The Commentariat -- Feb. 15, 2015

Science is not a body of facts. Science is a method for deciding whether what we choose to believe has a basis in the laws of nature or not. -- Marcia McNutt, Science editor & geophysicist

** Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post on why so many people are skeptical of scientific findings. CW: If you want to understand your neighbors, crazy Uncle Fred & yourself, this essay will help.

What Does a Terrorist Look Like? Steven Rosenfeld of Alternet, in the Raw Story: "A 2001-2015 'Homegrown Extremism' analysis by the New America Foundation parsed the 'ethnicity, age, gender and citizenship' of people who killed or violently attacked others, whether they were motivated by jihadist philosophies or other 'right wing, left wing or idiosyncratic beliefs.' Of 448 extremists counted, white men who were U.S. citizens outnumbered every other demographic by wide margins. 'Quite a few reports agree, that more Americans have been killed by the radical right since 9/11 than by jihadists,' said Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes and focuses on the radical right.

Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "... the spectacle voters are witnessing right now is a Democratic President who is busy getting things done while Congress is gridlocked and [Mitch] McConnell whines that Democrats in the Senate won't let him get anything done. In other words, you're blowing it McConnell ... big time!"

Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "Millions of immigrants benefiting from President Barack Obama's executive actions could get a windfall from the IRS, a reversal of fortune after years of paying taxes to help fund government programs they were banned from receiving. Armed with new Social Security numbers, many of these immigrants who were living in the U.S. illegally will now be able to claim up to four years' worth of tax credits designed to benefit the working poor. For big families, that's a maximum of nearly $24,000, as long as they can document their earnings during those years. Some Republicans are labeling the payments 'amnesty bonuses,' one more reason they oppose Obama's program shielding millions of immigrants from deportation."

Caitlin Dickson of Yahoo! News: "Outgoing senior Obama adviser John Podesta reflected on his latest White House stint Friday, listing his favorite moments and biggest regrets from the past year. Chief among them: depriving the American people of the truth about UFOs." CW: I thought this was snark, but it isn't. I would like to know "the truth."

CW: If somebody could read & report on Ross Douthat's column today, I'd appreciate it. I can't bear to read his self-righteous church-lady admonishments, but he's writing about sex today, so it must be hilarious. ...

... This is for Akhilleus. Maybe he'll want to share with Marvin S. & JJG.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Patrick Cockburn in the (U.K.) Independent: "Brian Williams's vainglorious boasting looks likes destroying his career, but those who purvey the most destructive lies in the media will seldom be identified or punished."Thanks to safari for the link. ...

Manuel Roig-Franzia, et al., of the Washington Post have a good rundown of Williams' propensity to embellish & overdramatize a story, a trait that served him well, until it didn't. ...

... CW: AND, yes, I think these on-air comments by Tom Brokaw are as egregious -- and potentially far more damaging to the country's well-being than Brian Williams' pumped-up stories. As Heather of Crooks & Liars pointed out, Brokaw was a repeat offender. Schmuck.

Ken Stone of the Times of San Diego: "In a stroke of Friday the 13th bad luck, Fox 5 San Diego briefly portrayed President Obama as a sex-assault suspect on its 10 o'clock news. At 10:04 p.m., viewers heard anchor Kathleen Bade say: 'The only suspect in a sex assault at SDSU will not be charged.' At the same time, a picture of Obama appeared with the legend 'NO CHARGES.'... Asked why there was no on-air acknowledgment or apology for the error, [assignment editor Mike] Wille said: 'They really don't do that when it's a small thing like that.'" CW: Especially since President Obama was in California that day, I'm sure a least of couple of FoxBots are spreading the news that the President beat a rape rap.

God News

AP: "The top aide to retired Pope Benedict XVI is insisting he resigned freely, amid conspiracy theories that Benedict's resignation was forced and the election of Pope Francis was thus invalid."

David Gibson of Religion News Service: "Pope Francis on Saturday (Feb. 14) added 20 new members to the College of Cardinals.... Rather than seeing themselves as a priestly elite maneuvering among themselves, Francis said, the cardinals should be models of love and humility. Above all, he said, they should avoid 'that smoldering anger which makes us brood over wrongs we have received.'" ...

... Packing the College. David Gibson: "Pope Francis' new cardinals ... represent everything the pope says he wants for the future of Catholicism: a church that reaches out to the periphery and the margins, and one that represents those frontiers more than the central administration in Rome.... The breadth and depth of the transformation in the College of Cardinals is remarkable.... Archbishop John Dew of New Zealand, one of the newly minted 'princes of the church,' argued that Francis has already shifted 'the balance of power' away from Europe by appointing leaders from 'the end of the world,' as Francis referred to himself at his election."

Rafael Minder of the New York Times: A case in Granada, Spain, "which includes allegations of a sex ring and a cover-up involving as many as 10 priests -- accusations supported by one other plaintiff as well as by several witnesses -- has become one of the most serious sexual abuse scandals to emerge under Pope Francis."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Three women plan to name Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, a venerated imam in Elgin, Ill., in a lawsuit accusing him of decades of assault and sexual abuse, according to their lawyer."

The Sins of the Brother. Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch: Evangelical minister John Hagee, who campaigned for John McCain in 2008, is warning that God will destroy the U.S. for President Obama's decision not to meet with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "'I am a student of world history,' Hagee said, "and ... the nations that blessed Israel prospered and the nations that cursed Israel were destroyed by the hand of God.... 'If America turns its back on Israel, God will turn his back on America. And that's a fact. It's proven by history...." Via Steve Benen.

Presidential Race

Maureen Dowd lays into the Clinton campaign, Hillary Clinton & rainmaker David Brock: Hillary is "busy polling more than 200 policy experts on how to show that she really cares about the poor while courting the banks. Yet her shadow campaign is already in a déjà-vu-all-over-again shark fight over control of the candidate and her money. It's the same old story: The killer organization that, even with all its ruthless hired guns, can't quite shoot straight." CW: Particulars aside, I think MoDo may be on the right track. Dissing the Clintons is what MoDo cut her teeth on, & she is viciously good at it. ...

... CW: If you want a snapshot of what Hillary Clinton faces in a presidential run, take a look at this article in the New York Post by Maureen Callahan. (Speaking of snapshots, that one of Bill with the prostitutes [credit Facebook] looks Photoshopped to me.) Even if Callahan's accusations are only 10 percent true, stories like these -- whatever the media outlet -- get more attention that do, say, Hillary's education policy. Voters whose main criterion is "character" are going to think twice about letting Bill back into the White House.

** Steve Eder & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "For the 12 years that his father held national elective office, [Jeb] Bush used his unique access to the highest reaches of government to seek favors for Republican allies, push his views and burnish his political profile in his home state, a review of presidential library records shows. In the process, Mr. Bush carefully constructed an elaborate and enduring network of relationships in Florida that helped lead to his election as governor in 1998 and, now, to his place as a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016." CW: This is what "entitlement" means to me.

Beyond the Beltway

Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber announced his resignation Friday ...on the same day the U.S. Attorney's Office issued a subpoena demanding records and electronic communications pertaining to the pair. The subpoena was the first acknowledgment of a federal investigation against Kitzhaber and Cylvia Hayes. It marks yet another turn in a scandal that brought down Oregon's longest-serving chief executive."

Extremely Important Workout News: Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: Montona state Rep. David Moore (R) now says he was just kidding when he told an AP reporter, "Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway." Now, however, he says, "The whole was a off-the-cuff remark in the hallway, and the whole thing just exploded." The Associated Press, however, disputes that characterization. 'Our reporter spoke to him at length,' Associated Press media director Paul Colford said about the interview, which took place on Tuesday. 'She asked him about that statement twice.'"

News Ledes

Reuters: "Philip Levine, a former poet laureate of the United States who won a Pulitzer Prize, has died at age 87...."

New York Times: "Louis Jourdan, a handsome, sad-eyed French actor who worked steadily in films and on television in Europe and the United States for better than five decades, as a romantic hero in movies like 'Gigi' and later as a suave villain in movies like 'Octopussy,' died on Friday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was'93."

New York Times: "David Carr, the New York Times media columnist who died unexpectedly Thursday night, had lung cancer, and died of complications from the disease, according to the results of an autopsy released Saturday evening.... According to the office of the chief medical examiner of New York City, which conducted an autopsy, Mr. Carr died of complications of metastatic small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung. Heart disease was a contributing factor...."

Washington Post: "An arch-conservative member of the Iranian parliament and outspoken critic of the country's centrist president has claimed that there is an 'espionage case' against imprisoned Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and his wife."

Los Angeles Times: "With idled cargo ships piling up along the coastline, President Obama ordered his labor secretary [Tom Perez] to California to try to head off a costly shutdown of 29 West Coast ports."

Los Angeles Times: "A grisly video surfaced Sunday night on YouTube and militant social media that appeared to show the beheadings of a group of Egyptian Christians seized by Islamic extremists in Libya in the last two months. The episode may signal a determination to expand Islamic State's footprint beyond Iraq and Syria, the two countries where it has made its greatest military gains."

New York Times: "The Copenhagen police said on Sunday that they had shot and killed a man they believed carried out two attacks that left two people dead, one at a cafe and one outside a synagogue, and wounded at least five policemen. The first attack took place on Saturday, when a gunman sprayed bullets into the cafe where a Swedish cartoonist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad was speaking, killing one man. Hours later, early Sunday, a man was shot and killed outside the city's main synagogue, according to the police." ...

     ... Los Angeles Times UPDATE: "The gunman believed to have carried out two deadly attacks in Copenhagen was on the intelligence service's radar and may have been inspired by the Islamic State, Danish officials said Sunday."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Declaring that the Internet has become the 'Wild Wild West' with consumers and industries as top targets, President Obama on Friday called for a new era of cooperation between the government and the private sector to defeat a range of fast-evolving online threats."

Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Senate Republicans are seizing on the global tax scandal engulfing HSBC to delay the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, the Guardian can reveal. The Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, was on Friday preparing a fresh tranche of questions for Lynch about the huge cache of leaked data showing how HSBC's subsidiary helped conceal billions of dollars from domestic tax authorities. Grassley and another Republican senator are planning to investigate whether Lynch could have done more to stand up to the world's second largest bank."

The Wasteland Cometh. Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The long and severe drought in the U.S. Southwest pales in comparison with what's coming: a 'megadrought' that will grip that region and the central Plains later this century and probably stay there for decades, a new study says. Thirty-five years from now, if the current pace of climate change continues unabated, those areas of the country will experience a weather shift that will linger for as long as three decades, according to the study, released Thursday [by NASA & Columbia & Cornell universities]."

CW: This week, wingers were very, very upset with Justice Ruth Ginsburg for remarking in an interview that the country's attitudes about gay marriage were changing. Some insisted she recuse herself. Ginsburg said nothing about cases coming before the Court or the legal implications of society's changing views. ...

... Lou Chibbaro of the Washington Blade: "'The issue of gay rights, on abortion, on many of the issues in which Ruth's opinions and mine differ does not pertain to the substance,' [Justice Antonin Scalia] said [at a Smithsonian forum event with Ginsburg]. 'It doesn't pertain to whether gay people ought to have those rights or whether there ought to be a constitutional right or a right to an abortion,' he said. 'That isn't the issue. The issue is who decides,' Scalia told the gathering. 'That's all. I don't have any public views on any of those things. The point is who decides? Should these decisions be made by the Supreme Court without any text in the Constitution or any history in the Constitution to support imposing on the whole country or is it a matter left to the people?' he asked. 'But don't paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else," he added. 'All I'm doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide.'" ...

... CW: Obviously, Scalia is speaking directly to what he believes is a Constitutional question -- one that the Court will address at least once this term. How many wingers do you suppose will demand Scalia recuse himself. Funny, I can't find a one.

White House: "In this week’s address, the President laid out his plan to ensure more children graduate from school fully prepared for college and a career":

Oh, Yeah? Not so fast, Mr. President:

Socrates trained Plato in on a rock and then Plato trained in Aristotle roughly speaking on a rock. So, huge funding is not necessary to achieve the greatest minds and the greatest intellects in history. -- Rep. Dave Brat (RTP-Va.), advocating for cutting funding to schools in high-poverty areas. Brat has a Ph.D., but he's no Plato. The rocks in his education are all in his head.

Dana Milbank: "Now that no further harm can come to Kayla [Mueller], it can be told what an exceptional person she was." CW: Milbank's column provides a lovely response to a tiny gaggle of American confederate writers who cheered Mueller's death.

Adam Lerner of Politico: "President Barack Obama called the slayings earlier this week of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina 'brutal and outrageous' in a statement released Friday, but he declined to say whether or not he believes the killings constitute a hate crime. The statement came ... the day after the FBI announced it would begin investigating whether any federal laws -- including those relating to hate crimes -- had been violated. The U.S. Attorney's office in North Carolina's Middle District and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department also opened preliminary inquiries to determine if any federal laws were broken." President Obama's statement is here.

CW: For most of the day yesterday, i had a bad link to a BuzzFeed video of President Obama's finding an unusual way to promote Healthcare.gov. If you missed the video because I led you astray, here's a proper link. Enjoy!

John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold has denied most of the salacious accusations lodged against him by a former press aide who is suing him over her firing. But Farenthold did admit that he was propositioned by a woman to be part of a 'threesome.' And House lawyers acting on Farenthold's behalf acknowledged in a Thursday court filing that some of his aides 'occasionally joked that Rep. Farenthold finds redheads attractive....'... House lawyers raised the prospect that Farenthold may use the 'Speech or Debate Clause' as a defense to fend off some accusations. Under that constitutional clause, lawmakers and aides cannot face legal action for legitimate legislative activities...."

Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: This week "... Phyllis Schlafly attacked President Obama for weakening American by bringing in 'foreign ideas and diseases and people who don't believe in self-government.' Schlafly said that while she believes that the United States 'should be the biggest and the best and the strongest,' the president believes 'just the opposite,' which is why he is letting into the country 'all these people with Ebola' and immigrants who 'are not familiar with the whole concept of limited government.' 'He wants us to be one of the boys,' she said. 'He wants us to be just like everybody else. That's why he's letting all these people with Ebola in. There's no reason why we should take on the African diseases.'..." ...

     ... CW Translation: "Barack Obama is black so he doesn't share our values." You have to give Schlafly credit for manageing to make references to the President's race in three or four different ways without saying, "he's black." Impressive.

Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "American Family Association governmental affairs director Sandy Rios is upset that media commentators like George Will are mocking Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for refusing to say this week whether he believes in evolution.... 'There is no scientific evidence' to substantiate evolution, she said, at least according to 'the real experts.... Evolution has become the religion of the elite,' Rios said. '... The truth of the matter is that the evolutionists like George Will, waving their evolutionary theory, have become as rabid and unreasoned as what they accuse the Scopes monkey religionists of doing to Darwin during that time.... Science has disproven so much of evolution.... These guys are wrong, Scott Walker is right.'" CW: Thanks, Prof. Rios. ...

... Jamelle Bouie of Slate argues that in most instances, its' silly to ask a politician his views on evolution. "Views on evolution don't actually tell you anything about how a politician will act or how he'll approach science-based issues. Neither do they give any insight into public attitudes toward science.... A view on evolution doesn't say much about public policy, but it can mark you as a certain kind of religious believer or give you a chance to affirm your membership in one tribe or another."

Beyond the Beltway

No Happy Valentine's Day Here. Rob Davis of the Oregonian: "Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday amid the growing influence-peddling scandal involving him and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, becoming the state's first governor to resign in disgrace.... Kitzhaber's historic fourth term lasted just one month and one day, starting under a cloud of allegations that he and Hayes had abused his office, possibly committing crimes and ethics violations. The scandal only grew with revelations that Hayes was taking money as a private consultant and pushing the same policies in her public role as first lady. Secretary of State Kate Brown, a fellow Democrat, will succeed Kitzhaber." ...

... Kitzhaber's full statement, via the Washington Post, is here. ...

... The Oregonian has live updates here. The one at 4:20 pm PT is intriguing: "Kitzhaber could commute sentences of all 34 death row inmates before leaving office." ...

... Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (D) will become the first openly bisexual governor in U.S. history when Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) resigns Wednesday.... Brown isn't without her own controversy. Even as Kitzhaber's personal troubles were mounting late last month, she was facing questions about having written to the FCC endorsing Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable after having received campaign contributions from Comcast -- a letter that was reportedly written in large part by a Comcast lobbyist. Comcast has given Brown $9,500 since 2009, according the National Institute of Money in State Politics."

Mark Schleifstein of the Times-Picayune: "A federal judge in New Orleans on Friday (Feb. 13) dismissed a controversial wetlands damage lawsuit filed by the east bank levee authority against more than 80 oil, gas and pipeline companies, ruling that the authority failed to make a valid claim against the energy firms.... U.S. District Court Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown found that the levee authority's standing as a third party to federal and state permits granted to the energy companies was not strong enough to justify a financial claim against the companies.... The ruling also was praised by the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal, who opposed the suit." Brown is an Obama appointee. CW: Note that Brown threw out the case largely because she found the plaintiffs did not have sufficient standing, something we've discussed over the last couple of days re: the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell.

Ha! Mary Wisniewski of Reuters: "Illinois' comptroller will not implement an anti-union executive order issued by the state's new Republican governor earlier this week.... Leslie Munger, a fellow Republican who was appointed by Governor Bruce Rauner, is following current law in not enforcing Rauner's order to eliminate 'fair share' fees for about 6,500 state employees, said a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The fees are paid by workers who are represented by a union but have chosen not to join. A spokesman for Munger said that the comptroller will defer to Madigan's guidance as it relates to actions 'within the scope of her legal authority.' In addition to his order on Monday, Rauner also filed a lawsuit seeking to have the fees declared unconstitutional and wanted them placed in an escrow account during the legal process."

Joseph Slobodzian & Angela Couloumbis of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania's death penalty - used just three times since 1978 but as controversial as ever - was shelved by Gov. [Tom] Wolf [D] on Friday until after he gets the report of a task force studying the future of capital punishment. Acting on concerns he first expressed during last year's campaign, the new governor cited a wave of exonerationsf nationwide and questions about the effectiveness of executions."

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Veronica Rocha of the Los Angeles Times: "A 10-year-old girl accidentally shot her 8-year-old sister with her father's service weapon Friday morning after he left it on the bed while getting ready for work, police said. The girl's injury does not appear to be life threatening, Fresno Police Lt. Joe Gomez said. The girls' father is a deputy with the Madera County Sheriff's Department.... There was one bullet in the handgun's chamber. The magazine had been removed, [Gomez] said."

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Kim Holland of KQRE News Albuquerque: When 79-year-old Francis Wilson accidentally mailed her rent check with her Comcast bill, Comcast cashed it, although the check was not made out to the giant media company. "Comcast said it wouldn't give Wilson a reimbursement check. They would only credit her Comcast account even though Wilson needed the money to pay her rent.... Within an hour of KRQE News 13 calling Comcast, a fix was in the works. The company gave her a $235 reimbursement check, $235 cash and a $235 credit on her cable bill." CW: Hey, at least when Wilson complained, Comcast didn't change her name to Asshole Wilson.

Presidential Race

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush's money juggernaut is far eclipsing the efforts of his would-be rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, putting his two political committees on pace to amass an unprecedented sum of tens of millions of dollars by early spring."

Gail Collins discusses Scott Walker's views on education. "His view of teaching is apparently that anybody can do it. Just the way anybody can be president. As long as they don't make you talk about evolution." ...

... Scott Bauer of the AP: "Walker has frequently told the story of how 'outstanding teacher of the year' Megan Sampson lost her job in 2010.... Sampson actually won the Nancy Hoefs Memorial Award, given by the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English for first-year language arts teachers. And while she was laid off in June 2010 from a job in Milwaukee, she was hired by another nearby district for a job that following fall." CW: Ergo, she was never out of work.

Voodoo Economics I. Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wants to mimic a tax cut experiment that has already brought fiscal calamity and public service cuts to a state 600 miles west of his. Kasich describes his $696 million tax cut as a helping hand to small businesses. But the design of the cut would put the bulk of that benefit into the hands of just a few high-income business entities with a handful of employees while providing just a few hundred dollars each to the vast majority of the people who would benefit, according to an analysis by the Cleveland Plain Dealer." ...

     ... CW: Kasich, a former chair of the House Budget Committee, doesn't have just the Worst Idea in American Politics; he also has the Second World Idea in American Politics.

Voodoo Economics II. Rand Paul.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Andrew Kramer & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "As fighting erupted throughout eastern Ukraine on Friday before a cease-fire at midnight on Saturday, the United States accused Russia of joining separatist rebels in an all-out attack on Ukrainian forces around the contested town of Debaltseve. When the pact was signed with a two-day window before the truce, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected. But the intensity and scope of the violence raised concerns that the agreement signed this week, rife with ill-defined and ambiguous provisions, might prove as ineffective as the first cease-fire pact, signed in September."

News Ledes

AFP: "A gunman killed at least one person and wounded three police officers after opening fire Saturday on a cultural centre in Copenhagen as it was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech. Swedish artist Lars Vilks -- the author of controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons that sparked worldwide protests in 2007 -- was among those at the debate targeted by the gunman, who fled the scene after a shootout with police."

New York Times: "The United States released satellite images on Saturday meant to bolster its case that Russia has joined separatists in an all-out assault on the Ukrainian Army during the window before a midnight cease-fire is to take effect. When the pact was announced Thursday, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected before the cease-fire went into effect. Instead, a bloody free-for-all, alarming in its scope and intensity, ensued on the snowy steppe south of here, near the contested town of Debaltseve."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 13, 2015

In the Shadow of Ed Snowden. David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "President Obama will meet [in Palo Alto, California,] on Friday with the nation's top technologists on a host of cybersecurity issues and the threats posed by increasingly sophisticated hackers. But nowhere on the agenda is the real issue for the chief executives and tech company officials who will gather on the Stanford campus: the deepening estrangement between Silicon Valley and the government."

Peter Baker of the New York Times on President Obama's request of Congress for an Authorization to Use Military Force: "Republicans on Thursday said limits now were irresponsible. 'His approach is one of the stupidest approaches I've ever seen,' said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah. 'Any president worth his salt would want the A.U.M.F. to be as broad as it can be.' Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible Republican presidential candidate, said Congress would not pass Mr. Obama's proposal. 'We're going to write our own legislation,' he said, 'and I hope it's a very simple one that's going to say that we authorize the president to take whatever steps are necessary to defeat ISIS. Period.' Democrats wanted more limits, not fewer, and the party leadership was cautious."

Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton B. Carter to be the next defense secretary, installing a new Pentagon chief as the United States increases military action against the Islamic State.Mr. Carter, a former deputy defense secretary who is President Obama's choice to replace Chuck Hagel, was approved by a vote of 93 to 5, a striking scene of accord as tensions mount over the wait to confirm Loretta E. Lynch as the next attorney general." ...

... Seung Min Kim of Politico: Republicans are slow-walking Lynch's confirmation, & Democrats are irritated.

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, on Thursday delivered an unusually frank speech about the relationship between the police and black people, saying that officers who work in neighborhoods where blacks commit crimes at higher rates develop a cynicism that shades their attitudes about race.... While officers should be closely scrutinized, he said, they are 'not the root cause of problems in our hardest-hit neighborhoods,' where blacks grow up 'in environments lacking role models, adequate education and decent employment.' 'They lack all sorts of opportunities that most of us take for granted,' Mr. Comey said. Mr. Comey's speech was unprecedented for an F.B.I. director."

The Definition of Insanity. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "The Senate is going to vote again on a procedural motion to consider a bill reversing President Obama's executive actions on immigration and fund the Department of Homeland Security.... With Democrats opposed to the measure, it appears [Mitch] McConnell's latest effort is doomed for failure." ...

... OR, Maybe Not. Christina Marcos of the Hill: "A growing number of House GOP conservatives are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday to invoke the 'nuclear option' and change the chamber's rules to pass a bill defunding President Obama's executive actions on immigration. Reps. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) and Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) said McConnell should change Senate rules, so the House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which includes language to revoke Obama's immigration-related actions, can bypass a Democratic filibuster in the upper chamber." CW: If Mitch ditches the filibuster & 50 Republicans went along with him, he could get the amended DHS bill thru the Senate. President Obama, of course, would veto it. ...

... THEN Again. Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Two GOP senators [-- Ted Cruz (Texas) & Dan Sullivan (Alaska) --] on Thursday shot down an idea floated by several House Republicans to change Senate rules in order to pass a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and reverse President Obama's immigration actions." ...

... ALSO, too, Bullying Could Work. of Lauren French & Jake Sherman of Politico: "At least three committee chairmen have issued formal warnings to subcommittee chairmen that lawmakers planning to vote against procedural motions on the House floor should give up their posts -- the third time in just six weeks that Republican leaders have made it known they will not tolerate members stepping out of line."

... Danny Vinik of the New Republic: "The practical effects of a DHS shutdown are relatively minor, since most of DHS's employees are classified as essential and thus would continue to work in the case of a shutdown. But the political implications of it are much worse. Obama can criticize the GOP for putting the U.S.'s national security at risk.... [Whatever Republicans do, it won't be] "good for the GOP. But this is what happens when one ideological group has outsized control over a party and wants to pick funding fights that they are certain to lose." ...

... Erica Werner of the AP: "A month into their control of both chambers of Congress, [Republicans] are confronting the very real possibility of a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department later this month. Instead of advancing a conservative agenda and showing voters they can govern, the GOP has been unable to overcome Senate Democrats' stalling tactics in a dispute over immigration.... They're all bad options from the GOP perspective. A short-term extension just pushes the problem to a later date. Removing the immigration language would amount to a bitter admission of defeat after Republicans have spent months accusing Obama of an unconstitutional power grab for limiting deportations for millions in the U.S. illegally. That's left Republicans staring down the third possibility: a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department." ...

... Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "What is most fascinating about the GOP's current quandary is that this is a scenario Boehner and McConnell orchestrated themselves...."

Joe Mandak of the AP: "A federal appeals court has reversed lower-court victories by two western Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses and a private Christian college that challenged birth control coverage mandates as part of federal health care reforms. The 3-0 ruling Wednesday by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the reforms place 'no substantial burden' on the religious groups and therefore don't violate their First Amendment right to religious expression. All three groups -- the college and the Pittsburgh and Erie dioceses -- are mulling whether to appeal to the entire 3rd Circuit Court or the U.S. Supreme Court."

Jeff Toobin has a good primer in the New Yorker on the principle of "legal standing," in general, & in King v. Burwell specifically. John Roberts thinks it's very important that litigants have standing.

Justice Ruth Ginsburg says she was "not 100 percent sober" at the President's State of the Union address. Not a fun drunk, she fell asleep, "as I often do" during the President's speech.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: If Scott Walker & other Fourth-Amendment scofflaws want to make the poor pee in a cup, why not expand that to the middle-class & wealthy recipients of government largesse, who, on average, abuse illegal drugs more than applicants for welfare assistance programs? "... drug-testing people who want to claim tax breaks could produce a huge windfall.... If we start pulling all of the nation's elderly into our drug-testing dragnet, enough aging hippies will test positive for doobie use to disqualify them from benefits and save the country some major dough.... Want to take that deduction for home mortgage interest? I'm sorry, sir, you'll have to submit a urine sample.... Same with charitable deductions, health insurance deductions and everything else on your thick, itemized 1040.

Richard Marosi of the Los Angeles Times: "The Mexican government and Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, have announced steps to improve the lives of the nation's farmworkers, two months after a Los Angeles Times investigation detailed labor abuses at Mexican agribusinesses that supply major U.S. supermarket chains and restaurants.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Tim Egan: Jon "Stewart didn’t degrade politics and the press. He walked through a degraded landscape, the tour guide who’s also a smartass."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. He's No Forest Gump. CNN Money: "As NBC's fact-checking continues, two accounts from [Brian] Williams' younger days could invite scrutiny": claiming he was in Berlin "the night the wall came down" & claiming to have met Pope John Paul II in 1979. CW: It appears all or most of the events Williams describes as "a highlight of my life" are fictional.

Watch the Nutball Machine on High Speed. J. K. Trottler of Gawker hears that besides President Obama & his family, the guests at the wedding of MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner and former White House chef Sam Kass included a couple of other 2008 celebrities: former Weather Underground radicals Bill Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn. "While the fact that Obama was literally partying with former advocates of violent struggle against the U.S. government will no doubt be taken by his critics as further evidence that he hates America, the most interesting thing about the wedding is the shocking proof it offers that -- at long last! -- Obama truly no longer gives a fuck about keeping up political appearances." ...

... That's right, he truly no longer gives a fuck:

... ** Don't miss the BuzzFeed video. ...

... AND the Nutball Machine Is in Gear. Daily Caller: "Greta Van Susteran slammed President Barack Obama for his recent Buzzfeed video on her show 'On The Record,' noting the zany 'YOLO'-filled video was filmed the same day the White House was dealing with the death of ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller." ...

... Yo, Greta. He truly doesn't give a fuck. Besides, those crusty Brits loved it.

Presidential Race

James Downie of the Washington Post: "Some might say the costs of [Hillary Clinton's] delaying [an announcement that she will run for president] are overblown. But they are eerily similar to the strife and indecision that sank Clinton last time." ...

... Clinton & Bill Frist the Long-Distance Doctor have an op-ed in the New York Times advocating for Congress to pass an extension of the Children's Health Iinsurance Program (CHIP).

Anybody feel that the Fed is out to get us? -- Rand Paul, the Most Interesting Paranoid in Politics, in Iowa last weekend

Paul Krugman: "... monetary crazy is pervasive in today's G.O.P. But why? Class interests no doubt play a role -- the wealthy tend to be lenders rather than borrowers, and they benefit at least in relative terms from deflationary policies. But I also suspect that conservatives have a deep psychological problem with modern monetary systems.... Monetary policy should be an issue in 2016. Because there's a pretty good chance that someone who either gets his monetary economics from Ayn Rand, or at any rate feels the need to defer to such views, will get to appoint the next head of the Federal Reserve." ...

     ... CW: Come the real campaign, I'll have to start yelling "Remember the Fed!" along with "Remember the Supremes!" The Most Interesting Man in Politics & his entire party are dimwits & loons. This is very scary. ...

... Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post elaborates on Paul's misunderstanding of how the Federal Reserve works. As I said, very scary. ...

Also, when I stepped outside this morning, it was cold, so I put on a coat -- but it didn't work, because it was still cold. -- Paul Krugman, explaining the GOP's understanding of Federal Reserve actions which weakened the depression ...

... Never Mind Krugman. Freeeedom's Just Another Word for Wal-coin. In Silicon Valley, Dr.-Sen.-Macroeconomist-Etc. Randy Paul-Krugman said it might be a good idea of WalMart & other major corporations got together & established their own currency, which would allow them to cut out the credit card companies. Maybe somebody should tell Paul-Krugman WalMart has its own credit card (& some other rip-off financial products) & doesn't need to become a country unto itself to cut out Visa.

... Sam Youngman of the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader: "... U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking members of the Republican Party of Kentucky to create a presidential caucus in 2016 that would happen well ahead of the May primary election.... Kentucky law prevents a candidate from appearing on the same ballot twice, and Paul and his allies have endeavored for more than a year to either change the law or find a loophole that would allow him to run for the White House and re-election to his U.S. Senate seat at the same time.... Paul's supporters also maintain that the law is unconstitutional, suggesting that it could be challenged in federal court. However, if Kentucky Republicans decided their choice for the 2016 Republican nomination in an earlier caucus, his name still could appear on a May primary ballot for re-election to the Senate." ...

... In a Senate hearing, Elizabeth Warren not so obliquely took on Dr.-Sen.-presidential-candidate Rand Paul's assertions about vaccinations. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos notes that Warren asked the director of the CDC's Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases if there was "any scientific evidence that vaccines cause 'profound mental disorders,' an assertion that Paul made & then disingenuously walked back (by pretending he didn't mean what he clearly did. Clawson fails to note it, but Warren dinged Paul a second when she asked if there was any "scientific evidence that giving kids their vaccines further apart or spacing them differently is healthier for kids." Dr. Randy said he & his wife purposely spaced their children's vaccines to avoid harmful effects of haviing them administered all at once (or twice). The answers to Warren's questions, of course, were "no." ...

By Walt Handelsman. Thanks to MAG for sending it along.

... Noah Bierman of the Los Angeles Times: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) appeared peeved Thursday when an interviewer at a technology conference asked him to weigh in -- again -- on the national debate he helped fuel over vaccines last month." "Appeared" peeved, Bierman? The little tyke was livid.

Ben Terris & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: Marco Rubio distances himself from his former mentor & supporter, Jeb Bush. Ungrateful twit.

Charles Pierce welcomes Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) to the Presidential Sweepstakes Clown Car. You should especially read it to find out what is the Worst Idea in American Politics. You'll have to click on Pierce's link. And, yeah, Pierce is absolutely right about this. ...

... CW: Any politician -- Republican or Democrat -- who cannot get an A- in Macro 101 at the Krugman-Stiglitz School of Economics disqualifies him/herself from a presidential run. As it stands, I'm not sure there's a single candidate who could pass the course, tho I suppose Hillary -- an overachiever if there ever was one -- could muster a C+.

Texas has been criticized for having a large number of uninsured, but that's what Texans wanted. -- Former Gov. Rick Perry, in New Hampshire

Write your own joke. -- Constant Weader

Beyond the Beltway

Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "A federal judge [in Mobile, Alabama,] on Thursday ordered that a county probate judge must comply with her earlier ruling and cannot refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The federal judge, Callie V. S. Granade of Federal District Court here, wrote that the county judge, Don Davis, of Probate Court in Mobile County, cannot deny a marriage license 'on the ground that plaintiffs constitute same-sex couples or because it is prohibited by the sanctity of marriage.'... While the ruling Thursday was focused only on Judge Davis, it was intended to send a signal to judges statewide who are caught between the federal ruling and the order from [State Supreme Court] Chief Justice [Roy] Moore." ...

... MEANWHILE, Justice Moore likens a U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage a Constitutional right to, um, Dred Scott, the infamous 19th-century case that upheld slavery. He he just might ignore the Supremes' decision if he doesn't like it: "You can dissent to the United States Supreme Court."

Laura Gunderson of the Oregonian: "Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek met with Gov. John Kitzhaber on Thursday morning and told him it was time to resign." All are Democrats. ...

     ... Update: "In one of the most surreal days in Oregon political history, the state's top Democratic leaders called for Gov. John Kitzhaber to resign, and the governor vanished from public view. With support of even allies evaporating, the ability of Kitzhaber to remain in office appeared less viable by the hour." ...

... Laura Gunderson: Secretary of State Kate Brown, who would become governor if Kitzhaber resigns or is removed from office, describes a "bizarre" meeting she had with Kitzhaber. ...

... Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week: "Gov. John Kitzhaber's office last week requested state officials destroy thousands of records in the governor's personal email accounts, according to records obtained by WW and 101.9 KINK/FM News 101 KXL. The request came as investigations into allegations of influence-peddling involving Kitzhaber and first lady Cylvia Hayes were intensifying.... The records indicate that state employees refused to carry out the request from Kitzhaber's assistant to destroy emails. Oregon law makes it a crime to improperly destroy or tamper with public records or evidence."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Gov. Steven L. Beshear of Kentucky released a study Thursday predicting that his expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would generate a positive fiscal impact of nearly $1 billion for the state over the next seven years. The findings from Mr. Beshear, a Democrat, countered a drumbeat of Republican warnings that extending the program to nearly 400,000 additional Kentuckians to date -- far more than state officials had predicted -- would eventually impose a heavy burden on state taxpayers." Also, too, fewer Kentuckians will get sick & die. ...

... Okay, now let's hear the confederate response to the good news: "But Jim Waters, the president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy, a libertarian think tank in Bowling Green, Ky., said that the numbers in the report could not be trusted and that it was too soon to know the long-term financial effect. 'We hear this sort of thing from government all the time. Blah, blah, blah.'" (A portion of Waters' remark has been paraphrased.)

Growing up in America has been such a blessing. It doesn't matter where you come from. There are so many different people from so many different places and of different backgrounds and religions, but here we're all one. We're one culture. -- Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, last year, in a StoryCorps oral history session. An alleged Second Amendment enthusiast murdered Abu-Salha, her husband & sister earlier this week in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You can listen to portions of Abu-Salha's StoryCorps session here.

CW: This is off-topic, but it was on the front page of the New York Times, & it caught by attention. Jon Ronson writes that Justine Sacco, a PR exec, sent this tweet -- "Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!" -- and "tens of thousands" of Twitter users sent outraged tweets accusing her of racism. She lost her job. I don't know Sacco, but I would have assumed immediately that the tweet was ironic & not racist, that she was making a joke about privileged American whites who thought that were immune to all sorts of difficulties that others face. Or something of that nature. What do you think? Do "tens of thousands" of people -- including her employers -- just not get irony? Or what? ...

     ... Update: For those of you who don't get satire, Catherine Rampell, in the post linked above, does not want to make you send in a urine sample with your 1040.