The Commentariat -- Nov. 16, 2015

Internal links & defunct videos removed.

Afternoon Update:

Josh Gerstein & Nick Gass of Politico: "CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday that officials had 'strategic warning' about the terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 and injured hundreds more, also saying that Islamic State likely has more operations in the pipeline." ...

... The Syrians Are Coming! The Syrians Are Coming! Kyle Blaine of BuzzFeed: "Several state governors announced on Monday that they will not accept Syrian refugees following the attacks in Paris, citing concerns for security. The governors of Louisiana, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arkansas announced measures on Monday to stop or oppose Syrian refugees from resettling in their states. Alabama and Michigan made similar announcements on Sunday." CW: Not even Christian Syrians, Bobby Jindal? I know that the requirement to grandstand makes you stupid, but I'd be surprised if there were "legal means" for a state to kick out a person because of his refuge status. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... the dumbest reaction we’ve heard, by far, and it seems to be the most common from Republican governors and presidential candidates, is to treat Syrian refugees as putative terrorists, or worse yet, to distinguish them by religious tests. This last proposal is the signature 'idea' of the Great Big Grown-Up and Establishment icon Jeb Bush. Ted Cruz, more predictably, thinks that’s an excellent suggestion as well." See President Obama's reaction to this dumb idea, below, as well as other commentary on it. ...

... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "According to the French government, the Islamic State perpetrated Friday’s attacks. [Marco] Rubio, however, said what occurred in Paris is a 'clash of civilizations.' But ISIS isn’t a civilization. In parts of Iraq and Syria, it’s a self-declared, though unrecognized, state.... Rubio ... is ... doing exactly what the Islamic State wants: He’s equating ISIS with Islam itself." ...

... Hans von der Burchard & Laurens Cerulus in Politico Magazine: "Officials said the Paris plot increasingly looked like it was hatched in the Belgian capital. 'It’s likely we’re dealing with a network,' said Françoise Schepmans, the mayor of the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean commune [in Brussels], or district.  The possible presence of a terrorist den, barely a couple kilometers from the city’s European quarter, has added sharp urgency to oft-voiced concerns about radicalization within Belgium’s Muslim community and the government’s track record on counterterrorism."

Crackpot Rep. Steve King (RTP-Iowa) endorses crackpot Sen. Ted Cruz for president.

*****

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday lashed out at Republican presidential candidates who suggested that religious tests be given to refugees seeking to enter the United States out of a fear of letting terrorists into the country. Mr. Obama said it was shameful for Jeb Bush ... to have suggested that the United States only let in Christian refugees, not Muslim ones. 'That’s not American. That’s not who we are,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Turkey. 'We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.'” See more linked under Presidential Race below. ...

... Fear Itself. Paul Krugman: "... the biggest danger terrorism poses to our society comes not from the direct harm inflicted, but from the wrong-headed responses it can inspire.... Again, the goal of terrorists is to inspire terror, because that’s all they’re capable of. And the most important thing our societies can do in response is to refuse to give in to fear." And why leading GOP fearmongers should never be president. ...

... Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "French officials received multiple warnings about Paris attacker Omar Ismail Mostefai before Friday’s terror attack but Turkey didn’t get a response from French authorities until after the attack, a Turkish official said on Monday. 'On Oct. 10, 2014, Turkey received an information request regarding four terror suspects from the French authorities,' a Turkish official told the New York Times. 'During the official investigation, the Turkish authorities identified a fifth individual, Omar Ismail Mostefai, and notified their French counterparts twice — in December 2014 and June 2015. Mashable also quoted a senior Turkish official as saying that Mostefai, the first gunman identified in the attack, was known to security officials and that France never followed up on shared information until after the attack took place.” ...

... Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said. According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria that is controlled by the Islamic State." ...

... Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "Police in France and Belgium staged more than 160 anti-terrorism raids on Monday as authorities expanded crackdowns and cast their nets wider for suspects in the Paris attacks, including the alleged mastermind who also could have links to last summer’s foiled plot aboard a high-speed train. The intense manhunt for the possible lead plotter — identified by France as Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud — came as clearer portraits emerged of the network behind Friday’s carnage that left at 132 people dead and scores wounded." ...

... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A video released by an Islamic State sub-group appears to show militants in Iraq praising the Paris shootings and warning that a similar attack could take place in Washington." ...

... Nathan Pemberton of New York: New York City "Police Commissioner William Bratton responded to the Paris attacks by reassuring New Yorkers that the NYPD is preparing for a similar type of attack here. 'We still remain the number one terrorist target in the world, we believe,' he told ABC 7 yesterday." ...

... Alissa Rubin & Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "France bombed the Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday night, its most aggressive strike against the Islamic State group it blames for killing 129 people in a string of terrorist attacks across Paris only two days before. President François Hollande, who vowed to be 'unforgiving with the barbarians' of the Islamic State after the carnage in Paris, decided on the airstrikes in a meeting with his national security team on Saturday, officials said." ...

... The Washington Post story, by David Nakamura & Karen DeYoung, is here. ...

... Anthony Faiola & Souad Mekhennet of the Washington Post: "European authorities staged an international manhunt Sunday for a 26-year-old 'dangerous individual,' one of three brothers involved in the deadly attacks on Paris, even as an image took shape of a larger network of terrorists that could involve as many as 20 plotters. At least eight assailants in three death squads are thought to have directly carried out Friday’s assault.... Six detonated their suicide belts. Police shot and killed one. French police on Sunday issued an urgent alert and released a photo of an eighth suspect: the 5-foot-7-inch Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national." ...

... Qassim Abdul-Zahra of the AP : "Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week's deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people, The Associated Press has learned. Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead. The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication 'all the time' and 'every day.'" ...

... AP: "Lebanon has detained seven Syrians and two Lebanese suspected of involvement in planning terrorist attacks, including a twin bombing last week, and smuggling extremists into the country. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk announced the arrests Sunday, three days after a twin suicide attack in a southern Beirut suburb killed 43 people and wounded more than 200." ...

... Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "For President Obama, the short-term response to the terrorist attacks in Paris was straightforward and relatively easy: The American military and intelligence agencies provided information to help French warplanes bomb Islamic State targets on Sunday in the group’s stronghold in northern Syria." ...

... Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "The White House vowed no major shift in U.S. strategy in the fight against the Islamic State on Sunday in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Paris, despite clamors for change from key Republicans. Making the rounds on the major Sunday morning news shows, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said there would be an 'intensification' of U.S. war efforts against the Islamic State, but no major shift in U.S. strategy, such as sending large numbers of combat troops to Iraq and Syria to fight ISIL." ...

... Julie Pace & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "World leaders vowed a vigorous response to the Islamic State group's terror spree in Paris as they opened a two-day meeting in Turkey on Sunday, with President Barack Obama calling the violence an 'attack on the civilized world' and Russian President Vladimir Putin urging 'global efforts' to confront the threat. But beyond the tough talk and calls for action, there was little indication of how leaders intended to escalate the assault on the extremist group." ...

... Julian Hattem of the Hill: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), "the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, warned on Sunday that 'gaping holes' within U.S. defenses make the nation vulnerable to attacks similar to Friday’s violence in Paris.... 'We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled' to Iraq and Syria, he added. 'Many of them have come back as well. I think that’s a direct threat.'” ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "President Obama still plans to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country over the next year, despite terrorist attacks in Paris, at top aide said Sunday. 'We’re still planning on taking in Syrian refugees,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'We had very robust vetting procedures for those refugees.'” ...

... Lauren Carroll of Politifact: "Last week, President Barack Obama said the Islamic State is 'contained' -- a comment that has been scrutinized in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris that have been attributed to the terrorist group.... [Presidential advisor Ben] Rhodes said that when Obama said ISIS was contained, he 'was responding very specifically to the geographic expansion of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.' Looking back at Obama’s interview where he made this comment, it is quite clear that it’s within a narrowly defined scope: ISIS’s territorial expansion in Iraq and Syria. He did not rule out the potential for a terrorist attack, and he also made it clear that the United States’ anti-ISIS efforts are a work in progress. References or suggestions that Obama claimed ISIS no longer presents an active threat are incorrect. Further, experts told us that Obama is right that ISIS hasn’t expanded in the region in recent months, though this doesn’t give a full picture of ISIS’s global reach." CW: This is precisely what I wrote a coupe of days ago. Yet I have seen many straight reports -- not to mention screaming accusations from the usual suspects -- that present as a factual commonplace that Paris proved Obama was wrong.

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "President Obama has praised the protesters whose stand against racism at the University of Missouri resulted this week in the resignation of the institution’s president and the announcement that its chancellor would step down at the end of the year. 'I think it is entirely appropriate for students in a thoughtful, peaceful way to protest what they see as injustices or inattention to serious problems in their midst,' the president told ABC’s host George Stephanopoulos in an interview recorded on Thursday and broadcast, in part, on Sunday morning."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate GOP leaders had hoped to move a House-passed package repealing parts of the controversial healthcare reform law before Thanksgiving. But that plan has been shelved amid party turmoil. Senate Republican sources say the measure, which has encountered opposition from conservatives and moderates, albeit for different reasons, will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. Some say it could slide into next year." CW: Gee, obstructing is getting to be just as hard as legislating.

Jacob Brownowski, in the conclusion of an episode of the 13-part BBC series "The Ascent of Man" (1973). Thanks to D. C. Clark for the link:

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Bernie Sanders highlighted his support Sunday for a plan to provide three months of paid leave after a family has a child and challenged ... Hillary Rodham Clinton to embrace the same legislation. Clinton has spoken out strongly in favor of providing workers with paid family leave but also stressed her commitment in recent days to not raising taxes on the middle class to pay for new initiatives."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "The day after a debate in which Democratic presidential candidates tangled over the causes of Islamic State terrorism but not how to confront it, Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a more forward-looking view of American leadership in response to the threat. 'We have to be rallying our partners and allies, pulling countries off the sidelines,' Mrs. Clinton said on Sunday.... Mrs. Clinton offered no specifics. But she suggested a more proactive approach than she had in the debate, when she dodged a question about whether the Obama administration had underestimated the Islamic State...." ...

... A Noun, a Verb & 9/11. New York Times Editors: During the debate, Hillary Clinton's "effort to tug on Americans’ heartstrings [by reminding viewers she represented New York on 9/11] instead of explaining her Wall Street ties — on a day that the scars of 9/11 were exposed anew — was at best botched rhetoric. At worst it was the type of cynical move that Mrs. Clinton would have condemned in Republicans. She should make a fast, thorough effort to explain herself by providing a detailed plan for how she would promote measures protecting middle-class Americans from another financial crisis." ...

... Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg: "Former President Bill Clinton insisted [at a Democratic barbecue in Ames, Iowa,] Sunday that his wife doesn’t deserve to be attacked by her fellow Democratic candidates for her relationship with Wall Street as opponents on both sides of the aisle jump to attack her defense those ties.... Speaking at the same barbecue, [Martin] O’Malley, who on Saturday night called the comments a 'gaffe,' said [Hillary] Clinton 'sadly invoked 9/11 to try to mask' the influence that Wall Street has had on her. 'But she doesn’t have to mask it. It is what it is,' he said. 'That is the sort of economy, that is the sort of economic advice that she would follow.'” ...

... Mme. La Gaffe. Abby Phillip & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Toward the end of the latest Democratic presidential debate over the weekend, [Hillary Clinton] was asked about the rash of campus protests and whether she would encourage more of them.... 'I come from the ’60s, a long time ago,' she told moderator John Dickerson. 'There was a lot of activism on campus.'... Sunday morning, conservative Web sites had assembled multiple competing videos of the 1960s remark, their only disagreement coming over whether to add a clip from 'Back to the Future' or a lava lamp.... Republicans believe they have a new round of ammunition. Party Chairman Reince Priebus called Clinton’s remarks on 9/11 a 'new low' and a 'bizarre attempt to deflect attention from her ties to her wealthy donors.'”

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "It took less than an hour after Nielsen ratings revealed a disappointing 8.5 million person audience for last night’s CBS Democratic debate before campaigns resumed their griping about the Democratic National Committee’s debate schedule — a point of contention that’s threatening to flare up yet again.... The complaints are just the latest in a series of tense exchanges between the national party committee and the campaigns not belonging to Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats and Republicans have accused the party of shielding the front-runner by scheduling the debates at times — such as Saturday evenings — that are likely to draw fewer viewers than the GOP events, which the DNC routinely denies."

Al Hunt of Bloomberg, in the New York Times: "The tragedy in Paris is roiling American politics, bolstering the Republican right’s anti-immigration demands in the short run and perhaps ultimately enhancing Hillary Rodham Clinton and her credentials as the candidate with experience.... [Donald] Trump has largely set the agenda and dominated the dialogue on immigration; other candidates have followed." ...

... Après Paris. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The assault on Paris has thrust national security to the heart of the presidential race, forcing candidates to scramble and possibly prompting voters to reconsider their flirtations with unconventional candidates and to take a more sober measure of who is prepared to serve as commander in chief.... Republicans, whose primary is far more volatile, may now ask whether candidates like [Ben] Carson, who claimed at one point that China was becoming involved in Syria, and Donald J. Trump, who suggested the battle against the Islamic State could be left to Russia, are wise choices in a world where Western capitals can be made into killing fields.... While Mr. Carson ... has struggled with policy before, his inability to answer a straightforward question three times on 'Fox News Sunday' about whom he would first call to put together a military alliance to confront the Islamic State appeared more consequential than it might have before Paris." ...

... The Full Palin. I would say the reason is because you can articulate intelligent options and because you know how to work with other people and utilize the incredible resources that we have available to us. You know, I've had an opportunity in recent weeks to talk to a lot of incredible people who have a lot of experience getting their lifetime experience. I talked to Henry Kissinger and got his whole perspective on those areas. -- Ben Carson, on why he would be a better president than Hillary Clinton

I also have a lot of experience getting my lifetime experience. Don't we all? Once I went to a cocktail party & Henry Kissinger was there. However, I avoided any chance to hear first-hand "his whole perspective on those areas." And not because I was worried he had cooties. -- Constant Weader

... Ben Carson wouldn't allow Syrian refugees into the U.S. because his "big frontal lobes" tell him not to. ...

... Too bad those "big frontal lobes" seldom help Ole Doc come up with coherent thoughts. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Carson could not name a specific country or leader he would call to assemble an international coalition to counter the Islamic State, despite being asked three times by host Chris Wallace....  He suggested that he would shoot down a Russian plane if it violated a U.S.-led no-fly zone over Syria, even when told that the decision could prompt Russia to shoot down a U.S. plane in response.... And he continued to argue that China is directly involved in the Syrian conflict...." CW: Ole Doc should have listened to the Democratic debate. Bernie Sanders -- without being specifically asked -- named a whole lot of countries that he thought should be active in the fight to destroy ISIS. Hey, Doc, here's an idea: why not call France? Or, more specifically, Francois Hollande? One would think that while discussing an attack on Paris, Carson could remember that Paris is in France & France is a country & a NATO ally. But I guess not. Carson's hands are gifted; his mind, not so much.

... Linda Qiu of PolitiFact: "Multiple media outlets ... took Carson’s remarks to mean that Chinese troops are in Syria. But the Carson camp forwarded us a statement refuting that interpretation. Rather, his actual point was that China is providing "various military weapons and equipment that Syria is using in the current conflict," according to the statement which also included several links to articles on that point.... However, Carson seems to be backtracking. On Nov. 11, the day after the debate, a top Carson adviser spoke specifically about 'Chinese military advisers' in Syria when defending Carson’s remarks.... [Carson's] claim appears to be lifted from unconfirmed blog posts and a news report by a Lebanese news site. China and the White House have denied that Chinese troops are in Syria, and experts told us there’s no evidence to the contrary. Even if Carson meant something less than a military presence, China seems to be taking a hands-off approach to the conflict in Syria." ...

Well, if we established a no-fly zone and we make clear the rules, if [the Russians] violate it, that’s why you have a no-fly zone. That’s the very definition of a no-fly zone. You can’t fly there....  And, you know, we’ll see what happens. -- Ben Carson, calmly explaining he would provoke a war with Russia to see how it turns out

CW Translation: International relations are easy: the U.S. sets rules for the rest of the world & explains those rules in babytalk. Then, well, who knows? Kaboom!

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "In light of the terrorist attacks in Paris..., Marco Rubio on Sunday said the US should not take in more Syrian refugees. The Florida senator had previously signalled openness to relocating some of the millions fleeing the Syrian civil war to American shores. On Sunday, as other Republican candidates rushed to condemn the Obama administration over its policy on Syria and Islamic State and its willingness to increase such admissions – and as the GOP governor of Michigan said his state would not after all welcome any Syrian refugees – he switched course." ...

... ** Jonathan Chait: According to Marco Rubio, " the Muslim faith as a whole is equivalent to Nazism, and violent jihadi terrorists are the equivalent of the Nazi leadership. Rubio has a knack for grasping the midpoint of Republican Party doctrine at any given moment, and his comments reflect the party’s renewed conviction that the war against terrorists must be defined in the broadest possible terms.... The United States is not actually at war with Islam. Non-extremist Muslims account for the lion's share of the victims of jihadist terror, and are needed as allies in the conflict.... And yet, since the Bush administration departed the scene, Republicans have jettisoned [George W.] Bush’s cautious strategy of distinguishing between Islam and its violent minority." ...

... Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz Sunday continued to call for Muslim refugees from Syria to be barred from entering the United States but opening the borders to displaced Christians, arguing there is not a 'meaningful risk' that Christians will commit terrorist acts." ...

... Katie Glueck of Politico: Ted Cruz "has more cash than any other Republican candidate. He is organized in every county in the first four voting states. And he has served up one strong debate performance after the next. Now, not three months from primary season, rivals concede they have begun to fear Ted Cruz has an increasingly clear path to the Republican nomination."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "... Jeb Bush said over the weekend that the U.S. should respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris by carefully screening out Syrian refugees who are not Christians." CW: Yeah, i doubt there are many non-Christian Syrians. ...

... What's in a Name? Part 1. Theodoric Meyer: "Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush said on Sunday, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Paris, the U.S. should 'declare war' on the Islamic State, which is blamed by the French for the deadly attacks." CW: I don't think Congress can issue a declaration of war against a non-state, even if it calls itself a "state."  ...

... What's in a Name? Part 2. Mitt Romney writes an op-ed for the Washington Post saying President Obama isn't doing enough to fight ISIS. First, one really must call ISIS "radical Islamists." Then Obama must do stuff (that it appears he's already doing.) And stop letting those Syrian immigrants into Western Europe. And everything is Obama's fault. 

Beyond the Beltway

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Joseph Riley, who has been the mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, for 40 years is stepping down. "Mr. Riley, a Democrat, is among the last of a wave of progressive white Southern mayors from the 1960s and ’70s ... who accepted and promoted racial integration. His open alliances with black politicians, his hiring of the city’s first black police chief in 1982 and his march to Columbia, the state capital, in 2000 to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag at the State House earned him a degree of enmity among some whites, who, in his early days, derisively called him L.B.J. for Little Black Joe. Some nicknames were uglier."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 15, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

The Sydney Opera House. Buildings & other structures around the world took on the colors of the French flag.

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama opened two days of talks with world leaders [in Antalya, Turkey,] Sunday by vowing to help France in 'hunting down the perpetrators' of the terrorist attacks in Paris, amid questions about how the United States and its allies will respond to the mass killings carried out by the Islamic State. Shortly after arriving, Obama met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erogan, who is hosting the Group of 20 Summit here, and they presented a united front in a brief appearance before reporters after a discussion that lasted more than an hour." ...

... Anthony Faiola & Souad Mekhennet of the Washington Post: "French police took seven people in for questioning Sunday in connection with the deadly siege that killed at least 129 people on Friday night, expanding an international dragnet and investigation that now stretches from the Aegean Sea to the teeming Paris suburbs. The seven people taken into custody were relatives of Omar Ismail Mostefai, a 29-year old French national with a criminal record and one of seven assailants who died during Friday night's deadly siege...." ...

... Adam Nossiter, et al., of the New York Times: "Three teams of Islamic State attackers acting in unison carried out the terrorist assault in Paris on Friday night, officials said Saturday, including one assailant who may have traveled to Europe on a Syrian passport along with the flow of migrants." The Times' liveblog is here. ...

... The Washington Post's main story, by Anthony Faiola & others, is here. The Post's live updates are here. ...

... Joe Mozingo, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "... authorities said evidence suggested at least some of the attackers had come from Syria and Iraq. Six of them detonated suicide vests and a seventh was shot to death by police.... Friday's operation apparently began with a small extremist cell around Brussels, where French authorities believe the attack was planned and financed, according to two U.S. law enforcement officials who have been advised about the French investigation. The French newspaper Le Monde reported the terrorists came from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.... French prosecutor Francois Molins said three teams of terrorists, carrying AK-47 assault rifles and wearing explosives vests with identical detonators, appeared to have carried out the attacks.... Authorities across Europe moved swiftly Saturday to identify possible accomplices to the seven attackers, with Belgian authorities announcing they had made several arrests." ...

Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone: As hundreds of mourners gathered outside Paris' Bataclan venue, where a terror attack at an Eagles of Death Metal show resulted in the death of 118 people, an unknown musician set up a grand piano outside the concert hall and delivered a poignant, instrumental take on John Lennon's 'Imagine.'" ...

... CW: President Obama is getting a lot of grief for claiming, in an interview first aired hours before the Paris attacks, that ISIS has been "largely contained" in Iraq.:

     ... CW: BUT I think Obama was right. In fact, it's reasonable to assume that the reasons for the attack that killed 43 people in Beirut last week & the coordinated attacks in Paris are the result of that containment. Frustrated in their quest to maintain their "Islamic State" in Iraq, ISIS is reaching outward to further establish their creds as bloodthirsty nihilists & to recruit new soldiers. As Tobin Harshaw wrote in Bloomberg, "The euphoria after the taking of Mosul in June 2014 has faded, and the conquering of Falluja last summer has yielded no real strategic advantage. Indeed, it has begun to unite Islamic State's fractious enemies: the Iraqi military, Iranian-backed militias and Kurdish forces.... These developments may cut deeply into the narrative of scriptural inevitability that Islamic State uses to attract and keep its followers. The problem with a doomsday cult is that you have to keep your followers on edge, believing that the Apocalypse is just around the corner even though the sun keeps rising every day."

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The United States has broadened its fight against the Islamic State, targeting the group's senior leader in Libya on Friday night, the Pentagon announced on Saturday. The airstrike against the Islamic State commander took place shortly after the attacks in Paris began, but had been in the works for several days and was not related to the events in France, American officials said. Western officials have been warning for months about a growing threat from militants in Libya aligned with the Islamic State." ...

     ... Update: Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "U.S. airstrike is believed to have killed the leader of the Islamic State affiliate in Libya, Pentagon officials said on Saturday, in a mission that did not appear to be related to the terror attacks claimed by the group in Paris. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike took place on Friday and targeted Wisam al Zubaidi, also known as Abu Nabil al-Anbari, who commands what is the Islamic State's strongest branch outside of Iraq and Syria, according to U.S. intelligence officials."

Joshua Keating of Slate: "A day after the attacks in Paris underlined the global danger posed by the continuing violence in Syria, Russia, the United States, and governments in Europe and the Middle East agreed at talks in Vienna to a road map for ending the devastating and destabilizing war. The proposal, which appears to draw heavily from a Russian peace plan circulated before the talks, sets Jan. 1 as a deadline for the start of negotiations between Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition groups. Within six months, they would be required to create an 'inclusive and non-sectarian' transitional government that would set a schedule for holding new, internationally supervised elections within 18 months."

"Because It's 2015." Derrick Clifton of the Daily Dot, republished in Salon: "When announcing the selection of his new cabinet, made up of 15 men and 15 women (a 50-50 split), one reporter asked [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau why he felt it was important to build his team with gender equity in mind. His short, sweet response urged everyone to get comfortable with a new reality: 'Because, it's 2015.' Those three words took a life of their own on Twitter, where his quick, off-cuff response set off a number of inspired hashtags like #BecauseIts2015, affirming the need for governments to ensure that the people in power represent the population they've sworn to serve. The move was simple, but the impact was profound -- and it sends a message to other countries, including the United States, about an easy way to address gender disparities in government, starting at the highest executive levels."

Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "Black Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to experience non­fatal force or the threat of force from police, according to a new Justice Department study. The study, which was released Saturday, found that an annual average of 44 million U.S. residents older than 16 had at least one face-to-face contact with police between 2002 and 2011. About 75 percent of those who had encountered force from the police perceived the force to be excessive."

** Philip Galanes of the New York Times has a conversation with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Gloria Steinam. CW: If you or someone you know is a woman younger than they are, read the transcript. Many young women have no idea what life was like for women who are now of a certain age.

Presidential Race

We haven't come up with an exact number yet, but it will not be as high as the number under Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was 90 percent. I'm not that much of a socialist compared to Eisenhower. -- Bernie Sanders, on the top tax bracket ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton faced sharp attacks -- about her closeness to Wall Street, and her vote for the Iraq War -- from two more aggressive rivals, in the second Democratic presidential debate Saturday night." ...

... Over at Politico's Daily Racing Form, Katie Glueck picks out the key moments of the debate. ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton broke with President Obama during Saturday's Democratic primary debate when she said that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria can't just be 'contained,' a phrase Obama used in a Friday interview that aired just hours before the Paris terror attacks. 'We have to look at ISIS as a leading threat of an international terror network, it cannot be contained, it must be defeated,' the former secretary of State said during CBS's debate." With video. ...

     ... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post elaborates. ...

... Katherine Krueger of TPM: "Asked if Sanders still believes climate change greatest is the gravest national security threat, as he did in the first Democratic debate, he responded 'absolutely.' 'In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism. And if we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you're going to see counties all over the world ... they're going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops, and you're going to see all kinds of international conflict,' Sanders said." With video. ...

... Rebecca Traister of New York: "... these candidates' bona fides and infinite superiority to any of the Republicans in contention were established during the first debate. What was notable tonight was that it laid everything bare -- not just the good, but the bad of what the Democratic party and its contenders for the presidency have to offer.... The contrast between [Sanders & Clinton] wasn't flattering to either: one candidate appeared out of his depth, the other in way too deep." Traister also is amazed that in both debates, the issue of reproductive rights did not come up. (Traister writes extensively on women's rights.) "It was almost as though women's rights to control their reproduction and family size were not fundamental to their economic, social, professional and political equality. Democrats' failure to make issues of comprehensive reproductive justice central to their primary is also strategically stupid, since now is the time when the Republicans are trying to out-do each other with insane litmus tests over which one of them would more effectively force rape and incest survivors to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "Clinton ... managed, in a couple of sentences, to simultaneously open herself up to the charge that she sees ISIS as someone else's war and that she rushed into wars too readily. Those notions feel paradoxical, and yet they both feed into a critique of Clinton as someone who does not always embrace responsibility." Davidson details other Clinton missteps. ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The question of the evening -- of our time -- is how to defeat ISIS, but Clinton, the candidate with the deepest résumé on foreign policy, never said what she would do beyond what President Obama is already doing." ...

... Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "... thanks to sharp questioning from my colleague John Dickerson -- we can see weaknesses that weren't apparent before. The discussions went at the heart of each candidacy. And Hillary Clinton, who is running for the general election as much as she is the primary, needs to improve her game." ...

... The Guardian's liveblog of the debate is here. ...

... Annie Karni of Politico: "In a conference call with all three campaigns hours after the attacks in Paris, executives with CBS ... suggested changing the format of the forum to carve out more time to discuss the suddenly-imperative issue of keeping the violence in Europe from lapping over to U.S. cities, campaign sources said. But [Bernie] Sanders' team forcefully opposed any changes -- and, to the amazement of the network and the other Democrats who decried his tone-deafness, crowed publicly about limiting the foreign policy component to spend more time discussing economic inequality and other issues central to the Vermont senator's candidacy." ...

... Bill Curry of Salon: "I still don't see establishment media types grappling with the seeming mystery of how a 74-year-old socialist outperforms a centrist front-runner in those general election match-ups. Here's a hint: the Democrats' real opponents are anger, apathy and fear. With just three months till Iowa, Bernie Sanders is still the only candidate addressing anger, fear and apathy in a responsible, effective way.... Voters agree so strongly [with Sanders' economic message] even Republicans cry 'crony capitalism,' but they're just kidding. Clinton still doesn't get it. Raising billions from big business and floating boatloads of new programs is a bad strategy. Voters look at government and see a car with a cracked engine block. Until it's fixed they won't let anybody drive it."

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "A dark portrait of America -- impotent against Islamic State militants, vulnerable against shadowy, undocumented refugees, and isolated in a world of fraying alliances -- emerged from the Republican presidential field on Saturday as candidates seized on the Paris attacks to try to elevate terrorism into a defining issue in the 2016 election. Leading Republicans like Donald J. Trump, Ben Carson and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas called on the Obama administration to halt plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees next year. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, warning that the Islamic State would leverage the Paris attacks to add recruits and raise money, said the United States needed to move immediately to assemble a stronger coalition to fight the militants." ...

... Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said President Obama is not interested in protecting the United States. 'I recognize that Barack Obama does not wish to defend this country,' Cruz said on 'Fox and Friends' 'He may have been tired of war, but our enemies are not tired of killing us. And they’re getting stronger.'" ...

... AP: Speaking at a campaign rally in Beaumont, Texas, "... Donald Trump says the terror attacks in Paris would have been 'a much, much different situation' had the victims been armed with guns. And he says the United States is 'insane' to accept any refugees from Syria in the wake of the attacks.... He began the event with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the attacks."

Beyond the Beltway

Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: "On Friday morning, Alabama and the federal Justice Department reached an agreement to bring the state in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a law passed in 1993 requiring states to make it easier and more convenient for residents to register to vote ... [by] giving residents who visited the state's DMVs the opportunity to register.... The new agreement, however, does not force the state to reopen the more than two dozen DMVs in majority-black counties that recently shut down...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "At least 15 Sudanese migrants trying to cross from Egypt into Israel were shot and killed at the border early Sunday, possibly by Egyptian police officers, according to security officials and news reports. The death toll, if confirmed, would be one of the highest in years for migrants and asylum seekers making the treacherous journey across the Sinai Peninsula into Israel. People coming from Sudan, Eritrea and other countries in East Africa have been tortured by traffickers, beaten or shot by the Egyptian security services and have faced open-ended detention by the Israeli authorities, according to human rights groups."

Washington Post: "The Pentagon transferred five Yemeni detainees who had been held for more than a decade at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials announced Sunday."

New York Times: "The Japanese economy deteriorated more severely than expected in the third quarter, government data released on Monday showed, extending a downturn into a second consecutive three-month period and putting the country in technical recession."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Adam Nossiter, et al., of the New York Times: "President François Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State for the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, as the death toll rose to 127 victims, with 200 others hospitalized. He declared three days of national mourning, and said that military troops would patrol the capital. France remained under a nationwide state of emergency":

The Times' live updates are here. The Times is providing free digital access to its stories about the attack. From the liveblog at 10:02 am ET: President Obama will convene the National Security Council this morning ahead of his trip to Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia. ...

... Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for the catastrophic attacks in the French capital, calling them 'the first of the storm' and mocking France as a 'capital of prostitution and obscenity,' according to statements released in multiple languages on one of the terror group's encrypted messaging accounts. The remarks came in a communiqué published in Arabic, English and French on the Islamic State's Telegram account and then distributed via their supporters on Twitter, according to a transcript provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist propaganda."...

... The Local's liveblog for today is here. The Local's front page currently [9 am ET] has news on the reactions of other European countries to the Paris attacks. The Guardian's new liveblog is here. ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog is here. At 8:40 am ET: "The [U.S.] State Department says American citizens were among those injured in the Paris attacks.'

... Adam Nossiter & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking that President François Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack on France. He closed the borders and mobilized the military in a national emergency." ...

... Friday, 10:04 pm ET: "The Paris police prefect, Michel Cadot, said all the assailants directly involved in the attacks around the city were believed to be dead, though they may have had accomplices who were still at large. It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved in total." (from the Times liveblog) ...

... The Local's liveblog is here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...

... Francois Hollande declares a state of emergency & closes borders:

... President Obama reacts to the attacks:

... Timothy Cama of the Hill: "A Paris concert hosted by former Vice President Al Gore to advocate for global climate change action was suspended Friday as the city was hit by multiple terrorist attacks that killed dozens. The climate event near the Eiffel Tower was still happening around 6:30 p.m. eastern United States time, but it was stopped shortly thereafter. The web-based livestream for the event was replaced with a statement. 'Out of solidarity with the French people and the city of Paris, we have decided to suspend our broadcast,' it says." ...

... Jon Swaine of the Hill: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Friday directed the One World Trade Center's spire to light up in blue, white and red in solidarity with the French following multiple attacks in Paris."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would leave the state with about 10 abortion clinics, down from more than 40. The court has not heard a major abortion case since 2007, and the new case has the potential to affect millions of women and to revise the constitutional principles governing abortion rights." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... New York Times Editors: The "entire purpose [of the Texas law] -- like that of similar laws around the country -- is to end legal abortion services. At an anti-abortion rally before he signed the Texas bill, known as H.B. 2, Rick Perry, then the governor, said that an 'ideal world' is one without abortion. 'Until then,' he said, 'we will continue to pass laws to ensure that abortions are as rare as possible under existing law.'... First-trimester abortions, which account for the overwhelming majority of all abortions, are already among the safest medical procedures available. What endangers women's health is when legal abortions are made harder or impossible to obtain, because women will be forced to wait until later in their pregnancies.... The justices ... have the opportunity to make clear that courts cannot simply uphold clearly deceptive legislation without questioning its actual function, as the Fifth Circuit did." ...

... Steve M. has a conspiracy theory: "... the Roberts Court took this case with the understanding that it would drive voter turnout on ... the Republican side.... And what kind of decision would do that? Obviously a decision that rejects the conservative position.... I'm betting on a full or partial rejection of the Texas law."

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a case out of Virginia that questions whether state lawmakers unlawfully considered race when they drew congressional district lines."

Paul Ryan Turns Down Full-Time Job for Part-Time Work. Dana Milbank: "House Republican leaders this month ... declared that the people's representatives will be working only two days a week next year. The House will be in session just 111 days in 2016. This means the chamber will be closed more weekdays (150) than open, and many of the 111 are partial days. That's upward of 30 weeks of paid vacation for all 435 members of the House.... Worse..., lawmakers have awarded themselves essentially unlimited travel budgets so they can spend more time at home.... 'It's a great irony, really, that by every measurement it looks as if Congress is more out of touch with constituents than ever before,' [former GOP Rep. Vin] Weber said, 'and yet they've been back with their constituents more than they've ever been.'"

Griff Witte, et al. of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military is 'reasonably certain' that an American drone strike in Syria killed the Islamic State executioner known as 'Jihadi John,' an official said Friday as British and U.S. officials seek to confirm the details of the attack." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charles Pierce was fairly unimpressed with the piece I linked yesterday, by Chris Whipple, on the Bush administration's failure to heed the CIA's pre-9/11 warnings about an imminent Al Qaeda attack because Pierce doesn't trust George Slam-Dunk Tenet & the Boyz. "This piece just reeks of score-settling and of ass-covering, and by the time it gets to Jose Rodriguez, the CIA's torture expert, who belongs in a fcking cell, and he starts talking about how what we did to people wasn't torture, it was all I could do to keep from throwing the laptop out the DB Cooper door at the back of the airplane. None of these guys -- from C-Plus Augustus on down -- is ready to accept responsibility for the worst national-security disaster since Pearl Harbor...." Pierce has a point.

Ben Terris & Stephanie Kirchner of the Washington Post tell the heartbreaking story of the Binder twins, the boys conjoined at the head whom Ben Carson separated. The operation made Carson a star, but the boys never developed normally. "Years later, neither boy could get around on his own, nor feed himself.... [Their mother] brought them to a home for disabled children, where they became wards of the state.... Patrick Binder died sometime in the past decade.... Benjamin is 28 now and still cannot speak but ... is doing 'relatively well.'... 'My job as a doctor is to make sick people well, and when I fail to do that, regardless of exactly why, I still failed, Donlin Long, the former head of neurosurgery, said in a phone interview about the Binder surgery. 'So in that way, the simple answer is no, I do not think it was a success.'"

Presidential Race

Emily Steel of the New York Times: "In the hours after the deadly attacks in Paris, CBS News significantly reworked its plans for the Democratic presidential debate it is hosting [in Des Moines, Iowa,] on Saturday night to focus more on issues of terrorism, national security and foreign relations." ...

... Date Night with Bernie, Hil & Marty. Gail Collins: "This weekend's Democratic debate is going to be a tough sell. Two hours on a Saturday night, and not a single candidate who appears to be certifiably deranged. There are only three Democrats left in the contest, and none of them has compared the competition to a child molester. None seems to have an unusually creative theory on why the pyramids were built. Yawn." ...

... Reminder. Noah Weiland of Politico: "The second Democratic presidential debate will be Saturday, Nov. 14, live from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.... The debate will last two hours and begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.... The debate will air on CBS and stream for free at www.cbsnews.com/live/. No cable subscription is necessary. CBS will also air the debate on its radio affiliates...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Beutler: "The cardinal imperative of electing a Democrat in 2016 is to prevent Republicans from consolidating control of government and using it to regressive ends. Against that backdrop, the question of who's best equipped to advance progressive goals fades into near-irrelevance, behind the less-inspiring question of which candidate has the best chance of winning.... If Clinton can best O'Malley and Sanders on the electability question, or fight them to a draw, subsequent questions become much less tricky for her. If she's the most electable candidate, her appeal to Democrats is obvious. And if all three candidates are electable, then the argument that Democrats should nominate another male candidate, rather than the first female major-party candidate, becomes a very tough sell. (Point, Hillarybots.)"

Hadas Gold of Politico with another Hillary conspiracy theory: the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz scheduled all the Democratic debates at a time hardly anyone would watch "since having fewer viewers reduces the chances of a rival delivering a serious blow to front-runner Hillary Clinton.... A broadcast network executive, speaking on background, said broadcast networks are much more limited on time slots than cable, so they have to work within the schedule in place. Wasserman Schultz insisted that the DNC's goal was to reach more viewers" by airing the debates on broadcast networks rather than on cable.

Ezra Klein: "Anyone watching the fourth Republican debate would be excused for thinking America is mired in a deep recession -- that the economy is shrinking, foreign competitors are outpacing us, more Americans are uninsured, and innovators can't bring their ideas to market.... They would be surprised to find that unemployment is at 5 percent, America's recovery from the financial crisis has outpaced that of other developed nations, the percentage of uninsured Americans has been plummeting even as Obamacare has cost less than expected, and there's so much money flowing into new ideas and firms in the tech industry that observers are worried about a second tech bubble.... Republicans are stuck between a description of the economy that seems increasingly detached from the reality of the recovery and a set of economic plans that actually worsen many of the problems Republicans say they want to solve. It's a pickle." ...

... Kevin Drum: Klein is "completely correct, but ... Republicans aren't really talking about the economy when they adopt this 'apocalyptic' rhetoric. In fact, so far this hasn't been an election about the economy at all.... It's a culture war election. The topics that have really driven the campaign so far are illegal immigration, political correctness, abortion, Obamacare, Vladimir Putin, the war on Christianity, and so forth." ...

... CW: The GOP has nothing to sell. Scapegoating Mexicans or gay couples or Starbucks works only if the economy totally sucks & there's no hope of recovery. Democrats are suggesting myriad ways to improve the personal financial positions of middle- & lower-income Americans; Republicans are saying a minimum living wage is too damned high. I had this argument with my neighbor today: he too thought $15/hour was too high, & I conceded that I didn't know what the exact best figure would be. But I said (a) everybody who is willing to do what the boss tells him to do should earn a living wage for doing it, even if the skill & experience level required to do the job is low; & (b) right now you're subsidizing WalMart & McDonalds, etc. whose low-wage employees only get by with the help of food stamps & other social services. Most of the people who use social welfare programs are working, I said. Why should your taxes, I asked my neighbor, go to feeding WalMart employees when the Waltons are the wealthiest people in the U.S.? (My rant was longer than that, but that was the gist of it.) Oh yeah, sez he.

Greg Sargent: Donald Trump's "meltdown [at an Iowa rally Thursday] represents something much greater than merely a cringeworthy spectacle. In a way Trump's rambling monologue amounts to an indictment of the fundamental stupidity and arbitrariness of American politics in general. And as such, we may look back at this moment and see it in a different light, as crossing from sheer buffoonery into a semi-poignant glimpse into the foibles of human vanity.... Trump is right to rail at the profound absurdity of the Carson spectacle. But the problem is that in so doing, he's also railing at the same absurdities that have been holding him aloft, too." ...

... Lisa Lambert of Reuters: "... Ben Carson recommended praying for rival Donald Trump after the real-estate mogul..., in a 95-minute rant in Iowa, likened him to a child molester, Carson's business manager said on Friday."When I spoke with Dr. Carson about this yesterday how we should respond, you know he was so sad about it. He said: 'Pray for him." He feels sorry for him because he really likes Mr. Trump,' Armstrong Williams, who often acts as Carson's surrogate in the media, told CNN. 'To see him just imploding before our very eyes - it's just sad to watch,' Williams said." ...

... Bethany Karn, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Ben Carson the doctor saved my daughter's life, but now I worry that Ben Carson the president could put others' lives in jeopardy.... Like most of the Republican field, he promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But Carson has outdone the others, calling it 'the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.'... As we prepared my daughter for brain surgery eight years ago, Carson was right to tell me not to worry about insurance. No one should worry about cost when a child's life is on the line. Indeed, that was the whole point of the ACA, which Carson and his rivals pledge to undo." ...

... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "... the more fundamental question -- the scarier question -- about Carson isn't whether the retired neurosurgeon is a fabulist, and therefore whether he has the right character to be president. It's whether he has the knowledge and understanding to be president. The evidence is rather conclusive that he doesn't.... Carson doesn't just need fact-checking. He needs thought-checking.... The tripartite architecture of [Carson's] non-answers [to debate questions] has become apparent: duck the actual question; revert to a comfortable, if irrelevant, talking point; finish with patriotic platitude." ...

... Ben Carson Knows Guys Who Know. Katherine Krueger of TPM: "Carson said his campaign would release 'some material on that' before the end of the weekend when asked about National Security Adviser Susan Rice saying there's no evidence to support his claims that the Chinese are involved in Syria. 'I have several sources that I've got material from, I'm surprised my sources are better than theirs,' he told reporters after a town hall event." ...

     ... CW: What's the trait most dominant here: arrogance or delusion? Ole Doc's assumption is that a few of his crackpot friends have more reliable information than the Pentagon, the CIA & the NSA combined. I'll bet the "material" Carson releases "before the end of the weekend" is a grainy photo of a guy who works at Damascus's all-you-can-eat China Buffet. ...

... We discovered that we were so much alike and shared the same values and principles that govern our lives. -- Ben Carson, in a 2007 letter to the court in support of Alfonso Costa, after Costa pled guilty to health insurance fraud ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Ben Carson is continuing to stand by his business associate and 'best friend' Alfonso Costa following revelations that Costa pleaded guilty in federal court in 2007 to healthcare fraud. Costa, a former dentist from Pittsburgh, is a self-employed real estate speculator.... 'Al Costa is my very best friend. I know his heart. I am proud to call him my friend. I have always and will continue to stand by him. That is what real friends do!' [Carson said in a statement.] Carson and Costa are also business associates, with Costa's firm managing a suburban Pittsburgh office building owned by Carson that last year earned the former neurosurgeon between $200,000 and $2m, according to financial disclosure forms cited by Mother Jones.... In a break from the campaign trail earlier this fall, Carson spent a week at one of Costa's properties, a villa on Italy’s Amalfi coast.... Carson has for years been a frequent visitor to the villa, which rents for between $30,000 and $50,000 per week...." In a 2012 book, Carson alleged that the Justice Department unfairly targeted Costa because "the lead agent was either jealous of his success or incorrectly concluded that he had organized crime connections that produced his wealth." (CW: i.e., Costa was a victim of racial stereotyping). ...

... Here's Costa, giving a tour of the villa. Carson claimed Costa "lives modestly compared to the lifestyle he could have had if he so desired.":

Director Judd Apatow supports Carson for president. Sarah Burris of Salon elaborates:

Doctor Ben Gets Something Right (and Indirectly Criticizes Jeb!). Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "After speaking at a Republican Party conference [in Orlando, Florida,] on Friday, a reporter asked Carson what he thought of the infamous [Terry Schiavo] case.... 'We face those kinds of issues all the time and while I don't believe in euthanasia, you have to recognize that people that are in that condition do have a series of medical problems that occur that will take them out,' he said. 'Your job [as a doctor] is to keep them comfortable throughout that process and not to treat everything that comes up.' When the reporter asked whether Carson thought it was necessary for Congress to intervene, he said: "I don't think it needed to get to that level. I think it was much ado about nothing.'"

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Friday took a sharp turn to the right by laying out a plan that would place new limits on legal immigration, increase deportations of undocumented immigrants, end birthright citizenship and build a wall along the US-Mexico border. The Texas senator unveiled his proposal at a fiery campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, where he echoed the hardline immigration rhetoric of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump." CW Translation: Nobody's gonna out-asshole me. P.S. to the GOP base: When Donald Deport'em's meltdown is complete, I'm your guy. ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "In an interview while taping a 'Candidate Cafe' segment for radio station WMUR in New Hampshire, Mr. Cruz acted out an entire scene from the movie" "Princess Bride." CW: If Ted had pursued an acting career instead of becoming the conniving creep he is today, you might even like him (although I have a feeling directors would typecast him in villain roles):

Jeb! Visits a Home He Can't Recall. Tom Dart of the Guardian on the Bush family home in Midland, Texas, which is now a shrine (you can visit!) to George W. Bush. CW: Look for the threads of this story (which I liked) in an upcoming MoDo column.

Beyond the Beltway

Kim Chandler of the AP: "The conservative Republican governor of Alabama, a Deep South state where 'Obamacare' is often reviled, said Thursday that his administration is mulling an expansion of the state's Medicaid program under the federal health care law. Gov. Robert Bentley, a dermatologist turned governor, emphasized that he was in the exploratory stages -- and said funding the state's share of costs could be a major stumbling block -- but his comments were the strongest to date about the possible acceptance of expansion dollars in the deeply red, high-poverty state."

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "A Utah judge has put a hold on his order to remove a foster child from the home of a married lesbian couple, whom he had said were unfit to keep the girl because of their sexual orientation.... The original order to remove the child from the home of the Carbon County couple drew an outcry from around the country, with former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton chiming in and even the state's Republican governor declaring himself 'puzzled' and concerned that Johansen was not following the law." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Tracy of the New York Times: "Saying that he has cancer and wants to focus on his family and his treatment, the head coach of the University of Missouri football team, Gary Pinkel, announced his resignation Friday. The move shocked the campus after racial protests had put it in the national spotlight and Pinkel had backed his players' threatened boycott of a coming game."

License & Registration, Please. Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Beep, beep. A Google driverless car was pulled over in California. The problem? It was going too slow. An officer in Mountain View, Calif., apparently saw traffic backed up behind the little, white vehicle. The car was traveling 24 mph in a stretch where the posted speed limit was 35 mph.... It was unclear whether a ticket was issued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Victor Mather New York Times: "Russia was provisionally suspended from track and field on Friday by the sport's world governing body in the wake of sweeping doping allegations against the country's athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and officials."