The Commentariat -- Sept. 23, 2013

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, 'How do I know you won't sting me?' The scorpion says, 'Because if I do, I will die too.'

The frog is satisfied, and they set out. But in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp, 'Why?'

Replies the scorpion: 'It's my nature.'

-- Aesop (and others)

... ** Roger Simon of Politico: "There are scorpions among us. They sit in Congress, committed not to solving problems, but blocking solutions. They would take the food out of the mouths of children. They would put the insurance companies back in charge of health care. They would shut the government down, refuse to pay the nation's bills, destroy the trust that other countries place in us when they buy our bonds, they would do all this rather than give President Obama the slimmest of political victories. Why? It is their nature." ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "Conservatives seem, in particular, to believe that freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat. Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies.... SNAP, in short, is public policy at its best. It not only helps those in need; it helps them help themselves. And it has done yeoman work in the economic crisis, mitigating suffering and protecting jobs at a time when all too many policy makers seem determined to do the opposite. So it tells you something that conservatives have singled out this of all programs for special ire."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama's health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers. Even though insurers will be forbidden to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, they could subtly discourage the enrollment of sicker patients by limiting the size of their provider networks." ...

At heaven's door, St. Peter is probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. -- Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), encouraging Ohio's Republican legislature to accept the Medicaid expansion provision of the Affordable Care Act

Practicality and compassion are both missing in the manufactured rage against the abstraction known as 'Obamacare.' -- E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post

... Carrie Brown & Glenn Thrush of Politico attempt to follow the history of Barack Obama's evolution on health insurance reform. They claim it all started when Obama aides needed to come up with something for him to say at a 2007 healthcare forum on a topic about which rival Hillary Clinton was an expert. According to Brown & Thrush, the aides thought Obama "probably wasn't going to get elected anyway," so it didn't matter WTF he said. CW: I wouldn't take this report as gospel.

Igor Volsky's "Compete Guide to the GOP's Three-Year Campaign to Shut down the Government." "Past Congresses have used the debt ceiling as a 'vehicle for other legislative matters' or nongermane amendments, but as the timeline [in this post] demonstrates, the Republicans that came to power after the 2010 midterm elections demanded something entirely different: they threatened to push the nation into default and shut down the government unless Congress approves deep structural budget cuts during a period of economic recession." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Brigid Schulte & Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "President Obama, addressing yet another memorial gathering after a deadly mass shooting, said Sunday evening that he senses 'a creeping resignation' in the United States that homicidal lunacy like the Washington Navy Yard massacre 'is somehow the new normal.' But he said ;it ought to be a shock to us all' and should spur Americans to demand 'a common sense' balance between gun rights and gun control. 'We cannot accept this,' Obama said of the Sept. 16 attack that killed a dozen people at the Navy Yard. 'As Americans bound in grief and love, we must insist here today there's nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work'":

Coral Davenport of the National Journal: "President Obama sees his new global-warming regulations as a cornerstone of his legacy. Republicans see them as fresh political ammunition. On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the first in a series of historic and controversial climate-change rules aimed at reining in carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's top source of greenhouse-gas emissions.... An hour after Obama's EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, formally announced the climate rules, [GOP] strategists began linking them to 2014 Democratic candidates."

Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama travels Monday to New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, where he is scheduled to sit down with world leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will also address the General Assembly, focusing on the challenges in the Middle East, including the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Iran's nuclear ambitions and peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians." ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker: "In plain language [based on the U.N. investigative report], President Bashar al-Assad, along with other members of his regime, is a war criminal. His patron, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, has been exposed as a liar.... A political solution leading to a new Syrian government has always been the Administration's official policy, but Obama has shown little energy in pursuing it.... The latest debate over the use of force has passed, while the war goes on. What remains on the table is the use of politics.

Joe Hagan of New York interviews Hillary Clinton. It's her first post-Secretary interview & a long piece (you'll have to click through as the single-page versions is screwed up [at 5:00 am ET]).

David Cohen of Politico: "Bill Clinton says Lawrence Summers, his former Treasury secretary, did not deserve the criticism he received when he was under consideration to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve." ...

... Here's Bill Clinton, in the same interview with Fareed Zakaria, on President Obama's decision to go to Congress re: Syria & on the NSA leaks:

Frank Rich sees Rand Paul as a "valuable" voice in the Republican party. CW: Paul may be the "wacko bird" in the eyes of his party's hawks & chicken-hawks, BUT ...

Nobody Likes Ted. Evan McMurry of Mediaite: "Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said Sunday morning that he'd received opposition research from other Republicans about Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in advance of Cruz's appearance [Sunday] morning, a serious indication of how upset the GOP is with the Senator leading the risky charge to defund ObamaCare." ...

... Here's one reason Republicans Don't Like Ted. Jonathan Chait on how Ted Cruz turned the GOP ObamaCare defunding plan "from disaster to utter fiasco." ...

... Steve Benen: "... even if Senate Republicans felt overwhelming pressure from unhinged Tea Party activists and actually endorsed [Cruz's latest] scheme, they'd make it impossible to blame Democrats for the shutdown -- GOP senators would have created the shutdown by filibustering their own bill." ...

... CW: Last week contributor Keith Howard wrote, "I think any person with a functioning brain only needs to watch Cruz in action for a few minutes to conclude that he is a dangerous psychopath -- a completely selfish backstabber, vicious, untrustworthy, and void of any moral principle." (Howard has argued elsewhere that mincing words in unproductive.) I don't like to make derogatory comments about anyone's personal appearance, but Cruz does look to me like a Hollywood casting director's pick for the villain in a psychopath-on-the-rampage flick. For instance, looking at this picture of Cruz smiling & Sen. Mike Lee scowling, I think Happy Cruz looks a lot scarier than Angry Lee.

Whether or not you watched any of the Sunday shows, Charles Pierce's recap is well-worth a read. CW: What's discouraging is that regular, honorable Americans tune into those shows & have no fucking idea they are being had by the GOP AND the lovely hosts.

This map, developed by Deadspin, was first published several months, ago, but it's worth a look-see, as it does speak to our priorities:

Justin Rosario of Addicting Info links the map above to this clip, which I think is from the first episode of the first season of the HBO series "The Network Newsroom." The character, news anchor Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels, who just won a Emmy for his second-season performance) is obnoxious & the speech is holier-than-thou preachy, but the substance is well-taken:

News Ledes

New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a stunning personal triumph in Sunday's national elections in Germany, becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008 and winning strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing troubled Europe."

Washington Post: " Kenyan security forces swept into an upscale shopping mall late Sunday to try to end a two-day standoff with heavily armed Islamist militants after a gruesome attack that reflected the surprising resiliency of one of Africa's most brutal insurgent groups. Authorities later said that most hostages had been freed, but they provided few details. It appeared that at least some members of Somalia's al-Shabab militia, which asserted responsibility for the attack, were still holed up early Monday in the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, where they killed 68 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya in 15 years." ...

     ... Update: "By Monday evening, Kenyan security forces said they controlled much of the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, although several militants from al-Shabab, a group allied with al-Qaeda, appeared dug in, determined to fight to the death.... Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday that 'two or three Americans' and 'one Brit' were among the perpetrators of the attack. "

The Commentariat -- Sept. 22, 2013

We probably can’t defeat or get rid of Obamacare.... I will continue to lead the fight until we win. I will not vote for any CR that funds Obamacare and if there is one penny for Obamacare I will vote no. -- Sen. Rand Paul (RTP-Ky.) ...

... I will shut down the entire federal government to make a political point about a hopeless cause. -- CW Translation

It’s rather extraordinary, if you think about it, that there are efforts under way to prevent Americans from getting benefits that they lawfully could enjoy and should enjoy. -- Jay Carney, presidential press secretary ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Starting this week, the White House will kick off a six-month campaign to persuade millions of uninsured Americans to sign up for health coverage as part of insurance marketplaces that open for business on Oct. 1. If too few people enroll, the centerpiece of the president's Affordable Care Act could collapse. But instead of offering the kind of grudging cooperation that normally follows even the most bitter of legislative battles, Mr. Obama's foes have intensified their opposition, trying to deepen the nation's anger about the health insurance program, which both sides often call Obamacare." ...

... CW: I try to avoid giving any space to Sarah Palin unless she does something really newsworthy -- like quitting the governor gig -- but her opinion piece in Breitbart is an excellent summation of Tea Party anti-ObamaCare rationale. Sadly, millions of Americans believe this nonsense. Not sure who wrote the headline: "... Bombs Away on Obamacare; Cruz Is over the Target," but it is certainly consistent with Palin's past use of violent imagery aimed at Democrats. Also, didn't know Texans were smaller than Alaskans.

Joe Picard of the Hill: "President Obama phoned Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday to tell him he will not negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling...."

"SNAP Judgments." Paul Krugman: "The idea that food stamps represent a problem -- not a small blessing that has made this ongoing economic disaster marginally less awful -- represents an awesome combination of ignorance and cruelty." Krugman provides a chart, demonstrating that the food-stamp program is far from "out of control," as Republicans claim. CW: But, hey, what are facts to MOCs who have watched Fox "News"'s Lobster Boy "documentary"? Somebody please send those nasty idiots DVDs of "A Place at the Table." And make them take a pop quiz to prove they watched it. ...

... Josh Barro of Business Insider: "Yesterday, House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for a plan that cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by 5% over the next decade. But 15 Republicans voted no, and some of them are explaining why." CW: I told you there were some decent Republicans. They'll probably be primaried back to civilian life. But don't worry; they'll become well-paid lobbyists. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Charles Arthur of the Guardian: "A major American computer security company has told thousands of customers to stop using an encryption system that relies on a mathematical formula developed by the National Security Agency (NSA). RSA, the security arm of the storage company EMC, sent an email to customers telling them that the default random number generator in a toolkit for developers used a weak formula, and they should switch to one of the other formulas in the product. The abrupt warning is the latest fallout from the huge intelligence disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of surveillance and the debasement of encryption by the NSA."

Robert Reich in the New York Times: economic inequality, with most Americans on "a downward escalator," explains the anger that accompanies the ideological divide.

Maureen Dowd takes a field trip to Georgetown U. where Warren Buffett gives a lecture. Fairly interesting. Nancy Pelosi apologizes for being late: "We were busy taking food out of the mouths of babies."

Congressional Race

Apocalypse Now. We are witnessing the end of a Western Christian empire. -- Dean Young, Tea Party candidate in an Alabama Congressional race

... Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "... the outcome of Tuesday's [Republican] primary [in Alabama's First Congressional District], though likely to be a function of turnout here, may provide some hints on how much further the Republican shift to the right might go."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Gunmen stormed a popular high-end shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Saturday afternoon, lobbing \ grenades and firing weapons in an attack that left at least 59 people dead and more than 150 injured, Kenyan officials said. On Sunday morning, nearly a full day after the initial assault, the attackers, strapped with grenades and wielding machine guns and AK-47 rifles, remained holed up with scores of hostages within the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, exchanging gunfire with Kenyan police andsoldiers."

New York Times: "Bo Xilai, the pugnacious Chinese politician whose downfall shook the Communist Party, was sentenced to life in prison on Sunday after a court found him guilty of bribetaking, embezzlement and abuse of power in a failed attempt to stifle murder allegations against his wife."

New York Times: "A suicide attack on a historic Christian church in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 75 people on Sunday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the Christian minority in Pakistan for years."

Guardian: "Germany goes to the polls on Sunday in elections whose outcome will be vital for Europe's future.... While [Chancellor Angela] Merkel's party is expected to once again emerge as the most powerful force in the new Bundestag, the German chancellor will be anxiously watching the performance of the anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which could enter parliament for the first time if it gains more than 5% of the vote."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2013

"In his weekly address, President Obama says the economy is making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding opportunity for the middle class." -- White House:

Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that Republican senators should, in effect, filibuster the House-passed continuing resolution in the Senate. The Texas Republican is calling on his colleagues to oppose limiting debate on it, warning against what he calls procedural trickery.... Conservative senators, however..., know that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will move to strike out the Obamacare defunding language after getting the 60 votes needed to limit debate, but they can't stop him without effectively endorsing a government shutdown." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "With Washington facing a potential government shutdown, President Obama traveled to the heartland Friday and delivered a combative rebuke of congressional Republicans for 'trying to mess with me' instead of governing responsibly. Obama railed at length against Republican lawmakers, whom he accused of 'holding the economy hostage' by threatening not to fund the government and not to raise the government's debt limit":

... Tim Alberta of the National Journal claims Boehner has a secret plan to force the delay of implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year. CW: That might be the plan, but it's difficult to believe President Obama would fall for it. ...

... Ashley Parker & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... a rotating cast of characters -- often backbench newcomers whom few have heard of outside their [House] districts, and who were elected on a Tea Party wave -- has emerged to challenge Speaker John A. Boehner's leadership at every turn.... Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, did not mince words Thursday in calling the group a bunch of 'legislative arsonists' who had 'hijacked' the Republican Party." CW: Maybe Pelosi didn't mince words, but she mixed metaphors. ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Just to be clear: Obamacare implementation will likely continue even if the government shuts down this fall as Congress fights over the law's funding. That was the conclusion of a Congressional Research Service report sent to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) back in July. 'It appears that substantial ACA implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown,' the CRS wrote. The main reason for that, according to the report, is that the Obama administration could likely use alternative funding sources...." ...

... Paul Courson of CNN: "Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that his Republican colleague in the Senate, Ted Cruz, 'is a fraud' who will 'no longer have any influence in the Republican Party' after the House votes on a measure that could potentially lead to a government shutdown." CW: This would be a little more newsworthy if King & Cruz weren't both running for president. King has announced. ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "... according to King, the GOP scheme to defund Obamacare is a kamikaze fraud that is guaranteed to lose.... He voted for it." ...

... Jake Tapper of CNN introduces us to Jim Jordan, delusional Congressman, who is sure the Senate will "find the Lord," defund the Affordable Care Act & sign onto the Republican "alternative" joke.

... Ezra Klein : John Boehner is being even more irresponsible than Ted Cruz." ...

... Gail Collins Goes Wild: Ted Cruz as Democratic mole, John Boehner as Jesus & Delphic prophecies.

John Cassidy & Ryan Lizza talk to Amelia Lester about the Federal Reserve & Washington's part in ruining the economy:

CW: Just because we are witnessing Big Bizarro World coming down doesn't mean Regular Bizarro World does not continue apace. Ginger Gibson of Politico: "Darrell Issa is scheduled to travel to Libya next week as part of his investigation into the attack last year on the Benghazi consulate, according to documents obtained by Politico. The California Republican, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, did not invite Democratic counterparts on the trip, which has been in the works for over a week.... Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) -- the committee's ranking member -- called on Issa to postpone the trip to allow a Democrat to take part in the excursion. 'Stop your partisan efforts to deliberately exclude Democrats from this trip, and provide adequate notice to allow Democratic Members to join this delegation at a later date,' Cummings wrote in a letter to Issa sent on Friday afternoon."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "The growth of [federal] disability rolls has accelerated since the recession hit in 2007. As the labor market tightened, workers with disabilities that employers previously accommodated on the job -- painful hips, mental disorders, weak hearts -- were often the first to go. Finding new work often proved difficult, causing many to turn to the disability rolls for support. The migration of so many people from work to the disability rolls is raising concern among lawmakers in Congress.... Last week, the Government Accountability Office found that the program made $1.3 billion in potentially improper payments to people who had jobs when they were supposedly disabled. The allegedly improper payments represent less than 1 percent of disability payments."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, may meet Barack Obama in an informal, orchestrated encounter at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs of a rapidly softening stance in Tehran." ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The White House has left the door open to a personal encounter between Barack Obama and Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs that western powers plan to seize on recent diplomatic overtures from Tehran."

Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "Former employees [of USIS, the firm that supposedly vetted Edward Snowden & Aaron Alexis,] say the relentless demand to churn out background checks meant that even when USIS investigators wanted to do their best to follow up on red flags, there was limited time....No evidence has emerged that ... USIS cut corners when it vetted Snowden and Alexis. But the company, which has grown to become the biggest private contractor handling background checks for the government, has drawn the notice of lawmakers and the Justice Department. It is under criminal investigation over whether it misled officials about the thoroughness of its work. A number of former USIS employees have been charged with falsifying records in recent years. And Monday's Navy Yard shooting is raising questions about how the government vets employees who are given access to some of the country's most sensitive documents and facilities."

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The government and military are striving to put China at the forefront of drone manufacturing, for their own use and for export, and have made an all-out push [-- which includes hacking U.S. defense contractors' data] to gather domestic and international technology to support the program."

Zack Kopplin of Slate: "The Texas state Board of Education is in the process of adopting new science textbooks that will be used in public schools for the next decade. On Tuesday, the board held its first hearing for public comment on which textbooks should be adopted. Creationists came out in full force and demanded that 'biblical truth,' rather than evolution, be presented in the state's biology textbooks. These anti-science activists could compromise the teaching of evolution all across the country. They've been working toward this moment for years.... Because Texas buys textbooks for more than 4 million students, publishers tend [to] write textbooks designed to capture the Texas market. They then sell the same textbooks in other states."

Local News

What You Get with a Democratic Legislature & a Democratic Governor. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers' licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship."

News Ledes

Think Progress: "Anthony Badalamenti, Halliburton Energy Services Inc.'s cementing technology director, was criminally charged with one count of destroying evidence related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in federal court Thursday. This is the latest twist in a legal battle involving oil giant BP and Halliburton, the company consulted on the drilling site's cement wellhead." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

The Inquisition, Ctd. AP: "Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led the Vatican's department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church's crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response.... Francis left Archbishop Gerhard Mueller in the powerful role of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Mueller, originally appointed by Benedict XVI, directs the Holy See's crackdown on nuns suspected of undermining Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality. His office also shapes policy dealing with clergy who sexually abuse minors."

Guardian: "Iranian hardliners appear to have given their tacit support to president Hassan Rouhani as the moderate cleric prepares to travel to New York on what could be a critically important visit to the United Nations, which may include a historic meeting with his American counterpart."

Guardian: "At least 25 people have been killed in a suspected terrorist attack in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after gunmen opened fire and threw grenades in an upmarket shopping centre. On Saturday evening the Kenyan presidency tweeted that one of the gunmen had been arrested. The country's head of police, David Kimaiyo, said several assailants were also apprehended when police and military entered the mall following the attack."

** Guardian: "A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina [in 1961] that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima." The declassified doc is here.

Los Angeles Times: "Police are searching for a gunman who used an assault rifle to fire on a pickup basketball game in a Chicago South Side neighborhood, injuring 13 people and dragging the city back into the international spotlight for its violent crime problem At least 16 bullets were fired into Cornell Square Park late Thursday, wounding a 3-year-old boy and a dozen other people. All are expected to survive, many with wounds to their arms and legs. Shell casings found around the blood-soaked basketball courts were 7.62-millimeter rounds, which are typically used in AK-47 assault rifles."

Chicago Tribune: Chicago "Bears legend Gale Sayers sued the NFL on Friday, claiming the league negligently handled his repeated head injuries during his seven-year career. Sayers, a Hall of Fame running back who played with the Bears from 1965 to 1971, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago that he suffered headaches and short-term memory loss after retirement."