The Commentariat -- August 19, 2014

Emily Wax, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder. Jr. will travel to [Ferguson, Missouri,] Wednesday to meet with FBI agents and prosecutors investigating the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.... President Obama announced Holder's trip in remarks Monday afternoon at the White House, during which he said the attorney general and other Justice Department officials would also sit down with community leaders 'whose support is so critical to bringing about peace and calm in Ferguson.'" ...

... Mark Landler & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "President Obama said Monday [in the same remarks to the press] that Iraqi special forces, backed by American war planes, had retaken a strategically critical dam near Mosul, the latest in what he described as a string of positive steps in halting the march of Islamic extremists across the country":

... Washington Post liveblog: "At least two people were shot, numerous fires were set and more than 30 people were arrested in Ferguson, Mo., early Tuesday, Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson told reporters early Tuesday." ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Two men were shot during the chaos of demonstrations late Monday and early today near West Florissant and Canfield, police confirmed. Officers weren't involved in the shootings. There was no immediate information on the identities or conditions of the victims. Police also confirmed that 31 people were arrested, including some who had come from as far as New York and California. In an emotional news conference around 2:30 a.m. in the area of the protests, Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson said the shootings demonstrate 'a dangerous dynamic in the night' in which a few people determined to cause trouble can pull a whole crowd into it." ...

... Kevin McDermott of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "With armed Missouri National Guard troops posted to area streets for the first time in modern history, violence erupted anew Monday night as protesters hurled bottles at police and fired shots, and officers responded with sound cannons.... Later, police fired tear gas at protesters who defied orders to disperse." ...

... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Ferguson-Florissant School District announced Monday night that schools would stay closed for the rest of the week.... The district said it would hold the first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 25." ...

... Washington Post brief: "Scott Olson, a photographer for Getty Images, was arrested Monday evening while covering protests in the St. Louis area, according to reports on Twitter." ...

     ... Here are some of the photos Olson took over the past week in Ferguson. CW: Makes you think the cops might have had it in for him. ...

     ... Update. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Police were preventing people from gathering in the area, and Olson is thought to have declined a request to move on. He was later released."

... John Eligon & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Gov. Jay Nixon lifted a curfew in this embattled city on Monday, hours after deploying the Missouri National Guard, as officials struggle to control unrest that has paralyzed the community since an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer. The role of the National Guard will be limited, Mr. Nixon said in a statement. Troops will protect the police command center here, which the authorities said came under a coordinated attack on Sunday night." ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon called the National Guard to Ferguson late Sunday without letting the White House know first." CW Note: Nixon complained on the teevee Sunday that the Ferguson police didn't tell his office they were going to release the convenience store surveillance tape. There are apparently a lot of lonesome cowboys in Missouri, each one just doing his own thing. ...

... Another Bad Idea. AP: "Authorities are setting up a designated protest zone for nightly demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri. The plan was announced Monday by St. Louis County police." ...

... Emily Wax, et al.: Michael Brown "had marijuana in his system when he was fatally shot six times by a white police officer, two people familiar with the official county autopsy ... said Monday. ...

... CW: Something I Missed. Mike Kosnar of NBC News (August 16): "The Department of Justice urged Ferguson police not to release surveillance video purporting to show Michael Brown robbing a store shortly before he was shot and killed by police, arguing the footage would further inflame tensions in the St. Louis suburb that saw rioting and civil unrest in the wake of the teenager's death." The DOJ persuaded the policy not to release the video Thursday, but the police did so Friday, claiming they were acting in response to media FOIA requests. CW: Because, really, they like reporters. ...

... Michael Wines & Erica Goode of the New York Times: "Large mobilizations of police or National Guard forces have played a role in calming many riots. But by studying unrest in Cincinnati, Oakland, Los Angeles and elsewhere, big-city police officials have learned that the speedy release of information and close ties to religious and civic leaders are perhaps even more crucial to stopping violence once it starts, said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington.... Critics say officials in Ferguson have added to tensions by making contradictory statements, declining to release details about the shooting and dispatching police units bearing military-style equipment into the streets.... Experts said that Ferguson appears to have little of the social infrastructure that helps other cities restore calm in times of crisis.

... Angela Davis in the New Republic: "... accountability for the killing of Michel Brown rests in the hands of one person -- the prosecutor.... Prosecutors are not required to justify their charging decisions to anyone, and there is much potential for abuse.... Bob McCulloch is the prosecutor for St. Louis County and has held the position for 23 years.... Bob McCulloch's father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty when McCulloch was a child. And McCulloch was very critical of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's decision to place the Missouri State Troopers in charge of security.... St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and others have asked Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to remove McCulloch from the case and have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor, claiming that McCullough is too biased to be fair." ...

... Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "In Ferguson and many towns like it, majority African-American communities most grapple with mostly white county governments.... This leads to dysfunction, racial tension, and a skewed justice system." CW: So, jurisdictional apartheid. ...

... Charles Pierce: "Maybe we should admit it to ourselves, we of the dwindling white majority, that the racial divide is something essential to holding our idea of the country together. The American idea, the American dream, and the American experiment -- all of these things had limits, and the people who set those limits, as well as the people penned in by them, have always been fully aware of them." ...

There's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons. -- Gov. Ronald Reagan, 1967

Pierce recalls the days when the NRA liked gun control because ... black people. ...

... Here's more on the history of the NRA vis-a-vis gun control, by Steven Rosenfeld of AlterNet, published in Salon in January 2013.

Ed Kilgore: When modern Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) crossed the aisle to caucus with Democrats (& give them control of the Senate) in 2001, it signaled "the end of one era but just ahead of an ideological whirlwind." Jeffords died Monday; See Monday's Ledes. ...

     ... Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "It was one of those rare singular moments when one lawmaker, with one vote, truly bent the arc of politics in a different direction. It also served to highlight the feud between the still-dominant conservative wing and the increasingly marginalized moderate faction of the Republican Party."

Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway

You're on Your Own, People. Rose Hackman of the Guardian: "Detroit police chief James Craig -- nicknamed 'Hollywood' for his years spent in the LAPD and his seeming love of being in front of the camera -- has repeatedly called on 'good' and 'law-abiding' Detroiters to arm themselves against criminals in the city.... The city, strapped for cash, has only 2,300 police officers -- unchanged from a year ago, before the bankruptcy, but still not enough.... In a city where houses sometimes sell for $500, buying and maintaining a gun is a significant expense. For those who choose to earn concealed pistol licenses..., the application fee is $105 and courses might set you back anywhere between $100 and $250. Purchased guns cost interviewees of this story between $450 and $700, with accessories; including ammunition, add another possible $200-$300.... Michigan passed a self-defense act in 2006, referred to nationally as a 'stand-your-ground-law'. The law removes an individual's duty, when acting in self-defense, to retreat."

Here are the Washington Post updates on the McDonnell corruption trial. "On Monday, jurors heard testimony from Brenda Chamberlain, who served as a bookkeeper for the MoBo partnership. Now, they heard more about Chamberlain from the perspective of the Mo in MoBo -- Maureen McDonnell, the former governor's sister. She testified that in early 2013, she, her brother and another sister realized that the books for MoBo were 'a complete disaster.' She had gone through a final separation from her then-husband Michael Uncapher and discovered that he had not been updating financial documents properly. What's more, she found that he had engaged in 'mystery transfers,' including what looked like writing checks to himself from the entity's account." ...

... Here's Monday evening's WashPo story, by Matt Zapotosky, et al.: "A longtime aide to former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell drew a stark contrast between her boss and her boss's wife at the couple's trial Monday, describing the onetime Republican rising star as 'Mr. Honest' and the former first lady as a manager so ­'diva-ish' that her staff once threatened to quit en masse. The testimony from former secretary of the commonwealth Janet Vestal Kelly came on the first day of the McDonnells' defense. It could help both Robert and Maureen McDonnell as they fight corruption charges."

Senate Races

Chad Livengood of the Detroit News: "Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Gary Peters and his wife paid an effective federal income tax rate of 18 percent in the last three years, a contrast to the less than 3 percent tax Republican opponent Terri Lynn Land paid on her income after sizable deductions.... Land's separate tax return disclosures have sparked questions about why [her husband Daniel] Hibma [-- a wealthy land developer --] doesn't disclose his earnings, since Land has drawn on a joint marital bank account to pour $3 million into her Senate campaign." Norm Ornstein, whom Livengood cites extensively, accuses Land of being shady. CW: Livengood IDs Ornstein -- correctly -- as "a congressional scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute." Never mind that Ornstein himself is not particularly conservative. This straight news piece is a win for Peters.

Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg News: "Republicans seeking to unseat the U.S. Senate incumbent in North Carolina have cut in half the portion of their top issue ads citing Obamacare, a sign that the party's favorite attack against Democrats is losing its punch. The shift -- also taking place in competitive states such as Arkansas and Louisiana -- shows Republicans are easing off their strategy of criticizing Democrats over the Affordable Care Act now that many Americans are benefiting from the law and the measure is unlikely to be repealed.

Rose Duke, a 44-year-old from Raleigh who cast her ballot for Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, is one of Obamacare's new beneficiaries. Duke, who lost her flooring business after her husband died last year, says she now has a favorable view of the law and is angry at her state's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, for refusing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Worse, Worser, Worstest. Today is primary day for Alaska Republicans. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The contest is a three-way race between [among!] Dan Sullivan, a former state attorney general and natural resource commissioner; Mead Treadwell, the well-known lieutenant governor; and Joe Miller, a Tea Party-backed candidate who defeated Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 Republican primary but eventually lost to her write-in candidacy in the general election. Mr. Sullivan is generally regarded as the favorite."

Presidential Election

Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: Rand "Paul has risen to prominence by employing a political trick, which is already growing old. He emphasizes the sliver of his libertarianism that gets nods of agreement (say, rolling back police excesses) while ignoring the immense, discrediting baggage of his ideology (say, discomfort with federal civil rights law or belief in a minimal state incapable of addressing poverty and stalled mobility). As a senator, this tactic has worked. But were Paul to become the GOP presidential nominee, the media infatuation would end, and any Democratic opponent would have a field day with Paul's disturbing history and cramped ideology. On racial issues, the GOP needs a successor to [former GOP Congressman & Housing Secretary Jack] Kemp -- and an alternative to Paul." ...

... CW: He doesn't mean to, but Paul Waldman makes a very good argument that Rand Paul will be our next president. Waldman's point is that Paul is not a "real libertarian," because a true libertarian ideology is antithetical to most Republicans' political beliefs. So Li'l Randy just sheds his old libertarian positions (to the point of pretending he never had them). I do believe he can keep on doing that right up to November 8, 2016. Rand Paul is weasly enough to make former Governor Etch-a-Sketch look like a piker. I'd add that political neophytes, as Paul was when he made some of his more controversial remarks, actually do change their opinions on key issues when they develop more of an understanding of the real-world ramifications of their views. When he was a U.S. senator, for instance, Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling. He later admitted (instead of pretending it had never happened a la Randy) that he made a novice's mistake.

Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "... regardless of how strong the charges against [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry are, it is worth noting how fitting they are. Put simply, the case against Perry points to an aspect of his political persona that is well known in Texas but has too often been overlooked in the national portrayal of Perry." ...

... Michael Lind of Salon: "When I heard that Texas Governor Rick Perry had been indicted, I thought, 'This had better be good, or it will backfire on the Democrats.' It turns out it isn't good and it may well backfire on the Democrats." ...

... James Moore in the Huffington Post on "why Rick Perry will be convicted.... Perry is accused of using his veto authority to coerce a publicly elected official into leaving office. And when the veto threat, and later the actual exercise of the veto didn't work, he may have tried a bit of bribery, which is why he is facing criminal charges. Not because he exercised his constitutional veto authority." ...

... Sahil Kapur presents three problems in the prosecution's case which suggest Perry will not be convicted.

Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg View: "The real reason wealth-related blunders won't hurt [Hillary] Clinton is that she apparently isn't going to be seriously challenged in the primaries and caucuses, where this sort of thing could matter. Personal characteristics, gaffes and clever rejoinders just aren't all that important for the general election, when partisanship and partisan trends kick in and swamp almost everything else." Also, in the general election, she's likely to have a wealthy opponent.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "A rash of relatively convoluted, thoroughly unsexy political scandals involving governors is moving through the country. So many of them involve Republican presidential hopefuls that conspiracy theorists could argue they must be manufactured, or at least overhyped, by wily Democratic strategists."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Islamic State militant group claimed Tuesday to have beheaded an American photojournalist in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. A video released online purported to show the execution of James Foley after he recited a statement in which he called the U.S. government 'my real killers. A second prisoner, said to be Steven Joel Sotloff, like Foley an American journalist who disappeared while covering Syria's civil war, then appears in the video. The masked executioner, speaking with what sounds like a British accent, identifies Sotloff and says that 'the life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.''

New York Times: "Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed late Monday to extend a five-day cease-fire for Gaza that expired at midnight for 24 hours, reflecting the difficulty of reaching more durable agreements after two weeks of Egyptian-brokered talks but also an apparent lack of appetite on either side to resume the conflict." ...

     ... UPDATE: "Another Gaza cease-fire collapsed on Tuesday when Palestinian militants fired rockets into southern Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes from Israel and prompting the Israeli government to withdraw its delegation from Egyptian-brokered talks in Cairo for an agreement to end the latest conflict."

Guardian: "Armed groups in Syria have several hundred portable anti-aircraft missiles that could easily be diverted to extremists and used to destroy commercial planes, according to a new report by an international arms research group that cites the risk of the missiles being smuggled out of Syria by terrorists. The report was released a few hours after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice to US airlines banning all flights in Syrian airspace."

The Commentariat -- August 18, 2014

Internal links, defunct video removed.

Julie Pace of the AP: "President Barack Obama returned to Washington just after midnight Monday for a two-day break from a summer vacation, during which airstrikes in Iraq and violent clashes in a St. Louis suburb intruded on his golf and beach plans."

Anna Palmer & Carrie Brown of Politico: "Senior White House officials are in talks with business leaders that could expand the executive actions President Barack Obama takes on immigration.... The outreach is an effort to broaden the political support for Obama's decision to go it alone on immigration...."

Thomas Frank, in Salon, suggests a few things President Obama could do to salvage his presidency: 1. "... instruct his Attorney General to start enforcing the nation's antitrust laws the way Democrats used to do.... 2. Investigate and prosecute fraud committed during the housing bubble.... 3. Make it clear that he will no longer tolerate the college tuition price spiral." CW: Sorry, Presidential Candidate Audacity turned out to be mostly talk & not much walk. But, hey, maybe he returned to Washington for two days to follow through on Frank's suggestions.

AND Now We'll Take a Short Break for Some Good News. Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "The recovery in America's job market is finally spreading to industries with good pay after years of being concentrated in fields with low wages. Hiring has picked up steam in areas such as construction, manufacturing and professional services in recent months -- sectors with a median hourly wage of at least $20. Nearly 40 percent of the jobs created over the past six months have been in high-wage industries, compared with just a quarter during the last half of 2013...."

Jill Lepore in the New Yorker: It appears corruption -- depending upon the definition of corruption -- is now a First Amendment right.

Paul Krugman: "War in the preindustrial world was and still is more like a contest among crime families over who gets to control the rackets than a fight over principles. If you're a modern, wealthy nation, however, war -- even easy, victorious war -- doesn't pay." But some leaders -- Vladimir Putin -- appear to use war as a distraction from troubles at home, like a faltering economy.

Lenika Cruz of the Atlantic: "All of the U.S. Treasurers Since 1949 Have Been Women," six of them Latina & one African-American. The position is largely ceremonial. All of the U.S. treasury secretaries have been white men.

Steve M.: Not everyone on the right is all Rand Paul-y about the militarization of our police forces. Wingers -- including His Holiness's Emissary to the New York Times Ross Douthat -- are claiming that heavyhanded policing & sentencing are holding down the crime rate. Douthat applauds Paul & writes,

I want lower incarceration rates and fewer people dying when a no-knock raid goes wrong. (CW: Yes, Ross, it's such a shame when police knock down the wrong door & shoot some innocent people.) I want lower incarceration rates and fewer people dying when a no-knock raid goes wrong. But there may be trade-offs here: In an era of atomization, distrust and economic stress, our punitive system may be a big part of what's keeping crime rates as low as they are now, making criminal justice reform more complicated than a simple pro-liberty free lunch.

... CW: There are numerous factors that may reduce the crime rate. Policing-after-the-fact & incarceration are two of them. They are neither the most desirable nor the most cost-effective.

Beyond the Beltway

Now Soldiers. Alan Blinder & Tanzina Vega of the New York Times: "Gov. Jay Nixon announced early Monday that he would deploy the Missouri National Guard to [Ferguson] as part of a fresh attempt by the authorities to quell the unrest that has paralyzed the town....Mr. Nixon said in a statement that he chose to activate the National Guard because of 'deliberate, coordinated and intensifying violent acts.' 'Tonight, a day of hope, prayers and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk,' Mr. Nixon said. The governor's decision came after the worst night of violence since the unrest began. On Sunday night, hours before the start of a second day of a mandatory curfew that the governor had ordered, police officers came under assault from gunfire and firebombs and responded with their largest show of force so far." ...

... Gov. Nixon's official statement is here. ...

... Alex Altman of Time: "'These people are not protestors. This is something different and it has little to do with #JusticeForMikeBrown,' tweeted Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman and community leader who has emerged as an important mediator. French and others believe the provocateurs are doing damage to a heartfelt cause. The images of looting and rioting threaten to rob Ferguson's peaceful majority of political sympathy.... The peaceful majority are trying to assert control." ...

... Cops Will Be Cops. Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker: "Police in Ferguson were caught on camera Sunday night threatening to mace one reporter and shoot another. At least two other journalists also claim they were arrested while following police orders." With video. CW: Worth a click. ...

     ... More from Margaret Hartmann & Abraham Riesman of New York. Video & tweets. ...

     ... CW: Worth noting: that nice Capt. Johnson appears to be right in there arresting reporters. ...

... Frances Robles & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Michael Brown ... was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found. One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown's skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury, according to Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, who flew to Missouri on Sunday at the family's request to conduct the separate autopsy. It was likely the last of bullets to hit him, he said." ...

... On Sunday, Captain Ronald Johnson spoke at a memorial service for Michael Brown at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson:

... Julie Bosman & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Sunday that the Justice Department would conduct its own autopsy of Michael Brown, the unarmed African-American teenager who was fatally shot more than a week ago by a white police officer. A Justice Department spokesman, Brian Fallon, said in a statement that the autopsy, which would be in addition to a state autopsy, had been ordered because of 'the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case and at the request of the Brown family.'" ...

... Jerry Markon, et al., of the Washington Post: Missouri "State officials on Sunday defended their tough response to the chaos that enveloped this St. Louis suburb on the first night of a curfew and imposed a second night of restrictions as signs emerged of heightened federal involvement in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager." ...

... Chuck Raasch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "In multiple appearances on national television Sunday morning, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon repeatedly emphasized the role of the federal investigation over the local one in the shooting death of Michael Brown. He said that St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, who has publicly criticized Nixon's decision to bring in the Missouri Highway Patrol, has an opportunity to 'step up here and do his job.' Nixon appeared on four morning talk shows.... The governor said that his conversation on Thursday with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had led to the deployment of 40 more FBI officers to investigate the shooting.... Nixon also told ABC's 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos' that his office was unaware that Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson was going to release on Friday a videotape showing what is alleged to be Brown, 18, in what police have called a 'strong-armed' robbery of cigars in a convenience store shortly before he was killed. 'We were certainly not happy with that bring released, especially in the way that it was,' Nixon said. 'It appeared to cast aspersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street. It made emotions raw.'"

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in Time: "Ferguson is not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's poor are held back." CW: There's a short, straight line between Abdul-Jabbar's essay & Jill Lepore's, linked above. ...

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Emily Smith & Stephanie Smith of the New York Post: "Ousted 'Meet the Press' anchor David Gregory was paid $4 million to leave NBC and signed a contract not to speak out against the network, sources told Page Six.... A source said Gregory's contract extended into next year, so NBC had to pay him for the rest of the term, plus an extra fee to ensure his silence. In return, he was asked to sign a nondisparagement clause, which explains -- despite the drama behind the scenes -- his saccharine message on Twitter to announce his departure.... But quietly, sources say, Gregory is 'angry and humiliated' at the way he was treated by NBC suits...." CW: Bear in mind, this is "Page Six" so not necessarily reliable, but the story at least sounds plausible. Via Caroline Bankoff of New York.

Senate Race

I know that this state is know for its wind energy, for corn, for soybeans, but that woman is an onion of crazy. Every time you peel back a layer, you find something more disturbing about her views. -- Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), on Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst. Wasserman-Schultz was speaking at the Iowa State Fair.

Presidential Election

Annie Lowrey in New York on "why Hillary Clinton doesn't really have a Mitt problem": "What has been strange about Clinton's responses to the questions about the many tens of millions she and her husband have pulled in of late is that there is an elegant and obvious rich-Democrat way to answer them. She simply has to say, 'Yes, we're really lucky. And I know first-hand that we don't need a tax break for our millions in earnings or our private jet.' It's a well-worn response, too, given by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton among many others. But it is a response that Mitt Romney, whose economic policies would probably have slashed his own taxes while raising them for lower-income Americans, could never give." ...

     ... CW: I dunno. I think if you're planning to run for president, & you know your party is going to push you toward a populist message, traveling around like a queen is not the best "optic."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "James M. Jeffords, the former U.S. senator from Vermont who gave Democrats control of the closely divided chamber in 2001 when he left the Republican Party to become an independent, died Aug. 18 at a retirement residence in Washington. He was 80."

New York Times: "Separatists rebels on Monday attacked a caravan of cars carrying refugees trying to flee war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing 'dozens' of people in a devastating barrage of artillery fire, Ukrainian military officials said, though rebel leaders denied there had been any attack at all."

Guardian: "The US State Department banned a senior member of the Islamic State (Isis) on Monday.... Now banned from any financial dealings in the United States or with people in the United States is the group's spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, a Syrian whose given name is Taha Sobhi Falaha. Also banned was Said Arif, an Algerian member of the rival Nusra Front who escaped house arrest in France and was linked to a plot to bomb the Eiffel Tower."

AP: "Aided by U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes, Kurdish forces Sunday wrested back part of Iraq's largest dam from Islamic militants who had captured it less than two weeks ago, security officials said." ...

... Reuters: "Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iraqi counter-terrorism forces have pushed Islamic State militants out of Mosul dam, state television reported on Monday.... An independent verification was not immediately possible."

Reuters: "Russia on Monday said all objections to it sending a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine had been resolved but said no progress had been made in Berlin talks toward a ceasefire between government and rebel forces in the east of the country."

Reuters: "Israeli troops on Monday demolished the homes of two Palestinians it suspects of the abduction and killing of three teenagers in the occupied West Bank in June, the army said."

Guardian: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said he 'will be leaving the embassy soon' during a press conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has sought asylum for more than two years."

The Commentariat -- August 17, 2014

Defunct video removed.

Sebastian Payne of the Washington Post: "Many social conservatives say they feel politically isolated as the country seems to be hurtling to the left, with marijuana now legal in Colorado and gay marriage gaining ground across the nation. They feel out of place in a GOP increasingly dominated by tea party activists and libertarians who prefer to focus on taxes and the role of government and often disagree with social conservatives on drugs or gay rights."

A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They don't want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation. -- James Risen, New York Times reporter, who fox six years has been under subpoena to reveal a source ...

... Maureen Dowd: Why is the Obama administration still pursuing Jim Risen?

Beyond the Beltway

Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," featuring Emerson, Lake & Palmer & the Neue Philharmonie Frankfort. Seems appropriate. Thanks to Bonita for sending along the link:

DeNeen Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "Gun violence, tear gas and armored vehicles marked the first night of a controversial curfew imposed in this St. Louis suburb where the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager has kicked over a caldron of frustration and anger. What some hoped would be an evening of calm was instead one of chaos that ended with a shooting victim, seven arrests and an early morning heavy rain that finally helped clear the streets." ...

     ... St. Louis Dispatch: "Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson said in a briefing just before 3 a.m. that police began using smoke bombs early this morning after learning that men were on the roof of Red's BBQ. Police were going to walk West Florissant Avenue in teams, but that plan changed with the report of men on the roof." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Julie Bosman & Alan Blinder, is here. ...

... Jerry Markon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Saturday declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew on the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, marking a definitive crackdown by authorities on rioting that has erupted since an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer. Speaking at a tense press conference marked by yelling from members of the public, Nixon, a Democrat, said the curfew would take effect at midnight and run until 5 a.m." ...

... Brian Beutler: "Ferguson presents an unusually extreme and condensed example of this sort of racial-civic polarization. But you can find expressions of the same basic dynamic -- of white public officials using their power to socially weaken black constituents -- all across the country." Read the whole essay.

Manny Fernandez & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "A defiant Gov. Rick Perry vowed on Saturday to fight his indictment for abuse of power, calling it a 'farce' and a 'political' prosecution. In his first appearance since a grand jury indicted him on two felony counts on Friday for trying to pressure the district attorney here, a Democrat, to step down by threatening to veto state funding for her office, Mr. Perry said, 'I wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto.]' He added, 'We don't settle political differences with indictments in this country.'" (See yesterday's Commentariat .) ...

... Rick Perry Is a Ham Sandwich. Jonathan Chait: "I do not have a fancy law degree from Harvard or Yale or, for that matter, anywhere. I am but a humble country blogger. And yet, having read the indictment, legal training of any kind seems unnecessary to grasp its flimsiness.... The theory behind the indictment is flexible enough that almost any kind of political conflict could be defined as a 'misuse' of power or 'coercion' of one[s opponents." ...

... CW: Again, I'm not sure Chait is right. As he says, governors & presidents are always threatening vetoes of pending legislation they don't like. That's the way the system is supposed to work. But suppose President Obama threatened to veto every bill (as if there were all that many) unless John Boehner resigned his speakership because Obama claimed Boehner was incompetent (& there's ample evidence for that). That seems analogous. It also seems outrageous.

Senate Race

Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Montana's Democrats, scrambling to salvage their political fortunes after plagiarism charges forced Senator John Walsh to end his election bid, chose a high school math teacher and one-term state legislator on Saturday as their nominee for a fiercely contested Senate seat. The nominee, Amanda Curtis, 34, who grew up in a family stalked by poverty and tragedy, cast the stakes of the election in stark economic terms, saying it was about 'millionaires versus the middle class.' As the daughter of a union worker whose family sometimes relied on food stamps to buy groceries, Ms. Curtis said she knew what it meant to worry about bills and the price of gas." ...

... The Missoulian story, by Mike Dennison, is here.

News Ledes

AP: "Ukraine's government said Sunday that separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane after army troops entered deep inside a rebel-controlled city in the east in what could prove a breakthrough development in the four-month long conflict." ...

... Reuters: "Ukrainian rebels are receiving new armoured vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, with which they plan to launch a major counter-offensive against government forces, a separatist leader said in a video released on Saturday. The four-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels - an intention Moscow denies."

Reuters: "The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday." ...

... Guardian: "Kurdish forces supported by American warplanes have mounted an offensive to retake Iraq's largest dam from jihadi fighters, as reports emerged of another grisly episode of mass slaughter perpetrated by the extremists in a village in northern Iraq." ...

     ... UPDATE: "The US on Sunday launched two waves of air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in northern Iraq, in the most extensive American military operations in the country since the withdrawal of ground troops in 2011. The strikes supported an offensive by Kurdish peshmerga fighters which aimed to regain control of the strategically important Mosul dam. Early in the day US aircraft, for the first time including land-based bombers, carried out 14 strikes. Later, US Central Command confirmed further strikes had been carried out by 'fighter and attack aircraft'.... In [a] letter to Congress, [President] Obama said the strikes had been authorised in order to 'recapture the Mosul dam'. He added: 'These military operations will be limited in their scope and duration....'"

AP: "A Palestinian negotiator said Sunday his side is 'less optimistic' about indirect talks with Israel over the Gaza war as a deadline on a temporary cease-fire looms. The Palestinian team reassembled in Cairo on Sunday after members returned from consultations in Qatar, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Israeli team also returned Sunday to resume the Egyptian-mediated talks. A current five-day cease-fire is due to end late Monday."