The Commentariat -- June 26

Faint Praise. Maureen Dowd says of Barack Obama's slow "evolution" on gay marriage, "He’s not as bad as New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who gave another grumpy interview on Thursday ... asserting: 'You think it’s going to stop with this? You think now bigamists are going to want their rights to marry? You think somebody that wants to marry his sister is going to now say, "I have a right"? I mean, it’s the same principle, isn’t it?'” Yup, gay marriage is just like incest & bigamy. Oh, why not do the full Santorum & add bestiality? ...

... I've added a Dowd page to today's Off Times Square, but write on any topic. Karen Garcia & I have commented on Dowd. The Times has squelched my comment, but you can recommend Garcia's, which is Comment #1.

Frank Bruni, in his first Washington Post op-ed column, writes a fine one about gay rights & gay marriage.

This bears repeating. New York Times Editors: "Multinational companies say they could repatriate hundreds of billions in foreign profits and pump them into domestic investment and hiring, but only if Congress and the White House agree to cut the tax rate on those profits to 5.25 percent from 35 percent.... According to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the proposed cut would cost $79 billion over 10 years.... They call their plan 'the next stimulus.' Sounds more like extortion. In the last five years American businesses have kept abroad more than $1 trillion worth of foreign earnings.... The Obama administration should not give in to such corporate coercion.... The last time big businesses got such a 'tax holiday,' in 2005, companies spent most of the money rewarding their shareholders with stock buybacks and dividends, not in hiring."

There should start to be some real investigations as to whether Clarence Thomas can continue to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court. -- Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Darlene Superville of the AP: "On her second overseas business trip without the president, and to the black motherland, [Michelle Obama,] America's first black first lady, was warmly received everywhere she went, often with song and to the point of almost being moved to tears. She spoke passionately about her causes, tickled and danced with some of the youngest Africans, and sat with presidents and first ladies, including Nelson Mandela, South Africa's former president and a hero of the anti-apartheid movement."

The Washington Post's top story today, by Carol Leonnig, et al., asks if President Obama is too cozy with clean-energy manufacturers -- some of whom contributed heavily to his 2008 campaign -- at the expense of, you know, dirty energy producers. CW: I think the Republican party wrote this one for the Post.

Crime Blotter

Douglas Martin of the New York Times: "Randall Dale Adams, who spent 12 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of a Dallas police officer was thrown out largely on the basis of evidence uncovered by a filmmaker, died in obscurity in October in Washington Court House, Ohio. He was 61.... The film that proved so crucial to Mr. Adams was 'The Thin Blue Line,' directed by Errol Morris and released in 1988." CW: Now that we know so much about wrongful convictions, I don't know if we would be so shocked by "The Thin Blue Line" as viewers were in 1988, but if you haven't seen it, do so. Most documentaries aren't riveting; this one is. Martin's article, which outlines Adams' story is pretty riveting, too.

Life on the Lam with Whitey. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times profiles Catherine Elizabeth Greig, reputed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulgar's companion. The FBI has arrested both, and they are back in Boston where they both face trials for multiple felonies.

The trailer for the documentary film "Incendiary," on the execution of Texan Cameron Todd Willingham for a crime of arson and murder he most likely did not commit:

Right Wing World *

Melanie Mason & Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times: "Rep. Michele Bachmann has been propelled into the 2012 presidential contest in part by her insistent calls to reduce federal spending.... But the Minnesota Republican and her family have benefited personally from government aid, an examination of her record and finances shows. A counseling clinic run by her husband has received nearly $30,000 from the state of Minnesota in the last five years, money that in part came from the federal government. A family farm in Wisconsin, in which the congresswoman is a partner, received nearly $260,000 in federal farm subsidies."

* Where taxpayers should subsidize me but not you.

Local News

Crocker Stephenson, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "An argument between state Supreme Court Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley became physical earlier this month, according to sources who told the Journal Sentinel two very different stories Saturday.... According to some sources, Prosser wrapped his hands around Bradley's neck. According to others, Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck. A joint investigation by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism first reported Saturday on the incident, stating that Prosser 'grabbed' Bradley around the neck.... The confrontation occurred after 5:30 p.m. June 13, the day before high court's release of a decision upholding a bill to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees." ...

     ** ... Update: "Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month. 'The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold,' Bradley told the Journal Sentinel."

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Under Wisconsin law, '[w]hoever intentionally causes bodily harm or threatens to cause bodily harm to the person or family member of any judge ... is guilty of a Class H felony.' ... Should the allegations prove true, however, there are at least four paths to remove Justice Prosser from office.” ...

... Steve Benen: "Given Prosser’s track record and apparent hostility towards women, it’s awfully difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt. And if true, putting one’s hands around a colleague’s neck, in anger, seems like a no-brainer when it comes to removing a judge from the bench. Indeed, it sounds an awful lot like assault and battery."

Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel: "After dropping nearly $9 million from his own pocket to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson didn't have to feel the pain for very long. Johnson's plastics company paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly before he was sworn in as Wisconsin's junior senator, according to his latest financial disclosure report.... 'It looks like a scheme to get around a century-old law' barring corporate donations to candidates, said Mike McCabe, head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident whose activism on behalf of the environment and AIDS suffers [sic.] landed him in prison for the last three and a half years, was released in the pre-dawn hours Sunday and returned to his home in Beijing, his wife said in a Twitter posting."

AP: Lulz Security, "a publicity-seeking hacker group that has blazed a path of mayhem on the Internet over the last two months, including attacks on law enforcement sites, said unexpectedly on Saturday it is dissolving itself. Lulz Security made its announcement through its Twitter account. It gave no reason for the disbandment, but it could be a sign of nerves in the face of law enforcement investigations. Rival hackers have also joined in the hunt, releasing information they say could point to the identities of the six-member group."

The Commentariat -- June 25

President Obama's Weekly Address:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on passage of the same-sex marriage bill:

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed. But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition. And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap." ...

... Jessica Dye of Reuters: "When New York became the sixth and by far the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage..., it immediately transformed the national debate over the issue, legal experts said. With a population over 19 million -- more than the combined population of the five states that currently allow gay marriage, plus the District of Columbia, where it is also legal -- New York is poised to provide the most complete picture yet of the legal, social and economic consequences of gay marriage."

I've added a comments page for Charles Blow's column on Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have posted comments.

Charles Blow: "Until more politicians understand — or remember — what it means to be poor in this country, we are destined to fail the least among us, and all of us will pay a heavy price for that failure."

Dana Milbank: "... the breadth of [President] Obama’s fights with his political base is striking. Compounding the feeling of betrayal is the progressive lawmakers’ belief that Obama was one of them – not some centrist, Clintonian character. I’m sympathetic to Obama’s instincts to keep to the political center, but the routine spurning of his political base does seem extravagant."

Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy: the Administration is putting lipstick on a pig by claiming partial victory on the Libyan votes today. The only reason the 70 members of progressive caucus voted against the funding bill proposed by Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) was that it authorized the Libyan intervention. They would have voted for a stronger bill defunding the Libyan effort. ...

I believe that this administration has handled [the Libyan campaign] so badly, that if they had come to Congress, I think they would have done more of their homework. They have not done a full assessment of their mission, its scope, or the consequences if they're successful. Congress would have required that. Now it's a little late.
-- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio)

... ALSO from Josh Rogin: Rep. Turner says that in a closed-door briefing by Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, Italy, Locklear admitted that the goal of NATO was to kill Muammar al-Qaddafi. Locklear also claimed, in conformity to President Obama public statements, that "regime change" is not a NATO goal. CW: since Qaddafi is the regime, I guess the Administration is counting on his corpse to run Libya. That should work. 

Paul Krugman: If the GOP is "so deeply, deeply concerned about the budget deficit," how come they walked out of the debt ceiling talks? "The answer, of course, is that the GOP never cared about the deficit — not a bit. It has always been nothing but a club with which to beat down opposition to an ideological goal, namely the dissolution of the welfare state. They’re not interested, at all, in a genuine deficit-reduction deal if it does not serve that goal." Krugman also points out, with a chart! that a refusal to raise taxes is ludicrous inasmuch as "federal tax receipts as a percentage of GDP are near a historic low." ...

... CW: Talk about bipartisanship -- I agree with Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama! Daniel Strauss of The Hill reports that Sessions, "the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, says President Obama needs to bring the negotiations over increasing the debt ceiling out into the open." Public hearings! Sunshine! Oh, Jefferson, darlin,' you are my sunshine! (Never mind the rest of what Sen. Jeff says.)

Bill Maher & panel assess the Obama presidency:

Former car czar Steven Rattner in a New York Times op-ed: "Thanks to Washington, 4 of every 10 ears of corn grown in America — the source of 40 percent of the world’s production — are shunted into ethanol, a gasoline substitute that imperceptibly nicks our energy problem. Larded onto that are $11 billion a year of government subsidies to the corn complex.... Reports filtering out of the budget talks currently under way suggest that agriculture subsidies sit prominently on the chopping block. The time is ripe."

What's the Matter with Kansas? Con'd. A. G. Sulzberger & Monica Davey of the New York Times: "One in a series of abortion limits approved in Kansas since Republicans took full control of the state government this year — a new license law — is raising uncertainty about the future of all abortion providers in the state.... The licenses ... newly dictate requirements for the size of rooms at abortion clinics, the stocking of emergency equipment, medications and blood supplies, and ties to nearby hospitals..." ...

These requirements range from the impossible to the absurd. They’re not designed to protect patient safety; they’re designed to shut down abortion providers. -- Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "... in [school] districts across the country, many school officials said they had little choice but to eliminate librarians, having already reduced administrative staff, frozen wages, shed extracurricular activities and trimmed spending on supplies."

Oh, hooray. The Times has hired another white male columnist. Veteran investigative reporter James Stewart examines a case of bribery at Tyson Foods. After top executives learned of the bribery of Mexican veterinarians who were certifiying Tyson poultry, the execs conspired to both continue the bribes & hide them for several years. Finally, on the advice of counsel, they came clean. The DOJ & SEC levied fines against the company, but did not press criminal charges against the executives, leaving shareholders to pay for the crimes & executives to beat the rap. But, hey, Tyson emphasizes that no one died!

Marc Lacey & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "A cache of internal documents released online on Thursday by hackers who gained access to the computer system of the Arizona Department of Public Safety revealed the array of potential outlaws on the state police’s radar screen, from international terrorists to Mexican drug smugglers to motorcycle gang members.... The Arizona police agency shut down its e-mail system on Thursday and Friday to allow computer forensics experts time to investigate the intrusion, which was orchestrated by Lulz Security, a group of hackers who have previously gained access to a number of government and private Web sites." CW: this might be fun & games, but the hackers dumped everything & revealed sensitive information, including the names & addresses of officers & undercover officers.

Joe Klein: Tim Pawlenty is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.

Right Wing World *

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker plans to sign his infamous budget bill "at a business owned by Greg DeCaster, a convicted tax evasion felon." ...

     ... BUT. Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker has called off plans to sign the 2011-'13 budget bill at a private Green Bay-area company run by an executive with eight felony convictions, a spokesman announced today. The announcement came less than an hour after the Journal Sentinel contacted the governor's office to ask about the executive's criminal history."

* Where reality occasionally sneaks up & kicks you in the ass.

News Ledes

The Hill: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), "the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is crafting a bill that would temporarily freeze the Obama administration’s power to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. The measure is in response to a memo issued by the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week that approved a broader breadth of discretion for agency officials when considering whether to deport someone through the Secure Communities program."

The Hill: "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will demand a seat in the table for the final talks on the national debt limit, putting a strong liberal voice in the room. Pelosi and House Democrats were left out of the negotiations between President Obama and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last year that extended nearly all of the Bush tax rates though 2012. Pelosi didn’t participate in the final high-level talks over fiscal 2011 spending levels either. But now she’s demanding her say at a time when many of her House Democratic colleagues are disappointed in Obama’s level of consultation with their caucus."

AP: "With a threat of still more rain looming, Minot, [North Dakota,] was bracing Saturday for the Souris River to cascade past its already unprecedented level and widen a path of destruction that had severely damaged thousands of homes and threatened many others."

AFP: "The US Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of F-22 fighters, the most sophisticated combat aircraft in the world, after problems emerged with the plane's oxygen supply, officials said Friday. The radar-evading F-22 Raptors have been barred from flying since May 3 and Air Force officials could not say when the planes would return to the air."

AP: "A suicide attacker blew up his sport utility vehicle packed with explosives outside of a small medical clinic in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, Afghan authorities said. Some reports put the death toll as high as 60."

Reuters: "The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff's victims is now demanding $19 billion in damages from JPMorgan Chase & Co, more than tripling what he hopes to recover from what had been the main bank for the now-imprisoned Ponzi schemer."

Space: "A small asteroid the size of a tour bus will make an extremely close pass by the Earth on Monday, but it poses no threat to the planet The asteroid will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica...."

The Commentariat -- June 24

I've posted a David Brooks page on Off Times Square. Comment on Brooks' column or something else.

** Paul Krugman & Robin Wells in the New York Review of Books: "The great financial crisis of 2008–2009, whose consequences still blight our economy, is sometimes portrayed as ... an extraordinary event that nobody could have predicted. But it was, in fact, just the most recent installment in a recurrent pattern of financial overreach, taxpayer bailout, and subsequent Wall Street ingratitude. And all indications are that the pattern is set to continue.... The busts keep getting bigger.... It was not always thus.... [President] Reagan, the great moralizer, made unchecked greed and runaway individualism not only acceptable, but lauded, in the American psyche." Read the entire review.

New York Times Editors: "Congressional Republicans, who played a major role in piling up the government’s unsustainable debt in the first place, have thrown a tantrum and walked out of the debt limit talks. This bit of grandstanding has brought the nation closer to the financial crisis that Republicans have been threatening for weeks. But, at least now, their real goals are in sharp focus." ...

... Erik Wasson & Russell Berman of The Hill, like other news outlets, report the surface story as high drama: "Negotiations over cutting Washington’s debt plunged into crisis Thursday, as the top Republican negotiator walked out of talks over his Democratic counterparts’ demand that taxes be raised. The walkout, by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), means talks to avert a debt default can probably now be salvaged only by two men: President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)." CW: Crisis! Only Obama & Boehner can save the nation! ...

... BUT the underlying story is more intriguing. And you won't be suprised to learn that so far it has a villain but no heroes: Ezra Klein details why Eric Cantor walked. Not surprisingly, it was all about Eric Cantor -- if he forces John Boehner to make a deal on tax increases, Cantor not only maintains his credibility with his Tea Party caucus, he weakens Boehner's hold on the Speakership. It is not, as Cantor claimed, the President he wants at the table -- it's Boehner. ...

     ... CW: Much Ado about Nothing. I'd do Klein one better. I think there's a good chance Cantor's little stunt will backfire on him. The Times editors have approrpriately characterized his antics as "a temper tantrum," reminding us of "Crybaby" Newt Gingrich during 1995 budget negotiations; that "crybaby" label contributed to Newt's downfall. Unless Boehner engineered Cantor's move to make himself the hero, he's more than irritated at Cantor; it's not usually a good idea to piss off the boss. AND of course when Boehner & Obama do cut a deal, Boehner could be seen as the hero, not the bad guy who caved on tax increases that -- guess what? -- will be ones popular with the public anyway. ...

     ... Update: In fact, Molly Hooper, also of The Hill, is reporting that Republicans now claim Cantor's walkout was long-planned. It's part of a coordinated effort to force President Obama to propose a solution, which they can bash. ...

I think it’s now in the hands of the speaker and the president and, sadly, probably me. -- Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader ...

     ... CW: Matthew Zeitlin, an intern at The New Republic, consults experts who provide legal justification for what I said months ago: if the Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the Administration should ignore them & pay the bills anyway. "The government cannot legally default on its debts. Former Reagan official and maverick conservative budget wonk Bruce Bartlett has suggested as much by invoking Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says that 'The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.'” Read the whole post.

Ezra Klein: President Obama announced a major spending cut Wednesday night. He called it "withdrawing troops from Afghanistan." In a hypothetical scenario, the CBO projected that if the U.S. ended the current wars (not sure if that included the Libyan BFF bombs), "total discretionary outlays over the 2012–2021 period would be $1.1 trillion less than the amount in the baseline. Debt-service costs would bring the cumulative savings relative to the baseline to about $1.4 trillion over the coming decade.”

"Appoint & Nominate." Law Prof. Ian Ayres in a Washington Post op-ed, has a solution to Republican Senators' promise to refuse to confirm any Obama nominee to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: "The president should make a recess appointment of Elizabeth Warren and simultaneously nominate Sarah Raskin for the same position.... Raskin is ... abundantly qualified for the position. It would be hard for Republican senators to argue that Raskin, as a recently confirmed Federal Reserve governor, is a bad-faith nominee.... While traditional recess appointments usurp the Senate’s advise-and-consent role, the 'appoint and nominate' strategy would empower the Senate to end the recess appointment as soon as it wanted. Warren would, in effect, serve at the pleasure of the Senate."

So you think rising income disparity doesn't matter? Kevin Drum of Mother Jones posts this county-by-county map of the change in life expectancies for American women from 1987 to 2007. Those red counties  are areas where life expectancy has dropped. As Drum writes, "For life expectancy to decline in a developed nation is rare.... A key finding of the data is that 'inequality appears to be growing in the U.S.,' said Eileen Crimmins, a gerontologist at USC":

Tanya Somanader of Think Progress: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admits Republican opposition to President Obama's Libyan stance would be "muted" if Obama were a Republican. With video. CW: I think the left is making a bigger deal of this than it is. McConnell is simply acknowledging his awareness of human nature: people are apt to keep their mouths shut when their friends screw up.

Carlotta Gall, et al., of the New York Times: "The cellphone of Osama bin Laden’s trusted courier, which was recovered in the raid that killed both men in Pakistan last month, contained contacts to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan’s intelligence agency.... The discovery indicates that Bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside the country.... It also raised tantalizing questions about whether the group and others like it helped shelter and support Bin Laden on behalf of Pakistan’s spy agency, given that it had mentored Harakat and allowed it to operate in Pakistan for at least 20 years."

Right Wing World *

Sen. Jim DeMint lays down the Crazy Gauntlet:

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, Gov. Rick Perry Episode:

... Marc McDonald of Beggars Can Be Choosers has more. Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link.

* Where governors are kings and you're not.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The [New York] State Senate will vote on same-sex marriage, the Senate majority leader said Friday afternoon, setting the stage for a final decision on a measure that could make New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples can wed. The exact timing for a vote was unclear, though it was expected to occur Friday night." ...

     ... ** The new lede on this story: "Thirty-three state senators have publicly declared they will support legalizing same-sex marriage, all but assuring passage of the measure which will make New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples can wed." ...

     ... ** Update: "Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples can wed, and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born." ...

     ... ** Update: not in the lede to the revised story above, but in the headline: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the measure at 11:55 p.m., and the law will go into effect in 30 days...." So there you are. Equal rights come to America, little by little.

New York Times: "Peter Falk, who marshaled actorly tics, prop room appurtenances and his own physical idiosyncrasies to personify Columbo, one of the most famous and beloved fictional detectives in television history, died on Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 83.

Washington Post: "A day after debt-reduction talks led by Vice President Biden appeared to have broken down, the White House announced that President Obama would directly intervene in the negotiations, beginning one-on-one meetings with key lawmakers next week. Obama will start by meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday."

President Obama toured the Carnegie Mellon University National Robotics Engineering Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this morning. AP: "Imagining advances from lighter cars to smarter robots, President Barack Obama is announcing a $500 million project to spur high-technology manufacturing, a sector of U.S. industry that presidential advisers say has lost ground to such competitors as Germany and Japan." Update: here's a post-speech report from the Los Angeles Times. AND here's the text of the President's remarks, as delivered. See video above.

Wall Street Journal: "Federal regulators are poised to hit Google Inc. with subpoenas, launching a broad, formal investigation into whether the Internet giant has abused its dominance in Web-search advertising, people familiar with the matter said. The civil probe, which has the potential to reshape how companies compete on the Internet, is the most serious legal threat yet to the 12-year-old company, though it wouldn't necessarily lead to any federal allegations of wrongdoing against Google."

Time: "The House of Representatives on Friday is expected to hold two votes on U.S. action in Libya." CW: do read the article; the writer -- Jay Newton-Small -- lays out a nice little vignette that demonstrates anew how messy the legislative process is. ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "The House on Friday voted to reject a resolution that would have authorized the military operation in Libya -- delivering a rebuke to President Obama for conducting the operation without congressional approval. The vote was 123 to 295.... Seventy Democrats and 225 Republicans voted against the resolution.... The proposal, modeled on one proposed in the Senate by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), would have given permission for a “limited” operation for one year. It would not have allowed for U.S. ground troops in Libya.... Later on Friday, the House will vote on another resolution that would strip away funding for offensive operations in Libya, including strikes by unmanned U.S. drones." ...

     ... WashPost Update 2: "In something of a surprise, the House on Friday rejected a measure to cut funding for offensive operations by U.S. forces in Libya, pulling back from an effort to confront President Obama over the three month-old conflict. That resolution failed by a vote of 180 to 238. It would not have ended the U.S. mission in Libya, but it would have cut off funding for American forces that are not engaged in support missions within the NATO-led coalition...."

Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, which had been seeking a budget increase to keep pace with its expanded responsibilities, struck out Thursday in a House committee that controls its purse strings. The Appropriations Committee voted to keep the agency’s budget flat in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The $1.19 billion the committee approved fell short of the Obama administration’s request by $222.5 million." CW: I'm so surprised.

New York Times: "In a sharp rebuke to the Obama administration, the Republican chairman of the House education committee on Thursday challenged plans by the education secretary to override provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Law, and he said he would use a House rewrite of it this year to rein in the secretary’s influence on America’s schools."

AP: "After 16 long years as a fugitive, notorious gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger was expected to be returned home to Boston on Friday, a law enforcement official said." With new mugshot.

I've brought the following three stories forward from yesterday's Ledes as I posted the links in the wee hours:

New York Times: "President Obama said he expected some heckling and he got it. More than 600 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people paid $1,250 each to attend a Democratic fund-raising dinner in Manhattan on Thursday and, to the vocal disappointment of some, they did not hear him endorse same-sex marriage generally or the bill that would legalize it in New York State."

Star-Ledger, et al.: "New Jersey lawmakers tonight voted to enact a sweeping plan to cut public worker benefits after a long day of high-pitched political drama in the streets of Trenton and behind closed doors. Union members chanted outside the Statehouse and in the Assembly balcony, and dissident Democrats tried to stall with amendments and technicalities. Although they successfully convinced top lawmakers to remove a controversial provision restricting public workers’ access to out-of-state medical care, they failed to halt a historic defeat for New Jersey’s powerful unions and a political victory for Republican Gov. Chris Christie."

New York Times: "Federal law enforcement officials have arrested two men who they say planned to attack a military processing center here using machine guns and grenades. The men — Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph A. Davis, 33, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, also known as Frederick Domingue Jr., 32, of Los Angeles — were arrested late Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to murder federal officers and employees, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and several firearms-related charges."