The Commentariat -- Sept. 22, 2014

Photo removed.

Lisa Foderaro of the New York Times: "Climates marches were held across the globe on Sunday, from Paris to Papua New Guinea, and with world leaders gathering at the United Nations on Tuesday for a climate summit meeting, marchers said the timing was right for the populist message in support of limits on carbon emissions." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "A climate-change march that organizers claim was the largest on record is nevertheless unlikely to change the minds of idiots, a survey of America’s idiots reveals." CW: Unfortunately, too many of those idiots are in Congress. See, for instance, Emily Atkin's story linked in yesterday's Commentariat. ...

... Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "Global emissions of greenhouse gases jumped 2.3 percent in 2013 to record levels, scientists reported Sunday, in the latest indication that the world remains far off track in its efforts to control global warming. The emissions growth last year was a bit slower than the average growth rate of 2.5 percent over the past decade, and much of the dip was caused by an economic slowdown in China, which is the world’s single largest source of emissions." ...

... John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The [Rockefeller] family whose legendary wealth flowed from Standard Oil is planning to announce on Monday that its $860 million philanthropic organization, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is joining the divestment movement that began a couple years ago on college campuses. The announcement, timed to precede Tuesday’s opening of the United Nations climate change summit meeting in New York City, is part of a broader and accelerating initiative. In recent years, 180 institutions ... as well as hundreds of wealthy individual investors have pledged to sell assets tied to fossil fuel companies from their portfolios and to invest in cleaner alternatives."

Eric Schmitt & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "President Obama will preside this week over an unusual meeting of the United Nations Security Council poised to adopt a binding resolution that would compel all countries to put in place domestic laws to prosecute those who travel abroad to join terrorist organizations and those who help them, including by raising funds. The resolution, proposed by the United States, would for the first time establish international standards for nations to prevent and suppress the recruiting of their citizens by terrorist organizations, and to bar the entry and transit across their territory of suspected foreign terrorists."

Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "Obama has spoken carefully in public, but it is plain that the Administration wants the Kurds to do two potentially incompatible things. The first is to serve as a crucial ally in the campaign to destroy ISIS.... The second is to resist seceding from the Iraqi state. Around Washington, the understanding is clear: if the long-sought country of Kurdistan becomes real, America’s twelve-year project of nation building in Iraq will be sundered.... But the Kurds’ history with the state of Iraq is one of persistent enmity and bloodshed, and they see little benefit in joining up with their old antagonists.”

Paul Waldman: The media have overblown the supposed rift between Obama & the brass over strategy to control ISIS. (CW: Pretty much what I suggested last week.) "... the fact that some in the military don’t agree with the President on strategy is not only a feature of pretty much every military conflict, it’s also an inevitable outgrowth of the American system. When we established civilian control over the military, the purpose wasn’t to make generals happy. Some of them will grumble sometimes, and that’s fine. But we shouldn’t make more out of those disagreements than they warrant."

Scott Wong of the Hill: "The U.S. is not teaming up with Iran in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power said Sunday. 'Well, let me stress that we are not coordinating military operations or sharing intelligence with Iran,' Power said on CBS’s 'Face the Nation,' pointing out that Iran’s backing of Hezbollah and Syrian President Basar al-Assad’s regime has been 'very destructive.'” ...

... Jaime Fuller of the Washington Post has a very good overview of who-all said what-all on the Sunday shows. With video clips.

Here's a clip from Scott Pelley's interview of Leon Panetta where Panetta says, "President Obama should have done what I said." (Paraphrase.) This page has what appears to be the full transcript of the interview, as aired.

Jerry Markon, et al., of the Washington Post: "An exodus of top-level officials from the Department of Homeland Security is undercutting its ability to stay ahead of a range of emerging threats, including potential terrorist and cyber attacks, according to interviews with current and former officials. Over the past four years, employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database. The departures are a result of what employees widely describe as a dysfunctional work environment, abysmal morale and the lure of private security companies...."

William Broad & David Sanger of the New York Times: The U.S. has launched a "wave of atomic revitalization that includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers. A recent federal study put the collective price tag, over the next three decades, at up to a trillion dollars. This expansion comes under a president who campaigned for 'a nuclear-free world' and made disarmament a main goal of American defense policy." CW: I expect the administration spoonfed this story to the Times in response to Putin's remarks last week about Russia's ability to crush former Soviet Union countries.

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The Secret Service is considering screening tourists and other visitors at checkpoints before they enter the public areas in front of the White House in response to the episode Friday in which a man with a knife managed to get through the front door of the president’s home after jumping over the fence on Pennsylvania Avenue.... As part of the screening, the Secret Service would establish several checkpoints a few blocks from the White House...."

In his column today, Paul Krugman expands on a blogpost on jobs linked here Saturday. "... the blame-the-victim crowd has gotten everything it wanted: Benefits, especially for the long-term unemployed, have been slashed or eliminated. So now we have rants against the bums on welfare when they aren’t bums — they never were — and there’s no welfare.... Strange to say, this outbreak of anti-compassionate conservatism hasn’t produced a job surge.... The right lives in its own intellectual universe, aware of neither the reality of unemployment nor what life is like for the jobless." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... this ought to be a subject at least occasionally mentioned by Democratic politicians, too. A higher minimum wage isn’t of much use to people who cannot find work."

Tami Abdollah & Eric Tucker of the AP: "A Pentagon program that distributes military surplus gear to local law enforcement allows even departments that the Justice Department has censured for civil rights violations to apply for and get lethal weaponry.... The Pentagon, which provides the free surplus military equipment, says its consultation with the Justice Department will be looked at as the government reviews how to prevent high-powered weaponry from flowing to the untrustworthy." ...

CW: Apparently St. Louis-area police think the problem in Ferguson was just a little public relations problem. Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "The St. Louis Police Academy [is] ... offering a new fall course that teaches 'tactics, skills and techniques that will help you WIN WITH THE MEDIA!' According to the Oct. 24 program's description, the 'highly entertaining' class will cover lessons learned from both Ferguson and Newtown."

Not a Parody. ESPN: "One of the chief arguments that Ray Rice will make in the appeal of his indefinite suspension is that the NFL extended his punishment on the basis of an edited videotape...." ...

... Carolyn Bankoff of New York: "TMZ responded to this news by calling Rice's supposed claim 'the dumbest defense ever.' ... TMZ has always been upfront about the fact that it smoothed out the surveillance camera footage of the couple's violent argument, and the unaltered tape was put online on the same day as the better-quality one. While the raw video is jerky and blurrier than TMZ's version, it still clearly shows Rice beating Palmer."

... CW: Within professional football culture, Rice's argument makes a lot of sense. Goodell claimed the NFL gave Rice a two-game suspension because they had no idea -- based on videotape showing Palmer walking into the elevator, then Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer out of said elevator, AND on Rice's confession he had KOed his wife -- that Rice had commited an aggressive, violent, criminal act. So a grainy, jerky surveillance cam video of the actual knockout punch would probably garner, say, another one-game suspension, not the banishment engendered by TMZ's slightly less grainy, jerky edit. Rice is playing Goodell's see-no-evil game, with heavy reliance on the popular NFL blame-somebody-else play.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: The U.S. senator who squeezed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand & told her he liked his "girls chubby” was "the late Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident.... In an all but forgotten chapter of his career, the senator had been accused of sexual misconduct: In 1992, his hairdresser said that Mr. Inouye had forced her to have sex with him. Her accusations exploded into a campaign issue that year, and one Hawaii state senator announced that she had heard from nine other women who said they had been sexually harassed by Mr. Inouye....” (CW: The Gillibrand story is way down the page.) ...

... Just below the Gillibrand item, some good news for progressives: Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Hulse that he didn't have the votes to move Michael Boggs -- President Obama's nominee for a U.S. District Court in Georgia -- out of committee & said Boggs should withdraw. As Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post writes, "Boggs ... has been under attack all year from progressive groups and Democratic lawmakers over his socially conservative track record as a former Georgia state legislator. Among other things, he voted to ban same-sex marriage, to keep the Confederate insignia on the Georgia flag and to require doctors to post online their personal information and the annual number of abortions they performed." Obama nominated Boggs as part of a deal with Georgia's GOP senators.

Rachel Bade has a long piece in Politico about former IRS offical Lois Lerner. Lerner -- in company of her lawyer-husband & two other lawyers -- agreed to a Politico interview. If Lerner was hoping for a sympathetic write-up, she must be disappointed. It's not a hit job, but Bade assemble d enough hoo-hah for a reader to be left with the impression that Lerner didn't know her job & didn't play well with others.

Andrew Gelman of the Washington Post responds to Matt Bai's NYT Magazine assertion that before the Donna Rice expose', Gary Hart "was close to a lock for the nomination — and likely the presidency — as any challenger of the modern era." Gelman writes, "This is just wrong. Whoever won the Democratic nomination was highly unlikely to win the presidency." Gelman goes on to explain that the "fundamentals" were not there for Democrats in 1988, no matter who the nominee. So everybody can quit being all sad about what-might-have-been. Because it wasn't gonna be.

     ... CW Note: Bai is an excellent prose writer. But his work tends to be "impressionistic," & he loves the "large narrative." I've caught him in some wild, unsupported assertions before. (Can't remember what.) In this case, by making the Hart episode into The Downfall of a President-in-Waiting, Bai aggrandizes what was a National Enquirer-type story. (In fact, it was the Enquirer that published the "Monkey Business" photo -- after Hart had left the race.) In his book on the same topic, out last week, Bai turns the Hart incident into a "grand narrative" about the "tragedy" of "the politics of personal destruction." The best writers are not necessarily the most reliable. (Worth mentioning, I guess: George H.W. Bush, who of course became president, reportedly had had a decades-long affair with his personal assistant.) ...

     ... CW: What most surprised me about Bai's story (also linked in yesterday's Commentariat) was that -- contrary to what most of us who were around then remember -- Miami Herald reporters did not go after Hart because he had challenged the media to "Follow me around." The paper's reporters had been on the Donna Rice story for weeks before E. J. Dionne's story with the famous quote appeared in the WashPo. The first Herald story on Hart's personal life appeared the same day the Post published Dionne's story.

Annals of "Journalism," Alaska Edition.

And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit. -- Charlo Greene, former KTVA reporter, on-air

Laurel Andrews of the Alaska Dispatch News: At the end of a report on the Alaska Cannabis Club, KTVA reporter Charlo Greene announced, "I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska. And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit.

Mid-term Elections

Elections Matter -- Your True Horror Story for Today. Dave Weigel describes how Republicans will run the Senate if they take control. CW: Hope Weigel e-mails a copy to Chuck Todd, who suggested to President Obama that a GOP-controlled Senate wouldn't make much difference since Obama could just, ya know, veto everything.

Philip Rucker & Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "In a midterm election year in which the political climate and map of battleground states clearly favors Republicans, many GOP candidates are nevertheless embracing some Democratic priorities in an effort to win over skeptical voters."

Rachel Maddow in the Washington Post: "This year, in two marquee races already, and eventually perhaps in three or even four, Democrats and independents have decided to stop fighting each other and instead start pulling on the same side of the tug-of-war in an effort to unseat incumbent Republicans."

E. J. Dionne: "..a [Senate] election that once looked to be a Republican slam dunk has even Karl Rove worried, because many voters seem to want to do more with their ballots than just slap the president in the face."

Ed Kilgore provides a good lesson to red-state Democrats on why "defensive voting" on hot-button issues is useless. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) "has actually been a conspicuously reliable vote against any sort of gun regulation." Still, his oppoent Dan Sullivan is running an ad (embedded in Kilgore's post) that hits Begich "since he voted to confirm 'anti-gun' Supreme Court nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. And even if he hadn’t voted for these Justices, he votes 'with Obama' all the time, and we all understand Obama wakes up each morning scheming to vitiate the Second Amendment so he will not have to worry about armed patriot resistance when he snatches away America’s birthright of freedom."

Forget All That! Juan Williams in the Hill: "Get ready for bombs bursting in air and this election’s October Surprise – President Obama’s air strikes to 'degrade and ultimately destroy' ISIS.... The president’s leadership role during this fight has the potential to pump up his public approval and that will benefit several Democrats locked in close senate races.... The Republican response to the ISIS threat has been to criticize the president for not immediately putting U.S. forces on the ground.... Polls show voters, both Republicans and Democrats, consider that a step too far.... The Republican House narrowly voted to give the President authority to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS in a ground war.... Are they trying to create a situation in which American soldiers are once again at war in the Middle East?"

Presidential Race

The Headline Says It All. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Rick Perry Cites Joan Rivers’s Death to Defend Restrictive Texas Abortion Law." ...

... Elsewhere in Texas, Texans can't decide which man with Texas roots should be our next president. Among those Texans who can't decide: Jeb Bush's son George PeeWee Bush, who is running for state land commissioner, whatever that is. The good news for Jeb: PeeWee is ready to affirm that he loves the old man. Awwww. CW: My pick: None O.T. Above.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2014

Internal links removed.

On "60 Minutes" this evening, Leon Panetta will severely criticize President Obama's past decisions re: Iraq & Syria.

CW: I wasn't going to read Matt Bai's piece in the New York Times Magazine on Gary Hart. But I did. It's pretty good. See MAG's related comment in yesterday's Comments section. Also James S.'s follow-up comment. Bill Clinton, whose tawdry escapades probably made Hart look like a comparative paragon of probity, knew exactly how to handle the issue -- with an overt hypocrisy that would satisfy any Church Lady. He learned from Hart's mistakes. ...

... AND, since we're traveling down Memory Lane, Philip Shenon, in the Washington Post: "... when it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the list of important, seemingly credible public figures who count themselves as conspiracy theorists is long and impressive." CW: I'm a halfhearted conspiracy theorist myself, but to those who more-or-less buy the Warren Commission findings, it is certainly reasonable to believe that Oswald acted alone. One need look no further than Friday's breach of the White House to see than one resolute person can get pretty far.

David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Steve Koonin has an obfuscatory piece in the Wall Street Journal today claiming that the science of climate change isn't settled. But it's not the usual radically ignorant posturing. As with much of the evolution of the conservative 'debate' over climate, it represents another move in the shifting ground of conservative chicanery intended to paralyze action to solve the problem.... His position is that because we don't fully understand all of the complex reverberating effects of climate change, we can't make good climate policy yet.... Of all the cynical arguments against action on climate change, Koonin's ranks among the most disturbing because it's so obviously calculated by a very smart person to make a radically irresponsible conclusion just to protect a few entrenched economic elites." The Koonin piece is here.

Dear Mister Presidint, Thank you for sending my teacher the tanks, grinaid launchers and cool army rifles. Recess used to be boring. Now its not. Joey S. 5fh grade.

CW: Re: the WashPo story I linked yesterday on "The Daily Show"'s Redskins segment, Zara Golden of Gawker: "The segment was bumped for Bill Clinton but will air this week."

Justin Huggler of the Telegraph: "President Vladimir Putin privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, according to a record of a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart. 'If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest,' Mr Putin allegedly told President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, reported Süddeustche Zeitung, a German newspaper. If true, this would be the first time that Mr Putin has threatened to invade Nato or EU members." CW: Doesn't sound like a threat to me. Just a bully boasting his is bigger than yours.

... CW: I do love it when scientists talk to the nitwits. Here Emily Atkin of Think Progress provides some outtakes of "White House Science Advisor Dr. John P. Holdren..., a lauded theoretical physicist, appear[ing] before the Republican-led House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Wednesday to testify about the Obama administration's plan to fight climate change." ...

     ... The problem is that these representatives operate under a belief system -- bolstered by their biggest contributors -- which always trumps facts. The members are not only ignorant, some say they believe that ignorance is superior to knowledge: climate scientists cannot be trusted because they are, you know, paid for studying climate change. Worth noting: those House members are paid for being dumb as dirt. Next time any of them need some surgery, I'd be happy to do it for free. I am completely ignorant of how to perform any medical procedures. But I'm sure a knife will come in handy.

God News

Here's your Sunday Bible story. Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post (September 12): Steve Green -- the son of the founder of Hobby Lobby -- is building a massive Bible museum two blocks from the Washington Mall. He also amassed a huge collection of valuable Biblical artifacts after the global financial crisis left owners in need of cash. The question now is whether the museum is going to be a Noah's Ark-type joke or a center for scholarly research. Via Steve Benen.

Rachel Zoll of the AP: "On Saturday, Pope Francis named [moderate Bishop Blase] Cupich as the next archbishop of Chicago, sending a strong signal about the direction that the pontiff is taking the church. Cupich will succeed Cardinal Francis George, 77, an aggressive defender of orthodoxy who once said he expected his successors in Chicago to be martyred in the face of hostility toward Christianity." ...

... The Chicago Sun-Times story, by Francine Knowles, is here.

Gubernatorial Races

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times assesses the Florida gubernatorial race, which polls show as nearly tied up up between Democrat (& former Republican governor) Charlie Crist & the current govenor, Rick Scott. ...

... Jonathan Chait takes another look at "What's the Matter with Kansas?" Answer: Gov. Sam Brownback.

Beyond the Beltway

Playing in Peoria. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "... can a citizen be prosecuted for dope possession when the police were raiding his home looking for a fake Twitter account?" CW: Answer so far: Yup. This story sounds like an outtake from some half-assed 1980s comedy. Peoria definitely needs a new mayor.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Afghanistan's election commission on Sunday pronounced Ashraf Ghani the winner of the country's presidential election, but it withheld an announcement of the total votes won, despite an exhaustive and costly audit process overseen by the United Nations and financed by the American government. The suppression of the vote totals was apparently the final step necessary for the two presidential candidates to sign an American-brokered agreement to form a power-sharing government, giving the runner-up, Abdullah Abdullah, substantial powers in what is, in effect, the post of prime minister."

New York Times: "NASA’s latest Mars spacecraft, Maven, arrives Sunday evening [link fixed] to study the mystery of what happened to the planet's air. A 33-minute engine firing, beginning at 9:37 p.m. Eastern time, will put Maven in orbit around the planet. Acknowledgment will reach mission controllers 12 1/2 minutes later, the time it takes for a radio signal to travel to Earth from Mars. NASA’s website will provide a live broadcast beginning at 9:30 p.m."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 20, 2014

Internal links, defunct video removed.

New York Times Editors: "A recent report on job markets globally showed that too few jobs are being created worldwide, and even fewer good jobs are. Wages are flat or falling in all major economies as corporate profits claim an increasing share of productivity gains. The report, prepared by the World Bank, the United Nations'labor agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, notes that poor job creation and stagnant wages, if unchanged, will result in permanently lower living standards for most people amid widening inequality. It also states that the situation will not repair itself -- and, actually, is self-reinforcing.... Governments in the grip of poisoned politics and misguided ideology have largely abdicated their role." The report abstract & links to content are here.

... CW: All of this, of course, is what Krugman has been saying since 2008....

     ... As Nisky Guy points out in today's Comments, Krugman is still at it:

This idea that has been born, maybe out of the economy over the last couple years, that you know, I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this. I think I'd rather just sit around. This is a very sick idea for our country. -- John Boehner

... Paul Krugman: "I could point to the overwhelming economic evidence that nothing like this is happening.... [AND he does.] But what really gets me here is the fact that people like Boehner are so obviously disconnected from the lived experience of ordinary workers. I mean, I live a pretty rarefied existence, with job security and a nice income and a generally upscale social set -- but even so I know a fair number of people who have spent months or years in desperate search of jobs that still aren't there. How cut off (or oblivious) can someone be who thinks that it's just because they don't want to work?"

Amanda Marcotte, in Salon: "Miseducation isn't only a red-state problem. Right-wing Christians are effectively writing our country's textbooks." An excellent review of how wingers are rewriting kids' schoolbooks as part of "a massive media campaign against reality." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Crime without Consequence. Joe Pinsker of the Atlantic: Financial criminal Jordan Belfort, the real "Wolf of Wall Street," has not paid most of the millions the court ordered him to repay his victims, & he served only a portion of his sentence. "Belfort's relatively consequence-free story is only one of the more prominent ones in a parade of aggravating numbers reported on earlier this week by The Wall Street Journal. There's still $97 billion out there in penalties that the Justice Department has failed to recover, and between September 2012 and September 2013, the department collected only 22 percent of penalties doled out."

Jim Gaines of Reuters: One in four Americans wants his state to secede. Reuters called secessionist respondents at random & found random complaints; "against a recovery that has yet to produce jobs, against jobs that don't pay, against mistreatment of veterans, against war, against deficits, against hyper-partisanship, against political corruption, against illegal immigration, against the assault on marriage, against the assault on same-sex marriage, against government in the bedroom, against government in general -- the president, Congress, the courts and both political parties."

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama will not be pledging any cash to a near-empty fund for poor countries at a United Nations summit on climate change next week, the UN special climate change envoy said on Friday. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has challenged the 125 world leaders attending the 23 September summit to make 'bold pledges' to the fund, intended to help poor countries cope with climate change. The UN has been pressing rich countries to come up with pledges of between $10bn and $15bn."

Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "House leaders announced Thursday that they were cutting their already abbreviated fall session short and sending lawmakers back home -- and onto the campaign trail -- more than a week early." ...

... Gail Collins: "Before decamping to go home and run for re-election, our elected representatives voted to fund the government and go to war. Pretty much ran the table on their constitutional responsibilities." Collins' take on the House's efforts to effect tax reform is a classic. Here's the topper: "... the House ... Ways and Means Committee, which is run by Boehner's very own party, did come up with a sweeping plan for tax reform this year. The speaker promptly made fun of it. ('Blah, blah, blah, blah.') Having completely and thoroughly slammed the door on any discussion of the bill, he told reporters this week that he was 'shocked at how little I have heard about it.'" ...

... But Some Housework Is Important. Lauren French of Politico: "House Republicans have replaced the firm managing their lawsuit against President Barack Obama for alleged abuses of executive authority after the first attorney backed out of the contract under political pressure, according to GOP aides. A House staffer said the change of firms came after multiple clients of Baker & Hostetler expressed concern that the firm was engaged in what the companies saw as an overtly partisan lawsuit."

Philip Ewing of Politico: "Gen. Ray Odierno has gotten letters from some 40 members of Congress asking why they're losing troops from their home districts. His answer: Look in the mirror. 'I wrote back and I said, "The reason I'm taking soldiers out of the installation in your state is because of sequestration. Not that I want to do it...."' The Army's chief of staff told reporters Friday morning that he warned Congress even before today's vortex of crises that major troop cuts would bring 'significant risk.' ... 'That was before we had [the Islamic State] and before the Ukrainian incursion,' Odierno said."

Julie Creswell & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "... despite alarms as far back as 2008, Home Depot was slow to raise its defenses [against hacking], according to former employees. On Thursday, the company confirmed what many had feared: The biggest data breach in retailing history had compromised 56 million of its customers' credit cards. The data has popped up on black markets and, by one estimate, could be used to make $3 billion in illegal purchases.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Two civil liberties groups are edging in on conservative gadfly Larry Klayman's legal challenge to National Security Agency surveillance. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked to join in arguments set to be held in November on the government's appeal of the first and only judicial ruling disputing the constitutionality of the NSA's program sweeping up information on billions of telephone calls to, from, and within the United States. The groups asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to allow them 10 minutes of argument time."

Senate Race

Dylan Scott of TPM: "In an apparent reversal, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's office is instructing election officials in the state to send out overseas military ballots without Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor or any other Democratic Senate candidate listed." ...

... Update. Bryan Lowry of the Wichita Eagle: "But Secretary of State Kris Kobach has not given up his position that Democrats must appoint a replacement for Chad Taylor. He says overseas voters may have to cast a second ballot later. The 526 ballots to be mailed by Saturday to overseas civilians and military personnel include a disclaimer that new ballots will be printed if a court forces Democrats to name a replacement candidate. Some ballots from Johnson County went out Thursday with Taylor's name. They were amended Friday." CW: What a mess.

... CW: Since Korbach wants to create as much confusion as possible, couldn't Democrats just nominate Greg Orman? Whether voters selected him on the Independent line or on the Democratic line shouldn't matter -- all votes would accrue to him. Of course there's no guarantee Orman would caucus with Democrats.

Marie's Sports Report

Barbara Starr of CNN: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has asked his staff for detailed information about the U.S. military's relationships with the National Football League in the wake of the scandal over how the league is handling domestic-abuse allegations against players, CNN has learned.... The military has a zero-tolerance policy in the ranks for domestic abuse, but it also has a high-profile relationship with the NFL that goes back decades.... The Army alone spends some $10 million a year buying advertising from television networks broadcasting NFL games. Games are also broadcast by the Armed Forces Network to troops deployed overseas."

Blah, Blah, Blah. Lynn Zinser of the New York Times: "As calls increased for the N.F.L. to adequately address its recent rash of off-field violence, Commissioner Roger Goodell finally spoke publicly about the issue Friday, apologizing for his role in poor decision-making and promising a revamped personal conduct policy to address future cases.... Goodell had not spoken publicly since the video of [Ray] Rice punching Janay Palmer became public.... Goodell offered very little in the way of specifics in the news conference." ...

... Joe Nocera: "When he arrived at the podium, Goodell made a short statement in which he said ... nothing.... You would have thought that if Goodell were going to hold a news conference he would have something more to say than that he was sorry and that he was going to consult experts -- things he has said before. Stunningly, he didn;t, which became even clearer when reporters started asking questions."

... Jon Stewart reviews some of NFL's & NFL teams' decisive reactions to news their players were accused/guilty of domestic abuse:

... Bill Pennington & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "... in his role as the N.F.L.’s hard-bitten sheriff, Mr. Goodell appears to have had a major blind spot: domestic violence cases. Players charged with domestic violence routinely received considerably lighter punishments than players accused of other offenses, like drug use or drunken driving. Often, they were not punished at all." ...

... ** Don Van Natta & Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN lay out the Ravens' "purposeful misdirection" & the NFL's "scant investigation" of Ray Rice's knockout punch of his then-fiancee Janay Palmer. CW: The ESPN piece further puts the lie to some of the NFL's claims following TMZ's publication of the elevator-cam video. ...

... Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: Some fans who love the Redskins' name are upset when, for a segment of the "Daily Show," actual Native Americans confront them. One fan called the police. CW: As far as I can tell, the segment, which was shot last week, hasn't aired.

Vice President Joe Gaffe. At a Democratic women's conference, Biden evokes fond memories of serial sexual harasser Bob Packwood. Really. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Oregon Republican resigned from the Senate in 1995 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assaulting women. The Senate ethics committee had voted unanimously to recommend his expulsion." But Packwood was bipartisan! CW: MEANWHILE, a former runner-up for Biden's job is promoting physical violence. Go to the bottom of the page to link on the details.

Annals of "Journalism," Mob Edition. Joseph Berger of the New York Times: "A federal grand jury [in White Plains, New York] indicted [Selem] Zherka, 46, of Somers, the owner of two strip clubs in Manhattan and a modest real estate empire and the publisher of The Westchester Guardian, on fraud charges in connection with applications seeking $146 million in property loans. He was also charged with income-tax fraud and witness tampering. Moreover, in papers submitted for a bail hearing on Friday, two assistant United States attorneys ... accused Mr. Zherka, the Bronx-bred son of an Albanian-immigrant janitor, of essentially being a dangerous thug.... Mr. Zherka, a litigious man who has filed multiple lawsuits against his antagonists, has called himself the state Tea Party's 'loudest voice' and has said he had been unfairly pursued by the Internal Revenue Service as part of a government 'witch hunt.' But some local Tea Party leaders have distanced themselves from him." Read the whole story.

AP: "Al Jazeera America is suing former Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, the former owners of the TV network that became Al Jazeera America. The parties are fighting over money that is being held in escrow."

Beyond the Beltway

Grassroots Voter Suppression. AnnieJo of Daily Kos: "A Facebook group calling themselves the 'Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia' (update: page has since disappeared and now it's back!) is threatening armed intimidation of voters who signed the Scott Walker recall in 2012 who also have any outstanding warrants or tax defaults. The page claims 'Our militia will watch polling places and report known felons and other people wanted by law enforcement. The police are looking for you, so are we.'" From the group's Facebook page:

Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia is a force that is armed. Do not approach our members by engaging in a physical hostile act because you are going to get put down like a rabid dog. We are going to be around neighborhoods that may be crime-filled. These areas are heavy democrat-voting areas because it is a result of a poor education. We will be there to get criminal scum off the streets.

CW: I don't know Wisconsin law, but I seriously doubt having outstanding warrants or owing taxes disenfranchises a qualified voter. This group is planning unlawful -- & unjustifiable -- harassment. Also obviously racist. Thanks to safari for the link. Also, see safari's commentary in today's Comments section.

Edmund Mahony of the Hartford Courant: "Former Gov. John G. Rowland, a political rising star who crashed a decade ago in a corruption scandal, fell again Friday when a jury in federal court found him guilty in a low-rent scheme to collect secret paychecks from rich Republican congressional candidates."

Tom Hart of the Guardian: "A court has upheld the constitutional right of Texans to photograph strangers as an essential component of freedom of speech -- even if those images should happen to be surreptitious 'upskirt' pictures of women taken for the purposes of sexual gratification. Criticising an anti-'creepshot' law as a 'paternalistic' intrusion on a person's right to be aroused, the Texas court of criminal appeals struck down part of the state's 'improper photography or visual recording' statute which banned photographing, broadcasting or transmitting a visual image of another person without the other's consent and with the intention to 'arouse or gratify ... sexual desire'."

Toast? Or Artisan Sourdough Round? Jonathan Dienst, et al., of WNBC: "The U.S. Justice Department investigation into Gov. Chris Christie's role in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal has thus far uncovered no evidence indicating that he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the span, federal officials tell NBC 4 New York.... Federal officials caution that the investigation that began nine months ago is ongoing and that no final determination has been made.... [New Jersey] Assemblyman John Wisniewski said the state legislative committee's investigation into the bridge lane closures is continuing." ...

... Melissa Hayes of the Bergen Record: "Governor Christie called on the lawmakers investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures to wrap up their investigation during a State House news conference Thursday morning.... Christie spent more than 3 minutes chastising the Democratic-led committee during a State House news conference where he made unrelated staff announcements." ...

... Star-Ledger Editors: "Gov. Chris Christie wants the committee investigating Bridgegate to close up shop, saying it is a partisan witch hunt that has run out of gas.... Before he finishes this victory lap, a few reminders: No one on the investigative committee has accused him of personally ordering these lane closures.... But what about the cover-up? What about the bogus claim that this was all part of a traffic study?" The editors compare the investigations to Watergate & Christie to Richard Nixon. ...

... Update. Bob Jordan of the Asbury Park Press: "NBC says a report by Brian Williams on the network's Nightly News that federal charges have been ruled out for Gov. Chris Christie in the George Washington Bridge scandal was incorrect. Federal prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing and haven't made any announcement on Christie's status."

Former Half-Governor & Second Runner-up in the 2008 Veeps Beauty Pageant Sarah Palin obliquely defends her daughter Bristol for repeatedly punching up on a friend of the family. Something about her being a "strong young woman" promoting "family values."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Chris Johnson & Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "Gordon Brown has called on Scotland to unite behind a common future for the country after voters' rejection of independence in Thursday's referendum. In a passionate speech in Dunfermline, Fife, on Saturday, the former [British] prime minister - whose late intervention in the referendum campaign has been credited with helping to secure the no vote - said: 'Let us think of ourselves not as yes and no Scots but simply as Scots and let us be a nation, united again.'" ...

... Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "The decisive rejection of Scotland's independence referendum set off an instant scramble Friday to fundamentally reorganize constitutional power in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron citing a chance 'to change the way the British people are governed.' With Thursday's 'no' vote, Cameron avoided the eternal stigma that would have come from allowing Britain to break up on his watch. But with parliamentary elections due next spring, the prime minister still faces a raging anti-establishment tide that helped to fuel the Scottish independence bid and has penetrated all corners of the United Kingdom."

News Ledes

Guardian: "The United States has quietly released 14 Pakistani citizens from military detention in Afghanistan, where the US holds its most secret cohort of detainees in its war on terrorism. The US military transferred the 14 to Pakistani government custody on Saturday. It did not publicize the release, as is typical with releases from the detention center on the outskirts of Bagram Airfield which is known formally as the Detention Facility in Parwan. A Pakistani human rights group instead announced the transfer and said it was the largest number of Pakistanis the US has thus far released."

New York Times: "Polly Bergen, an actress, singer and businesswoman who won an Emmy in 1957 for her portrayal of the alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan and was nominated for another 50 years later for her role on the television show 'Desperate Housewives,' died on Saturday at her home in Southbury, Conn. She was 84."

New York Times: "The two candidates for president of Afghanistan have agreed on a power-sharing deal that will give the losing candidate substantial influence in the next government, initialing the American-brokered deal Saturday night and promising to sign it at a formal ceremony on Sunday. The deal promised an end at last to the tumultuous, five-month-long aftermath of the Afghan presidential elections, although previous settlements have repeatedly collapsed at the last minute despite the candidates' promises."

New York Times: "A Texas man who scaled the White House fence made it through the North Portico doors on Friday night before being apprehended, the Secret Service said. The intruder, Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, was arrested just inside the doors and taken to George Washington University Hospital after complaining of chest pains, said Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman. None of the Obamas were home when the security breach occurred about 7:20 p.m., but White House staff members were evacuated as a precaution, officials said. President Obama and his daughters had left for the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., just minutes before the incident." ...

     ... New Lede: "The Secret Service will conduct an internal review of its security procedures around the White House after a man who jumped the fence Friday night at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue managed to make his way through the front door of President Obama's home before being stopped, officials said Saturday." ...

     ... ** Washington Post UPDATE: "Within seconds, the man who relatives said served as a sniper in the Iraq War got to the front double doors of the North Portico, turned the brass knob and stepped inside the vestibule. There he was grabbed and subdued by an officer standing post inside the door. He was carrying a folding knife with a 2-1/2 inch serrated blade." ...

... Fox "News": "A New Jersey man was arrested Saturday outside the White House after driving up to a gate and refusing to leave, less than 24 hours after another man jumped the fence and got inside the presidential mansion before being arrested, which has resulted in increased security and a 'comprehensive internal review,' according to the Secret Service."

New York Times: "Forty-nine Turkish hostages who had been held for months in Iraq by Islamic State militants were returned to Turkey on Saturday after what Turkey said was a covert operation led by its intelligence agency. The hostages, including diplomats and their families, had been seized in June from the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul." ...

     ... Too Good to Be True? AP UPDATE: "Turkish authorities say they have freed 49 hostages from one of the world's most ruthless militant groups without firing a shot, paying a ransom or offering a quid pro quo. But as the well-dressed men and women captured by the Islamic State group more than three months ago clasped their families Saturday on the tarmac of the Turkish capital's airport, experts had doubts about the government's story."