The Commentariat -- June 23

I've posted an Open Thread on today's Off Times Square. Kate Madison has added a great comment. Update: do read Madison's follow-up comments on Greg Mortenson, which she wrote in response to criticism from another commenter.

     ... Here is the prepared text of the speech. ...

... The New York Times Editors are underwhelmed. ...

... Ben Smith: "The speech seemed aimed in part at concluding a military era. Its closing reference to the successful raid seemed to underscore a growing sense among many Democrats that the era of [Gen. David] Petraeus's ambitious counterinsurgency and of the War on Terror is over." ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker lends some nuance to Smith's assertion. "Obama’s announcement last night reflects a realistic sense of where our country is and what it can do. The fundamental change is here — not there."

... Yochi J. Dreazen and Marc Ambinder of the National Journal: "Senior White House officials wanted all of the 33,000 U.S. 'surge' troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by next spring. Gen. David Petraeus ... was adamant they stay until the end of 2012. The deadlock was broken by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who sold Obama and his top civilian aides on a compromise plan that will leave most of the reinforcements in Afghanistan through next September but ensure they’re back well before the November elections. Obama’s prime-time address Wednesday night offered little indication of the heated behind-the-scenes battle over Afghanistan that consumed the president and his war cabinet for much of this past month."

NEW. CW: I missed this post of Karen Garcia's on State Department lead attorney Harold Koh, who defied the advice of DOJ & Defense Department lawyers that the U.S. involvement in Libya constituted "hostilities" and not a "limited kinetic military exercise" or "BFF love bombs." Koh told President Obama what he wanted to hear: that the Libyan "exercise" did not rise to the level of invoking the War Powers Act. Garcia writes that Koh is on the short list to be Obama's next Supreme Court nominee. Looks to me as if Koh just lost any chance of confirmation: do you think 60 Senators are going to say, "Yeah, we like a guy for the Court who says the Congress is irrelevant."

Obama Leads from Behind -- Again. Massimo Calabresi of Time on the release of oil reserves. (See today's Ledes.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tells about his life as an undocumented immigrant. His status has not changed. CW: I would call this an American tragedy. ...

... Reid Epstein of Politico: "The biggest story now in blogs and social media — even bigger than President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan speech — centers on journalist Jose Antonio Vargas and his New York Times magazine essay in which he reveals he's an illegal immigrant. The right saw his actions — forging a Social Security card, lying about residency to secure driver’s licenses, misleading employers about his status — as poor personal choices that he is responsible for making and cause for deportation. The left portrayed Vargas, who in his retelling was brought at age 12 to California from the Philippines by a smuggler, as an example of American ingenuity forced by the system to make forgivable bad choices." ...

... CW: it's not the point of his blogpost, but in Chris Suellentrop's account of how the Times Magazine got Vargas' story, one can fairly conclude that the Washington Post "Outlook" editors and/or the Post's lawyers are dicks. OR, as Joshua Green of The Atlantic put it in a tweet: "Little-known fact, but the Pentagon Papers were first offered to the WashPost's Outlook section." ...

... Here's Vargas' Website, DefineAmerican.com

** NEW. Glenn Greenwald: The Obama DOJ's effort to force New York Times investigative journalist Jim Risen to testify in a whistleblower prosecution and reveal his source is really remarkable and revealing.... The vast National Security and Surveillance State has for decades been compiling powers -- and eroding safeguards and checks -- devoted to the strengthening of this climate, and the past two-and-a-half years have seen as rapid and concerted intensification as any other period one can recall." ...

Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. -- Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, 1949 ...

... David Shipler in a New York Times op-ed: "The Fourth Amendment is weaker than it was 50 years ago, and this should worry everyone."

Victoria McGrane & Alan Zibel of the Wall Street Journal: "On Tuesday, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh said regulators are in danger of going too far to curb risk-taking by big banks.... Three Senate Democrats – Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Carl Levin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley of Oregon – have publicly called for the White House to replace Mr. Walsh, a Republican, following his speech in London Tuesday. The lawmakers were particularly rankled by Mr. Walsh’s statements that bank capital requirements – the cushion banks hold against future losses — are already 'exceedingly high.'" ...

Mr. Walsh demonstrated once again that he just doesn’t get it.  He persists in arguing for the minimal capital standards and lax regulation that brought down our entire economy in 2008.  It is time – way past time – for the President to nominate a leader for the OCC who is committed to building a solid long-term foundation for our economy. -- Sen. Jeff Merkley

Rosalind Helderman & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders from both parties made new and competing demands Wednesday in exchange for their votes to raise the nation’s debt limit.... Top Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), said they have told Vice President Biden, who is leading the talks, that any agreement on raising the legal borrowing limit must include an effort to boost the flagging economic recovery.... The Democrats’ call came on the same day that conservative advocacy groups asked Republicans to sign a pledge saying that they vow to vote against an increase in the $14.3 trillion debt limit without sharp and immediate spending cuts, new caps on annual spending and an amendment to the Constitution that would require Congress to balance the budget (CW: because conservative advocacy groups don't know squat about economics).

Paul Krugman calls out the Fed's "shameful cowardice" in their refusal to even attempt to do anything to abate unemployment. The underlying news story is here.

** Matt Miller of the Washington Post: "Just when you thought Washington couldn’t get more partisan and confused, along comes the phony tempest about whether President Obama’s health-care reform will lead employers to drop coverage once the new insurance exchanges open for business in 2014.... It would be a fantastic thing — not some calamity — if more people got coverage from the exchanges instead of from their employers. Yet both parties act as if it would be a disaster.... If over time employers find they’d rather make a contribution to help employees use these exchanges, with lower-income folks getting some aid from government, it would be a huge step forward in health security for ordinary Americans."

CW: I don't do polls, BUT this one brings good news. Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg News: "By a margin of 57 percent to 34 percent, poll respondents say they would be worse off if [Rep. Paul] Ryan’s plan to convert Medicare to a system of subsidized private health coverage were adopted. Fifty-eight percent of independents, a critical voting bloc in recent elections, say they would be worse off." Fifty-one percent say that while the law may need modification, the Affordable Care Act "shouldn’t be repealed, and another 11 percent say it should be left alone. That compares with 35 percent who want the new law overturned."

Some Republicans Don't Live in Right Wing World. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A group of more than a dozen moderate Republicans, including four former Environmental Protection Agency administrators, urged President Obama in a letter Wednesday to set tough new standards to curb carbon emissions from cars and light trucks." Their letter is here.

Jon Stewart & Aasif Mandvi explain the Greek debt crisis in a way that puts Paul Krugman's efforts to shame. Play through to the second segment:

Celia Dugger of the New York Times: South Africa embraces Michelle Obama.

Right Wing World *

In Right Wing World, second-tier Congressional Republicans are way more important than the POTUS. Jay Newton-Small of Time on Eric Cantor's and Sen. Jon Kyl's walking out of the debt ceiling talks because they're all upset the President has delegated the VPOTUS to listen to Republicans: "... why would Obama come to the table when [Sen. Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell himself and House Speaker John Boehner aren’t yet at the table? Why isn’t Cantor calling on his boss, Boehner, to engage? Or Kyl for McConnell to?" Newton-Small updates her post with an interesting e-mail from "a senior Democratic aide":

Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be a need for revenues and Cantor and Kyl don’t want to be the ones to make that deal. Default is way too serious for Republicans to throw in the towel.

John Amato of Crook and Liars sums up the long-term deficit situation: "The CBO proves the only reason America should have a deficit problem is if Conservatives want one."

Oh, the whole story is pretty funny, but the headline of Colby Hall's Mediaite post is hilarious: "No Joke: Sarah Palin Reportedly Quits One Nation Bus Tour Halfway Through."

* Where even Fox "News" commentator Palin calls out Fox "News," perhaps now officially part of the "lamestream media," for misstating her itinerary.

News Ledes

Michelle Obama talks about meeting Nelson Mandela & discusses his impact on history:

President Obama met with soldiers at Fort Drum, New York, & with Gold Star families later in the afternoon. Update: Los Angeles Times post-meeting report: "President Obama on Thursday thanked soldiers in upstate New York for their work in combat and said their efforts had helped the United States to turn the corner in Afghanistan and allow some troops to be brought home." AND here's the transcript of his remarks. See video above.

USA Today: "Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank are teaming up today on legislation that would legalize marijuana."

Los Angeles Times: "The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the heirs of Anna Nicole Smith in a long-running estate battle that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. compared with Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House,' about the endless court fight that outlives all the main players. The decision is a victory for the Texas heirs of Smith's late billionaire husband, J. Howard Marshall. His son, Pierce Marshall, also died during the course of the litigation."

Al Jazeera: "Syrian troops and armoured vehicles are sweeping through villages in an advance towards the Turkish border, witnesses say. Soldiers drove through the village of Khirbet al-Jouz, just 500 metres away from the Turkish border, on Thursday, according to the witness accounts. There were also unconfirmed reports that forces were firing machine guns randomly in the nearby village of Managh. With video.

AP: "Wary of a new surge in gas prices, the Obama administration has decided to release 30 million barrels of oil from the country's emergency reserve as part of a broader international response to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya. Oil prices dropped nearly 5 percent Thursday in response to the announcement." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Stocks in the United States were sharply lower on Thursday amid signs of a sluggish economy and continued European debt troubles, while energy stocks in the broader market declined more than 2 percent after the International Energy Agency said members would release oil into the market from reserves."

The Cantor Pout. New York Times: "The House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, said Thursday that he was quitting the debt ceiling negotiations being led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because of an impasse over whether tax increases should be part of a final deal."

AP: "Dozens of gay couples are planning to converge on Albany Thursday to witness what would be a historic vote to legalize gay marriage in New York, the sixth state to do so and a potential bellwether in the national gay rights movement. But for that to happen, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's considerable political skills will be tested as never before to engineer one of the biggest social changes in a generation."

It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the president laid out — and we will continue to press for a better outcome. -- Nancy Pelosi

AP: "Congressional Democrats are leading the criticism of President Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan from Afghanistan, arguing that his timeline for bringing 33,000 U.S. troops home by next summer isn't fast enough."

New York Times: "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan welcomed the decision to withdraw more than 30,000 American troops over the next year, calling it the 'right decision for the interest of both countries.'”

Los Angeles Times: "Legendary Boston crime boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, who has been on the run for more than a decade, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times. Bulger, 81, has been the subject of several books and was the inspiration for 'The Departed,' a 2006 Martin Scorsese film staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Bulger fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with 21 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s." The New York Times story is here. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The arrest of James Bulger, a legendary Boston crime boss indicted in 19 murders and who is on the F.B.I.’s 10 Most Wanted list, was a direct result of a campaign this week that was aimed at locating his longtime companion, federal officials in Boston said Thursday." ...

     ... Somewhat weirdly, the Los Angeles Times has a slideshow.

The Commentariat -- June 22

I've added an Open Thread page for today on Off Times Square. Kate Madison & I have posted our comments on Tom Friedman's column. Update: Madison's & my comments have been squelched so far, so this is the place to read them. Update Update: My comment is now on page 2 (#39), but Madison's is nowhere to be found now on page 4 at #100.

"Climate of Denial." In a 7,000-word essay in Rolling Stone, former Vice President & popularly-elected President Al Gore calls out the Charlie Sheen-Donald-Trump-obsessed media & President Obama for failing to give proper attention to climate change. "... President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change." ...

     ... John Broder of the New York Times writes an overview article on Gore's essay.

Keith Bradsher of the New York Times on China's high-speed rail system which, despite problems, has "very real economic benefits ... and [poses] competitive challenges ... for the United States and Europe."

"Hostilities v. Torture." Adam Serwer has a great post on how the press is hammering Obama for his stupid definition of "hostilities" but largely gave Bush a pass on his tortured definition of "torture." "Indeed, media outlets mostly acquiesced to Bush’s argument — recall the New York Times’ decision to deploy euphemisms for 'torture' because Bush and his supporters had simply redefined the term.... President Obama faces what you might call a 'hack deficit.' ... Unlike with Bush, Obama doesn’t have a large stable of liberal legal scholars and commenters who are willing to pretend they don’t speak English in order to defend his policies."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "As Mr. Obama begins trying to untangle the country from its military and civilian promises in Afghanistan, his critics and allies alike are drawing a direct line between what is not being spent to bolster the sagging economy in America to what is being spent in Afghanistan — $120 billion this year alone. On Monday, the United States Conference of Mayors made that connection explicitly, saying that American taxes should be paying for bridges in Baltimore and Kansas City, not in Baghdad and Kandahar."

** Why Wal-Mart Discriminates against Women. Prof. Nelson Lichtenstein, in a New York Times op-ed, writes a fascinating takedown of Wal-Mart's "authoritarian corporate culture" and its history of "managerial bias," which invite, among other ills, discrimination against women.

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: the Fed, not doing much to help the economy, has no intention to do more. Fed Chair Ben Benanke will answer reporters' questions this afternoon.

Like other misinformed people, I get all my news from "The Daily Show." Seriously, I did not know the details of this story till Jon Stewart brought it to my attention:

... Here's an update from CNN: "Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is expected to resign under pressure, perhaps in the next day or two, in the wake of the controversy over Operation Fast and Furious, two senior federal law enforcement sources said Monday." ...

... AND, oh yeah, why does the ATF have an acting director who does such boneheaded stuff? Because President Obama nominated long-time ATF agent & head of the Chicago ATF office Andrew Traver last November, and the NRA opposes him. The Senate, quavering in their jackboots, has stalled Traver's confirmation. Here's a Washington Post story dated June 20 on how that's going. Obama may appoint Traver as acting director upon Melson's expected resignation. The ATF "has been without a director since 2006."

Greg Sargent: the Democrats lost the deficit argument because they never presented their side. "... Americans only got to hear one side of this argument, so it’s only natural if they agree with it."

Dana Milbank: "I wish [Republican presidential candidate Jon] Huntsman luck in this noble pursuit, but the high road almost always leads to political oblivion. ...

... Stephen Colbert comments on Huntsman's candidacy, but likes Generic Republican better:

... FINALLY, Huntsman figures out how not to get caught telling lies in his announcement speech (as his rival, self-proclaimed "truth-teller" Tiim Pawlenty did) -- don't say anything. Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's fact-checker, could not find any facts in Huntsman's speech to check.

Right Wing World

Art by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone.The Messenger of God. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has a terrific biographical piece on Michele Bachmann, and he has a message, too: don't laugh, because the loonier Bachmann seems and the more the "elite media" dismiss her incredible antics, the more her following of wacky true believers grows. This is a great read. Don't miss it.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on the Koch Brothers Social Security Liars Club:

In case you've been living on another planet (such as Right Wing World), here's all you need to know about Fox "News":

Million-Dollar Baby. Callista Gingrich sports a Tiffany's necklace.A Million Here. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "Former House speaker Newt Gingrich had a second line of credit at ... Tiffany and Co. for as much as $1 million dollars, his presidential campaign acknowledged Tuesday. Joe DeSantis, a spokesman for Gingrich, said that the candidate’s personal financial disclosure filing, which is due within 30 days of his formal entrance into the presidential race, will 'show that the Gingriches had a $500,000 to $1 million line of credit at Tiffany’s, that it has a zero balance, and it has been closed.'” ...

... A Million There. Shannon McCaffrey of the AP: "Newt Gingrich's top two fundraising advisers resigned on Tuesday, and officials said the Republican candidate's hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt." CW: Too bad he cancelled his Tiffany's line of credit; he could have used it to pay off his debt.

News Ledes

** President Obama will address the nation at 8:00 pm ET. Christian Science Monitor: "President Obama’s Wednesday speech on his promised July drawdown of the 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan is drafted. But on circulating copies, there are still blank spaces where the final troop figures will go." ...

     ... Washington Post: "President Obama will face a stiff political challenge Wednesday in presenting his plan for a gradual end to the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. His prime-time address must remind a skeptical electorate and a concerned Congress that the country’s longest war remains worth fighting — and funding — for several more years." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 'surge,' by the end of next summer, according to administration officials and diplomats briefed on the decision. These troop reductions are both deeper and faster than the recommendations made by Mr. Obama’s military commanders, and they reflect mounting political and economic pressures at home, as the president faces relentless budget pressures and an increasingly restive Congress and American public." ...

     ... Update: here is the prepared text of President Obama's speech. See video under June 23 Commentariat.

Washington Post: "In a statement..., at the end of a two-day policy session, the Fed acknowledged that the economic recovery has lost momentum. But, as widely expected, it said that it would allow a program of Treasury bond purchases — a move to pump $600 billion into the economy known as quantitative easing — to expire at the end of the month. The agency also said that it would keep interest rates near zero to try to stimulate growth." CW translation: "Tough luck, folks."

New York Times: "Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are moving to address head-on the escalating tensions over President Obama’s authority to continue the military mission in Libya, unveiling two proposals about the conflict late Tuesday that the chamber may vote on as soon as Thursday."

AP: "President Barack Obama has signed executive orders that lay out how far military commanders around the globe can go in using cyberattacks and other computer-based operations against enemies and as part of routine espionage in other countries. The orders detail when the military must seek presidential approval for a specific cyber assault on an enemy and weave cyber capabilities into U.S. war fighting strategy, defense officials and cyber security experts told The Associated Press."

NEW. Bloomberg: "JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s deal to settle a U.S. regulator’s claims that the bank misled buyers of mortgage-linked securities before the housing market collapsed echoed a case brought last year against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) JPMorgan agreed to pay $153.6 million to end a Securities and Exchange Commission suit. The SEC alleged that the New York- based bank failed to tell investors in 2007 that a hedge fund helped pick, and bet against, underlying securities in the collateralized debt obligation they purchased. In July, Goldman Sachs paid a record $550 million for failing to inform clients in 2007 that it allowed a hedge fund that also bet against housing to help formulate the CDOs." CW: And nobody goes to jail.

Los Angeles Times: "John Bryson, the former Southern California utility executive nominated to be Commerce secretary, promised senators that he would have a 'relentless focus' on job creation as he tried to ease concerns that his environmental views were too liberal. Bryson, 67, faced some tough criticism during his confirmation hearing Tuesday for favorable comments he made in 2009 about legislation to limit carbon emissions. The concerns were largely from Republicans but also came from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.)." CW: must not have Commerce Secretary who cares about environment. Must not be "too liberal."

New York Times: "The F.B.I. seized Web servers in a raid on a data center early Tuesday, causing several Web sites, including those run by the New York publisher Curbed Network, to go offline. The raid happened at 1:15 a.m. at a hosting facility in Reston, Va., used by DigitalOne, which is based in Switzerland, the company said. The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.... A government official who declined to be named said earlier in the day that the F.B.I. was actively investigating the Lulz Security group and any affiliated hackers."

Reuters: "Texas executed on Tuesday a man convicted of fatally shooting two people and paralyzing a third near Houston in 1998, despite evidence that he was mentally disabled. Milton Mathis, 32, was sentenced in 1999, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute inmates with mental disabilities.... On Tuesday, a final plea to the Supreme Court to hear evidence of his mental disability was denied, and he was executed by lethal injection."

Los Angeles Times: "Speaking at a Soweto church thrust onto the front lines of the fight against apartheid, First Lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday urged young South Africans to conquer hunger and AIDS and to end violence against women. Addressing a crowded Regina Mundi Church, she singled out 76 young women from across Africa who were here for a U.S.-sponsored leadership forum. A White House official put the crowd count at 2,000." See video above.

Our Friends in Bahrain. AP: "A security court sentenced eight Shiite activists to life in prison Wednesday and issued long jail terms for 13 others in the latest blow by authorities waging a crackdown against protesters seeking greater rights in the Gulf kingdom.... The Ireland-based rights group Front Line condemned the verdicts and the use of military prosecutors." CW: no word from our State Department, I guess. See my comment on MoDo today.

The Commentariat -- June 21

Bob Reich explains in less than 2 minutes, 15 seconds, what's wrong with the American economy:

I've posted a Nocera & Brooks comments page on Off Times Square. Joe Nocera writes about why the banks should lose their argument against raising capital requirements, and David Brooks thinks all that money we're pouring into Afghanistan is like a little Marshall Plan that isn't working out all that well. The connecting theme seems to be -- YOU LOSE. Write on either or something else. I've posted my comments.

Here's the post by economist Simon Johnson on the capital requirements clause the banks are fighting. In his column, Nocera mentions the Johnson post.

** Law Prof. Bruce Ackerman in a New York Times op-ed compares Obama's decision to pretend he does not have to comply with the War Powers Act vis-a-vis Libya with Dubya's stunts redefining "torture": "... from a legal viewpoint, Mr. Obama is setting an even worse precedent. Although Mr. Yoo’s memos made a mockery of the applicable law, they at least had the approval of the Office of Legal Counsel. In contrast, Mr. Obama’s decision to disregard that office’s opinion and embrace the White House counsel’s view is undermining a key legal check on arbitrary presidential power. This is a Beltway detail of major significance. Unlike the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, the White House counsel is not confirmed by the Senate." ...

Gene Robinson piles on: "... Obama, with uncommon disregard for both language and logic, takes the position that what we are doing in Libya does not reach the 'hostilities' threshold for triggering the War Powers Act, under which presidents must seek congressional approval for any military campaign lasting more than 90 days. House Speaker John Boehner said Obama’s claim doesn’t meet the 'straight-face test,' and he’s right.... The law remains in force and, while presidents of both parties routinely find ways around it, they usually find a more credible dodge than asking, 'War? What war?'” ...

... Russell Berman of The Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is under siege from factions on the left and the right as the House considers whether to strike funding for the U.S. military mission in Libya."

Michael Powell of the New York Times: in New Jersey (and New York) the governor(s) make sure that the wealthy do not have to pay their "share" in the oft-repeated, if inaptly-named, "shared sacrifice" meme. The governors eschew tax hikes for the wealthy even as they demand cuts in pension funds for state workers. CW: this is a news story, not an opinion piece. It's what is.

New York Times Editors on the Supremes' decision for Wal-Mart: "Without a class action, it will be very difficult for most of the women potentially affected to pursue individual claims. The average wages lost per year for a member of the rejected Wal-Mart class are around $1,100 — too little to give lawyers an incentive to represent such an individual. For the plaintiffs, for groups seeking back pay in class actions, and for class actions in general, it was a bad day in court." ...

... Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times elaborates. ...

... Dahlia Lithwick on why the Supremes' Wal-Mart decision is absurd: the men on the Court (Breyer excepted) decided the women represented in the suit "didn't have enough in common," or as Lithwick notes, "Wal-Mart ... seems to have figured out that the key to low-cost discrimination lies in discriminating on a massive scale."

... Left to their own devices most managers in any corporation—and surely most managers in a corporation that forbids sex discrimination—would select sex-neutral, performance-based criteria for hiring and promotion. -- Antonin Scalia, majority opinion in Wal-Mart v. Dukes

... The court's devotees of strict construction and plain meaning are so enamored of the printed word that they often seem inclined to accept no other type of evidence of pay discrimination. Just as [Lily] Ledbetter never received an embossed letter from Goodyear indicating that she was being systematically underpaid, so, too, the hundreds of women with claims about sex discrimination at the hands of Wal-Mart must be wrong: After all, the company's announced policy forbids it.... The whole purpose of this type of class action civil rights suit is to smoke out unwritten policies and unspoken bias. -- Dahlia Lithwick

Law & Lit Prof. Stanley Fish has a good post today on the Supreme Court's interpretations of the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment. Not every act that may imply a certain political or other intent should fall under the speech protection of the First Amendment.

Alex Pareene of Salon: when the New York state legislature gets around to passing gay marriage legislation [could happen any time -- appears they're short only one vote], it will give President Obama a convenient opportunity to complete his "evolution" on gay marriage. CW: though Pareene does note that on this particular issue, Obama's hesitation is political, the following paragraph is a good lesson to us libruls on the overall policy leanings of the President:

Liberals have a tendency (much more pronounced in 2007 and 2008 but still evident) to imagine that Barack Obama is just as liberal as them. Because he's obviously smart, because he dabbled with genuine leftism in his youth, and because he opposed Iraq, liberals think he's actually Paul Krugman, forced by electoral circumstance (or cowardice) to talk and govern like George H.W. Bush. Coincidentally, this is also Newt Gingrich and Stanley Kurtz's thesis. It's silly when they say he's hiding his socialism behind a veneer of centrism and it's silly when liberals say he's doing the same.

Wow! Labor Department Sides with Labor. Melanie Trottman of the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration Monday said employers should disclose more information about the consultants they hire to respond to union bargaining or organizing campaigns, a move long sought by organized labor and opposed by employers.... The Labor Department proposal effectively sides with unions, who have argued for a decade that the advice exception needs to be narrowed.... But business groups criticized the proposal, saying many administration actions are showing favor to unions."

Stewart on Stewart -- and Wallace -- and Fox "News":

Dana Milbank: governors of both parties claim their policies create jobs. But the numbers for their states are all anemic. ...

... Rachel Maddow has more on Republican governors:

What a Shock -- Congressional Republicans Transfer More Costs to States. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "When congressional Republicans cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget 16 percent as part of a deal with President Obama in April to keep the government running, they hailed it as a blow to a federal bureaucracy.... But now that the agency has detailed how it is making the $1.6 billion cut for fiscal 2011, the reality is somewhat different. Because the EPA passes the vast majority of its money through to the states, it has meant that these governments — not Washington — are taking the biggest hits. Already constrained financially at home, state officials have millions of dollars less to enforce the nation’s air- and water-quality laws, fund critical capital improvements and help communities comply with new, more stringent pollution controls imposed by the federal government." CW: the good news -- a rich guy in New Jersey will pay less in federal taxes. The bad news -- a poor guy in Mississippi will pay more in state taxes.

David Leonhardt of the New York Times seems to have just discovered why so many Americans have such unhealthy diets: "unhealthy food is often a lot cheaper than healthy food." Leonhardt notes some of the calories/dollar differences, plus, "you would have to spend about $5 to buy 2,000 calories at McDonald’s ... and $60 to buy 2,000 calories worth of lettuce." CW: now, extrapolte this: this is yet another way the rise in income disparity makes Americans less healthy; they make their purchases calorie-wise and pound-foolish.

Massimo Calabresi of Time on Texas Gov. Rick Perry's difficult two-step: "Conjuring up the ghost of the popular George W. Bush while letting his despised doppelganger rest, forgotten, will be a challenge for candidate Perry if he joins the race."

NEW. Kate Pickert of Time: under pressure from the Congress, the White House & the press, McKinsey comes clean-ish on its "independent analysis" of the "likely" outcome of the Affordable Care Act. ...

... NEWER. Paul Krugman: "McKinsey has now released some (not all) of the details from its mystery study. True to form, the company now claims that a study touted as evidence that companies 'will' drop coverage was 'not predictive.' Uh-huh.... It was basically a poll — which is a really bad way to assess how firms will make decisions about whether or not to maintain health coverage."

Right Wing World *

Eric Hananoki of Media Matters: Fox "News" cuts Jon Stewart's 5-second criticism of Fox "News" veep Bill Sammon. "Fox News Sunday's avoidance of Sammon fits a pattern of the network publicly avoiding uncomfortable questions about the controversial Sammon while it touts the credentials of the news bureau he manages."

Jacques Billeaud & Bob Christie of the AP: "... Sen. John McCain has ignited a barrage of criticism by saying that there is 'substantial evidence' that illegal immigrants are partly responsible for wildfires in the state. McCain is standing by the statement he made over the weekend..., but immigrant rights advocates say the state's senior senator is using illegal immigrants as scapegoats. Authorities have said humans started the three major blazes in Arizona, but investigators don't know any more details."

Senator Snakeoil. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: Sen. Orrin Hatch "was the chief author of a federal law enacted 17 years ago that allows companies to make general health claims about their ["health supplement"] products, but exempts them from federal reviews of their safety or effectiveness before they go to market. During the Obama administration, Mr. Hatch has repeatedly intervened with his colleagues in Congress and federal regulators in Washington to fight proposed rules that industry officials consider objectionable.... Mr. Hatch has been rewarded with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, political loyalty and corporate sponsorship of his favorite causes back home. His family and friends have benefited, too, from links to the supplement industry."

* Where facts never intrude, but money does.

News Ledes

Malia, Sasha & Michelle Obama meet with former South African President Nelson Mandela at his home. AP photo.Independent Online News: "US First Lady Michelle Obama had an unscheduled meeting with Nelson Mandela at his Houghton, Joburg, home on Tuesday, the second day of her visit to South Africa. After being shown Mandela prison memorabilia at the Nelson Mandela Foundation just around the corner, Obama was suddenly whisked off to meet the former president."

Guardian: "Barack Obama is set to reject the advice of the Pentagon by announcing on Wednesday night the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by November next year, in time for the US presidential election. The move comes despite warnings from his military commanders that recent security gains are fragile. They have been urging him to keep troop numbers high until 2013."

New York Times: "Leon E. Panetta was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday as the new secretary of defense, placing him in charge of the final stage of the withdrawal in Iraq and the Obama administration’s military policy in Afghanistan. The 100-to-0 vote in favor of Mr. Panetta, a former House member and White House official who most recently served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, showed strong Congressional confidence in his ability to hold what lawmakers described as one of the most demanding jobs in the capital."

New York Times: "Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece won a crucial vote of confidence late Tuesday, with all 155 lawmakers of the Socialist Party expressing their support for his beleaguered government, above the absolute majority of 151 votes required by Greece’s 300-seat Parliament."

New York Times: "In an effort aimed at countering a House Republican plan to defund American military operations in Libya, Senators John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, announced the introduction of a joint resolution on Tuesday authorizing the limited use of United States Armed Forces in Libya. Under the resolution, which could be voted on as early as this week, the president is 'authorized to continue the limited use of the United States Armed Forces in Libya, in support of United States national security policy interests' for one year after passage of the resolution."

New York Times: "Legislative leaders said on Tuesday that they had reached a tentative deal with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on renewing New York’s rent laws, capping property taxes for homeowners, and raising tuition at state universities, among other outstanding issues. But the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, said his caucus had not yet decided whether to bring to a vote the most contentious issue facing the Legislature: A bill introduced by Mr. Cuomo and approved by the Democratic-controlled Assembly to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. Thirty-one state senators have endorsed the marriage measure, one vote short of the number needed to pass in the 62-member senate."

President Obama and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love. But the question each of us wants the voters to answer is who will be the better president, not who’s the better American. -- Jon Huntsman, in announcing his run for president ...

... New York Times: "Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, officially announced he was running for president on Tuesday, telling an audience of supporters and reporters gathered at a park facing the Statue of Liberty that he would be a better leader than President Obama, for whom he served as the  ambassador to China until recently."

AP: "President Barack Obama will move the United States a step closer to ending the war in Afghanistan when he announces plans Wednesday to bring thousands of American troops home, beginning next month." Los Angeles Times story here.

National Journal: "The FEC this week sent a letter demanding Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed nonprofit that pumped millions of dollars in anonymous donations into last year's Congressional campaigns, disclose its contributors. The request appears unlikely to be honored but it could signal an effort to tighten regulations on controversial third-party groups."

New York Times: "Federal health officials on Tuesday released their final selection of nine graphic warning labels to cover the top half of cigarette packages beginning next year, in the first major change to those warnings in more than a quarter-century, over the opposition of tobacco manufacturers." Article includes the pictures.

AP: "Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows. The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation."

New York Times: "A spokesman for Pakistan’s military confirmed on Tuesday that a senior officer has been detained and is under investigation for suspected ties to militants. The BBC’s Urdu-language news service first reported that Brig. Gen. Ali Khan, who was serving in the general headquarters of Pakistan’s military in Rawalpindi, was taken into custody last month.