The Commentariat -- Feb. 21, 2013

Al Jazeera: "A US senator has said that an estimated 4,700 people have been killed in America's secretive drone war, the first time a government official has offered a total number of fatalities caused by nearly a decade of drone strikes, local media reported. Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the drone raids, revealed the figure in a speech on Wednesday in his home state of South Carolina.... The figure cited by Graham matches the high end of a tally by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. It says the number killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia is between 3,072 and 4,756." ...

... Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "... Graham wasn't citing an official government number when he put the amount of U.S. drone kills at 4,700, according to a spokesman. 'It appears that number was cited on cable networks such as MSNBC earlier this month,' said Graham's press secretary Kevin Bishop. He attached an MSNBC clip from early February in which the number is cited." CW: BTW, I am so glad Graham is an avid MSNBC watcher.

Stupid Republican Trick. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Despite new calls from the White House on Wednesday to enact a combination of tax increases and cuts to postpone the so-called sequester, the House is moving forward on a legislative agenda that assumes deep and arbitrary cuts to defense and domestic programs -- once considered unthinkable -- will remain in place through the end of the year." ...

... National Constitituion Center (whatever that is): "Congressional staffers face layoffs and furloughs in two weeks, but Congress members made sure their own paychecks were safe when passing the 'sequester law' in 2011." ...

... Ernesto Londoño & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Defense Department officially notified its 800,000 civilian employees on Wednesday that they are likely to be placed on periods of unpaid leave, as the Obama administration scrambled to deal with congressionally mandated budget cuts set to kick in next week." ...

Boehner Puts Himself between a Rock & a Hard Place & a Rock & a Hard Place. Etc. Jonathan Chait: House Speaker John Boehner has promised one faction of his fractured party that he would let the sequester happen & has promised another faction that he will not let the sequester happen. At the same time, "Boehner's end goal, as explained in [a Wall Street Journal] op-ed, is to 'reform America's safety net and retirement-security programs.' He has no proposal to do so, however. And for good reason. Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is really, really unpopular.... There seems to be no outcome for him that would let him attain even the minimal goal of keeping his job, let alone advancing some policy outcome he prefers." ...

... "The GOP's Astonishingly Bad Message." Byron York of Right Wing World the Washington Examiner pretty much agrees with Chait: "In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner describes the upcoming sequester as a policy 'that threatens U.S. national security, thousands of jobs and more.' ... Boehner and the GOP are determined to allow the $1.2 trillion sequester go into effect unless President Obama and Democrats agree to replacement cuts, of an equal amount, that target entitlement spending. If that doesn't happen -- and it seems entirely unlikely -- the sequester goes into effect, with the GOP's blessing."

... ** Greg Sargent: a new study by Thomas Hungerford of the non-partisan Congressional Research Service "found: The single greatest driver of income inequality over a recent 15 year period was runaway income from capital gains and dividends. This finding is directly relevant to the current debate, because Obama and Democrats want to offset the sequester in part by closing loopholes enjoyed by the wealthy, such as the one that keeps tax rates on capital gains and dividends low.... Republicans are openly conceding the sequester will damage our national security, even as they refuse to avert it by agreeing to the closing of loopholes benefiting the wealthy.... The new study lend[s] more ammo to the Democratic argument that Republicans would sooner damage our military and economy than ask for a penny in new revenues from the very rich." ...

... Kevin Drum: "... there's very little evidence that low rates on capital gains have any effect on economic growth at all." ...

... I've simply never seen compelling evidence that tax increases significantly hurt growth, labor supply, jobs, wages, or that rate decreases provide much of a boost the other way. And when you factor in the benefits of the investment and services government provides -- something the literature tends to ignore --the hyper-responsiveness arguments are even less compelling. -- Economist Jared Bernstein, from an earlier article by Drum

Stupid Obama Tricks

Scott Shane & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The White House is refusing to share fully with Congress the legal opinions that justify targeted killings, while maneuvering to make sure its stance does not do anything to endanger the confirmation of John O. Brennan as C.I.A. director. Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators' demands for full access to the classified legal memos..., Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.... The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators...."

NEW. Daily Kos: "While the largest protest yet against the Keystone XL pipeline massed in front of the White House, [and while Ed Henry, president of the White House Correspondents Association, was whining reporters couldn't get access to Obama's game with Tiger Woods,] President Obama was golfing in Florida with oil and gas company executives." CW: P.S. If you want to know why I don't list the author of this report, it is because s/he goes by a cutesy pseudonym. If Intertoobz writers want us to take them more seriously, they should come up with more serious names.

Craig Timberg & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Start asking security experts which powerful Washington institutions have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies, and this is the usual answer: almost all of them.... The rising wave of cyber-espionage has produced diplomatic backlash and talk of action against the Chinese, who have steadfastly denied involvement in hacking campaigns. A strategy paper released by the Obama administration Wednesday outlined new efforts to fight the theft of trade secrets." ...

... AP: "The Obama administration announced a broad new effort Wednesday to fight the growing theft of American trade secrets following fresh evidence linking cyberstealing to China's military." CW: sorry, I can't find a copy of the administration's strategy paper.

Julie Pace of the AP: "Facing heightened expectations from gay rights supporters, the Obama administration is considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage -- a move that could have a far-reaching impact on same-sex couples across the country. The administration has one week to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the justices." ...

     ... UPDATE. Greg Sargent: "In an interview with an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco, President Obama made his most extensive comments yet on the question of whether his administration will weigh in with a friend-of-the-court brief on the Proposition 8 case set to be heard by the Supreme Court."

Linda Greenhouse: "... striking down Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act] would be a truly radical move, a march off a cliff of the [Supreme] Court's own making. Not so long ago, conservatives were attacking the Affordable Care Act's health-insurance mandate as 'unprecedented.' Invalidating a core federal civil rights law because the Supreme Court views it as outdated would be unprecedented indeed." But the Supremes are poised to do it anyway. "How can it be that the Voting Rights Act is in such peril? The trouble isn't really that I don't know the answer. It's that I'm afraid I do."

Ezra Klein: "... the rules of reportorial neutrality don't apply when it comes to the deficit. On this one issue, reporters are permitted to openly cheer a particular set of highly controversial policy solutions."

What the Hell is Regina Benjamin Doing? Don't know who she is? Mark Bittman of the New York Times had to look it up, too. Because, um, it would appear that whatever Benjamin is doing, it is not her job.

Gail Collins on the Postal Service's new clothing line. And other nonsense.

Juan Cole: "The Washington Post is surprised by the 'mysterious' high cost of gasoline in the US but does not mention in this article that the US government, at the insistence of the Israel lobbies, reduced Iran's petroleum exports by 40% in 2012 by strong-arming countries to leave it in the ground and not import it on threat of third-party US sanctions." Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Stupid Senatorial Tricks

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Former senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a Republican, disclosed Wednesday that he has a son born in secrecy over 30 years ago.... Domenici said he kept the matter secret because the mother of the child,Michelle Laxalt, asked him to do so. Her father, Paul Laxalt, was himself a U.S. senator from Nevada from 1974 to 1987 and served as chairman of the Republican National Committee." The Los Angeles Times story by John Glionna, which is more extensive is here. ...

... Lauren Ashburn of Newsweek comments.

Raymond Hernandez & Sam Dolnick of the New York Times: Sen. Robert "Menendez [D-N.J.], a brawler who once wore a bulletproof vest to testify in a federal corruption case against a powerful political mentor, has dug in, determined to outlast his detractors. To fend off critics and rivals, he has hired an aggressive crisis team that includes a veteran of his previous battles, Matthew A. Miller. He has reached out to top Democrats -- including Harry Reid..., to reassure them that the worst is over.

Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "The long search for the Real John McCain continues.... Right now, like it or not, the five-term senator is stuck in 'get off my lawn' territory, lashing out at his friend-turned-foe Chuck Hagel...; incessantly tugging at what McCain is convinced is a coverup of the September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya; lambasting the president; and railing against indiscriminate defense cuts. If hard-core conservatives feel burned by McCain’s resurgent reform spirit, the media that he once called his 'base' have essentially written him off as an angry and sour loser who once went through a maverick phase but has, in the words of 'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart, gone on a 'seven-year quest to negate every good thing he'd ever done.'" CW: In his litany of knocks against McCain, Horowitz would have done well to mention McCain's incomprehensible (& noisy) objection to gays serving openly in the military.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "A week before Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is set to leave New York for Rome, where his name is being floated as a candidate for pope, he was questioned in Manhattan for three hours on Wednesday behind closed doors in a legal deposition concerning the sexual abuse of children by priests." CW: the abuse cases are a great reason for Dolan to become pope -- then he would be infallible & everything would be fine. ...

** Jane Kramer of the New Yorker writes a superb piece on Joe Ratzinger, Our Man from the Inquisition, & his mentor Karol Wojtyla, not to mention the near-certainty that moving forward, the Roman Catholic Church will continue to move backward. This is what you should read today. ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker says much the same, not so eloquently as Kramer, yet still worth a read.

Listening to Malcolm Gladwell's address at the University of Pennsylvania is not essential, but if you have time (I listened while I was doing rote work), you might be glad to hear him. I have to say he's got guts:

Local News

Lex Luthor Has Heart Transplant. Tia Mitchell of the Tampa Bay Times: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he supports expanding Medicaid and funneling billions of federal dollars to Florida, a significant policy reversal that could bring health care coverage to 1 million additional Floridians. 'While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,' Scott said at a hastily called news conference.... Tea party activists bitterly criticized Scott's declaration."

Congressional Races

Nate Silver: Republicans have a decent shot at regaining control of the Senate in 2014. "Twenty-one of the 35 seats up for election are now held by Democrats. Moreover, most the states that will be casting ballots for the Senate in 2014 are Republican leaning: 7 of the 21 Democratic-held seats are in states carried by the former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, while just one of the Republican seats is in a state won by President Obama." Silver looks at the odds, state-by-state.

Right Wing World

Ed Kilgore: while touring a Texas gun factory, Sen. Ted Cruz (RTP-Texas) played the race card, claiming Democrats are skeert of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) because he's an intelligent Latino. "Cruz probably thinks this playing of the race card could create some sympathy for Rubio in unlikely places, while of course providing chapter 3,000 in the Tea Party saga of 'there are no racists except for liberals.' Besides, if the godless liberals are afraid of Rubio, just wait til they get a load of the junior Senator from Texas, a Cuban-American conservative who will say and do just about anything!" CW: I myself am skeert of both Rubio & Cruz because they are fact-averse winger ideologues who couldn't care less about ordinary Americans, & now I'm wondering if ethnic resentment helps explain why Cruz is such a nasty piece of work.

News Ledes

AP: "... this year's flu shot is doing a startlingly dismal job of protecting older people, the most vulnerable age group. The vaccine is proving only 9 percent effective in those 65 and older against the harsh strain of the flu that is predominant this season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday."

AP: "Drew Peterson -- the swaggering Chicago-area police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 -- was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife. The sentence came moments after Peterson shocked the courtroom with a rare public outburst of anger as he proclaimed his innocence in the death of Kathleen Savio." The Chicago Tribune story is here.

AP: "Bullets were flying from a black Range Rover at a gray Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Las Vegas Strip.... The Maserati ran the red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames early Thursday, killing the two people inside. Three more cars and a utility truck collided at the crossroads..., leaving at least six more people injured as the Range Rover sped off in the predawn darkness.... Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters several hours after Thursday's attack that it was sparked by an argument in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino...."

Reuters: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday that U.S. sales weakness persisted into early February, as Americans absorbed the impact of higher payroll taxes and gasoline prices, along with slow tax refunds that put some spending on hold. The weakness came even as the world's largest retailer reported a bigger-than-expected profit increase, which was helped by a lower-than-anticipated tax rate. Wal-Mart also raised its dividend payout." CW: I'd like to know why "Wal-Mart said its effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 27.7%, down from 30.9% last year." So far, I haven't been able to find out.

AP: "Parts of the nation's heartland awoke Thursday to more than half a foot of snow, as a large storm made its way eastward out of the Rockies, snarling traffic for morning commuters and allowing an army of children to trade pen and paper for shovel and sled, at least for a day. Winter storm warnings were issued from Colorado through Illinois, and many school districts cancelled classes ahead of time, in anticipation of the more than a foot of snow expected to fall in some places."

Reuters: "More Americans than expected filed new claims for jobless aid last week and consumer prices were flat in January, supporting the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its very accommodative monetary policy stance. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday."

AP: "U.S. lawmakers confirmed on Wednesday that they visited an American man whose detention and long sentence in Cuba has hampered efforts to improve ties between the countries, but they gave no details on his condition or what was said. The seven-member delegation led by Sen. Patrick Leahy also met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other senior officials. Leahy said that the two sides 'discussed the continuing obstacles and the need to improve relations,' adding that a rapprochement 'is in the interest of both countries.'"

New York Times: "In a remarkable twist in the case of Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, the South African police said on Thursday that the officer leading the investigation against the athlete is himself facing seven criminal charges of attempted murder." ...

     ... AP Update: "South African police appointed a new chief investigator Thursday in the Oscar Pistorius murder case, replacing a veteran detective after unsettling revelations that the officer was charged with seven counts of attempted murder."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 20, 2013

John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The White House on Wednesday will flesh out the plans President Obama announced in the State of the Union address to repair the nation's ailing infrastructure, a White House official said.... The draft [summary of the plan] sounds three major themes that Mr. Obama has discussed since he was first a candidate for the presidency, but with initiatives intended to engage in work that minimizes the need for Congressional approval and which can capitalize on private investment to help start projects."

President Obama spoke about the sequester Tuesday:

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Days away from another fiscal crisis and with Congress on vacation, President Obama began marshaling the powers of the presidency on Tuesday to try to shame Republicans into a compromise that could avoid further self-inflicted job losses and damage to the fragile recovery. But so far, Republicans were declining to engage." ...

... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Obama will sit for interviews with eight local reporters on Wednesday, as he continues to ratchet up his pressure on lawmakers to take action to prevent automatic spending cuts from taking effect on March 1." CW: ah, the "puppet master" at work. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "... it's ridiculous for Republicans to claim the sequester is really Mr. Obama's idea, as if a kidnapper's relatives deserve blame for paying the ransom.... Republicans love the idea of reducing spending but prefer to remain in the shadows when the cuts actually materialize. Even now, they won't consider the Democratic alternative of balancing cuts with an equal amount of higher tax revenue from the rich and corporations...." ...

... Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "My Twitter feed these last couple of weeks has been overflowing with people going beyond the usual 'communist' and 'idiot' name-calling that I get every day and throwing the occasional 'liar' in there because I 'withhold' the information that the sequester was the Obama administration's idea.... Let's grant that this is true. But it's true only because the Republicans were holding a gun to the administration's head -- and besides, the Republicans immediately voted for it.... The Republicans are partial owners of this idea, and as the party that now wants the cuts to kick in, they deserve to -- and will -- bear more responsibility for the negative impacts." Tomasky recounts the history of the sequester. Worth noting: "... according to Bob Woodward in his new book, Jack Lew ... originally came up with the notion of sequestered cuts. Or maybe it was Gene Sperling."

... BUT WAIT, there's more. John Avlon of Newsweek: "I happened to come across an old email that throws cold water on House Republicans' attempts to call this 'Obama's Sequester.' It's a PowerPoint presentation that Boehner's office developed with the Republican Policy Committee and sent out to the Capitol Hill GOP on July 31, 2011.... It's essentially an internal sales document from the old dealmaker Boehner to his unruly and often unreasonable Tea Party cohort. But it's clear as day in the presentation that 'sequestration' was considered a cudgel to guarantee a reduction in federal spending.... The presentation lays out the deal in clear terms, describing the spending backstop as 'automatic across-the-board cuts ("sequestration"). Same mechanism used in 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement.'" CW: do ignore Avlon's deep bow to the Simpsons & Bowels.

... The Washington Monument Strategy. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... whatever the level of damage across-the-board would impose, we can expect the affected agencies will try to make the damage look as high as possible." ...

... Steve Benen parses the both-side-are-to-blame argument on the sequester (& on other issues that come before Congress). Now, try to follow: "Democrats are open to a balanced compromise, Republicans aren't, so Democrats bear some responsibility for the mess by asking far-right extremists who abhor compromise to accept a deal that requires equal sacrifices from both sides. If only Democrats would accept Republican extremism at face value, and realize GOP officials aren't interested in constructive bipartisan policymaking, they could simply give Republicans what they want and spare us all the aggravation." ...

Amazing Feat: Two Old Coots Move Goal Posts!

Greg Sargent: "Like a pair of aging crooners hoping to recapture past glory with a long-awaited reunion tour, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson released a new version of their deficit reduction plan [Tuesday]. Ezra Klein ferrets out the real news in the plan: It asks for far less in new revenues, and more in spending cuts, than the previous Simpson-Bowles plan did.... The plan roughly represents the ideological midpoint between the Obama and Boehner fiscal cliff blueprints -- which is why the plan is so heavily tilted towards cuts." ...

... Here's Ezra Klein's breakdown. Simpson-Bowles 2.0 is "meant to be an outline for a new grand bargain. To that end, Simpson and Bowles began with Obama and Boehner's final offers from the fiscal cliff deal.... While this plan doesn't include more tax increases than Obama asked for, it does include significantly more than the $1 trillion in spending cuts than Boehner asked for.... In increasing the total deficit reduction, Simpson and Bowles have put the weight on the spending side of the budget." ...

... Kevin Drum: "In SB 1.0, deficit reduction was moderately evenly divided between spending cuts and tax increases. In SB 2.0, they've suddenly decided it should be 75 percent spending cuts. That's despite the fact that spending cuts have already been 75 percent of the deficit reduction we've done so far. Why? ... I guess they figure that conservative sacred cows are a little more sacred than liberal ones. Or something. But even if you take deficit reduction seriously in the first place, this sure makes it hard to take Simpson-Bowles 2.0 seriously as a plan." ...

... Derek Thompson of the Atlantic notes that the new Simpson-Bowles back-of-the-napkin plan looks mighty Republican. ...

... Tim Noah of The New Republic: "You may have heard that Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, matinee idols of the Austerity Über Alles movement, have devised a new budget-slimming plan. That's not quite right. They've produced a very rough outline that's deliberately short on details [because they don't have time to add & subtract & all when they have to spend so much time on the teevee.]... Simpson and Bowles's ... agenda is not limited to deficit reduction. They also want to lower tax rates. Why? They just want to, is all." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The main non-drone gripe I'm going to have with the president when he leaves office is the muscle he put behind the preposterous Simpson-Bowles Commission. The basic problem was that he handed the administration's credibility over to a former bagma...er...lobbyist and to the single most unpleasant member of the Republican Undead. Having done that, he allowed them to establish the basic austerity-leaning parameters of the overall economic discussion. He gave the Republicans a baseline from which to attack any proposal to the left of something that Ike might have liked. And, worst of all, he gave the courtier press a graven image to worship.... The Village must have its cults, and Simpson-Bowles is pre-eminent among them."

Michael Hirsh of the National Journal: "... what has gone largely unnoted by the punditocracy is that, over the past decade or so..., [Chuck Hagel] has distinguished himself with subtle, well-thought-out, and accurate analyses of some of America's greatest strategic challenges of the 21st century -- especially the response to 9/11 -- while many of his harshest critics got these issues quite wrong." Happily, Hirsh uses Tom Friedman as his Exhibit A for pundits who got it wrong. CW: oh yeah? Kate Madison noticed.

Peter Waldman of the American Prospect: "When he leaves office in January of 2017 -- provided there isn't a terrible scandal or some kind of economic or foreign policy disaster between now and then -- Barack Obama will likely be hailed as the greatest Democratic hero since John F. Kennedy.... Obama -- particularly the second-term Obama -- does not apologize for liberalism. That isn't to say he's the most liberal guy around, because he isn't. But ... he does not exude the fear of his party's ideology that characterized an earlier generation, scarred as they were by the Gingrich revolution of 1994.... Some Democrats look like they're moving left, and it's for one reason: because it's good politics."

Cristina Silva of the AP: "Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [who is the former governor of Arizona] toured the state's border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix." CW: proving you never know when McCain is going to surprise you & do the right thing. ...

... THEN AGAIN, "All the Latest Rage." Charles Pierce: "To be perfectly fair to the howling mob -- and we like to be fair to howling mobs around here, especially when they inconvenience Republicans -- this may have something to do with McCain's once again seeming to have reversed himself on the issue. This is, after all, a man who ran against his own immigration bill when he was trying to get nominated in 2008 and, when feeling threatened by a primary challenge the last time he came up for re-election." Read the whole post.

... Matthew Cooper of the National Journal on the White House Press Corps' Latest Crybaby Moment: "The greater threat from the Obama administration isn't the usual playing of head games with the White House press corps; it's the aggressive prosecution of both the people who leak government information and the reporters who receive it. I have some skin in the game on this too, having been involved in the CIA leak case that began 10 years ago when I wrote about how the White House was waging a war on Joe Wilson. The aggressive prosecution of leaks and the invocation of once-dormant statutes to go after leakers and reporters threatens to shut down real and vital sources of information.... Ask reporters, such as James Risen of the New York Times, who have been in the legal crosshairs for their role in reporting on intelligence issues. Those are the things we really need to know. The president's golf score? Oh, please." ...

... A note on our intrepid journalist class. Greg Mitchell: Mike Allen of Politico "wrote [yesterday] that Obama avoids Politico reporters in part because they 'ask tough, unpredictable questions.' ... So John Cook, editor of Gawker, just performed a public service by posting on Twitter every question Allen chose to ask President Bush when he did get full access back in 2008. You may remember 2008 -- the economy was about to collapse and we were still in a full shooting war in Iraq." Mitchell picks a number of his favorite Allen-to-Bush "tough, unpredictable questions." Here are two, but do read Mitchell's list. Thanks to MAG for the link:

All right. Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?

Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol's charity show, "Idol Gives Back." And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?

... ** Our Intrepid Press Corps, Hard-Right-Wing Edition. Dan Friedman, a New York "Daily News reporter, "explains how he inadvertently created the myth that Chuck Hagel spoke to a non-existent group." "If you see a story on Hagel addressing the Junior League of Hezbollah, that's fake too." When you think they can't do anything worse than smearing Shirley Sherrod with totally deceptive tape-editing that inverted the substance of her speech, think again.

Thom Shanker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Gen. John R. Allen, the four-star Marine Corps officer who served until earlier this month as the top commander in Afghanistan, will retire from the military to focus on 'health issues within his family,' President Obama said on Tuesday. General Allen was caught up in the scandal that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But last month, the Pentagon officially cleared him of misconduct after an investigation into his exchange of e-mails with Jill Kelley, a Tampa, Fla., woman who was also a friend of Mr. Petraeus's.... There is little doubt that an unexpected obstacle to General Allen's new assignment at NATO was the inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: The Supreme Court's "hearing from the administration is especially important because the Prop 8 defenders, in their brief to the court, cite the president's comments about the 'healthy debate' occurring in the states in defense of letting the law stand. And especially given the president's words last month: 'If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.' A president who speaks so eloquently at his inaugural cannot allow his administration to remain silent before the court, where words are translated into reality."

Excellent. Supremes to Take a Shot at Making Politics Even More Corrupt. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to federal campaign contribution limits, setting the stage for what may turn out to be the most important federal campaign finance case since the court's 2010 decision in Citizens United, which struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions.... 'In Citizens United, the court resisted tinkering with the rules for contribution limits,' said Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law at the University of California, Irvine. 'This could be the start of chipping away at contribution limits.'"

Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "Unless the Justice Department and BP reach a last-minute settlement, the British oil company will return to court on Monday to face tens of billions of dollars in civil claims from the 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that could cripple the company for years to come.... The Federal District Court trial in New Orleans will bundle suits brought by the Justice Department, state governments, private business and individual claimants against BP and several of its contractors. Decisions on culpability and damages could be a year or more away, but they are likely to have profound impacts on environmental law and determine the viability of BP as a major oil company with global ambitions."

Katherine Skiba of the Chicago Tribune: "Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and his wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, are expected to plead guilty to federal charges Wednesday, when more details may emerge about an alleged crime spree in which he is accused of spending more than $750,000 in campaign cash to buy luxury items, memorabilia and other goods."

Holy Crystal Meth! Is the Roman Catholic Church just one big criminal op? N. R. Kleinfield of the New York Times: "At a time when priests from California to Delaware have been accused of loathsome deeds, the allegations against Monsignor [Kevin] Wallin, the former pastor of the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Bridgeport, [Connecticut,] are of a notably different dimension: that he was a drug dealer and addict who was buying an adult novelty shop to launder ill-gotten proceeds, a priest who was cross-dressing and having sex with men.... Colleagues said that ... he had long been sexually active with men.... The Diocese of Bridgeport had forced Monsignor Wallin from his position at St. Augustine in June 2011, after it was alerted to his dissonant behavior. His parishioners were told only of ambiguous personal and health issues.... The lurid case is only the latest scandal for the Bridgeport Diocese, already tainted by a string of clerical sexual abuse cases. Last year, the Rev. Michael R. Moynihan, the former pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Greenwich, was sent to prison for obstructing justice after being accused of spending church money on himself. In 2007, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, from St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien, was convicted of stealing $1.3 million; he died in prison."

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 45 cents in the past 31 days, according to AAA, the fastest run-up since 2005." Mufson talks to some experts about why -- um, "market tension" or something.

Local News

Matt Helm & Joe Guillen of the Detroit Free Press: "An emergency review team’s report on Detroit paints a city on the verge of collapse, too inflexible to restructure itself, unable to explain why its budget forecasts are routinely wrong and no longer capable of papering over its crisis by taking out loans.... Detroit is out of time, a six-member review team lead by state Treasurer Andy Dillon said in a report delivered Tuesday to Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder is widely expected to use the evidence to appoint an emergency financial manager to tame a yearslong runaway budget crisis."

News Ledes

New York Times: "In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that criminal defense lawyers must warn their clients if deportation could be a consequence of a guilty plea. On Wednesday, the courtlimited the reach of that ruling, saying it did not apply retroactively to people whose convictions had become final by the time the justices announced their 2010 decision, Padilla v. Kentucky."

AP: "Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more aggressive responses to the theft of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets. The Obama administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday, including possible fines and other trade actions against China or any other country guilty of cyber-espionage."

Reuters: "Groundbreaking to build new U.S. homes fell in January but new permits for construction rose to a 4 1/2-year high, reinforcing expectations the housing market will support economic growth this year."

Reuters: "Office Depot Inc said on Wednesday that it would buy smaller rival OfficeMax Inc for $1.17 billion in stock to get more clout with suppliers and better compete against Staples Inc and Amazon.com Inc."

AP: In Orange County, California, a "shooter, 20-year-old Ali Syed, killed a woman in the home he shared with his parents, killed two drivers during carjackings, injured two others and shot up cars on a busy freeway interchange before committing suicide as police closed in, authorities said."

Reuters: "Bulgaria's government resigned on Wednesday after violent nationwide protests< against high power prices, joining a long list of European administrations felled by austerity during Europe's debt crisis. Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a former bodyguard who swept to power in 2009 on pledges to root out corruption and raise living standards in the European Union's poorest member, now faces a tough task to prop up eroding support ahead of a probable early election."

Reuters: "A Syrian missile killed at least 20 people in a rebel-held district of Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said, as the army turns to longer-range weapons after losing bases in the country's second-largest city. The use of what opposition activists said was a large missile of the same type as Russian-made Scuds against an Aleppo residential district came after rebels overran army bases over the past two months from which troops had fired artillery."

AP: "Tens of thousands of anti-austerity demonstrators took to the streets of Athens on Wednesday as unions staged a general strike to protest government spending cuts and tax hikes, which some predict will push unemployment to an alarming 30 percent. Police said up to 40,000 people were participating in two separate marches in central Athens that were so far peaceful."

Chicago Tribune Wire Services: "Witnesses heard 'non-stop shouting' in the home of Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius shortly before his girlfriend was shot dead, the lead detective in the murder investigation said on Wednesday." CW: Read the whole story; sounds like Pistorius is a murderer AND a liar.

The Commentariat -- Feb. 19, 2013

Here's Gail Collins' New York Times Magazine piece on Betty Friedan & The Feminine Mystique, which MAG mentions in today's Comments. Sorry I missed the article when the Times published it in January.

Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will make a fresh push on Tuesday to force congressional Republicans to make concessions that will head off budget cuts that appear increasingly likely to kick in starting on March 1. Obama, just back from a three-day golf getaway in Florida, will appear at the White House at 10:45 a.m. EST (1545 GMT) with emergency responders who would lose their jobs if the cuts go into effect." ...

     ... Update: Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Speaking at the White House, surrounded by firefighters and other emergency personnel, Obama urged Congress to pass a short-term measure that would delay the cuts, known as the sequester, for a period of time until Congress can pass a permanent fix."

... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "More than he ever did in his first term, Obama is describing the country as he believes it should be, not the one it has been for much of the past decade.... Obama and his senior staff ... hope to harness his post-election political freedom on behalf of a domestic agenda still broadly unpopular among Republicans in a divided Congress. He is threatening executive action to confront such issues as climate change.... His vast former campaign organization also is mobilizing to fight outside the Beltway for a political agenda whose fate will be determined inside it." ...

... MEANWHILE, Molly Hooper of The Hill: "House GOP lawmakers say they do not fear political blowback if Congress fails to prevent $85 billion in automatic spending cuts from triggering in two weeks."

Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "With conditions [in Syria] continuing to deteriorate, [U.S.] officials could reopen the debate over providing weapons to select members of the resistance in an effort to break the impasse in Syria."

** Michael Lofgren, a disaffected former GOP staffer in the Huffington Post: because of gerrymandering,* "it is unlikely Republicans will lose control of the House at least until the census of 2020. Dixie and the Tornado Belt are prone to send candidates of the intellectual caliber and world view of James Inhofe to the Senate for the foreseeable future, thus assuring a veto over legislation via the filibuster. The voting base itself, endlessly stoked by talk radio and Fox News, thrives on its martyr-like self-image as a persecuted remnant of Real Americans; and all the would-be messiahs they adore are Republicans, not third party candidates. There is also just too much money to be made by hucksters, so it is doubtful that the GOP will go the way of the Whigs." Thanks to Calyban for the link. ...

... I think this piece, written in September 2011 & published in TruthOut (& perhaps elsewhere), was what put Lofgren on the map. It's a doozy.

* BUT see John Sides & Eric McGhee on gerrymandering, linked below.

Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Criticized for letting Wall Street off the hook after the financial crisis, the Justice Department is building a new model for prosecuting big banks. In a recent round of actions that shook the financial industry, the government pushed for guilty pleas, rather than just the usual fines and reforms. Prosecutors now aim to apply the approach broadly to financial fraud cases, according to officials involved in the investigations." CW: read the whole article & see what you think. This sounds to me a little more like PR than like actually sending fat cats to the clink.

** Forget "Real America." Tim Noah of The New Republic: "We think of rural-heartland dwellers as real Americans, but they currently represent less than 20 percent of the population; nearly all of us live in and around cities. We think of churchgoers as real Americans, but only 40 percent of Americans attend any kind of religious service at least once a week.... We think of people who own guns as real Americans, but they represent only 21 percent of the population.... By fetishizing a fading tradition, liberals have only made their arguments for increased gun control less likely to have much of an impact. A recognition of their -- our -- dominant position would be a better way to start the debate."

Stupid Immigration Policy. Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Much of the immigration debate in Washington has centered on the 11 million undocumented migrants in the country. But, from the halls of MIT to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, business and academic leaders are more focused on what they call an even greater threat to the U.S. economy: immigration laws that chase away highly skilled foreigners educated in U.S. universities, often with degrees funded by U.S. taxpayers. While other countries are actively recruiting foreign-born U.S. graduates, the United States has strict limits on visas for highly skilled workers that often put them on waiting lists of many years. And unlike Canada and other countries, the United States offers no specific visa for young entrepreneurs ... who want to start a business in America."

David Dayen, writing in Salon, on how to save the U.S. Postal Service: institute a postal banking service, which would be a great help to "unbanked" or "underbanked" Americans who rely on payday lenders, pawn shops, etc., for "banking." "The National Association of Letter Carriers is ready to do this; they endorsed a resolution at their annual convention in 2012 to adopt a postal banking system in the US." CW: read the whole post. It's a pretty compelling idea & not nearly as novel as I thought. Of course, as Alex Pareene notes in the piece linked below, getting Congress off its collective ass to do something that's good for Americans -- & in this case, good for the USPS -- is a mighty heavy lift.

A Party without a Policy. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "The problem with Republicans today on public policy isn't that they're stuck in the 1980s; it's that they've given up entirely." ...

... So, in Lieu of Policy, Here's What They Have -- Benghazi!!!. Ed Kilgore: "Sen. John McCain's insistence on Meet the Press yesterday that the Obama administration was engaged in a 'massive coverup' of Benghazi! is an indication that conspiracy-shouting on the subject among Republicans won't go away any time soon, or perhaps ever."

Alex Pareene of Salon: "After [Sen. Ted] Cruz's [RTP-Texas] hostile questioning of Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, [Sen. John] McCain [R-Az.] publicly rebuked the Texas senator, something McCain only does to practically everyone who annoys him in any fashion.... But ... Ted Cruz's loudmouthed Senator Asshole routine is not what's wrong with the Senate.... Ted Cruz didn't blow up immigration reform on multiple occasions. Ted Cruz isn't why senators like McCain and [Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.] decide to stop supporting things they used to support, like cap-and-trade.... What's wrong with the Senate is just about every other senator, most of whom ... never evinc[e] any concern whatsoever for the real-life consequences of their inaction on nearly every single one of America's most urgent problems...." ...

... Steve Benen: "A strange website with a troubled reputation published an unsubstantiated rumor about something Chuck Hagel is accused of having said in 2007. There is no proof that Hagel made the comment or anything like it, but two Republican senators nevertheless demanded an explanation. In other words, for [Lindsey] Graham and Kelly Ayotte [N.H.], there's nothing odd about effectively saying, 'We heard some unsubstantiated rumor on a website we know little about, and we expect you to take it seriously and provide us with an immediate explanation.'"

Jon Chait of New York: Joe Scarborough is pretty dimwitted & it shows when he tries to write down his "thoughts." "The fiscal scolds have so successfully inculcated their moralistic urgency about debt, so thoroughly dominated the news agenda, that millions of people like Joe Scarborough think it is self-evidently insane and evil to in any way minimize the awesome scale of the crisis. Scarborough can't really explain why Krugman is wrong, because the nub of the issue is that Krugman's way of looking at the issue simply offends him."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Justice Clarence Thomas, who hasn't asked a question from the bench in seven years, says he sometimes gets Justice Stephen Breyer to ask questions for him.

John Sides & Eric McGhee in the Washington Post on gerrymandering, which these political scientists argue, based on a series of tests they applied to election results, had very little effect on the 2012 Congressional races: "... the ability of Republicans to retain the House majority may have been due to incumbency advantage, not new and more favorable districts. Why do Democrats have a somewhat chronic disadvantage in these graphs, especially in the last 20 years? Part of the reason is that Democratic votes are increasingly concentrated in urban areas where they are more likely to waste votes with large majorities.

Congressional Races

Ed Kilgore: "Life often imitates parody in South Carolina: former Gov. Mark Sanford has just put up his first ad in his campaign to get back his old congressional seat, recently vacated by now-Sen. Tim Scott. Seems he's going full-tilt into the paradox of simultaneously begging for forgiveness for his sins (which include not just adultery and public idiocy but a variety of financial irregularities that might have in some jurisdictions landed him in the hoosegow), while posing as the guy that can smite Washington with demands for strict fiscal accountability and moral rectitude." CW: meanwhile, Sally Quinn & other Washington hostesses with the mostesses are likely rooting for Sanford in hopes he & his lovely Argentinian fiancee will star at their little get-togethers.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Mike Johanns, a Nebraska Republican who is in his first term, announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election next year, the fifth lawmaker to bow out of a Senate that has become increasingly polarized and dysfunctional."

CW: Sorry, but this extended wail from Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Politico is one long unintentional knee-slapper. Apparently, President Obama is not being transparent enough currying favor with these turdwingers & their buddies in the hard-working White Press corps. "The frustrated Obama press corps neared rebellion this past holiday weekend when reporters and photographers were not even allowed onto the Floridian National Golf Club, where Obama was golfing. That breached the tradition of the pool 'holding' in the clubhouse and often covering -- and even questioning -- the president on the first and last holes." Etc., etc.

... Digby is also "relieved that the fourth estate has its priorities straight." ...

... Anne Laurie, in Balloon Juice: "You'd think Tha Meeja would at least admire the Obama administration's deftness in beating them at their own game, but ... 'The president's staff often finds Washington reporters whiny, needy and too enamored with trivial matters or their own self-importance.'...Oooo, burn" ...

... AND Reid Epstein of Politico: "... after months of buildup and a week since his State of the Union address, key aides on the Hill and at the White House acknowledge that even GOP senators who fit Obama's vision of bipartisanship -- Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma -- are all waiting to hear anything from the president.... They'd like to have a conversation. Or at least get a phone call. And with the president's whole agenda on the line, they're surprised that hasn't happened yet." ...

... CW: I'm surprised the Senate has not yet installed phones where they can call out. I guess the two-way walkie-talkies thingies are too new-fangled. Well, shucks, maybe Obama doesn't have a real phone, either:

Right Wing World

America's Worst Nightmare. It turns out people -- at least very bad people -- can return from the dead.Local News

Carly Carioli of The Phoenix: Massachusetts "State Rep. Marty Walsh and Joyce Linehan -- the legendary rock publicist turned political rainmaker -- had teamed up to file HD3506, a bill to make 'Roadrunner,' by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, the official rock song of Massachusetts." CW: I agree with Richman who said, through a spokesperson, "I don't think the song is good enough to be a Massachusetts song of any kind."

Apropos of yesterday's inconsequential discussion, contributor Julie sends along this by Marshall Ramsey:

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Afghanistan authorities have captured a senior member of the blank">Pakistan Taliban in a stretch of mountains near the frontier between the two countries, Afghan and Pakistani officials said on Tuesday. One Afghan official said the militant, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, had been arrested after American airstrikes, some carried out via drones, had flushed him out of a more remote haven."

New York Times: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal inquiry into suspicious trades placed ahead of the $23 billion acquisition of H.J. Heinz, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.The F.B.I.'s involvement adds to the scrutiny surrounding the deal and further highlights the temptation that major takeovers present to traders. Last week, a day after the deal was announced, the Securities and Exchange Commission promptly froze a Swiss account linked to possible insider trading in the Heinz takeover."

New York Times: "A growing body of digital forensic evidence -- confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of [a Chinese] army unit for years -- leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around" a building in Shanghai, which is the People's Liberation Army base for China's growing corps of cyberwarriors." ...

... Washington Post: "A U.S. security firm has tied more than a hundred cyber attacks on U.S. corporations to China's military, according to a report released Tuesday. The 60-page study by investigators at the Alexandria-based Mandiant security firm presents one of the most comprehensive and detailed analysis to date tracing corporate cyber espionage to the doorstep of Chinese military facilities. And it calls into question China's repeated denials that its military is engaged in such activities."

Reuters: "A seven-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Cuba on Monday in the latest effort to move forward political relations that have been at a standstill since U.S. government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who saw Gross and met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other high-ranking officials a year ago, is leading the group of five senators and two members of the House of Representatives on a three-day visit to communist Cuba.... Gross, 63, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks under a secretive U.S. program the Cuban government considers subversive."

New York Times: "Prosecutors accused Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star and one of the world's best-known athletes, of premeditated murder on Tuesday, saying he opened fire four times on his girlfriend through a locked bathroom door after putting on his prosthetic legs and walking more than 20 feet from a bedroom."

CBS News: "Law enforcement sources say Adam Lanza, [the Newtown, Connecticut, mass murderer,] was motivated by violent video games and a strong desire to kill more people than ... Anders Breivik, a Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011." With video report.

AP: "Now that investigators have determined the origins of the engine-room fire that paralyzed a Carnival cruise ship at sea for five days, they will try to learn more about the cause, the crew's response, and why the ship was disabled for so long. A Coast Guard official said Monday that a leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days."

AP: "Eight masked gunmen made a hole in a security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched some $50 million worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday. The gang used two black cars in their daring raid late Monday, grabbed the cache of stones and sped off into the darkness...."

Reuters: "Nestle, the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta meals from sale in Italy and Spain after finding traces of horse DNA. The discovery of horsemeat in products labeled as beef has spread across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer anger and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains."