ash-Har Quraishi said, "We had been in contact with police officers who were just feet away from us. We had had discussions with them; we understood this was just as far as we could get.... We didn't think there would be any problems here, so we were very surprised. We were very close to where those canisters were shot from. We yelled ... yelling that we were press. But they continued to fire." ...

     ... It seems to me that there were clear political & racial components to the police attacks on prominent citizens. The journalists targeted were "Arabs," a black man (Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post) & a "liberal" (Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post -- he was wearing press credentials). The St. Louis alderman Antonio French is black. I don't know about the ministers the police arrested, but there is about a 50-50 chance they were black. And I doubt they were throwing rocks or lobbing Molotov cocktails. These aren't just Constitutional violations; any idiot, any police officer, can see they are human rights violations. ...

... Jordan Sargent of Gawker: "At the same time that the Ferguson Police Department was terrorizing its own citizens [Wednesday] night, something interesting and important happened on cable news: Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson reiterated to Sean Hannity that Michael Brown struggled with his killer inside the cop's vehicle, while at the same time two new eyewitnesses told CNN that they saw no such thing.... At some point, some people somewhere -- a police department or a district attorney's office or a jury -- will decide who was right, and if we know one truth here it's that history is not on the side of the witnesses." ...

... Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "... what's really driving the spectacle of militarized local police is that spigot of money that was turned on after Sept. 11, 2001, when a federal government abashed to have missed so many warning signs for those devastating attacks acted as if that massive failure could be washed away by sparing not a cent in preventing the next one. A whole industry has sprung up to capitalize on that spigot -- like the company that's been selling mine-resistant BearCats at $280,000 a pop to 100 towns per year. The flow of funds has become so reliable that the Missouri Office of Homeland Security holds regular workshops to advise local agencies on how to get their hands on the dough.... So we have had the absurd spectacles of $100 million in counter-terrorism funds going to South Dakota (pop. 833,000), a BearCat patrolling a pumpkin festival in New Hampshire, and $90,000 spent on bollards and surveillance at the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres' spring-training facility. And now we have protesters in a St. Louis suburb being confronted with exo-skeletal defenders of the peace who look like they arrived straight from the Maidan or Tahrir Square." ...

... The Libertarian's View. Sen. Rand Paul blames the debacle in Ferguson on Big Government & the "erosion of civil liberties." CW: This time, he might be right. And to his credit, Paul recognizes the underlying racism that motivates the police response (even as he obliquely invokes his Aqua Buddha moment):

Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.... Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.

... "It's the Boys, Not Just the Toys." Ed Kilgore: "... let's pay attention to how police are doing their jobs, not just what is in their armories." ...

... Steve M. "Military weaponry makes a bad situation much worse, but the core problem is still police forces that have nothing but contempt for the populations they're supposed to 'protect and serve.' ... If Paul's fellow libertarians get us talking almost exclusively about gear and government, then they'll have successfully diverted the discussion onto their turf, for their ends. We mustn't let that happen." ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of New York: "... over the past two days -- as the police in Ferguson have responded to very angry protests with an alarmingly heavy hand, looking and reacting as if they were not the community's own peace officers but an invading army — something remarkable has happened. The longstanding liberal concerns about police racial hostility has seemed to merge with the longstanding libertarian concerns over police militarization.... Many of the criticisms from the left and the right sound very similar.... It seems possible that the talk about police militarization might function as a convenient rhetorical backdoor, a way for both liberals and conservatives to address the siege mentality that seems to have taken hold in many police departments and the alienation that breeds in communities." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "... demonstrations this week over the shooting of Michael Brown..., and the overwhelming law enforcement response that followed have ... many on the right torn between an impulse to see order restored and concern about whether the crackdown is a symptom of a state run amok." ...

... De Nile Is a River that Runs through the "Heartland." Emily Swanson of the Huffington Post: "Sixty-nine percent of Democrats and 49 percent of independents, but only 33 percent of Republicans, said that police in big cities are usually tougher on blacks...." Via Greg Sargent. CW: Let's be clear; the evidence is undeniable that at every step in our criminal justice system -- & as Charles Blow pointed out, even in our school systems -- racial minorities receive unequal, discriminatory treatment. This is not some unquantifiable "impression" upon which people can have differing "opinions"; these are are hard, cold facts. ...

... ** Adam Serwer of msnbc on "the blurred line between law enforcement & combat.... There are those who squawk on television about armed insurrection and tyranny, and those who face the prospect that each day could be the last they will stare down its barrel. Ferguson has reminded us that these are not the same people, and they are not living under the same rules." CW: Serwer does a remarkable job of getting to the heart of the matter. ...

... AND Clickhole holds a "fashion face-off" between the police & the army, a natural reaction "when two of the state's instruments of physical force bust out the exact same look."

Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "After nearly three weeks of testimony, federal prosecutors wrapped up their corruption case Thursday against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen. The final prosecution witness, FBI Special Agent David Hulser, described phone records, mansion logs and e-mails that prosecutors hope will help convince jurors that the former first couple conspired to seek the largess of Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr."

The Market Basket boycott/strike continues. An amazing phenomenon.

Senate Races

AP: "A Hawaii judge on Thursday upheld the timing of a makeup primary election for more than 8,000 voters on the Big Island despite a last-minute challenge from a Senate candidate who said they should have more time to recover from a tropical storm. Circuit Court Judge Greg Nakamura ruled that the election should proceed Friday. The ruling rejects a complaint from U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who is running in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. Hanabusa says the makeup election doesn't give enough time for voters in two Puna precincts to regain power and road access after the storm hit last week."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Au revoir, Greggers. Dylan Byers of Politico: "David Gregory will leave NBC News after stepping down as moderator of 'Meet the Press,' he announced Thursday.... As previously reported, NBC News has selected chief White House correspondent and political director Chuck Todd to take over for Gregory. Todd's promotion is expected to be announced as early as Thursday evening."

Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn has nabbed the endorsement of former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller (D), a conservative Democrat who's backed more Republicans than members of his own party in recent years." ...

... CW: Not sure how much of a coup that is:

News Ledes

Guardian: British PM "David Cameron is prepared to supply weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting jihadists from the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, in a move that risks drawing Britain back indirectly into the country's conflict."

Reuters: "Dozens of heavy Russian military vehicles massed on Friday near the border with Ukraine, while Ukrainian border guards crossed the frontier to inspect a huge Russian aid convoy." ...

... AFP: "Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine suffered dramatic setbacks Thursday as top military chiefs quit and Ukraine's forces pummelled their strongholds, cutting off a key rebel-held city from the Russian border.... Ukraine's military said it had completely surrounded Lugansk, cutting all links to the border with Russia, which Kiev believes has been supplying the insurgents with weapons."

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2014

Internal links, defunct videos & photos removed.

Katie Zezima & Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is considering a range of military options to rescue the thousands of refugees from the minority Yazidi sect trapped atop a mountain in northwestern Iraq, a senior official said Wednesday. The president and his national security team are expected to review those options 'in a matter of days,' said the official, Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser." ...

... Michael Shear & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "American military advisers landed on Mount Sinjar in Iraq early Wednesday to begin assessing how to organize an evacuation of the thousands of Yazidi refugees under siege from Sunni militants, an American official said. News of the landing, which involved fewer than 20 advisers, came hours after a senior White House official said that the United States would consider using American ground troops to assist in the rescue if recommended by the military team." ...

     ... Update. New lede: "Defense Department officials said late Wednesday that United States airstrikes and Kurdish fighters had broken the Islamic militants' siege of Mount Sinjar, allowing thousands of the Yazidis trapped there to escape. An initial report from about a dozen Marines and Special Operations forces who arrived on Tuesday and spent 24 hours on the northern Iraqi mountain said that 'the situation is much more manageable,' a senior Defense official said in an interview." ...

... Karen DeYoung & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "A team of about 20 U.S. troops and aid workers who landed Wednesday on Iraq's Mount Sinjar determined that a rescue operation of besieged minorities stranded there is probably unnecessary, the Pentagon said. 'There are far fewer' refugees left at the northern Iraq location, where tens of thousands were said to have been surrounded by Sunni Muslim extremists, and they 'are in better condition than previously believed,' a Pentagon statement said."

** Dana Milbank on the National Republican Congressional Committee's new fake news websites (National Journal story on the sites linked here yesterday, plus commentary by Akhilleus): "The Republican Party has finally admitted what has been fairly obvious for much of the past six years: It produces fake news. This is not an earth-shattering revelation to anybody who has been paying attention, but, still, it's an important step for the party to embrace the phoniness.... Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the select committee on Benghazi, told CNN's Deirdre Walsh last week that, despite what the [Republican-led House] Intelligence Committee found [-- it reportedly exonerates the Obama administration --], 'there is more work to be done and more to be investigated.' Excellent. Maybe he can post his phony accusations on some fake news Web sites."

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "... the recovery in housing is fueling a niche market for newly minted bonds that are backed by the most troubled mortgages of them all: those on homes on the verge of foreclosure. And it is not just vulture hedge funds swooping in to try to profit from the last remnants of the housing crisis. The investors making money off these obscure bonds -- none are rated by a major credit rating agency -- include mutual funds. And one of the biggest sellers of severely delinquent mortgages to investors is a United States government housing agency." HUD is selling FHA mortgages, & "Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage finance firm that operates under government control, also got into the act...."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A State Department official, [John] Tye worked on Internet freedom issues and had top-secret clearance. He knew the Obama administration had also considered a proposal to impose what an internal White House document, obtained by The New York Times, portrayed as 'significant changes' to rules for handling Americans' data the N.S.A. collects from fiber-optic networks abroad. But Mr. Obama said nothing about that in his speech. So in April, as Mr. Tye was leaving the State Department, he filed a whistle-blower complaint arguing that the N.S.A.'s practices abroad violated Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. He also met with staff members for the House and Senate intelligence committees. Last month, he went public with those concerns, which have attracted growing attention."

Katie Zavadski of New York has more on James Bamford's interview of Ed Snowden (CW: which I know I should read, but I just won't): "It seems that Snowden didn't suddenly abscond with the materials available with to him at that moment, but instead gathered them over years, building his private cache -- and presumably, his courage -- for the right moment. With his higher and higher levels of clearance, Snowden had access to increasingly reprehensible plans. Eventually, a program that would effectively grant the NSA access to 'virtually all private communications coming in from overseas to people in the US' tipped him over the edge." Also, "Bamford wonders whether all of the recent revelations about NSA programs really originate with Snowden." Neither Snowden nor Laura Poitras will say.

"How Libertarians Snooked The New York Times Magazine." Jonathan Chait, after poking holes in Robert Draper's New York Times Magazine cover story about a libertarian surge among young people, heard from "Draper and his primary source..., and their replies show that the article's erroneous conclusions turn out to be even worse than I initially described.... Draper's story presents the self-presentation of such figures as Nick Gillespie, Rand Paul, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and other libertarians almost entirely at face value. That's his judgment call to make. But the glue that holds the story together is the factual claim that younger voters lean libertarian. That claim is simply false." Alan Murray of Pew Research backs Chait's analysis: Pew "found little evidence of a surge of libertarian views in the US."

Michael Howard of Esquire: The NRA opposes a proposed Texas ruling [link fixed] that would allow alcoholic beverages at gun shows because they realize "that's too dangerous" it would disallow gun shows in private residences, outlaw live ammo at the shows, force attendees to disable their firearms & cause other assorted "hassles." "It just would have been nice to see that eighth point: 'Also, drunk people with guns is moronic.'" No such luck.

Beyond the Beltway

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Expressing concern over the 'violent turn' of events in this St. Louis suburb, President Obama said on Thursday that he wanted an open and transparent investigation into the shooting death on Saturday of an unarmed 18-year-old black man by the police.... Minutes earlier, Gov. Jay Nixon promised that residents of Ferguson were going to see a different tone in the response by the police after five nights of unrest during which the authorities have used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowds. Officials said that Governor Nixon would soon remove the St. Louis County police from handling the protests in Ferguson." ...

... Dave Weigel: Obama dances while Ferguson burns. Jay Nixon cancels fun day at the state fair to visit someplace near Ferguson. ...

... CW: I noticed on a Twitter feed that a tweet claiming (probably accurately) that Jay Nixon received 90 percent of the black vote. ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is calling for the 'demilitarization' of the police in Ferguson, Missouri, deeming the response by law enforcement 'the problem instead of the solution.' McCaskill, who was in Ferguson on Thursday morning meeting with community leaders, said the community needs to do 'better' to respond to the unrest in the St. Louis suburb." ...

... Anna Palmer & Jake Sherman of Politico: Hank Johnson, "a [U.S.] House Democrat from Georgia, plans to introduce the first piece of legislation responding to the shooting in the suburb of St. Louis that would focus on stopping a program providing machine guns and free military equipment to local law enforcement." ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery slammed MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Thursday morning for suggesting he and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly should have more closely followed police instructions when they were arrested Wednesday night in Ferguson, Mo.:

Well. I would invite Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he's sitting sipping his Starbucks smugly. I invite him to come down here and talk to residents of Ferguson where I have been Monday afternoon having tear gas shot at me, rubber bullets shot at me, having mothers, daughter, a 19-year-old boy, crying, running to pull his 21-year-old sister out from a cloud of tear gas thinking she would die. I would invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground, and then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what's happening down here.

... CW: An individual has claimed, & Daily Kos has posted a tweet, that Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has confirmed that state & federal authorities will relieve (& dismiss) the St. Louis County PD presence in Ferguson, Mo. I'm trying to find confirmation, & haven't had any luck, so this may not be true. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

     ... Update: See link to New York Times report by Julie Bosman above. ....

.. CW: This is such a stereotypical development that it's almost beyond belief:

"Ferguson police chief turns to Hannity to handle his PR." Karoli of Crooks & Liars: "Police Chief Thomas Jackson took a breather from all of his responsibilities in Ferguson to make a brief appearance on Hannity.... If you're trying to bring a sense of calm to the community, Hannity's show is the last place on earth you should want to show your face. If, on the other hand, you're interested in playing your side of the story to a bunch of nasty bigots, Hannity's show is exactly where you'd go":

Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Despite its ubiquity across the globe and in United States, tear gas is a chemical agent banned in warfare per the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which set forth agreements signed by nearly every nation in the world -- including the United States. The catch, however, is that while it's illegal in war, it's legal in domestic riot control.... Some scientists and international observers contend the tactic of spraying people with tear gas, which commonly uses the chemical agent 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS), can pose serious dangers." ..

... Jim Suhr & Jim Salter of the AP: "Protests in the St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent Wednesday night, with some people lobbing Molotov cocktails and other objects at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd." (Emphasis added.) ...

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A heavily armed, militarised police force fired teargas and rubber bullets to force hundreds of protesters out of the centre of a small Missouri town on Wednesday, as a crackdown on demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed 18-year-old intensified. Dozens of officers, some carrying assault rifles, advanced with a pair of armoured trucks on the young and predominantly African American crowd in Fergsuon, after two glass bottles were thrown at their lines from a largely peaceful protest against the shooting of Michael Brown, who was black, by an officer from the city's overwhelmingly white police department. For hours, police snipers trained their weapons on demonstrators who protested with their hands up as an emblem of peaceful protest. When events escalated on a fourth night of tension in this city of just 21,000 people, protesters described being subjected to military-style tactics as they fled through gas-filled residential side-streets." (Emphasis added.) ...

... CW: Hard not to notice the difference in emphasis in the two preceding accounts of events. ...

... Wesley Lowery, et al. of the Washington Post: "The [Ferguson, Mo., police] department bears little demographic resemblance to the citizens of this St. Louis suburb, a mostly African American community whose suspicions of the law enforcement agency preceded Saturday afternoon's shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who this week had been headed to technical college. But while the racial disparity between the public here and its protectors has come to define the violent aftermath of Brown's death, the department's problems stretch back years and include questions about its officers' training and racial sensitivity." Read the whole story. ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "St. Louis Alderman Antonio French emerged Thursday morning from a night in jail after his arrest at the Ferguson protests to say that the police officers' 'heavy-handed' approach on the streets is making the situation worse. French said he has no documentation that says why he was arrested, and that he was released about 7 a.m. today without having to post any bail." ...

     ... CW: Oh, look. Alderman French is black. Alleged Crime: Driving While Black. (See St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, linked below.) ...

... Rachel Maddow spoke to Wesley Lowery, whom police arrested in Ferguson, Mo. Here are some tweets from Lowery, describing his arrest. They released him with no charges. The police also arrested & released the Huff Post's Ryan Reilly. ...

     ... Update. Here's Lowery's account in the Post. ...

... Video of Lowery's arrest. CW: I'm having a really hard time understanding why any police officer would think a reporter can't quietly sit in a McDonald's & write his story. Apparently Ferguson is a First Amendment-free zone:

... Huffington Post: "The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly and the Washington Post's Wesley Lowery were arrested Wednesday evening while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer last week.... SWAT officers roughed up the reporters inside a McDonald's, where both journalists were working. Reilly snapped a photo, prompting cops to request his identification." ...

... The Huff Post's Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim writes the site's statement on the arrests. ...

... Here's the statement from Marty Baron, the Post's executive editor, on Lowery's arrest. ...

... Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "The police chief [of Ferguson, Missouri], Thomas Jackson, said that minutes before the shooting on Saturday, the officer and the young man, Michael Brown, had engaged in a violent confrontation, in which the officer was hit in the face. 'The side of his face is swollen,' Chief Jackson said at a news conference, adding that the officer, who has been put on administrative leave, was treated at a hospital.... The police say Mr. Brown was shot after he assaulted the officer and tried to take his gun -- an account disputed by a witness, a friend of Mr. Brown's who said his hands were raised when the last of several shots were fired." ...

... Paul Szoldra of Business Insider: "... it's worth discussing the police response to the outrage. In photos taken Monday, we are shown a heavily armed SWAT team. They have short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the military M4 carbine, with scopes that can accurately hit a target out to 500 meters. On their side they carry pistols. On their front, over their body armor, they carry at least four to six extra magazines, loaded with 30 rounds each. Their uniform would be mistaken for a soldier's if it weren't for their 'Police' patches. They wear green tops, and pants fashioned after the U.S. Marine Corps MARPAT camouflage pattern. And they stand in front of a massive uparmored truck called a Bearcat, similar in look to a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, or as the troops who rode in them call it, the MRAP.... The scene is tense, but the presence of what looks like a military force doesn't seem to be helping. 'Bring it. You fucking animals, bring it,' one police officer was caught on video telling protesters." ...

... Charles Blow: "... the sheer morbid, wrenching rhythm of [the Michael Brown killing & its aftermath] belies a larger phenomenon...: The criminalization of black and brown bodies -- particularly male ones -- from the moment they are first introduced to the institutions and power structures with which they must interact." Blow cites studies that demonstrate how African-American children receive discriminatory treatment from the time they hit kindergarten. The upshot, of course, "A May report by the Brookings Institution found: 'There is nearly a 70 percent chance that an African American man without a high school diploma will be imprisoned by his mid-thirties.'" ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editors: "Last year, for the 11th time in the 14 years that data has been collected, the disparity index that measures potential racial profiling by law enforcement in the state got worse. Black Missourians were 66 percent more likely in 2013 to be stopped by police, and blacks and Hispanics were both more likely to be searched, even though the likelihood of finding contraband was higher among whites.... Nearly every black man in America has a story of being pulled over, stopped or harassed as a young person for doing something that a white teenager would never imagine might end in being on the wrong end of a police officer's gun. Driving While Black. Walking While Black. Wearing a Hoodie While Black."

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: "Prosecutors have cast Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia, as a desperate politician who was short of cash and more than willing to promote a donor's product if it meant that he and his wife, Maureen, could live a more lavish life.... Prosecutors said they would rest their case on Thursday, believing they have sufficiently shown that the McDonnells took 'official action' to benefit the donor and businessman, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., and his dietary supplement, Anatabloc, in return for those gifts. On Monday, the defense will begin to call its own witnesses...." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "When Robert F. McDonnell took office as Virginia’s 71st governor, he and his wife were mired in nearly $75,000 in credit card debt, records show. That figure soon grew to more than $90,000 -- and came down because of insurance proceeds, a family trust and the generosity of a wealthy Richmond businessman, the records show. On the 13th day of the federal corruption case against McDonnell (R) and his wife, prosecutors presented the evidence about the family finances as a striking wrap-up to their case, as they began working to connect the dots for jurors." ...

... Here are the Washington Post's live updates of the McDonnell trial testimony Wednesday. "Using the particular timing of phone calls, texts and visitors checking in at the governor's mansion, prosecutors are methodically building their case against Robert F. McDonnell, who they accuse of conspiring, along with his wife, to solicit businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr.'s largess." ...

     ... Update: Here are the Post's live updates of the trial for today.

Senate Races

Kurtis Lee of the Los Angeles Times: "U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Hawaii Office of Elections in an effort to push back a scheduled make-up vote later this week that will decide the Democratic primary election between her and appointed incumbent U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. 'As of this filing, voters in the affected area are still without power and local roads remain blocked,' Hanabusa’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in the state's Circuit Court against chief election officer, Scott Nago.... Residents of two Big Island precincts in the Puna area were unable to cast ballots on Saturday because of Tropical Storm Iselle. Initially, state officials had said they would mail ballots to those who had not voted before the storm. However, on Monday, Nago announced voting would be held Friday and storm-ravaged residents could only vote at a local elementary school. Schatz holds a lead of 1,635 votes -- out of 230,000 cast.... About 8,000 voters live in the two precincts, and many either already cast ballots or don't regularly vote." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Ian Lovett, is here.

Geoff Pender of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: "A spokesman says Chris McDaniel on Thursday will file his court challenge of the June 24 GOP primary he lost to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran. Thursday is the deadline to file." ...

... CW: I forgot to link this story -- also by Pender -- yesterday, but it kinda makes me think McDaniel doesn't have much of a case, despite his claim that his case is "rock-solid": "As Chris McDaniel's team continues to scour voting records to add to an expected legal challenge of his loss to Thad Cochran, it has listed McDaniel's lead lawyer in the challenge, and his wife, as irregular votes that should be tossed out."

Presidential Race

Li'l Randy and Cousin Alec. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "An Iowa evangelical Christian leader stood on stage and told the 1,200 conservatives in the audience and the dozens of reporters that U.S. Sen. Rand Paul had told him he couldn't be at the event Saturday because of a 'family commitment.' Then the New York Post's 'Page Six' published the news that Paul was in the Hamptons on Saturday with Alec Baldwin. Paul was 'among the intellectual elite' at a fundraiser for a library in East Hampton that Baldwin co-sponsored, the column says.... Aides for Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told The Des Moines Register this evening that Paul and his wife, Kelley, did indeed have a family commitment. It was in New York, and they took one of their three sons with them. The party with Baldwin was just an extra event...." CW: Yeah, Randy, I'll be you're telling the truth this time. ...

... Hunter of Daily Kos suggests, "The first rule of dodging ultra-religious, ultra-conservative voters is that you can't let them find out you're dodging them." ...

... Alec Baldwin: It wasn't a party; it was a fucking book fair! ...

Scenes from Baldwin's Hamptons Book Fair:

... Rand Paul Does Some Beach Reading. Amanda Gordon of Bloomberg News: "Rand Paul has been reading his first [Nelson] DeMille thriller, one inspired by 'The Great Gatsby,' about a WASP couple's entanglement with the mob on the gilded North Shore of Long Island." ...

... CW: As I've said before, Aqua Buddha Boy is (a) a constant source of amusement, & (b) an inveterate liar. I'm going to miss him when the "ultra-religious, ultra-conservative" Christians throw him to the lions early in official GOP primary season. ...

... MEANWHILE, on a nearby island, another likely presidential contender is signing books. Gail Collins reflects on Hillary Clinton's foreign policy views.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Embattled Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki stepped aside Thursday, ending a tense political standoff and clearing the way for a new prime minister tasked with steering the country out of its security crisis. Maliki appeared on state television flanked by senior members of his party, including rival Haider al-Abadi, who has been appointed to form a new government. Maliki said he would back 'brother' Abadi for the sake of Iraq's unity."

New York Times: "Rob Manfred, a high-ranking executive in Major League Baseball for many years, was chosen Thursday by the league's owners to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner, one of the most powerful positions in sports. Mr. Manfred was confirmed after several ballots by baseball's 30 owners, who convened in a closed-door ballroom in downtown Baltimore."

Washington Post: "On Thursday, [actor-comedian Robin Williams'] wife, Susan Schneider, released a statement that said Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease when he died." The Los Angeles Times story is here.

"Ocean's 11." AP: "A recently fired casino security guard used his knowledge of when and where large sums of money would change hands to help plan and pull off a daring robbery that netted more than $180,000, authorities said Thursday. Eight people were arrested in the July 21 gunpoint robbery of Caesars Atlantic City that touched off a three-state manhunt, New Jersey State Police said. The search ended with a Delaware state trooper being shot; the bulletproof vest he was wearing saved his life."

New York Times: "A Russian aid convoy destined for rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine resumed its disputed southward journey on Thursday, in apparent defiance of demands by the government in Kiev that the shipment be stopped." ...

     ... Guardian UPDATE: "... while the trucks [supposedly carrying humanitarian aid] came to a halt well short of Ukraine's border, a different Russian convoy did make the crossing into Ukrainian territory late on Thursday evening. The Guardian saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, travelling towards the border near the Russian town of Donetsk -- about 200km away from Donetsk, Ukraine." ...

     ... Los Angeles Times UPDATE: "A Russian convoy carrying aid for civilians trapped in separatist-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine diverted from its agreed route to the Ukrainian border Thursday, drawing warnings from Kiev that it will be blocked 'with all the forces available' unless its cargo is first inspected."

AFP: "Israel secured supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon last month without the approval of the White House or the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Since officials there were caught off guard as they tried to restrain Israel's campaign in Gaza, the administration of President Barack Obama has tightened controls on arms shipments to Israel, the newspaper said, quoting US and Israeli officials."

The Commentariat -- August 13, 2014

Internal links, photo & related text removed.

Fred Kaplan of Slate: What President Obama is doing to protect the Kurds "has nothing to do with getting drawn back into the Iraq war.... The main reason for Kurdistan's stability is that in 1970 the U.S. and Iraqi governments decreed it an autonomous area. More relevant still, after the 1991 Gulf War, the U.N. Security Council, in, Resolution 688, declared the area a 'safe haven' to protect Kurds from Saddam Hussein's wrath. (He had killed thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.) And the United States agreed to enforce the resolution with a 'no-fly zone.'" ...

... Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Tuesday that open-ended military actions, like President Obama's airstrikes in Iraq, should require congressional approval, and that a bill he's proposed would ensure that is the case. Kaine said that while he supports the U.S. humanitarian mission underway in Iraq, 'it is now up to the administration to receive Congressional authorization for the current air campaign against' the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

Bryce Covert of Think Progress: "The jobs that have been added to the economy during the recovery pay 23 percent less, on average, than those that were lost in the recession, according to a report from The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).... The report is the latest to confirm that while job growth has been strong lately, the types of jobs being added may not support working families.... The USCM report also highlights growing income inequality, as the richest bracket saw a $490 billion gain in total income in 2012 while all of the lower groups saw a decline.... Things are only forecast to be worse, though. One in four workers are projected to be in low-wage jobs over the next decade."

Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: "More than 300,000 people who bought subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act could lose it next month if they do not provide proof that they are living in the United States legally, the Obama administration said Tuesday."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A legislative year in which Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio set out to publicly marginalize the more vocal right-wing members of his conference ended with them emboldened, and with new leaders ready to bring the right back into the fold.... On Capitol Hill, the Tea Party wing continues to drive the party's agenda." ...

... White-White-Whitey-White. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "According to U.S. Census data, only 13 out of 234 Republican-held districts are majority-minority (that is, districts where white non-Hispanics make up less than 50 percent of the population). That's about 5 percent of all Republican districts. In contrast, fully 49 percent of Democrat-held districts are majority-minority." Thanks to Nisky Guy for link.

Immigration attorney David Leopold in the Hill: "As long as the administrative decision to defer the removal of a group of undocumented immigrants is legitimately aimed at more efficient use of law enforcement resources, it arguably falls well within the president's discretion.... In fact, presidents of both parties have used categorical grants of deferred action to postpone the deportation of large groups of undocumented immigrants, including abused women, hurricane victims and refugees. Therefore, to violate the constitution, the president's action must be a dramatic, extraordinary departure from universally accepted exercises of executive discretion. DACA or its expansion don't even come close." ...

... Elise Foley & Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "In a newly released memo, the Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge highlights 10 instances in which past presidents have used their authority to apply selective prosecution of immigration laws. More often than not, those instances targeted specific populations caught up in complex and dangerous foreign policy crises. But immigration lawyers sympathetic to the White House say that these actions still provide sound principle on which the current administration can act." The American Bridge memo is here. ...

... ** Alberto Gonzales! in a USA Today op-ed: "In spite of this humanitarian crisis and the economic burdens it creates for state and local governments, recently members of Congress failed to pass legislation to address these issues before heading home for the August recess. In response, the President announced that he will take executive action even though he previously professed publicly his power to deal with the influx of young immigrants was limited. I support the President's commitment to address this issue provided his actions are consistent with his duty under the Constitution to faithfully execute our laws." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Oh, and This: AP: "Looking to make inroads with the rising number of Hispanic voters, conservative activists are offering English classes, health checkups and courses to help Spanish-speakers earn high school diplomas. Picking up part of the tab: Charles and David Koch.... Enter the Libre Initiative, an organization that has collected millions from the Kochs' political network. Libre, which means 'free,' pushes a message of limited government and economic freedom between lessons on how to build family-run businesses and prayer breakfasts with Hispanic pastors.... In effect, it is a shadow GOP -- one with a gentle emphasis on social services and assimilation over a central party often seen as hostile to immigrants and minorities."

James Bamford of Wired has a long piece on an interview with Ed Snowden, which begins with a lot of stuff on how the author arranged the meeting, etc. CW: That's as far as I got. Also, artsy photos of Ed, including a ridiculous cover wherein Ed fondles a bunched-up American flag while staring blankly into the abyss through crooked Russian-issue glasses. ...

... Apparently somewhere in the profile those who bother to read it learn that, according to Snowden, NSA hackers are monumental fuck-ups. Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "The National Security Agency inadvertently brought Syria's Internet to a screeching halt nationwide in 2012 after a failed attempt to hack into the war-torn country's communications data, according to a new claim by Edward Snowden.... It is unclear which blackout Snowden is referencing, but any blackout would have the potential to disrupt communications among fractured rebel groups and aid the Assad regime." ...

... AND the Fuck-ups Are Dangerous. Kim Tummarello of the Hill: "The United States has a secret cybersecurity program dubbed 'MonsterMind' that is designed to detect and automatically respond to threats, according to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The program -- which had never before been revealed -- is capable of intercepting all foreign communications to people in the U.S., detecting and disarming cyberattacks and can 'automatically fire back, with no human involvement,' Wired reported in a lengthy profile of Snowden published Wednesday. The program was the 'last straw' for Snowden, who remains a wanted man in the United States for leaking reams of information about secret intelligence programs. Snowden warned an automatic program like MonsterMind could harm innocent countries, as cyberattacks are often routed through computers in other places. 'You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia,' Snowden said. 'And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?'"

Congressional Races

Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "The National Republican Congressional Committee, which came under fire earlier this year for a deceptive series of fake Democratic candidate websites that it later changed after public outcry, has launched a new set of deceptive websites, this time designed to look like local news sources. The NRCC has created about two dozen of these new faux news sites targeting Democrats, both challengers and incumbents, and is promoting them across the country with localized Google search ads." CW: Just another iteration of traditional GOP phony.

AP: "Businessman Mike McFadden has won Minnesota's Republican Senate primary and will take on Sen. Al Franken in November. McFadden defeated retiring state Rep. Jim Abeler and several lesser-known candidates in Tuesday's primary." ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: McFadden "will begin the general-election campaign as an underdog against Sen. Al Franken (D). Franken easily defeated his primary challenger."

Greg Sargent: The Iraq War becomes an issue in the Iowa Senate race, with Republican Joni Ernst arguing that the U.S. should not have withdrawn troops from Iraq, & Demo Bruce Brayley characterizing her as a Dick Cheney Republican.

Rebecca Berg of the Washington Examiner: The Koch brothers-funded "Freedom Partners, this week canceled its reserved television air time in Michigan for the remainder of the summer and the fall, according to one Democrat who monitors ad buys -- effectively conceding the [Senate] fight [between Democrat Gary Peters & Republican Terri Lynn Land] in a state some Republicans are cautiously optimistic could turn in their favor.... The ad time the group had reserved in Michigan totaled roughly $1 million." Peters has been ahead in most polls by only 4 points. Via Greg Sargent.

Thanks, Wingnuts! Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Republicans are in a hurry to stop talking about impeachment ... because it's killing the GOP among swing voters.... The House GOP's lawsuit against Obama's use of executive orders is turning out to be a political loser too. In fact, it's not much more popular than impeachment.... What's even worse for Republicans when it comes to both impeachment and the lawsuit is that they don't even have the effect you might think on the GOP base. They do, however, motivate liberals."

Mark Sommerhauser of the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times: "Republican Tom Emmer coasted to victory Tuesday night in the primary election for the GOP nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.... Emmer advances to the November general election with DFL candidate Joe Perske and the Independence Party's John Denney. Perske and Denney were unopposed in the primary.... Emmer now becomes the general-election favorite in the solidly Republican 6th District."

Gubernatorial Races

Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Mary Burke cruised to victory Tuesday in the Democratic primary race for governor, setting up one of the most closely watched midterm races in the country between the former bicycle executive and Gov. Scott Walker. Burke, a Madison School Board member and former state commerce secretary, never faced a threat in her primary race against state Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison)." ...

... Sean Sullivan: "Polls show Walker has a real race on his hands against Burke. A recent Marquette Law School survey showed Walker (46 percent) and Burke (47 percent) in a dead heat."

Patrick Condon of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Republicans chose Jeff Johnson on Tuesday to be their candidate for governor, betting that the mild-mannered political veteran is the party's best chance to unseat Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton in November. Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner from Plymouth, led a four-man field throughout the night and, with 99 percent of the counted, emerged victorious with 30 percent of the vote." According to Sean Sullivan (story linked above), Dayton "is favored to win."

Karyn Bruggeman of the National Journal: "Less than two years after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School..., the package of gun laws passed posthaste by the Connecticut Legislature in April 2013 is poised to play a significant role in the race between Gov. Dan Malloy and his Republican opponent, Tom Foley.... Connecticut's gun laws played almost no role in the state's gubernatorial contest four years ago, when Malloy narrowly beat Foley by 6,404 votes, but that's bound to change this year now that the governor is focusing on his leadership in the aftermath of the shooting and using the issue as a wedge in an otherwise deadlocked race. The most recent public opinion poll, conducted in May by Quinnipiac University, had the candidates tied at 43 percent apiece.... Malloy's embrace of the issue could vex Foley, who has yet to articulate a clear stance on the state's bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, in the fall campaign. Indeed, the May Quinnipiac survey found that 56 percent of Connecticut voters support the state's new, stricter gun laws, while just 38 percent stand opposed." ...

     ... Update. Christopher Keating, et al., of the Hartford Courant: "Greenwich business executive Tom Foley roared to victory Tuesday night in a low-turnout Republican gubernatorial primary, setting up a potentially contentious rematch with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this fall that polls show will start off as a dead heat."

Presidential Election

Frank Rich compares & contrasts Hillary Clinton's boring book Hard Choices to Edward Klein's "complete crap" book Blood Feud: the Clintons vs. the Obamas. "You can't fault a reader for wanting to spend time with Klein's two-fisted Hillary rather than the often robotic self-­censoring bureaucrat of Hard Choices. Both these Hillarys are in essence fictional creations crafted for the marketplace -- one embellished with camp to sell books, the other embalmed with civic virtue to win votes -- so in the end, it all comes down to which kind of fiction you prefer. The real Hillary, whomever [sic!] she may be, is scantly visible in either book." Thanks to MAG for the link. ...

... CW: The only Hillary we wil ever see is the one reacting to her most recent bad press. After we made fun of her for a foreign policy platform that consisted of "telling America's story," which she proffered on the "Daily Show," her response was (a 100 percent scripted Colbert performance &) a tough-broad foreign policy interview. When people criticized her for dissing the President in the Goldberg interview, Clinton let it be known that she planned to "hug it out" with Obama at a posh Vineyard party. And so it goes. It is unreasonable to expect a presidential candidate to be candid, but Hillary's canned persona is not the usual product of campaign ops, like the fake Michelle Nunn her campaign proposed to present; rather, the fake Hillary is a reactive -- and therefore inconsistent (nearly amorphous) -- charade.

Paul Waldman in the American Prospect: Hillary "Clinton says that a [foreign policy] doctrine is necessary (though she doesn't use that word). The trouble is, she won't actually say what hers would be, other than to say she'd have one.... The appeal and the danger of doctrines is that they simplify decision-making, assuring you that there's only one reasonable choice in complex situations and unintended consequences aren't something to worry your head over." ...

... Maureen Dowd: "Hillary Clinton was one of the 29 Democratic senators who voted to authorize that baloney war.... It's not that she's too old.... It's that she's too old-think, thrusting herself forward as a hawk at a time when hawks -- in the season of Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul -- aren't so cool. Americans are sick of the idea that we should plunge in and plant our flag in the ground and work out the details later.... Besides, a Times article by Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt [also linked here yesterday] demonstrated that 'at every turn' the rise of ISIS's self-styled caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been shaped by the United States’ involvement in Iraq -- putting the ball of blame back in Hillary's court.... David Axelrod tartly tweeted: 'Just to clarify: "Don't do stupid stuff" means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.'" ...

... Sam Stein: "... several Democrats insisted the rift [between Hillary Clinton & President Obama] may underwhelm.... On the issue of Syria, Obama and Clinton ended up largely in the same place. While Obama clearly moved slower than Clinton wanted, he did end up sending arms to the rebels -- even if he thought it was futile. In June, he asked for $500 million more.... And while Clinton may have expressed regret that the administration moved slowly to put its imprint on Syria's civil war, she peppered her position with skepticism ('I totally understand the cautions that we had to contend with') and drew limits to U.S. involvement."

Beyond the Beltway

Trymaine Lee of msnbc reports the account of Dorian Johnson, the closest eyewitness to the police shooting death of Michael Brown. The Ferguson, Missouri, police are still withholding the identity of the shooter. ...

... Marina Koren of the National Journal: "President Obama released a statement late Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer on Saturday 'heartbreaking.' ... Also on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration announced flight restrictions over Ferguson, banning pilots from flying less than 3,000 feet above the St. Louis suburb until Monday. The reason given for the no-fly was 'to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities.'"

The Brownback "Miracle," Ctd. Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said it would file charges against the state of Kansas, alleging that bond documents failed to disclose just how much of the state's pension system was underfunded.... It's the latest blow to Kansas's bond ratings, which have already been downgraded this year by Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Those downgrades had to do with projected budget deficits after a [Gov. Sam] Brownback-supported tax cut left a projected $330 million hole in the state budget."

Andrew Cain of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Bob McDonnell and his sister were desperate to unload costly Virginia Beach rental properties as the economy tanked in 2009, according to newly released emails today." ...

... Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky have the Washington Post story. CW: I have not been able to access the WashPo all day. I was finally able to call up this story using a trick (Control+F5), but I can't copy & paste text. The link may not work for you, either. ...

... I'm not the only one having trouble. Commenters at this site complain, too. One of them has diagnosed the problem: "Dana Milbank wrote a column that is unfavorable to the Obama Administration today. Maybe that's why we can't access the site." Yeah, that's probably it. ...

... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Today on 'The 700 Club,' Pat Robertson and Jay Sekulow did their best to paint the former Republican governor of Virginia as the victim of a 'political prosecution,' decrying his corruption trial as a 'political witch hunt' spearheaded by Attorney General Eric Holder. Robertson alleged, without any evidence, that Holder wanted to stop Mitt Romney from tapping McDonnell as his running mate in 2012 and is 'behind all of this stuff.'" ...

... More from Right Wing World

Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday tied Robin Williams' death, which sheriffs believe was a suicide, to the 'leftist worldview.'" CW: Curiously, Rush claims that leftists are never happy; we're "always angry about something." Um, doesn't Rush spend most of his show yelling & haranguing about stuff? Doesn't he seem -- angry? All the time? Maybe he's a leftist in disguise. Excellent disguise. He has me fooled.

News Ledes

Guardian: "Hamas and Israel have agreed five more days of truce to allow further talks after a tense final countdown to the end of the current 72-hour ceasefire on Wednesday night. The current truce, which is the eighth bid to stop the five-week long war, had been due to expire at midnight, and rocket fire on Israel two hours before its end prompted fears of a new outbreak of violence." ...

... AFP: "Israeli aircraft carried out air strikes across Gaza early Thursday in response to Palestinian rocket fire and shortly after a new ceasefire brokered by Egypt came into effect, officials said."

Los Angeles Times: "Militants with the Islamic State group seized several towns in northern Syria's Aleppo province early Wednesday, dealing a blow to rival rebel factions who were forced to withdraw from areas they took this year, according to fighters reached near the front line. With the capture of the strategic town of Akhtarin and a few surrounding villages, fighters with the breakaway Al Qaeda group have moved farther west and now threaten to cut off the rebels' main access highway to neighboring Turkey."

Guardian: "The death toll from conflict in eastern Ukraine has doubled in the past fortnight, the UN's human rights office said on Wednesday, as international wrangling continued over a controversial Russian aid convoy to the region. The UN office said its 'very conservative estimates' suggested the death toll has risen to 2,086 by the beginning of this week, up from 1129 on 26 July. About 5,000 people had been injured, it said, in figures that represented 'a clear escalating trend' of violence in the east." ...

... AFP: "After earlier vowing to block a massive Russian convoy headed for its borders, Kiev said it could allow the aid to enter the country after it was inspected by Ukrainian border guards and foreign monitors."

AP: "An Associated Press video journalist and a freelance Palestinian translator were killed Wednesday when ordnance left over from the Israeli-Hamas war exploded as they were reporting on the conflict's aftermath. Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash died when an unexploded missile believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up as Gaza police engineers were working to neutralize it in the northern town of Beit Lahiya."