Note to Commenters

December 6: Problem resolved. Fortunately, no one's e-mail address was compromised. It is safe -- turns out it always was safe -- to include your e-mail address in your posts.

December 5: Please remove your e-mail address from future comments. That is, remove it from the box titled "Author Email."

A reader has identified what looks to me like a security breach. I've notified my host Squarespace, but until they get this fixed, I'm concerned that your e-mail identity could be compromised.

As far as I am aware, no one's ID has been compromised yet but there has been one close call.

I am almost certain this is a programmer error, not a hacking incident.

Marie

Update, December 6: This problem is ongoing. Squarespace has not deigned to respond to my multiple alarms. Their technical service used to be fair-to-middling. Now it completely sucks.

The Commentariat -- Dec. 6, 2014

Internal links removed.

White House: "In this week's address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday's jobs report -- that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs":

Gail Collins: "Our institutions cheerfully refuse to restructure themselves to reflect the fact that most families do not contain a non-working parent. Congress has been debating early education programs for more than 40 years and it has hardly made a dent. A great many of our employers don't bother to make jobs more family-friendly; they don't even bother to make modest arrangements to accommodate their pregnant workers. Everybody thinks this is extremely unfortunate, but almost nobody does anything about it because there is not a lot of political or financial reward for siding with working mothers."

John Eligon of the New York Times: "... the recent high-profile deaths of black people at the hands of police officers in Ferguson, New York, Cleveland and elsewhere — and the nationwide protests those deaths spurred -- have exposed sharp differences about race relations among friends, co-workers, neighbors and even relatives in unexpected and often uncomfortable ways. Put bluntly, many people say, they feel they are being forced to pick a team."

Sari Horwitz & Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "As the Obama administration prepares to announce new curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement, government officials said Friday that many officers and agents at the Department of Homeland Security will still be allowed to use the controversial practice, including while they screen airline passengers and guard the country's southwestern border."

Josh Rogin of Bloomberg View: "Secretary of State John Kerry personally phoned Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Friday morning to ask her to delay the imminent release of her committee's report on CIA torture and rendition during the George W. Bush administration, according to administration and Congressional officials. Kerry was not going rogue -- his call came after an interagency process that decided the release of the report early next week, as Feinstein had been planning, could complicate relationships with foreign countries at a sensitive time and posed an unacceptable risk to U.S. personnel and facilities abroad. Kerry told Feinstein he still supports releasing the report, just not right now." ...

... Dan Froomkin of the Intercept: "The net effect of a delay would be to wrest the decision from Feinstein’s hands and give it to incoming Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), who has called the report a 'flawed and biased' piece of fiction." ...

When this report is declassified, people will abhor what they read. They're gonna be disgusted. They're gonna be appalled. They're gonna be shocked at what we did. But it will lay a foundation whereby we don't do this in the future. That's been my goal. That's been my mission.... I have made it clear over the last couple of weeks -- if the report is not declassified in a way that's transparent and shines a bright light on what we did, then I will consider using all and any options. -- Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado)

... Scott Rabb of Esquire publishes a portion of his interviewof Mark Udall. The whole interview will appear in the January edition of the magazine. Udall had better hurry with those "all & any options." In less than a month he will become "former Senator Mark Udall."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court will review whether Texas's rejection of a proposed license plate featuring the Confederate flag violated the free speech rights of the group that wanted the special plates. Courts are divided over whether government may choose among the political messages requested for state-issued plates or whether such messages should be recognized as the speech of the motorist and entitled to more protection.... The Supreme Court has not decided whether to hear a second, similar appeal from North Carolina. A federal appeals court in that case blocked the state from issuing plates saying 'Choose Life' because the state would not grant a request to issue a plate with a message in favor of abortion rights."

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "A group of 20 states that filed a federal lawsuit this week against President Obama's executive action on immigration could face difficult legal and factual hurdles, legal experts said, because federal courts have been skeptical of similar claims in the past." CW: Let's hope so.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd.

Rocco Parascandola & Oren Yaniv of the New York Daily News: "While Akai Gurley was dying in a darkened stairwell at a Brooklyn housing development, the cop who fired the fatal bullet was texting his union representative, sources told the Daily News. Right after rookie cop Peter Liang discharged a single bullet that struck Gurley, 28, he and his partner Shaun Landau were incommunicado for more than six and a half minutes, sources said Thursday." Readt the whole story. ...

... Tasneem Nashrulla of BuzzFeed: The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association disputes the Daily News account.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Richard Perez-Pena & Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Rolling Stone magazine acknowledged on Friday that it now had reservations about an article it published that made startling and detailed allegations of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity. The magazine said that its trust in the sole source for the article, Jackie, the woman making the allegations, was misplaced.... The fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, released a statement on Friday in which it denied the assault took place.... The fraternity said that the chapter had no event scheduled on the weekend in question. While the article said the initiator of the assault was a fraternity member who worked as a lifeguard at a university aquatic center, Phi Kappa Psi said ... that no member of the fraternity worked there during the time in question." ...

... Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "A group of Jackie's close friends, who are sex assault awareness advocates at U-Va., said they believe something traumatic happened to her, but they also have come to doubt her account. They said details have changed over time, and they have not been able to verify key points of the story in recent days. A name of an alleged attacker that Jackie provided to them for the first time this week, for example, turned out to be similar to the name of a student who belongs to a different fraternity, and no one by that name has been a member of Phi Kappa Psi.... The Washington Post has interviewed Jackie several times during the past week and has worked to corroborate her version of events, contacting dozens of current and former members of the fraternity, the fraternity's faculty adviser, Jackie's friends and former roommates, and others on campus." ...

... Will Dana of Rolling Stone: "In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie's account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account." ...

... CW: I guess I'm naive about what a fact-checker does. Wouldn't s/he at least check to verify there was a venue where the rape could have happened? Wouldn't s/he at least find out if the alleged rapist was an actual person? This is making George Will look pretty good.

Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "This disaster is the sole property of editors and a reporter."

Hanna Rosin of the Atlantic, in Slate: "Rolling Stone did a shoddy job reporting, editing, and fact-checking the story and an even shoddier job apologizing."

November December Elections

Till the Last Blue Dog Dies. Bruce Alpert of the Times-Picayune: "Louisiana's most expensive U.S. Senate race is in the hands of voters. Polls will be open Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. as three-term Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu faces her Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge. Two House races also are on Louisiana ballots: For the 6th District seat now held by Cassidy, Republican Garrett Graves, a former coastal restoration adviser to Gov. Bobby Jindal, faces Edwin Edwards, the Democratic former governor who served prison time for his role in the riverboat licensing scandal. In the 5^th District, incumbent Vance McAllister, R-Swartz, who was caught on a leaked surveillance video kissing a former aide, didn't make the runoff. His replacement will be Republican physician Ralph Abraham or Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo, a Democrat." ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, the last remaining Democratic senator in the south, appeared to be on the cusp of a painful electoral defeat on Saturday. A victory by Landrieu's Republican opponent, Bill Cassidy, would solidify the GOP's control over the Senate when Congress reconvenes in January. As voters went to the polls in the state's runoff race -- thanks to neither candidate securing sufficient votes in November's midterm elections -- Landrieu trailed Cassidy by more than 17% in public polls."

Presidential Election(s)

Peter Baker & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "What Mrs. Clinton leaves out about her time as first lady is her messy, sometimes explosive and often politically clumsy dealings with congressional Republicans and White House aides. Now, the release of roughly 6,000 pages of extraordinarily candid interviews with more than 60 veterans of the Clinton administration paints a more nuanced portrait of a first lady who was at once formidable and not always politically deft." ...

... Laura Bradley of Slate: "The video does not appear to be a joke. According to the [Washington] Post, the super PAC [that produced it] 'is the project of Daniel Chavez, a longtime Democratic political operative, and media producer Miguel Orozco, who wrote a series of Latin-flavored songs celebrating Barack Obama in the 2008 election.'" Here's the Post story. ...

(... One of Orozco's 2008 creations, "Viva Obama," was a favorite of mine. The music & lyrics aren't so bad, & the hats are fabulous! [if you can stomach stereotyping]:)

... As James S. observed at the end of yesterday's commentary, "My problem with Hillary is a mechanical one. She creates chaos not organization, as witnessed in her 2008 primary campaign (and her healthcare reform way before that). And, as a result of such turmoil, I don't think she's capable of running a successful presidential campaign; I don't think she's electable."

David McCabe of the Hill: "Aides to Mitt Romney's presidential team in 2012 are airing their frustrations with the campaign, alleging that tweets had to be approved by nearly two dozen people by the end of the race. 'So whether it was a tweet, Facebook post, blog post, photo -- anything you could imagine -- it had to be sent around to everyone for approval,' former Romney campaign aide Caitlin Checkett told Daniel Kreiss, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communication in a new academic paper.... The paper lays bare some of the difficulties Romney's campaign had in keeping up with the demands of the 21st-century campaign, which requires candidates to push their message on an ever-growing list of online platforms." ...

     ... CW: Sounds like the model for a Hillary campaign. Which would be duller? Hillary v. Jeb or Hillary v. Mitt?

Beyond the Beltway

Olé, L.A. Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times: "The redesign [of Broadway in Los Angeles] suggests just how many politicians and policymakers in Southern California are finding inspiration in Latino Urbanism, a term that describes the range of ad hoc ways in which immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America have remade pockets of American cities to feel at least a little like the places they left behind. Planners are adding parks and bike lanes to major streets but also pushing to loosen outdated restrictions, so that murals can be painted in the arts district and street vendors selling tortas or sliced fruit can operate legally. Temporary events like the popular CicLAvia open-streets festival, patterned after a program in Bogota, Colombia, are spurring permanent urban-design changes that challenge the dominance of cars."

News Ledes

AP: "Acid reflux is responsible for the sore throat President Barack Obama has complained about for the past couple of weeks, the White House said Saturday, shortly after the president returned from undergoing diagnostic tests at a nearby military hospital."

Washington Post: "Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter detained in Iran for more than four months, was officially charged Saturday in a day-long proceeding in a Tehran courtroom, according to a source familiar with the case. The nature of the charges were not immediately clear, at least to those not present in the courtroom."

New York Times: "Two hostages, including an American journalist, who were being held by Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen were killed during a rescue attempt by United States commandos early Saturday, American officials said. In a statement, President Obama said the hostages had been 'murdered' by militants belonging to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula during the rescue operation. A senior United States official said that the American, Luke Somers, 33, was badly wounded when commandos reached him. By the time Mr. Somers was flown to a United States naval ship in the region, he had died from his injuries, the official said Saturday. The other hostage was identified as Pierre Korkie, a South African citizen, according to a brief statement posted on the website of Gift of the Givers, a disaster relief organization that was trying to negotiate his release." The Washington Post story is here.

Time: "When the commander of U.S. armed forces in Africa confirmed the presence of what he described as training camps linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) in Libya this week, he threw a spotlight on a growing source of anxiety in the Middle East: namely the erosion of the Libyan state and its consequences for both Libyans and the wider region as militants fill the vacuum."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 5, 2014

Internal links removed.

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday will announce his selection of Ashton B. Carter to lead the Pentagon, White House officials said, embracing a physicist and national security centrist who may advocate a stronger use of American power. Mr. Carter, 60, is expected to face smooth confirmation hearings from Senate Republicans, who say they foresee no opposition to him."

Feliz Navidad! Robert Costa & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Republicans voted to rebuke President Obama for his unilateral overhaul of the nation's immigration system Thursday, passing legislation to curb the White House's ability to protect millions from being deported. But the effort was largely symbolic: The Democratic-controlled Senate plans to ignore the bill, and the White House has said it would veto it."

Tim Egan: "Many of the people who dwell in the uglier recesses of social media, or make casual conversation among the like-minded, will not grant Obama the family man the respect he has earned, or Obama the president the dignity that comes with the office. I want to believe this is not about race, but it sure looks that way."

** Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "If Mary Landrieu, a Democratic senator from Louisiana, loses re-election in Saturday's runoff election, as expected, the Republicans will have vanquished the last vestige of Democratic strength in the once solidly Democratic Deep South. In a region stretching from the high plains of Texas to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas, Republicans would control not only every Senate seat, but every governor's mansion and every state legislative body."

** Paul Krugman: Chuck Schumer is an asshole. (Paraphrase.) "If more Democrats had been willing to defend the best thing they've done in decades, rather than run away from their own achievement and implicitly concede that the smears against health reform were right, the politics of the issue might look very different today." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "What makes this wave of regret [over passing the ACA] -- not even taking into account the unmitigated hostility from the political right -- so strange is that Obamacare is actually working. Indeed, evidence continues to mount that the law is working extremely, even shockingly, well.... Four major new sources of information have come out this week, all of which have further demonstrated the law's success [by] 1. Increasing access to the uninsured; 2. Reducing overall health-care costs..., 3. [Reducing] hospital errors..., [and] 4. [Increasing] hospital competition." ...

... ** Ryan Cooper of the Week outlines "everything that is wrong with the Democratic party," as demonstrated in "one speech by Chuck Schumer.... The reason all this happened is that Democrats, especially in the Senate, are a bunch of spineless porridge creatures, wholly owned by the financial sector, who continually failed to grasp that being cautious and timid in power during a huge recession was highly politically risky. They were obsessed with ridiculous Beltway shibboleths like the deficit, and got slaughtered at the polls as a result." CW: Now that, IMHO, is a more realistic take on history than Schumer's spineless, stupid rewrite.

Annals of "Justice," Ctd.

Richard Oppel & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "One week after the release of a surveillance video showing a Cleveland police officer fatally shooting a 12-year-old African-American boy who was holding a pellet gun, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. flew [to Cleveland] on Thursday to announce that a lengthy Justice Department civil rights investigation had found 'unreasonable and unnecessary use of force' by the city's Police Department. The Cleveland abuses highlighted by Mr. Holder included many that have caused friction with the police in minority communities around the country.... 'Cleveland officers are not provided with adequate training, policy guidance, support and supervision,' the Justice Department concluded in its report. As a result of the investigation, the city has agreed to work toward a settlement with the Justice Department...."

... CW: Training? Guidance? Ha! They don't even bother to screen applicants to see if they're qualified to serve. (See yesterday's Commentariat.) ...

... The Guardian report, by Paul Lewis, is here. "'Our review revealed that Cleveland police officers violate basic constitutional precepts in their use of deadly and less lethal force at a rate that is highly significant,' the report said. It found use of force by Cleveland police was at times 'chaotic and dangerous', even going so far as to suggest victims of crime and innocent bystanders should fear for their lives in the presence of police." ...

... The Justice Department report is here (pdf).

Mark Santora of the New York Times: "One day after a grand jury declined to indict a New York police officer in the death of Eric Garner, prompting angry protests and calls for reform from elected officials, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced the start of a significant retraining of the nation's largest police force.... Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, assailed Mr. de Blasio, saying that officers around the city felt he had thrown them 'under the bus.'" ...

... Andy Cush of Gawker: During his press conference Wednesday night, Mayor de Blasio revealed how he & his wife repeatedly warned their son Dante -- who is black -- to watch out for New York's finest. Read it & weep.

Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Thousands of demonstrators gathered Thursday night in several cities to protest recent killings of unarmed African-Americans by white police officers."

** Max Read of Gawker: "The 'rule of law' that [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo wants us to hold in high esteem is the very same one that has given the NYPD a wide berth to harass, intimidate, and abuse young men of color, a 'rule of law' governed by a rapidly militarizing police force training trigger-happy violent cops. A rule of law at the base of a system of violence and hate so out of control that even the mayor of New York City needs to warn his son of it. How can you ask people to respect the law when the law does not respect them? How can you remind them of the importance of the process when Missouri and New York are reminding us the process is hopelessly broken?"

Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "... the right's largely indifferent response illustrates just how much the Garner case really is about race. Had Eric Garner been a rural white man with a cowboy hat killed by federal agents, instead of a large black man choked to death by the NYPD, his face would be on a Ted Cruz for President poster by now."

Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post on "the killing of Rumain Brisbon..., an unarmed African American man at the hands of a white police officer" in Phoenix, Arizona.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Republican senators may question "Loretta E. Lynch's nomination as attorney general, because she will be heading the inquiry as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York even as she undergoes scrutiny in the new Republican-controlled Senate." CW: Except as an indicator that Loretta Lynch can walk & chew gum at the same time, this seems like a non-story story.

Gary Robertson of Reuters: "A Virginia health panel remade by the Democratic governor [Terry McAuliffe] voted on Thursday to revamp rules that threatened to shut down abortion clinics across the state. In a victory for abortion rights advocates, the state Board of Health voted 13-2 to begin amending regulations that require abortion clinics to have standards similar to hospitals. The board put the requirement in place in 2013 when then-Governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, appointed abortion foes to the panel."

Chris Mooney & Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "For two decades, scientists have kept a close watch on a vast, icebound corner of West Antarctica that is undergoing a historic thaw. Climate experts have predicted that, centuries from now, the region's mile-thick ice sheet could collapse and raise sea levels as much as 11 feet. Now, new evidence is causing concern that the collapse could happen faster than anyone thought. New scientific studies this week have shed light on the speed and the mechanics of West Antarctic melting, documenting an acceleration that, if it continues, could have major effects on coastal cities worldwide." ...

... Jeff Spross, et al., of Think Progress, June 26, 2013: "90 percent of the Republican leadership in both House and Senate deny climate change. 17 out of 22 Republican members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, or 77 percent, are climate deniers. 22 out of 30 Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, or 73 percent deny the reality of climate change, 100 percent of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans have said climate change is not happening or that humans do not cause it. The campaigns of those who reject the reality of climate science are fueled by the fossil fuel industry that advocate for and drive the emissions that cause global warming." CW: Let's pick 'em all up & put 'em on a little ole iceberg somewhere near Antartica.

Presidential Election

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Speaking at a conference in Boston, "Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that she supported President Obama's decision to form a task force to review police tactics and praised the Justice Department's decision to investigate the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer on Staten Island. 'Each of us has to grapple with some hard truths about race and justice in America,' Mrs. Clinton said in wide-ranging remarks about the protests over police tactics that have erupted in cities across the country." ...

... CW: Clinton would have spoken up sooner, but it took her pollster & speechwriter a while to test & develop her response. Jeesh. Rand Paul might say stupid shit (okay, does say stupid shit), but at least he's capable of saying stupid shit spontaneously. Sorry, I don't think a majority of Americans are going to vote for a robot. There's a difference between (1) being cautious & circumspect -- a good thing -- and (2) only saying what will garner the highest level of public approval. ...

... Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC: "Beyond racial issues, Clinton suggested she favors reducing the prison population overall. 'The United States has less than 5% of the world's population, yet we have almost 25% of the world's total prison population,' she said, saying it's not because Americans break more laws than other nations. 'It is because we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance. And I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come together as a nation to find our balance again.'... Clinton had been criticized for waiting almost 20 days to comment on Ferguson after Brown was killed in August." CW: I'd call that "co-opting Rand Paul's message." Also, more "shoring-up the black vote." ...

... Dana Milbank: On Wednesday, Georgetown students were too busy to attend an event featuring Hillary Clinton. The few who did show up appeared bored.

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Chris Christie today said he doesn't want to 'second-guess' that work by the grand jury [that failed to indict Eric Garner's killer Daniel Pantaleo]. In comments reported by the Wall Street Journal, Christie said, 'As someone who ran a prosecuting office for seven years before I became governor, one of the things I learned is that you never know all the things that a grand jury knows, unless you're in that grand jury and working with them.' Christie has kept mostly silent on these issues, recently declining to discuss issues raised by Ferguson. CW: Ah, "shoring up the white bigot vote." ...

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Determined to let no doubts about his enthusiasm for the [Keystone XL] pipeline linger, [Chris] Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, traveled [to Calgary, Canada,] to meet with the chief executive of the company trying to build it. He held a joint news conference with the premier of Alberta, who is aggressively pushing for it. And Mr. Christie delivered a speech to a group of Canadian energy executives who fervently support it -- inside the Calgary Petroleum Club, no less.... Mr. Christie, who has limited experience in international affairs, is fashioning a foreign policy that is heavily grounded in North America, which he views as an overlooked domain in an era of international threats to the United States." ...

... Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "A long-awaited report by a New Jersey legislative committee says that there is 'no conclusive evidence' whether Gov. Chris Christie knew about the controversial lane closings at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 before or as they were happening. But in a detailed chronology, the report argues that the governor had many opportunities to know about the lane closings, the political motive behind them and the involvement of his administration, even as he insisted he knew nothing." Thanks to Marvin S. for the heads-up. ...

... Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "A report summarizing a yearlong investigation by the legislative panel examining the George Washington Bridge lane closures found no evidence of Governor Christie's involvement but concluded that two of his allies acted 'with perceived impunity' when they gridlocked Fort Lee's streets apparently for political reasons. The committee's 136-page report, drawing off sworn testimony, private interviews and thousands of subpoenaed documents, also highlights the unsuccessful efforts by a now-shuttered arm of Christie's office to court the Fort Lee mayor's endorsement, finding that the closures were 'motivated in part by political considerations.'"

News Ledes

Bloomberg News: "Employers in the U.S. added 321,000 jobs in November, the most since January 2012, driving wage gains and highlighting increased corporate confidence the economy will endure a weakening in global markets. The advance in payrolls exceeded the most optimistic projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists and followed a 243,000 gain in October that was stronger than previously reported, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate held at a six-year low of 5.8 percent."

Orlando Sentinel: "Atop the most powerful rocket available, NASA's next generation space capsule Orion blasted off at 7:05 this morning against the backdrop of a rising sun at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.... The 4 1/2 hour, unmanned mission gives NASA a chance to test America's new do-everything spacecraft. In coming decades, Orion is expected to carry astronauts deep into space to the moon, asteroids, Mars and beyond."