The Commentariat -- October 14, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Barbaro & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking to halt the momentum of her insurgent challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, aggressively questioned his values, positions and voting history in the first Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday night, turning a showdown that had been expected to scrutinize her character into a forceful critique of his record." ...

Dan Balz & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed ... Tuesday night over national security, the economy, big banks and gun-control policy in a spirited but largely civil debate that underscored competing approaches to helping the middle class and leading the country." ...

... The Washington Post has a transcript of the debate here. ...

... The Guardian's summary (at 5:15 am) is helpful. ...

... New York "Times reporters will provide instant analysis and fact-checking during the debate. Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. Follow along on your phone or computer at nytimes.com, facebook.com/nytpolitics and @NYTPolitics. Follow along during the day." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post fact-check the candidates. Mostly quibbles about statistics, but a few substantive phony claims. ...

     (... CW: I am somewhat exercised about Clinton's blithe claim that Ed Snowden could have just gone the whistleblower route. Besides the legal issue Kessler covered here, I don't see what good it would have done for Snowden to alert Congress or an inspector general. A number of members of Congress already knew a good part of what Snowden leaked, but they never shared with the public the information Snowden revealed, information I think the public had a right to know & the government had an obligation to fix. Nor did they accomplish reforms to rein in the NSA. No, I'm no fan of Snowden's; I think he went overboard & was grossly incautious. But a large portion of what news media have published was surely in the public interest.)

... Dana Milbank writes what is probably the Villagers' collective assessment of the debate performances: "Hillary Clinton was a head shorter than her rivals when they lined up on stage.... But after that moment, she towered over them. Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley was preachy and self-righteous. Former Virginia senator Jim Webb kept complaining that he wasn't getting enough time to talk. Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee was more quirky spectator than participant. And Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont shouted as if he were unaware that he had a microphone." What say you? ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Clinton demonstrated that she was, by far, the best presidential candidate on stage.... She is not great at politics, as even many of her supporters concede. (Earlier today, Glenn Thrush and Annie Karni reported, 'Nearly every one of 50 advisers, donors, Democratic operatives and friends we interviewed for this story thought Clinton was a mediocre candidate who would make a good president....') But she is not as awful at it as she has appeared for most of 2015. After the debate, she again resembles what she appeared to be at the campaign's outset: the all-but-certain Democratic nominee." ...

... Rebecca Traister of New York: "[Sanders] gave [Clinton] the night's biggest Valentine, with his declaration that 'The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,' but she responded in kind, with genuine gratitude and a warm smile. The truth is, Sanders has offered Clinton -- and Democrats -- a million gifts so far this season. Among the most valid fears was that Hillary's candidacy would go unchallenged, would proceed as a coronation." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Clinton didn't have the passion of Sanders or the poetry of O'Malley's sign-off, but she had something else: the self-confidence and killer instinct of a politician who has been down this route before." ...

... D. D. Guttenplan of the Nation: "... over the course of the night [Sanders'] answers ... revealed the fundamental difference between his approach and Clinton's. Although she described herself as 'a progressive,' Clinton typifies all that is good -- and bad -- about Democratic liberalism. She wants to tinker, and tweak, and make the system fairer. Sanders wants to tear it down, and to do that he really will need a movement, not just a mobilization." ...

... Eric Holthaus points out that Hillary Clinton is not going to be the "Environment President." ...

... Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Unfortunately for [Vice President] Biden, Hillary Clinton's adult performance just made it a lot harder for him to take a seat at the table.... And, if she aces next week's Benghazi hearing on Capitol Hill -- and many Democrats I spoke to expect she will -- then she would have effectively eliminated any remaining arguments for a Biden run. Unless, of course, the ongoing FBI investigation into the security of her email server ends in a bombshell that instantly blows open the door. But for now, Biden looks left out in the cold." ...

... Edward-Issac Dovere of Politico: "Now, Biden's orbit has put out word that he's going to take another week to make a decision -- right up against Clinton's appearance in front of the Benghazi Committee that once seemed like it could become an embarrassing inquisition, but that she's now already framing a tedious partisan fishing expedition." ...

     ... CW: It's probably worth noting that Clinton, et al., had no trouble dispatching Biden in 2008. He dropped out of the race January 3, after getting less than one percent of the Iowa caucus vote. I really can't see any big advantage Biden has over Clinton, other than "his name isn't Clinton." ...

... Seth Stevenson of Slate critiques Donald Trump's critique of the debate: "It's like Trump thinks the election is American Idol, and he's somehow both Kelly Clarkson and Simon Cowell at the same time." Humorous. And true: Trump does see the election as "American Idol." ...

Carrie Dann of NBC News: Donald Trump "will host NBC's 'Saturday Night Live' on November 7, the show announced Tuesday." ...

     ... CW: I can't be sure, but I'd say Shep Smith does not think this is a good idea:

Andy Borowitz: "The Democrats who participated in the first Democratic Presidential debate of the 2016 campaign garnered a scathing review from the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who said that none of them offered a concrete plan to protect the Earth from an invasion of bloodthirsty alien dragons." ...

... CW: Actually, Andy, what Doc Sleepy might have said is that "none of them offered a concrete plan to forestall the End of Days." And, no, this is not satire. ...

... GOP Voters Opt for the Crazy. Nick Gass of Politico: "Ben Carson is drawing ever closer to Donald Trump among likely Republican primary voters, according to the results of the latest Fox News poll released Tuesday evening. The retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon took 23 percent to Trump's 24 percent, followed by 10 percent for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 9 percent for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 8 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 5 percent each for Carly Fiorina and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 3 percent for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Other candidates earned 1 percent or less, with 7 percent undecided."

** Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker on how the partisan Benghaaazi! committee walked away from an opportunity to highlight President Obama & Secretary Clinton's failure to plan for post-Qaddafi Libya in the same way President Bush had no plan for post-Saddam Iraq. ...

... CW: Here's what we know after decades of misadventures in the Middle East: (1) After deposing a dictator or quasi-dictator, Western micro-management of the "transition" doesn't work. (2) After deposing a dictator or quasi-dictator, leaving the locals to their own devices doesn't work.

David Crary of the AP: "Responding to a furor over undercover videos, Planned Parenthood said Tuesday that it would no longer accept payments to cover the costs of the programs that make fetal tissue available for research.... Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited and denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement of costs. The new policy -- forgoing even permissible reimbursement -- was outlined in a letter sent Tuesday by Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, to Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health." ...

... CW: This is pretty sad. I'm extremely sorry Planned Parenthood succumbed to Republican intimidation. The governmental body that authorized reimbursement is the very one that bludgeoned Planned Parenthood to forego it. Their costs of maintaining & transferring the tissue will mean less money to provide other reproductive services. ...

     ... Update: See Victoria D.'s comment below.

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: In Afghanistan, ISIS is peeling off Taliban, often by paying bonuses to out-of-work young men. "In a series of quick strikes, the Islamic State fighters began driving out local Taliban units, and officials say the splinter group now has a clear foothold across several districts in eastern Nangarhar Province, in rugged terrain on the border with Pakistan that had long been mostly out of government control. The fighters may mostly be former Taliban, but they appear to have wholeheartedly taken up the calculated cruelty that the Islamic State has become known for, consolidating their hold with a brutality that has been shocking even by the standards of the Afghan insurgency." CW: Ceaseless war. From horrible to worse.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

It isn't only Donald Trump who treats the presidential race like a season of "American Idol." Paul Krugman: "The commentariat seems to have turned on a dime. After trashing Hillary Clinton nonstop, they're all talking her up. And you can see why, given the revelations that (a) the whole Benghazi thing, including the email obsession, was a partisan witch hunt and (b) Clinton herself is smart, articulate, and has a good sense of humor. But the odd thing about these revelations is that they weren't at all revelatory... Anyway, it's quite sad that after all these years political coverage still treats the momentous issue of who will lead the world's most powerful nation like a high school popularity contest."

Dan Merica & Sunlen Serfaty of CNN demonstrate how to profile a candidate's spouse. Rule 1: Don't say anything about her. Rebecca Traister: "The profile is a decent length -- more than 900 words. Here's how many of those words are devoted to describing anything about Jane Sanders that is not related to how she met, reflects, works with, believes in, helps, or otherwise bolsters her husband: 25. I'm actually being generous here because I counted their mention that she was 'born in Brooklyn' even though that seems to have only been included because her birthplace was 'a few blocks from the man who would be her future husband.'" ...

... Here's a CNN segment where we learn Jane is Bernie's "secret weapon." ...

... CW: Best argument I can think of for Hillary for President. The press has already taken a bit of interest in her spouse. Maybe because he isn't a wife. Please don't think that discrimination against women is limited to curtailing reproductive rights, job discrimination, lesser pay, etc. The authors of this "profile" are young people. One might hope -- since they grew up in an era when becoming a wife no longer meant legally ceasing to be a woman with individual rights -- they would recognize that the candidate's wife is an actual person. But no.

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a local gun shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A Scottish nurse who seemed to recover from Ebola 10 months ago has been rehospitalized and is now critically ill, the Royal Free Hospital in London reported Wednesday. Scientists have long known that the Ebola virus can persist for months in certain tissues of the body that are relatively protected from the immune system, including the eyes and the testes."

Washington Post: "Thousands of Israeli soldiers and border police fanned out across major cities and security forces began to erect checkpoints to close off Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem on Wednesday to stem a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis. Military officials say the use of hundreds of Israeli soldiers along highways and in residential areas is the first such deployment in more than a decade, since the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in the early 2000s."

The Commentariat -- October 13, 2015

Internal links removed.

Jennifer Steinhauer: Influential far-right pundits say Paul Ryan is "too far left." Meaning he opposes shutting down the government until we reinstate the original Constitution, with no Amendments except the Second & Tenth. ...

... Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos on why Ryan won't be speaker.: he has demands, the Krazee Kaucus has demands, & never the twain shall meet. ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Tom Cotton [RTP-Ark.] told us in an interview that with all the instability in the House leadership, it's time to turn to the former vice president [Dick Cheney]. 'Look, these are trying times for our nation. It's important to have a steady hand on the helm during times like this. I think experience really counts in a matter like this. I think House leadership experience really matters. And as you know the speaker doesn't have to be a member of the House: So therefore, Vice President Cheney for speaker.' [Seung Min Kim] and I asked if he was serious, and Cotton replied: 'He's a man of the House, he says that himself.'" ...

... CW: Of course I ignored Mark Halperin's latest prognostications, but Ed Kilgore takes on the drama queen. There are two great dramas! But they're like one! The fate of the world lies in Joe Biden's & Paul Ryan's hands! I'll be writing a book about it! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal court deadline Tuesday will be a pivotal turning point in [Denny Hastert's] felony case, signaling whether the former House speaker will plead guilty to a deal that has been under negotiation since at least late September with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago." CW: Another reminder of what a corrupt gang of hacks & criminals has led the House GOP for generations now. Also, I believe most turning points are pivotal & most pivots are turning points.

Jeremy Diamond & Jake Tapper of CNN: "The attorneys for a former investigator with the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Monday issued a cease-and-desist letter alleging that Republican Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy violated confidentiality terms of a mediation between the parties.... Discussions that are part of the mandatory 30-day mediation between Podliska and the committee are confidential under the Congressional Accountability Act.... Gowdy in a statement on Sunday said that Podliska had 'demanded money from the Committee,' that 'the Committee has refused to pay him....'... When asked about the mediation in his interview with CNN, [former staffer Bradley] Podlaski demurred: 'I can't comment on the mediation process, unfortunately.'"

Laurel Sweet of the Boston Herald: "Former Vietnam POW and U.S. Sen. John McCain tells the Herald he’ll call a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee if 
accused Army deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is allowed to avoid prison -- a potential power play Bergdahl's attorney calls 'unlawful' and 'deeply disturbing.' 'If it comes out that he has no punishment, we're going to have to have a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee,' said McCain, who chairs the committee. 'And I am not prejudging, OK, but it is well known that in the searches for Bergdahl, after -- we know now -- he deserted, there are allegations that some American soldiers were killed or wounded, or at the very least put their lives in danger, searching for what is clearly a deserter. We need to have a hearing on that.'"

President Obama & writer Marilynne Robinson have a conversation in Iowa.

Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "Two former CIA prisoners and the family of another detainee who froze to death at a secret prison in Afghanistan have sued the architects of the spy agency's detention and interrogation program. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Spokane, Wash., against James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, a pair of psychologists who earned millions using untested, brutal techniques, such as waterboarding, on CIA prisoners. The suit alleges that the CIA tortured Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud at a black site dubbed Salt Pit, exposing them to a regime that the psychologists had developed.... The suit also says that the CIA kidnapped and killed Gul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who died of hypothermia in November 2002 at Salt Pit.... The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the suit on behalf of the other former detainees, said the psychologists conspired with the CIA to torture the three men and committed war crimes."

Maj. Lisa Jaster, during Ranger training. Army photo.Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "On Monday, the Army announced that [Maj. Lisa] Jaster, 37, has become the third woman to ever complete the [Army] Ranger School course. She will join Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, who earned the Ranger tab on Aug. 21. Jaster will join 87 men in receiving the coveted decoration in a ceremony at Fort Benning on Friday."

Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "Twitter announced a series of job cuts Tuesday that will trim its workforce worldwide by 336 employees, or about eight percent, according to a company regulatory filing." CW: Nobody has done more for Twitter than Donald Trump. (See highlighted entry under Presidential Race, for instance.) And yet. And yet. It looks like Trump won't be able to keep his campaign announcement promise that "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

"Paul Ryan Seems to Be Prioritizing His Family. That's Unusual for a Male Lawmaker." So says the top online headline in this morning's Washington Post. If that doesn't convince you that Paul Ryan is the absolutely sweetest family man in the history of Congress, the editors throw into the story a 2012 shot of the then-GOP veep candidate at a soup kitchen washing dishes with his family. What the Post doesn't tell you is that those dishes were already clean. (Hope that watch he's wearing is waterproof. Oh, no water in the sink. All good.) Res ipsa loquitur.

Charles Pierce: Somehow the oligarchy that has taken over the country never comes up on the Sunday showz. CW: It would appear that Pierce did not get up early enough to see Anthony Mason on CBS's "Sunday Morning" kissing the ring on top oligarch Charles Koch, wherein Mason & crew allowed Koch to "come across as avuncular, sincere, and high-minded, a sweet, patriotic old man," according to Akhilleus. (See today's comments.) Somehow, both-sides-do-itism never takes account of us-v.-them. Only "them" gets a hearing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Eugene Scott of CNN: "Hillary Clinton will be center stage on Tuesday night for the Democratic presidential candidates' first debate, according to the podium order released by CNN, which is hosting the event. The position of the five candidates on the stage at the CNN Facebook Democratic Debate in Las Vegas is based on polls since Aug. 1 and was announced on CNN's 'State of the Union.'" Also, we'll find a podium for you, Joe Biden, if you stop by. ...

... CW: If, like me, you can't watch the debate on the teevee, you can watch it on CNN's livestreaming channel. BUT only if you have access thru a cable or dish. ...

... New York "Times reporters will provide instant analysis and fact-checking during the debate. Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. Follow along on your phone or computer at nytimes.com, facebook.com/nytpolitics and @NYTPolitics. Follow along during the day." ...

... The Mainstream Party. Greg Sargent: "... broadly speaking, most of the positions that you'll hear from likely Dem nominee Clinton (and some from Sanders, as well) tonight will not threaten to be a liability in the general election.... The two parties' primary processes seem fundamentally different. The GOP primary has resulted in the GOP candidates embracing positions such as huge tax cuts for the rich, defunding Planned Parenthood, and mass deportations/ending birthright citizenship.... These positions probably will be liabilities in the general election. By contrast, many of the positions Dems end up taking during their primary probably won't be liabilities in the general election. We'll see if this basic imbalance is registered in the coverage." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Democrats expect the debate to be substantive and to set the course for an unexpectedly contentious nominating contest. Americans are either going to find a pleasing contrast to the rip-roaring show Republicans have put on -- or they're going to be bored senseless." ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "It isn't wrong or biased to say that Democrats make comparatively boring television. But that isn't a strike against Democrats, either. It's a reflection of the fact that the Republican Party, unlike the Democratic Party, is dominated by reactionary voters, which makes its candidates prone to saying or doing outrageous things out of a sense of necessity." ...

     ... CW: Debbie should have let Larry Lessig participate in the debate. He's the closest Democrats can come to the Ben Carson genre of candidate. He's not a career politician! He's very accomplished in his field! AND he has a bizarre plan! ...

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Over the weekend, some of [CNN]'s reporters revealed cheeky plans to expand the debate, if needed: A clean, bubble-wrapped podium reserved for Vice President Joe Biden, should he decide to enter the race even one minute before the faceoff. If Biden doesn't run, the podium will go unused. That may be the greatest indignity yet visited upon Larry Lessig, the Harvard academic and anti-corruption scholar who announced a crowd-funded presidential bid last month. As of now, he's running. Biden isn't." ...

... ** Bill Curry of Salon discusses the Democratic debates, the first of which will take place this evening.

Joe the Reluctant. Maggie Haberman & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Mr. Biden initially said he would decide by the end of summer [whether or not he would run for president]. Now aides are researching filing deadlines to see if he can keep his options open into November."

At the request of many, and even though I expect it to be a very boring two hours, I will be covering the Democrat debate live on twitter! -- Donald Trump

... Don't count yourself as a political junkie if all you do today is read a few Reality Chex links & tune into the Democratic debate while you're washing your socks following the Donald on Twitter. A real American political junkie would be spending the entire day with Rand Paul, then watching the debate with him.

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Sen. Bernie Sanders got his second congressional endorsement on Monday, from Rep. Keith Ellison."

Jack Gillum & Stephen Braun of the AP: "The private email server running in Hillary Rodham Clinton's home basement when she was secretary of state was connected to the Internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers, according to data and documents reviewed by The Associated Press.... The findings suggest Clinton's server 'violates the most basic network-perimeter security tenets: Don't expose insecure services to the Internet,' said Justin Harvey, the chief security officer for Fidelis Cybersecurity."

The Unhinged Candidate. CBN: "Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been tied to controversial Mideast Muslim leaders since the time they attended school in Moscow, according to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. Carson raised the little known historical fact during his guest appearance on CBN's The 700 Club Friday. Carson said Putin shares a deep historical tie with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, suggesting he became acquainted with them during their college days in Moscow when Putin was a young KGB operative." ...

... Steve Benen: "The trouble is, it's little known because it's not a historical fact. There's literally no evidence to suggest Khamenei ever studied in the former Soviet Union. And since he and Abbas are several years older than Putin, the timeline doesn't even make sense.... 'In a follow-up interview, Dr. Carson would not disclose his sources, but told CBN News he learned about the ties between the three leaders from advisors across the government, including the CIA.'... Not to put too fine a point on this, but we're delving deep into crackpot waters at this point. An unhinged presidential candidate, citing clandestine sources that probably do not exist, is now describing a decades-old relationship between foreign leaders that also does not appear to exist. All of this comes on the heels of increasingly alarming claims that Carson appears to have invented out of whole cloth." ...

... AND he's been making this claim quite a lot lately. Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact checked it out: "This is one of the more bizarre claims we've heard so far in the 2016 presidential campaign, and that's saying something." In an update, PolitiFact went after Carson's "sources"; i.e., his CBN claim that he "learned about the ties between the three leaders from advisors across the government, including the CIA." This clashes with the earlier suggestion by Carson's press staff to PolitiFact that the evidence for the claim could be found by 'Googling.'" CW: Maybe the CIA contacts him through secret signs that pop up on his iPad. ...

... CW: Most surprising part: Carson did not reveal the little known historical fact that Obama was in the same Moscow classroom with Putin, Khamenei & Abbas. Guess he's saving that for later. ...

... Benen asks, "Is there a point at which the political world has a conversation about whether Carson is grounded enough to be seen as a credible candidate for public office? Is it fair to say we've reached that point now?" ...

... Apparently Not. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "For a long time, Ben Carson's campaign team feared that his habit of inflammatory remarks would sink his presidential hopes. They sent him to media training in Texas. The candidate pledged to police his words. But ever since Mr. Carson said on Sept. 20 that he did not think a Muslim should be president, then refused to retract the statement amid a furious reaction, his campaign has watched grass-roots support grow and donations pour in [[ and advisers have backtracked, deciding, in the words of one, to 'let Carson be Carson.'" CW: "Inflammatory remarks"? How about batshit crazy? ...

... At least Gene Robinson gets it right: "The craziest thing about the Republican presidential contest isn't that Donald Trump is in the lead. It's that Dr. Ben Carson -- who truly seems to have lost his mind -- is in second place and gaining fast. Trump may be a blowhard, but Carson has proved himself to be a crackpot of the first order. Of all the GOP contenders, he's the scariest."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "After a relatively staid speech about some of Donald Trump's favorite subjects -- dissing President Obama, boycotting Oreos and building ice rinks -- the GOP frontrunner's appearance at the centrist No Labels convention went predictably off the rails when the floor was opened up for questions.... Attendees grilled Trump about the Tea Party and on whether he was a friend to women. Trump also asked a questioner wearing a Harvard shirt who asked about South Korea if he was South Korean. The young man was born in Texas." You can watch Trump insulting audience members here.

Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post: "Jeb Bush on Tuesday will introduce a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. But 'replace' may not be quite the right word.... Jeb's Obamacare Repeal-And-Replace Plan Is More Repeal Than Replace. Conservatives will love it. But careful if you actually get sick."

When Bullies Collide. "Chris Christie Fully Prepared to Start WWIII." Caroline Bankoff of New York: "In an MSNBC interview in which he referred to President Obama as 'this weakling in the White House,' Christie imagined himself taking a hard line with President Vladimir Putin (or just plain old 'Vladimir,' as Christie seems to call him). 'My first phone call would be to Vladimir, and I'd say, "Listen, we're enforcing this no-fly zone. And I mean we're enforcing it against anyone, including you,'" he said. 'So don't try me. Don't try me. Because I'll do it.'" CW: Chris will be as tough on Vlad as he is on kindergarten teachers.

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: A Milwaukee civil suit puts a gun store owner on trial for allowing an obviously illegal sale of a gun used a month later to seriously wound two police officers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Welcome Back, Poacher. Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times: "Just this summer, Zimbabwe was pressing to extradite an American dentist involved in the hunt that killed a lion known as Cecil, with the environment minister denouncing him as a 'foreign poacher' who had absconded home. On Monday, it changed course, saying not only that the dentist would not be charged but that he was welcome to return."

Sarah's mother took the photo. "'I know the face that I'm giving my mom was the "Really, mom? Right now you're taking a picture?"' she said.

... Your Feel-Good Story of the Day. Char Adams of People: "Sarah Ray, a paramedic from Tennessee, went well above the call of duty when she rushed to respond to a car crash on her wedding day.... Just minutes after she tied the knot with her husband, Paul, on Oct. 3, Ray received a call that her grandparents and father got into a car accident on their way to her reception. So, the bride and groom, both paramedics, sprung into action.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Taliban announced Tuesday that it is withdrawing from the key northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the site of its first significant military gain since the militants were driven from power in late 2001."

New York Times: "Four attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem and a city 40 miles away killed three Israeli Jews and wounded at least a dozen others in two hours on Tuesday morning, the police said, the most intense eruption so far in two weeks of escalating violence that has alarmed Israel and flummoxed its security forces.... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called an emergency meeting of top security officials and ministers for Tuesday afternoon. A police spokeswoman said the steps to be considered included a complete closing of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods...." ...

... CW News Flash: Flummoxed? Really? When you repress people, they're usually not happy about it. The solution you-all have come up with -- repress them some more -- seems to have flaw.

New York Times: "A 15-month inquiry into the disintegration of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in the skies over eastern Ukraine has concluded that the aircraft was most likely attacked from the ground by a Russian-made missile, Dutch air accident investigators said on Tuesday."

Washington Post: "The battle over the relocation of a United States Marine Corps base on the Japanese island of Okinawa escalated Tuesday when Okinawa's governor revoked a permit for the new construction site. The central government in Tokyo vowed to fight the governor's decision, but Tuesday's action marked the latest in a series of complications that has bedeviled the U.S. military's efforts to build a new base on Okinawa."

The Commentariat -- October 12, 2015

Defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: A Milwaukee civil suit puts a gun store owner on trial for allowing an obviously illegal sale of a gun used a month later to seriously wound two police officers.

CW: Of course I ignored Mark Halperin's latest prognostications, but Ed Kilgore takes on the drama queen. There are two great dramas! But they're like one! The fate of the world lies in Joe Biden's & Paul Ryan's hands!

Charles Pierce: Somehow the oligarchy that has taken over the country never comes up on the Sunday showz. CW: It would appear that Pierce did not get up early enough to see Anthony Mason on CBS's "Sunday Morning" kissing the ring on top oligarch Charles Koch, wherein Mason & crew allowed Koch to "come across as avuncular, sincere, and high-minded, a sweet, patriotic old man," according to Akhilleus. (See today's comments.) Somehow, both-sides-do-itism never takes account of us-v.-them. Only "them" gets a hearing.

*****

Might wanna move those indigenous Americans closer to the center of the frame.

AP: "As the US observes Columbus Day on Monday, it will also be Indigenous Peoples Day in at least nine cities, including Albuquerque; Portland, Oregon; St Paul, Minnesota; and Olympia, Washington." ...

... Alex Johnson of NBC News: "California became the first state to ban schools from using the 'Redskins' team name or mascot Sunday, a move the National Congress of American Indians said should be a "shining example" for the rest of the country. The law, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed Sunday morning, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2017. It's believed to affect only four public schools using the mascot, which many Indian groups and activists find offensive...." ...

... Becky Little of the National Geographic: "Christopher Columbus and his holiday are controversial today largely because of the way he and subsequent European explorers and settlers treated Native Americans. For years, there have been campaigns to celebrate an Indigenous Peoples' Day. But in the late 19th and early 20th century, many people ... argued that the real credit for discovering North America should go to [Leif] Erikson, whom they believed arrived 500 years before Columbus.." (CW: Last Friday, October 9, was Leif Erikson Day, in case you missed it, as I did.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Sunday called Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of a private email server 'a mistake,' but said it had not endangered national security and had been 'ginned-up' into a political attack by Republicans eager to keep her from being president. Mr. Obama made the comments during an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes' program in which he also defended his policy in Syria during a lengthy, contentious exchange with Steve Kroft, a veteran correspondent.... The president said Mrs. Clinton 'could have handled the original decision better' and might have been quicker to disclose work-related emails that had been kept on a private server outside government control." ...

... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "President Obama is refusing to say whom he will support in the 2016 presidential election, but that's not stopping him from pouring accolades on Vice President Biden, who is considering jumping into the race. 'I think Joe will go down as one of the finest vice presidents in history, and one of the more consequential,' Obama said in an interview on '60 Minutes' on Sunday. 'I think he has done great work.'... Obama said he did not know Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton used a private email server while serving as his secretary of State, but said it was 'not a situation in which America's national security was endangered.'" ...

... Video of the interview is here.

Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "When the House select committee investigating the 2012 attacks on American government outposts in Benghazi, Libya, was created, Democrats immediately criticized it as a partisan effort to damage the political fortunes of Hillary Rodham Clinton.... Now, 17 months later -- longer than the Watergate investigation lasted -- interviews with current and former committee staff members as well as internal committee documents reviewed by The New York Times show the extent to which the focus of the committee's work has shifted from the circumstances surrounding the Benghazi attack to the politically charged issue of Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state." CW: Emphasis added. Coming from the Land of He-Said/She-Said, this is a pretty bold statement. ...

... Jake Tapper's interview of Bradley Podliska, the Benghaazi! investigator whom the committee fired, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), "the chairman of the House committee on Benghazi, struck back Sunday morning at a fired staffer who is accusing the panel of engaging in a partisan probe to tarnish Hillary Rodham Clinton, with the lawmaker saying that the claims appear newly manufactured and that the staffer himself appeared obsessed with the presidential candidate. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Waldman: "Could this be the time when Benghazi finally turned from a liability to an asset for Hillary Clinton? If so, it'll be because the issue has now become less about what the select committee Republicans set up to investigate the matter has found, and more about the committee itself."

** Paul Krugman: "What makes [Paul] Ryan so special [to Republicans]? The answer, basically, is that he's the best con man they've got. His success in hoodwinking the news media and self-proclaimed centrists in general is the basis of his stature within his party. Unfortunately, at least from his point of view, it would be hard to sustain the con game from the speaker's chair.... The truth is that his budget proposals have always been a ludicrous mess of magic asterisks: assertions that trillions will be saved through spending cuts to be specified later, that trillions more will be raised by closing unnamed tax loopholes.... crazies have taken over the Republican Party, but the media don't want to recognize this reality. The combination of these two facts has created an opportunity, indeed a need, for political con men. And Mr. Ryan has risen to the challenge." CW: Tell us what you really think, Krugman.

Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "If one Republican were willing to make the sacrifice, or Boehner were willing to stick it out for the remainder of his elected term, the Freedom Caucus would be neutered. Instead, the Freedom Caucus is empowered to play whack-a-mole with various pretenders to the speakership, and can hold out until a candidate emerges who will make insane promises to them, and then attempt to deliver. Crises at every turn. Everyone loses, except them -- and perhaps the press, which is understandably reveling in this story."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is opening the door to changing the filibuster in response to growing pressure from Republicans angered that Democrats have blocked legislation from reaching the White House. McConnell has appointed a special task force to explore changes to the filibuster rule and other procedural hurdles -- including whether to eliminate filibusters on motions to proceed to legislation. That's a tactic the minority often uses to shut down a bill before amendments can be considered."

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The United States will 'make condolence payments' to the families of those killed last week in an errant strike on a trauma hospital in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Saturday. A Defense Department spokesman said it's 'important to address the consequences of the tragic incident' which killed 22 people at the facility in Kunduz, which was run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Steve Ohlemacher of the AP: "For just the third time in 40 years, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect no increase in benefits next year, unwelcome news for more than one-fifth of the nation's population. They can blame low gas prices. By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation, which is being dragged down by lower prices at the pump."

Matthew Teague of the Guardian reports on "the 1,000th mass shooting in the United States since the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre almost three years ago." It happened in the small town of Inglis, Florida, last week, just after a gunman in Oregon killed nine people at Umpqua Community College.

Charles Blow discusses the march on Washington that took place Saturday & was organized by Louis Farrakhan.

David Hoffman of the Washington Post: "President Richard Nixon believed that years of aerial bombing in Southeast Asia to pressure North Vietnam achieved 'zilch' even as he publicly declared it was effective and ordered more bombing while running for reelection in 1972, according to a handwritten note from Nixon disclosed in a new book by Bob Woodward.... Nixon's private assessment was correct, Woodward writes: The bombing was not working, but Nixon defended and intensified it in order to advance his reelection prospects. The claim that the bombing was militarily effective 'was a lie, and here Nixon made clear that he knew it,' Woodward writes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Fire Debbie! Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said she was disinvited from the first Democratic presidential primary debate in Nevada after she appeared on television and called for more face-offs.... 'When I first came to Washington, one of the things that I was disappointed about was there's a lot of immaturity and petty gamesmanship that goes on, and it kind of reminds me of how high school teenagers act,' Ms. Gabbard said in a telephone interview on Sunday night.... 'It's very dangerous when we have people in positions of leadership who use their power to try to quiet those who disagree with them,' she added. 'When I signed up to be vice chair of the D.N.C., no one told me I would be relinquishing my freedom of speech and checking it at the door.'"

Plato Predicted Trump & Carson. Jason Stanley in the New York Times: "In Book VIII of 'The Republic,' Plato is clear-eyed about these perils for democracy. He worries that a 'towering despot' will inevitably rise in any democracy to exploit its freedoms and seize power by fomenting fear of some group and representing himself as the protector of the people against that fear. It is for this reason that Plato declares democracy the most likely system to end in tyranny. Plato's prediction is most dramatically exhibited by Weimar Germany.... The fragmentation of equal respect is a clear alarm for the United States. We must heed it by categorically rejecting politicians who seek to gain office by exploiting the mistaken belief that democratic values are weaknesses." ...

     ... CW Translation: Ben Carson says Hitler can happen here. It's happening, Dr. Ben, & you're the guy. ...

... CW: The fact that the party of demagoguery has turned the Second Amendment on its head -- now it's a "right" to take up arms against the government, instead of for the government, as it was originally conceived -- is an important element in this dynamic. Don't kid yourselves; the Five Supremes are actively interpreting us right out of any semblance of democracy. It ain't just the ironically-named Citizens United.

The Ponzi Candidates. Helaine Olen in Slate: Both Donald Trump & Ben Carson have "a history of entanglements with companies that have been rightly criticized for hawking get-rich-quick schemes to the broke and desperate. The business model, which is perfectly legal, is called multilevel marketing." Why don't the other candidates highlight these nefarious associations? Because they're collecting campaign cash from the same "perfectly legal" crooks.

Still Crazy. Patrick Temple-West of Politico: "Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson said on Sunday he wasn't exaggerating when he suggested limiting access to guns in the U.S. could hinder Americans' ability to topple a government authority like the Nazis.... Appearing Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' Carson said the history of the Nazis' rise to power could repeat in the U.S. if access to guns were to be limited." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

The Gun Lobby's interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American People by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies - the militia - would be maintained for the defense of the state. The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires. --Chief Justice Warren Burger, The Right to Bear Arms, Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990

Beyond the Beltway

Erica Hellerstein of Think Progress: "An attorney for [Tamir] Rice's family called the reports [which called the killing of Rice "reasonable"] a 'charade' and blasted the prosecutor's office for 'releasing supposed "expert reports" in an effort to absolve the officers involved in Tamir's death of responsibility.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "... a pair of outside reports released Saturday concluded that [Cleveland police officer Tim Loehmann] was 'reasonable' in deciding to shoot Tamir [Rice], who was carrying a replica gun that looked much like the real thing. Though the investigation will continue, and a grand jury will ultimately decide on charges, some believe that those reports, which were commissioned and released by the prosecutor's office in Cuyahoga County, signal that an indictment is unlikely.... Craig B. Futterman, a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago, criticized the reports' 'laser focus' on the shooting itself and said the reviewers should have placed more weight on the events leading up to the shots. 'There's strong evidence to believe, in the aggregate, the actions were unreasonable,' said Professor Futterman, who founded the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project at the university."

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "For 15 minutes, a man shot by an off-duty officer [in Houston, Texas,] lay bleeding from two gunshots in his abdomen as the responding officers stood by without providing first aid. At one point, as the victim, a 53-year-old black man, raised his head, an officer used his foot to keep the man's face on the pavement, according to a dashboard camera video supplied to The New York Times recently by the man's relatives."

David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "Police in Charleston, South Carolina declined to press any charges against a Waffle House customer who shot and killed a man who was reportedly trying to rob the restaurant.... North Charleston Police spokeswoman Lt. Angela Johnson told Channel 5 that the customer had a valid permit to carry a pistol.... The Post and Dispatch quoted an officer at the scene as saying, 'It says something about firearms ... for good people with firearms being in the right hands.'"

News Ledes

New York Times: "Prof. Angus Deaton, a British economist, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday for improving the accuracy of basic economic gauges, including measures of income, poverty and consumption."

Washington Post: "Breaking news: Iranian state television says jailed Washinton Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been convicted." ...

... Statement from Martin Baron, executive editor of the Post. ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Iran appeared to be moving on Monday to position Mr. Rezaian's case as part of a broader effort to get the release of Iranians detained in the United States."