The Commentariat -- March 13, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "The former members of Oklahoma University's disbanded Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter are considering a lawsuit against the school, according to statements from the fraternity's newly retained attorney, Stephen Jones.... Jones, who served as Timothy McVeigh's lead defense attorney during the Oklahoma City Bombing trial, told KFOR that the fraternity members objected to statements from the school's president that, they say, painted all of the fraternity members as racists and bigots." CW: Jones sure gets fine clients: a mass-murdering terrorist & frat-boy racists.

James Hohmann of Politico: "One-third of Republican insiders [as defined by Politico!] believe that Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and his GOP colleagues -- including several potential presidential candidates -- crossed the line when they published an open letter to Iranian leaders warning about a possible nuclear deal." ...

... Dumbest Guy in Senate Says "Oops!" Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg: "The letter 47 Republicans sent earlier this week warning against a nuclear deal President Barack Obama is negotiating with Iran probably shouldn't have been addressed to the regime's leaders, said Senator Ron Johnson, who signed the letter." ...

... CW: A few days ago Philip Weiss of MondoWeiss speculated that neoconservative, invariably-wrong Bill Kristol likely had a hand in the drafting the Senate's 47 Percent letter. ...

... SO ... Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "The letter, which was conceived of by freshman GOP Sen. Tom Cotton, was influenced in part by prominent national security hawk and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol. Kristol said he had no part in drafting or editing the letter, but did consult with the senator about it. 'I did discuss it with Tom as he was conceiving it and pondering whether and how to do it. I know he consulted with others as well with some government and foreign policy experience, as you'd expect,' Kristol told The Daily Beast." ...

... CW: These people sit together in little puddles of stupid. When they are not saying stupid things to each other, they are congratulating each other for the stupid things they say.

Barbie Nadeau of the Daily Beast: "Russian president Vladimir Putin appears to be back at the Kremlin after a mysterious disappearance that had people wondering if the Russian leader might be seriously ill or at risk of a coup. But a Swiss newspaper says the Russian playboy was just in Lugano for the birth of his lovechild. In an article titled Es ist ein Mädchen! or 'It's a Girl,' the paper Bilk claims that Putin and his alleged 32-year-old lover, Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, welcomed their daughter at the private Santa Anna di Sorgeno clinic in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino on the Italian border -- a favorite playground for wealthy Russians."

*****

CW: I am just waiting for some prominent Republican in a pique to shout, "I don't care about the facts." It would be the gaffe of gaffes, and it could happen. Because it's true of nearly every one of them.

** "We Have a President for a Reason." Historian Kathleen DuVal, in a New York Times op-ed, puts the Senate's 47 Percent in historical context. It turns out, not surprisingly, that attempts by early American individual elected officials to negotiate with foreign powers were both kooky & unsuccessful. "Having a point person for foreign relations was one of the main motives for jettisoning the Articles of Confederation in 1789.... Increasingly, Americans began to see alternative negotiating as treason." ...

... CW: Oh, the irony! The Senate's 47 Percent, in their pompous pose as Constitutional scholars & teachers, were in fact acting as perfect exemplars of what the sainted Founders wrote the Constitution to prevent. ...

... David Goldstein of McClatchy News: "The U.S. Senate Historian's Office has so far been unable to find another example in the chamber's history where one political party openly tried to deal with a foreign power against a presidential policy, as Republicans have attempted in their open letter to Iran this week." Thanks to Dave S. for the link. ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "Something seems to be out of kilter in the political marketplace that yielded Tom Cotton.... The odds of having a chance encounter with rationality in today's Senate are vanishingly small." ...

... Quite a few editorial boards around the country are reacting to the Senate's 47 Percent. Here's the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor: "If the open letter to the 'Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran' represents the path forward for U.S. foreign policy, chaos is the destination. It's simply stunning that [Kelly] Ayotte [N.H.] and 46 other senators can&'t see that -- or choose not to." ...

... Cotton Sheep. Steve Benen: "The fact that Cotton would continue ridiculous antics after winning the election shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. What matters, though, is the Republican embrace of this brand of political extremism.... After he created what was effectively an international incident, his fellow GOP lawmakers are 'suddenly flocking to him for counsel on foreign policy'? Two bumbling months into his term, Arkansas Republicans are gearing up for his 2020 presidential campaign? This really isn't healthy." ...

... Former Bushie Michael Gerson: "This was a foreign policy maneuver, in the middle of a high-stakes negotiation, with all the gravity and deliberation of a blog posting. In timing, tone and substance, it raises questions about the Republican majority's capacity to govern.... Congress simply has no business conducting foreign policy with a foreign government, especially an adversarial one." CW: You can ignore about half of Gerson's column, which includes inaccuracies of the both-sides-do-it genre, but his criticisms of this Stupid Republican Trick are right on point. ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Republicans in the Senate seem to have had no trouble inserting themselves into the Iran nuclear negotiations, when they had no business interfering. Yet they have shown little interest in carrying out a job that is squarely within their constitutional mandate -- drafting an authorization for war against ISIS that Democrats can support and President Obama will sign."

We Ain't in De Basement. Paul Krugman: "... the Fed's critics keep insisting that easy-money policies will lead to a plunging dollar. Reality, however, keeps declining to oblige. Far from heading downstairs to debasement, the dollar has soared through the roof. (Sorry.)... Actually, the strong dollar is bad for America. In an immediate sense, it will weaken our long-delayed economic recovery by widening the trade deficit. In a deeper sense, the message from the dollar's surge is that we're less insulated than many thought from problems overseas."

Carol Leonig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Arit John of Bloomberg Politics: "... in recent years the Secret Service has bounced from one alcohol-and-incompetency fueled scandal to the next: prostitutes and partying in El Salvador, prostitutes and partying in Colombia, a drunk agent passed out in the hallway of a hotel in The Netherlands, plus another in Miami, an armed contractor in the elevator, sniper bullets that hit the White House, last fall's fence jumper, and the downplaying of the fence jumper. Adding salt into the current Secret Service wound, nearly two years ago agents shot and killed a woman, who seemed to be confused, for driving through a similar checkpoint.... The Secret Service, signed into existence on the last day of President Lincoln's life, eventually came into being, in part, because the person tasked with protecting Lincoln that day was drinking on the job.... Next month is the 200th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination...." CW: Really? ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic has another rundown of the Secret Service's recent lapses.

Scott Higham of the Washington Post: International Relief and Development Inc. of Arlington, Va., "the largest nonprofit contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, billed the government $1.1 million for staff parties and pricey retreats -- three of them held at one of the poshest destinations on the East Coast, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... John Eligon, et al., of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday denounced the shootings of two police officers during a late night protest here as 'heinous and cowardly attacks' that came just as this embattled city was taking 'good faith steps' toward rebuilding trust in law enforcement. 'This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson,' Mr. Holder said at a news conference in Washington. 'This was a damn punk, a punk, who was trying to sow discord.'" ...

... Wesley Lowery, et al., of the Washington Post, update information on the shooting & its aftermath. ...

... Jon Eligon & Eli Yokley of the New York Times: "Just as Ferguson seemed to be moving past the stunning abuses detailed by the federal authorities, having shed its city manager, police chief, municipal judge and other officials accused of running a racially biased legal system, those four gunshots threatened to reopen the well of anger, unrest and racial tension that has stifled life here since Mr. Brown's death last summer from shots fired by a white police officer. 'To actually have the police injured by gunshots -- that is not even a small setback, it is a real setback,' said Courtney Curtis, a Democratic state representative whose district includes Ferguson. 'It takes away the forward momentum the protesters did have.'" ...

... Jennifer Fermino of the New York Daily News: "Just when you thought Rudy Giuliani couldn't get crazier, the former NYC mayor blamed Obama for the brutal beatdown at a Brooklyn McDonalds -- and said the president should be more like Bill Cosby. Obama is ignoring 'enormous amounts of crime' committed by African-Americans, Giuliani said Thursday. And he said President Obama is to blame for the brawl inside a McDonald's in Brooklyn as well as the shooting of two cops in Ferguson because of the anti-police 'tone' coming from the White House." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Before Barack Obama took office, crime was not a problem. (You had a few rotten apples like Bernard Kerik committing the odd crime, but nobody in politics could be blamed for that.) Since Obama became president, crime has ... okay, it's continued to fall, but it feels worse. Or at least it feels worse to Rudy Giuliani....What do you call holding Barack Obama responsible for every crime committed by a black person, anywhere?" CW: And what do you call a person who does not live in an evidence-based world? Oh, I believe Jennifer Fermino led with the answer. ...

... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Fox News' 'Outnumbered' co-host Andrea Tantaros said on Thursday that Eric Holder is 'an attorney general for the criminal' while arguing that the Obama administration is at least partially to blame for the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Mo., early Thursday. 'Eric Holder has proven, time again, he is an attorney general for the criminal, by the criminal, and of the criminals in the United States of America,' Tantaros said."

There is no basis,tradition, or even in contemporary practice for finding that in the Constitution the right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after a conviction.... With any luck, we shall avoid ever having to face this embarrassing question again. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, concurrence in Herrera v. Collins, 1993

... ** Annals of "Justice," Ctd. Lara Bazelon in Slate: "If you are a wrongfully convicted man or woman in this country, it is extremely difficult -- if not outright impossible -- to win your case by advancing the simple argument that you are innocent. Sounds crazy, right? But it's true. The Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to hold that the federal Constitution allows for so-called freestanding claims of innocence, that is, the right to be let out of prison simply because you didn't do it, without any other 'technical' violation to back up your argument. In the United States, the inmate who raises a compelling case of innocence after a constitutionally proper trial may well be doomed."

NBC News: "A group of 104 legal scholars and immigration law instructors signed a statement calling the Texas judge's decision that blocked President Barack Obama's immigration executive action 'deeply flawed.' In their statement provided to NBC News and made public Friday, the group argued that the executive action programs that would have shielded millions from deportation and provided them permission to work 'are well within the legal authority of the federal executive.'"

Gene Robinson on the SAE Boys on the Bus: "... the real stunner was the line describing what to do with any black man who might have the gall to seek to join their fraternity: 'You can hang 'em from a tree.' Whoa. Just like that, they went all the way to lynching? And thought it was funny? Now, I realize that these soft, pampered, privileged, ridiculous frat boys are not likely to attempt actual violence against black people. But they wouldn't have to. The attitudes their words reveal can, and probably will, show themselves in other ways.... There is still a shocking degree of racial segregation in American society -- no longer de jure but de facto. Segregation reinforces structural racism, which increasingly is not addressed or even acknowledged."

Erica Goode of the New York Times: "... a new series of studies ... rais[es] the possibility that although conservatives may report greater happiness than liberals, they are no more likely to act in ways that indicate that they really are happier.... In fact, when behaviors rather than self-reports were examined, liberals seemed to have a small but statistically significant happiness edge."

Jonathan Chait: "... the two [political] parties are not mirror images of each other. They are asymmetrical. One is organized around practical objectives, the other ideological ones. Practical objectives lend themselves more easily to compromise. They can be measured in empirical terms. Ideological objectives defy compromise and practical assessment.... Republicans won't have a real health-care plan until they become a different kind of party."

Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post: "The NRA, even more ridiculous than usual.... The NRA's maximalist rhetoric, designed to stoke paranoia about liberal elites disarming, then tyrannizing everyday Americans, isn't just unconvincing -- it's often insultingly so. It's incredible that there is still a choir that nods along with this sermon."

This post by Jason Koebler in Motherboard shows the FAA is still confused about drones.

Where's Vlad? Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't been seen for days, and now people are beginning to wonder why."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's disclosure that she exclusively used a private email address while she was secretary of state and later deleted thousands of messages she deemed 'personal' opens a big picture window into how vague federal email guidelines have been for the most senior government leaders. Although the White House has strict requirements dating back two decades that every email must be saved, there is no such requirement for federal agencies. Instead they are in charge of setting their own policies for determining which emails constitute government records worthy of preservation and which ones may be discarded."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Elias Isquith of Salon on the media's Hillary circus: "... while I'm certainly used to seeing my colleagues in the political press devote their time and energy to cynical, superficial stories that few people outside the politico-media elite will bother to read, I've never seen them do it with such unabashed gusto. I've never seen them be quite so shameless about placing themselves, and their relationship with a politician, at the front-and-center of the national stage. I've never seen them be so gleeful and self-conscious about creating a circus, either. It is, quite simply, embarrassing."

Presidential Race

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "In the last presidential contest, super PACs were an exotic add-on for most candidates. This time, they are the first priority. Already, operatives with close ties to eight likely White House contenders have launched political committees that can accept unlimited donations -- before any of them has even declared their candidacy. The latest, a super PAC called America Leads that plans to support Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, was announced Thursday.... Potential candidates want to help their super PAC allies raise as much money as possible now, before their official campaigns start. That's because once they announce their bids, federal rules require them to keep their distance."

"The Clinton Way." David Von Drehle of Time: Hillary "Clinton's failure to defuse the email issue, along with a growing list of questions about the family's relentless fundraising and her husband's choice of companions, has revived hopes among erstwhile rivals in the Democratic Party that the Hillary dreadnought might actually be sinkable.... Backbiting inside the Clinton campaign -- a hallmark of her failed 2008 presidential effort -- has begun to leak into the political press.... Along with her husband ... Hillary Clinton is the co-creator of a soap-operatic political universe in which documents vanish, words like is take on multiple meanings and foes almost always overplay their hand. ...

... They're taking all this very seriously at the right-wing Weekly Standard: "TIME Cover Gives Hillary Horns." ...

... David Graham: In her press conference, Clinton "asserted 1) a thorough investigation that included 'going through' roughly 60,000 emails; 2) a standard of erring on the side of disclosing 'anything' that could 'possibly' be viewed as work related; 3) a 'thorough' process robust enough to warrant 'absolute confidence' in its results; 4) a process to turn over emails that could plausibly be characterized as 'unprecedented.' With an assist from Von Drehle's reporting, Graham shows that Clinton's assertions were "misleading" at best.

... David Brock in a USA Today op-ed: Trey "Gowdy should apply the same standard he's applying to Clinton to himself and his staff. They should release all their e-mail -- public and private -- unless, of course, they are the ones hiding something -- perhaps their partisan motivations and strategic leaking to the media." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Nestled in a piece by Jonathan Topaz at Politico about Bernie Sanders' ambivalence about (and very limited preparations for) a presidential run is this comment from the proto-candidate about the Issue of the Week:

'Why am I asked about Hillary Clinton every other day, about her emails? Do you know what -- I can't swear to you on this -- last I checked, here in Washington, do you know how many calls I got from Vermont on Hillary Clinton's emails? Zero. Yet I can't walk down the hallways here without hearing about Hillary Clinton's emails.' -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Jonathan Chait: "Last year, Marco Rubio defined himself as the Republican presidential candidate who was primarily concerned with the middle class. He gave speeches about poverty. He gave speeches about the struggles of the middle class. It wasn't working terribly well. So Rubio has updated his tax plan, the old version of which gave a big tax cut to the rich, so it now gives an absolutely gargantuan tax cut to the rich. The new Rubio is hobnobbing with members of the Koch family and other billionaires, and ... they really like the cut of his jib." CW: For those of you who enjoy articles that LOL at Republican hypocrisy, this one's a winner.

Beyond the Beltway

Daniel Perez of the Houston Chronicle: "A bill restricting the rights of citizens to record the police was filed in Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday. The House Bill 2918 introduced by Texas Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) would make private citizens photographing or recording the police within 25 feet of them a class B misdemeanor, and those who are armed would not be able to stand recording within 100 feet of an officer.... An appeals court in Glik v. Cunniffe ruled unanimously that private citizens are allowed to videotape police in 2011, so this bill would go against the set precedent." CW: No kidding.

Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press: "The Detroiter who stunned the world with Olympian walks to his suburban factory job -- and stunned himself by attracting gifts of a new car and $350,000 in donations -- abruptly moved Tuesday to a location he felt was safer, police said. James Robertson, 56, was helped by Detroit police to move just minutes after crime-prevention specialists offered him temporary living quarters, Detroit police Capt. Aric Tosqui said.... Driving Robertson's decision was news that last week Detroit police arrested a man charged in the killing of an 86-year-old Detroiter who disappeared in December, three days after the elderly man was said to have won $20,000 in a lottery game, police said.... Robertson's decision to move came after he confided that ... some of the other residents at the boardinghouse where he lived wanted a share of his windfall and threatened Robertson with violence, said [banker Blake] Pollock, 47, of Rochester, who befriended the intrepid commuter."

News Ledes

AP: "A knife-carrying Army veteran who scaled a White House fence and dashed into the executive mansion before being caught took a plea deal Friday. Omar Gonzalez, 43, pleaded guilty to two federal charges. Federal sentencing guidelines recommend between 12 and 18 months in prison. The Sept. 19 incident in which Gonzalez made it into the mansion's East Room preceded the disclosure of other serious Secret Service breaches in security for President Barack Obama and ultimately led to Julia Pierson's resignation as director of the agency."

Guardian: "Steve Jobs rejected an offer of a liver transplant from Tim Cook in 2009, a new biography of the late Apple co-founder reveals. Despite becoming increasingly ill from cancer, Jobs angrily turned down the proposal by the man who would go on to run Apple after he died."

The Commentariat -- March 12, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jon Stewart comments on racism & wingers' denials thereof:

Carol Leonig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident."

Scott Higham of the Washington Post: International Relief and Development Inc. of Arlington, Va.,"the largest nonprofit contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, billed the government $1.1 million for staff parties and pricey retreats -- three of them held at one of the poshest destinations on the East Coast, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania."

*****

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry sharply criticized a letter from Republican lawmakers to the leaders of Iran in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, calling it misleading and irresponsible. 'My reaction to the letter was utter disbelief,' said Mr. Kerry, who warned that the letter, signed by 47 Republican senators this week, could embolden Iranian hard-liners.... Dissecting the letter, Mr. Kerry said the authors were wrong when they said that Congress had the authority to modify the terms of an agreement negotiated by the president. He added that a future president would continue to honor the accord as long as Iran kept its part of the bargain and as long as the other negotiating partners -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China --- continued to support it":

... Kerry Tries to Explain Rudimentary U.S. Middle East Policy to Lazy Schoolboy. Steve Benen: "Honestly, it was like watching a competent teacher trying to explain the basics of current events to a student who failed to do his homework.... Rubio recently said he'd have an important advantage in the race for the White House because he, unlike the GOP governors, has 'a clear view of what's happening in the world.'... That's not a bad argument, though it's predicated on the assumption that senators who deal with foreign policy actually have some idea what they're talking about." Read Benen's whole post for background. Little Marky-Marco is completely confused:

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Some Republican senators admitted Wednesday they were caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Republicans -- many of whom blessed the missive during a brisk signing session at a Senate lunch a week ago, as senators prepared to flee a Washington snowstorm -- should have given it closer consideration.... Though Cotton has insisted that Democratic senators were approached about the letter, neither Bob Casey of Pennsylvania nor hawks like Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they had been approached. Politico was unable to locate a Democrat who was aware of the letter before it became public." ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "Tom Cotton is a conservative hero -- and a complete crackpot." Read the whole post, to get a flavor of some of Cotton's other bright ideas. The "sins of the grandfather" is a doozy. ...

... Dwane Powell of the Raleigh News & Observer rebukes North Carolina's Sens. Richard Burr & Thom Tillis for signing the letter: "This is one of the most horrid and tangible examples of pure partisanship run amok in modern times. So much do Republicans resent the fact that President Obama has won two terms they'll now resort to blowing up a negotiation aimed at preventing war in the Middle East. This, despite the fact that since the presidency of George Washington, America has always tried to present a united front to the world." Via Paul Waldman. Let's hope more hometown papers whack the wackos. ...

... ** Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pushing back hard against conservative claims that the Republicans' recent letter to Iranian leaders, which has infuriated the White House amidst delicate nuclear talks, is akin to her 2007 visit to Syria against the wishes of the Bush administration. The office of the House minority leader issued a scathing statement Wednesday night saying her meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was part of a bipartisan effort -- conducted through the Bush administration -- to encourage peace in the region and accusing the Republicans of launching a 'desperate' defense of their Iran letter to mask criticisms coming from both sides of the aisle." Read the whole post for the details.

Charles Pierce: "The modern Republican party has become an authentic mechanism for political subversion.... A rookie meathead submarines the president's foreign policy. Rick Perry is currently running for president on a platform more suited to a campaign conducted under the Articles of Confederation. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the United States Senate, has suggested that governors out in the several states ignore the Environmental Protection Agency. At every conservative gathering, from CPAC on down, there at least is one panel touting the benefits of nullification and old-school states rights politics. Yes, a lot of it is about how states rights got whipped over civil rights in the 1960's, but it's not all about race. It's about a deliberate, calculated attempt by one of the only two political parties we allow ourselves to dismantle the federal union. They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns."

David Hawkings of Roll Call: Loretta "Lynch is on course to be confirmed this month after the longest wait ever for a nominee to be attorney general -- and very likely by the closest vote ever to put a new person in charge of the Justice Department. Lynch has earned just the sort of tough but fair reputation that's customarily made for bipartisan smooth sailing in the Senate. But at least three-quarters of Republicans are going to oppose her anyway, mostly because of a single position she's taken as the nominee: Obama was on solid legal ground in deferring deportations of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants.... The single biggest reason Republicans oppose Lynch is that she disagrees with them on a single matter of public policy." Via Greg Sargent.

Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The war against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria may be expanded to include Boko Haram in Nigeria and militant elements in Libya, secretary of defense Ash Carter said on Wednesday."

Good Grief! Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "The administration is investigating allegations that two senior Secret Service agents, including a top member of President Obama's protective detail, drove a government car into White House security barricades after drinking at a late-night party last week, an agency official said Wednesday. Officers on duty who witnessed the March 4 incident wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests, according to a current and a former government official familiar with the incident. But the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal matter." CW: I wouldn't trust these yahoos to guard my cat while she was napping.

Mark O'Brien of the Washington Post: "There's a currency war going on, and the United States is losing. As of Wednesday, the euro had fallen to a 12-year low of $1.05, down from as much as $1.39 just last year. That's a 30 percent drop in 11 months.... It's not just the euro that's falling against the dollar, but almost every other currency in the world, too...."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "House Republican leaders are considering a vote next week on legislation that would abolish cuts to Medicare payments, a policy change that could cost upwards of $174 billion to enact. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team are quietly coordinating a bill, four sources say, in hopes of ending the decades-long battle over how much doctors and healthcare providers should be paid for treating Medicare patients. But bringing up the legislation would be a huge gamble, because it could spark a revolt among fiscal conservatives who are likely to balk at legislation that adds to the deficit." CW: Hard to believe the House might actually do something. So note the caveat. Democrats will have to do the heavy lifting. Again.

Jonathan Chait: "The proof that [Paul] Ryan's [2013] poverty tour was not a form of spin is that he is releasing a propaganda film about it.... Ultimately Ryan’s motives are beside the point.... The primary evidence for analyzing Ryan should not be his own testimony about his motives, nor his visits to bookstores..., but his actual policy agenda.... Ryan's budget proposes to reduce taxes for the rich, increase defense spending, leave retirement benefits for everybody over the age of 55 untouched, and eliminate the budget deficit. This combination requires massive cuts to programs targeted to the poor."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Waldman: "Here&;s a tip for my fellow scribes and opinionators: If you find yourself justifying blanket coverage of an issue because it 'plays into a narrative,' stop right there. That's a way of saying that you can't come up with an actual, substantive reason this is important or newsworthy, just that it that bears some superficial but probably meaningless similarity to something that happened at some point in the past."

Presidential Race

Steve Peoples of the AP: "The Associated Press on Wednesday sued the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The legal action follows repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that have gone unfulfilled. They include one request the AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013." ...

... Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "No fewer than three House committees have launched or are considering probes into Clinton’s email practices, a feeding frenzy that could allow the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to cast the investigations as yet another partisan witch-hunt. It could also become a problem for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team, which has made a point of trying to prevent multiple committees from tripping over themselves investigating the same topic. They’re now working to keep the Clinton investigations on distinct tracks." ... 

     ... CW: Yeah, right. Like there's no duplication in Trey Gowdy's fishing expedition, which initiated the Clinton e-mail probe. It is the fifth House committee "investigation" of events surrounding the attack in Benghaaazi. Boehner himself set up the committee & Gowdy slow-walked it to make sure it would be ongoing during the run-up to the presidential campaigns. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "A top freedom-of-information expert isn't buying Hillary Clinton's explanation of why she set up her own email system to conduct official State Department business, calling it 'laughable.' Daniel Metcalfe, who advised White House administrations on interpreting the Freedom of Information Act from 1981 to 2007, told The Canadian Press that the former secretary of state acted 'contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law.'" ...

... Frank Rich: "That it took Clinton as long as it did to respond to the rising chorus of these questions, and that she did so as defensively and unconvincingly as she did, is yet more evidence that she's not ready for the brutality of a presidential campaign.... Some of what Clinton said didn't pass the smell test. It reminded me of an episode in the first season of Veep where the vice-president announces she will release all her internal office correspondence to quell a controversy and then instructs her staff to make sure it's 'Modified Full Disclosure Lite.'" ...

... Gail Collins: "There won't be a new Hillary. What voters can hope for is the best possible version of her flawed self. That while there will be messes, she will force herself to be open during the cleanup. That while she might not be a transformative speaker, she will be able to explain how she can take the issues she's been pursuing for decades and turn them into a plan for serious change." ...

... Jack Shafer of Politico: It depends upon what the mean of "not saved" is. Hillary "Clinton intended to run for president as a cool, decisive, above-it-all diplomat. Instead, she finds herself back on the ground, muddied and bruised, and tangled up in an email kerfuffle that magnifies all of the weaknesses of the House of Clinton." ...

... ACCORDING TO Philip Rucker & Paul Kane of the Washington Post, "Senior Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Rodham Clinton is not ready to run for president, fearing that the clumsy and insular handling of the nine-day fracas over her private e-mails was a warning sign about the campaign expected to launch next month." ...

... ACCORDING TO Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times, "Congressional Democrats are counting on a strong Clinton campaign to help lift them back into the majority. Party leaders at all levels want her fund-raising help and demographic appeal. And from the top of the party to its grass roots, Mrs. Clinton's pseudo-incumbency is papering over significant disadvantages: a weak bench, a long-term House minority and a white middle class defecting to the Republican Party faster than the Democrats' hoped-for demographic future is expected to arrive." ...

... CW NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS: You abdicated in 2014, & you're abdicating now. Hoping Hillary Clinton -- or any single candidate -- will pull your ass out is going to happen right about the time all elected Republicans self-deport. There's no Plan B?? Hell, there's no viable Plan A. Clinton is 67 years old. She would be 69 by the time she took office. What if she got hit by a bus? (Think a Secret Service agent will run interference? Ha! Probably too drunk.) What if she got sick? What if she already has "brain damage," as Karl Rove imagines? The other day I named ten Democrats I thought should run for president in 2016. Here are two Virginians: former Virginia governor & current Senator Tim Kaine & former Senator Jim Webb. Duval Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts is another possibility. Joe Biden, too. I'm not suggesting which of these candidates I'd like to see win (Sheldon Whitehouse), but they should all be making themselves presences in Iowa, New Hampshire & South Carolina. People should know their names. ...

... Update. Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View on the Democratic "bench": "Dan Balz of the Washington Post says Democrats have a problem for 2016: 'The absence of a strong Democratic bench.' National Journal's Josh Kraushaar replies, 'Spot-on.' The New York Times repeats the 'weak bench' line and quotes Democrats who agree that their party would be in trouble without Hillary Clinton. It's bunk." Bernstein comes up with his own "bench": Martin O'Malley, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Cuomo, Al Franken, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, Michael Bennet, Mike Beebe, Christine Gregoire, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper and Deval Patrick." ...

... Ken Vogel of Politico: "By Election Day 2016, taxpayers will have paid out more than $16 million to fund Bill Clinton's pension, travel, office expenses and even the salaries and benefits of staff at his family's foundation, federal records show. Multiple sources familiar with Clinton's funding say the special federal money has supplemented the salaries of some employees of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a global non-profit that has served as Hillary Clinton's primary platform as she prepares for a presidential campaign expected to launch in coming weeks." ...

... CW: A teeny fraction of what we paid to fund big bank executives & their staffs in 2008, 2009 & even unto today.

... every Republican presidential candidate in the Senate did sign -- Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz. They don't seem to realize that the farcical blundering of this incident gives them all the gravitas of Sheriff Andy and Barney Fife.... -- Frank Rich

Dana Milbank has been following Martin O'Malley around -- O'Malley is not exactly fired up & ready to go.

Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush has sold his stakes in his two remaining business commitments, his spokeswoman said Wednesday, another strong signal that the former Florida governor will embark on a campaign for president."

Addendum -- Presidential Race 2020. Ozark Stupid. Andrew DeMillo of the AP: "U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton is barely into his third month in office, but a lawmaker in his home state of Arkansas wants to let the freshman Republican run for re-election and the White House in 2020. A bill advanced by a state Senate committee Tuesday would allow congressional and U.S. Senate candidates in Arkansas also appear on the ballot as presidential or vice presidential candidates. The majority-GOP Senate could consider the bill Wednesday."

Senate Race -- Maybe

Marc Caputo of Politico: "The high-level maneuvering to replace Florida Sen. Marco Rubio accelerated Wednesday as Congressman Patrick Murphy emerged as the top pick of Senate Democratic leadership, and word leaked that Republican Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera is interested in the seat as well.... Much of the posturing is speculative -- Rubio still has not definitively said he won't seek reelection in 2016 if he explores a bid for president. But he's expected to announce his presidential run in April."

Beyond the Beltway

John Eligon of the New York Times:"Two police officers were shot in Ferguson, Mo., early Thursday morning as gunfire rang out in front of the police station, throwing into panic what had been a spirited -- and at times tense -- but largely peaceful night of protests." The shots apparently came from a distance & not from among the gathered protesters. ...

... John Eligon: Thomas Jackson, "... the embattled police chief of Ferguson, the focus of bitter complaints of racial discrimination within his department that turned into national protests after one of his white officers fatally shot an unarmed black teenager last August, has stepped down, the city said Wednesday in a statement."

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "A protest is planned for Wednesday evening in the Georgia county where a military veteran was shot dead by a police officer who found him running naked around a suburban apartment complex."

Jennifer Dobner of the Salt Lake Tribune: "After seven years of debate and a historic compromise, the House on Wednesday voted final passage of a bill to enact Utah's first statewide nondiscrimination protections for the gay and transgender community, while providing safeguards for religious liberty. The 65-10 vote was the last legislative hurdle for SB296, just one week after it debuted with the blessing of the LDS Church and the LGBT community. Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert is expected to sign the bill at a ceremony scheuduled for 6 p.m. Thursday."

Way Beyond

Jean-Luc Renauldie of AFP: "Less than a week before Israel's second general election in two years, Isaac Herzog's centre-left Zionist Union opened up a lead on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud, polls showed Wednesday." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The drift in all the recent polls does indeed support Haaretz's conclusion that Netanyahu's big speech in Washington didn't help him much back home. So the price that he and Israel paid in damaged relations with Washington and a loss of bipartisan solidarity may well have been for naught." ...

... Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's much-publicized and controversial address to Congress, Americans' opinions of him have worsened. His favorable rating is down seven percentage points, to 38%, while his unfavorable rating has increased five points, to 29%. These changes are largely confined to Democrats; Republicans' views are essentially stable."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Michael Graves, one of the most prominent and prolific American architects of the latter 20th century, died on Thursday. He was 80."

Washington Post: "An American health-care worker has come down with Ebola and will be transported to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda for treatment, NIH announced in a news release on Thursday. The statement said NIH will not share information about the patient, other than the fact that he or she was volunteering in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone and contracted the virus."

New York Times: "Two weeks after voting to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday released a 313-page document detailing what would be allowed."

CNN: "A newly released ISIS video shows a child shooting a man the group claims is an Israeli spy. The video identifies the man as 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent."

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2015

Internal links removed.

The Senate's Forty-Seven Percent
Are Way More Irresponsible than Mitt's 47 Percent

Dana Milbank: "... 47 Republican senators did their level best to bring us closer to war by writing a letter to Iran's mullahs, attempting to scuttle nuclear talks with the United States.... It's ... as if they're operating their own independent republic on Capitol Hill. Call it the State of Republicania.... On Tuesday, the day after his letter to Hezbollah's masters became public, Cotton provided a clue about his motives: He'd had a breakfast date with the National Defense Industrial Association -- a trade group for Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and the like.... The event was 'off the record and strictly non-attribution.' But you can bet it was what Dwight Eisenhower meant when he warned of the military-industrial complex." Read the whole column. ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Democrats say that as concerned as they are about an emerging deal with Iran, Republicans' extraordinary moves to undermine Mr. Obama's efforts to reach an agreement are weakening their resolve to cross party lines and challenge their own president.... On Tuesday, Democrats took to the Senate floor to denounce the letter to Iran. Noting that she had opposed the war in Iraq under President George W. Bush, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, her voice shaking with rage, said, 'I never would have sent a letter to Saddam Hussein.'" ...

... Greg Jaffe & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Many in the GOP foreign policy establishment, meanwhile, expressed disappointment over the increasingly partisan nature of U.S. foreign policy. Former senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who previously served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, described Cotton's letter as 'an unfortunate venture' and said he would have advised the freshman senator and Army veteran not to send it." ...

.. Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "A day after releasing a letter that potentially threatened the administration's negotiations with Iran, some Republicans who signed on are realizing it was a bad call." ...

... It Was Supposed to Be a Hilarious Joke! Republican aides were taken aback by what they thought was a lighthearted attempt to signal to Iran and the public that Congress should have a role in the ongoing nuclear discussions. Two GOP aides separately described their letter as a 'cheeky' reminder of the congressional branch's prerogatives. 'The administration has no sense of humor when it comes to how weakly they have been handling these negotiations,' said a top GOP Senate aide. ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Stating that 'their continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,' Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama." ...

... Steve M.: "... Republicans don't care about advancing an agenda. They just care about keeping their fans pumped up and enraged." ...

... Mehdi Khalaji in Politico Magazine: "Thanks, Tom Cotton. You Just Got Us a Hard-line Supreme Leader. The next Iranian ruler could reject a deal just as easily as the next U.S. president. He probably will." ...

... MEANWHILE, in Politico, Burgess Everett writes a piece describing Cotton as a "GOP phenom." ...

... AND Michael Crowley of Politico shows that Congressional Democrats, too, have communicated with foreign leaders over the years in attempts to mitigate presidential policies. CW: What's remarkable about Crowley's piece -- though Crowley doesn't in any way acknowledge it, is that in every case he cites, Democrats were attempting to advance prospects for peace. The Senate's 47 percent, obviously, are intent upon leading us closer to use of force. Even a person who believes that regulations on business should be eliminated, that climate change is a hoax, that Mitt's 47 percent are moochers, that entitlements should be cut, that abortion should be punishable by death & that there should be an arsenal in every home, should vote Democratic because Democrats want to keep Americans out of wars whenever possible. ...

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. -- U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3

... Mark Klaiman of the Washington Monthly explains what "treason" is as defined by the U.S. Constitution: "... even if you think -- contrary to any evidence I'm aware of -- that Cotton & Co. were trying to damage the United States as well as actually damaging the United States -- that still wouldn't amount to 'treason' in the Constitutional sense of that term.... Please don't call them 'traitors.' For that crime, they lacked the opportunity, the intention, and the guts." ...

... Philip Weiss of MondoWeiss speculates on who actually wrote that letter attributed to Tom-Tim Cotton: "I don't know who wrote the letter, but I can tell you whose fingerprints are on it: the only folks who are supporting it publicly, the hard-right Israel lobby. Even as Cotton himself splutters on national television, rightwing lobby groups are the main voices out there defending the letter." Thanks to Keith H. for the link.

Unfortunately, Obama Will Not Be Taking Your (Armor-Piercing) Bullets Away. At This Time. Tim Devaney of the Hill: "The Obama administration is backing off its plan to ban a type of armor-piercing ammunition following a deluge of criticism from gun rights groups and congressional Republicans. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said Tuesday it will not ban bullets commonly used in AR-15 hunting rifles 'at this time,' after receiving more than 80,000 comments on the proposal.... Democrats and gun control groups blasted the move, accusing the administration of caving. 'It's shameful that the gun lobby has, yet again, successfully worked to block an effort that would keep our communities safer from the threat of gun violence,' said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).... Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) threatened to practically defund the ATF in an agency meeting last week. 'I explained to the ATF that if they continued to interfere with law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights, they were going to have a very bad budget year,' he told The Hill."

John Eligon of the New York Times: "The city manager of Ferguson, whom a Department of Justice report blamed as one of the officials responsible for much of the questionable conduct by the police and the courts here, has agreed to resign. The announcement came during a City Council meeting here on Tuesday, about a week after the scathing Justice Department report. The manager, John Shaw, 39, had held the post since 2007. As Ferguson's chief executive, he is the city's most powerful official." ...

... Two Americas. Just watch this. Hold onto your jaw, as you're likely to drop it:

Lifestyles of Congressional Crooks. Da Bears! Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico (March 9): "Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock reported on federal campaign finance documents that he spent more than $3,000 on software on Nov. 14. But in fact, the expenditure was part of the cost of flying in a software executive's private plane to a Chicago Bears game and his district, the pilot and company executive said." ...

... Jake Sherman: Schock "argued that if the media spent time digging into the spending of other lawmakers -- like they have his -- reporters would 'find a story to write about any member of Congress.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce has another go at Politico "reporting."

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged Tuesday that she had erred in using only a private e-mail server for work correspondence at the State Department, saying that she sent about 60,000 e-mails from her private account during her four-year tenure as secretary of state":

     ... In her presser, she also whacks the 47 senators. Alan Yuhas of the Guardian reports on her comments re: the senators. ...

... The Washington Post has the transcript of Clinton's remarks. ...

... Paul Richter & David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton directed aides to delete some 30,000 emails from her personal server after determining that they were not related to work, the former secretary of State disclosed at a news conference Tuesday." That's the lede.

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton failed to quell mounting criticism over her controversial private email account on Tuesday evening after her office suggested she had erased more than half of her emails before turning them over for release to the American public. In a statement released after a press conference intended to end a week-long controversy, Clinton's office said that she did not preserve 31,830 of the 62,320 emails she sent and received while serving as Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013." ...

... To Avoid Bad Press, Clinton Pisses off Media. Peter Nichols & Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal: "Mrs. Clinton chose to address the media at the United Nations, a venue with a strict media vetting and credentialing policy that has presented tough challenges for the reporters scrambling to cover her news conference. Reporters were given little advance notice that Mrs. Clinton would speak publicly today at the United Nations, where she is headlining the United Nations women's conference. In the small UN press credentialing office, staff charged with issuing credentials were overwhelmed by dozens of reporters.... The line moved slowly; tempers were short." ...

... So here's one pissed-off reporter, Maggie Haberman, who wrote what is now (10:20 pm ET Tuesday) an online front-page story for the New York Times: "Mrs. Clinton's attempt to put a whirlwind of questions and critical news reports behind her -- and to get back to mustering enthusiasm ahead of her expected announcement that she will make another run at the White House -- devolved, over the course of 21 minutes, into an exchange of sharp-toned questions and increasingly defensive responses, both in what she said and in her demeanor in saying it.... She asked the public to trust her: to take her word that the 30,000-odd emails that she said she had deleted were truly personal, not professional or political; truly private, not merely embarrassing." ...

... As Steve M. points out, John Harris of Politico is appalled that a presidential candidate would, as Harris puts it, tell the media to "go to hell." Because, ya know, Republicans would never be critical of the media. ...

... CW: AND here's the funny, funny thing: Republicans don't pay for their diatribes against the media the way Hillary did with her "tight-lipped" presser. Maybe here would be a good place to point out that Haberman worked for Politico until January of this year. ...

... CW: Here's a question: what kind of incriminating content do critics think Clinton is hiding? That she said Barack Obama had cooties? That she confessed she didn't care Americans died in Benghazi? The woman is a control freak; I doubt she writes down her dark thoughts. ...

     ... Another question for anyone who has owned a Blackberry. Clinton said in her presser that "she had used a single account on one mobile phone for 'convenience', adding: 'I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously, it hasn't worked out that way.'" Um, can't you put more than one e-mail account on a Blackberry? ...

... Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner: "At a press conference on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said the server that housed her emails while she was secretary of state (that was reportedly housed at her home in New York) was set up for President Bill Clinton. She also said that some of the 'personal' emails she deleted were between her and her husband. But just before Hillary began the press conference at the United Nations building, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bill Clinton does not use email." ...

... Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal: "Bill Clinton doesn't use email." ...

... Scott Shane of the New York Times: "'I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,' Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference on Tuesday at the United Nations. 'I'm certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.' But some secrecy experts and former government officials on Tuesday were skeptical, noting the interesting turnabout that had a former top official insisting, for once, that none of her exchanges were secret." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "... I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and personal emails," [Hillary] Clinton said. 'Looking back, it would've been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone.' Yet as recently as two weeks ago, she told journalist Kara Swisher that she carried two phones during at least part of her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton also argued that because most of her work-related emails were sent to other people using official government accounts, they were being recorded, anyway. But some of the communication that has aroused the most interest is her communiqués with close staffers including Huma Abedin, who appears to have used her own account on Clinton's personal server." ...

... Timothy Lee of Vox: In her press conference, Clinton said there were no security breaches to her homebrew e-mail server. "The reality is that if there were a security breach, there's no reason to think she would know about it. If a foreign intelligence agency had managed to hack into her server, they wouldn't have told anyone. Instead, they would have silently collected copies of her communications and send them back home for analysis."

** Greg Sargent: "Lurking underneath the searing controversy around the GOP letter to Iranian leaders is a dynamic that will far outlast the current headlines...: If President Obama reaches an international deal curbing Iran's nuclear program, all of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates will likely campaign on a pledge to cancel it.... All signs are that the 2016 GOP candidates will shape their agendas largely around rolling back Obama accomplishments on a number of fronts."

Ed O'Keefe & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Jebbie & Scottie are out on the new playground calling each other names.

Dave Weigel: Michigan Republicans are preparing once again to rig the Electoral College. Their vote-splitting "bill represents a new flush of Republican chutzpah." And there's a good chance they'll get away with it this time.

Beyond the Beltway

S. P. Sullivan of NJ Advance Media: "New Jersey may end up spending as much money on legal fees from a controversial settlement with Exxon Mobil as it will dedicate toward environmental programs, documents show. Roughly $50 million -- one fifth of a $225 million settlement between the state and the oil giant over pollution at their facilities in New Jersey -- could go toward payment to an outside counsel if the agreement is approved by a judge." ...

... Matt Arco of NJ Advance Media: "Gov. Chris Christie says the controversial settlement agreement with Exxon Mobil is 'actually a really nice settlement,' and blasted The New York Times for not getting its facts straight when the newspaper first reported the agreement. The governor, speaking today at a town hall event in Somerville, stressed the $225 million the oil giant agreed to pay is on top of the billions Exxon will dole out to pay for cleanup at contaminated sites in New Jersey." ...

... Flim-flam Man. Kate Zernicke & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Mr. Christie, on Tuesday, in citing Exxon's obligation to 'fix what they created' without a limit on cost, was referring to the provisions of a 1991 consent order that Exxon reached with the state to clean up the contaminated refinery sites.... But New Jersey's 2004 lawsuits covered different issues, seeking recovery for damages to the state's natural resources and for their loss of use to the public."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A witness to the fatal police shooting of a naked, unarmed man here said Tuesday that the man had approached the officer with his hands in the air, prompting the frightened officer to shoot at close range with a handgun."

Today in Post-Racial America. Amanda Holpuch of the Guardian: "University of Oklahoma's president has expelled two students who led others in racist chants in a video that drove the school to close a fraternity. School president David Boren said Tuesday that the students had created a 'hostile learning environment' while leading a chant at an event hosted by the the school's branch of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) -- one of the largest fraternities in the US.... Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and US senator, ordered the fraternity house shut down on Monday. The two students have until Friday to contest their expulsion." ...

... Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: One of the expelled frat brothers apologizes; the other lets his parents do it for him. Turns out he's "a good boy" and "not a racist." The post reprints the statements.

... Eugene Volokh, who's kind of an oddball winger, argues that expelling the students violates their First Amendment rights. CW: However, the content of the chant, which Volokh reproduces, suggests to me that the students are doing more than using a racial epithet & incendiary racist imagery; the chanters declare they will never allow black men to becomes members of SAE. That is discriminatory, & racial discrimination is not lawful. If the members are allowed to vote on whom to admit to the fraternity, as is customary, then it seems to me the chanters don't get a First Amendment pass, though Volokh argues otherwise: "I don't think that a discussion saying that discrimination ought to take place, or even that at some unspecified time it will take place, would suffice to constitute a violation of the antidiscrimination rules, though it might be used as evidence in a future case where discrimination against a particular applicant might be alleged." He might be right. ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post has more on the students' legal case. CW: AND he addresses a question I had as soon as I read Volokh's analysis: does OU have a student code of ethics that the SAE boys violated? Does the code itself violate the First Amendment? ...

... The Paula Dean of Housemothers. Oklahoma Daily (the OU campus paper): "A video surfaced Monday evening appearing to depict OU's Sigma Alpha Epsilon house mom. The Feb. 24, 2013 Vine, shows a woman who appears to be Beauton Gilbow saying the n-word repeatedly. The Daily identified Gilbow by comparing the Vine to her GoFundMe page, which was created to raise funds for her after Sigma Alpha Epsilon's closure resulted in her sudden joblessness. The campaign page has since been taken down." Includes video. ...

... This is precious. Pete Volk of Oklahoma City News 9, in an earlier interview: “'Did you ever get any indication there was anything like this going on?' News 9's Kelly Ogle asked [Gilbow]. 'No, no, no. Never heard the song,' Gilbow responded." She is, according to the report, "a longtime friend" of legendary OU football coach Barry Switzer.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Obama administration said Wednesday that it would provide another $75 million in nonlethal aid to Ukraine's military. It also imposed sanctions against a handful of pro-Russian separatists and others blamed for fomenting the civil war that has torn apart Ukraine's eastern regions."

Washington Post: "The Italian weather Website MeteoWeb reports that Capracotta, Italy saw 100.8 inches of snow in just 18 hours on Thursday, March 5 -- a total that, if verified, would set a new world record for snowfall in a 24-hour period."