The Commentariat -- July 3

Okay, for you royal watchers & wedding sentimentalists, here's a doubly-whammy. If the bride, Princess Charlene, looks sad -- and she does -- it might be because a third woman came forward this past week claiming she had a child by the groom, Prince Albert II of Monaco. Here's the New York Times wedding announcement & here's an AP story on today's ceremony. This Reuters story mentions the 13th-century "Curse of the Grimaldis":

     ... The couple were married Friday in a civil ceremony. A video of the civil ceremony & link to the news story are under the Soaps near the bottom of the right column.

Now, to our own travails:

Maureen Dowd doesn't quite know what to make of the unraveling of the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She concludes, "When a habitual predator faces off against a habitual liar, the liar will most likely lose, even if it is the rare case when she is telling the truth." ...

... I've added a comments page for Dowd's column on Off Times Square. You can write on something else, if you prefer. My comment got whacked again, so Off Times Square is the only place to read it. ...

... Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times profile Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, whose office has experienced a string of high-profile losses & whose management style is controversial.

News You Can Use. David Streitfeld of the New York Times: "Two of the nation’s biggest lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, are quietly modifying loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who have not asked for help but whom the banks deem to be at special risk."

NEW. Matt Yglesias on the Constitutional option on the debt ceiling: "It’s not clear that anyone would have standing to sue if Obama refused to abide by the debt ceiling. But it seems perfectly clear that if the government promised to pay you to do some work, and then just doesn’t pay you that you have grounds for a legal complaint. The president must 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' and the appropriations bills are real laws. [Emphasis mine.] Congress passed them." CW: this is what makes sense to me. Of course, I'm not a lawyer & I don't think Yglesias is, either.

Ghost of the Gipper -- Obama Assumes the Reagan Persona

Karen Garcia one-ups Krugman's post of yesterday and finds "Four Reaganisms in One Paragraph" of President Obama's radio address. "The good news, according to the One, is not the fact that he is fighting back, but that Democrats and Republicans are agreeing on the same fake problem."...

... David Rogers: "... a POLITICO review of [President Ronald] Reagan’s own budget documents shows that the Republican president repeatedly signed deficit-reduction legislation in the 1980’s that melded annual tax increases with spending cuts just as President Barack Obama is now asking Congress to consider.... The rich diversity of Reagan-era tax changes is most striking, impacting even such conservative priorities now as the estate tax. At the same time, Reagan also signed laws to double the federal gasoline tax to build more roads and increase payroll taxes to stabilize Social Security." ...

... Steve Benen. On taxes, this puts Reagan slightly to Obama’s left.... Doesn’t it bother Republicans, just a little, that Barack Obama is more in line with the Reagan legacy than they are?" ...

... Constant Weader: it sure bothers Democrats like me. ...

... BooMan: "... today's conservatives ... don't see Reagan's presidency as the ideal. They see it as the beginning. He was the great man who got the ball rolling, not the man who governed (Goldilocks-style) just right.... So, telling Republicans how reasonable Reagan was doesn't impress today's Republicans; it just reminds them of how much progress they've made. And I'm tired of writing things that make Republicans feel warm all over."

The War on Terror Everybody. Adam Estes of The Atlantic: "Somalia is now the sixth country over which the United States is flying attack drones." And boots on the ground: "Somalia's defense minister says that American military forces touched down to collect the bodies of the insurgents."

He’s a rotten prick.... This is all about him being a bully and a punk. I wanted to punch him in his head.... You know who he reminds me of? Mr. Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ the mean old bastard who screws everybody.... He’s mean-spirited. He’s angry. If you don’t do what he says, I liken it to being spoiled, I’m going to get my way, or else. -- New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Gov. Chris Christie, who line-item vetoed many state programs for the disadvantaged. Thanks to commenter Marvin Schwalb for this rhetorical gem

Aristocracy Watch. Pradnya Joshi of the New York Times: "... the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009. Some chief executives have consistently taken token salaries — sometimes, $1 — choosing instead to rely on their ownership stakes for wealth. These stock riches don’t show up on the current pay lists.... Warren E. Buffett, for instance, saw his stock holdings rise last year by 16 percent, to $46 billion.... The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. After inflation, workers were actually making less."

... Aristocracy Watch, Con'd. E. J. Dionne: "The United States Supreme Court now sees its central task as comforting the already comfortable and afflicting those already afflicted." ...

... Lincoln Caplan, the New York Times editorial writer for legal affairs, writes a powerful editorial condemning the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Connick v. Thompson which overturned a $14MM jury award for John Thompson, who was the victim of serial prosecutorial misconduct. Caplan concludes, "The capital punishment system in this country has put many innocent people on death row. It cannot be fixed and should be repealed everywhere. With this ruling, the court made it even more likely that innocent people will be railroaded by untrained prosecutors — with the terrible prospect of their being put to death for crimes they did not commit."

** Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly: "... the Department of Justice filed a brief in federal court employee Karen Golinski's federal court challenge, supporting her lawsuit seeking access to equal health benefits for her wife and arguing strongly that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional in terms unparalleled in previous administration statements.... Unlike in other cases where DOJ has stopped defending DOMA in accordance with President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder's decision that Section 3 of DOMA -- the federal definition of marriage -- is unconstitutional, DOJ lawyers today made an expansive case in a 31-page filing that DOMA is unconstitutional."

Bibi's Big Fat Greek Wedding. Barak Ravid of Haaretz: Israeli PM Benjamin "Netanyahu’s personal investment in his relationship over the past year-and-a-half with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in which he increased diplomatic ties with the floundering European nation seems to have put the final nail in the Gaza flotilla’s coffin." CW: see also today's Ledes on arrest of flotilla captain.

Andy Greenberg of Forbes: "If Visa Europe and MasterCard Europe haven’t re-opened payment WikiLeaks by next Thursday, the group and its payment provider DataCell plan to file a complaint with the E.U. Commission against the two companies as well as the Danish payment processor Teller, according to Sveinn Andri Sveinsson, the Icelandic lawyer for WikiLeaks and DataCell." In this knockoff "ad," WikiLeaks claims the financial institutions have cost it $15MM:

Right Wing World *

Vicki Needham of The Hill: Congressional Democrats & the Obama Administration expected smooth sailing for three trade deals the White House sent to Congress last week, but House Republicans walked out of the committee hearing on the markup. Here's why: "GOP lawmakers are opposing the decision to include Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which helps retrain workers displaced by foreign trade, as part of the South Korean deal, insisting, instead, that TAA be considered separately."  CW: They don't want to retrain displaced American workers???? Can we just face it? Republicans hate people. The 2012 Democratic campaign theme for 2012 should be "Republicans: They're just not that into you."

Ryan Reilly of TPM: "The sponsor of an Ohio bill which restricts access to the ballot box was arrested back in April on drunk driving charges.... On April 23, an Indiana state trooper pulled Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, [a Republican,] over for a burned out headlight.... After failing three separate field sobriety tests, Mecklenborg allegedly refused to take a breath test and was placed under arrest. A blood test later revealed that he had recently taken a Viagra.... Mecklenborg was accompanied by a 26-year-old woman, who a local blogger claims has 'personal connections' with Concepts Show Girls strip club, which is right near where Mecklenborg was arrested." CW: since the police almost certainly confiscated Mecklenborg's driver's licence, he no long has a voter ID.

* Where the facts occasionally kick the deserving in the ass. 

News Ledes

CNN: Speaking at Aspen, former President Bill Clinton urged the White House "not to blink" in the debt ceiling negotiations & said President Obama should stand his ground.&

AP: "Greek authorities have arrested the captain of a boat that is part of a Gaza-bound flotilla trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, officials said yesterday."

AP: "Hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River after an ExxonMobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured, sending a plume 25 miles downstream and forcing temporary evacuations, officials said. The break near Billings in south-central Montana fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts Saturday to close intakes."

AP: On Friday Commander Christopher Ferguson, co-pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus will make NASA's 135th and final shuttle flight on board Atlantis. "It will be years before the United States sends its own spacecraft up again."

The Commentariat -- July 2

The President's Weekly Address: Cutting the deficit & creating jobs:

     ... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama on Saturday repeated his challenge to Republicans to accept higher taxes on wealthy people and corporate interests, as part of a plan to reduce the budget deficit." ...

     ... ** Krugman writes a very short, must-read post on the President's address. I'd copy the whole right thing if it weren't illegal. Here's the closer: "This is truly a tragedy: the great progressive hope (well, I did warn people) is falling all over himself to endorse right-wing economic fallacies." CW: I've written to Krugman via a comment on this post, begging him to request an audience with the great progressive hope. Why don't you do the same?

** NEW. Prof. Suzanne Mettler, in the Washington Monthly, on the government benefits Americans, especially wealthy Americans, receive through what she calls "the submerged state," a/k/a "tax loopholes." Mettler has published some of these data before, & I've linked the reports, but I highly recommend this article which reader Trish Ramey called to our attention. A sample:

As a matter of budgeting ... there is no difference between a tax break and a social program: both have to be paid for, either by raising tax rates or by adding to the deficit. Eugene Steuerle, a tax economist and political appointee in the Reagan administration, said of the distinction between tax expenditures and direct social spending, 'One looks like smaller government; one looks like bigger government. In fact, they both do exactly the same thing.'

CW: I'm not sure how accurate this is since it's a case of the White House tooting its own horn, but the Council of Economic Advisers released a report (pdf) asserting that the stimulus (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) raised GDP by as much as 3.2 percent as of the first quarter of 2011 and added as many as 3.6 million jobs over its lifetime. According to the claim re: the GDP rise, "These estimates are very similar to those of a wide range of other analysts, including the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office."

Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress: "It appears the U.S. government may finally be getting smarter after decades of failure to develop a coherent approach to the phenomenon of political Islam in the Middle East. Speaking in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was seeking 'limited contacts' with members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood ahead of elections later this year, as well as with Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda." ...

... BUT, gosh, not everybody agrees this is a good idea. Adam Serwer of American Prospect: "Andrew McCarthy [of the right-wing National Review] is claiming that the news ... is ... proof that [President Obama] is secretly a part of their plan to establish a global caliphate (a plan in which killing Osama bin Laden is a key step!) While Karl Rove ... claims that engagement makes the U.S. 'look weak,' a description that presumably does not apply to Rove's former boss when he also communicated with the Brotherhood."

** Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic: "The Supreme Court term that ended this week would have looked very different if Justice Sandra Day O’Connor were still on the bench. Twenty percent of the cases were decided by a 5-4 vote, and, in many of those cases, Justice O’Connor would have voted to swing the result the other way."

It was an instance of extreme injustice. I thought that the court was not just wrong but egregiously so. -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on the Supremes' 5-4 Connick v. Thompson decision, in which conservative Justices rescinded a $14 million verdict for former death-row inmate John Thompson who was convicted largely because prosecutors illegally withheld exculpatory evidence ...

... Joan Biskupic of USA Today interviews Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Michael Powell of the New York Times: "Some day soon — today, perhaps? — an observant bookie might ask: Who faces longer election odds? Dominique Strauss-Kahn or the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.? The new district attorney’s string of losses and/or embarrassments in high-profile cases has become perversely impressive." ...

... Legal analyst Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: "The New York Times' story Thursday night ... is a devastating bit of business. Even if portions of it are inaccurate -- and I am not claiming that they are -- the piece virtually guarantees that prosecutors would lose the case if they were to proceed to trial. This is so because the alleged victim's credibility now is forever shattered...." Cohen writes a follow-up post here.

George Will enjoys blaming Democrats for everything, but this time he might be right. ...

... NEW. Contra Will -- ergo contra Morgenson & Rosner -- reader Trish Ramey recommends this May 21 post by Paul Krugman. CW: I would love to see a symposium featuring Krugman & Morgenson.

Tim Egan has a pretty hilarious post on Michele Bachman even if he does make a serious point. Here's a sample:

From her contention that eliminating the minimum wage would mean full employment to her assertion that 'almost all' people in the 'gay lifestyle' have been abused, these things can be explained. Bachmann has a worldview that requires constant reshaping in the face of real life. However, if God is writing the script for her campaign, as she says, He needs a fact-checker.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Chokehold Prosser just can't keep his hands to himself. Yesterday he grabbed the mic of a local reporter who was attempting to question him about the incident in which he allegedly put a chokehold on Justice Ann Walsh Bradley after a heated discussion:

Alexander Burns of Politico: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's New Hampshire AND Iowa staff quit. CW: Maybe they're going to work for a more serious candidate, like Newt Gingrich.

Lots of Cash but Less than Zero Class:

America needs a president who understands the special sauce of what it is that makes this country great. The fact of his personal story of being half black and all that is a wonderful, inspiriting story. But it doesn’t qualify him to be president. -- Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Jon Huntsman fundraiser & former Hillary Clinton fundraiser

Alexander Burns: "The most valuable asset [former Gov. Tim] Pawlenty [R-Minn.)] has left is his reputation as a solidly conservative governor who balanced budgets without raising taxes. Now, that reputation is drawing new scrutiny amid the spending showdown in St. Paul.... Throughout the day [yesterday], Democratic Party committees and independent groups pummeled the former governor, using the shutdown to intensify a favorite line of attack: that Pawlenty managed the Minnesota budget through a long string of gimmicks and short-term fixes that have now come home to roost." CW: see Star-Tribune story below on the Minnesota state government shutdown.

Local News

Los Angeles Times Editors assail the California legislature's decision to cut the state sales tax by one cent & cut other taxes at the expense of important programs like higher education funding.

Take the Weekend Off, Kids! Baird Helgeson of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "There won't be any holiday weekend resolution to Minnesota's government shutdown. State leaders spent Friday cooling off from the drama and bitter words with which they ended days of negotiations Thursday without an agreement for tackling Minnesota's projected $5 billion budget deficit. And Republican legislative leaders and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton had no plans to talk again until after Independence Day, giving both sides time to regroup and reassess."

News Ledes

Reuters: "Rhode Island's governor [Independent Lincoln Chafee] on Saturday signed into law a controversial bill legalizing same sex civil unions, but said it does not go far enough toward legalizing gay marriage."

New York Times: "Greece will get a vital loan installment by July 15 while work continues on a second bailout for the struggling country, euro zone finance ministers said Saturday. The ministers agreed to their portion of the 12 billion euro ($17.39 billion) loan installment in an evening conference call. The International Monetary Fund is expected to approve its part of the loan next week."

New York Times: "The clandestine American military campaign to combat Al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen is expanding to fight the Islamist militancy in Somalia, as new evidence indicates that insurgents in the two countries are forging closer ties and possibly plotting attacks against the United States, American officials say."

Los Angeles Times: "With marijuana sold openly at retail stores throughout California, some advocates, pot growers and even city officials believed authorized commercial cultivation could be next. But the Obama administration dashed that notion this week, making clear it will not allow such operations."

AP: "Syrian President Bashar Assad dismissed the governor of the key central city of Hama on Saturday after one of the largest protest gatherings to demand an end to Assad's authoritarian regime."

Reuters: "The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court on Wednesday, accuses Edgar Mitchell of illegally possessing the camera and attempting to sell it for profit."

The Commentariat -- July 1

Paul Krugman: President Obama has been "clueless" about Republican motives. "It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly. Republicans believe, in short, that ... for practical purposes his presidency is already over. It’s time — indeed, long past time — for him to prove them wrong." ...

... I've posted a comments page on Krugman's column on Off Times Square and have added my comment.

Republicans aren't just opposing the president any more, they are opposing the economic recovery itself and all that means for America's working and middle class families. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ...

... Steve Benen: "One of Congress’ most prominent Democrats has effectively accused Republicans of trying to sabotage the nation’s economy, and Republican officials aren’t expressing any outrage, and aren’t even calling for an apology.... And why not? Because to do so would be to engage in the very debate the GOP is desperate to avoid. The lesson for congressional Democrats, then, is to follow Schumer’s lead."

I find it ironic that at times people who continually attack the president, beat him up not only on policy, personality, a whole bunch of things, the minute he takes a tone that is a little more direct, and it was not personal, it was direct in that the leaders of Congress in both parties and especially those who are saying that revenue are off the table period..., that somehow that’s going to hurt the feelings of people. This is not a time to worry about feelings, this is a time to get results. -- White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley ...

... Prof. Jack Balkin on the history of the Fourteenth Amendment re: the Republican-generated debt crisis:

The original purpose of Section Four [of the Fourteenth Amendment], which is reflected in its text, was to prevent political disruption and party wrangling over the public debt following the Civil War. However, the language of the Amendment went beyond this particular historical concern. It was stated in broad terms in order to prevent future majorities in Congress from repudiating the federal debt to gain political advantage, to seek political revenge, or to try to disavow previous financial obligations because of changed policy priorities. ...

Stan Collender of Capital Gains & Games: "Tim Geithner was thinking about the 14th Amendment over a month ago, and ... Geithner absolutely wanted to make sure that others knew about it.... The White House wants to make sure that invoking the amendment won't be a shock if it is used and that the bond market will be comfortable buying debt issued without specific congressional approval.... The White House clearly wants to show congressional Republicans that their plan to demand ransom for the debt ceiling might well be based on a completely incorrect assumption that they can hold the borrowing limit hostage."

New York Times Editors: "The framers of the Constitution envisioned law as having authority apart from politics. They gave justices life tenure so they would be free to upset the powerful and have no need to cultivate political support.... The justices must address doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves accountable to the code of conduct." ...

... Dana Milbank: "The real campaign-finance abuses are more horrible than [Stephen] Colbert’s fiction. The Supreme Court, in five straight campaign-finance decisions, has largely wiped out post-Watergate campaign reforms and, in the case of corporate contributions, undone nearly a century of law. Adding to the anarchy, Congress has been unable to agree on legislation requiring donors disclosure. For those who violate what’s left of the law, there is little risk of punishment, because the FEC, paralyzed by a partisan split, has been unable to agree on much enforcement." ...

... Colbert reports on his grueling FEC hearing. See also yesterday's Ledes for an updated video of his speech following the hearing:

The President of the United States set up an officially authorized system of off-the-book, extralegal prisons and a regimen of government-sanctioned torture; and the consequences of this dark period will be -- at most -- two criminal prosecutions. -- David Kurtz of TPM on the news that the DoJ is conducting criminal investigations into the deaths of two prisoners who were in CIA custody

In preparation for today's David Brooks column, read Driftglass on Brooks' last column. CW: what these "moderate" Republican hacks, like Brooks & Mark Obama-Was-Sort-of-a-Dick Halperin, are doing is attempting to coax Obama to accommodate the right-wing loon-o-garchy. Don't be aloof, Mr. President, don't be direct, Mr. President, roll the fuck over & take it like a wimp. It makes me think Obama has been taking their advice all along, & Wednesday's surprise (to us) presser was an expression of his frustration with the ineffectiveness of his Republican pundit-buddies' sagacious counsel. ...

     ... Update: okay, I really couldn't finish reading Brooks today. He writes something about mediocre teachers, testing & Diane Ravitch. and finishes off with an opinion on a subject about which he seems to know almost nothing. In other words, standard Brooks. This is so not recommended reading.

Cash-In Time for Turbo-Boy. Hans Nichols of Bloomberg: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has signaled to White House officials that he’s considering leaving the administration after President Barack Obama reaches an agreement with Congress to raise the national debt limit, according to three people familiar with the matter.

CW: According to my own winger buddies, today is Glenn Beck's last regular show on Fox "News." Media Matters produces this fine commemorative video of Glenn's Greatest Hits, or what David Ferguson of the Raw Story calls a "Beck-quiem":

     ... Remember this isn't dubbed. Beck really said this stuff. ...

     ... Update: guess Beck's last show was yesterday. Well, how would I know? And how sad to have missed it. Just as I missed every single other Glenn Beck Show.

Right Wing World *

The President's failed. He did not cause this recession, but he made it worse. -- Mitt Romney, June 27

When he took office, the economy was in recession, and he made it worse, and he made it last longer. -- Mitt Romney, June 2 in his annoucement address

The "I Didn't Say What I Said" Fallacy. Mark Murray & Matt Loffman of NBC News: "Over the last few weeks, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has argued that President Obama's policies have made the economy worse.... When NBC producer Sue Kroll asked the former Massachusetts governor why he believes that Obama's policies have made the economy worse..., Romney gave this answer:

I didn't say that things are worse. -- Mitt Romney, June 30 ...

... Lying about Lying. Steve Benen: "It was amusing when Michele Bachmann falsely characterized John Quincy Adams as a Founding Father, but Romney getting caught telling a blatant falsehood about one of the central themes of his presidential campaign is infinitely more important." ...

... AND this from Dave Weigel on Romney's attacking Obama because Allentown (Pennsylvania) Metal Works went out of business. But, as Weigel writes, "AMW's only chance for survival was an infusion of capital from the government into local projects, something Romney opposed. Its collapse was classic creative destruction -- there simply wasn't business for the plant to do anymore. If you're against bailouts, as Romney is, and you're for bankruptcies and restructing in failing industries, as Romney is, how exactly were you going to save AMW? You weren't."

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

St. Pete Times: "In an affront to his tea party base and to backers of a Florida bullet train he killed earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday gave the green light to SunRail, a controversial Orlando-area commuter rail project on hold since he took office. Critics characterized the move as hypocritical in light of Scott's high-speed rail decision and stated principle of limited government spending, but he defended it by saying SunRail was in the works before he became governor and was so far along he had no choice but to approve it."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The House Ethics Committee confirmed Friday that it is investigating two lawmakers, Representatives Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York, and Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio."

New York Times: "A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Friday preventing new regulations from taking effect that would have forced the closing of two of the state’s three abortion clinics."

New York Times: "The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May.... Senior prosecutors met with lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and ... the parties are discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges." ...

     ... Update: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest on Friday as the sexual assault case against him moved one step closer to dismissal after prosecutors told a Manhattan judge that they had serious problems with the case." ...

     ... New York Times: "The release of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Friday from house arrest in New York represented a startling turnaround, sharpening the focus of political debate [in France] on a central and potent issue: with the weakening of sexual assault charges against him, will he be able to resume a potentially stellar career that could lead to the presidency of his country?" ...

     ... Here's a reproduction of the letter from the Manhattan D.A. to the defense in the Strauss-Kahn case. ...

     ... Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing. -- Alleged Strauss-Kahn rape victim, to a prison inmate, 28 hours after the incident; trans. from a dialect of Fulani

New York Times: "Fulfilling the wishes of local political leaders, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Friday that a special election to fill the seat of former Representative Anthony D. Weiner would be held on Sept. 13. The special election means that party leaders will select the candidates to represent the Ninth Congressional District...."

New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Thursday that he planned to stay in his job 'for the foreseeable future.'”

New York Times: "The Cuomo administration is seeking to lift what has effectively been a moratorium in New York State on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to extract natural gas from shale, state environmental regulators said on Thursday. The process would be allowed on private lands, opening New York to one of the fastest-growing — critics would say reckless — areas of the energy industry. It would be banned inside New York City’s sprawling upstate watershed, as well as inside a watershed used by Syracuse, and in underground water sources used by other cities and towns. It would also be banned on state lands, like parks and wildlife preserves."

AP: "Minnesota's state government is closed for business. It shut down at 12:01 a.m. CDT Friday, the victim of an ongoing dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative majorities.... Even before the final failure, officials padlocked highway rest areas and state parks, herding campers out. The full impact will hit Friday morning as thousands of laid-off state employees stay home until further notice and a wide array of services are suspended."

AP: "Kansas still has one abortion provider, but two others that don't have state licenses were hoping to persuade a federal judge to block a new licensing law and health department regulations they consider burdensome."

AP: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed that he is fighting cancer after having a tumor removed in Cuba, raising uncertainty about his political future even as he assured his country he expects to fully recover. Chavez was noticeably thinner and paler as he appeared on television Thursday night...."

Today there are new democracies fighting for life, there are vicious autocrats clinging to power. This is an hour or need. And every democracy should stand up and be counted. -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a speech in Lithuania today

AP: "Monaco's reigning prince, Albert II, wed Charlene Wittstock of South Africa on Friday in a long-awaited civil ceremony that transformed the one-time Olympic swimmer into the Princess of Monaco.... On Saturday, the new royal couple is holding an elaborate religious wedding ceremony and a star-studded wedding gala." The civil ceremony: