The Commentariat -- Jan. 18, 2013

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Paul Krugman's takedown of Tom Friedman.

To find out how you can participate, CLICK ON THE IMAGE.President Obama in a Yahoo! op-ed: "Each January as we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are called not just to pause and reflect, but to act.... This Saturday, we're continuing that tradition with another National Day of Service. Michelle, the girls and I will be volunteering in our community, and we're asking all Americans to join us."

Michael Cooper & Dahlia Sussman of the New York Times: "The massacre of children at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., appears to be profoundly swaying Americans' views on guns, galvanizing the broadest support for stricter gun laws in about a decade, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.... The poll found that a majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- think gun control laws should be tightened, up markedly from a CBS News poll in April that found that only 39 percent backed stricter laws. The rise in support for stricter gun laws stretched across political lines, including an 18-point increase among Republicans. A majority of independents now back stricter gun laws." ...

Michael Cooper: "... as mayors from around the nation gathered [in Washington, D.C.,] on Thursday for the 81st winter meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, many said they were heartened by President Obama's call for new laws to curb gun violence, which included several measures that the conference had sought for decades. Many said they planned to urge Congress to enact them."

... Dave Weigel of Slate: "Gun massacre trutherism isn't tied to election results. It bubbles over after every massacre.... The theories ... spread in part because of the confirmation bias of worried gun owners. And that's actually been egged on, multiple times, by the National Rifle Association.... The idea that the government is one short step away from a gun ban is actually integral to the lobby's pitch."

Susan Eisenhower in the Washington Post: "For the eight years that my grandfather, Dwight Eisenhower, was president of the United States, I had Secret Service protection.... These armed agents protected my sisters, brother and me from potential kidnappings or other targeted attacks.... Any thinking person has to be disgusted by the National Rifle Association ad ... suggesting that the president is an 'elitist hypocrite' because his children have the benefit of armed protection at school and the nation's children as a whole do not. This is absurd. The nation's children are not individually at risk the way the Obama children are.... The NRA's attack ad should be condemned for exacerbating the dangers faced by the president and his family...." ...

"The Dwindling Deficit." Paul Krugman: "Even without [taking specific action to reduce the deficit], however, the budget outlook for the next 10 years doesn't look at all alarming. Now, projections that run further into the future do suggest trouble, as an aging population and rising health care costs continue to push federal spending higher. But ... why, exactly, should we believe that it's necessary, or even possible, to decide right now how we will eventually address the budget issues of the 2030s?"

Navel-Gazing, GOP Edition

Rosalind Helderman & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Republicans are cloistered at a tony golf resort [in Williamsburg, Virginia,] for three days hoping to resurrect their battered political brand, as they prepare for what could be another damaging confrontation with President Obama over federal spending.... Although there was some urgency for a change, the consensus was that the change was about how to communicate, not about rethinking core policy positions." CW Trans.: "We are still greedy, misogynistic, sociopathic martinets, but we're looking at ways to Stockholm-Syndrome you into liking it."

The Vote No/Hope Yes Caucus. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: the Vote No/Hope Yes Caucus is "the small but significant number of Republican representatives who, on the recent legislation to head off the broad tax increases and spending cuts mandated by the so-called fiscal cliff, voted no while privately hoping -- and at times even lobbying -- in favor of the bill's passage, given the potential harmful economic consequences otherwise.... The Vote No/Hope Yes group is perhaps the purest embodiment of the uneasy relationship between politics and pragmatism in the nation's capital and a group whose very existence must be understood and dealt with as the Republican Party grapples with its future in the wake of the bruising 2012 elections."

Actually, They're All Wingers. Ed Kilgore: "I would object to the neat characterization of House GOPers as falling into three equivalent baskets of 'moderates, pragmatic conservatives, and hard-core conservatives.' ... Calling any House Republican in a competitive district a 'moderate' is both dangerous and wrong.... As for the 'pragmatic conservatives' (presumably led by John Boehner), exactly how much pragmatism can be attributed to the decision not to blow up the economy? ... The temptation to treat the two parties as composed of balanced groups of ideologues and 'pragmatists' or 'moderates' is at the very center of the false-equivalency meme.... There is an extremist ideology that unites most Republican pols...." ...

Charles Pierce. Paul "Ryan has a brand-new shiny idea that he's out in the yard playing with. It's called 'prioritization,' and it's the latest thing in zombie-eyed granny starving. By this theory, which is the brainchild of Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, himself an economic extremist..., we hit the debt limit and then the government 'prioritizes' its spending, beginning with interest on the debt, because that's what most Americans are sweating in their shoes about, and then skipping right to veterans benefits, because cutting them would cause actual political problems for hacks like Toomey and Ryan.... It seems to me that the American people gave Ryan a 'crystal clear' indication what they thought of his ideas..., but that's just me.... It really is time to stop taking this guy seriously." ...

     ... UPI Update: "U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Republicans may back a short-term debt-ceiling increase -- a notion the White House immediately rejected.... White House spokesman Jay Carney rejected the notion of raising the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling in the short term, saying postponing Congress' responsibility would create drama in Washington that will hurt the U.S. economy." ...

     ... Steve Benen on the debt ceiling war: "It would probably be an overstatement to say Republicans are already surrendering, but let's just say they've taken the white flag off the shelf, even if they're not yet ready to wave it."

Jamelle Bouie, in the Washington Post: "On issues that don't obviously relate to the party's long-term survival, [Sen. Marco] Rubio [RTP-Fla.] is a conventional conservative, responding to a base that remains far to the right of the average American. To wit, Rubio's response to President Obama's gun safety measures -- which are modest in scope and broadly popular -- is nothing short of hysterical.... Republican lawmakers -- even so-called reformers -- must still respond to their supporters. And by and large, the GOP remains committed to the values of its right-wing base."

Here's why Republicans have become ever so self-aware. Henry Decker of the National Memo: "According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, President Barack Obama's approval rating is near an all-time high, and the public is on his side in the upcoming debt ceiling debate. The poll finds Obama's approval rating at 55 percent, his highest level since November, 2009 (excluding a brief bump up to 56 percent after the president ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011) 61 percent view Obama as a strong leader -- his highest level in three years -- and 53 percent say they're optimistic about the policies he'll pursue in his second term. By contrast..., Congress has just a 19 percent approval rating; 37 percent approve of House Democrats, and 24 percent approve of House Republicans."

Jonathan Bernstein on the Separation of Powers That Isn't. "You won't hear it from House Republicans and other conservatives, who are talking impeachment over the prospect that Obama might use executive orders as part of his gun-safety initiatives (this notwithstanding that, by one count, Obama uses executive orders less frequently than most presidents), but executive orders save Congress from passing laws that would have to be far more detailed and complex than they currently are. Not only that: sometimes the easiest way to get a bill over the finish line is to leave the specifics up to the regulators over in the executive branch. So often the path of least resistance for Congress is to pass vague legislation and leave it to the executive branch to fill in the details."

Rigging the 2016 Presidential Election. Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money: "Why this story isn't getting more attention, I don't know.... Rather than broaden their message to appeal to young and non-white voters, Republicans are looking to commit the greatest suppression of votes since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed.... It is entirely possible that a Democratic candidate could win 55% of the vote in 2016 and lose the election."

** "A Tale of Two Dead Girls & Notre Dame Football." Amanda Marcotte of Slate: "Lizzy Seeberg was a real person and she really did kill herself in 2011, at age 19, after accusing a football player of sexual assault." People harassed her, the campus police investigated her but not the accused, who -- once "investigated" after Seeberg's death, was immediately cleared. "Te'o's story has been all over the news today -- and with good reason. It's nuts. But what's also nuts is that the story of Lennay Kekua -- the dead girl who never lived -- is a bigger deal ... than the story of Lizzy Seeberg, whose real life ended in real tragedy.... Beautiful, selfless, perfect woman does not exist? Now that's a story. The horrors faced by women trying to find justice for sexual violence? Sorry, ladies, that's just boring old everyday life." ...

... ** Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post: "... evidence that the University of Notre Dame covers up for sexual predators on the football team in hopes of winning some games has been mostly ignored.... We know for sure that Notre Dame collaborated with at least one story, on Charlie Rose's CBS morning show, that told the phony boohoo tale after the school knew no such woman had ever walked the earth." ...

... Tim Egan: "The Internet is the cause of much of today's commitment-free, surface-only living; it's also the explanation for why someone could tumble head-over-heels for a pixelated cipher. Online dating was only the start of what led us down this road."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama's Jobs Council hit a notable milestone on Thursday: one year without an official meeting. The 26-member panel is also set to expire at the end of the month.... Politico caused a stir last July by reporting that the panel had not convened officially for six months. The story noted some simmering tension between the slew of business executives on the board and a pair of labor leaders who are also members of the group. The report also said that some CEOs were reluctant to appear with Obama at the height of the presidential campaign...." CW: the less Obama talks to those scheming reprobates, the better.

"Les Insufferables." Nicholas Beaudrot of Donkeylicious: "There is plenty to mock in the Wall Street Journal's profile of some hypothetical households that will see tax increases.... A huge chunk of the tax increase on the fake single mom and fake single can be chalked up to the lapse of the payroll tax holiday [which Republicans demanded].... Perhaps the most laughable part ... is that all of these households realize a substantial portion of their income through taxable investment income.... Given the WSJ's insistence on including an absurdly large amount of investment income in their hypotheticals, it's quite possible that there are zero households that come close to matching these characteristics. They might as well be reporting on how the tax changes will affect Elvis Presley, JFK, and Sasquatch...." Via Jonathan Bernstein. CW: Here's some mockery, courtesy of Charles Pierce, which includes a comment from me.

News Ledes

New York Times: "C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of this city who fulminated against the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina but became for many a symbol of the shortcomings of government himself, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on 21 counts including conspiracy, bribery and money laundering." CW: presumed innocent, but, um, what a surprise.

** AP: "A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights in a decision hailed by Republicans but not undoing a state court ruling keeping much of the law from being in effect."

New York Times: "Gussie Moran, who as a ranked American tennis player in 1949 caused an international stir and gained worldwide fame for competing at Wimbledon wearing a short skirt and lace-trimmed underwear, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89."

New York Times: "... some of the hundreds of workers who managed to escape the national gas field on the eastern edge of Algeria that had been stormed by Islamist militants two days before" told "chilling tales" of their ordeal. "The gunmen, fighters with a group called Al Mulathameen, said they were acting to avenge the French intervention in nearby Mali, Algerian officials said. But there were indications that the attack had been planned long before the French military began its offensive to recapture the northern half of that country from Islamist insurgents." ...

... New York Times: "Britain said on Friday that an Algerian military operation against kidnappers in the Sahara was not over and the fate of some captives remained unclear a day after Algeria mounted an assault on heavily armed fighters holding American and other hostages at a remote gas field facility." ...

... Reuters: "Hundreds of workers from international oil companies have been evacuated from Algeria on Thursday and many more will follow, BP said on Friday following the al-Qaeda-linked attack on a major gas facility."

New York Times: "The discovery by American intelligence agencies that North Korea is moving mobile missile launchers around the country, some carrying a new generation of powerful rocket, has spurred new assessments of the intentions of the country's young new leader, Kim Jong-un, who has talked about economic change but appears to be accelerating the country's ability to attack American allies or forces in Asia, and ultimately to strike across the Pacific."

New York Times: "In a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong admitted to using banned substances but did not say how he did it or who helped him."

AP: "The former Century 16 [in Aurora, Colorado], now renovated and renamed the Century Aurora, opened its doors to victims of the July 20 attack on Thursday night with a somber remembrance ceremony and a special showing of 'The Hobbit.'"

The Commentariat -- Jan. 17, 2013

My column in the New York Times eXaminer, also linked yesterday afternoon, is on Maureen Dowd's & Tom Friedman's columns.

New York Times Editors: "It is past time that elected leaders did something about gun legislation without worrying, as Mr. Obama said on Wednesday, about getting 'an A grade from the gun lobby.' It has been a bipartisan betrayal of the public's safety, the fault of Democrats and Republicans, and of a string of presidents who have said mournful things after the mass murders at Columbine and Virginia Tech and Aurora and Newtown but did not act. Wednesday was the exception. One month after the Newtown, Conn., murders, Mr. Obama presented a comprehensive set of initiatives that was, for a change, structured around what needs to be done and not what political tacticians think the president could get a dysfunctional Congress to pass."

Brad Plumer of the Washington Post talks to gun & crime experts to try to determine "which of [President Obama's] proposals might have the most meaningful impact on gun violence."

Nicholas Kristof on "the role that guns too often play in our society: an instrument not of protection but of escalation."

Charles Blow: "On virtually every measure, the N.R.A.'s messaging is off. The president’s proposals, on the other hand, are very much in step with public opinion, which has shifted toward more restrictions, according to a number of polls reported Monday."

Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "Among the moon-howling reactions to the president's surprisingly bold gun-control proposals on the right, the one that most struck me was the boiling indignation that he had the temerity to speak of, and surround himself with, school children. Rush Limbaugh led the way as usual: 'He's using these kids as human shields ... He brings these kids who supposedly wrote letters to the White House ...' And so on. It was a shocking rant, even for that flatulent pile of gelatin, and amazingly out of touch with how the country feels about what happened in Newtown.... And it made me realize: they're going to lose. Their excess outrages America, and even if they prevail for the time being in Congress, in the long run, they're cooked."

James Downie of the Washington Post relates the restrictions Republicans placed on gun research to restrictions they have placed on other scientific study. "Regardless of where one stands on gun control, or on any of these other issues, the far right's attempts to restrict scientific research should concern everyone.... President Obama's call for gun violence research is an important stand against this war on science." ...

... CW: I would go one further than Downie. As I repeatedly imply in linking to stories about Right Wing World, Republicans are waging a War on Reality. This was never more clear than during the presidential election when Mitt Romney & his campaign not only lied with impunity; they flat-out said they were running a fact-free campaign -- one that "would not be dictated by fact-checkers." Of a piece was this was the entire GOP talking machine which vigorously disputed "inconvenient" polling data, so vigorously that they smeared Nate Silver -- the statistician who got it right. Meanwhile, other candidates were using god & something they read on the Intertoobz to justify their radical anti-abortion, anti-sex, anti-women platform. Much of the anti-fact campaign is opportunistic; e.g., politicians beholden to the gas-&-oil lobby dismiss climate change science & environmental impact research as hoaxes. But some is just an unshakeable abhorrence of anything that destabilizes the fundamentalist religious beliefs which they & their constituents hold. Efforts at the state level to control science & history (& now math!) curricula & to divert public funds to religious schools is another manifestation of the anti-reality campaign. Relatedly, "think tanks" are not havens for pointy-headed academics; they are propaganda machines. Count on this getting worse before it gets better.

Ed Kilgore: "The case against Obama's right to do or propose what he is doing or proposing is ... based on a radical belief in the Second Amendment as unconditional, and as the supreme constitutional guarantee that ensures all the others. So any gun regulations, existing or potential, are suspect as 'tyrannical' in that they limit the ability of 'law-abiding Americans' to stockpile weapons against the day when 'patriots' decide being law-abiding is no longer acceptable. Those shouting epithets at Obama over his executive orders and legislative proposals are not, moreover, focusing strictly on gun issues. Many have been claiming from practically the day of his inauguration that his policy agenda ... represent[s] gross and intolerable violations of American liberties. They are prisoners of their anti-Obama rhetoric, and/or champions of the radical ideology of 'constitutional conservatism,' which defends as permanent and inalienable rights to all sorts of things like unlimited exploitation of natural resources, 'fair' (i.e., low and regressive) taxes, freedom from non-discrimination laws, and zygote personhood." ...

In case you're interested in a sane interpretation of presidential powers vis-a-vis Obama's executive orders, Greg Sargent spoke to Charles Fried, President Reagan's solicitor general. According to Fried, "These are either standard exercises of presidential power, or even more benignly, standard examples of the power of the president to exhort the public or state officials to be aware of certain problems and to address them."

Domenico Montanaro of NBC News also fact-checks GOP charges that Obama is a "tyrant" and a "dictator." Is he or isn't he? Conclusion: nope.

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: puts the NRA ad [see yesterday's Commentariat] to an objective test: "The ad gives the impression that a phalanx of armed police are guarding students, such as the Obama and Gregory children, at Sidwell Friends. But that is completely false. Far from being elitist, the relatively small force of unarmed security personnel at Sidwell is not unusual for a school of its size. Moreover, the ad also suggests that Obama rejects out of hand boosting security at schools, when in fact his proposals include provisions that would provide funding for more school security. If the NRA is also trying to count Secret Service protection for Obama's children as part of that force of armed guards, that's even more ridiculous.... Such protection is mandated under federal law -- and only exists for the president's children." ...

... Ron Fournier of the National Journal: "The ad is indisputably misleading, and is arguably a dangerous appeal to the base instincts of gun-rights activists." ...

... Conseervative Joe Scarborough thinks the NRA is helping the gun control movement because of "the NRA's bizarre choices.... Republicans really have a choice ... they can either pass a comprehensive gun control right now or they can wait two years ... and have [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi write that bill":

... Reality-based people may recognize the NRA has gone too far, but as Peter Wallsten & Tom Hamburger write in the Washington Post, "In state capitals and city halls nationwide, the National Rifle Association is demonstrating its enduring ability to thwart new firearms regulations and expand rights for gun owners -- even after a school massacre in Newtown, Conn., gave the gun-control cause new momentum."

Ezra Klein rounds up "smart" Republicans & conservatives opposed to the GOP's deficit-ceiling hostage-taking. CW: Klein, who is good at numbers but not so good at prognosticating (whatever happened to Treasury Secretary Bowles?), thinks Republicans will cave. He does make one interesting point: "The danger of the debt ceiling, in my view, is less that Republicans make a decision to breach than that they make a last-minute miscalculation or miscount the votes -- think Boehner's Plan B debacle -- and a breach happens accidentally." But Klein does not take into account an important factor -- if & when the House raises the debt limit, it will do so primarily with Democratic votes. Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer & Jim Clyburn can count. Boehner only has to be able to count up to about 20. And he has 20 fingers & toes. That should work. ...

... Yes, those "smart" Republicans have a tough row to hoe. From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:

Obama 2.0

Uh-oh, Another White Guy. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama is planning to elevate a key national security deputy, Denis R. McDonough, to White House chief of staff, administration officials said on Wednesday, making perhaps his closest foreign policy adviser the gatekeeper to the Oval Office."

** Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Earlier this week, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus endorsed a Republican plan to rig the next presidential election to make it nearly impossible for the Democratic candidate to win the White House, no matter who the American people vote for. The election-rigging plan, which would allocate electoral votes by congressional district rather than by states as a whole in a handful of states that consistently vote for Democratic presidential candidates, would have allowed Mitt Romney to narrowly win the Electoral College last November despite losing the popular vote by nearly four points. On Monday, seven Pennsylvania Republican state representatives introduced a bill to make this vote-rigging scheme a reality in their state.... both Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) and state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-PA) support the plan, so there is a real risk that Pennsylvania Republicans will try to write the voters out of the next presidential election." ...

... Here's Rachel Maddow on the same topic. (She doesn't actually get to discussing the electoral college until about 2:20 min. in.) This is serious. It's a plan that Pennsylvania Republicans tried even before the November elections. Now they are going for it again. Thanks for contributor Diane for the link to Maddow's segment:

Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "The annual compensation for Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's chief executive, was slashed in half to signal that the bank's board was a strong watchdog.... The board voted unanimously to reduce Mr. Dimon's pay to $11.5 million from $23.1 million a year earlier...."

Steven Ohlemacher of the AP: the Business Roundtable, "an influential group of business CEOs, is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans." ...

... Richard Eskow in the Huffington Post: "The Business Roundtable was founded specifically to win political favors from the largest and most ruthless companies in America, often at the expense of smaller business, and its accomplishments read like a rap sheet." Read the whole post if you think these guys might be the "nonpartisan pragmatists" they claim to be. CW Plus: not a one of those fat cats has the foggiest idea of what it's like to do manual labor at age 60, much less 70. Plus: Americans who most need Social Security & Medicare benefits do not have longer life expectancies than did Americans way back when. ...

** Kevin Brown of Remapping Debate: "Each spring since 2010, some of Washington's A-list politicians ... submit to questions from some of the media's A-list journalists on the future of the federal fiscal policy. These interviews ... [are] conducted ... at private 'Fiscal Summits' convened by Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire former commerce secretary.... Peterson ... is now beginning his fourth decade of arguing that there is no alternative to enacting 'entitlement reform' (read: cut Social Security and Medicare) and 'tax reform' (read: raise regressive taxes and lower progressive ones) in the name of curbing the country's 'unsustainable' debt and deficits.... An essential and successful element of the Peterson strategy is to create an environment where it is widely if not universally believed that there is no alternative to his vision.... In this view, it's 'not realistic' to believe the country can afford the same programs it once did." Via Charles Pierce.

... ** Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "U.S. manufacturers have added a half-million new workers since the end of 2009.... And yet there were 4 percent fewer union factory workers in 2012 than there were in 2010.... The new manufacturing jobs are different from the ones that delivered millions of American workers a ticket to the middle class over the past half-century.... On balance, all of the job gains in manufacturing have been non-union.... By one measure -- average hourly earnings -- a typical manufacturing worker now earns less than a typical private-sector worker of any industry. Throughout the 30 years before the recession, the reverse was the case."

Danielle Douglas of the Washington Post: "Rules released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Thursday ... requir[e] mortgage servicers to maintain accurate records, offer ongoing access to staff and provide options for delinquent homeowners to avoid foreclosure, among other things. They are aimed at vanquishing the unscrupulous practices that were commonplace during the financial crisis, such as 'robo-signing,' where servicers processed foreclosure documents without a proper review. The rules, which take effect in January 2014, are part of a broader reform of the mortgage market that includes limiting upfront fees and curtailing harmful practices such as interest-only payments -- provisions that were unveiled last week."

A Message to BMOC John Roberts from the Pew Research Center: "As the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision approaches, the public remains opposed to completely overturning the historic ruling on abortion. More than six-in-ten (63%) say they would not like to see the court completely overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, which established a woman's constitutional right to abortion at least in the first three months of pregnancy. Only about three-in-ten (29%) would like to see the ruling overturned. These opinions are little changed from surveys conducted 10 and 20 years ago." CW: if you want to remain popular with the girls, John -- and we know you do -- don't overturn Roe.

Gail Collins: "... once you get past the now-demolished race record, there’s not much point to Lance Armstrong, Famous Person. He has no other talents. He isn't particularly lovable.... Between 1996 and 2004, our American mail system invested an estimated $40 million in [the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team].... This would be the same Postal Service that lost $16 billion last year.... Republicans and Democrats could join together to ban the use of federal taxpayer dollars for sponsorship of sports events.... The Lance Armstrong debacle would have a point! Although, actually, Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota proposed banning the use of taxpayer money to sponsor Nascar race teams in 2011, and she was voted down, 281 to 148."

Inauguration

Fredrick Kunkle of the Washington Post: The Rev. Luis Leon, rector of Saint John's Church, which is across the street from the White House, "was picked this week to replace the Rev. Louie Giglio, a conservative evangelical minister who withdrew two days after his selection was announced because of controversy over anti-gay remarks he made more than a decade ago." Leon will deliver the closing benediction.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Pauline Phillips, a California housewife who nearly 60 years ago, seeking something more meaningful than mah-jongg, transformed herself into the syndicated columnist Dear Abby -- and in so doing became a trusted, tart-tongued adviser to tens of millions -- died on Wednesday in Minneapolis. She was 94."

MarketWatch: "New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000 in the week ended Jan. 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims fell to the lowest level since January 2008, but the big drop likely stems from a seasonal-adjustment quirk whose effects could quickly fade and push the numbers back up in the next few weeks."

New York Times Update: "Kidnappers and at least some of their hostages were killed on Thursday as Algerian forces raided a gas facility where a heavily armed group of Islamist extremists was holding dozens of captives, including Americans and other foreigners, the Algerian government announced." ...

... Reuters: "Some hostages were reported to have escaped from a remote Algerian gas plant on Thursday, where dozens of foreigners and scores of Algerians were seized by Islamist gunmen demanding a halt to a French military campaign in neighbouring Mali. Governments around the world were holding emergency meetings to respond to one of the biggest international hostage crises in decades, which sharply raises the stakes over the week-old French campaign against al Qaeda-linked rebels in the Sahara." ...

... Washington Post: "French and Malian troops expanded their ground operations Thursday as they battled militants in the desert village of Diabaly in central Mali, senior Malian military officials said, and hundreds of French reinforcements arrived in the West African nation. The confrontations marked the first direct engagement since France launched a military assault last week to oust radical Islamists who have advanced to within 250 miles of the capital."

... AP: "The Obama administration has declared it cannot accept new terrorist sanctuaries in Mali or anywhere else and has promised to support French and African efforts to restore security. Yet after almost a year of disorder in the West African nation, Washington is still keeping the conflict at arm's length."

AP: "Lenders took possession of fewer U.S. homes in 2012 than a year earlier, as the pace of new homes entering the path to foreclosure slowed and banks increasingly opted to allow troubled borrowers to sell their homes for less than what they owed on their mortgage. All told, banks repossessed 671,251 homes last year, down nearly 17 percent from 804,423 the year before...."

Reuters: "The United States will on Thursday officially recognize the Somali government in Mogadishu, ending a hiatus of more than 20 years and opening the door to increased U.S. and international economic help for the violence-plagued African nation, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce the shift during a meeting with visiting Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud...."

AP: "The main battery beneath the cockpit of the Boeing 787 forced to make an emergency landing in Japan was swollen from overheating, a safety official said Thursday, as aviation regulators worldwide joined the U.S. and Japan in grounding the technologically advanced aircraft because of fire risk."

AP: "The IOC has stripped Lance Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because of his involvement in doping, officials familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 16, 2013

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Tom Friedman's & Maureen Dowd's columns.

Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "At a White House event at noon, Mr. Obama announced plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, expanded background checks for gun purchases and new gun trafficking laws to crack down on the spread of weapons across the country. He also promised to act without Congressional approval to increase the enforcement of existing gun laws and improve the flow of information among federal agencies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn't have them":

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearms buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips." ...

... Michael Cooper, et al., of the New York Times on the range of gun laws & regulations President Obama is likely to propose today. ...

** Philip Rucker: "The National Rifle Association released a new video on its Web site Tuesday calling President Obama an 'elitist hypocrite' for having Secret Service protection of his daughters at school but saying he was 'skeptical' about installing armed guards in all schools.... 'Are the president's kids more important than yours' a deep-voiced narrator asks. 'Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.'" Includes video of the ad. CW: this ad should enrage you. The NRA drums of fear of Obama, the better to sell guns to paranoid militiamen, then complains Obama's children need protection from gun-toting paranoids. And he is the hypocrite? ...

Update: Most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight. But to go so far as to make the safety of the president's children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly. -- Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary

Frederka Schouten of USA Today: "In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre, the national debate raging over high-profile issues such as proposals to ban assault weapons also is bringing fresh attention to an array of little-known laws approved by Congress -- some at the behest of the powerful National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups -- that either ease restrictions on firearms or clamp down on the ability of the government to regulate guns."

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a sweeping package of gun-control measures on Tuesday, significantly expanding a ban on assault weapons and making New York the first state to change its laws in response to the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. Mr. Cuomo signed the bill less than an hour after the State Assembly approved it by a 104-to-43 vote on the second full day of the 2013 legislative session. The State Senate, which had in the past resisted more restrictive gun laws, approved the measure 43 to 18 on Monday night." ...

... Dan Amira of New York: "With President Obama now contemplating up to nineteen executive orders to combat gun violence, conservatives have started to flip out in characteristic form. Kentucky senator Rand Paul has accused Obama of acting 'like a king or a monarch.' South Carolina congressman Jeff Duncan declared last week, 'We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.' Mike Huckabee proclaimed that the White House has 'nothing but contempt for the Constitution' and seeks to 'trump ... the checks and balances of power in which no branch could act unilaterally.' Texas congressman Steve Stockman has already threatened impeachment.... If it's the use of executive orders in particular that's getting critics all riled up, though, then it's worth noting that Obama has used this lever of presidential power less frequently than every other president in modern times." ...

... You knew Maureen Dowd would go bananas over President strong> Obama's news conference, and she does not disappoint. Dowd implies that Stockman, et al., would never have behaved so badly if only Obama had heeded "A Greek chorus of historians and pols [who] have been urging the president to spend more time schmoozing with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as other presidents like Jefferson, Lincoln and L.B.J., did to get their way." ...

... ** Now read Dana Milbank on Stockman & the evolution of the GOP. ...

... Maybe you thought Ed Meese was dead. He isn't. Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese, now a prominent emeritus official at the Heritage Foundation, became the latest conservative to warn that President Obama could risk impeachment if he takes executive action on reducing gun violence in an interview Monday night." ...

... Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post targets Harry Reid. We'll have to do so, too:

** Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "After fierce lobbying by political leaders in states across the Northeast, the House of Representatives on Tuesday night approved a long-awaited $50.7 billion emergency bill to provide help to victims of Hurricane Sandy. The aid package passed 241 to 180, with 49 Republicans joining 192 Democrats. The Senate is expected to pass the measure, and President Obama has expressed support for it.... Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is part of the chamber's leadership, said he would urge the Senate to approve the House bill even though he believed it fell short of what the Senate approved last year." ...

     ... CW: once again, Boehner has had to rely on Democrats to get a bill through the House. If the pressure to pass this bill had not come from within his own party, I would say he was learning.

Not Your Father's GOP. Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "In a shift over a half-century, the [Republican] party base has been transplanted from the industrial Northeast and urban centers to become rooted in the South and West, in towns and rural areas. In turn, Republicans are electing more populist, antitax and antigovernment conservatives who are less supportive -- and even suspicious -- of appeals from big business.... Big business is so fearful of economic peril if Congress does not allow the government to keep borrowing ... that it is nearly united in skepticism of, or outright opposition to, House Republicans' demand that Mr. Obama first agree to equal spending cuts in benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid."

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "When Congress struck a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, it also dealt a quiet blow to President Obama's health overhaul: The new law killed a multibillion-dollar program meant to boost health insurance competition by funding nonprofit health plans. The decision to end funding for the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans has left as many as 40 start-ups vying for federal dollars in limbo.... The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, or CO-OP, program was aimed at spending as much as $6 billion to help launch nonprofit health insurance carriers.... The fiscal cliff deal cuts nearly all of the program's unobligated funds, about $1 billion, leaving only a small portion of money to administer the CO-OP loans already granted."

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) writes an op-ed in the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News defending his fiscal cliff deal. CW: Of course he's unintentionally hilarious: his argument boils down to this -- "Since most Kentuckians don't make a lot of money, very few of you will get hit with higher taxes." That's selfless Mitch, always looking out for his constituents even as he himself suffers the burdens of wealth. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: Marco Rubio's immigration plan -- which like his modified Dream Act, is still all talk -- is remarkably similar to what President Obama suggested in 2011 and what Senate Democrats are working on now.

Obama 2.0. Allison Sherry of the Denver Post: "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will step down from his cabinet position in the Obama administration and return to Colorado to spend time with his family, his office has confirmed to The Denver Post. Salazar is expected to broadly announce his departure Wednesday. He has told President Barack Obama that he intends to leave his job by the end of March."

Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times: "The tiny black particles released into the atmosphere by burning fuels are far more powerful agents of global warming than had previously been estimated, some of the world's most prominent atmospheric scientists reported in a study issued on Tuesday. These particles, which are known as black carbon and are the major component of soot, are the second most important contributor to global warming, behind only carbon dioxide...."

Charles Pierce on Aaron Swartz & an informed public & democracy & stuff. He begins, "The Boston Globe went long this morning on the death by suicide of Aaron Swartz -- most of which, ironically, is behind the newspaper's paywall...." ...

... Clive Crook of the Atlantic: "Juries have already been substantially dispensed with in this country. (By substantially, I mean in 97 percent of cases.) If prosecutors are not only going to rule on guilt unilaterally but also, in effect, pass sentence as well, one wonders why we can't also dispense with judges. In recent years, as the Wall Street Journal has documented in a disturbing series of articles, Congress has enabled prosecutorial intimidation by criminalizing ever more conduct, passing laws that provide for or require extreme sentences, and reducing the burden of proof (through expanded application of 'strict liability', where lack of criminal intent is no defense)." CW: Crook suggests that we now live in a country where it's better to be the victim of a crime than to be accused of a crime. "Is this justice system actually on my side? I'm by no means sure -- an astounding state of affairs," he writes.

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "A White House spokesman on Tuesday condemned anti-Semitic comments made by President Mohamed Morsi before he took office, calling on him to 'make clear this kind of rhetoric is not acceptable or productive in a democratic Egypt.; ... Asked about Mr. Morsi's anti-Semitic statements during a briefing at the White House, Jay Carney, the press secretary, said, 'We have raised our concerns over these remarks with the government of Egypt.'"

Emma Dumain of Roll Call: "... a campaign by the D.C. Council and local activists to get President Barack Obama to adopt the city's standard license plates with the 'Taxation Without Representation' motto has succeeded. On the heels of a WhiteHouse.gov petition, a council resolution and a White House meeting Friday, all presidential vehicles will be fitted with the new plates this coming weekend.... The slogan ... calls attention to the city's lack of voting rights in Congress. When the plates were created in 2000, President Bill Clinton adopted them..., but when President George W. Bush took over, he removed them. Obama followed Bush's example and stayed silent on the issue, until now."

Meet Your Congressman! Alex Pareene: Ted Yoho (real name) (RTP-Fla.) "is a bog-standard talk radio conservative, only instead of one of those with years of experience navigating the House of Representatives, like his predecessor, he is one who believes that he will shake things up by constantly repeating clichés about being an outsider."

The White House Is Getting Sick of Answering to You the People. Macon Phillips of the White House: "Starting today [Tuesday, Jan. 15], as we move into a second term, petitions [to the White House via the We the People Webpage] must receive 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive an official response from the Obama Administration. This new threshold applies only to petitions created from this point forward and is not retroactively applied to ones that already exist."

Local News

Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: "Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) recently rolled out a plan to replace his state's personal income and corporate taxes with an increased sales tax. Such a move would shift taxes from the rich to the poor, who are disproportionately hit by the sales tax. According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jindal's plan will raise taxes on the bottom 80 percent of Louisianians, while cutting them for the richest 1 percent."

Right Wing World

Eric Lach of TPM: "A group of self-appointed 'patriots' are moving forward with an idea for a planned community of several thousand families of 'patriotic Americans' in Idaho, a project named The Citadel, envisioned as a 'martial endeavor designed to protect Residents in times of peril (natural or man-made).'" Thanks to contributor Lisa for the link.

Dibs on one of those houses between the arms factory & the firearms museum. Art by the Citadel, via TPM.... CW: In case -- like me -- you are contemplating a move to this particular fortress, the organizers warn that "Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles." They are not entirely unrealistic. ...

... Update: I can see already we are going to have fun modifying the Citadel's working plans.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was grounding all Boeing 787s operated by United States carriers until it can determine what caused a new type of battery to catch fire on two planes in nine days."

New York Times: "The French military assault on Islamist extremists in Mali escalated into a potentially much broader North African conflict on Wednesday when, in retribution, armed attackers in unmarked trucks seized an internationally managed natural gas field in neighboring Algeria and took at least 20 foreign hostages, including Americans."

New York Times: "The American military has suspended the transfer of detainees to some Afghan prisons out of concern over continuing human rights abuses and torture, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Wednesday in response to questions about the subject."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration is considering significant military backing for France's drive against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, but its support for a major ally could test U.S. legal boundaries and stretch counterterrorism resources in a murky new conflict. The United States is already providing surveillance and other intelligence help to France and may soon offer military support such as transport or refueling planes, according to U.S. officials, who stressed that any assistance would stop short of sending American combat forces to the volatile West African nation." ...

... Al Jazeera: "French troops are heading north in Mali towards rebel-occupied territory at the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat 'within hours'. Nigeria is leading the African intervention in the country, with the deployment of about 200 soldiers as foreign governments invest heavily in the country to prevent it from falling into rebel hands. Edouard Guillaud, France's military chief of staff, said that the French ground operations began overnight."

Al Jazeera: "Two guards and five fighters have been killed in a suicide attack on the national headquarters of Afghanistan spy agency [in Kabul], officials said. 'There were five attackers involved. The first detonated a car bomb at the gate, the other four were shot dead by police and NDS guards as they approached,' [an official]... said, adding that about 30 civilians were wounded in Wednesday's attack."

AP: "A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in northern Iraq early Wednesday, the deadliest in a wave of morning attacks that killed at least 31 people across the country. The violence comes amid rising tensions among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups that threaten to plunge the country back into chaos...."

New York Times: "Japan's two largest airlines said Wednesday they would ground their fleets of Boeing's new 787 aircraft, the Dreamliner, after one operated by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing in western Japan."