The Commentariat -- Dec. 11, 2013

NEW. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The number of people selecting health insurance plans in the federal and state marketplaces increased in November at a brisk pace, bringing the total to date to nearly 365,000, or more than triple the number who signed up in October, the Obama administration said on Wednesday.... The new data became available as Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, prepared for another confrontation with Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who called a hearing Wednesday to investigate the rollout of President Obama's health care law." ...

... Sebelius Shuts Barn Door; Horse Long-Gone. NEW. Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "... Kathleen Sebelius has launched an internal review to determine what department policies and management failures might have contributed to the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov...."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "House and Senate budget negotiators reached agreement Tuesday on a budget deal that would raise military and domestic spending over the next two years, shifting the pain of across-the-board cuts to other programs over the coming decade and raising fees on airline tickets to pay for airport security.... Democrats gave up their demand that the deal extend unemployment benefits that expire at the end of the month...." ...

It's a good sign that Democrats and Republicans in Congress were able to come together and break the cycle of short-sighted, crisis-driven decision-making to get this done. -- President Barack Obama, shortly after the agreement was announced

... Ezra Klein runs down the major provisions of the deal. ...

... Sarah Binder of the Monkey Cage in the Washington Post: "Breaking the cycle of budgetary brinkmanship does not yet seem to have resolved bicameral differences elsewhere on the Hill.... More likely, the mini-deal is emblematic of legislative battles in polarized times: Parties come to the table only when the costs of blocking an agreement are too great to shoulder. And even then, parties will give up as little as necessary to avoid the sometimes painful consequences of stalemate."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Senate slowly began working its way through a backlog of presidential nominees on Tuesday now that Republicans are virtually powerless to block confirmations, approving a once-stalled judge to a powerful appeals court and a new director for the agency that oversees federal home lending. But Republicans, still seething over a power play last month by Democrats to curtail the filibuster significantly, have settled on a strategy for retribution: Make the confirmation process as time-consuming and painful as possible for Democrats." ...

... Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "The Senate voted 56-38 Tuesday to confirm Patricia Millett to the D.C. Circuit Court, making her the first nominee of President Obama's to clear the Senate since Democrats unilaterally changed the rules in a vote last month. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) voted with Democrats." ...

... Ed O'Keefe & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Later, senators confirmed Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) 57 to 41 to serve as the next head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency,which regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and federal home loan banks."

Ben Protess & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Five federal agencies approved the final [Volcker] rule, bolstering some provisions but leaving others open to loopholes...." President Obama & Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pressed the agencies to finalize the regulatory framework.

Dana Milbank finds signs Republicans & other conservatives are the rejecting the Tea Party. Leading conservatives back Texas Sen. John Cornyn over Tea Party loon Steve Stockman who announced his challenge to Cornyn Monday night. Paul Ryan negotiated a budget deal which would permit increased spending. "Senate Republicans are stepping up their efforts to help each other beat back primary challenges." And John Boehner may bring an immigration bill to the floor after filing deadlines for primary challenges. ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post runs down Steve Stockman's "qualifications." This would be much funnier if Stockman weren't an elected official. ...

... Josh Barro of Business Insider on Stockman's derpitude. "I am guessing that Texas Republicans are not about to nominate a candidate whose sole 2011 and 2012 income came from a shady nonprofit and who has been refusing to make legally-required financial disclosures. Cornyn is safe, for now." ...

... Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "More than half of Senate Republicans facing reelection next year face potentially viable tea party challenges -- a historically large threat to the GOP establishment that could, once again, kill the party's chances of taking back control of the chamber."

Jeff Mason & Roberta Rampton of Reuters: "Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a new push to increase access to mental health services with $100 million in new government funding nearly a year after a school shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Biden, who spearheaded a failed Obama administration campaign for stronger gun control measures following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, met with families of the victims and mental health advocates." ...

... New York Times: "In the 12 months since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., almost every state has enacted at least one new gun law. Nearly two-thirds of the new laws ease restrictions and expand the rights of gun owners. Most of those bills were approved in states controlled by Republicans. Those who support stricter regulations won some victories -- mostly in states where the legislature and governorship are controlled by Democrats -- to increase restrictions on gun use and ownership." Report consists of interactive graphs charting state legislation.

Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "A new congressional report criticizes the federal government for awarding tens of billions of dollars in contracts to companies even though they were found to have violated safety and wage laws and paid millions in penalties. Issued on behalf of the Democratic senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, the report cited examples over the past six years." CW: Report includes one reason I don't buy mass-produced chicken.

Independent researcher Ashkan Soltani, with Washington Post reporters Andrea Peterson & Barton Gelman: "The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using 'cookies' and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.... The agency's internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations." CW: So if the gummit is looking for terrorists seeking out silverplated turkey domes, I am high on their watch list.

Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "With Iran threatening that any new sanctions would scuttle its interim nuclear deal with the West, the Obama administration is fighting a fierce battle to convince skeptical Senate Democrats not to pass any new measures against Tehran." ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Secretary of State John Kerry managed to convince the Senate. But he didn't have much success in pressing the case against new Iran sanctions in the House, where Republicans and Democrats alike made clear how deep the resistance to the Iran deal runs in Congress."

Fidel Castro & Richard Nixon, 1959.

Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler. -- Sen. John McCain, expressing his disapproval of President Obama's shaking hands with Cuban President Raul Castro

Questions for Sen. McCain: Did you know that Obama & Castro met at Nelson Mandela's memorial service? Do you have any idea what Mandela stood for & why he is so beloved around the world? What did Obama mean when he said during his eulogy, "It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well. While I will always fall short of Madiba's example, he makes me want to be a better man"? Can you be a "better man" & apologize for your asinine Chamberlain-Hitler analogy?

Rule Sen. McCain Forgot: If you must invoke Hitler, you've already lost the argument.

Right Wing Rule No. 1. If Obama does it, it's wrong.

Corollary to RW Rule No. 1. If conservative Republicans do it, they're heroes spreading American democracy around the world. Media Meteor Blades of Daily Kos posts pix of Republican presidents & other GOP leaders shaking hands with ruthless dictators.

CW: I'd add this grainy snap to Media Meteor Blades' gallery:

John McCain shakes hands with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2009. Gaddafi had accepted responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which 270 people -- many of them American students -- died over Lockerbie, Scotland. At the time McCain was bowing & scraping & promising Gaddafi military aid, Gaddafi successfully negotiated the release of the only convicted Lockerbie bomber.The RW parental units were probably too busy advising their litters on the fine points of spitting angrily while talking, keeping the race pure and most importantly lying as second nature. -- Contributor Diane, on why wingers don't understand international diplomacy & polite behavior

One more thing. While the U.S. backed the apartheid regime, Fidel Castro helped Mandela fight for racial equality. When you've come to a service to honor a man, you don't spit on his benefactors. -- Constant Weader

In Time's "Person of the Year" contest, Sen. Ted Cruz (RMegalomaniac-Texas) is Fourth Runner-Up. In his brief post, David Von Drehle suggests Cruz is insane, though of course he doesn't use that word & merely points out that Cruz is out of touch with reality. CW: Congratulations, Ted. You deserve it. ...

... Beating out Ted are, in ascending order, Syrian President Bashir Assad, DOMA litigant Edith Windsor, NSA leaker Edward Snowden, AND ...

... Time's Person of the Year -- Pope Francis.

CW: Maureen Dowd fancies herself a dime-novel writer. With a cast of character ripped from Capitol Hill! Awful stuff. There are just so many times I can write, "Her worst column yet," & maintain any credibility.

Congressional Race

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Democratic state Sen. Katherine Clark won Tuesday's special election for a Massachusetts congressional seat, easily defeating Republican attorney Frank Addivinola. She will succeed Democrat Ed Markey, who vacated the suburban Boston-area 5th District seat earlier this year after he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Markey had held the seat since 1976."

November 2013 Election

Markus Scmidt of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "The lawyer representing Republican Mark D. Obenshain in the pending statewide recount in the attorney general race on Monday for the first time openly raised the issue of contesting the election in the General Assembly if the tally does not sway the result in the Republican's favor." CW: That is, Obenshain could ask the Republic-led General Assembly to decide the election. Wonder how that would work out. Oh. Bush v. Gore.) ...

... As Charles Pierce wrote yesterday, "This could be one roaring, screaming debacle.... World's greatest democracy strikes again."

President Kennedy Assassination

Castro once told an Associated Press correspondent at the Brazilian Embassy in Havana that if you U.S. leaders didn't stop their attempts to kill Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe -- a threat of retaliation. Having followed the assassination of President Kennedy since 1963, I have come to a conclusion. Lee Harvey Oswald may have read the AP interview. And when he shot Kennedy, he may have done it as a self-appointed avenger of his hero, Fidel Castro. -- Daniel Schorr, on NPR, 2008

News Ledes

New York Times: "A day after the world's leaders, celebrities and royalty gathered ... to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela in a pomp-filled ceremony, Wednesday was the people's turn. They came by the thousands, black and white, frail and spry, from gated golf estates and tin-shack squatter camps, waiting to pay their final respects to the last and most beloved of a generation of leaders who liberated South Africa from apartheid. The lines, which snaked through the capital for miles, were reminiscent of the endless queues that South Africans endured in 1994 to vote for Mr. Mandela's African National Congress in the nation's first fully democratic elections." ...

... USA Today: "The sign language interpreter used at Tuesday's memorial service for Nelson Mandela, and whose image was broadcast around the world as he shared a stage with world leaders including President Obama, was being called a 'fake' by the Deaf Federation of South Africa." ...

     ... More from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

New York Times: "The United States has suspended the delivery of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition in northern Syria after concluding that some of it has fallen into the hands of extremist Islamic fighters, American officials said on Wednesday."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 10, 2013

Lydia Polgreen, et al., of the New York Times: "In an outpouring of praise, memory and celebration, scores of leaders from around the world, including President Obama, joined tens of thousands of South Africans in vast rainswept soccer stadium on Tuesday to pay common tribute to Nelson Mandela. Huge cheers greeted Mr. Obama as he rose to speak." ...

... ** President Obama is introduced at about 20 min. into the video:

     ... Here is the text of Obama's remarks, as prepared. ...

... The Washington Post has a photo gallery of those honoring Mandela today.

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "For more than 16 hours, Mr. Obama hosted former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton aboard Air Force One -- part of a global pilgrimage that is expected to bring as many as 100 world leaders to South Africa." ...

... Anthony Castellano & Mary Bruce of ABC News: "President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro today at a memorial service for the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa." CW: That deafening roar you hear is not cheers for Mandela or Obama but wingnuts winging out at the handshake. ...

... Steve M. of NMMNB: "The right is going to howl, but all that means is that the right will have temporarily substituted 'Obama Kowtows to Commie' for 'Obama Wants to Kill Us All with Socialized Medicine and Benghazi.... The problem is the middle -- not the Fox/Limbaugh audience, but the audience for Washington Post pundits and CNN bloviators. This will be discussed Very, Very Seriously for a day or two by all of these people."

Ben Protess & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Federal regulators are poised to approve a tougher-than-expected version of the so-called Volcker Rule, adopting a harder line in recent weeks against Wall Street risk-taking.... The rule, which comes to a vote on Tuesday, is a symbol of the Obama administration's post-financial-crisis crackdown on Wall Street. In particular, it bans banks from trading for their own gain, a practice known as proprietary trading. In doing so, the Volcker Rule takes aim at the sort of risk-taking responsible for a $6 billion trading blowup last year at JPMorgan Chase."

Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "House and Senate negotiators reached a final agreement Monday on a Pentagon policy bill that would strengthen protections for military victims of sexual assault and keep the prison facility at Guantánamo Bay open over President Obama's strenuous objections, as Congress rushed to wrap up work in its last full week of the year.... It was a loss for champions of a more sweeping response to sexual assault in the military, a group led by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York."

Redistribution! Socialism! Communism! Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "Republicans aren't wrong when they say Obamacare amounts to redistribution. But they seem to have a distorted view of how that redistribution works.... It's certainly fair to say that a majority of people getting money from Obamacare are in the lower half of the income scale. But that includes an awful lot of people that qualify as 'working class' or 'middle class.... The majority of funding in the law is money paid by -- or given up by -- either the wealthy or parts of the health care industry.... In the old days, before Obamacare, just about anybody could end up without health insurance, which meant just about anybody could end up ruined because of medical bills. The simplest way to describe Obamacare is as a transfer from the lucky to the unlucky. And when it comes to health, you don't have to be poor to be unlucky." ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Washington Post: Congressional Republicans "are shocked to discover the health care system sucks." CW: This is not a Borowitz report; this is wealthy members of Congress suddenly "discovering that premiums are higher than they would have expected, having previously enjoyed the protection of government benefits that essentially shielded them from reality.... Five decades of skyrocketing health price inflation didn't inspire so much as a peep when Republicans held all three branches of government. But now that Republicans have derped themselves onto the exchanges, they're shocked, shocked at how expensive things have gotten." ...

... Kelli Kennedy of the AP: Insurance agents say the ACA & Healthcare.gov are stiffing them because of both software glitches & purposely built-in barriers. CW: I'd guess the ACA is still a bonanza for agents, even with the glitches & limits the law places on commissions. Nonetheless, If the anecdotal tales are true, it seems the agents have a real beef. If they help a consumer obtain coverage, they should get a commission.

Lourdes Medrano of the Christian Science Monitor: "Facing intense pressure from immigrant advocates who want the president to do more to limit deportations, the Obama administration has quietly issued a directive [on November 15] to help undocumented immigrants who are closely related to military personnel stay in the country. The effort is called 'parole in place,' and it aims to end rampant confusion among immigration officials about how to treat the parents, spouses, and minor children of those in active duty as well as veterans and reservists. Under parole in place, these relatives no longer have to leave the country to apply for legal US status -- a situation that often resulted in the applicants being barred from reentering the US for years."

Obama 2.0 Fixer? Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama, after a rocky year that leaves him at the lowest ebb of his presidency, is bringing into his White House circle the longtime Democratic strategist John D. Podesta, a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton."

Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Senior figures behind efforts to curtail the powers of American spy agencies have seized on the decision by the world's largest tech companies to call for radical surveillance reform, saying the unexpected intervention is a potential 'game-changer'.... Tech giants usually leave public lobbying to the dozen or so industry associations in Washington. It is unprecedented for the major tech giants to put their names to a single political statement of this kind." ...

... Matthew Taylor & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "More than 500 of the world's leading authors, including five Nobel prize winners, have condemned the scale of state surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and warned that spy agencies are undermining democracy and must be curbed by a new international charter.... They have urged the United Nations to create an international bill of digital rights that would enshrine the protection of civil rights in the internet age."

CNN: "The Senate voted unanimously on Monday to renew a 10-year ban on guns that cannot be picked up by metal detectors commonly found in airports, court houses and government buildings. The law, which prohibits firearms made mostly of plastic, was set to expire at day's end.... The House acted last week, and now the measure goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. A White House official said the President is expected to sign the legislation. But the Obama administration and congressional Democrats had been pushing for an extension to also deal with potential loopholes for 3-D-printer guns, which the congressional legislation does not do."

Monica Potts of the American Progress on David Vitter's mean-spirited amendment: denying food stamps to ex-offenders. The amendment to the farm bill "applies retroactively, meaning it would kick poor senior citizens who have served their time in prison, and who may not have committed violent crimes in years, off assistance. The amendment also prohibits these ex-offenders from being counted as members of their families when benefits are determined.... If that ex-offender has a job, however, his or her income is counted and reduces his family's benefits accordingly. States can't opt out of this provision." The Senate voted for the amendment by voice vote & there's similar language in a House bill, tho the House version is not retroactive. Potts runs down the reasons this provision isn't just nasty; it's counterproductive. ...

... Because there's nothing that makes America safer than a bunch of starved ex-criminals roaming the streets. -- Jason Sattler of the National Memo in the Huffington Post

... CW: Potts is too nice to say so, but I would add that there's a sickening irony in all this. The Vitter amendment "bars anyone who has been convicted of murder, sexual assault or sexual abuse, child pornography, and similar state offenses from receiving food stamps." Vitter himself famously engaged in criminal sexual behavior -- repeatedly soliciting prostitutes -- but, as David Dayen of Salon noted parenthetically in May. when Vitter introduced the amendment, "(cannily, the crime of soliciting prostitutes is exempted from this ban)." Dayen also wrote.

The amendment was clearly created as a wedge issue, a perennial Republican effort to get Democratic senators to vote for something that can get used against them later in attack ads.... No senator would vote to 'give' violent offenders federal benefits, and in this case they didn't have to. Rather than put the amendment up for a vote, the manager of the farm bill, Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow, merely accepted the amendment into the base bill. The amendment was agreed to by unanimous consent, which is to say that nobody objected to it on the floor. In reality, it's unlikely that most senators even knew the amendment's contents.

... CW: Vitter, BTW, was never convicted for his crimes, nor was he even prosecuted, though when exposed, so to speak, he admitted to the solicitations, which he described as "a sin." Yeah, & a crime.

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "The emerging deal on food stamp spending, part of the House and Senate's ongoing negotiations over the farm bill, would include dollar savings, but would not kick anybody off the program -- a far cry from the bill passed by the House GOP this fall. The framework of the deal is a dramatic comedown for Republicans, especially in the House, which already passed $40 billion in cuts to the food stamp program in September. The total cuts in the new deal would likely come in less than $10 billion -- Roll Call reported $8 billion as a possible figure Monday. It's a slight come-up for Senate Democrats, who passed a bill with $4 billion in cuts in the summer. The bulk of the spending cuts would come from an administrative fix, according to sources familiar with the talks." CW: Really? What about Vitter's ex-felons?

Tom Krishner of the AP: "The U.S. government ended up losing $10.5 billion on the General Motors bailout, but it says the alternative would have been far worse. The Treasury Department sold its final shares of the Detroit auto giant Monday, recovering $39 billion of the $49.5 billion it spent to save the dying automaker at the height of the financial crisis five years ago.... The company now is sitting on $26.8 billion in cash and is considering restoration of a dividend." CW: Seems to me the Obama administration could have cut a better deal. ...

... Jon Perr in Daily Kos: "... the $10.5 billion loss on paper obscures the massive total return on investment for the U.S. economy overall and American taxpayers in particular. As a new analysis from the Center for Automotive Research found, had GM and Chrysler failed altogether, the result could have been 4.1 million jobs lost across the U.S. economy in 2009 and 2010, with federal transfer payments and $105 billion in lost income and payroll tax revenue for the U.S. Treasury." CW: Yeah, yeah, I get that. I'd still like my $10.5 billion back. ...

... Matt Yglesias explains why, from a macroeconomic POV, how much the government makes or loses from its loans is irrelevant. CW: But I still want GM to pay for the incompetence that almost caused the loss of a million-plus jobs.

Tal Kopan of Politico: "Rep. Sander Levin said Monday that Sen. Rand Paul's position that extending unemployment benefits does a 'disservice' to Americans looking for work is wrong, and said letting those benefits expire would be a 'disservice to humanity.'"

Alex Seitz-Wald argues in the National Journal that the Newtown massacre of last December "set in motion a cascade of events that led the White House to burn through its only real window to accomplish its goals."

Part 2 of the New York Times series by Andrea Elliott on Dasani, a preteen homeless girl.

** Stanley Fish attends three Noam Chomsky lectures.

John Bresnahan of Politico: "... House Democrat Alan Grayson lost $18 million as part of a criminal scheme run by a Virginia man that bilked more than 100 investors out of more than $35 million, according to federal court documents. William Dean Chapman, 44, of Sterling, Va.,was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Friday. Chapman pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in May, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which oversaw the case.... It appears from the court documents that Grayson's losses occurred several years ago, around 2007." CW: Kind of explains why Grayson went into a new line of work -- politics.

Senate Race

CNN: "Republican Rep. Steve Stockman is launching a primary challenge against fellow Texan Sen. John Cornyn.... Stockman, a tea party favorite, told WND that he decided to challenge Cornyn in part because he 'undermined' fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz's fight to derail Obamacare." CW: Stockman belongs to the Impeach Obama wing of the party & is generally horrible or "weird," as the Houston Chronicle once put it.

Local News

Craig Gustufson & Greg Moran of the San Diego Union-Tribune: Former San Diego Mayor Bob "Filner completed a stunning fall from grace Monday when a judge sentenced him to three months of home confinement and three years of probation, closing the criminal probe into the inappropriate sexual behavior toward women that ended his brief stint as San Diego's 35th mayor. His legal woes will continue as he and the city still face a civil lawsuit from a former aide."

Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott has staked his political future on his ability to bring jobs to Florida, but the first comprehensive review of his efforts shows few successes and hundreds of unfulfilled promises." ...

     ... Charles Pierce: "The Tampa paper has some terrific anecdotal evidence of how well this works. Over and over, we see one truth clearly demonstrated -- that governments should be more skeptical of business interests than they are of their citizens who happen to be on public assistance. Over and over, we decline to learn from this.

James Hohmann of Politico: "Three Democratic state lawmakers called Monday for the state chairman of Virginia's Republican Party to resign over comments he made attacking President Barack Obama and Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe.... The chairman, Pat Mullins..., at a weekend GOP retreat ... on Saturday ... he accused Obama of lying to the American people on [a number of] issues.... 'Our president was elected on a series of lies,' Mullins said. 'The American people are finally seeing the emperor without his clothes ... Obama is so close to death (emphasis added) that Terry McAuliffe is about to buy a life insurance policy on him.' The latter part of the comments, which drew laughs and scattered applause, referred to the revelation in the home stretch of the governor's race that the Democratic nominee received $113,000 from an investment in a death-benefits scheme that preyed on the terminally ill." A party spokesman said Mullins "misspoke" & meant to say "ObamaCare," not "Obama" was close to death. CW: If that's true, Mullins' remark is a classic Freudian slip. I'd like to see the Secret Service question Mullins in a most uncordial way.

Jeff Weiner & Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel: "George Zimmerman's defense lawyer has asked a judge to allow him to see his girlfriend, who has recanted the domestic violence allegations which led to his arrest last month, new court documents show. The apparent about-face by Zimmerman's girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, throws his latest criminal case into doubt, leaving prosecutors to reassess whether or not to pursue charges. 'I want to be with George,' Scheibe says in a sworn statement which accompanies a new motion.... Chris White, lead prosecutor in Seminole County, said he learned of Scheibe's change of heart Monday. He said his office would evaluate her affidavit and decide later this week whether to push forward with the case or abandon it." CW: I'm so surprised that someone idiotic enough to hook up with Zimmerman would pull such a stunt.

News Ledes

AFP: "Uruguay is to give a green light Tuesday to making marijuana legal, in a social experiment that countries plagued by drug-related crime worldwide will watch."

Washington Post: "Hundreds of heavily armored police swarmed past barricades into [Kiev's] Independence Square ... early Wednesday morning, breaking up the encampment of protesters who have defied President Viktor Yanukovych for more than two weeks."

Reuters: " Israel's parliament has moved to ensure African migrants who enter the country illegally can be held without charge, despite a Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a previous detention law. Legislation approved late on Monday set a maximum detention period of one year for new illegal migrants, a change from a term of up to three years stipulated in a previous law annulled by the court in September." CW: Guess the Knesset didn't get the "spirit of Mandela" message. ...

... Time: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled plans to attend memorial events for the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, citing travel and security costs, Israeli media reported Sunday." CW: Seems appropriate.

The Commentariat -- Dec. 9, 2013

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington. The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators' primary target. After more than two years of constant crisis, the emerging agreement amounts to little more than a cease-fire." CW: Still up-in-the-air: extended unemployment benefits, but it doesn't look good. ...

... Erik Wasson of the Hill: "Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he hopes extended jobless benefits will be part of the budget deal, but Democrats are not at this point insisting on it.... Durbin's soft position echoes that of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who appeared last week to say no deal would be possible without the extension of jobless benefits expiring Jan. 1, but then walked the ultimatum back." ...

... Test Question. Explain Rand Paul's logic. Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Democratic attempts to extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million workers were a 'disservice' to the unemployed, Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday. Paul said a study had shown employers were less likely to hire the long-term unemployed like those who have been on 99 weeks of benefits." ...

     ... Paul Krugman takes a stab at the test question: "... the G.O.P. answer to the problem of long-term unemployment is to increase the pain of the long-term unemployed: Cut off their benefits, and they'll go out and find jobs. How, exactly, will they find jobs when there are three times as many job-seekers as job vacancies? ... Employment in today's American economy is limited by demand, not supply.... The odds, I'm sorry to say, are that the long-term unemployed will be cut off, thanks to a perfect marriage of callousness ... with bad economics. But then, hasn't that been the story of just about everything lately?" ...

     ... Digby: "It's this twisted Randroid sanctimony that really gets to me. It's bad enough that this creep thinks the unemployed are parasites and moochers. But he has the brass balls to adopt a disgustingly unctuous 'compassionate' tone to suggest that he's following Christian teachings by throwing them out on the street." ...

... Khalil AlJajal of Mlive: "Democrats responded in a variety of ways to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's Friday visit to Detroit. The Kentucky Republican was in town helping the GOP effort to start reaching out to minorities in Michigan and to introduce his 'Economic Freedom Zones' plan. Paul plans to introduce legislation next week that would turn zip codes with unemployment rates over 1.5 times the average into zones where federal income taxes would be reduced to 5 percent, capital gains taxes would be eliminated and other incentives would be offered to potential residents and entrepreneurs." ...

... Heather of Crooks & Liars: "Is there anyone out there who honestly believes that Sen. Rand Paul wasn't going to continue his father's racket of pretending he actually wants to be president in order to raise lots of money from their gullible followers?"

"It's a Godsend." Abby Goodnough, et al., of the New York Times interview Americans who are glad to be getting insurance under the ACA. "... for all those problems, people are enrolling. More than 243,000 have signed up for private coverage through the exchanges, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and more than 567,000 have been determined eligible for Medicaid since the exchanges opened on Oct. 1. For many, particularly people with existing medical conditions..., the coverage is proving less expensive than what they had. Many others are getting health insurance for the first time in years, giving them alternatives to seeking care through free clinics or emergency rooms -- or putting it off indefinitely."

** Ta-Nehisi Coates: On Nelson Mandela, Newt Gingrich gets it right & challenges wingers who are attacking Mandela in death. And not for the first time. Here's Newt's full post. CW: This might be the first time I've embedded remarks by Newt Gingrich with which I agree:

... Worth keeping in mind, of course, is the point Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars makes: "... I might be more willing to accept [Newt's alleged shock at conservatives' hateful remarks about Mandela] if Newt didn't play into racist dogwhistles all the time."

Thomas McGarity, in the New York Times: "... there's a crucial dimension the president left out [of his speech on inequality]: the revival, since the mid-1970s, of the laissez-faire ideology that prevailed in the Gilded Age.... It's no coincidence that this laissez-faire revival -- an all-out assault on government regulation -- has unfolded over the very period in which inequality has soared to levels not seen since the Gilded Age." ...

... Case on Point. Matthew Goldstein & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Even as five regulatory agencies prepared to vote Tuesday on a regulation that seeks to rein in risk-taking on Wall Street -- an effort known as the Volcker Rule -- lawyers and lobbyists were gearing up for another round of attacks against it. In recent letters and meetings with financial regulators, lobbyists for Wall Street banks and business trade groups issued thinly veiled threats about challenging the Volcker Rule in court, people briefed on the matter said. The groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are hinting that they could use litigation to either undercut or clarify the rule, which is intended to bar banks from trading for their own gain and limit their ability to invest in hedge funds."

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies conducting criminal investigations collected data on cellphone activity thousands of times last year, with each request to a phone company yielding hundreds or thousands of phone numbers of innocent Americans along with those of potential suspects. Law enforcement made more than 9,000 requests last year for what are called 'tower dumps,' information on all the calls that bounced off a cellphone tower within a certain period of time, usually two or more hours, a congressional inquiry has revealed. The little-known practice has raised concerns among federal judges, lawmakers and privacy advocates who question the harvesting of massive amounts of data on people suspected of no crime in order to try to locate a criminal.... The inquiry, by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), into law enforcement's use of cellphone data comes amid growing scrutiny of the bulk collection of geolocation data overseas and of Americans' phone records in the United States by the National Security Agency." ...

... Mark Mazzetti & Justin Elliott of the New York Times: "American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents.... The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players, according to the documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden." ...

... Edward Wyatt & Claire Miller of the New York Times: "Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers' data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama and Congress to set new limits on government surveillance." The Guardian story, by Dan Roberts & Jemima Kiss, is here. ...

... Ryan Lizza has a lo-o-o-ng piece in the New Yorker on NSA overreach. CW: The bit of it I've had time to read is excellent. ...

... NSA-Speak. Amy Davidson of the New Yorker gives a short lesson on how to tell when NSA leaders are lying.

Saymour Hersh, in the London Review of Books, points to intelligence evidence that the Syrian government was not necessarily responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on August 21. "... in recent interviews with intelligence and military officers and consultants past and present, I found intense concern, and on occasion anger, over what was repeatedly seen as the deliberate manipulation of intelligence. One high-level intelligence officer, in an email to a colleague, called the [Obama] administration's assurances of Assad's responsibility a 'ruse'."

Andrea Elliott, in the New York Times, explores the life of Dasani, an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl, whose family is homeless. With photographs. This horror story has received some extra attention because the Las Vegas Sun, apparently inadvertently, ran it before the Times uploaded it on its own site.

Katherine Boyle of the Washington Post: "This year, the Kennedy Center honored actress Shirley MacLaine, opera singer Martina Arroyo, musician Carlos Santana -- who beamed while sitting next to first lady Michelle Obama -- and two piano men: Herbie Hancock and Billy Joel. If the honorees had performed together, it would have been a dream collaboration -- but as is the 36-year custom, they sat, smiled and watched others pay tribute to lives lived on stages and screens." ...

... The Post has extended profiles of the recipients: MacLaine, Arroyo, Santana, Joel and Hancock. There's a photo gallery here and short videos here. ...

Now, when you first become President, one of the questions that people ask you is what's really going on in Area 51. When I wanted to know, I'd call Shirley MacLaine. I think I just became the first President to ever publicly mention Area 51. How's that, Shirley? -- Barack Obama, at the reception for Kennedy Center honorees

... White House: "President Obama delivers remarks at a reception celebrating the 2013 Kennedy Center Honorees":

CW: This is predictably awful, & therefore smile-inducing. And at least it's accurate:

Local News

Gallop Asian Bistro, Bridgewater New Jersey: Dayna "Morales and Gallop Asian Bistro have made a joint decision that Ms. Morales will no longer continue her employment at our restaurant. We wish her well in the future." CW: The comments are withering.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Bill Porter, an Oregon door-to-door salesman who plied his trade for decades despite having severe cerebral palsy, and whose story inspired an Emmy-winning television film starring William H. Macy, died last Tuesday in Gresham, Ore. He was 81."

Washington Post: "Eleanor Parker, an actress of patrician beauty nicknamed 'the woman of a thousand faces' for the range of parts she played, from a terrified prisoner in 'Caged' to the icy baroness in 'The Sound of Music,' died Dec. 9 at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs, Calif. She was 91." ...

     ... Update: The New York Times obituary is here.

Reuters: "China expressed 'regret' on Monday that South Korea had extended its air defense zone to partially overlap with a similar zone declared by Beijing two weeks ago that has raised regional tensions."

Reuters: "Cuba has temporarily reopened consular services in the United States after its bank postponed closing the accounts of its diplomatic missions in Washington and New York, it said in a statement released to media on Monday."

AP: "A plodding storm that dumped heavy snow on the unsuspecting Mid-Atlantic region threatened to make roads dicey in the northeast corridor for Monday's commute while travel disruptions continued to ripple across the country days after the same system first began wreaking havoc in the skies. The seemingly never-ending storm that coated parts of Texas in ice struck with unexpected force on the East Coast, blanketing some spots in a foot of snow and grinding highways to a halt." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "A deadly winter storm kept a tight grip on much of the United States on Monday as cold, snow and ice spread across the East Coast, snarling traffic and knocking out power to thousands. As much as 5 inches of snow were forecast for Monday night into Tuesday as much of the area from Virginia to coastal New England were under winter weather advisories...."

New York Times: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the country's top military officer Monday, hoping to improve one of Washington's most complicated relationships -- one marked by agreement on the dangers of terrorism but also by deep differences over how to counter the threat."

Reuters: "Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved parliament on Monday and called a snap election, but anti-government protest leaders pressed ahead with mass demonstrations in Bangkok seeking to install an unelected body to run the country. Police estimated about 160,000 protesters converged on Yingluck's office at Government House, but there was none of the violence and bloodshed seen before the demonstrations paused last Thursday out of respect for the king's birthday."

Guardian: "Cordons of riot police moved into central Kiev early on Monday afternoon in what appeared initially to be preparations by the Ukrainian government to regain control of Independence square and Kiev city hall, occupied by anti-government protesters for the past week."

Santa Cruz Sentinel: American Merrill Newman said he was well-treated during his North Korean detention.