The Commentariat -- May 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

Today's Commentariat will be extremely abbreviated. I will try to update this afternoon. Please feel free to share your own links in the Comments section. -- Constant Weader

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday will ban the federal provision of some types of military-style equipment to local police departments and sharply restrict the availability of others, administration officials said."

Paul Krugman: "Thanks to Jeb Bush, we may finally have the frank discussion of the Iraq invasion we should have had a decade ago.... The public justifications for the invasion were nothing but pretexts, and falsified pretexts at that. We were, in a fundamental sense, lied into war.... This was, in short, a war the White House wanted, and all of the supposed mistakes that, as Jeb puts it, 'were made' by someone unnamed actually flowed from this underlying desire.... Once again: We were lied into war."

Daniel McGraw in Politico Magazine: "The GOP is dying off. Literally.... Since the average Republican is significantly older than the average Democrat, far more Republicans than Democrats have died since the 2012 elections. To make matters worse, the GOP is attracting fewer first-time voters." ...

... Jim Fallows: "... (a) ... Fox's core viewers are factually worse-informed than people who follow other sources, and even those who don't follow news at all, and (b) ... the mode of perpetual outrage that is Fox's goal and effect has become a serious problem for the Republican party, in that it pushes its candidates to sound always-outraged themselves." This is a synopsis -- with tidbits -- of a long piece by Bruce Bartlett, which Fallows links. CW: The point that Fox "News" has contributed to the dumbing-down of the U.S. & the radicalization of confederates is worth emphasizing. Rupert & Roger-- not to mention Limbaugh, et al. -- have made the crazies crazier. Or why the FCC's long-dead Fairness Doctrine mattered. ...

... Steve M.: "It beats me how having ill-informed voters is a bad thing for the GOP if what the voters think they know keeps them voting Republican.... Fox, along with talk radio, has found a way to turn rabidly partisan politics into mass entertainment, at least for the third of the country that's conservative. Fox and talk radio keep these people thoroughly focused on politics at all times.... The conservative media keeps Republicans wanting to vote, even in off-year elections, when many of the rest of us don't bother."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Driftglass has a funny post -- unless you're a huge Glenn Greenwald fan -- titled "Glass Housing Sales Remain Brisk, Ctd."

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is running as the most liberal Democratic presidential front-runner in decades, with positions on issues from gay marriage to immigration that would, in past elections, have put her at her party's precarious left edge. The moves are part of a strategic conclusion by Clinton's emerging campaign: that it can harness the same kind of young and diverse coalition as Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012, bolstered by even stronger appeal among women."

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "... Jeb Bush reiterated in a new interview that he doesn't believe that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. The high court is expected to rule next month on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, and court observers and justices have hinted in recent weeks that the court is likely to expand marriage rights to gay men and lesbians." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker shows the five ways Jeb's first Iraq War answer show why he's such a lousy candidate.

... GOP Moneybags Picked "the Wrong Retread." Steve M.: "There was a moment when it looked as if both Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney would be running for president. Then, apparently, meetings were convened in the modern-day equivalent of smoke-filled rooms, and Romney decided to bow out, allowing Bush to be the graybeard choice of the party Establishment. More and more, it seems as if the party made a mistake. Mitt and Jeb are both sad emblems of an embarrassing past, but Jeb appears to be a worse campaigner than Mitt, and Jeb refuses to budge from positions that are anathema to the party base. What's more, the party's voters want a candidate who's an grudge-driven attack dog, which is why the first candidate to shoot to the top of the charts this year was Scott Walker."

Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "John Kasich is 'virtually certain' to jump into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, sources close to the Ohio governor tell ABC News." CW: Mr. Balanced Budget should drive Krugman mad.

Beyond the Beltway

Sarah Nir of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is expected to introduce legislation subjecting New York salons to some of the strictest health regulations in the country and expanding authority to punish those that mistreat workers."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A shootout among members of several rival motorcycle gangs in a busy shopping plaza in the Central Texas city of Waco on Sunday left at least nine bikers dead and 18 others injured, creating chaos in a sprawling parking lot packed with afternoon shoppers, law enforcement officials said.... No officers, shoppers or bystanders were injured." Because permissive gun laws, a/k/a freeedom, are such a good idea. ...

... The KWXT story is here.

Reuters: "The US is talking to China about imposing further sanctions against North Korea as the reclusive country is 'not even close' to taking steps to rein in its nuclear weapons programme, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said."

Washington Post: "Iranian-aligned Shiite militias headed Monday into Anbar province a day after its capital Ramadi fell to Islamic State militants and as hundreds of police personnel, soldiers and tribal fighters abandoned the Iraqi city in a chaotic exit." ...

New York Times: "The last Iraqi security forces fled Ramadi on Sunday, as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and killed people loyal to the government, according to security officials and tribal leaders."

The Commentariat -- May 17, 2015

Internal links removed.

** "High-Income White Noose." New York Times Editors: "The Obama administration has proposed new fair housing enforcement rules, which should be finalized soon, that make states, cities and housing agencies more accountable for furthering fair housing. But for these rules to be meaningful, the federal government will have to restructure its own programs so that more affordable housing is built in low-poverty, high opportunity neighborhoods. Federal officials must also be willing to do what they have generally been afraid to do in the past -- withhold money from communities that perpetuate housing apartheid. Given what we now know about the pervasive harm that flows from segregation, the country needs to get on with this crucial mission." The editorial provides an excellent synopsis of historical non-enforcement of the Fair Housing Act.

Helena Evich of Politico: "The Obama administration is expected to all but ban trans fat in a final ruling that could drop as soon as next week, killing most uses of an ingredient that has been put in everything from frozen pizza to Reese's Pieces but since deemed harmful to human health. The agency may create some very limited exemptions, but the ruling could force food companies to cut trans fat use beyond the 85 percent reduction already achieved over the past decade -- a key piece of the Obama administration's broader agenda to nudge Americans toward a healthier diet." ...

... digby: "If you think Iran or immigration pisses off the right, get ready. This is likely to make them completely lose their shit.

Katharine Seelye, et al., of the New York Times: "To the amazement of people elsewhere, Bostonians overwhelmingly opposed condemning the bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to death.... No one here felt sympathy for him. Rather, many thought life in prison would be a fate worse than death, especially for someone as young as Mr. Tsarnaev, who is 21. Others feared that putting him to death would make him a martyr. Still others, interviewed around the city Friday night and Saturday, reflected the region's historical aversion to the death penalty."

Karen DeYoung & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "U.S. Special Operations forces staged an overnight ground raid in Syria early Saturday, killing what the Obama administration said was a senior Islamic State official and capturing his wife.... In what a U.S. Defense official described as 'close-quarters combat' against militants using women and children as human shields, about a dozen militants were killed. They included the target of what was originally designed as a capture operation, identified by the White House and the Pentagon as Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian.... [U.S.] Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said that no U.S. forces were killed or injured during the operation. No civilians were reported injured."

David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: Egypt's "the death sentence against [former President Mohamed] Morsi will not weaken the Islamists but only radicalize them further." CW: Why this wasn't obvious to the Egyptian court is beyond me.

God News

Nicole Winfield of the AP: "Pope Francis canonized two nuns from what was 19th century Palestine on Sunday in hopes of encouraging Christians across the Middle East who are facing a wave of persecution from Islamic extremists. Sisters Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas were among four sisters who were made saints Sunday at a Mass in a sun-soaked St. Peter's Square. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an estimated 2,000 pilgrims from the region, some waving Palestinian flags, were on hand for the canonization of the first saints from the Holy Land since the early years of Christianity." ...

... Contributors to Juan Cole's site Informed Comment add background.

David McCabe of the Hill: "Former President George W. Bush offered a defense of religious liberty and faith more broadly while speaking at Southern Methodist University's (SMU) commencement ceremony Saturday.... 'It is essential to this nation's future that we remember that the freedom to worship who we want, and how we want -- or not to worship at all -- is a core belief of our founding'.... He said it was his first commencement speech since leaving office. Bush has deep ties to SMU. His wife Laura graduated from the school in 1968, and the university is the site of George W. Bush's presidential library."

James Tayler, in Salon, is mighty upset with President Obama for his National Day of Prayer proclamation.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: "NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting and Thomson Reuters are among more than a dozen media organizations that have made charitable contributions to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, the foundation's records show. The donations, which range from the low-thousands to the millions, provide a picture of the media industry's ties to the Clinton Foundation at a time when one of its most notable personalities, George Stephanopoulos, is under scrutiny for not disclosing his own $75,000 contribution when reporting on the foundation." CW: More indications that confederates should get over their Stephanopoulos freakout.

Presidential Race

David Greenberg in a Washington Post op-ed: "Candidates of the left, right and center have something in common: They all want to be seen as populists.... Yet these aren't modern versions of William Jennings Bryan, fiery crusaders jousting on the campaign trail.... All the candidates have taken what was once a very specific ideology and extracted their favorite parts, selectively interpreting the vision and generally bowdlerizing it."

Jonathan Allen of Vox: "Hillary Clinton [is] having her pockets lined by the very people who seek to influence her. Not in some metaphorical sense. She's literally being paid by them." Allen finds a quid pro quo in Corning, Inc.'s donations to the Clinton Foundation & in a $225,500 honorarium to Clinton herself. ...

... Ashley Parker & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: Some right-wing groups are attacking Hillary Clinton from the left -- disseminating information via Twitter that is aimed to weaken her appeal to liberals.

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "More than 1,300 Republican stalwarts at the Iowa state party's Lincoln Dinner listened to the biggest field of 2016 presidential hopefuls to visit the state so far. In tightly paced speeches of 10 minutes each, 11 contenders displayed the broad spectrum of ideologies and personal styles in the party's unsettled, chaotic race." ...

... Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "Though 11 Republicans eyeing the White House largely delivered scathing indictments of President Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton's policies, small cracks in the GOP field emerged at a boisterous 'cattle call.'"

... Philip Rucker & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: Republican "party officials are growing worried about a wide-open nominating contest likely to feature a historically large and diverse field. At best, they say, the Republican primaries will be a lively showcase of political talent -- especially compared with the relative coronation taking shape on the Democratic side. But officials also acknowledge just how risky their circumstance is for a party that hasn't put on a good show in a long time. With no clear front-runner and Bush so far unable to consolidate his path to the nomination -- his fumbles over the Iraq war and his brother's legacy further exposed his vulnerabilities -- the GOP's internecine battle could stretch well into the spring of 2016.

** Maureen Dowd on Dubya & "his frothing band of Reservoir Dogs": "It took a Herculean effort of imagination, manipulation and deception to concoct 'the information' that propelled the invasion, occupation and destruction of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.... Aside from the Blair poodle and the Coalition of the Willing-to-Overlook-Counterfeit-Claims, our allies tried to warn us.... Since Jeb purloined Florida for W., under family pressure, the Good Son bears some responsibility for the Prodigal Son plopping the country into a 'doo doo ball,' as one of Poppy Bush's pals calls it.... And consider this: Jeb hasn't even been asked any questions yet about W.'s dark contributions on waterboarding, the deficit and the near-total collapse of the American economy." Read her whole column; this is Dowd at her best.

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) refused to make clear his view as to whether the Iraq War was a mistake in a Fox News Sunday interview. Repeatedly pressed by host Chris Wallace on whether in hindsight the Bush administration should have invaded Iraq, Rubio continued to dodge the question."

Beyond the Beltway

First, Fire All the Scientists." Benjamin Elgin of Bloomberg: "Oil tycoon Harold Hamm told a University of Oklahoma dean last year that he wanted certain scientists there dismissed who were studying links between oil and gas activity and the state's nearly 400-fold increase in earthquakes, according to the dean's e-mail recounting the conversation. Hamm, the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources, is a major donor to the university, which is the home of the Oklahoma Geological Survey. He has vigorously disputed the notion that he tried to pressure the survey's scientists.... Yet an e-mail obtained from the university by Bloomberg News via a public records request says Hamm used a blunt approach during a 90-minute meeting last year with the dean whose department includes the geological survey. 'Mr. Hamm is very upset at some of the earthquake reporting to the point that he would like to see select OGS staff dismissed,' wrote Larry Grillot, the dean of the university's Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, in a July 16, 2014, e-mail to colleagues at the university." Elgin reproduces the e-mail from Grillot.

The Commentariat -- May 16, 2015

Internal links removed.

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "In a sweeping rejection of the defense case, a federal jury on Friday condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings."

Dave Philipps & Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: "An assistant conductor on the Amtrak train that derailed on Tuesday believes she heard the engineer tell another regional train operator in a radio transmission that the train had been struck by something just before the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. At a news conference on Friday, Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said that investigators had found damage to the left side of a portion of the windshield and that they had called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look at it. The F.B.I. was called in because it has experience with the forensics expertise needed for the investigation, officials said, but it has not yet begun its analysis."

Martin Matishak & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House on Friday passed a $612 billion defense bill in a 269-151 vote. All but eight Republicans voted in favor, along with 41 Democrats who went against Obama's veto threat and their party leaders, who whipped against it. Obama has threatened to veto the bill over its circumvention of spending caps."

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) said Thursday that he does not support an idea backed by Senate Republican leadership to temporarily extend ObamaCare subsidies if the Supreme Court cripples the law.... On Wednesday, he reintroduced his Empowering Patients First Act, a plan he has also put forward in previous sessions of Congress. The bill would repeal ObamaCare and replace it with refundable, age-adjusted tax credits for buying insurance. It would give grants for high-risk pools as an insurance option for people with pre-existing conditions." CW: It's unfortunately that Sullivan doesn't mention that Price's "plan" is a crock. ...

... Greg Sargent: "... in a way, it's good to have a fleshed out GOP alternative, because it helps clarify the differences between the parties on health reform. GOP reforms would likely translate into lower-quality plans and a coverage expansion that would benefit fewer people. But that would be the tradeoff Republicans would make to achieve their goal of less government spending and interference in the market than that which occurs under Obamacare. The rub is that if somehow we did switch from Obamacare to the Price alternative, there would be vast disruptions.... Of course, even if the Court does gut subsidies, the Price alternative isn't going to happen. Even if Republicans could unite behind the Price plan, or some other alternative, Obama would veto it, and try to pressure Republicans -- in Congress and the states -- to implement a simple subsidy fix." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos agrees with Sargent, but she's much snarkier. CW: Which I find totally appropriate.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: Sen. Elizabeth "Warren may be a convenient foil for [President] Obama, but the path forward on the proposed trade bill, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been forged largely by the Democrats' legislative policy brains: Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Senator Patty Murray of Washington. The opposition to an agenda that many Democrats and labor groups believe will cost American jobs has been led by Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Chuck Schumer of New York and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Yet away from the Capitol, it is all Elizabeth Warren." ...

... Matt Taibbi has a theory about what Obama is up to: President Obama, in attacking Warren, is purposely "triangulating": "beating up on the ideologues within [his] own party in order to shore up [his] centrist cred and reassure [the Democratic party's] money sources.... Along with a Democratic Party that would love one last chance to prove itself to Wall Street heading into 2016, Obama badly wants this deal passed, perhaps as a way to steer his legacy in a more bipartisan direction.... The part that's really irritating is that the same politicians who whine every chance they get about being unfairly painted as Marxists on Fox and Clear Channel are now cleverly using the animus generated by those news outlets against the Elizabeth Warrens of the world as shortcuts to political gain.... This goes back to Clinton, Al From, Dick Morris, the DLC days."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday saluted fallen officers as heroes and called for renewed efforts to support law enforcement, emphasizing the perils and challenges faced by the police as national attention is focused on the tensions between them and many African-American communities":

** Paul Waldman on the myth that 'faulty intelligence' caused the Iraq War. "Today, Republicans act as though the intelligence community burst into the Oval Office and said, 'Mr. President, Mr. President, Iraq is a terrible threat, and if we don't invade we're doomed!' and then [George W.] Bush said, 'Gee, if you say so, I guess we'd better.' But it worked the other way around. Taking out Saddam Hussein was a priority for many of the senior people in the administration from the moment they took office, and after September 11 it was amped up into a public campaign that can go by no other name but propaganda." ...

'Faulty intelligence' didn't produce the deaths of 4,000 American servicemembers and a couple of hundred thousand Iraqi civilians. Faulty intelligence didn't strengthen Iran's position in the region, lead to an exponential increase in anti-Americanism, and give rise to ISIS. It was the delusions, deceptions, and hubris of the Bush administration and its supporters. They got exactly the intelligence they demanded, and used it to ends they had decided on long before.

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers have accused former Guantanamo Bay detainees of taking part in militant activity following their release in a swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a year ago, and have warned President Obama against allowing the lapse of security restrictions on them. In a letter sent this week to the White House, all Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee urged Obama to ensure that Qatar does not permit the five former Taliban officials to leave the tiny gulf nation when their one-year travel ban expires on May 31. They have been living under government supervision there for the last year."

Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "It has been a really bad week for the ice shelves of the quickly warming Antarctic peninsula.... The loss of oceanic ice shelves does not directly increase sea level, because these shelves are already immersed in the water. But their collapse speeds the seaward flow of glaciers held behind them. And when ice leaves land and enters water, that's when seas rise."

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "More than 60 Asian-American organizations filed a complaint ... with the federal government on Friday alleging that Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American students in the admissions process and calling for an investigation. The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper on campus, wrote in this story that 64 groups filed the complaint with the U.S. Education and Justice departments, arguing that the university makes an 'unlawful use of race' in its decisions that hurts Asian Americans."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The headline writer at TPM writes the most laughable headline of the year: "Judith Miller And James O'Keefe Discuss Ethics In Journalism." ...

... Steve M. elaborates in a post titled "Wow ... Just Wow."

Presidential Race

Maggie Haberman & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband made at least $30 million over the last 16 months, mainly from giving paid speeches to corporations, banks and other organizations, according to financial disclosure forms filed with federal elections officials on Friday.... The disclosure forms ... show that even as his wife has begun her pursuit of the presidency, Mr. Clinton has shown no signs of slowing down." ...

... CW: Because he's gotta pay their bills.

Gail Collins surveys the GOP field. And longs for George Pataki for Veep 2000. CW: Here's a "hypothetical" for you, Jebbie: if your dimwitted brother had selected Pataki as his running mate in 2000, would there have been an Iraq War?

Dana Milbank: Jeb Bush "managed over an extraordinary 72 hours to demonstrate that he is not anything like his older brother, the former president. He showed himself to be indecisive, uncertain where he stands, afraid of his shadow and nakedly calculating.... Answering a question is not a disservice to American heroes who died in Iraq doing what they were ordered to do. Failing to take a stand is a disservice to American voters, who deserve stronger leaders." Bush's equivocation "undermines the very logic of his candidacy. Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, is congenitally cautious, and her campaign goes to great lengths to keep her from saying much of anything to anybody."

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Sen. Marco Rubio's problem isn't just that his remark this week that he would not have ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq given the benefit of hindsight seemed at odds with his comments in March that the Iraq war was not a mistake. The broader question confronting Rubio (R-Fla.) is whether his shifting positions -- on this issue, and others -- will hurt his chances of winning the Republican nomination for president."

Christy Hoppe of the Dallas Morning News: "Former Gov. Rick Perry has chosen Dallas to officially declare his second run for the Republican presidential nomination in three weeks." ...

... Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune in the Washington Post: "Unlike when he entered the 2012 race, Perry would be a decisive underdog in the 2016 contest. He has been polling in the low single digits in the early-voting states and still faces an indictment in Travis County on abuse-of-power charges. But he has been working to be more prepared for a presidential campaign than he was in 2011, brushing up on policy and spending more time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina than most other potential candidates." ...

... CW: Hey, y'all. If things work out as they did in 2012, Perry can run for president of Texas.

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "An Egypt court has sentenced former President Mohamed Morsi to death for a mass prison break in 2011. The court ruled on Saturday that the sentencing of Morsi and 105 others will be referred to the Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in Egypt, for confirmation. Many of those sentenced were tried in absentia, including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Islamic scholar based in Qatar. The court will pronounce its final decision on June 2."

NBC News: "A Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned and crashed in Siberia soon after launch on Saturday, the latest in a series of mishaps for Russia's space industry."

New York Times: "F. A. O. Schwarz, the legendary toy store on Fifth Avenue, will close its doors July 15, a victim of rising rents and ultraluxury retailing in New York City's hottest shopping district. New Yorkers will have to make do with the F. A. O. boutiques inside Toys 'R' Us stores or with online shopping. But F. A. O. Schwarz, which has been a fixture in New York City for 145 years and a character in the 1988 Tom Hanks film 'Big,' is actively scouring Manhattan for a new, less costly location."