The Commentariat -- May 28

Vice President Biden delivers the Presidential Weekly Address, this week on the recovery of the American auto industry:

I've added an Open Thread on Off Times Square for today. ...

... Gail Collins continues her book tour of Republican presidential candidates, this time settling on Fed Up! by Texas governor Rick Perry. Kate Madison & I have posted our comments on Collins' column -- which is good, because once again, as they so often do on weekends, the Times trolls have held back our comments. ...

... AND in case you'd really like to know more about Gov. Perry, Peter Boyer, now of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, interviews Perry and opens with the same dead coyote featured in Collins' column. Perry is getting a lot of mileage out of that one dead canine. ...

... Not to diminish the importance of shooting coyotes, but Andrew Leonard reminds us that Rick Perry's claim he produced a "Texas miracle" proved to be a big fat lie; his tax-cutting mantra, which he & the Texas legislature are just now making worse, has left Texas in a spiraling state of crisis.

Demagoguery. def.: Making use of popular prejudices & false claims & promises in order to gain power. Karen Garcia realizes "demagogue" is the right's new word to describe Democrats who point out the fallacies of Republican policies: "... it seems like these overpaid pundits and columnists and hacks are all getting their marching orders from some centralized Reactionary Word Bank." Garcia plumbs Lexis-Nexis for some recent print examples. Of course, she couldn't leave out Brooks.

Marjorie Censer of the Washington Post: The Army's Comanche helicopter "is one of 22 major Army weapons programs canceled since 1995, ringing up a price tag of more than $32 billion for equipment that was never built. A new study, commissioned by the Army and obtained by The Washington Post, condemns the service’s efforts as 'unacceptable.'”

Earlier in the week, Ezra Klein sent Paul Ryan 8 questions about his budget. Ryan, or his office, responded here. Klein answers two of Ryan's responses here. This is all kind of wonkish & in the weeds (tho Klein is a very good explainer), but even a cursory reading shows you that Ryan has to bob, weave & mischaracterize relevant facts to formulate his answers. CW: Ryan is either stupid or deceptive; he can't be both. You decide.

Bloomberg: "Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking U.S. House Democratic leader, in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s 'Political Capital with Al Hunt,' airing this weekend, predicted that negotiators will agree on a plan to cut $3 trillion to $6 trillion in U.S. spending in time to raise the debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline." During the interview, Clyburn also said -- contrary to rumors that Democrats in the Biden deficit negotiations will agree to Medicare cuts -- Democrats will not agree to reduced Medicare benefits at all. Transcript. ...

... Which is especially significant because ... David Kurtz of TPM: to save themselves from the Ryan Medicare debacle, "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ... announced he will not support raising the debt ceiling unless big Medicare cuts are part of the deal. Translation: Unless Democrats get us off the hook by agreeing to deep Medicare cuts (meaning Democrats can no longer attack Republicans for wanting to eliminate Medicare), then we're going to force the federal government into default on its debt." More from Brian Beutler of TPM here. ...

... Steve Benen: "This is no small admission. The Senate’s leading Republican is saying, publicly and on the record, that without Medicare cuts, he’ll try to create an economic calamity on purpose."

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "You hear a lot about state officials trying to fight the Affordable Care Act, whether by challenging it in the federal courts or refusing to implement its provisions. But plenty of states officials are enthusiastic about the law. And perhaps none are moving as quickly, or effectively, to follow through on the law as Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley."

Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: There are "about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska. There is only one catch: the oil ... can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rock.... The technique, also called fracking, has been widely used in the last decade to unlock vast new fields of natural gas, but drillers only recently figured out how to release large quantities of oil.... As evidence mounts that fracking poses risks to water supplies, the federal government and regulators in various states are considering tighter regulations on it."

New York Times Editors: "Pandering on Israel [by both Republicans and Democrats] in the hopes of winning Jewish support is hardly a new phenomenon in American politics, but there is something unusually dishonest about this fusillade." The editors particularly call out Mitt Romney: "It is one thing to make noise on the campaign trail. It is quite another to lead a quest for peace." ...

... Steve Benen adds, "There’s probably no point in even hoping Republicans will be responsible on this, since it’s likely many of them don’t even believe their own rhetoric. But congressional Democrats have to be more sensible — not for Obama’s sake, but for the sake of Israel’s future and that of the peace process."

Right Wing World *

Dana Milbank writes a largely positive column about Herman Cain, former Godfather's Pizza CEO, who is more popular among Republican voters than Pawlenty, Bachmann, Huntsman & Santorum. "Yet there is no escaping a sense that the Hermanator is not ready for his starring role. When he formally launched his campaign on May 21, he proclaimed, 'We need to reread the Constitution,' referring to 'a little section in there that talks about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ ” That’s from the Declaration of Independence."

* Where facts just don't matter.

News Ledes

New York Times: President Obama is expected to name Army Gen. Martin Dempsey as new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The article profiles Dempsey.

New York Times: "A Taliban suicide bomber on Saturday infiltrated a heavily guarded governor’s compound in northern Afghanistan where top NATO and Afghan officials from the region were meeting, killing several people there, including the highly regarded police commander Gen. Daoud Daoud, Afghan officials said."

New York Times: "A federal judge in Virginia has declared unconstitutional a century-old law banning political contributions from corporations, a ruling that, if upheld, could have major implications for the rules governing campaign fund-raising and spending."

Reuters: "NATO carried out a rare daytime air strike on Tripoli on Saturday after a fifth straight night of attacks, adding to military and diplomatic pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to quit after 41 years of power."

Washington Post: "Egypt opens the Gaza border crossing, easing a four-year blockade. Hundreds of Palestinians headed to this desert border crossing Saturday morning to be the first to enter Egypt under newly eased restrictions for residents of the Gaza Strip. Some described the permanent opening of the gateway after four years of strict restrictions as the first step in regaining their dignity." Al Jazeera story here.

Washington Post: "U.S. officials say Iran is dispatching increasing numbers of trainers and advisers — including members of its elite Quds Force — into Syria to help crush anti-government demonstrations that are threatening to topple Iran’s most important ally in the region."

AP: "North Korea freed an American it held for a half year for reportedly proselytizing, handing him Saturday to a U.S. envoy who said Washington had not promised to provide aid in exchange for the man's release. The envoy, Robert King, accompanied Eddie Jun on a flight from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and told reporters after arriving in Beijing that Jun would be reunited with his family in the United States 'within a day or two.'"

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The [Wisconsin] state Department of Justice asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to immediately vacate a judge's decision that voided a plan by Gov. Scott Walker to greatly limit collective bargaining for public workers. In its filing, the department said Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi made so many errors in a ruling Thursday that the Supreme Court should throw out her decision even before it hears oral arguments in the case June 6."

News You Can Use. AP: "The Kroger Co. is pumping up its fuel discount program, more than tripling the number of grocery stores where regular shoppers can get up to a $1-a-gallon discount on a tankful of gas." ...

... AND This. Reuters: "The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from 'coffee shops' and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year."

The Commentariat -- May 27

Paul Krugman: "... the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan’s critics are lying about it, but because they’re describing it accurately." ...

... I've posted a comments page for Krugman on Off Times Square. You can comment on Our Mister Brooks, too, who writes what he thinks is a related column about reasonable Republicans working with Democrats to fix Medicare. I've added my own comment on Krugman, which the Times moderators are holding back, so you can read it here. Update: Commenter Denis Neville shreds Brooks.

Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Art by Alex Gross for the New York Times.Rick Perlstein in a New York Times op-ed: "January was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed... His diminution is ... an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish." ...

...  The full text of Humphrey's landmark 1948 convention speech supporting civil rights is here. The page also links to a video clip. Audio of the full speech is here, but the quality is awful.

Which of these two high school kids is likely to become Speaker of the House? (Answer at the bottom of this post.)

A Cautionary Tale. Donald Marron: "... the United States defaulted on some Treasury bills in 1979. And it paid a steep price for stiffing bondholders." ...

... Bill Clinton Cannot Keep His Foot out of His Mouth. When he wasn't giving Paul Ryan cover for his disastrous budget plan (see yesterday's Commentariat), he was giving the whole Republican party cover to default on the debt. Frank James of NPR: At a fiscal summit, Clinton said, "If we defaulted on the debt once for a few days, it might not be calamitous." At the request of an astonished White House, a Clinton spokesperson retracted his remark, saying the former President "misspoke." CW: Yeah, he does that a lot.

CW: I've been trying to ignore this story, but it won't go away. Do not, however, expect breathless, wall-to-wall links here. Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin is fortifying her small staff of advisers, buying a house in Arizona — where associates have said she could base a national campaign — and reviving her schedule of public appearances. The moves are the most concrete signals yet that Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is seriously weighing a Republican presidential bid." ...

... BUT let's hope Chris Cillizza is right: "Talk of a 2012 presidential bid by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has reached fever pitch (again) after news broke this week of an East Coast bus tour to historical sites, a possible home purchase in Arizona and a new film biopic.... But, for all the chatter..., there remains no evidence in any early voting primary or caucus state that she or her political team are doing anything to lay the groundwork for a 2012 bid." CW: for what it's worth, I tend to agree with Cillizza. All this is just Palin saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" She does that a lot. ...

     ... CNN Update: and Fox "News" isn't changing Palin's status. Fox canned Newt Gingrich & Rick Santorum some time ago, but let Mike Huckabee remain on the air. CW: it seems to me if you want to know who is & who isn't running on the Republican ticket, just check Fox's lineup. Roger Ailes is always the first to know. 

Alexander Bolton & Josiah Ryan of The Hill: Senate Republicans are holding pro-forma sessions during next week's recess to prevent President Obama from making recess appointments, a move that may be specifically aimed at keeping the President from appointing Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Joe Klein: Why has Bibi Netanyahu twisted President Obama's words? Because he can, & because his lies allow him to continue building settlements on Palestinian lands. "Given his congressional support, Netanyahu may be able to get away with playing so bold a hand — but it is inappropriate behavior for an American ally, and you can bet that Obama won't forget it." ...

... The Editors of the Jewish Daily Forward were equally dismayed by Netanyahu's belligerent speech to Congress, which they see as making them choose between Netanyahu and Obama; they suggest their choice will be Obama.

Jon Chait of The New Republic: that radical left-wing news outlet NPR joins the ranks of misguided Washington elites who claim public debt is "the biggest problem facing the nation." Evidently all those out-of-work Americans & irreversible climate change are not too important. CW: NPR has done this before.

Right Wing World *

The only people in Washington, DC who have voted to cut Medicare have been the Democrats, when they voted to cut $500 billion in Medicare during Obamacare. -- Speaker John Boehner ...

... But It Ain't So. Greg Sargent: almost all House Republicans and most Senate Republicans "did vote to pass the Ryan budget.... According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Ryan plan cuts the amount of Medicare spending on seniors in relation to overall health care costs. It also reduces the amount of annual Medicare spending as a share of GDP." CW: the Democratic cuts to Medicare were to Medicare Advantage, a costly, unpaid-for Bush prescription drug program that the Affordable Care Act phases out, depending on how effectively the various Advantage plans work. People on Medicare Advantage can switch to plans that are more cost-effective.

Paul Ryan Lobs a Hail Mary that Lands out of Bounds. Amy Sullivan of Time: don't believe (1) everything you read in Politico, (b) anything Paul Ryan tells you, (c) that Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan (the "Pope of America") endorses Ryan's budget. (1) Politico grossly misread Dolan's letter -- a response to a letter from Ryan, who was smarting because the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (who report to Dolan) said they were concerned that Ryan's budget hurt the poor; (2) Politico misread Dolan's letter because Ryan untruthfully spun it as an endorsement, which it wasn't; (3) Archbishop Dolan agrees with the U.S. Catholic bishops -- Ryan's budget appears to add "further burdens to the poor ... and the vulnerable." ...

... AND/BUT I worship the ground that Paul Ryan walks on.
-- Dick Cheney (link to disturbing video)

      Theology Question of the Day: Will Saint Peter let Saint Paul into heaven after Paul lied to and about the Pope of America, AND after Peter finds out Paul's number one disciple is Dick Cheney?

Ben Smith: Tiffany's backs up Gingrich's story, claims it gave "identical" deals to more than 1,000 other customers & never lobbied wife Callista's committee. No mention of Gingrich's claim that he's "frugal."

Grass Roots, Republican Style. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post: American Action Network, "a Washington advocacy group that spent millions of dollars on Republicans in the 2010 election and claimed to have broad grass-roots support, actually drew all of its first-year revenue from fewer than a dozen well-heeled donors, according to a recent tax filing.... 82 percent of the group’s initial revenues came from three donors...." And now, for the laugh-o-licious definition of grass-roots backing: "Jim Landry, the group’s spokesman... not[ed] that more than 215,000 people had indicated they liked the group’s Facebook page."

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Miami Herald: "Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida's $69-billion budget Thursday, using his line item veto power to chop more than half of a billion dollars in spending. Many of the cuts were for higher education construction projects, and health and human service programs." CW: Click on the audio that accompanies the post for more detail.

___________

If you guessed "Both," you'd be right. That's Gingrich and Pelosi. Maybe I should have asked, "Which of these two ... would you want to be Speaker of the House?" More creepy high school photos of Republican presidential hopefuls here. But, writes Joshua Green, "A quick office straw poll here at The Atlantic, conducted amidst uproarious laughter, confirms that this is, in fact, the single worst year book photo that most of us have ever seen."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Leaders of the Group of 8 wealthiest industrialized nations pledged on Friday to send billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and Tunisia, hoping to reduce the threat that economic stagnation could undermine the transition to democracy."

New York Times: "A Serbian judge gave preliminary approval on Friday to transfer Ratko Mladic to The Hague to be prosecuted for war crimes, including genocide. But his lawyer said he would appeal to block the transfer, saying Mr. Mladic’s health was too frail to face trial."

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Pakistan on Friday in what officials described as an effort to measure Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism after the killing of Osama bin Laden badly strained relations with the United States. It did not appear to go well."

AP: President Obama signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act by autopen shortly before the act was set to expire.

Another Reason Not to Vote Republican. New York Times: New Jersey "Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that New Jersey would become the first state to withdraw from a 10-state trading system, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, declaring it an ineffective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

AP: Italian "Premier Silvio Berlusconi has taken his claim that he is being persecuted by leftist judges to the G-8 summit, telling a clearly perplexed President Barack Obama that in Italy they represent 'almost a dictatorship'. His comments carried on Italian TV news broadcasts from Deauville, France, set off a barrage of criticism Friday from Italian magistrates and his political opponents."

Reuters (item): "Russia believes Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy and Moscow is prepared to mediate to facilitate his departure from power."

The Commentariat -- May 26

Gail Collins: "In case you missed it, New York’s 26th Congressional District went blue this week." ...

... I have a Collins comments page up on Off Times Square. Comment on Collins or anything vaguely related to politics. I've posted my comment; Kate Madison & Karen Garcia both wrote terrific -- and funny -- comments. In her comment -- which the Times moderators buried on page 2 -- Garcia refers to the video below, shot earlier today:

I'm glad we won this race in New York, but I hope the Democrats don't use it as an excuse to do nothing on Medicare. -- Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan, find the most effective way possible to stomp all over the Democrats' message du jour

     ... Jonathan Karl of ABC News has more. ...

     ... AND, as Jim Newell of Gawker writes, "It's interesting to hear this from Bill Clinton, whose well-managed stand against Newt Gingrich's (much less severe) Medicare cuts in 1995 helped him save his presidency and win a second term." CW: Hillary in 2012? ...

... PLUS, Your Medicare Picture of the Day, courtesy of Peter Orszag, who -- among his new, private ventures -- has a new column in Bloomberg. He devotes his first column to explaining why the Ryan plan would be bad for future seniors. He doesn't cover a lot of new ground, but he gets his point across with this:

Another Reason to Disbelieve Everything David Brooks Writes. In his never-ending quest to understand human beings with whom he evidently has little actual contact, Brooks posted the results of a study that showed people really liked to cooperate. That might be true, but you couldn't prove it by Brooks. Reader Diane F. did a little research & discovered that the study Brooks cited was funded by a group called the Mercatus Institute: "Check out the board of directors...," Diane writes. "A Koch brother [Charles] and Ed Meese too! I just wanted to tell someone about at least one place where David get his research." CW: The other major non-academic member of the board is John Allison, former BB&T CEO; Allison's other favorite cause: He is a major contributor to the Ayn Rand Institute and assigned Rand's Atlas Shrugged to all of his senior executives, calling the novel "the best defense of capitalism ever written."

Jerry Zremski of The New Republic on "How Kathy Hochul Won." It helped that her main opponent, Republican Jane Corwin is a flat-footed, lying cold-fish multimillionaire.

... The president's problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin. -- Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who has a habit of telling the truth

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "... the Senate on Wednesday rejected the House Republican budget blueprint, a mostly symbolic vote that nonetheless underscores the political peril entailed in the GOP proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program.... As was the case in the House vote, all Democrats present in the Senate voted against the measure.... The Republicans voting against the plan Wednesday were moderate Sens. Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), as well as conservative freshman Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), who argued that the plan did not go far enough in cutting spending." Here's a more extensive article on the same subject by Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times.

If you want to urge President Obama to reappoint Elizabeth Warren as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief (which he'll have to do as a recess appointment because Republicans will block her confirmation), here's a Progressive Change Campaign Committee petition that makes supporting Warren quick & easy.

Karoun Demirjian of the Las Vegas Sun: "Nevada’s most reliably unpredictable candidate, Sharron Angle, has just taken the surprise move of removing herself from a campaign. Angle was first in, and now the first out, to fill the 2nd Congressional District seat left vacant by Dean Heller when he filled the Senate seat John Ensign resigned this month. She’s doing so, it appears, because of last week’s court decision to let party central committees play a selective role, in lieu of a formal primary process.... The shift would seriously weaken Angle’s chances...."

The Fight over Nothing, Con'd. Peter Schroeder of The Hill: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Ga.) and supporters of Elizabeth Warren, who flooded his Facebook page Wednesday, are still arguing about whether or not his staff agreed to allow Warren to leave a House hearing by 2:15 pm ET Tuesday after the committee had rescheduled the hearing at nearly the last minute. CW: The real issue is McHenry's disrespectful, bullying treatment of Warren throughout the hearing, finally devolving into his shouting at her, "You're making that up." McHenry & other Republicans had better learn that Democrats adore Warren & will protect her from attack dogs.

Right Wing World *

We only had part of this tape the other day. The follow-up is priceless. After Georgia Republican Congressman Rob Woodall chides a constituent for failing to take care of herself & asking the government to do it (i.e., accepting Medicare & Social Security), another constituent asks him why he doesn't set an example and give up his government-funded health insurance plan the way he wants his constituents to do. Listen to Woodall's answer:

     ... If you want to know why you should show up at the townhalls these wingers conduct, here's the answer. The woman is this video demonstrates what Americans must do to hold our so-called representatives' feet to the fire. ...

... On that same subject, Jewish Funds for Justice focuses on younger voters whom the Ryan plan will deprive of Medicare:

The president and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare. -- Paul Ryan, appearing on "Morning Joe" yesterday.

... Dana Milbank: "He’s right about that. Democrats and, particularly, liberal activists, are engaged in some shameless demagoguery.... And Ryan is well qualified to call out shameless demagoguery and scare tactics: Over the past two years, he has practiced both. Speaking on the House floor in 2009, he said the Democrats’ health-care legislation would 'take coverage away from seniors,' 'raise premiums for families' and 'cost us nearly 5.5 million jobs.' Later, he said the health plan would bring about government 'rationing” of health care.'" And more.

Barack Obama promised that spending 800 billion dollars on a pork-filled stimulus bill would keep unemployment under 8 percent.  He promised that bailouts for well-connected businesses were a good deal for the country. He promised that a federal takeover of health care would keep costs under control. And hard as it is to believe, he even promised the deficit would be cut in half in his first term! — Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, presidential candidacy announcement

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker: “The paragraph ... struck us as a pretty fair summary of the Republican indictment against President Obama’s reelection.... Pawlenty’s collection of charges against Obama is a pretty weak brew. Many barely hold up to scrutiny. The so-called 'promises' were often not promises made by Obama, while the underlying facts are often exaggerated or in dispute." CW: if the standard "Republican indictment against Obama" is pretty much a series of lies, it would appear that the GOP counts on the American voter to be too uninformed to recognize a lie when s/he hears it. This tack worked against Kerry; will it work again?

... Kessler gives this Web ad by Michelle Bachmann ...

... In other words, it's a bald-faced lie. So what else is new? This is what I mean when I say Obama must confront this crap.

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Vermont became the first state to lay the groundwork for single-payer health care on Thursday when its governor signed an ambitious bill aimed at establishing universal insurance coverage for all residents."

Los Angeles Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday gave Arizona and other states more authority to take action against illegal immigrants and the companies that hire them, ruling that employers who knowingly hire illegal workers can lose their license to do business. The 5-3 decision upholds the Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 and its so-called business death penalty for employers who are caught repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants."

New York Times: "Ruling that Republicans in the State Senate had violated the state’s open meetings law, a judge in Wisconsin dealt a blow to them and to Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday by granting a permanent injunction striking down a new law curbing collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees."

AP: "A man believed to be Gen. Ratko Mladic, Europe's most wanted war crimes fugitive, has been arrested in Serbia, news media reported Thursday." Update: here's the New York Times story.

The Hill: "A breakthrough in negotiations on renewing the Patriot Act became evident on the Senate floor Wednesday evening when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that a crucial vote on the legislation will occur at 10 a.m. on Thursday, rather than at 1 a.m. as previously thought.  Senate leadership is racing against the clock, believing the expiration of the current version of the Patriot Act at midnight on Friday would create an upheaval in the law enforcement community."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration is seeking to scale back or eliminate 30 federal regulations in an effort to save American companies billions of dollars in unnecessary costs. The measure, the latest attempt by the administration to burnish its pro-business credentials, will affect workplace safety, environmental protection, endangered species and a number of other areas. Many of the changes involve reducing paperwork or eliminating redundancies in the law."

Reuters: "Dozens of Yemenis were killed in overnight gun battles in the capital, government officials said on Thursday, as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war." ...

... New York Times: The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has backed out of transfer-of-power agreements three times in recent days, & even his supporters consider his behavior bizarre.