The Commentariat -- March 20, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Updates:

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday unveiled the nation's first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique for oil and gas drilling that has led to a dramatic increase in American energy production but has also raised concerns about health and safety risks."

NEW. AP: "The Justice Department is investigating the congressional expenses and business dealings of Rep. Aaron Schock, and FBI agents have begun issuing subpoenas to potential witnesses...."

*****

Is He Lying Now or Was He Lying Then? Jodi Rudoren & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday tried to backtrack from his pre-election declaration that no Palestinian state would be established on his watch, but his new assertions appeared to do nothing to assuage an infuriated Obama administration. In a series of interviews with American broadcasters, Mr. Netanyahu also said he had not been trying to suppress the votes of Arab citizens with an Election Day video warning that they were being bused to polling stations in 'droves,' remarks that had also caused outrage at the White House and around the world.... President Obama waited nearly two full days before making a congratulatory phone call to Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday evening.... Mr. Obama told Mr. Netanyahu directly that the United States would have to 're-assess our options' after the prime minister's 'new positions and comments.'" ...

... William Booth & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked Thursday from a clear campaign statement that as long as he was the leader of Israel there would be no independent Palestinian state.... Netanyahu went on U.S. TV news shows -- and not Israeli programs -- on Thursday to walk back his statements.... The head-spinning pivot did not convince White House officials, who suggested Thursday that Netanyahu's maneuvers could prompt a shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, particularly in the United Nations...." ...

... William Saletan of Slate: "In the final days of his campaign, Netanyahu pitched himself to Israelis as the candidate who would stand up to President Obama, 'American money,' the 'international community,' and Israel's Arab minority. He bragged that he had used settlements to seize strategic Palestinian land, and he vowed to keep doing so. A day before the election, he renounced Israel's commitment to a Palestinian state. He pledged that if he were re-elected, he wouldn't permit such a state. He implored Jews to flock to the polls and drown out the ballots of Arab Israelis.... More than 55 percent of the electorate [voted for right-wing candidates]. It's more than 60 percent of Israel's Jewish voters. Netanyahu ... has proved that his people stand behind him.... Israel has descended to its current level of disregard for others [because] it hasn't paid a price.... We have enabled this behavior, and we must end it." ...

... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic argues that among the big losers in the Israeli election was AIPAC, which relies on bipartisan support for Israel.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama's climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell's official reach and authority. The campaign of Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is aimed at stopping a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring states to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.... Since Mr. McConnell is limited in how he can use his role in the Senate to block regulations, he has taken the unusual step of reaching out to governors with a legal blueprint for them to follow to stop the rules in their states." ...

... CW PS: Thanks, Larry Tribe, for taking a paying gig to aid & abet the deterioration of the natural environment. I'm sure "Stooge to coal barons" is an eye-popping addition to your résumé. ...

... Eric Holthaus of Slate: "On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth's global temperature for February was among the hottest ever measured. So far, 2015 is tracking above record-warm 2014 -- which, when combined with the newly resurgent El Niño, means we're on pace for another hottest year in history. In addition to the just-completed warmest winter on record globally (despite the brutal cold and record snow in the eastern U.S.), new data on Thursday from the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this year's peak Arctic sea ice reached its lowest ever maximum extent.... In a very real way, we can now say that for our given location -- the planet Earth -- global warming is now 'normal.' Forget debating -- our climate has officially changed." ...

... Elana Schor of Politico: "The Obama administration is set to unveil the first major nationwide safety restrictions on fracking, touching off a fresh political confrontation between the president and his critics in Congress and the energy industry."

Paul Krugman: "By now it's a Republican Party tradition: Every year the party produces a budget that allegedly slashes deficits, but which turns out to contain a trillion-dollar 'magic asterisk' -- a line that promises huge spending cuts and/or revenue increases, but without explaining where the money is supposed to come from. But the just-released budgets from the House and Senate majorities break new ground. Each contains not one but two trillion-dollar magic asterisks: one on spending, one on revenue.... If either budget were to become law, it would leave the federal government several trillion dollars deeper in debt than claimed, and that's just in the first decade.... The modern G.O.P.'s raw fiscal dishonesty is something new in American politics.... The simplest way to understand these budgets is surely to suppose that they are intended to do what they would, in fact, actually do: make the rich richer and ordinary families poorer.... We're looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry." ...

... CW: Okay, Democrats. If Paul Krugman can call your Republican friends con men, so can you. Let's hear a few Villagers chime in, too. The wonks have done the hard part -- reading & interpreting the GOP's so-called budgets; it's your job to share the news with the electorate.

Charles Pierce: "The willingness of the Republican party to tolerate an almost limitless amount of sheer public lunacy has led us to this moment, where the only answer [Rick] Santorum dares give to a woman who believes the president intended to nuke an American city was to say that he wasn't in Washington at the time." CW: You'll have to read Pierce's column to get the full gist of Santorum's abdication of his civic responsibility. I watched the video of the Santorum show yesterday, thanks to a lead from contrubtor James S., & was more stunned by Santorum's reply to the crazy lady (a retired schoolteacher?? Really??) than by the crazy lady's diatribe. His silence on her multiple insane claims is a profile in cowardice. ...

... This, BTW, is not the first time Santorum has been too frightened to stand up to a crazy audience member who made a loony remark about President Obama. If you were thinking of knitting him a sweater vest, my suggest would be to use yellow yarn for the body & a skein of Santorum Fecal Brown(TM) to knit the word "CHICKEN" across the chest portion. ("Chicken" here is, admittedly, only half a word, but the TM color choice should convey your meaning well enough.)

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Much of the surveillance video taken during a March 4 incident at the White House complex, in which Secret Service agents drove into a barricade marking off a bomb-threat investigation, has been erased.... Director Joseph P. Clancy, testifying before Congress for the second time this week, said the footage of the incident no longer exists, because of an agency practice of recording over surveillance video every three days." ...

... Beth Ethier of Slate has a bit more on the Secret Service's recorded-over tapes. As Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Chair of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN, "This is not your local 7-11. This is the White House."

David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge threatened Thursday to sanction the Justice Department if he finds that government lawyers misled him about the rollout of President Obama's plan to shield up to 5 million people from deportation.... [Judge Andrew] Hanen's barbed comments left little doubt that he sympathized with lawyers for the 26 states, who said they suffered 'irreparable harm' when federal officials granted more than 100,000 applications for deferred action after Obama announced the program Nov. 20. He said government lawyers had assured him that 'nothing was happening' regarding the applications."

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "... the president of the United States telling the heir to the British throne that Americans prefer the royal family to their own politicians livened up an otherwise routine White House photo-op on Thursday.... [The conversation] was picked up by a boom mike deployed by an Associated Press radio journalist and relayed by a White House pool reporter."

Nick Gass & David Nather of Politico: Marty Nesbitt, a close friend of President Obama's, has purchased/"invested in" a beachfront Oahu home that was part of the set for the 80s TV series "Magnum, P.I." Nesbitt has acknowledged the purchase & the White House isn't talking, so there's plenty of speculation that Nesbitt made the purchase for the Obamas. The 80-year-old house is in disrepair. Here's more from Gina Mangieri of KHON Honolulu.

CLICK ON DOCUMENT TO SEE LARGER VIEW.... Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.): "I only break out the red pen on special occasions. So when I saw Marco Rubio's recent op-ed on Net Neutrality, you know I couldn't resist. It is intentionally misleading, poorly researched, and littered with errors. Marco, please don't draft essays on your return flight from Iowa. See me in my office and I'll walk you through Net Neutrality." Via Kay Steiger of Think Progress.

Marin Cogan of New York considers Aaron Schock's change-of-career options, "assuming he isn't eventually indicted."

This comment refers to a video, now defunct, which has been removed. CW BTW: I'm not convinced the DOJ report "exonerates" Wilson as both Fox "News" & Jon Stewart contend; rather, it concludes that there is substantial eyewitness testimony & forensic evidence that Wilson had reasonable cause to fear for his safety to an extent that prosecutors could not prove a charge of excessive force. I don't think someone who creates a situation in which deadly force becomes (or may become) necessary is faultless. Brown was a citizen, & Wilson had a duty to protect him. Fox "News" commentators' reactions, to borrow a Fox "News" rhetorical device, were "racist, racist, racist." As contributor Whyte O. noted yesterday, Arizona cops found the means to take alive mass shooter & white supremacist skinhead Ryan Giroux even though Giroux was armed, resisting arrest & had just shot numerous victims.

Presidential Race

Clinton Rules. Jonathan Allen of Reuters: "In 2008, Hillary Clinton promised Barack Obama, the president-elect, there would be no mystery about who was giving money to her family's globe-circling charities. She made a pledge to publish all the donors on an annual basis.... In response to questions from Reuters, officials at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the foundation confirmed no complete list of donors to the Clintons' charities has been published since 2010." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... the [Wall Street] Journal reports [firewalled] that the [Clinton] foundation never stopped accepting money from foreigners with close ties to their governments. More than a dozen foreigners were top Clinton Foundation donors during that time, giving between $34 million and $68 million total. These include a member of the Saudi royal family and a former member of the Ukrainian parliament who was simultaneously lobbying the State Department to pressure Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to free his predecessor from jail." ...

... A. B. Stoddard of the Hill, who's a fairly conservative Villager, has this right: "Democrats know what's coming, just weeks from now when Clinton announces her run, and it won't be new or different. They've got only one candidate, who already ran and lost, whose policy positions of key interest to Democrats are not yet known, whose candidacy is based on her gender, desire for the job and feeling that it is her turn, and who is launching as she's responding to a congressional subpoena." ...

... CW: For me, besides her all-too-apparent sense of entitlement & her sleazy connections, Hillary's biggest deficit is that, despite Obama's 2008 concession, she is just not "likable enough." American voters, democracy or no, do want our president to be regal (see President Obama's comments yesterday to Prince Charles, linked above), but -- in absurdist fashion -- we also want to feel we could be friends with the king/queen.

Beyond the Beltway

It turns out that sharing & crude commenting on nonconsensual nude photos are okay because that's "satire." Amanda Marcotte suggests the a Penn State education may not be too comprehensive if the kidz don't know what satire is.

Mark Stern of Slate: New Hampshire legislators teach fourth-graders a lesson in democracy. CW: Maybe the kids should have saved their lunch money & hired a lobbyist.

Margaret Hartmann: "The body of a black Mississippi man reported missing earlier this month was found hanging from a tree on Thursday, prompting an investigation by local, state, and federal officials.... [Otis] Byrd was convicted of robbing and murdering Port Gibson convenience-store owner Elizabeth Trim in 1980. He served 25 years in prison and was paroled in 2006." The Jackson Clarion-Ledger story is here.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Ultima brought a snowy blanket to spring's official arrival (Friday 6:45 p.m. EDT). Winter weather advisories were posted for over 30 million in the Northeast, including the Philadelphia and New York City metro areas."

New York Times: "Robert W. Kastenmeier, a Wisconsin Democrat who in 32 years in the House was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and in 1976 earned the gratitude of authors when he managed the first general revision of copyright law since 1909, died on Friday at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 91."

AP: "Quadruple suicide bombers on Friday hit a pair of mosques controlled by Shiite rebels in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, unleashing blasts through crowds of worshippers that killed at least 137 people and wounded around 350 others in the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn nation in decades."

Reuters: "A rookie Los Angeles police officer accused of killing a man after a fight in the bar district of a Southern California community was driven to a Texas city on the Mexican border by his father last week and has not been seen since, according to court documents filed on Thursday. Henry Solis, a 27-year-old probationary officer, is accused of shooting Salome Rodriguez Jr. multiple times on March 13 near several nightclubs in downtown Pomona...."

Wall Street Journal: "David Christopher Bird, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who was missing for more than a year, was found dead near his New Jersey home, police said."

The Commentariat -- March 19, 2015

Internal links removed.

Paul Lewis & Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The White House has made clear its dismay at Binyamin Netanyahu's sweeping victory in the Israeli elections with a stinging rebuke of the 'divisive rhetoric' used by the Israeli leader in the closing stages of the election. President Obama has not called to congratulate Netanyahu, who is now attempting to build a coalition between rightwing parties and his own Likud, which won decisively in parliamentary elections on Tuesday. But the White House said it would be forced to re-evaluate its policy on the Middle East peace process after Netanyahu abandoned a prior commitment to an independent Palestinian state, apparently to shore up support among conservatives in Israel." ...

... Diaa Hadid of the New York Times: "With Mr. Netanyahu having dropped, for now at least, the pretense of seeking a two-state solution, the Palestinians can argue to Europe and the United States that they no longer have a negotiating partner, strengthening their case for full statehood and recognition in the United Nations, as well as membership in important international bodies. They are already members of the International Criminal Court and Unesco.... In addition to considering seeking full statehood at the United Nations, the Palestinians may now curtail security coordination with Israel, reducing Israel's ability to seize suspected militants in the West Bank, two P.L.O. officials said." ...

... (CW: If, like me, you've forgotten the basis of the U.S.'s "principled stand" against U.N. recognition of Palestine, here's a 2012 Washington Post report to remind you. Now that Netanyahu has asserted his opposition to any negotiated deal, our "principled stand" seems virtually moot.) ...

     ... Update. Michael Crowley of Politico: "Angered by Netanyahu's hard-line platform toward the Palestinians, top Obama officials would not rule out the possibility of a change in American posture at the United Nations, where the U.S. has historically fended off resolutions hostile to Israel." CW: Of course it's more complicated than that. For one thing, "Under a law passed by Congress, any Palestinian bid to bring war crimes charges against Israel at the [International Criminal Court will automatically sever America's $400 million in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority...." ...

... Jonathan Alter of the Daily Beast: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu won a big election Tuesday, but he won ugly by staking out a new position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is likely to harm his nation in the months ahead.... Beset by European boycotts, rebuked by international tribunals, estranged from the president of the United States -- it's not a pretty picture of the fate of America's closest ally in the region." ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "Many have commented that the outcome [of the Israeli elections] will exacerbate tensions between Israel and President Obama, but that misses the larger point -- which is that it will also further alienate Israel from the world."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Wednesday released an austere budget that maintains strict caps on military spending and cuts trillions of dollars from health care and welfare.... House Republicans are trying to evade the spending caps by adding close to $40 billion to military spending through an 'emergency' war funding account that is not subject to the limits. Not only did Senate budget writers not follow suit, they included language in their budget requiring 60 votes in the Senate on any measure that used that approach.... Over all, the Senate version hews closely to the budgetary intent of the House proposal. It repeals the Affordable Care Act, turns Medicaid and food stamps into block grants and cuts domestic programs to balance the budget by 2025 without tax increases. The Senate budget also relies on a significant gimmick: It repeals the health law but also assumes that $2 trillion from the law's tax increases continues to flow into the Treasury." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... the Republicans do have a health-care plan: It is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with what we had before Obamacare. They don't want to admit that's their plan, but it is. It's right there, in the new budget released by House Republicans this week." ...

... Manu Raju of Politico: "The four Republican senators considering a run for president will have to take sides in the feud between fiscal hard-liners and defense hawks over the budget. That will give voters a clear read on their ideology just as they're hitting the campaign trail -- and likely complicate Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's vow to shepherd a spending blueprint through the GOP-controlled Congress."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) compares AG nominee Loretta Lynch to Rosa Parks:

... Dave Weigel: "On Wednesday morning, Washington Senator Patty Murray and Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin assembled (on short notice) a justice league of women's rights activists to join the identity-politicking chorus.... Joined by leaders of the National Organization for Women, Moms Rising, and the National Women's Law Center, Murray and Baldwin attacked Republicans for holding Lynch 'hostage' by waiting until the passage of the trafficking bill to give her a vote." ...

... Dana Milbank: "The very white, very male Republican Party has managed to get itself caught in another thicket in the hostile terrain of identity politics. Ashton Carter, Obama's white, male nominee to be defense secretary, was confirmed in just under 70 days. But Lynch, nominated a month before Carter, continues to languish in the Senate -- 131 days and counting -- even though she is by all accounts superbly qualified for the job and she got through her confirmation hearings without so much as a scratch." ...

... Gail Collins manages to put a humorous spin on even the despicable stunts of the most abominable showmen.

Yes, We Can Govern! Paul Waldman has an excellent post on how & why House Republicans & Democrats have come together to craft legislation to make permanent the "doc fix."

** Ha! Hillary Flynn & Rachael Bade of Politico: "The IRS may broaden a looming controversial rule to police political nonprofits to include political parties and political action committees, the IRS chief said Wednesday. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency may expand a yet-to-be-released rule governing 501(c)(4), 'social welfare' groups, to include political groups known as 527s, which focus on elections. It could require them both -- as well as other types of tax-exempt groups -- to operate under the same definition of 'political activity.'... The news comes as the political world awaits a highly contentious draft IRS rule aimed at ensuring social welfare organizations like Karl Rove's giant Crossroads GPS and Obama-loyalist group Organizing for Action are following rules limiting political activity."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday moved to the verge of raising interest rates for the first time since the economy fell into recession more than seven years ago, even as officials suggested the Fed might not pull the trigger until well into the second half of the year." ...

... Megan Wilson & Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is upping her outreach to Capitol Hill, and one lawmaker is attracting the largest amount of her attention: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). A review of Yellen's meeting records, obtained by The Hill, shows the Fed chief has had more than twice as many meetings and phone calls with the big bank critic as any other lawmaker."

Ted Bridis of the AP: "The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.... The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law -- but only when it was challenged."

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: Britain's "Prince Charles is expected to discuss his assessment of leading Arab royal families during a meeting with Barack Obama that will cap an unusually political visit to Washington for the British monarch-in-waiting. Fresh from meetings with the Jordanian, Kuwaiti and Saudi rulers during a tour of the Middle East last month, the prince is seen as well-placed to advise the Americans on a crucial component of Middle East stability during his visit to the Oval Office on Thursday. He is also due to meet with members of the Senate foreign relations committee and the Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell during separate meetings on Capitol Hill." CW: I am seriously looking forward to seeing Mitch curtsy.

Two years from now he will be successful if he's not in jail. -- Richard Schock, on his son Aaron

Aaron is very popular. Aaron is a little different. He wears...stylish clothing, and yet he's not gay. -- Richard Schock ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... apparently, Schock's parents have had prison on the brain for some time." According to a 2009 World Magazine story, Schock's mother "cried when she found out he was running for Congress. She worried, he said, that politics might turn him into a crook." ...

Also,

... expounds on how the Schock story "touch[es] on a few larger lessons about campaign cash and ethics on Capitol Hill."

Jaime Fuller of New York: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, still recovering from an eye injury he got while exercising, took a moment [on the Senate floor] on Wednesday to thank eye doctor and recreational presidential candidate Rand Paul for checking in on him."

** Dog Bites (Black) Man. Jack Hitt of the New Yorker: According to the DOJ report on Ferguson, Mo., "Among cases in which a suspect was bitten by an attack dog and the suspect's race was recorded, what percentage were black? A hundred per cent." A series of studies has shown that service dogs reflect the prejudices of their handlers. "... there is one social ill that all detection dogs ... reveal with searing accuracy: the hidden racial prejudices of the police officers who deploy them."

Presidential Election

Jeb Bush's Long Career of Aiding & Abetting. Tom Hamburger & Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Time and again, [Jeb Bush] benefited from his family name and connections to land a consulting deal or board membership, sometimes doing business with people and companies who would later run afoul of the law." In one case, that of Miguel Recarey, who absconded with millions & is still a fugitive from U.S. justice, "Bush has said over the years that he 'made one call' to a mid-level official to seek a fair deal for a Florida businessman. But new interviews and a review of congressional testimony show that Bush engaged in multiple calls on Recarey's behalf to senior administration officials -- and that his advocacy made a difference.... In [another] case, Bush reportedly advocated for a federal loan guarantee for a Miami contractor later convicted of fraud in applying for the loan, though Bush later said he did not recall doing so. He became a board member and consultant to a Florida-based manufacturer whose two top officers are now serving federal prison sentences for defrauding investors and the U.S. government. And he worked with another Florida firm investigated by the FBI for allegedly bribing Nigerian officials...."

Jimmy Margulies, May 2013.... For some strange reason, Steve M. isn't taking seriously Donald Trump's plans for a presidential run: "Trump's problem is that nearly everyone is on to his act, so he feels he has to fake it more convincingly. So here's what I think will happen: Trump will stay in the race until he can claim a monstrous insult that compels him to quit, as, y'know, a matter of honor."

Beyond the Beltway

Hartford Courant: "John G. Rowland [R], Connecticut's brash ex-governor turned radio commentator, stood again Wednesday in front of a packed courtroom and, for the second time in ten years, was sentenced to prison for low-rent political crimes, this time for 30 months. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said that Rowland showed a striking disregard for clean election laws while trying to conceal his role as a paid consultant to Lisa Wilson-Foley's 2012 congressional campaign."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell was prepared to tell a jury that she assiduously hid her financial dealings with a Richmond area businessman from her husband because she feared Robert F. McDonnell would put a stop to them, but she was only willing to testify if she and the onetime governor were given separate trials, according to court papers.... The declaration from William Burck, Maureen McDonnell's defense attorney, is now a part of Robert McDonnell's appeal. Among other things, the former governor is arguing that Spencer erred when he refused to order separate trials." ...

... CW: My answer to how to cut down on the prison population: abolish governors.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Maurice Possley of the Marshall Project, in the Washington Post: "In a major turn in one of the country's most-noted death penalty cases, the State Bar of Texas has filed a formal accusation of misconduct against the county prosecutor who convicted Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed in 2004 for the arson murder of his three young daughters. Following a preliminary inquiry that began last summer, the bar this month filed a disciplinary petition in Navarro County District Court accusing the former prosecutor, John H. Jackson, of obstruction of justice, making false statements and concealing evidence favorable to Willingham's defense." ...

... Dahlia Lithwick: "On Wednesday an extraordinary petition was filed in the Texas Supreme Court by some 300 lawyers seeking a declaratory judgment or, in the alternative, a writ of mandamus, overturning the suspension of prominent defense attorney David Dow, who Texas's highest court of criminal justice suspended for a year on a technicality for which he was not at fault. ...

Rees Shapiro & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "Racial tensions flared at the University of Virginia after a black student sustained head injuries while white police officers arrested him outside of a popular Irish pub early Wednesday morning.... Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office issued a statement Wednesday afternoon in which he said he was calling for an investigation into the arrest."

Craig Harris, et al., of the Arizona Republic: "An ex-convict with a history of violence and drug use is accused of gunning down a man in a Mesa motel Wednesday morning, then going on a shooting spree that left five others, including a culinary student, injured. A Mesa SWAT team took Ryan Giroux, 41, into custody around 1 p.m., in a vacant condominium near Longmore and Emelita Avenue after a massive manhunt that included four other law-enforcement agencies." ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: An "anonymous police source told the [Southern Poverty Law C]enter that Giroux was a member of a notoriously brutal, diffuse organization named the Hammerskin Nation, which the Anti-Defamation League called 'the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States.' It spans more than a dozen countries, and broke into national headlines in August of 2012. That was when one of its adherents perpetrated a mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple.... The group illustrates the surprising resilience of the American hate group."

"Pope Francis blesses the sculpture "Jesus the Homeless" during his general audience in St. Peter's Square Nov. 20[, 2013]." CNS/L'Osservatore Romano.... Holy Water-Boarding. Doug Sovern of KCBS San Francisco: "Saint Mary's Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral's doorways.... Water pours from a hole in the ceiling, about 30 feet above, drenching the alcove and anyone in it.... KCBS has also learned from a review of city permit records that the system was installed illegally, and may violate water use regulations." ...

     ... Update: "Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco will dismantle a system that pours water on entrance areas of the church frequented by homeless after receiving a formal notice of violation from the city."

Starbucks Baristas Fail to End Racism on Account of Being Too Busy Making Coffee. Jessica Roy of New York: "After Starbucks announced its ham-fisted #RaceForward campaign yesterday, in which it plans to solve racism in America by writing stuff on cups, several ambitious journalists set out to earn the scoop of the decade: talking to a Starbucks barista about talking about race. Unsurprisingly, it seems the only people interested in having a discussion about identity politics were the eager journalists themselves."

News Lede

New York Times: "Buddy Elias, the closest living relative of Anne Frank and an ardent guardian of her legacy, died on Monday at his home in Basel, Switzerland -- a house whose attic yielded a cache of long-forgotten letters from Anne and her family that formed the basis of a recent book. He was 89." ...

... CW: A stirring reminder that likening President Obama (or any other American politician) to Hitler or Chamberlain is a travesty that diminishes the horrors of the Holocaust.

The Commentariat -- March 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

William Booth of the Washington Post: "... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party won a clear and decisive victory in Israel's parliamentary elections, paving the way for him to serve a record-breaking fourth term as prime minister, according to an almost complete vote count Wednesday. The count showed Netanyahu and Likud overcame a strong challenge from his main opponent, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, according to Israel's three largest television news stations." ...

... The Guardian story, by Peter Beaumont, is here. ...

... CW: I now have the same high regard for Israel as I have for Arkansas. The big difference: I never held Arkansas in especially high esteem. In both cases, I resent all the money I send their way. ...

... Joshua Keating of Slate has a helpful analysis. ...

... NEW. Charles Pierce: "... the ghost of Atwaterism rolls back the stone and walks across the Holy Land." ...

... Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his chief challenger, Isaac Herzog of the center-left Zionist Union, appeared to win about the same number of seats in Parliament in Tuesday's election, according to Israeli news media and exit polls, promising a protracted and messy process of forming the next governing coalition. If the major parties remain tied or within a single seat once all the votes are counted, a critical factor will be the so-called blocs -- right-wing parties expected to back Mr. Netanyahu, and left-leaning ones that favor Mr. Herzog. But those tallies remained unclear Tuesday evening." ...

     ... ** NEW LEDE: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel won a clear victory in Tuesday's elections and seemed all but certain to form a new government and serve a fourth term, though he offended many voters and alienated allies in the process."

... The Times is liveblogging the elections here. The Haaretz liveblog is here. ...

... The Guardian's liveblog is here:

• Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and rival Isaac Herzog finished in a virtual tie, each with an average 27 seats according to the first exit poll. Netanyahu and his Likud party declared it a 'great victory' and likely have an easier path to creating a right-leaning coalition than Herzog's more liberal Zionist Union party.

• Netanyahu and Herzog immediately began courting potential kingmaker Moshe Kahlon, leader of the centrist Kulanu party, whose estimated 10 seats could prove decisive in giving one man victory. Kulanu told Netanyahu he remains undecided and will wait until all votes are counted, which may take days."

... Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Benjamin Netanyahu was acting as if he was poised to return to power. But there was a cloud over his apparent turnaround, the result of an increasingly shrill campaign that raised questions about his ability to heal Israel's internal wounds or better its standing in the world. He said there would be no Palestinian state. He railed against Israeli Arabs -- because they had gone out to vote.... In a seemingly desperate bid to rally support halfway through the balloting, he went on a tirade against Israel's Arab citizens. He said they were being bused to polling stations in droves by left-wing organizations in an effort that 'distorts the true will of the Israelis in favor of the left, and grants excessive power to the radical Arab list,' referring to the new alliance of Arab parties. Opponents accused him of baldfaced racism."

Jared Bernstein in a Washington Post op-ed: "The policies put forth in [the House Republic budget] suggest that America's main problem is that the poor have too much and the wealthy, too little. The budget plan 'corrects' this perceived imbalance by deeply cutting programs that help low- and middle-income people, and cutting taxes on those with high incomes, capital gains, multinational corporations and 'pass through' business income.... The one area where the Republicans boost spending is defense (though through a gimmick they once called 'a backdoor loophole'...).... Based on demographics alone, the plan departs from reality.... I don't believe you could find majoritarian support for this sort of a budget in America. In fact, I doubt you'll see much support for it even among partisans on Capitol Hill.... This budget is deeply unrealistic not just in economic terms but in political terms. It's going nowhere." ...

... Dana Milbank: "It was altogether fitting that Republicans rolled out their budget during a festival of inebriation in honor of the man who magically (and apocryphally) banished snakes from Ireland. What Republicans have done with their budget is no less fantastic: They have employed lucky charms and mystical pots of gold to make them appear more sober about balancing the budget than they actually are. The budget is a gimmick.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times asked Price if he would detail the $1 trillion in mandatory cuts that the budget doesn't identify. 'Take a peek at 'A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America,' [House Budget Committee Chair Tom] Price [R-Ga.] replied, holding up the budget again for the cameras. 'I'm looking at it,' Weisman said. 'It doesn't specify.'" ...

Paul Kane & Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "If Republicans fail to approve a compromise budget that passes both the House and Senate -- a real possibility, given their deep divisions on fiscal policy -- it will be an ignominious defeat for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Those two leaders have made steady governance with a conservative tilt their main political goal of the year, and without a budget resolution, the funding process would be particularly unsteady and increase the possibility of at least a small-scale shutdown of parts of the federal government in October."

Seung Min Kim & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans are in no hurry to confirm Loretta Lynch as attorney general, meaning a final vote on her nomination could slip into April as a floor fight over abortion continues to drag on and a battle over the budget waits in the wings."

One of the follies at Downton Abbey (Highclere Castle).A Downton Folly, USA. Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who in a matter of weeks went from a fast track to national prominence to beset by numerous reports of spending misdeeds, announced his resignation from Congress on Tuesday. Schock, 33, had endured weeks of headlines about the manner in which he has spent from his taxpayer-funded account for official expenses. The Office of Congressional Ethics had commenced a review of his spending.... Schock issued his statement before alerting House Republican leaders, according to associates familiar with the timeline of events Tuesday." His resignation is effective March 31." ...

... Politico Reporters Take Credit for Schock's Resignation -- and They Appear to Be Justified. Jake Sherman, et al.: "On Monday evening, Politico began asking questions about tens of thousands of dollars of reimbursements he received from his campaign and federal government for mileage put on his personal car. Records show that Schock personally claimed reimbursement for roughly 170,000 miles driven from January 2010 to July 2014. But the only vehicle he owned during that time was sold with just 80,000 miles on the odometer. Asked for his response to those findings, Schock announced his resignation." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic retraces the steps of Schock's rapid fall: "Six weeks ago,The Washington Post's Ben Terris revealed that Representative Aaron Schock had redecorated his congressional office in a gaudy style inspired by Downton Abbey.... Schock's communications director tried to keep him from running it -- effectively whetting reporters' appetites. First, there were reports about the spokesman's past racist comments on social media, and the aide resigned. Then reporters started digging into Schock's records -- aided in part by analysis of metadata on his hyperactive Instagram stream. A steady drip-drip of revelations began: questionable real-estate transactions involving donors. Lavish trips for staffers, on the taxpayer dime. Katy Perry tickets for interns, paid by his political action committee. Even, allegedly, a $5,000 podium modeled on the president's. On Monday, it emerged that the Office of Congressional Ethics had begun investigating him. And Politico, which broke news of the resignation, said it had submitted questions to him about tens of thousands of dollars in questionable mileage reimbursement claims he'd submitted to his campaign and the government." ...

... Jake Sherman, et al.: "Schock billed the federal government and his campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from January 2010 through July 2014. But when he sold that Chevrolet Tahoe in July 2014, it had roughly 80,000 miles on the odometer, according to public records obtained by POLITICO under Illinois open records laws. The documents, in other words, indicate he was reimbursed for 90,000 miles more than his car was driven." ...

... CW: Hey, maybe he's just an honest fellow who rolled back his odometer. ...

Two Great American Mileage Scammers.

... OR maybe he's just like another famous Illinois Republican: Abraham Lincoln. Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "In what appears to be simply an amazing coincidence, the muckraking site ProPublica posted an entertaining story earlier Tuesday about an 1848 incident in which a number of federal legislators, including an Illinois congressman named Abraham Lincoln, were ... busted for receiving inflated travel reimbursements. The story was broken by Horace Greeley, a newspaper publisher (he's the 'Go west, young man' guy) who'd been appointed to fill a vacated New York congressional seat.... It is the official editorial position ofSlate that Abraham Lincoln should resign from Congress." ...

... Andy Kravetz of the Peoria Journal Star went downtown looking for reactions from Schock's constituents. CW hint to Kravetz: when seeking public opinion on political matters, do not bother to interview people who just "stumbled out of a bar" at midday on St. Patrick's Day. ...

... Election 2015, Legacy Edition. David Jarman of Daily Kos: "IL-18, designed to be a Republican vote sink centered on the Peoria area, went 37 Obama-61 Romney in 2012.... Gov. Bruce Rauner [R-Ill.] must call for an election within 5 days of Schock's resignation (set for March 31), and the election must occur within 115 days of that (so, before the end of July). The potential Republican successor getting the most mention is a familiar name: state Sen. Darin LaHood. He's the son of moderate ex-Rep. Ray LaHood, who served more than a decade in IL-18 before becoming Barack Obama's Transportation Secretary. (Though it's possible his dad's apostasy may come back to haunt the younger LaHood in a primary against a more conservative opponent.)" ...

... Steve M. remembers "President Schock" & bemoans the Democrats' failure to tout their potential stars the way Republicans & their media auxiliary promote even the most callow of fellows. ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post reports on Schock's remarkable career, which began when he was in the fifth grade. He always was a self-absorbed jerk -- but an amazingly successful one.

NEW. In the Life Is Unfair Department, Charles Pierce compares Aaron Schock's indiscretions with those of certain GOP presidential candidates. CW: It expect Schock could have beat the rap if only he had announced he was "forming an exploratory committee" for a presidential run.

Simon Maloy of Salon: "... one of the defining characteristics of the modern conservative movement ... is [that it is] a lucrative moneymaking machine for scam artists and hucksters. If you're a politically engaged conservative, you're being inundated by radio hosts, right-wing publications, think tanks, and all manner of unscrupulous activists who purchased your email address and want to exploit your love of Ronald Reagan or Ted Cruz to squeeze a few dollars out of you. And there's at least one 2016 presidential candidate who's in on the grift: Mike Huckabee.... The sheer size of the conservative scam machine and the involvement of some of the most prominent names in Republican politics are the consequence of the decades spent transforming conservatism into an insular political movement. Conservatives are explicitly told not to trust anyone or anything that exists outside the movement, and to put their faith in the 'conservative' alternatives."

Benjamin Wallace-Wells of New York suggests that the U.S. (which he calls "America" as if the U.S. were the only country in the Americas) is now the leading liberal nation as European countries & Israel have turned into right-leaning countries with racially-bigoted policies.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz starts a campaign to get customers to talk more about race relations. Luckily, Dick Cheney. doesn't need a jolt of White Mocha Grande to get him talking about race ...

I think they're playing the race card. -- Dick Cheney, on Barack Obama & Eric Holder

... So the whole baristas-as-race-relations-counselors should go pretty well.

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials."

Teresa Tritch of the New York Times highlights the continuing Wall Street bonus & overcompensation scandal.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

NPR: Where an FOIA Request = Hate Mail. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post demonstrates how an NPR story on climate scientists & deniers is based on flaming false equivalency & how the network's ombudsman enables this baloney. In fact, even the reporter's surreptitious edit disproves his claim.

James O'Keefe Is Still Disgusting. Carl Campanile of the New York Post: James O'Keefe, "a controversial conservative activist, is being accused of trying to incite anti-police protesters by saying, 'I wish I could kill some of these cops,' to provoke them into making outrageous statements. A former top staffer with Project Veritas, Richard Valdes, said the incident occurred in January, when an undercover operative assigned to infiltrate the protest groups was given a script that included the startling comment. Valdes said he was fired by the group's founder, James O'Keefe, for not following through on the bizarre assignment." It's not clear from the report where these incitements were supposed to take place. O'Keefe calls himself an "investigative film journalist."

Presidential Race

NEW. Julie Westfall & Kurtis Lee of the Los Angeles Times: Donald Trump "announced Wednesday he's forming an exploratory committee to help him decide whether he will run for president in 2016. Calling himself 'the only one who can make America truly great again,' Trump joins a growing list of almost a dozen Republicans who are actively exploring 2016 bids for the White House."

Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "Iowa has been a punching bag in online quips by Republican Scott Walker's new strategist for online communications," Liz Mair. Like this: "The sooner we remove Iowa's frontrunning status, the better off American politics and policy will be." Excellent strategy! Shouldn't an "online communications strategist" know that people -- including reporters -- can actually read what you publish online? ...

... Update. Catherine Lucey & Steve Peoples of the AP: "An aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's national political operation resigned late Tuesday after drawing heated criticism from the head of the Iowa Republican Party for questioning the state's early role in the presidential nominating process. Veteran Republican strategist Liz Mair told The Associated Press that she was leaving Walker's team just a day after she had been tapped to lead his online communication efforts, citing the distraction created by a series of recent Twitter posts about Iowa's presidential caucuses." ...

... CW: Outside of Iowa, however, the confederates' beef with Mair was that she was a flaming liberal: pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-"amnesty." One does have to wonder why she would take a job with Scott Walker -- or any GOP presidential candidate -- since they're all anti-choice, anti-gay marriage & anti-immigration reform, with the exception of Jebbie on at least one of those counts.

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "The team building out Dr. Ben Carson’s likely presidential campaign includes an operative who has recently deleted an entire Twitter account that often attacked President Obama, other Democrats, some other Republicans, and others with crude language."

Luke Brinker of Salon: "Deriding the push for an increased minimum wage as 'a great soundbite,' likely Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush told a South Carolina audience on Tuesday that he opposes a federal minimum wage, arguing that the issue should be left to the states or the whims of the private sector." ...

... As Brinker points out in a subsequent post, Bush's opposition to minimum wage laws puts Jebbie to the right of severely-conservative Mitt 47-Percent Romney.

GOP Disappointed It Can't Impeach Clinton Before She Announces Presidential Bid. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The State Department has no record that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a standard form declaring that she surrendered all official records before leaving her post in 2013, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Critics of Clinton, including the Republican National Committee, said she might have committed a crime by signing the form despite having tens of thousands of work-related emails in a personal account.... [State Department spokesperson Jen] Psaki said there also is no record of the form being completed by Clinton's two most recent predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell."

Beyond the Beltway

Joseph Serna & Lee Romney of the Los Angeles Times: "A slew of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged between San Francisco police in a fellow officer's corruption case has forced prosecutors and defense attorneys to review an estimated 1,000 criminal convictions for potential bias, officials announced Tuesday.... '... My office is conducting an immediate assessment of every prosecution within the past ten years where these [four] officers were involved,' said San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon in a statement. Public defender Jeff Adachi on Tuesday estimated that could amount to at least 1,000 cases among the five officers." Thanks to safari for the link.

NBC News: "A fraternity at Pennsylvania State University under police investigation was suspended Tuesday by its national headquarters for a secret, members-only Facebook page that allegedly featured pictures of scantily-clad females, drug deals and hazing rituals. A State College Police Department search warrant filed on Jan. 30 said a former member of Penn State's Kappa Delta Rho chapter first notified authorities that the fraternity was operating the private page with the illicit images." ...

... Terrence McCoy elaborates.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd., Part 1. This lying, wife-beating political hack is still serving as a federal judge. Brad Friedman, writing in Salon, provides details & some new evidence against U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller. Fuller is a Bush II appointee.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd., Part 2. Nicole Flatow of Think Progress: "The family of Jason Harrison released video Monday of Dallas police shooting dead their 38-year-old son just seconds after police arrived at the family's front door. Harrison's mother had called the police in June for help getting her mentally ill son to the hospital, as he was off his medication and experiencing a crisis." Harrison approached the police while holding a small screwdriver. His mother reportedly had told police in her 911 call that Jason was "acting violently." "Studies in several cities have found that about half of police shooting victims are mentally ill, and that the mentally ill are disproportionate victims of excessive police force." Includes video.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Gunmen in military uniforms attacked a museum in downtown Tunis[, Tunisia,] around noon on Wednesday, killing 19 people, officials said. Security forces later advanced into the museum and killed two gunmen in a firefight, state television reported. Prime Minister Habib Essid said at a news conference that the dead included 17 tourists and two Tunisians."

Intercept: "An envelope sent to the White House Mail Screening Facility on Monday tested positive for cyanide, according to an internal law enforcement document obtained by The Intercept. The envelope listed a return address for a man who the alert says has a record with the Secret Service dating back to 1995, which includes sending a package covered in urine and feces."