The Commentariat -- January 21

** Best Blogpost Ever on Court Challenges to the Affordable Care Law. Rick Ungar of Forbes (of all places), in a post titled, "Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance...":

In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed - 'An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.' The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.

Keep in mind that the 5th Congress did not really need to struggle over the intentions of the drafters of the Constitutions in creating this Act as many of its members were the drafters of the Constitution.

Steve Benen on Joe Lieberman -- still able to get "foreign policy AND feminism wrong at the same time."

I'm posting this for the behind-the-scenes stuff, which I love:

CW: Mary Williams Walsh of the New York Times writes what I think is an alarming report on what some policymakers are advocating for cash-strapped states: bankruptcy, including reneging on pension obligations to retirees. My friend Peter S. directs you to the most recommended comment by Zeppo.

Jeffrey Immelt in a Washington Post op-ed: "President Obama has asked me to chair his new President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.... The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government...." (See today's news.) ...

... Read Marcy Wheeler on Jeff Immelt: "... no matter how many times Immelt gets up on a podium or in an op-ed and feigns an interest in American jobs, his actions make him the poster child for everything wrong with the U.S. economy right now." Marcy embeds this terrific clip from Bernie Sanders' Senate "filibuster":

... Also, please read Melissa McEwan on Obama's choice of Immelt. I can't match her sarcasm, but she perfectly captures my sense of the pick. ...

... Pat Garofalo of the Wonk Room: "... due to a corporate tax system that is loophole-ridden and full of giveaways, General Electric pays a pittance in corporate income tax. Though the statutory corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, GE last year paid a paltry 3.6 percent. In 2009, despite making $10.3 billion in pretax income, GE paid nothing in corporate income tax (and, in fact, received $1.1 billion in tax benefits)." ...

... The new chairman of our "Council on Jobs" is what you might accurately call a "jobs-killer."

Noam Scheiber in The New Republic on President Obama's Wall Street Journal op-ed piece re: regulatory reform. Here's the President's piece. Scheiber's analysis is pretty illuminating.

Ezra Klein: "It's the age of civility in American politics, but there's one institution that's been civil all along: the Congressional Budget Office.... The nonpartisan agency ... speaks in the polite language of actuarial tables, refuses to reliably please or disappoint either party and is the closest thing American politics has to an umpire. And the Republicans are getting sick and tired of it."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: Dick Armey to House Republican Tea Party members: "Curb your enthusiasm." Includes three videos of Dick Armey talking, none of which I even clicked on. CW: my friend Kate Madison warned at least a year ago that Armey, a big financial backer of the TP, would try to make regular Republicans out of any tea party members who made it to Congress. Let's see how that goes. ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders confronted pressure from conservatives on Thursday to take more aggressive steps to cut federal spending, with a large group of lawmakers calling for outlays to be slashed by $2.5 trillion over the next decade, far more than the party has sought so far." ...

... Steve Benen: "The likelihood of these cuts actually passing is non-existent, but it is a helpful snapshot of Republican priorities. But also note perhaps the most important detail about a plan such as this one: it would be devastating for American jobs. Indeed, if lawmakers were to get together to plot how Congress could deliberately increase unemployment, their plan would look an awful lot like this one. The RSC proposal would deliberately fire thousands of civilian workers, force states to make sweeping job cuts, and lay off thousands more who work in transportation and infrastructure." ...

... David Dayan of Firedoglake: "The value in [the Republican Study Committee's spending cuts] document is knowing that the battle lines have been drawn.... The end of the continuing resolution on March 4, as well as the need to increase the debt limit, hang out there over the horizon."

As the Worms Turn. AP: Justices Scalia & Thomas try to explain away their relationship with Charles Koch, one of the brothers who have benefited from the Citzens United ruling, in which Scalia & Thomas were in the majority. The Supremes look shady to me. But you decide. Here's the New York Times' backstory, which I linked to yesterday.

Another reason DADT was stupid. Mark Thompson of Time: "The Government Accountability Office has concluded it cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 million to oust 3,664 service personnel for violating the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law between 2004 to 2009.... That works out to $52,800 per person."

Floyd Norris of the New York Times suggests a new chapter for Gail Collins' proposed book, Everything Bad Is Joe Lieberman's Fault. Norris says had it not been for Lieberman's insistence in 1994 upon allowing fantastical stock-option accounting, "some of the worst excesses of the technology stock bubble might have been avoided."

AP: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords left a Tucson hospital Friday and is being flown to a Houston rehabilitation center for her next steps in her recovery, less than two weeks after the congresswoman was shot in the head. Well-wishers ... lined the ambulance's route between the hospital and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where Giffords was loaded on a specially outfitted jet." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's transfer Friday from a Tucson trauma center to a Houston hospital went 'flawlessly,' and she will begin rehabilitation right away, doctors said."

Michelle Obama is killing people on the streets! Jason Linkins mocks the Daily Caller's latest lunacy.

President Obama on the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Scroll down for JFK's inaugural address:

Don't Taze Me, Bro'

Tim Egan of the New York Times reports statistics that contradict & disprove the popular myth that an armed citizenry makes for a safer America. For one thing, people "with guns were four times more likely to be shot when confronted by an armed assailant than those without guns." And for another, Hawaii -- the state with the lowest rate of gun ownership -- has the lowest gun death rate in the country. Louisiana, by contrast, has the highest gun owership rate -- and of course the highest gun death rate in the country. Pass it on.

Once again, the Times has held back my comment, so here it is:

Like a good tea partier, I want to go back to the good old days of the Founding Fathers. I want my Second Amendment right to form a militia. We haven't had any state militias since something like the 1830s, & I'm hankering to form one. Without militias, the Second Amendment has been made moot. Think I'm wrong? Ask ultra-conservative Judge Robert Bork. In 1989, he said, the Second Amendment "guarantee[s] the right of states to form militias, not for individuals to bear arms.”

Not good enough for ya because Bork got Borked? Well, here's Republican Warren Burger, a former Chief Justice, on the same subject. He said that the N.R.A.’s interpretation of the Second Amendment was “one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word ‘fraud,’ on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”

Okay, so that doesn't mean guns must be illegal, just because we don't have militias & the modern Court has allowed the NRA to perpetrate a fraud on the nation. So, with the tea partiers, let's go back to the 1790s & let everybody carry a musket. Keep your powder dry, boys.

An obsession with guns is a form of insanity unique to certain elements in this country & to terrorists, insurrectionists, the Mafia & drug cartels. The rest of us need to do all we can to end the madness in this country.

You want personal protection & a musket just won't do? Many states allow citizens to carry Tasers. Studies show a Taser does a lot better job at disabling an armed intruder (without killing him) than a gun does. And if you use a Taser instead of a gun on an intruder, you won't have to live the rest of your life knowing you killed a punk over an old TV & your laptop.

The Commentariat -- January 20

On the 50th anniversary, E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post recalls John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. Here it is:

Sargent Shriver. Art by Justin Gabbard for the New York Times.In a New York Times op-ed, Bono remembers Sargent Shriver. ...

Scott Stossel of The Atlantic, who is also Shriver's biographer, remembers his subject:

Even as the disease[Alzheimer's] robbed him of his memory, and sometimes of his logic, it did not rob him of his spirit -- warm, ebullient, devout, inspiring -- which was essential to all that he achieved.

Michelle Obama endorses Wal-Mart's promise to phase more healthful foods into their product line. Getty image.New York Times: "Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, will announce a five-year plan on Thursday to make thousands of its packaged foods lower in unhealthy salts, fats and sugars, and to drop prices on fruits and vegetables. The initiative came out of discussions the company has been having with Michelle Obama, the first lady, who will attend the announcement in Washington and has made healthy eating and reducing childhood obesity the centerpiece of her agenda. Aides say it is the first time Mrs. Obama has thrown her support behind the work of a single company." ...

... Debbie Wilgoren & Ylan Mui of the Washington Post say Michelle Obama gave Wal-Mart "a glowing endorsement" today for promising to sell healthier food. But Karen Garcia sees the connection between the First Lady & Wal-Mart as long and murky.

... AND when she wasn't doing that... Washington Post: "Visitors touring the White House got more than they bargained for Thursday when first lady Michelle Obama and the family dog, Bo, dropped in to welcome them on the second anniversary of President Obama's inauguration." You might want to watch part of the video, which runs an hour.

Right. Michelle & Barack Obama await the arrival of China's President Hu in advance of the state dinner. Reuters picture.

Cathy Horyn of the New York Times on the dress.

If, like me, you thought Michelle Obama looked stunning at the state dinner last night, you're not a right-winger. Media Matters has a roundup of the usual loons who are all upset because the First Lady wore a communist red dress.

Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "A recently completed investigation of the killing of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan nine years ago makes public new evidence that a senior al-Qaeda operative executed the Wall Street Journal reporter.... The new report which was prepared by faculty members and students at Georgetown University, U.S. officials have concluded that vascular technology, or vein matching, shows that the hand of the unseen man who killed Pearl on video is that of [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed. The report also says Mohammed told the FBI that a senior al-Qaeda operative advised him to take control of Pearl from his original kidnappers." The report is here.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "When the conservative financier Charles Koch sent out invitations for a political retreat..., he highlighted past appearances at the gathering of 'notable leaders' like Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. [Common Cause,] a leading liberal group, is now trying to use that connection to argue that Mr. Scalia and Mr. Thomas should disqualify themselves from hearing campaign finance cases because they may be biased toward Mr. Koch, a billionaire who has been a major player in financing conservative causes.... Common Cause filed a petition with the Justice Department on Wednesday asking it to investigate potential conflicts by Justices Scalia and Thomas and move for their disqualification from the landmark Citizens United case...."

Patrick Coolican of the Las Vegas Sun: "The robust firearms economy is showing striking defiance of the recession, as well as the ritual condemnations of gun violence in the wake of the recent shooting of 19 people ... in Tucson." ...

... Whither Obama? Glenn Thrush of Politico: "Gun control is a perilous issue for President Barack Obama ... so the push for new restrictions following the Tucson shootings puts the president in an especially tricky political predicament.... White House officials have remained noncommittal about an effort by liberals in the House and Senate to restrict access to the kind of high-capacity ammunition magazines that allowed suspect Jared Lee Loughner to inflict mass casualties in a matter of seconds using a single, legal handgun. Gun control advocates say Obama ... has the moral responsibility to make some kind of statement on the issue...." ...

... Nicole Santa Cruz & Ashley Powers of the Los Angeles Times: Arizona "Gov. Jan Brewer, long a champion of services for the mentally ill, reluctantly agreed to cut funding amid a budget crisis. It's just one example of the battle mental health advocates across the U.S. face as cash-strapped legislatures chop services." ...

... Michael Powell of the New York Times: "As state governments struggle with the fiscal damage caused by the recession, an income tax increase has become a rarely used remedy." ...

... Right. But some states have other great budget-balancing ideas:

Charles Mahtesian of Politico: "By the geriatric standards of the Senate, the retirement of 68-year-old Sen. Joe Lieberman comes at a relatively young age. But Wednesday’s news that the Connecticut Democrat plans to leave the stage in 2012 surprised no one: It was clear the role he played was outdated and even clearer that he was thoroughly unsuited for the modern political era." ...

... Gail Collins: "Lieberman has reached a point in his public career when every single thing he does, including talking about his grandparents, is irritating." ...

... Lieberman's eulogy to Lieberman was narcissistic even by Washington standards. If he had started lip-synching Piaf doing 'Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien' nobody would have been surprised. -- Karen Garcia (#11) ...

... Peter Applebome of the New York Times: two Senators from Connecticut -- Chris Dodd & Joe Lieberman -- how is one not like the other? ...

... At least Lieberman is better than Utah's new loony Sen. Mike Lee, who thinks "child labor laws, the minimum wage, and bans on race and gender dicrimination are unconstitutional." And, BTW, so is federal disaster assistance. Ian Millhiser's Think Progress story is here; it includes audio. Thank you, Utah. ...

... AND former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) continues to move up the race for worst Senator ever. Washington Post: "In an interview with the conservative CNS News, [Santorum] linked President Obama's race to his position on abortion."

For a host of reasons, my friends don't care for Rep. Anthony Weiner, but for stuff like this, I do:

Leslie Gelb in the Daily Beast: in the war of wills Hu won the summit, without having to do much but stand up and smile. ...

... "The Rise of the Chinese Cheneys." Nicholas Kristof: "China today resembles the Bush era in America: Hard-liners are ascendant. Brace yourself."

Good luck running against me, Amb. Huntsman!

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is preparing to increase the use of military commissions to prosecute Guantánamo detainees, an acknowledgment that the prison in Cuba remains open for business after Congress imposed steep new impediments to closing the facility."

Anne Kornblut & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Obama is moving his political operation outside the White House and will launch his reelection campaign in March or April. With the biggest parts of a staff reshuffling behind him, Obama has approved some more moves for his political team, shifting his political director to the Democratic National Committee and sending two key operatives to serve as deputy campaign managers in what will be his campaign headquarters in Chicago."

AP: "In the latest milestone in Gabrielle Giffords' recovery from a bullet wound to the brain, the congresswoman stood up and looked out a window even as preparations got under way for a move to Houston, where she'll undergo extensive mental and physical rehabilitation. Her swift transition from an intensive care unit to a rehab center based on the latest research, which shows the sooner rehab starts, the better patients recover."

     ... New York Times Update: "Representative Gabrielle Giffords continues to recover remarkably well from a gunshot to the head and is likely to be moved to a Houston rehabilitation hospital on Friday, her doctors and her husband said on Thursday."