The Commentariat -- March 28

President Obama speaks about Libya at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.:

     ... Here's the text of his remarks.

Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker has been hanging out with Libyan rebels. Opponents of the rebels here & in Libya like to describe them as terrorist Islamic extremists with connections to Al Qaeda. Anderson writes,

The hard core of the fighters has been the shabab—the young people whose protests in mid-February sparked the uprising. They range from street toughs to university students (many in computer science, engineering, or medicine), and have been joined by unemployed hipsters and middle-aged mechanics, merchants, and storekeepers. There is a contingent of workers for foreign companies: oil and maritime engineers, construction supervisors, translators. There are former soldiers.... And there are a few bearded religious men ... who appear intent on fighting at the dangerous tip of the advancing lines. It seems unlikely, however, that they represent Al Qaeda.

William Cronon.Paul Krugman on Wisconsin Republicans' attempt to intimidate a prominent University of Wisconsin history professor: "What’s at stake here ... is whether we’re going to have an open national discourse in which scholars feel free to go wherever the evidence takes them, and to contribute to public understanding. Republicans, in Wisconsin and elsewhere, are trying to shut that kind of discourse down. It’s up to the rest of us to see that they don’t succeed." ...

... Krugman Commenter #89, Andrea from Madison, Wisconsin, adds some interestng new (to me) information on the Cronon case. She points to a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in a case of parents attempting to access -- via the state's open-records law -- a teacher's personal e-mails written on a school district's e-mail system. The court held:

The contents of the personal e-mails that the Teachers created and maintained on government-owned computers pursuant to the government employer's permission for occasional personal use of the government e-mail account and computer are not 'records' under Wis. Stat. § 19.32(2). The personal contents of these e-mails are not subject to release to a record requester merely because they are sent or received using the government employers' e-mail systems and then stored and maintained on those systems.

... They Don't Know How Ridiculous They Are. Mark Jefferson, head of Wisconsin's Republican party, is "appalled" by Prof. Cronon's "deplorable tactics" of "intimidation" of upstanding neo-McCarthyites:

I have never seen such a concerted effort to intimidate someone from lawfully seeking information about their government. Further, it is chilling to see that so many members of the media would take up the cause of a professor who seeks to quash a lawful open records request.... Finally, I find it appalling that Professor Cronin [sic.] seems to have plenty of time to round up reporters from around the nation to push the Republican Party of Wisconsin into explaining its motives behind a lawful open records request, but has apparently not found time to provide any of the requested information. -- Mark Jefferson

     ... CW: whoever this Cronon/Cronin guy is/are, I wish he would stop "rounding up reporters." ...

... Anthony Grafton of the New Yorker: this is "an effort to intimidate Cronon, and any other state employee, by making clear that it can be dangerous to take a position that Republicans don’t like on the issues of the day. After all, Cronon’s mails, like those of most professors, include materials meant to be confidential: messages to and about students or colleagues."

Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: "On Tuesday morning, the United States Supreme Court will hear argument in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, an already-epic battle between the world's largest corporation and perhaps as many as one million current and former employees, all of them female, who as potential plaintiffs claim the giant retailer engaged in an unlawful pattern and practice of gender discrimination. It is easily one of the biggest cases of the Court's present term and, by many accounts, the biggest class-action discrimination case ever fought." ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The number of women who could be included in the sex discrimination class-action suit is measured in millions. The amount of damages for which the nation’s largest private employer could be liable is estimated in billions.... There seems little doubt about how a ruling for Wal-Mart would be portrayed by liberal groups already suspicious of the [Supreme] Court and the huge company." ...

... Also by Barnes: How Do We Lie? An Appeals Court Judge Counts the Ways.... and concludes that the Stolen Valor Act, which punishes those who falsely claim receiving military honors, violates the First Amendment free speech guarantee, but not all of his colleagues agree, and a test of the law is likely headed to the Supreme Court. You can read Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski's entertaining treatise on lying in his concurring opinion, reproduced in this pdf. It begins on page 3758 (no, it's not that long; just cursor forward or search "living means lying.")

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Even as the Obama administration defends the NATO-led air war in Libya, the latest violent clashes in Syria and Jordan are raising new alarm among senior officials who view those countries, in the heartland of the Arab world, as far more vital to American interests."

Michael Ettinger & Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress: "It’s beginning to look like the 2011 federal budget process could degenerate into a passive compromise that ends up precisely where the House Republican leadership started out nearly two months ago. That would be a very strange outcome for the Senate Democrats and the president to allow." CW: in a way, this is the most depressing story of the day, although it's hardly news -- just another chapter in the continuing saga "Triumph of the Oligarchy." ...

... Corey Boles & Janet Hook of the Wall Street Journal: "House Republicans are preparing to propose a major shake-up of the Medicaid health-care program for the poor, a first step in their drive to overhaul federal entitlements, according to a member of the House Budget Committee." CW: whaddaya bet -- once again Democrats will cave, further abetting atrocities like Florida Gov. Rick Scott's soon-to-be-successful attempt to "reform" Medicaid in a way that reduces benefits for the poor but still adds millions to Scott's personal fortune. ...

... AND in another Screw-the-Little-Guy movement, Amanda Becker of the Washington Post report, "The Senate's recent passage of the America Invents Act has been hailed as the first meaningful overhaul of the country's patent process in more than 50 years.... No provision generated more interest among the organizations that weighed in than the switch from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system used in most other countries, which would grant a patent to the first inventor to file an application even if others conceived of a similar idea first.... The shift was a victory for big companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and General Electric, which are adept at filing patents often and early...."

Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "... as [President] Obama keeps the White House press corps at a distance, he has sat for more than a dozen interviews with their colleagues from local TV stations — with unpredictable and sometimes illuminating results."

First Amendment -- Closeted Edition. Jake Tapper: Joe Biden's staffer to veteran Orlando Sentinel reporter: sorry about stuffing you in the closet during the Vice President's fundraiser. Well, sorta sorry. Glad you understand. CW: oh, the right is loving this story.

Right Wing World *

Glenn Greenwald psychoanalyzes the delusional, persecution-complex-impaired Koch brothers based on their bizarre, nonsensical remarks to a Weekly Standard reporter.

Pro-Life -- Except for Undocumented Babies. Andrea Nill of Think Progress: Nebraska's law that prevents undocumented women from receiving prenatal care has been responsible for at least five in-utero infant deaths. And, look, "100 percent pro-life" Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed the same restrictions on women in Wisconsin. CW: evidently infanticide is one way Republicans are limiting the scope of the 14th Amendment which states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States."

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Highly contaminated water is escaping a damaged reactor at the crippled nuclear power plant in Japan and could soon leak into the ocean, the country’s nuclear regulator warned on Monday." ...

... Washington Post: "As radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reached a new high Sunday, workers contended with dark, steamy conditions in their efforts to repair the facility’s cooling system and stave off a full-blown nuclear meltdown.... Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday had 100,000 times the radioactivity of normal background levels, although the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure it didn’t correct for hours." Los Angeles Times story here.

New York Times: "... a damning internal report by Afghanistan’s own Central Bank ... depicts the Afghan political elite as using Kabul Bank, the country’s biggest financial institution, as their own private piggy bank. The report both raises questions about why the authorities did not act sooner, and suggests the answers lay in the political connections of the bank’s officers and shareholders — the recipients of most of the roughly $900 million in bad loans."

Rogue State. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker's administration is no longer collecting dues on behalf of state unions and as of Sunday began charging employees more for health care and their pensions, even though nonpartisan legislative attorneys say the changes are not yet law.... Before [Judge Maryann] Sumi issued the restraining order [blocking the state from publishing the law], [Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug] La Follette had set Friday as the date to publish the law. He later rescinded it, but [Walker's Administrative Secretary Mike] Huebsch said he did not believe La Follette had the power to do that."

Washington Post: "Rebels surged westward along Libya’s coast Sunday, seizing at least three more key towns and capitalizing on their new momentum after more than a week of airstrikes by an international coalition. The rebel stronghold of Benghazi erupted in gunfire and rockets early Monday amid rumors that that Sirte, the home town of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, had fallen. But those reports appeared to be unfounded." Los Angeles Times story here.

Washington Post: "Gangs of young men, some armed with swords and hunting rifles, roamed Sunday through the streets of [Latakia,] a Syrian seaside city, closing alleys with barricades and roughly questioning passersby in streets scarred by days of anti-government unrest." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "Two journalists from the Reuters news agency are missing [in Syria] and two U.S. citizens have been detained during the unprecedented  nationwide mass protests that have posed the greatest challenge to President Bashar Assad since he came to power 11 years ago, media reports say."

Los Angeles Times: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel was dealt a humiliating defeat Sunday when voters booted her party from power in a state election that could bode ill for her leadership on the national stage."