The Commentariat -- Jan. 21, 2015

Internal links removed.

Thomas Edsall: "Key Democrats have reached agreement on a set of policies known as 'inclusive capitalism': a forceful market-oriented economic agenda intended to counter inequality, restrain the accrual of vast wealth at the top and provide the working and middle classes with improved economic opportunities.... Taken together, the Obama, Van Hollen, and Summers interpretations of 'inclusive capitalism' are a victory for the left of the Democratic Party.... While none of the proposals, or their advocates, acknowledge this explicitly, one of the objectives of the evolving Democratic economic agenda is to get back support among whites without college degrees...." ...

... CW: "Inclusive capitalism"? I'd call it New Deal Lite. And let's not forget to thank Larry Summers for his self-serving spasm of noblesse oblige. (See Monday's & Tuesday's Commentariats.)

Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Congressional Democrats said Tuesday they would seek any and all avenues to curb offshore tax deals, kicking off a new effort to punish what they call 'corporate deserters.' Senior Democrats on both sides of the Capitol brought back legislation to make it more difficult for corporations to merge with a foreign competitor and shift their legal address abroad."

Lauren Barron-Lopez of the Hill: "Senate Democrats are pressing amendments to legislation that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, arguing their proposals would 'actually make it an American jobs bill.'...[Chuck] Schumer [D-N.Y.] along with Democratic Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.) and Al Franken (Minn.) urged Republicans to vote for the amendments that will be considered on Tuesday afternoon. Markey's measure would ban the export of all oil shipped through the Canada-to-Texas pipeline, while Franken's would require that American steel be used to build the pipeline.... 'This is just the beginning of the amendment process; we have many more that deserve a vote,' Schumer said.... Schumer said the amendments being proposed by Democrats Tuesday would 'improve' the Keystone bill, 'but not enough to vote for it.'" ...

     ... Update: Republicans voted down both Markey's & Franken's amendments. Apparently they don't want too many jobs in what Joni Ernst called "the Keystone jobs bill" in her SOTU non-response.

Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "Two GOP congresswomen have officially withdrawn their support for a proposed 20-week abortion ban that has recently sparked controversy within the Republican Party, asking to be removed as co-sponsors from the legislation. On Tuesday afternoon, during the House's session, Reps. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) requested to remove their names from HR 36, the 'Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.'... Hours before President Obama is set to give his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, he indicated that he is prepared to veto HR 36 if Congress sends it to his desk. In an analysis published on Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that enacting a national 20-week abortion ban would increase federal spending on Medicaid by an estimated $235 million between 2015 and 2025...."

Jorge Ramos of Fusion: "When [Republicans] ask for our support in 2016, we will remind them of all the times they voted against immigrants. There are many: from their opposition to the Dream Act, to the blocking action that the House leader John Boehner has taken against the immigration reform bill for a year and a half, up to last week's vote in Congress. It's hard to forget when someone says no to you in your face. Republicans now have a Latino problem and less than two years to solve it." Via Paul Waldman.

Jamison Foser: "The United States Senate, controlled at the time by President Obama's fellow Democrats, held one vote on raising the minimum wage in 2014. After that vote failed in April, Democrats were supposedly going to make 'raising the minimum wage the main weapon in their 2014 electoral arsenal' by 'bringing the bill up for a vote again and again throughout the summer and fall.' It was a good idea -- one I've been urging for years -- but I never thought they'd act on it. And they didn't.... Instead of repeatedly forcing votes on incredibly popular policies that Republicans oppose, they hold one vote, then snicker as Republicans hold dozens of votes on repealing Obamacare. And, as a result, the national political debate for the past several years has been much more about repealing Obamacare than about raising the minimum wage." Via Waldman.

... Greg Sargent: Why can't the Democratic party attract poor & older white Americans? Because Democrats really aren't doing much for these voters, who are rightly pessimistic about getting their share of the pie. CW Note to Congressional Democrats: promising every two years to "save Social Security" is not a convincing comprehensive program to help these left-behinds.

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "More than five years after the single-payer system was scrapped from ObamaCare policy debates, just over 50 percent of people say they still support the idea, including one-quarter of Republicans, according to a new poll. The single-payer option -- also known as Medicare for all -- would create a new, government-run insurance program to replace private coverage. The system, once backed by President Obama, became one of the biggest casualties of the divisive healthcare debates of 2009."

Right now, the top 1 percent in this country, the millionaires and billionaires the president demagogues so much, earn a higher share of our national income than any time since 1928. -- Sen. Ted Cruz (RTP-Texas), a year ago ...

... Steve Benen notices that Republicans accuse President Obama of engaging in "class warfare" when he proposes ideas to reduce income inequality, but when Republicans decry income inequality, as they are wont to do of late, it's apparently A-Okay.

Andy Borowitz: "A new Oxfam report indicating that the wealthiest one per cent possesses about half of the world's wealth has left the richest people in the world 'reeling with disappointment,' a leading billionaire said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, the hedge-fund owner Harland Dorrinson said, 'I think I speak for a lot of my fellow billionaires when I say I thought we were doing a good deal better than that.'"

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Years before the release in December of a Senate Intelligence Committee report detailing the C.I.A.'s use of torture and deceit in its detention program, an internal review[, known as the Panetta Review,] by the agency found that the C.I.A. had repeatedly overstated the value of intelligence gained during the brutal interrogations of some of its detainees.... New details of the Panetta Review ... came as Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the new chairman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote to President Obama with an odd request: He wants the committee's report back. Mr. Burr sent a letter last week to the White House saying that his Democratic predecessor, Senator Dianne Feinstein, should never have transmitted the entire 6,700-page report to numerous departments and agencies within the executive branch...."

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Surveillance cameras at Vice President Biden's private Delaware residence failed to capture images of the gunman who fired shots near the house on Saturday night, leaving authorities with no leads or suspects.... The security system at the house has had a long track record of problems and false alarms, said several people familiar with the problem. It was so unreliable at times last year, occasionally giving incorrect data, that the Secret Service turned it off for several months -- warning agents at the time that cameras and alarms would be shut down indefinitely. The system was quickly repaired in November, after The Post first inquired about the problems."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Greg Wallace & Brian Stelter of CNN: "Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told CNN Tuesday she intends to sue Fox News in the wake of the channel's coverage of supposed 'no-go zones' for non-Muslims. Hidalgo said the channel had 'insulted' her city." ...

... Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times on "Le Petit Journal"'s mockery of Fox "News." ...

... See also today's Presidential Race below.

Doktor Zoom of Wonkette: "Bland centrist Ron Fornier, who seems to aspire to be David Broder without all the edginess, has graced us with some standards for judging Barack Obama's State of the Union address tonight. Needless to say, he thinks the Republican takeover of the Senate presents America with a beautiful opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to 'begin governing together' like good boys and girls -- if only Obama doesn't poison everything by trying to enact his agenda." Read on, especially the exchange between Fournier & Jamelle Bouie where Fournier (who is white) accuses Bouie (who is black) of being a racist. ...

... Charles Pierce: "Fournier ... writes about this president like a man with an odd kind of Tourette's, a medical condition that causes him to uncontrollably blurt out banalities like 'Leadership!,' or 'Bipartisan!'... The idea that 'progress' and 'partisan gains' are mutually exclusive is the most obvious tell of the Beltway hack. Throughout history, 'partisan gains' have been both good and bad for the country. Every party has had 'gains' that led to 'progress.' This mindless word-like utterance is true only if you long for the days in which Bill Clinton and congressional Republicans 'worked together' to deregulate the derivatives market, and to whack around some poor people. I don't." ...

... Steve M.: "It's not clear exactly what Fournier wants, but it's obvious that he thinks we're not supposed to look at inequities in wealth and taxation over the last several decades as we raise taxes to the level that will satisfy Fournier -- now the new burden is supposed to fall on everyone equally, even though the old burden didn't and still doesn't." ...

... If you're interested in reading Fournier in the original -- though I don't know why you would be -- here he is. It is, as Hamilton Nolan of Gawker describes it, "An Idiot's Guide to the State of the Union." This is not one of those general explainers to an upcoming event cheekily labeled 'Idiot's Guide.' This is, rather, a guide to Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, written by an idiot."

Scott Bomboy of the National Constitution Center: "A unanimous Supreme Court said on Tuesday that Arkansas can't dictate the length of a beard maintained by a Muslim prisoner, after he made his own case initially to the Court using a handwritten form."

Life Lessons for Geriatric, Reality-Deprived Supremes. Public Defender Seth Morris in Salon: "In December, in the midst of nationwide protests drawing attention to the broken relationship between the police and communities of color, the Supreme Court demonstrated an impressive disconnect with reality. It issued a decision in Heien v. North Carolina that tears at the fragile police-minority relationship, and will further erode confidence in government and law enforcement.... In Heien, a police officer pulled over a man for not having more than one functioning brake light when it turns out the law only requires one. The man then consented to a search and was found to be in possession of cocaine. The Supreme Court said the detention, which requires reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the officer's mistake was a reasonable mistake of law.... This decision shows how poorly the Court understands the daily interactions of citizens and the police. The Supreme Court seems to still think that the police use the vehicle code solely to keep the roads safe. They don't. They also use the vehicle code to prey on poor people." (Emphasis added.)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to making up shit. -- George Santayahoo ...

,,, Brendan James of TPM: "Speaker 'Wild Bill' Finley received big applause at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition convention on Sunday as he preached that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been a tea party member if he were alive today. Finley told the crowd the left has 'hijacked' King's dream and that racism would have died out long ago if it wasn't 'manufactured' by liberals.... He said that MLK, who worked closely with socialist and anti-capitalist civil rights activists throughout his career, would not abide the left's 'political agenda.' Finley said that if King were alive today the left would 'spit in his face.'" ...

... CW: Yes, it seems like only yesterday when Bernie Sanders said he didn't want to make blah people's lives better by giving them white people's money. I well remember when Al Franken said the White Citzen's Councils were a force for good. And how how about that Elizabeth Warren explaining "too big to jail" to David Duke's white supremacist buddies? Yeah, racism is a totally left-wing phenomenon.

Evan DeFilippis & Devin Hughes, in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: Homesowners' shooting innocent people "are the byproduct of a tragic myth: that millions of gun owners successfully use their firearms to defend themselves and their families from criminals. Despite having nearly no academic support in public health literature, this myth is the single largest motivation behind gun ownership. It traces its origin to a two-decade-old series of surveys that, despite being thoroughly repudiated at the time, persists in influencing personal safety decisions and public policy throughout the United States."

Presidential Race

Michael Falcone of ABC News: "'Yes, there is a chance,' he would challenge Clinton, Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview on 'Good Morning America' today. 'But I haven't made my mind up about that. We've got a lot of work to do between now and then. There's plenty of time.'"

Bobby Knows Best. Julia O'Donoghue of the Times-Picayune: "Gov. Bobby Jindal continued to claim Muslim 'no-go zones' exist in Europe Monday, even as British political leaders and American media outlets issued statements repudiating such statements. 'I think your viewers know absolutely there are places where the police are less likely to go. They absolutely know there are neighborhoods where they wouldn't feel comfortable,' Jindal told CNN in London Monday." Hey, he read it in the Right Wing News. It must be truthy. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "There are a couple of things that make this incident an abomination, even by Jindal's standards. For one thing, his staff put out an advance copy of his speech last week.... Bobby had plenty of time to amend his remarks to steer clear of the controversy, but instead decided to surf it for attention.... Then there's the fact that the context of this Yahoo Abroad ploy was that great and abiding scam, the Gubernatorial Trade Mission, whereby state chief executives, especially those thinking about a presidential run, pretend they can rustle up business for the home folks by jetting across the seas to hobnob with foreign 'job creators.'..." CW: On the taxpayers' nickel, I would add. ...

... CW: Maybe PM David Cameron should sue Muslim "expert" Bobby Jindal. ...

... digby: "I don't know if he's misinformed or lying but this is the kind of lunacy that we are going to be seeing more of. It's obvious that terrorism fear-mongering is back on the menu.... There are no 'no-go' zones where officials have just given up sovereignty and where the laws and rules of the state don't apply. But you have to love the chutzpah of this moron prefacing all his lies and misstatements by saying he 'dealing with reality and facts'. These are 'reality and facts' that even Fox News has disowned and apologized for.... @AndyWitney noted the fact that we have some Americans who believe in 'no-go zones' right here at home. Cliven Bundy comes to mind ... he and his friends fought off federal agents with firearms. But that's completely different, of course. Because Muslims." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "MSNBC is distancing itself from a guest who asserted on Monday that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal 'might be trying to scrub some of the brown off his skin.' Arsalan Iftikhar, a human rights attorney and commentator, made the racially-tinged remark on MSNBC's 'Now with Alex Wagner.' It immediately prompted criticism. An MSNBC spokeswoman told CNN on Tuesday morning that Iftikhar won't be appearing on the channel again.... On Monday night, [Iftikhar] told CNN, 'I will apologize to Bobby Jindal when he apologizes to seven million American Muslims for advancing the debunked 'Muslim no-go zones' myth.'"

Paul Waldman: Mike "Huckabee is going to be the candidate of cultural resentment. He wants to be the spokesperson for those who feel that they're looked down upon by the elites.... There is without question a sizeable market within the Republican Party for this kind of appeal. The problem is that it isn't large enough to get you the presidential nomination." Waldman also discusses & embeds Jon Stewart's interview of Hucklebee. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "I thought Sarah Palin was the unequaled and all-time champion of conservative self-pity. But Huck's really giving her a run for her money. And he's almost certainly running for president. I do hope MSM types who still think Huck's this nice funny bass-playing 'populist' are exposed to this amazingly malicious book, which pretty much (unless the parts I've read are not representative) tells conservative Christians they'd better seize power or get ready for crucifixion."

God News, Wednesday Edition

Philip Pullella of Reuters: Catholics should not feel they have to breed 'like rabbits' because of the Church's ban on contraception, Pope Francis said on Monday, suggesting approved natural family planning methods. Francis used the unusually frank language during an hour-long news conference on the plane from Manila to Rome at the end of his week-long Asia trip." ...

... CW: I don't see these comments as exactly groundbreaking; I think Francis is saying, "Use the rhythm method. Don't use the pill." I would question how "natural" the rhythm method is: isn't it "natural" for a woman & her partner to want to have sex when she is fertile? I think so, & if I'm not mistaken, there are quite a few studies that have found women feel sexier when they are ovulating -- something that comes, you know, naturally. ...

... Never Mind. AFP: "Pope Francis on Wednesday described large families as a 'gift from God', just days after he said Catholics did not need to 'breed like rabbits'. In an apparent attempt to put the controversial comments he made on his way back from a visit to the Philippines into context, the Argentinian argued that the global economic system is the primary cause of poverty, rather than overpopulation."

Beyond the Beltway

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Tuesday proposed the construction of an elevated AirTrain to La Guardia. It would be the first rail link to an airfield long lamented for its transit-starved location in Queens.... It is an ambitious, Robert Moses-style proposal from a governor determined to leave an imprint in his second term, although major elements remained to be worked out. When the train would start operating, for one, is far from certain.... Mr. Cuomo was also vague about how to pay for the train.... Proposals for a train to La Guardia have circulated in transportation circles for decades."

Al Baker & David Goodman of the New York Times: "Patrick J. Lynch, the president of New York City’s largest police union, who has openly clashed with the mayor in recent weeks, is facing a rare challenge to his leadership from a group within the union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. A slate of candidates, led by veteran union trustees, announced on Tuesday that they will run against Mr. Lynch in elections later this year, with Brian Fusco, a 27-year-veteran officer from Brooklyn, their pick for union president."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Tuesday proposed the construction of an elevated AirTrain to La Guardia. It would be the first rail link to an airfield long lamented for its transit-starved location in Queens."

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "A 9-month-old boy was shot and killed by his 5-year-old brother in a Missouri home on Monday, police said. The boy found his grandfather's .22-caliber magnum revolver that was being kept on a shelf built into the headboard in the master bedroom, Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White told The Washington Post. The baby was in a crib in the same room when the gun went off, and a bullet struck him in the head."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994. The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress."

Politico: "The Navy fired the commanding officer of Naval Base Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday amid reports he's under investigation for being involved in an alleged extramarital affair -- and following the death of the husband of the woman the base commander was reportedly involved with."

AP: "French anti-terror prosecutors sought Tuesday to charge four men in connection with the attacks in Paris that left 20 people dead, which would be the first suspects charged in the country's bloodiest terrorist attacks in decades."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 20, 2015

Internal links, discarded photo removed.

CW: I won't be posting till late in the day today, so I'll probably miss a lot of good stuff. If you see anything of interest, share, as so many of you do. Thanks.

Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "Around the country, traditional Martin Luther King celebrations took place -- interfaith prayer breakfasts, speeches, volunteer service. But in several large cities, protests were organized by a new generation of activists who said they wanted to use the day to denounce injustice and to point out social inequality. Many were hoping to use the day to rekindle a new movement for social change." ...

... Damn! I Missed Robert E. Lee Day. Jamelle Bouie: "... in three states -- Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi -- MLK Day is also Robert E. Lee Day.... This is the Gen. Robert E. Lee who led Confederate armies in war against the United States, who defended a nation built on the 'great truth' that the 'negro is not equal to the white man,' and whose armies kidnapped and sold free black Americans whenever they had the opportunity.... It should be said that the 'Lee' part of 'Lee-King Day' is mostly downplayed in states that have the holiday." CW: Don't know how I missed it. I live in Lee County, which is not named for Spike Lee.

Scott Clement & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday enjoying rising approval ratings that have been strengthened by rapidly improving perceptions of the economy and increased optimism about the overall direction of the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.... Obama's overall approval rating now stands at 50 percent, the highest in a Post-ABC poll since the spring of 2013." ...

... James Oliphant of the National Journal: "As President Obama details his latest policy proposals and trumpets his accomplishments Tuesday night in the State of the Union address, he'll also be doing something else: building a bridge to a possible Democratic successor.... In teasing out new proposals over the last several weeks, Obama and his aides have stood in sharp contrast to the new GOP Congress that, for the moment, seems to be stuck on holdover issues such as the Keystone XL pipeline, Obama's executive actions on immigration, and the Affordable Care Act.... This is the White House still locked in campaign mode, seeking to set up a conflict with the GOP on basic values."

Tim Devaney of the Hill: "GOP lawmakers plan to employ the seldom-used Congressional Review Act (CRA), which gives lawmakers the power to formally disapprove of major agency rules, as they seek to ratchet up their attacks on federal red tape.... While Obama can and likely will veto any efforts to undo regulations through the CRA, the threats carry more weight now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (Okla.) and other Republicans are zeroing in on the EPA, believing they can use the Review Act against rules for new and existing power plants, water, ozone and coal ash." CW: Sounds like a nothing-burger to me -- just another venue for the Grand Old Party Whine. As if they needed another. ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Conservative climate-change denialism is indeed dangerous, and not just because it threatens coral reefs and polar bears tomorrow. It's also dangerous because it's a symptom of a much greater anti-intellectual, anti-science epidemic, one that prioritizes populist punch lines over smart policy and threatens our ability to compete in the global economy today." ...

... But Sometimes Nobama Is Problematic. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Last November, when President Obama proposed strict rules to prevent broadband companies from blocking or intentionally slowing down the web, Republicans pounced on what they called yet another heavy-handed liberal proposal.... But ... [this] put Republicans in the awkward position of aligning themselves with the cable giants, among the most maligned industries in the country, against the sad Netflix viewer waiting for 'House of Cards' to break through its 'buffering' vortex. In the intervening weeks, politics on the so-called net neutrality issue have shifted so much that House and Senate Republicans are circulating legislation that would ostensibly do exactly what the president wants.... Once again, an Internet regulatory showdown might be guided as much by grass-roots guerrilla tactics as the lobbying of Comcast and Verizon."

** Bill Curry, writing in Salon, eviscerates the Democratic party & its leadership. Excellent!

What's in It for Larry? CW: Yesterday Akhilleus & I were wondering why Larry Summers had recently sounded so populisty. I believe I've found the answer in a post by Matt Yglesias: Summers is the American co-chair of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity, a Center for American Progress-sponsored group that last week released a white paper that Yglesias describes as "the best guide to what Hillarynomics is likely to look like.... Many thinkers on the left will find a great deal missing. What Hillarynomics does not include is anything like an Elizabeth Warren-style effort to dethrone giant banks from the commanding heights of the American economic system.... Nor is there much of an anti-poverty agenda here...." Summers' op-eds, then, are designed to promote Hillary's campaign agenda & her presidential aspirations. Larry himself, no doubt, sees himself once again napping in the Cabinet Room.

Donald Kettl, in the Washington Monthly, has some advice for the next president on how to run the government s/he really doesn't run.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News ... suggests that support for Keystone is softer -- and less urgent -- than previously thought. Just 34 percent of Americans say, 'Build it now.' An additional 61 percent are happy to allow the review process to play out.... That overall 61-34 split is the reverse of most Keystone polls.... But if and when [the Obama administration] ultimately nix[es] the project altogether -- as most think [it] will -- [it] will still be running afoul of the vast majority of Americans." ...

... Ryan Koronowski of Think Progress: "On Saturday morning, a pipeline in Montana spilled up to 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, the pipeline' operator confirmed Sunday night. Some residents are reportedly smelling and tasting oil in their drinking water, causing the EPA to test water samples and the city water plant to cease drawing water from the river.... The proposed -- and controversial -- northern pump more than 34 million gallons of oil per day through the Dakotas down into Nebraska and into the southern leg in Oklahoma and Texas." CW: Yeah? So? What about those 70 permanent American jobs (or so) t jobs that would be created by Keystone spills. Thanks, Keystone supporters.

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "In the wake of this month's terrorist attacks in Paris, European leaders are calling for significant changes to what has long been a paradox of their borderless continent: Their citizens can move freely, but information about them does not."

James Glanz of the New York Times: "In November 2008, British spies captured email messages addressed to reporters and photographers with at least a dozen international news organizations, many United Nations officials, workers at far-flung oil companies and tens of thousands of other people, according to a newly disclosed classified document. The document, a spreadsheet of some 70,000 lines -- each with a brief summary of the information gleaned from a single intercept -- is contained in a cache of British documents that are among the classified trove leaked by Edward J. Snowden.... It is unlikely that the collection of these emails -- as irrelevant as most of them seem to be -- broke any laws because British and United States laws place few restrictions on the collection of overseas communications."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: Political scientist Richard Hasen has developed a sarcasm index for the Supreme Court justices. The hands-down winner -- no surprise here -- is Antonin Scalia. "Justice Scalia registered 2.78 on Professor Hasen's index, dwarfing the showings of every justice he has served with. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. came in a very distant second, at 0.43. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not even register.... There were 134 opinions described as sarcastic or caustic, and Justice Scalia wrote 75 of them, more than all the other justices combined."

God News, Tuesday Edition. Rachel Zoll of the AP: "Conservative distrust of Pope Francis, which has been building in the U.S. throughout his pontificate, is reaching a boiling point over his plan to urge action on climate change -- and to do so through ... an encyclical on the environment and global warming.... In a news conference as he traveled last week to the Philippines, Francis gave his strongest signal yet of the direction he'll take. He said global warming was 'mostly' man-made. And he said he wanted his encyclical out in plenty of time to be absorbed before the next round of U.N. climate change talks in Paris in November after the last round in Lima, Peru, failed to reach an agreement.... 'What [conservatives are' worried about is the solution,' said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. 'Climate change is the ultimate collective-action problem. It's going to require local, state and national policy change, and it's going to require international cooperation, which means the United Nations.'"

Charles Pierce gives "Selma" a qualified rave review but notes, "DuVernay's portrayal of Lyndon Johnson is even worse than I heard it was. She turns him into such a melodramatic villain that you half-expect Johnson to tie Amelia Boynton to the railroad tracks. And the clear implication that LBJ was behind sending the salacious videotape to the Kings has to dial one just to get to 'inexcusable.' (God, will American liberals ever stop covering for the Kennedy brothers?) But I was expecting those. What I didn't expect was that DuVernay would turn two of Johnson's shining moments into equally cheap cartoons."

Presidential Race

A Bush by Any Other Name.... Several commentators have remarked on a "conversation" the Coy Lady of the Absinthe had with a governor she dared not name. Said governor, whoever he may be (and it is a "he") explained to her why a lack of foreign policy experience is unimportant: "Because foreign policy still comes down, always, to your gut, your instincts." ...

... Steve Benen calls this "'The Colbert-ification of foreign policy thinking.' What the unnamed governor argued, in effect, is that knowledge is overrated. In a complex world, filled with constantly changing challenges and unpredictable outcomes, the Republican sees himself qualified to handle foreign affairs because of his finely tuned 'gut' and 'instincts.' Funny, I seem to recall another recent presidential candidate saying his intuition had far more value than awareness of world events. His name was George W. Bush.... But for Noonan's source to argue that it's better to trust a governor's gut than a senator's (or former Secretary of State's) actual expertise is hard to take seriously." ...

... Steve M. looked for clues & had no trouble IDing the perp as Chris Christie. ...

... Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post blew a gasket: This is "a legitimately dangerous belief system in world politics.... There are actually quite a few important concepts in world politics that are not, at first glance, terribly intuitive.... There are a lot of intuitive concepts in foreign affairs that turn out to be of dubious value in conducting statecraft.... Foreign affairs is lousy with situations in which the counterintuitive idea is superior to the intuitive idea -- a fact that the governor chatting with Noonan clearly does not know. And the hubris on display in the governor's answer makes me very frightened about what would happen should this person become president in January 2017."

Katie Glueck of Politico: "A confident Rick Santorum took the stage at a tea party convention [in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,] on Monday, taking swings at 2012 presidential rival Mitt Romney and offering a glimpse of what a second Santorum bid would look like.... During his wide-ranging speech, Santorum made several nods to a future presidential bid. He also spoke more broadly about the need to improve the lives of American workers, roll back Common Core educational requirements and embrace a muscular foreign policy."

Matea Gold of the Washington Post writes a longish, somewhat disjointed story of Jeb Bush's employment as a board member & consultant of a shady investment firm called InnoVida whose CEO was convicted of swindling clients & investors for activities he carried out while Bush was a "key manager." CW: As I recall, when Wesley Clark ran for president in 2004, there were assertions that he wasn't smart enough to be president. Well, he's smarter than Jeb Bush: while Bush was on the board, Clark declined to join the firm because he found evidence the CEO was a crook.

Senate Race

Emily Cahn of Roll Call: "Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a two-term Democrat, told CQ Roll Call Monday that she is seriously considering challenging vulnerable Sen. Mark S. Kirk, R-Ill., in 2016. Duckworth, currently finishing maternity leave following the birth of her daughter, said in a phone interview she is beginning the process of exploring a Senate bid as she gears up to return to Capitol Hill."

Beyond the Beltway

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "About 9,000 people have been summonsed to Arapahoe County ​district court for consideration as jurors [in the James Holmes Aurora theater shooting case]. The whittling down of this vast pool, thought to be the biggest in US judicial history, is expected to take up to four months.... District attorney George Brauchler is seeking the death penalty. Brauchler, who reportedly declined an offer of a guilty plea in return for a life sentence, has declared that for Holmes, 'justice is death'."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Houthi rebel militiamen seized control of the palace of Yemen's president and clashed with guards outside his residence on Tuesday, in an escalation of the violent crisis that has gripped the capital for days and raised fears of a coup in one of the Arab world's most impoverished and insecure states. The president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, viewed by the United States as a crucial counterterrorism ally, was believed to be in the capital, but his exact whereabouts was unknown. He made no public statements as the fighting escalated, though Houthi leaders insisted that he was safe and in his home."

Putin Rears His Head & Comes into the Waters of ... Cuba. AFP: "A Russian intelligence warship docked in Havana on Tuesday, a day before the start of historic US-Cuba talks aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations. There was nothing stealthy about the arrival of the Viktor Leonov CCB-175, which was moored to a pier in Old Havana where cruise ships often dock. But the visit was not officially announced by Cuban authorities. US officials in Washington played down the presence of the Russian vessel, saying it was perfectly legal and not at all out of the ordinary."

New York Times: "A video posted online on Tuesday, purportedly by the Islamic State extremist group, depicted a black-clad militant with a knife threatening to kill two Japanese hostages within 72 hours unless the government in Tokyo paid a ransom of $200 million."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 19, 2015

Photo, defunct video removed.

You are reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. -- Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, 1968

President Obama on the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service:

... Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: "On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, nearly 47 years after the assassination of the civil rights leader, the nation and the president are still struggling with issues of race and discrimination, issues Obama has never denied but has long sought to de-emphasize.... Though Obama's views have evolved on issues such as gay marriage and national security during his six years in office, his views on race have remained remarkably consistent, and recent events appear to have affirmed rather than altered those views." ...

Steve Zeitchik of the Los Angeles Times on a house in Selma. The Times labels this piece a "great read." It is.

Peter Holley & Dan Lemothe of the Washington Post: "Multiple gunshots were fired outside Vice President Joe Biden's home in Delaware and a vehicle fled the area Saturday night, Secret Service officials said. The vice president and his family were not at home when the shooting occurred, authorities said." ...

Gregory Wallace of CNN highlights proposals to help the middle class which President Obama will lay out in his State of the Union speech Tuesday. ...

... Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post does the same, calling Obama proposals, "Piketty with an American accent." CW: (That would be "PEEK-ə-tee," not "PICK-ə-tee.") Piketty concentrates on wealth inequality, while most of the President's proposals address income inequality. One of Obama's proposals, to "take away a long-standing feature of the tax code that allows people to pass along appreciated assets to their heirs while limiting any tax bill" does work to reduce wealth inequality. And would take direct aim at the Mittster & his brood. ...

... Vicki Needham of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and presidential hopeful, said President Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers and the largest financial firms 'moves us in the right direction.' Sanders said that the plan comes 'at a time of obscene levels of income and wealth inequality.'" ...

... Paul Waldman: "Even President Obama's most fervent opponents must acknowledge that he's getting quite good at putting them on the defensive.... He seems to come up with a new idea every couple of weeks to drive [Republicans] up a wall.... They are barely mentioning the proposals for middle-class tax breaks which are supposed to be the whole purpose of this initiative; instead, all their focus is on the increases America's noble job creators would have to endure in order to pay for it."

... John Nichols of the Nation: ".... At a point when there is broadening recognition of the social and economic perils posed by income inequality, the president is talking about taking simple steps in the right direction. Congress is unlikely go along with him, but the American people will... To get a sense of how modest the Obama proposal is, consider this: the capital gains tax rate increase he proposes will only return the rate to what it was when Ronald Reagan was president. So Obama is only undoing the damage done; he is not going anywhere near the robust rates seen under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford." ...

... Paul Krugman: "We're living in a political era in which facts don't matter.... On issues that range from monetary policy to the control of infectious disease, a big chunk of America's body politic holds views that are completely at odds with, and completely unmovable by, actual experience.... These people ... [are] red-faced angry, with special rage directed at know-it-alls who snootily point out that the facts don't support their position.... It strikes me that the immovable position in each of these cases is bound up with rejecting any role for government that serves the public interest." ...

... Lawrence Summers in the Washington Post: Dear Middle Class: The One-Percenters at Davos don't care about you. "If the United States had the same income distribution it had in 1979, the bottom 80 percent of the population would have $1 trillion -- or $11,000 per family -- more. The top 1 percent would have $1 trillion -- or $750,000 -- less. There is little prospect for maintaining international integration and cooperation if it continues to be seen as leading to local disintegration while benefiting a mobile global elite." ...

... This Oxfam report (pdf), which contributor safari cites, provides more data supporting some of Summers' points: "Global wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of a small wealthy elite.These wealthy individuals have generated and sustained their vast riches through their interests and activities in a few important economic sectors, including finance and pharmaceuticals/healthcare. Companies from these sectors spend millions of dollars every year on lobbying to create a policy environment that protects and enhances their interests further. The most prolific lobbying activities in the US are on budget and tax issues; public resources that should be directed to benefit the whole population, rather than reflect the interests of powerful lobbyists." ...

... CW: I keep wondering what Summers' angle is. He's a Wall-Streeter through-&-through, yet now he's speaking up against wealth inequality & dissing Davos. Summers was once a honcho at Bilderberg; maybe this is a big-boys' frat thing. I really don't know. But I'm pretty sure there's something in it for Larry.

Juan Williams of the Hill: "Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) strategy for defeating Democrats in the final two years of the Obama administration is clear: divide and conquer.... If significant numbers of Senate Democrats are willing to join with Republicans to force presidential vetoes, McConnell wins. He gains the power to paint himself as the good guy working across political lines. And he will smear the remaining Democrats as members of an out-of-the-mainstream party in the grips of leftist ideologues -- Obama, [Harry] Reid, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and possibly Hillary Clinton."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... the Supreme Court on Tuesday will turn its attention to judicial elections. Such contests already sometimes resemble regular political campaigns, awash in money and negative advertising. And judges already routinely hear cases involving lawyers and litigants who have contributed to their campaigns. But 30 of the 39 states with judicial elections have tried to draw the line by forbidding judicial candidates to personally ask for money, saying that such solicitations threaten the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the judicial system. Tuesday's case is a First Amendment challenge to the solicitation bans, which have been struck down by four federal appeals courts. But most of the American legal establishment supports them. The American Bar Association and a group representing the chief justices of every state have filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to uphold the bans."

David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "... after the justices agreed Friday to take up the issue [of gay marriage] again, Kennedy and the other justices must reconcile what they left unresolved two years ago. Is marriage for gays and lesbians a matter of equal rights and individual liberty guaranteed by the Constitution? Or is it a matter left to the states?... If this year's decision on gay marriage turned only on court precedents and legal logic, it would look to be a toss-up." However, the Supremes' agreement to take up the issue after denying states' appeals to the Court last fall suggests it is a decision already-made & waiting for an opinion to justify gay marriage. CW: Read the whole column.

David Sanger & Martin Fackler of the New York Times: "The trail that led American officials to blame North Korea for the destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November winds back to 2010, when the National Security Agency scrambled to break into the computer systems of a country considered one of the most impenetrable targets on earth.... The evidence gathered by the 'early warning radar' of software painstakingly hidden to monitor North Korea's activities proved critical in persuading President Obama to accuse the government of Kim Jong-un of ordering the Sony attack, according to the officials and experts...."

Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military sent about 3,000 troops to West Africa to build [Ebola treatment] centers ... in recent months.... But as the outbreak fades in Liberia, it has become clear that the disease had already drastically subsided before the first American centers were completed. Several of the U.S.-built units haven't seen a single patient infected with Ebola.... Although future flare-ups of the disease are possible, the near-empty Ebola centers tell the story of an aggressive American military and civilian response that occurred too late to help the bulk of the more than 8,300 Liberians who became infected. Last week, even as international aid organizations built yet more Ebola centers, there was an average of less than one new case reported in Liberia per day." CW: Sounds like good news to me.

Your Friendly Muslim Neighbors May Be Terrorists! Peter Schroeder of the Hill: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he was not aware of any specific [terrorist "sleeper cells" in the U.S.], but noted that the recent attacks elsewhere in the Western world make it a safe assumption. Johnson is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee."

God News, Monday Edition. Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "Pope Francis is planning to address a joint session of Congress and visit the White House during a trip to Washington, D.C. in September, one of the archbishops organizing the pontiff's trip said."

David Carr of the New York Times on "why the Oscars' omission of 'Selma' matters."

Presidential Race 2016

Jake Miller of CBS News: In a new CBS poll asking Republican respondents about possible presidential contenders, only Sarah Palin has worse numbers than Chris Christie.

** Alec MacGillis, in the New Yorker, on Jeb Bush's school-privatization experiment. The kids is not learning much, but Jeb's friends & other opportunists are making fistfuls of dollars.

Caroline Bankoff of New York: "During a Sunday Meet the Press appearance, [Sen. Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.] said that he has already registered 'testing-the-waters committee" with the IRS. "I don't know where this will go, but I'm definitely going to look at [a run for president],' he explained."

CW: As much as I despise Carly Fiorina, Politico's top headline at the moment -- "Who Wants Carly Fiorina?" -- accompanied by a big ole picture of her looking ever-so sad, is pretty damned sexist.

Jamelle Bouie of Slate on Jim Webb, "the white man's Democrat."

Senate Races 2016

Chris Cillizza & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Senate map is the Democrats' friend in the 2016 cycle. They are defending only 10 seats, while Republicans have two dozen to hold. But wait, it gets better. Seven of those 24 Republican seats are in states that President Obama won not once but twice: Florida, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. To win the majority, Democrats need to win five of those seven seats in November 2016. (If Hillary Clinton, or another Democrat, wins the White House in 2016, then Senate Democrats need to win only four of those seven.)"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Steve M.: "President Obama has proposed a change in the tax code that would lower taxes for the vast majority of Americans." But Fox "News" is calling it a "tax hike." See Krugman, Paul, linked above.

Brian Stelter of CNN: "Fox News took time out of four broadcasts on Saturday to apologize for four separate instances of incorrect information that portrayed Muslims in a negative light."

CW: Thanks for the responses yesterday re: my WashPo "poll analysis" challenge. I feel so much better. What struck me immediately was Taylor's false assumption that only European Muslims would say they approved of the Islamic State -- that other people could not possibly answer yes. The RT story, dated August 18, 2014, on which Taylor relied does not link to or cite the precise question the pollsters posed. If Western Europeans are half as ignorant as Americans, it wouldn't surprise me to find many people of every ethnic & religious persuasion answering in the affirmative. They might think the Islamic State was something like the Palestinian state (or even have the two confused). In any event, Taylor's assumption that only Muslims would approve of an Islamic state is rather stunningly biased against Muslims.

     One can't tell from the RT article whether or not the pollsters provided respondents with any sort of description of ISIS to "help" respondents answer the question. If they did, that description would of course skew the responses in some way. As P. D. Pepe pointed out, the survey was conducted & reported by Russian state organs (something Taylor did not make clear in his post). RT is a well-known propaganda machine. It's ironic that our own right-wing propaganda machine, a/k/a Fox "News," would use as its source Russian media. Other contributors noted other methodological problems, both on the pollsters' part & on Taylor's. All in all, a questionable poll, & a really dumb analysis.

Beyond the Beltway

Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Flanked by a collection of liberal groups and labor leaders, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Sunday announced a raft of proposals on social issues, among them a plan that would raise the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour in New York City and $10.50 an hour in the rest of the state. If approved by the State Legislature, the proposal would make New York's minimum wage among the highest in the country. But traditional Republican opposition in the State Senate, where that party holds a majority, makes the passage of such legislation far from assured."

American "Justice," Ctd. Silas Allen & Darla Slipke of the Oklahoman: "The police chief [in Sentinel, Oklahoma,] survived being shot in the chest Thursday while responding to a reported bomb threat, and the man who authorities say shot him was allowed to walk free later in the day.... Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the man who shot the chief was released after hours of questioning when they determined they didn't have enough evidence to arrest him. 'Facts surrounding the case lead agents to believe the man was unaware it was officers who made entry,' OSBI wrote in a news release." ...

... Wait, There's More. David Ferguson of the Raw Story: A "neighbor ... described the gunman to the Oklahoman as a 'survivalist' type who mistrusted the government, was openly unfriendly to neighbors and wore a lot of black clothing. A Facebook profile believed to be [the shooter Dallas] Horton's is rife with racially charged images and jabs at black leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton." Oh, here's something else: Police Chief Louis Ross is black. CW: Well, of course there's not enough evidence.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal prosecutor who has accused top officials including the president of protecting Iranian suspects in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, one of Argentina's worst terrorist attacks, has been found dead at his home, the authorities said on Monday. The prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, had been scheduled to testify on Monday at a congressional inquiry about his accusations. News of his mysterious death immediately provoked shock and outrage from the political opposition and leaders of Argentina's Jewish community, one of Latin America's largest, and appeared to put a skulduggerous shadow over his accusations."