The Commentariat -- April 5, 2012

The Constant Weader Is Out Sick Today

If you want to post links to articles you find interesting, please do. Because your comment might get stuck in my annoying Approval Limbo, you might not want to bother to write long, thoughtful comments; if I malinger for days, your thoughts could linger for days unread.

The Commentariat -- April 4, 2012

CW: I'm having eye surgery -- again -- today, so I don't know when I'll be able to post again because I don't know when I'll be able to see again. When I start up again, posting will probably be light as I'm supposed to rest a lot. So keep coming back. I'll get back up to speed as soon as I can.

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer takes a quick look at today's New York Times op-eds and concentrates on Ross Douthat's amazing post on "The Virtues of the Super PAC." The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. Since I compare the Times Opinion page to "The Onion," I suppose I should tell you that this is an "Onion" report, not the Times' daily podcast:

... AND contra Douthat, Fred Wertheimer writes in a Washington Post op-ed that "the only good news about the super PACs flooding the 2012 presidential race" is that "these vehicles for corruption can be eliminated. Congress can pass legislation to end these candidate-specific super PACs that is well within the bounds of Citizens United."

... Trevor Trimm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes on an important ACLU investigation of warrantless cell phone tracking. Trimm also covers the Obama administration's "absurd" pretense that the U.S. might not have a drone surveillance program, and on the FBI's "bending the rules" to surveil Americans. CW: if you were waiting for Big Brother to arrive, turn around. He might be following you.

Don't miss yesterday's comments, especially the last -- a heart-rending memoir by Julie in Massachusetts & a reminder of why we keep rowing against the current.

Your Thought for the Day (thanks to Akhilleus, who I assume is not a Mithraist but perhaps is a Dionysian):

** CW: An excellent post by Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic on his "final thoughts" on the Supreme Court's hearing of oral arguments on the ACA. A good deal of this is review of what I've linked here or written on NYTX, but Cohen puts it all together. Especially if you have been persuaded that the ACA might not be constitutional, you should read Cohen's post. ...

... Maureen Dowd adds nothing to the argument but at least she's finally writing about a substantive political matter, & her characterizations of the Supremes are on target: "Inexplicably mute 20 years after he lied his way onto the court, Clarence Thomas didn’t ask a single question during oral arguments for one of the biggest cases in the court’s history." (If you'd forgotten about that perjury, here's a reminder.) ...

     ... Still, no matter how warmed-over-blogosphere her column, the right -- hard and soft -- thinks Dowd overstepped her bounds in criticizing the Court. Apparently "the way things should be in the opinionator realm" is that opinion writers may not write opinions that express a right-of-center view.

... Robert Pear & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times on what GOP legislators would do about health insurance if the Supremes strike the ACA: "Beyond some familiar ideas and slogans about 'patient-centered health care,' the Republicans concede that they have far to go to come up with a comprehensive policy to fill the gap that could be left by a Supreme Court ruling this summer."

** James Downie of the Washington Post on President Obama's budget speech yesterday, and how he used facts to make his points about the Ryan/GOP House budget -- in contrast to Ryan's speech on his budget -- a speech in which Ayn Ryan made up stuff. Video of the speech is at the top of yesterday's News Ledes. ...

... New York Times Editors: "President Obama’s fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism. He accused his opponents of imposing on the country a 'radical vision' that 'is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity.'”

... Ezra Klein: "If Obama can convince the electorate that taxes go to fund services they actually care about, and the Republicans are unwisely committed to gutting those services in order to cut taxes on the richest Americans, then he's likely to win. If Mitt Romney is able to persuade them that taxes are mostly wasted, and that spending should be gutted to pay for large tax cuts, then he's likely to win." ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: Obama boasts about shifting right. "... the President made a very cogent case against Paul Ryan’s budget.... And he made a very good case that, in a choice between the right and the middle, the middle position, his position, should be preferable. That this leaves out an entire side of the argument should be quite obvious. This isn’t just on Obama, by the way. We’ve had a rightward shift in our politics for the last forty years. Obama didn’t really try to change that, instead positioning himself in the middle on policy, instead of shifting where the middle is perceived. But what major Democratic political figure HAS tried to change that over those forty years?" ...

... CW: I agree wholeheartedly with Dayen's caveat. But I will say this: if President Obama had been giving this kind of speech throughout his presidency, we might not be in the mess we're in. And we might not have a Republican House. Where was this guy? A part of the speech I especially enjoyed actually came in the Q&A session (I think), when Obama pointedly told the assembled reporters that he-said/she-said journalism is inherently untruthful; that the middle ground is not halfway between far right and the center, & they should quit reporting it as such.

Steve Benen: President Obama's remarks about the constitutionality of the ACA have "apparently sent some Republicans looking for the fainting couch. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) told Fox News Radio that Obama may have been 'trying to intimidate the Supreme Court' with comments Smith feared may have been 'threatening.' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), still trying to prove his hysterical bona fides to his party base, sounded a similar alarm, saying it's 'unprecedented' for any president to try to 'intimidate the Supreme Court.' Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) parroted the same talking points... It's almost as if a memo went out -- saying in reference to the president's comments,'"It is threatening, it is intimidating.'" ...

... Greg Sargent: "If you really want to hear an 'attack' on the court, go check out F.D.R.'s 1937 address, in which he accused the Court of wanting to banish the nation to a 'No-Man’s Land of final futility.' Or check out his Fireside Chat about his court-packing scheme, in which he warned that it was time to 'save the Constitution from the Court' and accused the courts of operating in 'direct contradiction of the high purposes of the framers of the Constitution.'”

... Andy Rosenthal of the New York Times: "In the case of the individual mandate, the issue is whether this court will sweep aside deeply established judicial precedent and cripple the government’s ability to enforce the constitution’s commerce clause. The mandate is clearly within that established legal framework. It’s also troubling that some justices are more focused on whether they like this law than whether this law is constitutional. That is the argument Mr. Obama needs to make. His comments [Monday] were a bad start."

Deborah Solomon, now of Bloomberg News: "The phrase 'job-killing regulation' has become a standard part of the political lexicon this campaign season, most often used to disparage President Barack Obama's energy and environmental policies. But a new report suggests we ought to take claims of regulatory-related unemployment with a grain of salt. The Institute for Political Integrity, a nonpartisan think tank associated with the New York University School of Law, finds many of the studies purporting to show mass job losses -- or gains -- from environmental rules use poorly executed economic models that do not accurately measure true costs and benefits." ...

... Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "... the Obama administration has often been more cautious on regulatory issues than the F.D.A. Its top officials — many of whom have been at the agency for decades — contend that their decisions should be divorced from politics and based solely on assessments of the science." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... the real importance of the story is that, if the reporting is correct, the White House has made a serious mistake: It has focused too much on criticism from talk radio cranks and yahoos, instead of supporting good policy, even if it might yield 24 hours of attacks from the right.... The possibility that [talkshow hosts will] freak out over policy should be the last thing that the White House considers."

AP (via the NYT): "Surging above $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt has surpassed credit card and auto-loan debt. This debt explosion jeopardizes the fragile recovery, increases the burden on taxpayers and possibly sets the stage for a new economic crisis."

Right Wing World

Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post watched Mitt Romney's victory speeches last night last night & couldn't help notice the Etch-a-Sketch is already at work: "It is ... hard to watch Etch-a-Sketch Romney and not think about his long record of pandering.... There [are] those clips in which Romney insists that he is 'severely conservative,' those in which he positions himself right of Rick Perry on immigration, those in which he claims to be enthused about the radical restructuring of the federal government that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) calls a budget, or those in which he obfuscates on climate change. Even the more vigorous shaking of the Etch-a-Sketch that we are bound to see from Romney won’t prevent Obama from replaying all of that film over and over again between now and November."

Yesterday Dave Weigel of Slate, who lives in Washington, D.C., cast his vote for Jon Huntsman. Weigel explains why.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican nomination on Tuesday with a sweep of the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and found himself in his first direct engagement with President Obama, an unmistakable signal that the general election would not wait for internal Republican politics. Mr. Romney emerged from the evening with substantial gains in delegates and a growing perception that he was winning over previously reluctant elements of the party." Washington Post story here.

New York Times: "In a move likely to alter treatment standards in hospitals and doctors’ offices nationwide, a group of nine medical specialty boards plans to recommend on Wednesday that doctors perform 45 common tests and procedures less often, and to urge patients to question these services if they are offered. Eight other specialty boards are preparing to follow suit with additional lists of procedures their members should perform far less often."

Washington Post: "The standoff between the federal government and a high-profile Arizona sheriff accused of discriminating against Hispanics escalated Tuesday when settlement negotiations fell through and the Justice Department threatened to sue the sheriff. Justice officials have accused Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s department of illegally detaining Hispanic residents and denying them critical services in jail."

AFP: "Syrian forces stormed several rebel bastions on Wednesday despite a truce pledge, as Russia predicted the opposition would never defeat President Bashar al-Assad's army...." Al Jazeera story here.

The New York Times reports on possible motivations of alleged killer One L. Goh, accused of killing seven people, including two Korean-Americans, and wounded three more at a small Oakland, California, college. "On Wednesday, Mr. Goh is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of murder, attempted murder and kidnapping...."

Guardian: "The presidents of Somalia's Olympic committee and football federation are among at least six people killed in a suicide attack on the country's newly reopened national theatre."

AP: "The first detachment of 200 U.S. Marines has arrived in northern Australia, where a permanent joint training hub is taking shape as part of a U.S. shift of military strength in the Asia-Pacific region."

AP: "Campus police pepper-sprayed as many as 30 demonstrators after Santa Monica College students angry over a plan to offer high-priced courses tried to push their way into a trustees meeting, authorities said."

Guardian: "Yahoo is reportedly preparing to announce a massive round of layoffs as the troubled internet company struggles to turn around its fortunes."

The Commentariat -- April 3, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' criticism of Charles Snelling, the former manager of Dulles & Reagan airports who killed his Alzheimer's-stricken wife Adrienne and himself. In case you have forgotten what a snivelling creep Brooks is since the last time I wrote about what a snivelling creep he is, my column should refresh your memory. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Good comments to yesterday's Commentariat are definitely worth your review.

Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes" on NASA & Florida's Space Coast:

... CW: This reminds me of this video, which I embedded a few weeks ago:

... Adam Sorensen of Time: "'In the politics of the past, to get your vote in the Space Coast, I’d come here and promise hundreds of billions of dollars,' Romney told voters on Cape Canaveral back in January. 'I know that's something that's very attractive, very popular, but it's simply the wrong thing to do.'"

Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times decries the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to allow police to strip-search people they have arrested for minor crimes & misdemeanors and even, as in the case before the Court, no crime at all. Thanks to reader Janice K. for the link. See also yesterday's News Ledes. CW: I wonder what percentage of Occupy protesters will be strip-searched. ...

... Charles Pierce: "In case you were wondering  when the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court was going to stop pleasuring America's corporations and get back to enabling whatever police powers come before it, this is your day. By the usual 5-4 majority, Anthony Kennedy being his usual swinging self, and writing the opinion personally, the Court decided that local police can pretty much strip-search anyone they want, for whatever reason they can make up, even if the guy they picked up never gets charged with anything because the whole thing was the result of a bookkeeping glitch, and even if the arrest was for something that isn't even a crime."

Here are the President's remarks -- made yesterday -- on the necessity and constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act:

... Here is the full press conference with President Calderon & PM Harper:

Kevin Drum: "... overturning Obamacare could end up mobilizing movement liberalism in the same way that the Warren Court mobilized movement conservatism four decades ago." CW: You'll have to read the whole post to appreciate his argument; Drum doesn't see a big public outcry against the Court, but he does see an outcry among the liberal base. ...

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic presents a number of conflicting views. He adds, "... the effect of narrow, seemingly partisan decisions can be cumulative. A decision striking down the health care law might seem more alarming precisely because it's part of a pattern that started with Bush v. Gore and Citizens United. The liberal base will certainly see it that way." ...

Steve Benen: right-wing pundits are gleefully mocking "the nearly impenetrable parochialism of American liberals." But (1) "we don't yet know the outcome," and (2) --

It wasn't just 'the left' that expected the justices to reject conservative arguments. Conservative federal judges upheld the health care law before the case reached the Supreme Court; Reagan administration officials saw the dispute as a no-brainer unworthy of the justices' time; and experts, analysts, and former Supreme Court clerks all helped form a consensus within the legal community: it was simply hard to imagine a court majority striking down the law....

So why do the predictions look ridiculous? Because the legal community -- analysts, scholars, journalists, attorneys, former clerks -- appear to have wildly overestimated the extent to which conservative justices give a damn about precedent, the facts of the case, the court's traditions and respect for restraint, lower-court rulings, the integrity of the institution, and the justices' avoidance of activism.

Another Obama ad attacks Willard for attacking Obama:

Right Wing World

... Michael Shear of the New York Times gets real with Romney on energy policy: "For several weeks, Mitt Romney has seized on the rising cost of gasoline to attack President Obama and his environmental aides for what Mr. Romney calls their misguided desire to see higher energy prices.... But Mr. Romney ... has in the past appeared much more open to the notion that rising energy costs could be good for the American economy. In his 2010 book, 'No Apology,' Mr. Romney described a gradual increase in the cost of energy as the kind of market-based incentive that conservatives could embrace." ...

... AND Steve Benen points to this post by Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: as governor of Massachusetts, Romney hiked the state's gas tax by 400 percent.

I'll leave it to Charles Pierce to inform you of the latest quote from campaign juggernaut (according to Politico) Ann Romney. If you want to avoid a spit-take, do not read while imbibing a beverage. ...

... Joe Klein of Time whacks Mitt Romney on his latest lies about President Obama, this time vis-a-vis immigration reform. Will the real Mitt Romney please get back in his pants?

Don't Confuse Him with the Facts. The economy is simply the product of all the nations’ businesses added together. -- Mitt Romney

There is more to the economy than business. It also consists of such things as the public sector and workers. The distinction is important because during the last business cycle, which coincided with the George W. Bush presidency, corporate profits rose sharply while the median income failed to rise at all.... To define the fate of the economy solely as the product of business is wrong. Not just morally wrong but factually wrong. -- Jonathan Chait, New York magazine

This is another instance where Romney shows how out-of-touch he is with ordinary Americans. He just does not see workers, let alone government workers like teachers, as contributing to the nation's economy. This is the crux of his view that workers are expendable, unions are counterproductive and gross income inequality is justifiable. For all of his self-proclaimed business expertise, Mitt Romney doesn't understand the economy. -- Constant Weader

Don't Confuse Him with the Facts. I think it’s seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course. It’s not even available to be taught. -- Rick Santorum

Of the 10 UC system schools, just one (San Francisco) doesn’t offer American history courses. But that’s because it doesn’t offer any humanities courses at all — it’s a medical school. Meanwhile, Berkeley, Irvine, Davis, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz all offer numerous American history courses. All require students to take U.S. history before they can graduate. -- Alex Seitz-Wald, Think Progress

Local News

Kent Jones of the Rachel Maddow show has a funny post on Rebecca Kleefisch, the Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor who is the first looey ever subjected to a recall vote. She is seriously upset at the unfairness of democracy. With video.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Stocks on Wall Street traded sharply lower on Wednesday, despite data showing employers are continuing to hire, as investors digested minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting that suggested further monetary stimulus action is unlikely."

The New York Times liveblog of the Republican primaries is here. Romney has been declared the winner of the Maryland primary. Update: Romney wins Wisconsin with about 42% of the vote, Santorum with 38%. Oh, yes, and Romney won D.C., where Santorum wasn't on the ballot. Ho hum. ...

... More primary news from the Times here. Here's one tidbit, from Nate Silver: "Despite the fact that no presidential candidates are on the Democratic ballot except for Barack Obama (although Maryland Democrats can cast an uncommitted vote instead), Democratic turnout has actually outpaced Republican turnout there so far. As of 8:31 p.m., Mr. Obama had 30,152 votes in the Democratic primary, or about 91 percent of the total cast. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, had 11,768 votes in the Republican primary...."

... Reuters: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared set to defeat his chief rival Rick Santorum in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, according to a Public Policy Polling survey." ...

... US News: "Mitt Romney is poised to pick up more wins in the Republican presidential primary race Tuesday when voters hit the polls in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The former Massachusetts governor is widely expected to dominate competitors in Maryland and his closest rival..., Rick Santorum, failed to even qualify for the D.C. ballot."

AP (via the NYT): "In an election-year pitch to middle-class voters, President Barack Obama is denouncing a House Republican budget plan as a 'Trojan horse,' warning that it represents 'an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country' that would hurt the pocketbooks of working families." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "President Obama opened a full-frontal assault Tuesday on the budget adopted by House Republicans, condemning it as a 'Trojan horse' and 'thinly veiled social Darwinism' that would greatly deepen inequality in the country.... The Republican budget, and the philosophy it represents, he said in remarks prepared for delivery, is 'antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who’s willing to work for it.'”

New York Times: "The United States has announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of Hafiz Saeed, a Pakistani militant leader accused of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and who in recent months has emerged at the vanguard of a prominent anti-American political movement."

AP: "One man was wounded by gunfire early Tuesday in Lexington, numerous small fires were set and dozens were arrested as thousands celebrated Kentucky's win over Kansas to claim another NCAA title, authorities reported."

Guardian: James Murdoch will step down as BSkyB chairman. Liveblog.