The Commentariat -- April 9

The President's weekly address focuses on the budget compromise:

President Obama's statement on the budget agreement:

     ... See related stories under Friday's Ledes. ...

... Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico: President Obama's protestations to the contrary, anti-abortion measures did make it into the final budget deal: "did agree to ban the District of Columbia from using federal and local taxpayer funds on abortions — a move already being cheered by abortion opponents as a noteworthy victory. The deal also includes a guarantee that the Senate will vote on bill that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, according to a House Republican summary." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... for all the talk about conservatives wanting more out of this deal, the simple truth is that this battle was fought almost entirely on their terms. By agreeing to steep, if temporary, cuts in advance, Dems acceded to the GOP’s austerity/cut-cut-cut frame at the very outset, and the debate unfolded entirely on that rhetorical turf." ...

... Ezra Klein: "Boehner ... managed to get more from the Democrats than anyone had expected, sell his members on voting for a deal that wasn’t what many of them wanted and avert a shutdown. There is good reason to think that Boehner will be a much more formidable opponent for Obama than Gingrich was for Clinton." ...

... Brian Beutler of TPM: "This was a little fight. Puny even. It was the easiest test [Speaker Boehner will] face all year, and he barely passed. In just a few weeks, he'll have to convince the same petulant bloc in his party to support raising the debt limit, or force the country into default. When that's done, he'll have to run point on yet another spending fight -- to keep the government running next year.... That the focal point of policy on Capitol Hill is on what should be cut -- and not when to cut, or whether cutting is even wise -- illustrates just how brief the progressive moment lasted after Obama's election in 2008. It also represents a colossal failure of government." ...

... Bob Reich: "The right-wing bullies are emboldened. They will hold the nation hostage again and again.... The President continues to legitimize the Republican claim that too much government spending caused the economy to tank, and that by cutting back spending we’ll get the economy going again.... He is losing the war of ideas because he won’t tell the American public the truth: That we need more government spending now — not less — in order to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession." ...

... Matthew Cooper of the National Journal: "The budget skirmish ends. The war begins." ...

What we have here is a flea, wagging a tail, wagging a dog. The flea are the minority of House Republicans who are hard right, the tail is the House Republican caucus, and the dog is the government. -- Chuck Schumer, in a Senate floor speech

Joe Nocera: the N.C.A.A. has a disturbing double standard: one for rich white men, one for poor black men. White UConn coach Jim Calhoun got "a slap on the wrist" -- which also allowed him to get an $87,500 bonus on top of his $2.3 million annual salary -- for "breaking the rules egregiously and repeatedly." But 19-year-old Perry Jones, who is black and who did nothing wrong -- when he was in high school and wiithout his knowledge his severely ill and poverty-striken mother borrowed (and repaid) money from a coach -- was suspended during the tournament and fined. The comments on Nocera's column are here.

Right Wing World *

Actually, I have great respect for [Gail] Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent. Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level. -- Donald Trump, in a letter to the New York Times Editor

Gail Collins responds: Trump is "falling further and further into the land of the lunatic fringe." Comments on Collins' column are here.

In yesterday's Commentariat, we brought you Sen. Jon Kyl making a speech on the Senate floor in which he claimed that "well over 90 percent" of Planned Parenthood's services were dedicated to abortions:

     ... That figured turned out to be a little off. The figure is closer to three (yes, that's 3) percent, not 90 percent. Undeterred by calls to retract his remark, Kyl had a spokesperson send a note to CNN which read, in part, "...his remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions":

     ... CW: See, it's okay if you tell out-and-out lies on the Senate floor, and it's okay if those lies go unchallenged into the Congressional Record. It's okay if you just make stuff up and fail to apologize, because facts are troublesome things that don't always fit a Senator's prejudices. What's important here is the illustration. On a related note, I had forgotten what an all-out misogynist Kyl was, but Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reminds us of Kyl's position on women's health issues, which he expressed during the debate over healthcare legislation. "I don't need maternity care":

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

... "Tourist in Chief." New York Times: "Just hours after reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown, President Obama paid a brief visit to the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday — presumably to highlight that it, and other national monuments, were open for business." ...

... The Hill: "President Obama on Saturday signed a seven-day extension of government funding, which is the first part of a agreement to keep the government running through the end of the current fiscal year. The bill was signed without fanfare 13 hours after Democratic and Republican congressional leaders reached a last-minute deal Friday to avoid a government shutdown."

AP: "Demonstrators burned cars and barricaded themselves with barbed wire inside a central Cairo square demanding the resignation of the military's head after troops violently dispersed an overnight protest killing one and injuring 71. Hundreds of soldiers beat protesters with clubs and fired into the air in the pre-dawn raid on Cairo's central Tahrir Square in a sign of the rising tensions between Egypt's ruling military and protesters."

Al Jazeera: "Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, have shelled rebel positions west of Ajdabiya. There are reports the town is on the brink of falling to Gaddafi troops, in a major setback for rebels who earlier in the day had pushed westward towards Brega. Our correspondents, citing reliable sources, said gun battles were taking place in the streets of Ajdabiya on Saturday." ...

The Wunderkind Wizard of Washington

Paul Krugman tears Paul Ryan's "ludicrous and cruel" plan to little bitty shreds.

Once again, my comment was iced, so here it is:

Karen Garcia aptly labeled Paul Ryan and his plan Cheez Whiz, but I have another Whiz in mind -- the Wizard of Oz. Ryan has somehow managed to wrap into his persona the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion & the Tin Man.

The Scarecrow may be a stretch, for you have to assume that Ryan doesn't have a brain. If you take him at his word -- that he really believes he has devised a great plan that will be good for the country -- then he is the Scarecrow. As Krugman and other analysts have illustrated these past few days, Ryan's numbers, especially those based on Heritage Foundation projections, are unbelievable. Ryan isn't above contradicting himself, either -- accepting some CBO numbers while rejecting others. So if you believe Paul Ryan is an honorable man, you have to assume he doesn't have a brain -- like Frank Baum's Scarecrow.

The Cowardly Lion is an easy one. Even in this newspaper, columnists have been calling Ryan "courageous" and "brave." If Ryan were courageous, he would have told the truth when he rolled out his plan. Instead, he concentrated only on the spending cuts in his roll-out video with its charts and graphs. Had he even mentioned the big ole tax cut part -- which the cowardly Mr. Ryan did not -- he would have completely undermined his argument that these humungous cuts in essential services were necessitated by the deficit. You just can't say in the same breath you are going to cut programs for the neediest Americans and cut taxes (to below the middle-class tax rate) for the richest Americans without somebody catching on. Ryan roars, all right, but he is a Cowardly Lion. He doesn't dare tell the truth about his own program.

And the Tin Man? The Tin Man -- just like Paul Ryan -- lacked a heart. I don't know what has made Mr. Ryan so craven, but perhaps he thinks of each of us as just a number. (Probably shouldn't be the Social Security number -- deep in his heart, Ryan wants to gut Social Security, too, but he's saving that part of his plan for another day.) If Ryan thought of us as living, breathing people rather than as abstract numbers, he would have to think of the people under age 55 whose retirements he plans to decimate. He would have to think of the disabled people he will leave to fend for themselves. He would have to think of the poor, sick people who would not be able to get medical help until it was perhaps too late. He'd have to think of the deserving students who couldn't get low-interest financial aid for college. If Ryan had a heart, he couldn't sleep at night. He couldn't look at himself in the mirror. So I can only conclude he isn't sleeping, doesn't have a mirror -- or, more than likely, he doesn't have a heart. He's the Tin Man.

In Baum's story, it turns out the Scarecrow really had a brain, the Cowardly Lion really had courage all along & the Tin Man did indeed have a heart. But real life isn't as neat as fiction. In real life, we got Paul Ryan, a man devoid of those characteristics that define us as honorable women and men.

Wunderkind? I'm not sure Ryan even qualifies as humankind.

The Commentariat -- April 8

This is no longer about the deficit. It’s about bumper stickers. -- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on why Republicans won't fund the government

... You heard it first from Anonymous. An anonymous aide says he heard Speaker Boehner tell an anonymous congressperson there would be a deal by the end of the day. Are you feeling optimistic? ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post has reproduced the memo from OMB Director Jack Lew that went out to agency heads giving them guidance on how to shut down their agencies. ...

... Jay Newton-Small of Time on Boehner's Choice.

** "A Problem on the Borderline of Ethics and Accounting." Conservative columnist Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: Republicans don't want to hear about the dire consequences of their budget cuts. They should listen. "And it should give any pro-life member pause to support minuscule budget savings that risk the death of children from malaria."

So who are these budget negotiators who are working late into the night to try to avoid a government shutdown? Two guys you probably never heard of, writes Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Boehner aide Barry Jackson & Reid aide David Krone. ...

... It's about Sex. Steve Benen: "What we're talking about here is Republicans shutting down the government over ccess to contraception and family planning services. This is the basis for the GOP hostage strategy."

I think the biggest thing the Republicans have done so effectively is to make it socially acceptable to be totally selfish and self-serving. -- Valerie Long Tweedie, commenting on a post by Karen Garcia

What We Really Need Is Higher Taxes. Business writer Charles Morris in Politico: "If one listens to the din from new conservative governors, from the Pauls, père et fils, and from most Republicans in Congress, America is groaning under a unique burden of heartless taxation. In truth, however, we live in one of the most lightly taxed advanced nations in the world.... Federal taxes, at about 15 percent of GDP, are the lowest since 1950....America’s low taxes, compared with any of its competitors, make it nonsense to claim that we need tax cuts for the sake of 'competitiveness.'”

Your Next Tweet May Be a Terror Alert! Eileen Sullivan of the AP: "Terror alerts from the government will soon have just two levels of warnings — elevated and imminent — and those will be relayed to the public only under certain circumstances. Color codes are out; Facebook and Twitter will sometimes be in, according to a Homeland Security draft obtained by The Associated Press."

A. O. Sulzberger of the New York Times: as states and cities compete with each other & try to lure businesses with tax breaks and other incentives, the businesses are the big winners.

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Several previously undisclosed U.S. diplomatic cables, provided by ... WikiLeaks, show that influential Yemenis and U.S. allies repeatedly warned U.S. diplomats of [President Ali Abdullah] Saleh’s growing weakness in 2009 and 2010. But despite those warnings, the Obama administration continued to embrace Saleh and became increasingly dependent on him to combat an al-Qaeda affiliate that was plotting attacks against the United States from the Arabian peninsula.

Right Wing World *

If You Don't Like the Numbers, Just Flip Them. Travis Waldron of Think Progress: on the Senate floor, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) says 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's service are providing abortions. Uh, it's less than 10 percent. ...

... According to Planned Parenthood, the percentage of their services related to abortion is three percent, tho PolitiFact explains why the three-percent figure is squishy. PolitiFact rates Kyl's remark false. I think a "Pants-on-Fire" designation would be more appropriate. ...

... Here's a pie chart of Planned Parenthood's patient services, via Ezra Klein:

Obama's Long-standing Plot to Shut Down the Government. Conspiracy theorist, teabagger and all-around loon "Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) suggested Thursday that President Obama might have begun planning a government shutdown last year with 'malicious' intent," Josiah Ryan of The Hill reports. And Lee has evidence! CW: Utah elected this guy because their previous ultra-conservative Senator, Bob Bennett, just wasn't crazy enough.

Medicare is Sacrosanct Expendable. Greg Sargent: "... the 60 Plus Association, a shadowy, well-funded right wing group that purports to represent seniors’ interests..., ran an ad during the health care debate last cycle that may have been the single most reprehensible piece of Medicare-related demagoguery of the health reform wars.... And yet, wouldn’t you know it, the 60 Plus Association has now endorsed Paul Ryan’s proposal to end Medicare as we know it."

Tanya Somanader of Think Progress: House Republicans leaders rushed to the mics to criticize President Obama for threatening to veto a bill "to fund the troops" right after they voted down two continuing resolutions to ensure U.S. military troops get paid on time even if the government shuts down. ...

... ALSO from Somanader. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Idaho legislators figure rape and incest are part of God's plan, so they're not making exceptions for them in their latest anti-abortion bill.

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Good-government group One Wisconsin Now, noting that Dubya-appointed U.S. Attorney J. B. Van Hollen spent millions investigating alleged Democratic voter fraud without finding any, must now -- as co-head of the Election Integrity Task Force -- investigate Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus who suspiciously "found" more than 14,000 ballots, which changed the outcome of the state supreme court election. ...

... She's Done This Before. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress sums up the dubious history of Waukesha, Wisconsin, County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, who accidentally found 14,315 "lost" votes, giving the state supreme court election to her former boss, conservative Republican David Prosser. ...

... Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Brian Deschane..., the 27-year-old son of a prominent supporter of Gov. Scott Walker, resigned from his state job following public criticism over his appointment to an $81,500-per-year job in the Walker administration. He informed officials at the state Department of Commerce, where he had been named administrator of environmental and regulatory matters in February.... Agency spokesman Tony Hozeny ... said he didn't believe Deschane gave a reason for leaving the government job.... Earlier this week, Walker demoted Deschane from the post after No Quarter highlighted how Deschane -- who has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions -- had landed his plum assignment. Walker's team gave Deschane the cushy job despite the governor's repeated statements that the state is broke and government workers are overpaid."

Travis Waldron of Think Progress: "Democrats and labor activists are ready to file another recall petition in Wisconsin, as they are expected to submit nearly 24,000 signatures against state Sen. Randy Hopper (R). Only about 15,000 signatures are needed to successfully trigger a recall. It will mark the second time in less than a week that a recall petition has been successfully filed against a Wisconsin Senate Republican...." Hopper, who is reportedly having an affair with a staffer, has moved outside the district. His wife says she'll vote for his opponent. ...

... David Dayan of Firedoglake: "It turns out that Hopper was estranged from his wife and living with a mistress in an apartment in Madison. That called into question residency requirements. And further investigation revealed that the mistress received a state job from Gov. Walker’s administration, despite a late application."

News Ledes

Budget Deal!

Washington Post: "Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have reached an agreement that would avert a federal government shutdown, yielding more spending cuts for Republicans while giving Democrats a key win on an issue related to abortion rights, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office announced Friday night." New York Times story here. Politico story here. ...

     ... Update: Wall Street Journal story here.

Al Jazeera: "Hundreds of army soldiers and Central Security officers stormed Cairo's Tahrir Square in the early morning hours on Saturday, firing shots into the air and beating protesters with cattle prods and batons to disperse a crowd of thousands, witnesses said."

Tens of thousands of people had flooded into the square in one of the largest demonstrations since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11.

New York Times: "Dozens of communities across Syria erupted in protest on Friday in what activists said were by far the largest and bloodiest demonstrations against the iron rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Opposition leaders said the protesters numbered in the hundreds of thousands. While that number could not be independently confirmed, the size of the protests and their level of coordination suggest that Syria’s fragmented opposition movement is reaching new levels of coherence and organization."

New York Times: "More than 100,000 people converged on Yemen’s capital for a second Friday of dueling demonstrations over the fate of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who faces a rising tide of international sentiment in favor of his departure."

Milwaukee Journel Sentinel: "The state's top elections official said Friday he is sending state staff to examine results in Waukesha County, where thousands of previously uncounted votes were revealed Thursday in a bombshell that upended the tight Supreme Court race."

Washington Post: "The Justice Department approved a controversial deal by Google on Friday that would allow the firm to acquire a powerful travel search software firm, though with some strings attached."

Harry Reid on Title X. Republicans want to shut down the government because Democrats won't let them remove legislation that provides cancer-screening for women:

>

Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Friday that negotiators came very close to a budget agreement overnight, but the deal broke up in a dispute over funding to a group that provides abortions. House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio), the lead Republican in the budget impasse that has transfixed Washington and brought the nation to the brink of a government shutdown, immediately disputed Reid’s account." Story has been updated to reflect that negotiators are still working. ...

     ... National Journal Update: "The likelihood of a war-time federal government shutdown — the first in American history — diminished dramatically on Friday night as all parties began reviewing, with the goal of approving, a broad array of cuts and a short-term bill to keep the government operating while the details are put into legislative language for full congressional action next week."

New York Times: "NATO said on Friday that it would not apologize for the killing of at least four people in what Libyan rebels said was “likely” a mistaken attack on them by allied warplanes in the east of the country — the second case of friendly-fire deaths in a week....At a news conference in Naples..., Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO operation, said the alliance had not been informed that the rebels were using tanks at the time the attack took place."

AP: "'... Suspected terrorists are still being held [by the U.S./NATO forces] under hazy circumstances with uncertain rights in secret, military-run jails across Afghanistan, where they can be interrogated for weeks without charge. The Pentagon has previously denied operating secret jails in Afghanistan, although human rights groups and former detainees have described the facilities."

Madison, Wisconsin State Journal: "The Walker administration went directly to the state Supreme Court on Thursday to get it to lift an order blocking implementation of a controversial measure that sharply curtails public employee bargaining rights, telling the high court that a Dane County judge unconstitutionally overstepped her authority."