The Commentariat -- October 9, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Paul Waldman: "The most important thing to understand about what's happening now [in the House] is that this is a permanent rebellion.... That's why it doesn't really matter much who actually ends up in the Speaker's chair." ...

... Katherine Krueger of TPM (11:36 am ET): "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told NBC News through a spokesperson Friday that despite Republicans calling for him to enter the race for Speaker of the House, he's still not interested." ...

... Dana Bash, et al., of CNN (12:15 pm ET): "Rep. Paul Ryan is telling House Republicans privately he is considering running for speaker, several members say." ...

... Scott Wong of the Hill: "House GOP lawmakers this week confronted Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about rumors they worried could have hampered his bid for Speaker. At a closed-door meeting on Tuesday with Texas's GOP delegation, members pressed McCarthy for reassurances." Wong doesn't say what the rumors were, but it's spelled out below. Wong has details on circulation of the rumors.

Charles Pierce on the shooting at Northern Arizona U. in Flagstaff: "So, the 'mental illness' dodge isn't going to work this time. This is an ordinary Thursday night campus brawl that escalated to homicide only because one of the participants had a gun which, I guarantee you, he did not have to work hard to obtain. Maybe we should look into why these things happen. No. Because we are free. One per week now. That's the American way."

*****

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "House Republicans will meet Friday morning at the Capitol to begin charting a path forward after Representative Kevin McCarthy of California's stunning withdrawal from the race for speaker dashed expectations of an orderly succession and threw Congress deeper into turmoil." ...

... Too busy to read the news? Seth Meyers has a pretty good summary of "Chaos in the House." CW: I'll go with Don Young (R-Alaska) for Speaker. His charm & gallant manners should win over members of Congress of every political persuasion:

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national political party." ...

... Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Republicans expanded their numbers in the House and won the Senate in 2014 by asking voters to give them control of Congress and let them prove that they could govern the country. Right now they appear unable to govern themselves." ...

... CW: I thought this sentence from Hulse's analysis was a little odd: "The move by Mr. McCarthy ... echoed the events of December 1998, when another Republican speaker-in-waiting, Representative Robert L. Livingston of Louisiana, was forced to withdraw his name for the job because of a sexual scandal." ...

... Maybe Not So Odd. Anna Merlan of Jezebel: "Gossipers on the right side of the aisle are heavily implying that McCarthy bailed to avoid having an alleged extramarital affair with Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina made public." ...

... Winger Matt Lewis, now at the Week: "Add to the whole weird mix this, from a letter that Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) wrote to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.): 'With all the voter distrust of Washington felt around the country, I am asking that any candidate for speaker of the House, majority leader, and majority whip withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself, the Republican Conference, and the House of Representatives if they become public.' [via Politico]" ...

... As Dana Milbank notes in his column linked below, Jones' letter "was widely interpreted as targeting McCarthy." ...

... AND, Arturo Garcia of Raw Story nails it: "Erick Erickson, noted that the email also contained links to Internet posts regarding rumors of an affair between McCarthy and Rep. Renee Elmers (R-NC). CW: Beats that "for the good of the party" explanation. ...

... Amanda Marcotte, in Salon, explains McCarthy's real language problem, & it isn't his inability to express himself in actual sentences: "... you can kind of see why Republicans would be exasperated with McCarthy. Disingenuous posturing is really the first skill of a 21st century Republican, the base from which other skills are built upon. Being unable to hold the line when it comes to conservative bullshit is mandatory for a modern Republican who wants to hold office. McCarthy's inability to keep this one rule in mind probably should mean, by their standards, that he has to go." ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The sudden decision Thursday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) to withdraw from the speaker's race thrust congressional Republicans into chaos and left the contest wide open, with a crowd of lesser-known players jockeying for power and rank-and-file members fretting that the political unrest on the hard right that drove McCarthy and House Speaker John A. Boehner away from the position has left the party unmanageable in the lower chamber." ...

... Ben White of Politico: "Chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives makes an already scary autumn even more uncertain for Wall Street with debt limit and shutdown fights looming and no one clearly in charge.... 'We will not mince words -- this is the political equivalent of a dumpster fire,' said Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities. 'We are increasing our odds from 30 percent to 40 percent for some kind of accident that would keep Congress from raising the debt ceiling in time due to brinkmanship, procrastination or political gridlock.'" ...

Well, at least we know he can pump a gavel.... Paul Kane & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "By mid-afternoon, outgoing speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had spoken to [Paul] Ryan [R-Wisc.] at least twice, trying to convince the reluctant congressman that he was the only man who could save House Republicans from their own self-created chaos.... Boehner and several other prominent Republicans are turning to their party's 2012 vice-presidential nominee out of desperation, believing that he is the only member of the House with the stature to be speaker. Two other members, Reps. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), have announced their candidacies, but they are widely seen as too inexperienced or underwhelming to handle the job." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Friday that he could 'potentially' be a candidate for speaker of the House but also gave the name of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as someone who he would support for the position." CW: Wow! That would really upset President Obama because, according to Matt Drudge, Obama so dislikes Issa that he named ISIS after him. "'I'm really being honest with you,' Drudge said." (Never mind that Obama refers to the Islamic State as ISIL. When you're making up shit, however "honest," no part of it has to be factual.)

... Dana Milbank: "The next speaker -- whoever that may be -- will have to pick between two poisons: Defy the few dozen conservative zealots who hold the balance of power in the House and thereby lose his gavel, or surrender to the conservatives and take the Republican Party (and perhaps the country) into a quagmire of default and shutdown.... Even if Ryan or another figure can temporarily unite the caucus, the conservatives' demands will inevitably lead to chaos." ...

... Wait, Wait! Comes Now a Savior! Al Weaver of the Washington Examiner: "Gingrich says he'd consider interim speakership." CW: I don't suppose Rep. Walter Jones will be getting behind Newt. ...

     ... MEANWHILE, over at US News, they have a "communications expert" recommending Dick Cheney for speaker (she isn't kidding). CW: So my Don Young preference is perfecty sound. ...

... Jake Sherman of Politico: "Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has abandoned his bid for House speaker Thursday afternoon, just minutes before the election was about to begin. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who resigned the post last month, announced in the meeting that elections were being postponed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy on Thursday abruptly took himself out of the race to succeed John A. Boehner as House speaker, apparently undone by the same forces that drove Mr. Boehner to resign.... As shocked members left the room there was a sense of total disarray, with no clear path forward and no set date for a new vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Cap'n. Gohmert.... Steve M.: "... enjoy the Republicans' crisis while it lasts. Unless it lasts all the way through the fall of 2016, it will be a non-factor in the election, just as the 2013 shutdown was a non-factor in 2014. Liberal and centrist voters have no long-term memory for this sort of thing. The mainstream press always wants to revert to the preferred narrative: that the GOP is a sane, responsible party. There would probably have to be tanks in the streets in late 2016, with Louis Gohmert as the lead driver, before GOP chaos had an electoral effect." ...

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Top House Democrats are accusing the chairman of the House Oversight Committee of refusing to share the unedited footage from the recent undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood. 'Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has in his possession right now, a computer hard drive that contains videos produced by David Daleiden, the head of the group that tried to entrap Planned Parenthood,' Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) declared from the House floor, interrupting the chamber's debate on legislation expanding the investigation into Planned Parenthood." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "In response to the latest mass shooting during his presidency, President Obama is seriously considering circumventing Congress with his executive authority and imposing new background-check requirements for buyers who purchase weapons from high-volume gun dealers. Under the proposed rule change, dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and perform background checks on potential buyers."

Danielle Ivory & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Federal and California regulators have begun an investigation into a second computer program in Volkswagen's diesel cars that also affects the operation of the cars' emission controls.... The disclosure of the software was made in testimony by the head of Volkswagen's American unit, Michael Horn, before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, and later confirmed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board."

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon's $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria." ...

... Jim Michaels & Doug Stanglin of USA Today: "Four Russian cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea fell short of their Syrian targets and landed in a rural part of Iran, U.S. officials said Thursday, amid growing international concern about Russia's actions in the region. The errant strikes were part of a volley of 26 long-range cruise missiles that Russia fired Wednesday, U.S. officials told USA Today."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Paul Krugman: "I often wonder about commentators who write about things like those hearings as if there were some real issue involved, who keep going on about the Clinton email controversy as if all these months of scrutiny had produced any evidence of wrongdoing, as opposed to sloppiness.... Somehow, though, politicians who pretend to be concerned about issues, but are obviously just milking those issues for political gain, keep getting a free pass. And it's not just a Clinton story.... Once fiscal scare tactics started to lose political traction, even the pretense went away. Just look at the people seeking the Republican presidential nomination. One after another, they have been proposing giant tax cuts that would add trillions to the deficit. Debt, it seems, only matters when there's a Democrat in the White House. Or more accurately, all the talk about debt wasn't about fiscal prudence; it was about trying to inflict political damage on President Obama...." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... the basic problem has long been that observers refuse to accurately describe what [the Tea party Republicans'] actual position is in demanding these terms. The resulting standoffs have for years been described as a failure to compromise, as if these have been conventional negotiations, in which each side is asking for what it wants, and the two fail to meet in the middle. But that isn't what has been happening." ...

... CW: It would appear the Washington Post editors are trying to make Krugman's & Sargent's points. In an editorial urging the House to put itself in order (that means you, too, Democrats!), the editors write, "Most House Republicans ... understand the danger of shutting down the government or refusing to raise the debt limit in order to register anger and score ideological points. They recognize that a great democracy can't function when one faction issues unrealistic demands and threatens to burn everything down if it doesn't get its way." Really, Fred? Just last month, the House voted 277 to 151, with only 91 Republicans joining House Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. There are 247 House Republicans. So slightly more than one-third of Republicans, no doubt with considerable arm-twisting by leadership, voted in favor of a short-term measure to keep the government running. Sorry, but one-third is not "most Republicans." In 2013, Boehner himself refused to call a vote for a bill that would have averted a shutdown. So the government shut down.

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The group attempting to persuade Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to run for president will not televise a commercial recalling the death of Mr. Biden's first wife and his daughter after a report indicated that the vice-president was uncomfortable with the content. 'We will be respecting the vice-president's wishes,' said Brad Bauman, a spokesman for Draft Biden.... 'He has seen the ad and thinks the ad treads on sacred ground and hopes they don't run it,' a person close to the vice-president told the [Los Angeles Times]."

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Hillary Clinton used her private email account to pass along the identity of one of the CIA's top Libyan intelligence sources..., according to excerpts from previously undisclosed emails released Thursday by Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.... The redacted information was 'the name of a human source,' Gowdy wrote to his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, and was therefore 'some of the most protected information in our intelligence community.' 'Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded the email to a colleague -- debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address,' wrote Gowdy in a letter to Cummings.... Cummings immediately shot back that ... the letter 'is a defensive and desperate attempt to save face, but it only proves that McCarthy's statement [that the Benghazi committee was formed to hurt Hillary Clinton] is true -- [Gowdy's] new proposal to selectively release yet another subset of emails reveals his obsession with Secretary Clinton and no new information about the Benghazi attacks,' Cummings said in a statement."

Adrian Carrasquillo of BuzzFeed: "Hillary Clinton was interrupted by an immigration protester while presenting an award to chef Jose Andres at the annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Holding up a sign that read 'Hillary for immigrants in prisons,' Juan Carlos Ramos of the advocacy organization United We Dream Action stood near the stage, yelling at Clinton as she spoke over him. Ramos was protesting Clinton accepting donations from corporations that run private prisons." CW: Andres is the restaurateur locked in breach-of-contract lawsuits with Donald Trump. ...

... Déjà vu All Over Again: The Sleaze Factor. Jonathan Chait: "The mechanism that transferred [Bill] Clinton's well-known moral failings onto his vice-president was an exceedingly technical fund-raising scandal. [Al] Gore made fund-raising calls for the Democratic Party from the White House, which did not violate either the letter or the spirit of the law (the Pendleton Act, which was intended to prevent shaking down potential officeholders for donations).... The email scandal currently dogging the Hillary Clinton campaign has played a similar role.... Ironically, both Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton today inherited much of their reputation for shadiness from the same person: Bill Clinton.... The precedent ... also shows the challenge [Hillary Clinton] will face. A bored and disillusioned base, the likelihood of indefinite gridlock, and a skeptical media is a formula not necessarily for defeat, but surely a long, hard, joyless slog."

After seeing Ben Carson as a candidate, I'm re-evaluating my usage of the phrase 'It's not brain surgery.' -- John Cole of Balloon Juice ...

... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "... Ben Carson, under fire for his advice about what to do when facing a gunman, late Wednesday recounted the time when a gun was pointed at him. 'I have had a gun held on me when I was in a Popeyes,' Carson told host Karen Hunter on SiriusXM radio, referencing an incident at a Baltimore fast-food restaurant. '[A] guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs,' he added. 'And I just said, "I believe that you want the guy behind the counter."'" CW: So our hero Dr. Ben says, "Don't shoot me, bro. Shoot him." Say what? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ellie Shechet of Jezebel: "In other words, not only did Carson completely cooperate with the gunman in this very possibly made-up fairy tale event, he actually redirected him towards a more appropriate victim." ...

... But Wait. You Haven't Yet Heard Carson's Argumentum ad Hitlerum. Nick Baumann of the Huffington Post: "Ben Carson ... blamed the Holocaust on Nazi gun control in an interview on CNN Thursday." Which, um, has no basis in fact & has been thoroughly debunked. But so what? If you're going to play blame-the-victim against American college kids, you might as well go all out & blame European Jews for "letting" Hitler massacre them. ...

... When looking for the next crazy thing to say, Dr. Ben turns to Reality Chex. Yesterday D. C. Clark wrote, "It is a persistent and impenetrable belief among the gun-nuttery that if every European Jew had owned firearms and defended themselves, the Holocaust would never have happened." Five minutes later, Ole Doc tells Blitzer, "I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed." (In fairness to Doc Sleepy, yesterday was not the first time he's blamed Jews & gun control for the Holocaust.)

... CW: How would Sanders & Clinton fare in debates against Carson? I can imagine Bernie dismissively telling Dr. Know-Nothing that his opinion on this or that was nonsensical. I can't quite see Hillary being so direct. What do you think?

Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair: "Like so many bullies, Trump has skin of gossamer. He thinks nothing of saying the most hurtful thing about someone else, but when he hears a whisper that runs counter to his own vainglorious self-image, he coils like a caged ferret. Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a 'short-fingered vulgarian' in the pages of Spy magazine [which Carter cofounded]. That was more than a quarter of a century ago. To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him.... On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby." ...

     ... CW: Huh. Apparently no objection to the "vulgarian" part of the insult. You'd think he might be upset that Spy had inaccurately portrayed him as a native of Vulgary (or Vulgaria, as Kevin McCarthy might say).

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "... Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor, Rhodes scholar and celebrated policy wonk..., through his newly released hack-job of a tax plan has achieved the impossible: He has made Donald Trump look like a grown-up.... In a sprawling, largely detail-free plan released Wednesday, Jindal tried his hand at the tax-cut buzz saw. On a static basis, the Tax Foundation estimates, Jindal's proposal would cut revenue by $11.3 trillion over the next decade.... Jindal's plan is also, impressively, even more regressive than Trump's. While Trump would raise the after-tax incomes of the top 1 percent by a mere fifth (21.6 percent), Jindal would increase their incomes by a full quarter (25 percent). Then, in addition to lowering taxes on the rich, Jindal -- but not Trump -- would raise taxes on the poor.... This may not be surprising, though, given that as governor of Louisiana, Jindal has backed other measures to shift more of the tax burden onto the poor to fund tax cuts for the wealthy."

Beyond the Beltway

Mark Peters of the Wall Street Journal: "The top official at the nation's third-largest school district is resigning amid a federal investigation of the school system.... The exit of Barbara Byrd-Bennett as chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, which is effective immediately, comes less than two months after she took a leave absence. Ms. Byrd-Bennett stepped aside on a temporary basis in mid-April as school officials confirmed a federal probe into an undisclosed matter was under way and the Chicago Tribune citing unnamed sources, said investigators were focusing on a $20.5 million leadership-training contract awarded by the school board to SUPES Academy, where Ms. Byrd-Bennett once worked." (Firewalled, so Google it.

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "As a video circulated online Wednesday showing what appeared to be a sexual hazing ritual at an Indiana University fraternity, some who saw it shrugged. Others thought it was funny, tweeting 'LOL' and 'LMAO.' Some, however, thought it was rape. On Wednesday night, the university weighed in, announcing via Twitter that it was suspending Alpha Tau Omega 'immediately, pending investigation into hazing allegations.' On Thursday morning, the fraternity's national leadership issued a harshly worded statement calling the video 'highly offensive' and promising 'swift disciplinary action.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sam Biddle of Gawker has more on the video. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Islamic State registered significant gains Friday in the area of northwestern Syria that Russian warplanes have been bombing heavily, taking six villages near Aleppo and threatening to cut off an important route north to the Turkish border. Late in the day, there were reports that rebels had reasserted control in one of the villages."

Houston Chronicle: "One Texas Southern University student was killed another wounded in a shooting Friday at a student housing complex on the campus in southeast Houston."

New York Times: "Israeli soldiers killed six young Palestinians on Friday in the Gaza Strip, including a 15-year-old boy, as they opened fire to quell crowds that hurled rocks and rolled burning tires close to the fence separating Gaza from Israel, Israeli military and Gaza health officials said."

New York Times: "The National Dialogue Quartet in Tunisia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday 'for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011'.... The quartet comprises four organizations: the Tunisian General Labour Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. But the Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasized that the prize 'is awarded to this quartet, not to the four individual organizations as such.'"

AP: "Officials say one person is dead and three others are wounded following an early morning shooting at Northern Arizona University. School public relations director Cindy Brown says the suspected shooter is in custody." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "G. T. Fowler, the chief of campus police, said that Steven Jones, a freshman, had opened fire after two groups of male students were involved in a confrontation. The police were able to take Mr. Jones into custody after he stopped firing the weapon and 'everything calmed down for a few minutes,' Chief Fowler said."

The Commentariat -- October 8, 2015

Internal links, defunct video & graphics removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has abandoned his bid for House speaker Thursday afternoon, just minutes before the election was about to begin. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who resigned the post last month, announced in the meeting that elections were being postponed." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy on Thursday abruptly took himself out of the race to succeed John A. Boehner as House speaker, apparently undone by the same forces that drove Mr. Boehner to resign.... As shocked members left the room there was a sense of total disarray, with no clear path forward and no set date for a new vote." ...

     ... Hey, maybe this is really why. Mike Allen of Politico: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney is stepping into the suddenly feverish House speaker's race to endorse the leading candidate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as 'a good man and a strong leader.'" CW: I'd give up & seek counseling if Dick Cheney endorsed me for something.

Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "The president of Volkswagen's American unit came under withering criticism on Thursday at a congressional hearing looking into the automaker's admission that for years it knowingly skirted federal emissions standards. Michael Horn, the automaker's top official in the United States, repeatedly expressed remorse over the company's deception, but lawmakers were looking for more than an apology for its use of a so-called defeat device that fooled regulators during emissions testing."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "... Ben Carson, under fire for his advice about what to do when facing a gunman, late Wednesday recounted the time when a gun was pointed at him. 'I have had a gun held on me when I was in a Popeyes,' Carson told host Karen Hunter on SiriusXM radio, referencing an incident at a Baltimore fast-food restaurant. '[A] guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs,' he added. 'And I just said, "I believe that you want the guy behind the counter."'" CW: So our hero Dr. Ben says, "Don't shoot me, bro. Shoot him." Say what?

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Top House Democrats are accusing the chairman of the House Oversight Committee of refusing to share the unedited footage from the recent undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood. 'Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has in his possession right now, a computer hard drive that contains videos produced by David Daleiden, the head of the group that tried to entrap Planned Parenthood,' Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) declared from the House floor, interrupting the chamber's debate on legislation expanding the investigation into Planned Parenthood."

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "As a video circulated online Wednesday showing what appeared to be a sexual hazing ritual at an Indiana University fraternity, some who saw it shrugged. Others thought it was funny, tweeting 'LOL' and 'LMAO.' Some, however, thought it was rape. On Wednesday night, the university weighed in, announcing via Twitter that it was suspending Alpha Tau Omega 'immediately, pending investigation into hazing allegations.' On Thursday morning, the fraternity's national leadership issued a harshly worded statement calling the video 'highly offensive' and promising 'swift disciplinary action.'" ...

... Sam Biddle of Gawker has more on the video.

*****

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama called the chief of Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday to apologize for the bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan that killed doctors and patients, a White House spokesman said Wednesday. 'When the United States makes a mistake, we own up to it, we apologize,' Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, told reporters. Mr. Earnest had declined on Tuesday to apologize to the doctors group despite calling the strike in Kunduz a terrible tragedy, saying the administration was not prepared to make further comments while three separate investigations were continuing. But on Wednesday, Mr. Earnest said the president had decided to issue the formal apology in the wake of testimony from the top general in Afghanistan before a congressional committee." ...

... Spencer Ackerman, et al., of the Guardian: "The US military never gave Doctors Without Borders prior notification of a deadly airstrike on its field hospital in Kunduz, the aid group said on Wednesday, in an apparent violation of the Pentagon's own instructions on the rules of war. 'We had not received any warning of the strike,' said Jason Cone, US executive director of the charity -- also known as Médecins sans Frontières -- five days after the Saturday morning US strike that killed 22 staff and patients and injured 37 more."

"House Republicans Create Special Committee To Harass Planned Parenthood." Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "House Republicans created a special committee on Wednesday to investigate abortions, fetal tissue procurement and the use of federal funds at Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers voted 242-184 on a resolution establishing the committee, which ... will have the power to subpoena documents and testimony. Its stated mission, among other things, is to examine 'medical procedures and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement' and 'federal funding and support for abortion providers.'... During Wednesday's debate, Republicans couldn't say that Planned Parenthood broke any laws. Instead, they railed against abortion in general and described how disgusting it was to see videos of fetal tissue being removed from aborted fetuses."

Whenever I think of what's the worse-case scenario that can happen with this Congress, it's not altogether wrong all the time. Just try us. -- Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "In a move that threatens to upend the Republican race to succeed outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, a group of hard-line conservatives said Wednesday it will throw its support behind a little known Florida member to become the next speaker. The House Freedom Caucus announced its support for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) after emerging from an afternoon meeting in the Capitol complex.... Caucus members said Wednesday that the endorsement is binding on members only for Thursday's internal party vote and would not necessarily apply to the Oct. 29 floor vote." ...

... Boehner Forever! Russell Berman of the Atlantic: If House Republicans can't settle on a new speaker, Speaker John Boehner will stay on till they do: "When he announced his resignation last month, Boehner said it would become effective on October 30. On Monday, he set the floor vote for the day before, allowing for a last-minute change if the House failed to replace him." ...

... ** Hedrik Smith, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: Republicans, led by Karl Rove, launched in 2010 an exceptionally successful effort to win control of state legislatures, one of the main purposes of which was to gerrymander congressional districts. "They used sophisticated software to determine not only which town and which neighborhood should be allotted to which district but which street and which home. In the 2012 election, they saw the fruit of their labor. Republicans came out with a 33-seat majority in the U.S. House, even though they lost the popular vote. But there was a hitch. The very strategy that cemented the party's House majority also entrenched the rump faction of anti-government extremists who toppled Boehner and will menace his successor.... With protected political monopolies back home, the rebels take little or no political risk and pay no political price for opposing their speaker and adopting extremist positions that bring Congress to a halt.... It is going to take fundamental change to dislodge the gridlock now baked into the system...."

New York Times Editors: "Lawmakers have long abused their investigative authority for political purposes. But the effort to find [Hillary] Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the Libya attacks, was personally responsible for the deaths has lost any semblance of credibility. It's become an insult to the memory of four slain Americans.... Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Oct. 22. The hearing will give Republicans another chance to attack the credibility and trustworthiness of the leading Democratic presidential candidate.... The hearing should be the last salvo for a committee that has accomplished nothing. If the Republicans insist on keeping the process alive, the Democrats should stop participating in this charade."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "President Obama has signed into law a bipartisan change to ObamaCare, marking a rare instance that he and Congress have agreed on a tweak to his signatore legislative accomplishment.... The legislation, called the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act, deals with an obscure provision in ObamaCare that changed the definition of a small employer from one with 50 employees or fewer to one with 100 employees or fewer, beginning in 2016."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard two hours of arguments in its first capital cases since two justices [Breyer & Ginsburg] announced in June that they had grave doubts about the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issues were technical, concerning sentencing procedures, and the crimes were terrible, even by the standards of capital cases. By the end of the arguments, there was little reason to think that the cases would make a significant contribution to the court's larger debate about whether the death penalty can be reconciled with the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment."

Rob Krilly of the (UK) Telegraph: "The gunman who shot dead nine people at a college in Oregon last week was discharged from the army after attempting suicide, according to officials quoted by The Wall Street Journ[al]. Chris Harper-Mercer was discharged after one month of basic training at Fort Jackson, in South Carolina, in 2008.The revelation adds to evidence of his troubled state of mind long before he opened fire at Um[p]qua Community Collage and raises fresh questions about how he was able to buy an assortment of firearms."

Education Beat. How to Save the High Cost of Ivy League Tuition -- Commit a Violent Crime & Go to Jail. Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Months after winning a national title, Harvard's debate team has fallen to a group of New York prison inmates. The showdown took place at the Eastern correctional facility in New York, a maximum-security prison where convicts can take courses taught by faculty from nearby Bard College, and where inmates have formed a popular debate club. Last month they invited the Ivy League undergraduates and this year's national debate champions over for a friendly competition.... The inmates were asked to argue that public schools should be allowed to deny enrollment to undocumented students, a position the team opposed." ...

... Here's the underlying story, by Leslie Brody of the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 18). "Inmates can't use the Internet for research. The prison administration must approve requests for books and articles, which can take weeks."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Danielle Ivory & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The head of Volkswagen's American business knew about a potential emissions problem with the company's vehicles in spring 2014, earlier than previously acknowledged by top management in the United States. Michael Horn, the chief executive of the Volkswagen Group of America, said he was informed at the time of 'a possible emissions noncompliance' but was told that the company's engineers would work with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve the issue, according to testimony prepared for a congressional hearing set for Thursday. Later that year, he said, he was told that Volkswagen's technical teams had a specific plan for bringing the vehicles into compliance."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Russia's military moves in Syria are fundamentally changing the face of the country's civil war, putting President Bashar al-Assad back on his feet, and may complicate the Obama administration's plans to expand its air operations against the Islamic State." ...

... James Kanter of the New York Times: "Alarmed by the speed and scale of Russia's intervention in Syria, Western military officials said on Thursday that they were stepping up military exercises and deploying a small number of logistics personnel in Eastern and Central Europe. Britain announced that it would send soldiers to the Baltic countries after the show of force by Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin. Germany condemned Russia's operations in Syria in unusually pointed terms. NATO expressed alarm about Russia’s incursions into Turkish airspace and the widening of the field of conflict to include the firing of cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea." ...

... AFP: "A large majority of Russia's military strikes in Syria have not been aimed at the Islamic State group or jihadists tied to al-Qaida, and have instead targeted the moderate Syrian opposition, the US State Department said on Wednesday. 'Greater than 90% of the strikes that we've seen them take to date have not been against Isil or al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists,' said spokesman John Kirby." ...

     ... Juan Cole: Not really. Russia is targeting al Qaeda & al Qaeda-allied groups. They are not moderates; they're radical Islamicists. "Ultimately Syria can only be healed by democracy and the separation of religion and state. Neither the [Assad] regime nor the rebels get this, and there is no guarantee they ever will." ...

... Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "Russia and Syria unleashed a coordinated assault by land, air and sea on Wednesday, seeking to reverse recent gains by rebel groups that were beginning to encroach on President Bashar al-Assad's last bastion of power.... The ground assault, and airstrikes, seemed to focus on an area of northern Hama Province and southern Idlib Province, around three villages that insurgents consider the first line of defense of the strategic Jebel al-Zawiyah area."

... Anne Barnard & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The Russian military, sharply escalating its military intervention in Syria, launched 26 medium-range cruise missiles on Wednesday from four warships in the Caspian Sea, while providing air support for a ground offensive by pro-government forces. Russian officials said the missiles -- which traveled more than 900 miles, through Iranian and Iraqi airspace -- struck 11 targets in Syria, but they did not specify which groups were hit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pascale Bonnefoy of the New York Times: "... Pope Francis call[ed] people in Osorno, a city in southern Chile, 'dumb' for protesting against a bishop accused of being complicit in clerical sexual abuse. 'The Osorno community is suffering because it's dumb,' Pope Francis told a group of tourists on St. Peter's Square, because it 'has let its head be filled with what politicians say, judging a bishop without any proof.' 'Don't be led by the nose by the leftists who orchestrated all of this,' the pope said.... Pope Francis asserted that the accusations against Bishop [Juan] Barros were unfounded and that a Chilean court had dismissed such claims. However, a judicial investigation into the presumed negligence and cover-up of church officials regarding Father [Fernando] Karadima's abuses is still in progress." A civil suit was dismissed "because the statute of limitations had expired."

History Beat. Charles Pierce: "We may never know the truth about the mechanics of the murder [of President Kennedy]. But we do know there was a cover-up, and that we never were told the whole truth about the events surrounding the murder of a president. That is a crime against history that remains unsolved." ...

... Philip Shenon in Politico Magazine: Kennedy/Johnson-era CIA Director "John McCone was long suspected of withholding information from the Warren Commission. Now even the CIA says he did.... According to the report by CIA historian David Robarge, McCone, who died in 1991, was at the heart of a 'benign cover-up' at the spy agency, intended to keep the commission focused on 'what the Agency believed at the time was the "best truth" -- that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy.' The most important information that McCone withheld from the commission in its 1964 investigation, the report found, was the existence, for years, of CIA plots to assassinate Castro, some of which put the CIA in cahoots with the Mafia. Without this information, the commission never even knew to ask the question of whether Oswald had accomplices in Cuba or elsewhere who wanted Kennedy dead in retaliation for the Castro plots."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. has a delightful piece on the media's slowly falling for Donald Trump. Steve employs as Exhibit A the WashPo piece I linked yesterday but didn't read. "If [Trump] acts like a normal candidate, with TV ads made by the usual slicksters and focus-grouped outreach efforts targeted to areas of weakness, not to mention policy documents that can be chewed over by pundits, eventually they'll start writing think pieces asking whether we've all misjudged Trump and whether his policy ignorance masks a Gladwellian 'Blink' style of decision-making genius.... It's clear [Robert] Costa[, the lead WashPo writer] is slowly being won over, like a rom-com heroine who initially hated the guy she's eventually going to fall for."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Rupert Murdoch on Thursday apologized for a message on twitter that implied President Obama wasn't a 'real black president.'"

From the Public Speakers' Bureau:

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that she did not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade pact that President Obama has championed and liberals in the Democratic Party have vehemently opposed. After a prolonged period in which Mrs. Clinton avoided weighing in on the controversial trade agreement, she told PBS that she opposed the deal. 'As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it, she said on a stop in Mount Vernon, Iowa. 'I don't believe it is going to meet the high bar I have set.' Mrs. Clinton, who had been involved in the early stages of the agreement as secretary of state, expressed particular concerns about 'currency manipulation not being part of the agreement,' something she has said she would be monitoring the final deal for." ...

... Don't Get Too Excited, People. Jonathan Chait: "There is a long tradition of Democratic presidential candidates posturing against free trade on the stump only to reverse themselves in office. Hillary Clinton's announcement today that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership would seem to fit snugly within that tradition.... [Clinton has] praised the agreement over and over and over.... Now Clinton has repudiated a treaty with which she has closely associated herself. She has framed her opposition in carefully hedged terms that leave her multiple escape avenues." ...

... Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... technology subcontractor [Datto] that has worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail setup expressed concerns over the summer that the system was inadequately protected and vulnerable to hackers, a company official said Wednesday. But the concerns were rebuffed by the company managing the Clinton account, Platte River Networks, which said it had been instructed by the FBI not to make changes. The FBI has been reviewing the security of the e-mail system." ...

... Frank Rich: "What's working best for Clinton is the Republicans."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is set to endorse ... [Sen. Bernie Sanders] later this week, a person familiar with the congressman's plans confirmed to Politico on Wednesday morning. The move -- which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times -- is mostly significant because it's Sanders' first endorsement from a sitting member of Congress despite his insurgent candidacy that has seen him take the lead over in New Hampshire.">

Jim Acosta of CNN: "An emotional Vice President Joe Biden accused the Republican presidential candidates of 'beating' Hispanics with their rhetoric on immigration during a surprise appearance at a fundraiser hosted by the Latino Victory Project political action committee Tuesday night." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... it's time for the vice president to publicly say 'Yes,' 'No' or 'Maybe' to a presidential run instead of letting this bizarre speculation continue perpetually.... I'd personally be fine with him admitting he's offering himself as a fallback option if something terrible happens to the field. But sorta kinda running for president via media hints that are turned into attacks on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and the Democratic Party itself should no longer be an option. I have no direct evidence on the question of whether or not Biden is personally fanning the speculation, but have no doubt he's the one person who can resolve it."

Nick Gass of Politico cites a Q&A between Ben Carson & Kai Ryssdal of the American Public Radio program 'Marketplace.' wherein we learn that Carson doesn't understand the difference between the debt ceiling an an annual budget & also too he would go back to the gold standard. ...

... Jonathan Chait is appalled. ...

Yeah, It Sounds Crazy, BUT. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "In this week's installment [of "He Said What???"], Ben Carson is in the hot seat for comments he made about the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. But the real question is, why is everyone so upset with Carson? What he said is nothing more than the logical outgrowth of what nearly every Republican candidate and officeholder believes about guns.... Unlike their position on terrorism, the position that the entire Republican Party now adopts -- not necessarily all its voters, but virtually all its elected representatives -- is that a toll that size is simply not meaningful enough to justify any action to not even restrict, but merely to inconvenience Americans' ability to own as many guns as they want and to get them as easily as they want." ...

... A Hero in His Own Mind. digby: Ben "Carson is literally advising people not to use common sense in a situation like this, not to adhere to a gunman's demands in the hope they will be spared, not to play dead or otherwise try to survive. He's encouraging people to rush into live fire as the best way to save lives. It's as close to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism as it gets. They are becoming what they despise. I'm beginning to think he's more dangerous than Trump. It's certainly scary that nearly 50% of Republican primary voters are supporting one of the two of them." ...

... CW: I've always thought Carson was crazier -- and therefore scarier -- than any of his primary opponents, all of whom have some grounding in -- admittedly, a skewed, misinformed -- reality. (And just because they say stupid, craven things -- see, e.g., Bobby Jindal rant linked yesterday -- doesn't mean they actually believe some of the crap they scatter.) Carson is fantasy-directed. He relies on an imaginary god -- of his own invention -- for guidance. It is hardly surprising that the imaginary god-guy would tell Carson he would be heroic in the face of near-certain death. Or that others should follow his imaginary, courageous, god-blessed lead. As digby implies, Carson's belief system is a form of jihadism. An absence of drooling is not a sure sign of sanity. ...

... Washington Post Editors: "INCREASINGLY UNHINGED commentary by Republican presidential candidates about the massacre last week at a community college in Oregon ... are worthy of attention, if only for what they say about the poverty of the argument against regulation of gun ownership." ...

     ... Thanks to P.D.Pepe for the link.

... Charles Blow: "What Carson wants to plant in people's minds flows counter to what the Department of Homeland Security wants to plant in their minds as 'good practices.' The agency prioritizes personal protection and fleeing over engagement." ...

As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking -- but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away. -- Ben Carson, Facebook entry, October 5

That thought wants unpacking. Psychiatrists & other medical professionals could do a better job than I, but to me it shows that the extreme level of depersonalization Carson employs in his work spills over into his worldview. He uses those "gifted hands" to "pull bullets out of bodies," but the "bodies" themselves are just that: bodies. He -- the man upon whom god bestowed a unique gift -- may have a special soul, but the bodies do not. As Carson sees it, their right to life is less important, the loss of their lives less "devastating," than his right to own a gun. Or -- as long as I get my way, to hell with the rest of you. Now think about what a president with that mindset might do. Are you frightened yet? -- Constant Weader

... digby in Salon: "On the stump last week-end, Donald Trump entertained his followers in the wake of the massacre in Oregon with colorful fantasies of him walking down the street, pulling a gun on a would-be assailant and taking him out right there on the sidewalk. He said, 'I have a license to carry in New York, can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, they're gonna be shocked,' at which point he mimes a quick draw.... While Trump and Carson may have personalities that are polar opposites in terms of temperament, they do have a couple of important things in common (besides crackpot politics). They are both outrageously arrogant and they both see themselves as Hollywood-style heroes. This notion they are personally so tough that if anyone threatened them with a gun, they'd either out-draw them or inspire everyone to run straight into a hail of bullets, is ludicrous. Neither of these men are trained military veterans or have any professional experience with firearms -- except in their own Walter Mitty fantasies."

Ashley Parker & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Though [Donald Trump] ... still leads the Republican field in national polls, Mr. Trump's ability to command both voter and news media attention simply by being his outlandish, bombastic self is starting to wane." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Now I hear we want to take in 200,000. We don't know where they're coming from. We don't know who they are. They could be ISIS. It could be the great Trojan Horse.... And I'm saying we're going to take in 200,000 people that we have no idea where they come from? -- Donald Trump, repeating a claim he'd made numerous times before, in an interview on ABC's 'This Week,' Oct. 4

... for Syria, Obama has only directed the United States to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year. That's an increase of six times from 2015, but it's hardly the flood that Trump worries about. In fact, in the interview with MSNBC, Trump indicated he would be fine with just 10,000. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

... The Washington Post's Reliable Source: Celebrity chef Jose Andres is countersuing Donald Trump. Andres backed out of his deal to open a restaurant in Trump's Old Post Office Pavilion redo after Trump made disparaging statements about Mexicans. Trump sued for breach of contract. Andres claims that in his countersuit that Trump's remarks constituted the initial breach: "The perception that Mr. Trump's statements were anti-Hispanic made it very difficult to recruit appropriate staff for a Hispanic restaurant, to attract the requisite number of Hispanic food patrons for a profitable enterprise, and to raise capital for what was now an extraordinarily risky Spanish restaurant."

Not into Macho? You May Like Scary Stickers. Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: "Falsely suggesting that the recent mass shooting at an Oregon community college took place in a gun-free zone, Sen. Rand Paul said [Tuesday] that as president he would encourage every school in America to place stickers on its windows warning potential criminals that teachers are armed and 'you will be shot.' The Kentucky Republican told Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson that the Oregon shooting was 'an incredible tragedy, but it's even made worse by the president politicizing it and jumping in.' The president 'doesn't understand,' he said, that 'the problem is mental illness and not necessarily gun registration or gun ownership.'" CW: I guess scary stickers are not "political."

Family Man. Gail Collins: Jeb! is no longer his "own man"; now he's turned to Barb & the boys to help out his flagging campaign. "The longer the race goes on, the closer Jeb seems to snuggle up to his older brother." Eventually came "the fabled moment" when Jeb! said, "'... As it relates to my brother, there's one thing I know for sure. He kept us safe.'" He then went on to mention the hugging of the firefighter at ground zero. The World Trade Center was such a terrible, terrible tragedy that it seems unseemly to use it for political leverage in any way. However, if you're going to bring it up, the accurate way to describe George W. Bush in relation to 9/11 would be something like, 'The man who, despite the best intentions in the world, failed to keep us safe.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Daniel Bethencourt of the Detroit Free Press: "Police confirmed on Wednesday that a concealed pistol license (CPL) holder was not being threatened by a fleeing shoplifter when she decided to fire multiple shots at him in a Home Depot parking lot. And experts interviewed Wednesday doubted the shooting could have been justified.... To use a concealed weapon in Michigan, a CPL holder needs to think that there is an imminent danger of death, great bodily harm or sexual assault, or think there is a similar danger to someone else, said Rick Ector, a firearms trainer...." ...

... CW: If you think stealing a jigsaw is a capital offense, then you're a bigger asshole than the thief. And he is one gaping chasm.

How to Piss Away Taxpayer Dollars Pissing on Poor People. Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Tennessee's first year of drug testing welfare recipients uncovered drug use by less than 0.2 percent of all applicants for the state's public assistance system.... There's a moralizing strain to the idea that people seeking the public's help should first have their choices and behavior audited. Requiring the poor to jump through such hoops is persistently popular with voters. But the conceit underlying the tests ignores the realities of poverty. Low-income families spend a far greater percentage of their meager incomes on necessities, and less on luxuries of all kinds, than do wealthier families." [Note to the innumerate: That's not two percent; that's two 100ths tenths of one percent. (See correction in Comments section.)]

AND a note from Charles Pierce which I missed during my unintended stay in the Palmetto State: "... South Carolina's performance on dam safety [is] as leaky and unsafe as the dams themselves. I mean, 4.3 fulltime employees to monitor and inspect 550 dams, 162 of which were classified as 'high-hazard.'... Every single member of the South Carolina congressional delegation save one voted against a relief package for the victims [of Hurricane Sandy]. This list includes presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, lop-headed Benghazi gumshoe Trey Gowdy, and Joe (You Lie!) Wilson. And it's not difficult at all to summon up the fact that the entire Republican party denies that an increasingly deranged climate is causing increasingly deranged weather." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Paul Prudhomme, the chef who put the cooking of Louisiana -- especially the Cajun gumbos, jambalayas and dirty rice he grew up with -- on the American culinary map, died on Thursday in New Orleans. He was 75.

Air Force Times: "Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who helped take down a gunman on a train in Belgium, was stabbed four times in the chest in Sacramento early Thursday morning, Air Force Times has learned.... Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns said in an email in Air Force Times, "... He is currently in stable condition." Sacramento police tweeted: 'The assault incident is not related to a terrorist act. Assault occurred near a bar, alcohol is believed to be a factor.'"

Motherboard: "On Wednesday, a jury in Sacramento, California, found Matthew Keys, former social media editor at Reuters and an ex-employee of KTXL Fox 40, guilty of computer hacking under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act. In 2010, Keys posted login credentials to the Tribune Company content management system (CMS) to a chatroom run by Anonymous, resulting in the defacement of an LA Times article online. The defacement was reversed in 40 minutes, but the government argued the attack caused nearly a million dollars in damage."

New York Times: "The leadership of world soccer's governing body plunged into chaos on Thursday, as three of the game's most powerful figures, including Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of FIFA, were suspended amid an investigation by the Swiss authorities into suspected corruption. In addition to Mr. Blatter, Michel Platini, who is a FIFA vice president and the head of European soccer's governing body, and Jérôme Valcke, FIFA's secretary general who was already on disciplinary leave, were 'provisionally banned' from the sport. The suspensions took effect immediately."

Reuters: "The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell more than expected to near a 42-year low last week, pointing to ongoing tightening in the labor market despite the recent slowdown in hiring."

New York Times: "Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and prose writer, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday 'for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time,' the Swedish Academy announced."

Washington Post: "The United Auto Workers union narrowly avoided a strike against Fiat Chrysler of America early Thursday morning, announcing an agreement less than two days after threatening to pull as many as 40,000 workers off the job while contract negotiations soured."

The Week: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his wife, Landra Gould, filed a product liability lawsuit Tuesday in Clark County, Nevada, against the makers of a resistance exercise band that Reid said was behind an accident in January that injured his eye."

The Commentariat -- October 7, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Anne Barnard & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The Russian military, sharply escalating its military intervention in Syria, launched 26 medium-range cruise missiles on Wednesday from four warships in the Caspian Sea, while providing air support for a ground offensive by pro-government forces. Russian officials said the missiles [[ which traveled more than 900 miles, through Iranian and Iraqi airspace -- struck 11 targets in Syria, but they did not specify which groups were hit."

Ashley Parker & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Though [Donald Trump] ... still leads the Republican field in national polls, Mr. Trump's ability to command both voter and news media attention simply by being his outlandish, bombastic self is starting to wane."

Ben Adler of Grist, in the Washington Post: "The GOP's increasing preference for callow, reckless candidates represents a culmination of the anti-government, anti-politics, anti-intellectual direction of the conservative movement. Although it overlaps with the GOP's rightward shift, it presents a unique threat to American democracy because it espouses not mere preference for smaller government, but a visceral hatred of functioning government and the practice of politics. This mindset abhors concessions to objective reality, expertise or political adversaries domestic and foreign."

AND a note from Charles Pierce which I missed during my unintended stay in the Palmetto State: "... South Carolina's performance on dam safety [is] as leaky and unsafe as the dams themselves. I mean, 4.3 fulltime employees to monitor and inspect 550 dams, 162 of which were classified as 'high-hazard.'... Every single member of the South Carolina congressional delegation save one voted against a relief package for the victims [of Hurricane Sandy]. This list includes presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, lop-headed Benghazi gumshoe Trey Gowdy, and Joe (You Lie!) Wilson. And it's not difficult at all to summon up the fact that the entire Republican party denies that an increasingly deranged climate is causing increasingly deranged weather."

*****

I'm back in the saddle again. Thank you to those who filled in for me. -- Constant Weader

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison -- the largest one-time release of federal prisoners -- in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades, according to U.S. officials. The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department's Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. About two-thirds of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. About one-third are foreign citizens who will be quickly deported, officials said." ...

... CW: So that's the good news. Most of the rest of today's links are evidence of how fucked-up this country is. Quite discouraging. But, you know, have a nice day.

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee..., will offer an amendment to abolish Congress' special committee on the Benghazi, in a move that simultaneously hits Republicans on Planned Parenthood and on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) Benghazi 'gaffe.' According to a spokesperson for ... Slaughter, [she] will offer the amendment Tuesday evening while the committee debates a bill to form a special committee to further investigate Planned Parenthood." CW: Yeah, that should pass.

digby brings us up to speed on Jason Chaffetz: "The son of a man once married to Kitty Dukakis, wife of 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael, Chaffetz started off as a Jewish Democrat, then converted to Mormonism during his last year of college in Utah -- and Republicanism when former President Ronald Reagan was hired as a motivational speaker for Nu Skin, the 'multi-level marketing' company (think Amway) which employed Chaffetz for a decade before he entered politics. He worked as chief of staff for the famously moderate Gov. Jon Huntsman [who characterized Chaffetz as a "power-hungry" "self-promoter"] and then beat the very conservative Representative Chris Cannon by running against him from the right in the 2010 Tea Party electoral bloodbath." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Heading off a potential Constitutional clash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that anti-abortion activists can hand over unreleased undercover sting videos and outtakes subpoenaed by a House committee even though a court order remains in place barring those activists from releasing the materials publicly. U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick said Tuesday that he would not prevent activist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress from complying with the subpoena issued last month by House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz." ...

... In Other Important Judicial News.... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The [Supreme C]ourt announced on its first day of the new term Monday something that previously had seemed unnecessary to spell out: ... lawyers cannot pay someone to hold a spot for them [in the attendance line] when the court has a big argument -- or even send one of the firm's lowly associates." (No link.)

Erica Goode & Benedict Carey of the New York Times: "As mass shootings have become ever more familiar, experts have come to understand them less as isolated expressions of rage and more as acts that build on the blueprints of previous rampages. Experts in violence prevention say that many, if not most, perpetrators of such shootings have intensively researched earlier mass attacks, often expressing admiration for those who carried them out. The publicity that surrounds these killings can have an accelerating effect on other troubled and angry would-be killers...." ...

... Alan Berlow, in a New York Times op-ed: The National Rifle Associaton is a very effective advocate for gunrunner & other criminals.

James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "Foreign competition has played a central role in holding down retail prices in industries ranging from automobiles to consumer electronics. It's time drug prices were subject to the same rules. [F.D.A. rules exploiter Martin] Shkreli[, the C.E.O. of Turing Pharmaceuticals,] has said ... that Turing will roll back the Daraprim price increase. But the fate of toxoplasmosis sufferers shouldn't depend on the egomaniacal whims of a 'pharma bro.'"

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "With the United States struggling to account for an airstrike that decimated a Doctors Without Borders hospital, the American commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday took responsibility for the sustained bombardment of the medical facility, which he said took place in response to an Afghan call for help. The commander, Gen. John F. Campbell, said the strike was the result of 'a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command.' General Campbell, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered few new details about the attack, which lasted for more than a half-hour and killed 22 patients and hospital staff members in northern Afghanistan on Saturday. He said the details of what took place would come out in an investigation now underway." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Shifting the US account of the Saturday morning airstrike for the fourth time in as many days, Campbell reiterated that Afghan forces had requested US air cover after being engaged in a 'tenacious fight' to retake the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban. But, modifying the account he gave at a press conference on Monday, Campbell said those Afghan forces had not directly communicated with the US pilots of an AC-130 gunship overhead." ...

... ... Robert Burns of the AP: "The deadly U.S. attack on a hospital in Afghanistan, which U.S. officials have called a 'mistake,' leaves open the possibility that the decision to open fire exceeded the authority under which American forces have operated since their combat mission ended nearly a year ago, officials say." ...

... Deb Reichmann of the AP: Campbell "recommended on Tuesday that President Barack Obama revise his plan and keep more than 1,000 U.S. troops in the country beyond 2016, just days after a deadly U.S. airstrike "mistakenly struck" a hospital during fierce fighting in the north." ...

... CW: Would somebody please explain to Campbell that the more troops we have in Afghanistan (or anywhere), the more likely massive fuck-ups. Also too, history suggests concludes that no outsider military effort in Afghanistan will be successful. (Of course a ramped-up U.S. presence that does provide a nice career move for Gen. Campbell. He'd rather command 5,000 troops than 1,000.) I won't say wars are never won, but they seldom are. If you doubt that, look at the results of the American Civil War. Yeah, the North "won." That's why we have today's Republican Tea party, where an openly-racist candidate may become the GOP presidential nominee, a white nationalist is likely to become House majority whip & a political ideology that once might have been aptly called "conservative" is now more accurately called "confederate." ...

... Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker makes my point: "The victims of the hospital airstrike are only the latest casualties in an ongoing Afghan war in which the Taliban, once again, are major players, and now seem as likely to win back power as they once appeared to have lost it."

Craig Whitlock & Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Russia and the United States tentatively agreed Tuesday to resume talks on how to prevent conflicts between their warplanes in the skies over Syria, even as concerns mounted about the potential for a broader confrontation in the Middle East between the two powers. After days of complaints from U.S. and NATO officials about a lack of cooperation and risky maneuvers by Russian warplanes, Russia's Defense Ministry offered to hold another round of discussions with the Pentagon on avoiding a midair disaster or a hostile encounter involving their fighter jets, drones and other aircraft over Syria."

Desmond Butler & Vadim Ghirda of the AP: "In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists.... Criminal organizations, some with ties to the Russian KGB's successor agency, are driving a thriving black market in nuclear materials in the tiny and impoverished Eastern European country of Moldova, investigators say. The successful busts, however, were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling...."

Presidential Race

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Vice President Joe Biden has less support in the polls than Bernie Sanders and hasn't raised a single dollar for a presidential campaign. Yet if Mr. Biden does decide to seek the presidency, he will pose a greater challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. In Mr. Biden, Mrs. Clinton would have an opponent who could threaten her hold on the coalition of moderate voters and party elites that seems to have the advantage in this race over the party's white, liberal activist wing, which now supports Mr. Sanders."

"Observers" upset NBC keeps putting Hillary Clinton on air. It's a conspiracy coordinated effort! ...

... Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The FBI's probe into the security of Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail has expanded to include a second private technology company, which said Tuesday it plans to provide the law enforcement agency with data it preserved from Clinton's account. The additional data, provided by Connecticut-based Datto Inc., could open a new avenue for investigators interested in recovering e-mails deleted by the former secretary of state ... that have caught the interest of GOP lawmakers." ...

... ** Matt Yglesias: Emailgate reminds us [linked fixed; thanks to Nancy] of Hillary Clinton's capacity to be an effective president. Yeah, she's a shady character -- we already knew that -- but that's what it takes to get one's way in Washington. ...

... The full interview is here. (It begins at 12:16 min. in [after lotsa ads].)

Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "So in the past week or so, it seems that people [i.e., political junkies] have decided that Marco Rubio is going to be the GOP nominee. Tomasky assesses Rubio's perceived advantages & disadvantages & concludes the Democratic nominee can beat him handily. ...

... Ed Kilgore: Tomasky "might have added that the Marco Rubio we see today is not the Marco Rubio we could see in early March after a desperate Jeb Bush has unloaded about $30 million in vicious, hateful ads in Florida media markets just prior to the Sunshine State's winner-take-all primary. I don't know what if any dirt Team Jeb has on Rubio, but I have zero doubt they will use whatever they've got."

Second-Tier Bro. Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "So seemingly uphill is the battle that Jeb Bush faces in [South Carolina], the third state to vote for president next year, that even an appearance by his brother, George W, who is still popular with Republicans across the country, may barely move the needle, said one senior political operative who spoke on condition of anonymity owing to ongoing work with multiple campaigns.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Ben Carson ... said on Tuesday that victims of mass shootings should not be timid during attacks, imagining that if he were facing a raging gunman, 'I would not just stand there and let him shoot me.'... Like many Republican presidential candidates who have sought to express sympathy for the victims while maintaining their support for gun rights, Mr. Carson appeared to struggle to address the issue with sensitivity." ...

... Jose delReal of the Washington Post: "... Ben Carson attracted criticism Tuesday for appearing to suggest in an interview that the victims of last week's tragic school shooting in Oregon should have acted more forcefully to prevent the attack." ...

... Charles Pierce: Of all the curious motivations on the modern American Right, the Imaginary Superhero Delusion is one of the most interesting. "'Fi were only there, with my trusty shootin' 'arn, there'd be dead crazy person all over the walls." This condition is usually manifest only among outlaw TV pundits and the comment sections of certain websites. It's truly weird to hear it coming from a guy who, right now, is chasing down Donald Trump in the backstretch. On almost any issue of public policy, Doctor Ben is about eight bulbs short of a chandelier. ...

... Pierce also called our attention to libertarian columnist (and she's not considered a nut case!) Megan McArdle's bright idea (enunciated in 2012) on how to stop gunmen with repeating guns: everybody rush at them! I can't link her original piece because the page keeps messing up my cheap laptop, but Jonathan Chait gave McArdle the "Worst Newtown Reaction Award." Pierce suggests her for Carson's running mate. Apparently, some school districts think rushing the shooter is an excellent idea & are teaching the kiddies to do just that. Un-fucking-believable. The trouble with the U.S. is Americans.

... Nick Gass of Politico: Carson used the same interview of slam President Obama for "politicizing" the Oregon shooting by visiting the families of the victims. Obama will meet privately with the families in a side trip to a previously-scheduled series of West Coast fundraising event. Carson's "posts on Facebook and Twitter holding a sign proclaiming '#IAmAChristian' went viral over the weekend, in reference to some witness accounts that the gunman asked victims to stand up and identify themselves if they were Christian before they were shot, though police did not confirm or deny the accounts." CW: Gosh, somehow I didn't catch the virus. ...

... On "The View," Carson doubled down on his assertion that "Hitler" could happen in the U.S. Ha ha. Carson's campaign manager says Carson should cut that out. ...

... CW: If you want to know how a guy with Carson's "gifted hands" could get so nutty, David Corn provides a clue: it's the reading list.

Donald Trump granted an hour-long interview to Robert Costa, Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post. CW: I suppose this is a must-read. I skipped it. ...

... Juan Cole explains to Donald Trump that dictatorship is not a stable form of government that makes nice neighbors & model citizens. ...

... Top Xenophobe Sez People in U.S. Should Stick to English. BUT His Backers Can't Master the Language. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Grammarly, a writing-enhancement website, looked at comments by the candidates' supporters on the official Facebook pages to find out who was making the most mistakes and who was making the fewest. The clear winner was Democratic contender Lincoln Chafee, who's barely registering at the polls, but whose supporters -- the small number of them that there are -- made just 3.1 mistakes per every 100 words. The clear loser? Donald Trump. His supporters registered a whopping average of 12.6 mistakes per 100 words, putting the Republican front-runner dead last among the 19 campaigns. Democrats fared better overall, with their backers making an average of 4.2 mistakes out of every 100 words. Republicans' supporters made more than double that with 8.7." The Grammarly report is here. ...

... CW: Hardly surprising when Trump himself has a great deal of difficulty putting together an English-language sentence:

     ... The full text of Trump's "sentence" is here. The GOP is now fully Palinized.

Beyond the Beltway

Tierney Sneed: "In a lengthy blog post published on his presidential campaign website Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) claimed the father of Oregon gunman Chris Harper Mercer was a 'complete failure' and demanded that he apologize for the shooting. In the blog post -- titled 'We fill Our Culture With Garbage, And We Reap The Result' -- Jindal blamed the prevalence of mass shootings in America on 'deep and serious cultural decay in our society,' jumping from a condemnation of violence in media and a reference to abortion to a discussion of the reported absence of the father of ... Harper Mercer in the young man's life.... Jindal went on to call out 'shallow and simple minded liberals' for blaming 'pieces of hardware for the problem.'"

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States Coast Guard will suspend its search for survivors of the cargo ship El Faro at sunset Wednesday, officials told the crew's family members. The Coast Guard made the decision after searching six days for the 33 crew members of El Faro, a 790-feet commercial tanker that went missing last week during Hurricane Joaquin. The ship set sail on Sept. 29 and two days later reported that its engine had failed and that it was taking on water and listing 15 degrees."

New York Times: "Tomas Lindahl, Paul L. Modrich and Aziz Sancar were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for having mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA and safeguards its genetic information."