The Commentariat -- February 15

** "South Dakota Moves to Legalize Killing Abortion Providers." Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones: "A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of 'justifiable homicide' to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus — a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon."

** "The Great Abdication." Paul Krugman: "... the Obama administration has accepted the Republican claim that stimulus failed, and should never be tried again. What’s extraordinary about all this is that stimulus can’t have failed, because it never happened. Once you take state and local cutbacks into account, there was no surge of government spending.... Fiscal policy didn’t fail; it wasn’t tried." ...

... Jeannine Aversa & Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "Not since World War II has the federal budget deficit made up such a big chunk of the U.S. economy. And within two or three years, economists fear the result could be sharply higher interest rates that would slow economic growth. The budget plan President Barack Obama sent Congress on Monday foresees a record deficit of $1.65 trillion this year. That would be just under 11 percent of the $14 trillion economy — the largest proportion since 1945, when wartime spending swelled the deficit to 21.5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product."

... Peter Wallstein & Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "President Obama's new budget plan ... serves as a measure of his presidency -- revealing vastly diminished ambitions and practical political calculations.... In declining to embrace the most difficult ideas proposed by his bipartisan deficit commission..., the president deferred tough decisions that many in both parties say are necessary to fix the country's fiscal problems. That apparent tentativeness suggests the man who once said he would rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-termer is, in fact, very interested in winning that second term." CW: I disagree with this assessment; Obama's strategy is to exclude these cuts, then cave to Republican "pressure." ...

     ... Update. Looks as if Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities agrees with me: "Specific presidential proposals would have invited immediate attacks from lawmakers across the political spectrum and almost certainly led to pledges by scores or hundreds of members of Congress never to agree to them." Read Greenstein's whole post, which -- in a short space -- does a good job of describing the President's proposed budget & zeroing in on its weak points.

Noam Scheiber of The New Republic profiles Tim Geithner. CW: I only read the first page because it's a seven-page article with no single-page function, but I'll probably go back to it. The gist seems to be that Geithner, who is the lone man standing from Obama's original economic team, rehabilitated himself after a very shaky start.

Faking It. Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times: "A new study backed by pro-business groups takes a harsh stance on rules intended to bring transparency to the $600 billion derivatives market. The report, published on Monday, claims that proposed regulation could cost 130,000 jobs and could cut corporate spending by $6.7 billion.... The firm’s bona fides include an all-star roster of academics, including "Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economic science.... [But] it appears that Mr. Stiglitz and many of the firm’s advisers are not advisers at all." In fact, Stiglitz and others said the report results were nonsense.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Discrepancies in reports about an appearance by Justice Clarence Thomas at a political retreat for wealthy conservatives three years ago have prompted new questions to the Supreme Court from a group that advocates changing campaign finance laws.... Last month, a court spokeswoman said Justice Thomas had made a 'brief drop-by' at the event in Palm Springs, Calif., in January 2008 and had given a talk. In his financial disclosure report for that year, however, Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society ... had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of 'transportation, meals and accommodations.' ... The event is organized by Charles and David Koch...."

Here's Rachel Maddow on Justices Thomas' & Scalia's likely conflicts of interest:

Roni Rabin of the New York Times: "... a report being released Tuesday by the federally financed National Domestic Violence Hotline says 1 in 4 women who agreed to answer questions after calling the hot line said a partner had pressured them to become pregnant, told them not to use contraceptives, or forced them to have unprotected sex."

New York Times Editors: "The Roman Catholic hierarchy in this country has promised accountability and justice for children sexually abused by priests. We fear it has a long way to go. A new inquiry [conducted in Philadelphia] has found that nearly a decade after the scandal engulfed the American church, children are still in peril and some leaders are still stonewalling investigations." ...

     ... The backstory by David O'Reilly of the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 11: "A Philadelphia grand jury on Thursday brought felony charges against a former high-ranking official of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for 'purposefully' shielding sexually abusive priests and endangering children in the late 1990s, and said it was uncertain whether retired archbishop Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was culpable as well." ...

     ... And by Dave Warner of Reuters, February 14: "The Archbishop of Philadelphia and his predecessor were accused on Monday in a civil lawsuit of endangering children by concealing the identity and sexual abuse of predatory priests from law enforcement to save the church from a costly scandal."

Jennifer Preston of the New York Times: Facebook "finds itself under countervailing pressures after the uprisings in the Middle East. While it has become one of the primary tools for activists to mobilize protests and share information, Facebook does not want to be seen as picking sides for fear that some countries — like Syria, where it just gained a foothold — would impose restrictions on its use or more closely monitor users.... And Facebook does not want to alter its firm policy requiring users to sign up with their real identities."

How to Become an U.S. Citizen: First, Get a Million Dollars.... Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal reminds us of this longstanding U.S. immigration program:

According to the Department of Homeland Security, foreign investors have to invest only $500,000 to get residency, provided they meet other restrictions. They have to invest in a rural or underdeveloped community and they have to create at least 10 jobs, either directly or indirectly. They have to invest $1 million or more if they aren’t investing in rural or underdeveloped areas. (They are eligible for permanent residency after two years and full citizenship after another five years if they meet certain criteria.)

CW: a candidate for Infotainment: Colum Lynch of Foreign Policy: "Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna..., in his first appearance before the U.N. Security Council..., read the wrong speech. For three minutes, Krishna read from the official statement of the foreign minister of Portugal...." Adam Sorensen of Time calls Krishna "the Ron Burgundy of the U.N."

Right Wing World

In the right-wing alternate universe, Michelle Obama is a big fat pig who downs at least ten bacon-burgers at dinner. Think I'm kidding? Here's the proof. Have they ever looked at Michelle Obama?

Michelle Obama, in an Andrew Breitbart cartoon by James Hudnall & "Batton Lash." The real-world version.Nate Silver: "Republican insiders, reports the Washington Post’s plugged-in Jennifer Rubin, are worried about the quality of their slate of presidential candidates for 2012." Silver runs the popularity poll numbers & concludes The insiders are right to fret.

Andy Barr of Politico: "Haley Barbour is pushing back against a report that he helped the government of Mexico push for 'amnesty' during his time as a lobbyist.... Barbour issued a statement and fact sheet Monday night — and though neither explicitly says BGR did not work on citizenship issues for Mexicans living in the United States, it asserts that the firm Barbour founded 'never advocated amnesty for illegal aliens.'" Barbour's statement was a response to this Time magazine story by Michael Scherer, which we linked yesterday.

Gene Robinson: speakers at CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) argued "that the world's 1.2 billion Muslims cannot be trusted to govern themselves. That's not what I call loving freedom."

Michelle Price of the AP: "Republican lawmakers want to widen Arizona's illegal immigration crackdown with a proposal to require hospitals to check on whether patients are in the country legally, causing outrage among medical professionals who fear becoming de facto immigration agents under the law.... Doctors envisioned scenarios in which immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis would stay home from the clinic or hospital and put themselves and the public at a grave health risk."

News Ledes

The President's full press conference:

** President Obama held a previously unannounced press conference this morning. The White House did not reveal what the President would discuss. Via Politico. Updates: here's a brief report from the New York Times on the content of the President's presser. Here's the AP report.

** The Hill: "The Obama administration on Tuesday threatened to veto the House GOP's measure funding the federal government.... 'If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the president will veto the bill,' said a statement from the OMB.

New York Times: "Lara Logan, the CBS News correspondent, was attacked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Cairo on Feb. 11, the day that the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced from power, the network said Tuesday. After the mob surrounded her, Ms. Logan 'suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers,' the network said in a statement. Ms. Logan is recovering at a hospital in the United States." Here's the CBS News statement, but it adds no details not contained in the NYT story.

New York Times: "Thousands of demonstrators poured into [Bahrain’s] symbolic center, Pearl Square [in Manama], late Tuesday in a raucous rally.... As momentum built up behind the protests on Tuesday, the 18 members of parliament from the Islamic National Accord Association, the traditional opposition, announced they were suspending participation in the legislature."

New York Times: "The military officers governing Egypt convened a panel Tuesday to revise the country’s constitution that included both a distinguished Coptic Christian jurist and a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, offering the first significant evidence of the military’s commitment to moving the country toward democratic rule."

New York Times: "A review of the F.B.I.’s scientific work on the investigation into the anthrax letters of 2001 concludes that the bureau overstated the strength of genetic analysis linking the mailed anthrax to a supply kept by Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, the late Army microbiologist whom the investigators blamed for the attacks. The review, by a panel of experts convened by the national Academy of Sciences, says the genetic analysis 'did not definitively demonstrate' that the mailed anthrax spores were grown from a sample taken from Dr. Ivins’s laboratory...." Dr. Ivins committed suicide in 2008.

The Street: "Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, said Monday that he will be resigning his post on March 30."

Reuters: "Deutsche Boerse will take over NYSE Euronext to create the world's largest exchange operator in a deal worth $10.2 billion, but the two exchanges dodged key questions that could yet threaten its completion. While shareholders of the German exchange will control 60 pct of the new company and 10 of 17 board seats there are suspicions in Germany over whether NYSE management will be in the driver's seat. There are also concerns in the U.S. that the New York Stock Exchange will lose influence and any sense of independence. That tension could raise obstacles to final regulatory approval to Deutsche Boerse's planned takeover...."

Guardian: Italian Prime Minister "Silvio Berlusconi is to go on trial charged with paying for sex with an underage prostitute and then trying to cover up the alleged offence by abusing his position as Italy's prime minister. All three judges named for the trial are women. A Milan judge, Cristina di Censo, agreed in full to the request lodged last week by prosecutors who have been investigating Berlusconi. She ruled that he should be sent straight to trial without committal proceedings, accepting the prosecutors' view that the usual procedures should be waived because of the 'obviousness of the evidence' against him. The trial will begin on 6 April." The New York Times story is here.

New York Times: "After weeks of turmoil rolling through the Arab world, protesters in ... [Bahrain] clashed for a second day with the police on Tuesday and a second demonstrator was killed by gunfire, spurring the largest Shiite bloc to suspend participation in the country’s Parliament. The events came as mourners gathered for the funeral of a Shiite protester shot to death during what was called a “Day of Rage” protest on Monday...." ...

... New York Times: "Hundreds of riot police officers in Iran beat protesters and fired tear gas Monday to contain the most significant street protests since the end of the 2009 uprising there, as security forces around the region moved — sometimes brutally — to prevent new unrest in sympathy with the opposition victory in Egypt." ...

... Washington Post: "Violent protests erupted in Iran, Yemen and Bahrain on Monday...." ...

... Washington Post: "Egypt's new military rulers tried to contain growing labor unrest Monday and to reach out to youthful revolutionaries as the formidable task of governing the politically unstable and impoverished country became apparent. Police officers, ambulance drivers, bankers, journalists and archaeologists marched through the streets of Cairo in separate protests Monday."

Reuters: "The Pakistani Taliban warned the government on Tuesday it would punish any move to release a U.S. consulate employee accused of murdering two Pakistanis in a case that has inflamed already strained ties with Washington. U.S. Senator John Kerry was due in Pakistan as part of the Obama administration's efforts to resolve the crisis." ...

... New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has chosen Marc Grossman, a retired senior diplomat and former ambassador to Turkey, as the Obama administration’s new special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior State Department official said Monday."

AP: "Documents filed Monday night in Houston claim Kevin Lacy, BP's former senior vice president for drilling operations for the Gulf of Mexico, reached a mutual agreement with the company to resign in December 2009 because he believed the company was not adequately committed to improving safety protocols in offshore drilling operations to the level of its industry peers. The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion occurred on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history."

The Hill: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday said the House GOP budget for the Pentagon is 'disconnected' from operational realities. Gates said the Pentagon needs $540 billion for fiscal 2011, less than the $548 billion initially sought by the Obama administration but $14 billion more than what House Republicans are offering in a continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of the year."

AP: "A Tucson jury found Shawna Forde, 42, guilty of murder in the May 2009 killings of Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter Brisenia at their home in Arivaca, a desert community 10 miles north of Mexico." Forde, "the leader of an anti-illegal-immigrant group, was convicted Monday in a home invasion robbery that left a 9-year-old girl and her father dead in what prosecutors said was an attempt to steal drug money to fund the group's operations." Here's the Arizona Daily Star story.