The Commentariat -- March 27, 2013

Obama 2.0. Julie Pace of the AP: "A White House official says President Barack Obama will name Julia Pierson as the first female director of the Secret Service." ...

... Update: David Nakamura & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post have the full story. "The appointment does not require Senate confirmation."

Greg Miller & Julie Tate of the Washington Post: CIA Director John Brennan "To help navigate the sensitive decision [of naming] the [CIA's] clandestine service chief, [CIA Director John] Brennan has taken the unusual step of assembling a group of three former CIA officials to evaluate the candidates. Brennan announced the move in a previously undisclosed notice sent to CIA employees last week, officials said. 'The director of the clandestine service has never been picked that way,' said a former senior U.S. intelligence official. The move has led to speculation that Brennan is seeking political cover...."

Adam Liptak & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "A majority of the justices on Wednesday questioned the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, as the Supreme Court took up the volatile issue of same-sex marriage for a second day. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely considered the swing vote on the divided court, joined the four liberals in posing skeptical questions to a lawyer defending the law.... The question is whether or not the federal government under a federalism system has the authority to 'regulate marriage,' Justice Kennedy said during oral arguments...." ...

... The Washington Post story, by Robert Barnes & Sandhya Somashekhar, is here. The Los Angeles Times story, by David Lauter & David Savage, is here. ...

... The transcript of today's oral arguments is here (pdf).

... Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog: "If the Supreme Court can find its way through a dense procedural thicket, and confront the constitutionality of the federal law that defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, that law may be gone.... That would happen, it appeared, primarily because Justice Anthony M. Kennedy seemed persuaded that the federal law intruded too deeply into the power of the states to regulate marriage, and that the federal definition cannot prevail. The only barrier to such a ruling, it appeared, was the chance -- an outside one, though -- that the Court majority might conclude that there is no live case before it...." ...

... DOMA is in trouble. -- Jeff Toobin (of course, that's what he said about ObamaCare). Video via Raw Story:

... The New York Times' "The Lede" has live-ish updates of the proceedings in the DOMA case. Here are updates from the Washington Post.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: " As the top civil rights lawyer for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, based in Boston, [Mary] Bonauto has spent more than a decade plotting a careful strategy to advance gay marriage rights. She prompted Vermont to create civil unions in 2000, won the 2003 case that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage and last year persuaded a federal appeals court that the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to gay couples, is unconstitutional. Yet in a quirk of fate..., the justices are considering a Defense of Marriage Act case on Wednesday, but it is not Ms. Bonauto's, which she argued when Justice Elena Kagan was President Obama's solicitor general. Instead the court took up a similar case..., presumably so Justice Kagan would not have to recuse herself."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "While Tuesday's case, about California's ban on same-sex marriage, has the potential to establish a constitutional right for gay and lesbian couples to marry, Wednesday's case is comparatively modest: it asks whether married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits." ...

... The Washington Post's story, by Robert Barnes, is here.

You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution, which is newer than cell phones or the Internet? I mean we -- we are not -- we do not have the ability to see the future. [Paraphrase: my sinecure-for-life job is just too hard.] -- Whining Alito

The principal argument in 1967 with respect to Loving and that the Commonwealth of Virginia advanced was: Well, the social science is still uncertain about how biracial children will fare in this world, and so you ought to apply rational basis scrutiny and wait. And I think the Court recognized that there is a cost to waiting and that that has got to be part of the equal protection calculus. [Paraphrase: Do your damned job.] -- Solicitor General Donald Virrelli

Remember the fine print in the Declaration of Independence? We have an inalienable right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, just so long as the specific type of happiness is older than mobile telephones.... Rights are not supposed to be open to popularity contests. -- Steve Benen

While Justice Alito can’t see into the future, most Americans can. If this court doesn’t reject bigotry, history will reject this court. -- Maureen Dowd

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: "... the best argument the chief defender of California's ban on same-sex marriage could muster was that his side would ultimately lose." Read the whole post. ...

... While reading the Supremes' tea leaves is not a great idea (ask Jeff Toobin about that) Ian Millhiser of Think Progress seems to say it all in his headline: "The justices are not ready to bring marriage equality to Alabama, and they want Prop 8 to go away." Read his whole post. ...

The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That's where the compelling argument is. 'We're Americans. We just want to be treated like everybody else.' That's a compelling argument, and to deny that, you have got to have a very strong argument on the other side. The argument on the other side hasn't been able to do anything but thump the Bible. -- Cultural Arbiter Bill O'Reilly

When you've lost Bill O'Reilly, you've lost the war. -- Constant Weader

... The Washington Post published a terrific explanatory piece by Dylan Matthews late Tuesday morning on the issues before the Court. If you didn't know what the justices & lawyers were talking about when they discussed rational-basis review, intermediate scrutiny & strict scrutiny, read Matthews. The basis for determining which standard to apply still seems rather arbitrary to me. ...

... Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog, concentrating on the DOMA case to be heard today, also has an excellent explanation of the case & of "heightened scrutiny." BTW, Congress's argument against heightened scrutiny is that "gays and lesbians are one of the most influential, best-connected, and best-organized groups in modern politics, and have attained more legislative victories, political power, and popular favor in less time than virtually any other group in American history.'" CW: got that? Discrimination against a group of otherwise successful people isn't as bad as discrimination against those who are less "connected."

Kevil Cirilli of Politico: "Sen. Kay Hagan [ConservaD-N.C.] backed same-sex marriage Wednesday...."

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "... national trends suggest that the fight over gay marriage is coming to an end -- no matter what the Supreme Court decides." With more charts!

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of the police to use drug-sniffing dogs outside homes. The case concerned Franky, a chocolate Labrador retriever who detected the smell of marijuana outside a Florida house used by Joelis Jardines. Based on Franky's signal, the police obtained a warrant to search the house, and they found a marijuana-growing operation inside.... The 5-to-4 decision in the case, Florida v. Jardines, No. 11-564, featured an unusual alignment of justices. Justice Antonin Scalia, a member of the court's conservative wing, wrote the majority decision. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, a frequent ally, along with three of the court's more liberal members, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan."

Appreciations of New York Times justice reporter & columnist Anthony Lewis, who died Monday, from Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker & Emily Bazelon of Slate. NPR republishes an interview of Lewis, conducted in 2002 by Neal Conan, slightly after he retired from the Times.

Justin Sink of The Hill: "White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday criticized three Senate Republicans, [Rand Paul, Ted Cruz & Mike Lee] who have threatened to filibuster Senate gun control legislation. Carney said a filibuster ... would send the wrong message to the families of gun violence victims. 'I don't think you need to tell the families of those who have lost their children to gun violence that bills like this may be filibustered...,' Carney said." ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "ThinkProgress examined data from the home states of six Democratic senators currently on the fence [about universal background checks]: Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alaska, and North Dakota. According to the most recent data available, these six states had: 1) 1,462 gun murders in 2010; 2) 351 gun death since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre at the end of last year; and 3) widespread support for universal background checks (following the national trend). Meanwhile, 152 gun shows are scheduled to take place in these states this year, providing criminals who can't pass background checks in stores with ample opportunity to stock up on guns." ...

... Cruz News

Caught on Tape. Jonathan Allen of Politico: "Senate Democrats are accusing Sen. Ted Cruz -- one of the conservatives threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation -- of flip-flopping on the issue. Majority Leader Harry Reid's office posted a video [below] of Cruz raising the possibility of strengthening a federal database of individuals who should not be allowed to purchase guns.... The video ... includes a reference to the filibuster threat and ends with this tag line: 'We agree. Let's vote on that.'" Cruz claims Democrats twisted his words. CW: apparently in Cruzspeak, "twisted" means "replayed at an inconvenient moment."

... Jamelle Bouie of the American Prospect: "What's key about Sandy Hook isn't that it yields new legislation, it's that it inspires new activism around gun control, and provides energy for the long effort to build a political coalition unafraid of the cultural politics that surround guns. Sandy Hook -- helped along by a new Democratic majority of urbanites and nonwhites -- has changed the politics of gun control. It will just take awhile for us to see the effects."

Ian Urbina of the New York Times: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that she had asked federal immigration officials to provide her with more information about immigrants being held in solitary confinement at federal facilities.... Her request came in response to an article in The New York Times on Sunday about new federal data indicating that on any given day roughly 300 immigrants are held in isolation, many of them for 23 hours a day. The data indicated that in more than half of the cases where this form of detention was used, detainees were isolated for 15 days or more, the point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk of severe mental harm."

Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "All told, at least eight federal agencies are investigating [JPMorgan Chase Bank], including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. in New York are also examining potential wrongdoing at JPMorgan."

Fracking Faults. John Tagliabue of the New York Times: earthquakes in the Netherlands "were caused by the extraction of natural gas from the soil deep below. The gas was discovered in the 1950s, and extraction began in the 1960s, but only in recent years have the quakes become more frequent, about 18 in the first six weeks of this year, compared with as few as 20 each year before 2011. Chiel Seinen, a spokesman for the gas consortium known as NAM, said the extraction had created at least 1,800 faults in the region's subsoil. 'These faults are seen as a mechanism to induce earthquakes,' he said. The findings in the Netherlands parallel the anxiety about hydraulic fracturing technology in the United States, where several states have halted drilling temporarily.... This month, the New York State Assembly voted to block ... fracking...."

John Rogers & Shaya Mohajerap of the AP: "In his first public speech since resigning as head of the CIA, David Petraeus apologized for the extramarital affair that 'caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters.' The hero of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars struck a somber, apologetic tone as he spoke to about 600 people, including his wife and many uniformed and decorated veterans, at the University of Southern California's annual ROTC dinner on Tuesday." CW: I can't figure out why a person has to apologize to strangers about private, lawful behavior. An elected official may have disappointed the people who voted for him because he presented himself as a different sort of person, but Petraeus was a hired gun, not an elected official. It seems to me his apology is in itself a form of self-aggrandizement. What do you think?

Senate Race

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: Sen. Tim "Johnson's [D-S.D.] decision [to retire in 2014], coming on the heels of a spate of retirement announcements from Democrats, opens up a potential new opportunity for Republicans in the state that President Obama lost by a large margin last year. Further, the retirement of Mr. Johnson, a moderate who is chairman of the powerful banking committee, will open up that slot, should Democrats maintain a majority. His replacement could be critical as Congress continues to deal with regulatory issues." ...

... Yep, bankers are all skeert my man Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will become chair of the banking committee: Seung Min Kim & Kate Davidson of Politico: "... the Ohio senator who has made bashing big banks his trademark has a complicated, yet very plausible, pathway to the committee gavel — which would put him in a powerful position to move and promote his legislative priorities." CW: My guess: Wall Street's BFF Chuck Schumer will reserve the prize for himself -- and a grateful Street will shower him with Big Chuck Bucks.

Local News

North Dakota -- the Anti-Woman State. Alex Johnson & Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "North Dakota's [Republican] governor signed the nation's strictest anti-abortion measures into law Tuesday, including one statute that would ban most abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy." CW: that would be before many women even know they're pregnant.

Virginia Is Not for Voters. David Edwards of Raw Story: "The Republican governor of Virginia on Tuesday signed a law requiring that voters present photo identification in order to vote. Gov. Bob McDonnell said that HB 1337 was an effort to make elections 'less subject to fraud,' [CW: fraud which does not exist, but so what?] but voting rights advocates claimed that the law would suppress the rights of elderly and minority voters, who tend to vote Democratic and are less likely to have photo identification. In an executive order, McDonnell also directed the Board of Elections to educate the public before the law becomes effective in 2014." CW: kinda makes you wonder how our democracy survived pre-camera days. If only the portrait miniaturists of yore had had a friend like Bob.

Climate Change Comes to the Bond Market. Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has started to caution investors that climate change poses a long-term risk to the state's finances.... A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said he believed New York was the first state to caution investors about climate change. The caution, which cites Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, is included alongside warnings about other risks like potential cuts in federal spending, unresolved labor negotiations and litigation against the state."

The Gohmert Daily News

Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: Rep. Louis Gohmert (RCrazy-Texas) "got into a late-night verbal altercation with U.S. Park Police officers earlier this month, pulling rank in an attempt to get out of a parking ticket near the Lincoln Memorial. Shortly after 11 p.m. on March 13, officers wrote Rep. Louie Gohmert a citation for parking his black Ford SUV in a spot reserved for National Park Service vehicles.... Gohmert ... told the Park Police that his congressional parking placard allows him to park in that spot, and he's on the committee that oversees the agency. Gohmert took the ticket off his windshield and placed it on a police car along with his business card with a written message: 'Oversight of Park Service is my job! Natural Resources Thus the Congressional Plate in window.' He was 'rude and irate,' one officer reported. Another wrote that Gohmert was 'ranting.'"

See Comment by Akhilleus which begins, "In the Schadenfreude...." Akhilleus goes on to say, "Show of hands, kids. Who really believes Mittens stands in line at the Stop n Shop or rides a subway? Who believes he has EVER stood in line for anything?" ...

... CW: My hand is up. (What the photo doesn't show is that a few moments later, Romney grabbed the cane of the elderly lady in line in front of him & beat her to the ground with it. Stepping lightly around her battered body, he ordered a vanilla malt. Asked about the incident later, Romney brushed it aside as "a good lesson for irresponsible 47-percenters who consider themselves victims." A Romney spokesperson noted that family members of the woman confirmed that she received both Social Security and Medicare -- a double-dipper.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "James M. Nabrit III, a civil rights lawyer who fought school segregation before the Supreme Court and helped ensure that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., was allowed to go forward, died on Friday in Bethesda, Md. He was 80."

New York Times: "Defense lawyers for James E. Holmes, who is charged with killing 12 people and wounding dozens more at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last summer, signaled in court filings on Wednesday that they were willing to have Mr. Holmes plead guilty if he was spared the death penalty."

AP: "Cyprus will impose limits on money transfers and dispatch extra security guards to prepare for Thursday's reopening of the banks, which have been shut for almost two weeks to avoid a run during the country's financial drama."

AP: "Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul on Wednesday, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South."

The Commentariat -- March 26, 2013

**SCOTUSblog is tweeting updates of oral arguments. ...

... The New York Times' "The Lede" has live commentary. ...

... Adam Liptak & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "As the Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed the very meaning of marriage, several justices seemed to have developed a case of buyer's remorse about the case before them. Some wondered aloud if the court had moved too fast to address whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry." ...

... The Washington Post story, by Robert Barnes & Carol Morello, is here. ...

... Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog analyzes the Justices' remarks, with a concentration of Kennedy, who seems to want to skip the whole thing. "Ooh, my sinecure for life is too hard."

... The oral arguments in the Prop 8 case:

... Here's the Court's unofficial transcript of the arguments in the Prop 8 case (pdf). ...

... Attorneys David Boies & Ted Olson, attorneys opposing Prop 8, comment after the oral hearing:

... Sarah Erickson-Muschko of SCOTUSblog has an excellent series of links to news and opinion pieces on the two gay rights cases the Supreme Court will hear today. I won't try to duplicate her effort.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Paul Ryan's House budget:

**Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "Beneath all the partisan bickering, bipartisan majorities are solid for a trade policy run by and for multinationals, a health-care system serving insurance and drug companies, an energy policy for Big Oil and King Coal, and finance favoring banks that are too big to fail. Economist James Galbraith calls this the 'predator state,' one in which large corporate interests rig the rules to protect their subsidies, tax dodges and monopolies. This isn't the free market; it's a rigged market.... Bloomberg News estimated that the subsidy they are provided by being too big to fail adds up to an estimated $83 billion a year."

Natasha Lennard of Salon: "In recent months, especially in light of Aaron Swartz's suicide and Andrew 'Weev' Aurnheimer's prison sentencing, calls for reform to or disposal of the Computer Fraud and Abuses Act (CFAA) have amplified to a fever pitch.... Following Swartz's death, Rep. Zoe Lofgren proposed legislation, 'Aaron's law,' which aims to stop the government bringing disproportionate charges in cases like Swartz's. The draft cybersecurity bill circulating on Capitol Hill since last weekend, unlike Lofgren's, appears to expand the CFAA, not limit it.... TechDirt highlights one of the most perturbing suggested amendments includes changing the law such that 'conspiring' to commit what might be crimes under the CFAA would amount to actually committing the actual acts."

Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Monday established five new national monuments, including one in Washington's San Juan Islands and one in northern New Mexico." ...

... Which of course horrified Republicans.

President Obama spoke about immigration reform at a naturalization ceremony yesterday:

Jillian Rayfield of Salon: "Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced on his Facebook page that after some 'evolving,' he now officially supports gay marriage." ...

... Zack Harold of the Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced yesterday that he no longer supported DOMA.

We taxpayers paid for this so-called parody, along with another "spoof" of "Gilligan's Island." Thanks a lot, IRS. Good call. CBS obtained the video through a Freedom of Information Act request "after the IRS earlier refused to turn over a copy to the congressional committee that oversees tax issues: House Ways and Means":

... Josh Lederman of the AP: "... according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service...' the federal government spent ... nearly $3.7 million ... last year on the four living ex-presidents and one presidential widow. Topping the list in 2012 was George W. Bush, who got just over $1.3 million last year.... The $3.7 million taxpayers shelled out in 2012 is about $200,000 less than in 2011, and the sum in 2010 was even higher... With ex-presidents able to command eye-popping sums for books, speaking engagements and the like..., the report raises questions about whether the U.S. should provide such generous subsidies at a time when spending cuts and the deficit are forcing lawmakers and federal agencies to seek ways to cut back."

Justin Sink of The Hill: "Connecticut's U.S. senators on Tuesday admonished the National Rifle Association for robocalls to residents of Newtown, Conn.... 'With these robocalls, the NRA has stooped to a new low in the debate over how to best protect our kids and our communities,' Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre. 'We call on you to immediately stop calling the families and friends of the victims in Newtown.' The robocalls ... urge Newtown residents to lobby their state representatives against an effort to pass stricter gun controls in the state." ...

... Jonathan Allen of Politico: "Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand-deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office on Tuesday." CW: C'mon, you knew Aqua Buddha Man could not sound reasonable for longer than 24 hours. Time's up.

John Avlon of the Daily Beast/Newsweek: "... federal investigators are now interviewing former [Michele] Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee." CW: I'm sure any testimony Madame 8 Pinocchios gives will be totally truthful. ...

... Austerity, Yes, But Not in My District. Greg Sargent: "... there's nothing like a few spending cuts in your own district to concentrate the mind. [Michele] Bachmann is, understandably, upset to hear that the Federal Aviation Administration — as part of its move to close air traffic control towers across the country due to sequestration's spending cuts -- will be closing two towers in Bachmann's district. And she’s suddenly making sense, putting out a statement decrying the sequester cuts and calling for a more 'responsible' approach."

Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic remembers legal writer Anthony Lewis, who died Monday.

Senate Race

Margaret Chadbourn of Reuters: "Senator Tim Johnson, the Democratic chairman of the powerful banking committee, does not plan to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2014.... Johnson, 66, a three-term senator from South Dakota, has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday in his home state to discuss what his aides described as 'his future plans.' His retirement would leave a vacant seat in a conservative-leaning state that could be difficult for Democrats to defend as they try to protect their majority in the Senate." CW: I'll say.

Local News

Alex Pareene of Salon: "Looks like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is going to try to be president now.... Walker is 'collaborating on a book with Marc Thiessen....' It is an I would like to be president sort of book.... Thiessen is a very poor Washington Post opinion columnist who wrote a book in which he strung together a series of distortions in support of the thesis that torture is great." CW: read the whole post. Walker continues to work hard to beat my own governor Rick Scott to the title of America's Worst Governor.

It Could Happen to You. An innocent man is released from prison after 23 years; a school teacher and her principal have their careers restored after 10 years -- all falsely accused/convicted under investigations conducted by retired NYPD Det. Louis Scarella. Michael Powell of the New York Times reports.

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: in a speech to be delivered at the University of Southern California tonight, David Petraeus will say he is "keenly aware" he's a first-class jerk. Meanwhile, he's been getting lots of job offers. Keen.

Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic remembers Anthony Lewis, who died Monday.

Right Wing World *

Boehner, Not as Crazy as His Caucus. Boehner flip-flops again, this time on ObamaCare, which a few weeks ago was "the law of land" but now is a law the House will "continue working to scrap." Steve Benen: "The problem isn't necessarily that the House Speaker is a right-wing ideologue, but rather, that he's weak in the face of pressure from right-wing ideologues." ...

... CW: as I've said before in some form or another -- if Boehner were a patriot, he would seek out about 30 of his lease crazy members, and work with Pelosi to get some reasonable legislation through the House. If he can tell Harry Reid to go fuck himself, he can tell a bunch of disloyal Tea Party crazies the same.

Andrew Stiles of the National Review: Pushing back against criticism of his continued support for gay-lovin' Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), GOP chair Reince "Priebus cited former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas as an example of someone who could be 'a model for a lot of people in our party' in terms of discussing issues like marriage and abortion. 'I always tell people: Listen to Governor Mike Huckabee,' he said." ...

... Steve Benen: "OK, let's ... 'listen to' Mike Huckabee on culture-war issues. We might hear, for example, the former Arkansas governor suggest a national quarantine for those who are HIV positive. Huckabee has also equated homosexuality with 'pedophilia, sadomasochism, and necrophilia,' and compared gay marriage to drug addiction. Huckabee has also compared legal abortion to slavery and the Nazi holocaust."

You Can't Make Up This Stuff. Carol Kuruvilla of the New York Daily News: "Some members of the tea party are boycotting Fox News for being too liberal. The activists, who call themselves the Tea Party Fire Ants, say that Fox News has gone soft on some issues, like immigration and the attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. They organized a boycott that lasted from March 21 to March 24, demanding that the station ... turn even harder right.... Its organizers are more than willing to switch over to the One America, a new conservative network that will launch in July." Via Steve Benen.

* Brought to you with a lotta help from Steve Benen.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The leader of the rebel group that seized power in the Central African Republic, Michel Djotodia, announced Monday that he was suspending his country's Constitution, dissolving its Parliament and initiating a three-year 'consensual transition.' Residents reported a precarious calm returning to the capital, Bangui, on Tuesday with less shooting and looting than on previous days, and some markets reopening. But there were also human rights violations by the rebel group, Seleka, according to an activist there."

AP: "Banks across Cyprus remain locked Tuesday after financial authorities extended the country's bank closure, fearing worried depositors will rush to drain their accounts.... All but two of the country's largest lenders had been due to reopen Tuesday, after being shut since March 16...."

Reuters: "Taliban suicide bombers< killed at least five policemen in Afghanistan's restive east on Tuesday, officials said, in a three-hour attack that coincided with a visit to the country by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The pre-dawn attack on a police compound in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan's largest city, came as the country braces for the beginning of the spring fighting season in the 11th year of the war." ...

... Washington Post: Afghan businesswomen with whom Kerry met "... had specific requests: better access to credit, government contracting set-asides for women-owned businesses and, from Mahmoodi, more soccer pitches for women.... The Obama administration has said ... [that] the kind of large-scale foreign help that Afghanistan will need is likely to be partly contingent on safeguarding gains for women."

AP: "Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit that opened in Qatar on Tuesday, a significant diplomatic boost for the forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime. In a ceremonious entrance accompanied by applause, a delegation led by Mouaz al-Khatib, the former president of the main opposition alliance -- the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition -- took the seats assigned for Syria at the invitation of Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani."

AP: "Italy's highest criminal court on Tuesday overturned [American] Amanda Knox's acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial, prolonging a case that has become a cause celebre in the United States."

The Commentariat -- March 25, 2013

Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: President "Obama is set to sign a government funding measure that leaves in place the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration -- a policy that undermines many of the goals he laid out during the 2012 campaign. Obama thinks the cuts are, in his words, 'dumb,' and he says they will slow the economy and harm priorities by cutting spending on education, research and development, and many other programs. Yet Obama now finds himself enacting a broad domestic policy that he doesn't support and that he believes will harm the country."

Greg Miller, et al., of the New York Times: "The suspicious attack that killed 26 people in northern Syria last week exposed the difficulty of determining whether the Syrian regime has resorted to using chemical weapons as well as the lingering uncertainty over how President Obama would respond if what he has called a 'red line' is crossed."

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker on the DOMA & Prop 8 cases which the Supremes will hear this week. ...

... Here's a lovely profile of Edith Windsor, the widow/plaintiff in the DOMA case, written in December by Peter Applebome of the New York Times. ...

... A Tea Leaf? Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "Jean Podrasky, 48, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.... Podrasky [is] ... the first cousin of the chief justice on his mother's side.... She said Roberts knows she is gay and introduced her along with other relatives during his Senate confirmation hearing. She hopes he will meet her partner of four years, Grace Fasano, during their Washington visit. The couple flew to Washington on Sunday." ...

I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry. -- Sen. Claire McCaskill (ConservaD-Mo.)

There are now 42 sitting U.S. Senators who back gay marriage. -- Taegan Goddard ...

... Steve Benen: "With the Supreme Court set to hear landmark cases this week on marriage rights, the evidence is overwhelming that the right has lost the larger national debate. 'There's no putting this genie back in the bottle,' Republican strategist Ana Navarro conceded yesterday. "This is now undeniable. The shift is here. We're not going back." BUT winger-bigot Gary Bauer trots out the "skewed polls" argument. CW: what this says, I think, is not that 54 or whatever percentage of Americans have gay friends/relatives who have made them see the light, but that the majority of Americans believe in fundamental fairness & individual self-determination, both of which are supposedly defining tenets of the American ethos. ...

... Will Portman, Sen. Rob Portman's (R-Ohio) son, in a Yale Daily News guest column, on his coming out as gay. CW: sorry, Will, I know it isn't nice to say so, but Gary Bauer is a winger-bigot, and not just on this matter.

** David Carr of the New York Times: "In pretrial hearings [in the Bradley Manning case]..., basic information has been withheld, including dockets of court activity, transcripts of the proceedings and orders issued from the bench by the military judge, Col. Denise Lind. A public trial over state secrets was itself becoming a state secret in plain sight. Finally, at the end of last month, in response to numerous Freedom of Information requests from news media organizations, the court agreed to release 84 of the roughly 400 documents filed in the case, suggesting it was finally unbuttoning the uniform a bit to make room for some public scrutiny. Then again, the released documents contained redactions that are mystifying at best and at times almost comic. One of the redacted details was the name of the judge, who sat in open court for months." (Emphasis added.)

Micah Cohen of the New York Times: "... with more budget battles approaching, over raising the nation's borrowing limit and perhaps reaching a grand bargain, Mr. Obama’s advantage over Congressional Republicans has all but vanished. Public approval of his handling of the economy has slipped, according to polls, and surveys now show that a roughly equal number of Americans favor Mr. Obama as favor Congressional Republicans on economic matters." CW: that's because Obama has conceded that Republican priorities of reducing the deficit are fundamentally correct; i.e., it's his own damned fault.

Ryan Koronowski, et al., in Think Progress: "Senate rules allow for consideration of any amendment [to the budget] that is brought to the floor. Senators introduced hundreds of amendments, which resulted in a 'vote-o-rama.' Many conservatives offered amendments to undermine existing and potential public health safeguards, particularly those that would attempt to reduce climate pollution. [We list] seven deadly amendments to curtail protection for our children's health and heritage. As usual, these conservatives are focused on protecting dirty energy companies profits at the expense of public health."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that while he doesn't want to legalize drugs, he doesn't think people should go to jail for non-violent drug crimes. Paul and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last week introduced a bill that would give judges greater flexibility by allowing them to work around mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, which civil rights groups say often don't fit the crime." Like a broken clock that is right twice a day, Aqua Buddha Man gets it right for once. See also Jack Mahoney's contribution in today's Comments.

Frank Rich (published last week) on everything.

Paul Krugman: "... unrestricted movement of capital [across national borders] is looking more and more like a failed experiment.... The best predictor of crisis is large inflows of foreign money."

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "In weighing a bid for The Los Angeles Times, Rupert Murdoch finds himself in a familiar role: waiting for rule changes from the government. With the resignation last week of Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he may have to wait a little longer. Mr. Murdoch ... has been beefing up News Corporation's lobbying efforts in Washington in the last few months to urge regulators to revise a media ownership rule that would prevent the company from acquiring The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers in markets in which it already owns television stations."

Driftglass: strangely enough, the Sunday Morning Iraq War Cheerleading Camp denizens do not discuss the Iraq War during their camp meetings surrounding the 10th Annual Cheerleaders Reunion.

Local News

Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: Gov. Rick Perry's refusal to accept ObamaCare funds for Medicaid expansion & rejection of ACA health insurance exchanges -- in a state that has the highest percentage of uninsured residents -- could help turn Texas blue. CW: it would be nice to think that at some point, stupid-&-cruel becomes a losing platform.

Bill Keller makes the point that state legislatures do not hew to public opinion because the public pays little attention to them. Do you know who your state legislators are? I haven't a clue other than to be certain they're a couple of rabid, not-too-bright Republicans, like my Congressman Tripp or Trap or Trug Whatizface, who is a pathetic, dumber-than-dirt winger.

Something else I missed last week: David Seifman of the New York Post: "The first-responder son of city Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano resigned today after The Post revealed his history of racist, anti-semitic writings." ...

... BUT Andre Tartar of New York reports that "racist FDNY employees [are] still posting racist things on Twitter." Here's the Post story, which is a doozy.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The American military formally transferred all but 'a small number' of the Afghan prisoners at the Bagram Prison to the Afghan government on Monday in a ceremony that almost, but not quite, marked the end of the American involvement in the long-term detention of insurgents [at Bagram].

New York Times: "Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85."

KKTV Denver: "Police have determined the gun used by Evan Ebel in Texas was the same weapon used in the shooting death of Department of Corrections Director Tom Clements. The confirmation comes after analysis by the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab based on analysis of shell casings collected in Texas by El Paso County Sheriff's Office investigators. Analysis is based on unique markings left on the casings at both crime scenes." Via TPM.

Politico: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will take up another affirmative action case related to race-based considerations in college admissions in Michigan."

Reuters: "Regulators on Monday approved a plan to compensate market makers who lost money in a botched Facebook Inc public offering in May on the Nasdaq exchange.... The decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was in response to a series of high-profile glitches last year that shook the market, including the handling of Facebook's long-anticipated initial public offering."

Los Angeles Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Sunday to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to the beleaguered Syrian regime, but found him unwilling to give ground.... The overflights have become an increasingly important issue for the Obama administration, which believes that they have reinforced [Syrian President Bashir] Assad

AP: "A rebel military leader who was among the first to call openly for armed insurrection against President Bashar Assad was wounded by a bomb planted in his car in eastern Syria, anti-regime activists said Monday. Col. Riad al-Asaad, leader of a now-sidelined rebel umbrella group known as the Free Syrian Army, had his right foot amputated following the blast late on Sunday...."

New York Times: "With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria's opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad...."

Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Monday to smooth over relations with President Hamid Karzai, who recently accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban."