The Commentariat -- July 21, 2013

** Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker on what Alexander Hamilton would have thought of the filibuster. In this short post, Hertzberg dissects & discards every single speech & remark about the "wisdom of the Founders" in creating a Constitution in which a minority compromises majority rule....

... CW: Our government would be functioning in a much different -- and more liberal -- way if we had true representative government. (And before you say, "Oh, yeah; look at the House," let me remind you that more Americans voted for Democrats than Republicans in the last Congressional election AND the Constitution does not contemplate the "Hastert Rule," in which a majority of the majority party must favor a bill before the speaker will bring it to the floor for a vote, an invention which gives a small minority of the House veto power over majority preferences. So, ferinstance, the Senate's immigration bill would likely pass the House today, but Speaker Boehner is bowing to the Tea Party nativist racist bloc & refusing to move on it.)

The Half-Life of the Religious Right. Steve Benen: a new Brookings Institution study "document[s] an important trend: religious social conservatives represent about 28% of the population, but they're slowly being eclipsed by a younger, diverse group of religious progressives.... It's a similar demographic issue that's facing the Republican Party: among Americans 66 and older, 47% self-identify as religious conservatives and only 12% consider themselves religious progressives. Among Americans 33 and younger, religious conservatives not only trail religious progressives, the right also finds itself outnumbered by secularists."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times has the backstory on the Obama administration's aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers & leakers.

CW: Driftglass has a fine post on the hypocrisy of Glenn Greenwald & the Outrage Caucus. "even the slightest, actual debate style-pushback against anything that flows from the keyboard of Mr. Greenwald is instantly shredded and dismissed by the Outrage Caucus as a 'vicious and vehement' attack by the obedient slaves of imperial power." Read the whole post. For some while, I thought I was alone in being sick of Glenn, but Greenwald's recent celebrity has brought attention to "his stampeding ego and petty grudges," which many liberals -- including those he attacked -- have ignored in the past. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

     ... P.S. It should go without saying (but unfortunately I have to write special messages to Glennbots) that left-leaning critics of Greenwald's particular sociopathy still appreciate the useful facts & issues he brings to light.

The Corporate Person Prevails Again. Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "A key plaintiff against the Obama administration's birth control mandate won a temporary court injunction Friday allowing it not to provide birth control as part of its employee health plan. Hobby Lobby, a national, for-profit chain of arts and crafts stores, was granted the preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton." Via Steve Benen.

Lauren French of Politico: "For J. Russell George, Thursday was about damage control. Testifying before the deeply divided House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Treasury inspector general responsible for penning the report that fueled the IRS scandal went to great lengths to defend his findings -- and his credibility." ...

... One great way for George to regain credibility is to investigate whether or not Tea Partier Christine I-Am-Not-a-Witch O'Donnell was the victim of an IRS campaign of "political intimidation."

Maureen Dowd is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the history of "stand your ground" a/k/a "no duty to retreat," a peculiarly-American, pro-violence cultural tradition. ...

... President Polyanna Experiences a Moment of Clarity. Charles Pierce on the President's "breaking the redemptive covenant." CW: Pierce hits the right notes here, & he writes them into a riff that explains pretty much every Obama failure. ...

... Biographer David Maraniss of the Washington Post on Barry Obama & his experiences as a young black man. ...

... Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Conservatives didn't even wait for President Obama to finish his deeply personal remarks on Trayvon Martin's killing and the role of race in America to go ballistic, accusing the president of being a 'Racist in Chief' who is 'trying to tear our country apart.'"

Missed this one. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post (July 17): "An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said. The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May. It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions."

Gubernatorial Race

Katie Glueck of Politico: "Virginia's gubernatorial hopefuls bashed each other for 90 minutes Saturday over jobs, the ethics scandal that has consumed Gov. Bob McDonnell and social issues as they faced off in their first debate of the most closely-watched election of 2013. Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli depicted Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as a Washington insider with a business record that's much less impressive than the Democrat has claimed. McAuliffe painted Cuccinelli as an ideologue on social issues who should not be believed when he says his priority is jobs. ...

... Robert McCartney of the Washington Post writes that McAuliffe -- who's never held elective office -- managed to look "mostly gubernatorial" in the debate.

Presidential Race

Jonathan Bernstein argues in Salon that Ted Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton. CW: Bernstein doesn't say so, but I think the major reason Cruz would be a viable candidate is that -- unlike Michele Bachmann & Herman Cain, fer instance (both of whom Bernstein compares unfavorably with Cruz), Cruz is not stupid. So far he hasn't seen any reason to pretend to be a mainstream politician, but I'll bet he knows how.

News Ledes

AP: "Searchers rummaging through vacant houses in a neighborhood where three female bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags should be prepared to find one or two more victims, a police chief said Sunday.... A 35-year-old registered sex offender in custody is a suspect in the deaths...."

Guardian: "Two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week, when a training exercise went wrong, the US Navy said, angering environmentalists."

New York Times: "Chris Froome, the lanky Kenya-born Briton who has dominated professional stage-race cycling all year, rode to victory in the 100th Tour de France on Sunday, cheered by thousands who gathered near the Arc de Triomphe in the race's first-ever twilight finish."

New York Times: "Japanese voters appeared to hand a decisive victory on Sunday to the governing Liberal Democratic Party in upper house elections, restoring the once-discredited party to a virtual monopoly on political power for the first time in six years."

Guardian: "King Philippe I has become Belgium's seventh monarch after the abdication of his father, Albert II, amid uncertainty about the power of the monarchy to heal the fractured country."

The Commentariat -- July 20, 2013

Mark Landler & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "On Friday, reading an unusually personal, handwritten statement, Mr. Obama summed up his views with a single line: 'Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.' That moment punctuated a turbulent week marked by dozens of phone calls to the White House from black leaders, angry protests that lit up the Internet and streets from Baltimore to Los Angeles, and anguished soul-searching by Mr. Obama. Aides say the president closely monitored the public reaction and talked repeatedly about the case with friends and family":

     ... The transcript is here.

... Charles Blow: "On Friday the president reached past one man and one boy and one case in one small Florida town, across centuries of slavery and oppression and discrimination and self-destructive behavior, and sought to place this charged case in a cultural context." ...

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. -- W. E. B. Du Bois

Substitute 'woman' for 'Negro.' Trust me, gentlemen; it works. -- Marie ...

Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: David Brooks listened to the President's speech, & though he learned something he absolutely never ever thought of because, well, freeeeedom, he managed to mishear or misinterpret about everything else. ...

... By contrast with President Obama, we could have President Limbaugh. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link:

... Ta-Nehisi Coates in the New York Times: because President Obama has been repeatedly subjected to racial profiling, "it is hard to comprehend the thinking that compelled the president, in a week like this, to flirt with the possibility of inviting the New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, the proprietor of the largest local racial profiling operation in the country, into his cabinet. Kelly's name has been floated by New York politicians of both parties as the ideal replacement for Janet Napolitano, who resigned last week. The president responded by calling Kelly 'well-qualified' and an 'outstanding leader in New York.'" CW: racial profiling aside, the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's an A-No. 1 prick. No matter who you are, he's better than you are. Just ask him. ...

... Digby has more: Kelly's "dabbling in the neocon swamp completely disqualifies him for anything remotely associated with anti-terrorism policy. Remember: this is their credo: 'Anyone can go to Baghdad. Real men go to Tehran.' This person shouldn't be anywhere near a national police agency charged with monitoring terrorism. Who knows what his agenda is?"

Harriet Sherwood of the Guardian: "The US is to host talks with Israel and Palestinian negotiators in the next week following a breakthrough in the drive to revive the moribund Middle East peace process. John Kerry, US secretary of state, called the move a 'significant step forward'. The agreement, announced on Friday evening after four months of intensive diplomacy, fell short of a hoped for face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two sides."

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sharply and repeatedly challenged the Obama administration's claim that courts have no power over targeted drone killings of American citizens overseas. Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the United States District Court here was hearing the government's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by relatives of three Americans killed in two drone strikes in Yemen in 2011: Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric who had joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; Mr. Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who had no involvement in terrorism; and Samir Khan, a 30-year-old North Carolina man who had become a propagandist for the same Qaeda branch. Judge Collyer said she was 'troubled' by the government's assertion that it could kill American citizens it designated as dangerous, with no role for courts to review the decision."

Matt Zapotosky & Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "In a divided decision that will probably rile journalists across the country, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that reporter James Risen [of the New York Times] can be forced to testify at the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with 10 felony counts in a federal leak case. The majority of judges ruled, effectively, that neither the First Amendment nor common law offer protection to journalists who promise anonymity to their sources from having to testify about them in criminal proceedings."

In case you missed Paul Krugman yesterday, he writes that "China is in big trouble." Economy-wise, that is.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Helen Thomas, a wire service correspondent and columnist whose sharp questions from the front row of the White House press room annoyed nine presidents but pried loose information about the workings of the federal government, died July 20 at her home in Washington. She was 92." The Post's slideshow is here. ...

... Thomas's New York Times obituary is here. The Times has a slideshow here.

AP: " Israel will release some 'hardcore' Palestinian prisoners as part of the new breakthrough by Secretary of State John Kerry in efforts to restart Mideast talks, a senior Israeli official said Saturday. The remarks by Yuval Steinitz were the first Israeli comment detailing the terms for the negotiations since Kerry on Friday night announced that the two sides will meet soon in Washington to formalize an agreement on relaunching peace talks that collapsed in 2008."

Guardian: "Venezuela said it was ending efforts to improve ties with Washington after the Obama administration's nominee for envoy to the United Nations vowed to oppose what she called a crackdown on civil society in the 'repressive' OPEC nation."

Reuters: "Trayvon Martin's parents joined celebrities and hundreds of protesters on Saturday in rallies across the country to express anger over the acquittal of the man who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager."

AP: "Five employees of an Italian cruise company were convicted Saturday of manslaughter in the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 people, receiving sentences of less than three years that lawyers for victims and survivors criticized as too lenient. The guilty verdicts for multiple manslaughter and negligence were the first reached in the sinking of the cruise liner carrying more than 4,000 crew and passengers near the Tuscan shore in January 2012."

The Commentariat -- July 19, 2013

Another day with no postings, although it's possible I'll be able to do something very late today. Sorry about that. -- Not-So-Constant Weader ...

... I will leave you with this "reason to smile":

Karen Bates of NPR: "In late July 1973, Joseph Crachiola was wandering the streets of Mount Clemens, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, with his camera. As a staff photographer for the Macomb Daily, he was expected to keep an eye out for good feature images — 'those little slices of life that can stand on their own.' The slice of life he caught that day was a picture of five young friends in a rain-washed alley in downtown Mount Clemens. And what distinguishes it are its subjects: three black children, two white ones, giggling in each others' arms." Crachiola posted the photo on his Facebook page Sunday, after the Zimmerman verdict. It has gone viral.

News Lede

New York Times: "After a long-running investigation into insider trading at the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, an inquiry that has produced several guilty pleas and a record $616 million civil penalty, the government on Friday brought a case for the first time against the fund’s billionaire owner, Steven A. Cohen."