The Commentariat -- June 23

I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square. Kate Madison has added a great comment. Update: do read Madison's follow-up comments on Greg Mortenson, which she wrote in response to criticism from another commenter.

     ... Here is the prepared text of the speech. ...

... The New York Times Editors are underwhelmed. ...

... Ben Smith: "The speech seemed aimed in part at concluding a military era. Its closing reference to the successful raid seemed to underscore a growing sense among many Democrats that the era of [Gen. David] Petraeus's ambitious counterinsurgency and of the War on Terror is over." ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker lends some nuance to Smith's assertion. "Obama’s announcement last night reflects a realistic sense of where our country is and what it can do. The fundamental change is here — not there."

... Yochi J. Dreazen and Marc Ambinder of the National Journal: "Senior White House officials wanted all of the 33,000 U.S. 'surge' troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by next spring. Gen. David Petraeus ... was adamant they stay until the end of 2012. The deadlock was broken by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who sold Obama and his top civilian aides on a compromise plan that will leave most of the reinforcements in Afghanistan through next September but ensure they’re back well before the November elections. Obama’s prime-time address Wednesday night offered little indication of the heated behind-the-scenes battle over Afghanistan that consumed the president and his war cabinet for much of this past month."

NEW. CW: I missed this post of Karen Garcia's on State Department lead attorney Harold Koh, who defied the advice of DOJ & Defense Department lawyers that the U.S. involvement in Libya constituted "hostilities" and not a "limited kinetic military exercise" or "BFF love bombs." Koh told President Obama what he wanted to hear: that the Libyan "exercise" did not rise to the level of invoking the War Powers Act. Garcia writes that Koh is on the short list to be Obama's next Supreme Court nominee. Looks to me as if Koh just lost any chance of confirmation: do you think 60 Senators are going to say, "Yeah, we like a guy for the Court who says the Congress is irrelevant."

Obama Leads from Behind -- Again. Massimo Calabresi of Time on the release of oil reserves. (See today's Ledes.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tells about his life as an undocumented immigrant. His status has not changed. CW: I would call this an American tragedy. ...

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "The biggest story now in blogs and social media — even bigger than President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan speech — centers on journalist Jose Antonio Vargas and his New York Times magazine essay in which he reveals he's an illegal immigrant. The right saw his actions — forging a Social Security card, lying about residency to secure driver’s licenses, misleading employers about his status — as poor personal choices that he is responsible for making and cause for deportation. The left portrayed Vargas, who in his retelling was brought at age 12 to California from the Philippines by a smuggler, as an example of American ingenuity forced by the system to make forgivable bad choices." ...

... CW: it's not the point of his blogpost, but in Chris Suellentrop's account of how the Times Magazine got Vargas' story, one can fairly conclude that the Washington Post "Outlook" editors and/or the Post's lawyers are dicks. OR, as Joshua Green of The Atlantic put it in a tweet: "Little-known fact, but the Pentagon Papers were first offered to the WashPost's Outlook section." ...

... Here's Vargas' Website, DefineAmerican.com

** NEW. Glenn Greenwald: The Obama DOJ's effort to force New York Times investigative journalist Jim Risen to testify in a whistleblower prosecution and reveal his source is really remarkable and revealing.... The vast National Security and Surveillance State has for decades been compiling powers -- and eroding safeguards and checks -- devoted to the strengthening of this climate, and the past two-and-a-half years have seen as rapid and concerted intensification as any other period one can recall." ...

Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. -- Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, 1949 ...

... David Shipler in a New York Times op-ed: "The Fourth Amendment is weaker than it was 50 years ago, and this should worry everyone."

Victoria McGrane & Alan Zibel of the Wall Street Journal: "On Tuesday, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh said regulators are in danger of going too far to curb risk-taking by big banks.... Three Senate Democrats – Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Carl Levin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley of Oregon – have publicly called for the White House to replace Mr. Walsh, a Republican, following his speech in London Tuesday. The lawmakers were particularly rankled by Mr. Walsh’s statements that bank capital requirements – the cushion banks hold against future losses — are already 'exceedingly high.'" ...

Mr. Walsh demonstrated once again that he just doesn’t get it.  He persists in arguing for the minimal capital standards and lax regulation that brought down our entire economy in 2008.  It is time – way past time – for the President to nominate a leader for the OCC who is committed to building a solid long-term foundation for our economy. -- Sen. Jeff Merkley

Rosalind Helderman & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders from both parties made new and competing demands Wednesday in exchange for their votes to raise the nation’s debt limit.... Top Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), said they have told Vice President Biden, who is leading the talks, that any agreement on raising the legal borrowing limit must include an effort to boost the flagging economic recovery.... The Democrats’ call came on the same day that conservative advocacy groups asked Republicans to sign a pledge saying that they vow to vote against an increase in the $14.3 trillion debt limit without sharp and immediate spending cuts, new caps on annual spending and an amendment to the Constitution that would require Congress to balance the budget (CW: because conservative advocacy groups don't know squat about economics).

Paul Krugman calls out the Fed's "shameful cowardice" in their refusal to even attempt to do anything to abate unemployment. The underlying news story is here.

** Matt Miller of the Washington Post: "Just when you thought Washington couldn’t get more partisan and confused, along comes the phony tempest about whether President Obama’s health-care reform will lead employers to drop coverage once the new insurance exchanges open for business in 2014.... It would be a fantastic thing — not some calamity — if more people got coverage from the exchanges instead of from their employers. Yet both parties act as if it would be a disaster.... If over time employers find they’d rather make a contribution to help employees use these exchanges, with lower-income folks getting some aid from government, it would be a huge step forward in health security for ordinary Americans."

CW: I don't do polls, BUT this one brings good news. Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg News: "By a margin of 57 percent to 34 percent, poll respondents say they would be worse off if [Rep. Paul] Ryan’s plan to convert Medicare to a system of subsidized private health coverage were adopted. Fifty-eight percent of independents, a critical voting bloc in recent elections, say they would be worse off." Fifty-one percent say that while the law may need modification, the Affordable Care Act "shouldn’t be repealed, and another 11 percent say it should be left alone. That compares with 35 percent who want the new law overturned."

Some Republicans Don't Live in Right Wing World. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A group of more than a dozen moderate Republicans, including four former Environmental Protection Agency administrators, urged President Obama in a letter Wednesday to set tough new standards to curb carbon emissions from cars and light trucks." Their letter is here.

Jon Stewart & Aasif Mandvi explain the Greek debt crisis in a way that puts Paul Krugman's efforts to shame. Play through to the second segment:

Celia Dugger of the New York Times: South Africa embraces Michelle Obama.

Right Wing World *

In Right Wing World, second-tier Congressional Republicans are way more important than the POTUS. Jay Newton-Small of Time on Eric Cantor's and Sen. Jon Kyl's walking out of the debt ceiling talks because they're all upset the President has delegated the VPOTUS to listen to Republicans: "... why would Obama come to the table when [Sen. Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell himself and House Speaker John Boehner aren’t yet at the table? Why isn’t Cantor calling on his boss, Boehner, to engage? Or Kyl for McConnell to?" Newton-Small updates her post with an interesting e-mail from "a senior Democratic aide":

Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be a need for revenues and Cantor and Kyl don’t want to be the ones to make that deal. Default is way too serious for Republicans to throw in the towel.

John Amato of Crook and Liars sums up the long-term deficit situation: "The CBO proves the only reason America should have a deficit problem is if Conservatives want one."

Oh, the whole story is pretty funny, but the headline of Colby Hall's Mediaite post is hilarious: "No Joke: Sarah Palin Reportedly Quits One Nation Bus Tour Halfway Through."

* Where even Fox "News" commentator Palin calls out Fox "News," perhaps now officially part of the "lamestream media," for misstating her itinerary.

News Ledes

Michelle Obama talks about meeting Nelson Mandela & discusses his impact on history:

President Obama met with soldiers at Fort Drum, New York, & with Gold Star families later in the afternoon. Update: Los Angeles Times post-meeting report: "President Obama on Thursday thanked soldiers in upstate New York for their work in combat and said their efforts had helped the United States to turn the corner in Afghanistan and allow some troops to be brought home." AND here's the transcript of his remarks. See video above.

USA Today: "Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank are teaming up today on legislation that would legalize marijuana."

Los Angeles Times: "The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the heirs of Anna Nicole Smith in a long-running estate battle that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. compared with Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House,' about the endless court fight that outlives all the main players. The decision is a victory for the Texas heirs of Smith's late billionaire husband, J. Howard Marshall. His son, Pierce Marshall, also died during the course of the litigation."

Al Jazeera: "Syrian troops and armoured vehicles are sweeping through villages in an advance towards the Turkish border, witnesses say. Soldiers drove through the village of Khirbet al-Jouz, just 500 metres away from the Turkish border, on Thursday, according to the witness accounts. There were also unconfirmed reports that forces were firing machine guns randomly in the nearby village of Managh. With video.

AP: "Wary of a new surge in gas prices, the Obama administration has decided to release 30 million barrels of oil from the country's emergency reserve as part of a broader international response to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya. Oil prices dropped nearly 5 percent Thursday in response to the announcement." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Stocks in the United States were sharply lower on Thursday amid signs of a sluggish economy and continued European debt troubles, while energy stocks in the broader market declined more than 2 percent after the International Energy Agency said members would release oil into the market from reserves."

The Cantor Pout. New York Times: "The House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, said Thursday that he was quitting the debt ceiling negotiations being led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because of an impasse over whether tax increases should be part of a final deal."

AP: "Dozens of gay couples are planning to converge on Albany Thursday to witness what would be a historic vote to legalize gay marriage in New York, the sixth state to do so and a potential bellwether in the national gay rights movement. But for that to happen, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's considerable political skills will be tested as never before to engineer one of the biggest social changes in a generation."

It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the president laid out — and we will continue to press for a better outcome. -- Nancy Pelosi

AP: "Congressional Democrats are leading the criticism of President Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan from Afghanistan, arguing that his timeline for bringing 33,000 U.S. troops home by next summer isn't fast enough."

New York Times: "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan welcomed the decision to withdraw more than 30,000 American troops over the next year, calling it the 'right decision for the interest of both countries.'”

Los Angeles Times: "Legendary Boston crime boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, who has been on the run for more than a decade, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times. Bulger, 81, has been the subject of several books and was the inspiration for 'The Departed,' a 2006 Martin Scorsese film staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Bulger fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with 21 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s." The New York Times story is here. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The arrest of James Bulger, a legendary Boston crime boss indicted in 19 murders and who is on the F.B.I.’s 10 Most Wanted list, was a direct result of a campaign this week that was aimed at locating his longtime companion, federal officials in Boston said Thursday." ...

     ... Somewhat weirdly, the Los Angeles Times has a slideshow.