The Commentariat -- March 21, 2013
Ari Rabinovitch & Allyn Fisher-Ilan of Reuters: "President Barack Obama said on Thursday that settlement building in the occupied West Bank did not 'advance the cause of peace', but stopped short of demanding a construction freeze to enable negotiations to resume. Speaking at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama said he remained committed to the creation of an 'independent, viable and contiguous' Palestinian state, but said achieving that goal would not be easy." ...
... Mark Landler & Alan Cowell of the New York Times have more.
The Sequester Matters. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "This isn't cancelled White House tours, these are real people losing pay and losing their jobs." In a video at the linked page, Kaczynski compiles "today's sequester news, as reported by local cable news outlets."
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The House by a vote of 221-207 passed a budget blueprint by Rep. Paul Ryan -- his third proposal in three years -- and was moving quickly toward final passage of a short-term funding measure to keep the government operating beyond the end of this month. The bill to avert a shutdown cleared the Senate on Wednesday." ...
... Jeremy Peters & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The irreconcilable views that the two parties hold on economics, public spending and the role of government could not have been in starker conflict [yesterday]. As House Republicans moved ahead with their latest attempt to dismantle President Obama's health care overhaul -- they voted on one measure that would do so on Wednesday and will vote on another on Thursday -- Democrats were holding a news conference in the basement of the Capitol heralding the third anniversary of the law’s passage."
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Despite a high-profile push by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the assault weapons ban never had a chance of passage." ...
... They should actually do a real background check on everyone. -- John Boehner * ...
* ... Just Kidding. Steve Benen: "... a policy that requires real background checks on everyone is the centerpiece of President Obama's efforts to combat gun violence, and it's an idea that enjoys overwhelming support from Americans. But Republicans and the NRA continue to strongly oppose the policy, making Boehner's response on national television a pleasant surprise....[Jake] Tapper [of CNN] later reported that the Speaker's office said Boehner misspoke, and he only supports Justice Department background checks 'that are already required that are not necessarily done.' In other words, when Boehner endorsed 'real background check on everyone,' he did not mean that he actually supports 'real background check on everyone.'" Read the whole post.
Tom Edsall in the New York Times: "The Priebus report and Rove's Conservative Victory Project together mark a significant escalation in the battle between the center and the right over the soul of the Republican Party. What has yet to be determined is whether they are fighting over a patient who can be quickly resuscitated or a patient with a chronic but not fatal illness — or a corpse." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... the prevailing issue isn't talking complacent conservatives into the kind of 'move to the center' that normally is the product of two consecutive presidential losses, adverse demographic trends, and abysmal party approval ratings. It’s stopping an even more drastic 'plunge to the right' in an environment where Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are becoming maximum GOP stars for arguing that moderation is the party's problem, and finding candidates to buck the trend is even harder than ignoring the elephant in the room."
New York Times Editors: people against who a temporary protective order has been granted should have to give up their guns.
Linda Greenhouse on the evolution of public and judicial attitudes about same-sex marriage: "With a majority of the public now supporting same-sex marriage (overwhelmingly among Democrats and young people, and even by a slim margin of Republicans under the age of 50), those who believe, as I do, that the Constitution acquires meaning outside the courts are seeing powerful validation."
Catherine Saint Louis of the New York Times: "The American A.academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage for the first time on Thursday, saying that allowing gay and lesbian parents to marry if they so choose is in the best interests of their children."
Peter Manseau, in a New York Times op-ed: in South America, Roman Catholic priests just get married. So maybe Pope Francis will come around. "For now the discipline of celibacy remains firm," [then-Cardinal Bergoglio] told Rabbi Abraham Skorka in a 2010 interview. "... For the moment, I am in favor of maintaining celibacy, with the pros and cons it has, because there are 10 centuries of good experiences rather than failures."
Local News
Jeff Mapes of the Oregonian: "Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown will present Oregon legislators with an ambitious plan Wednesday that would ensure that almost all eligible Oregonians are automatically registered to vote. Brown plans to unveil legislation that would use driver-license data and -- eventually -- data from other government agencies to register citizens." CW: some places are so civilized.
News Ledes
Denver Post: "The executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections Tom Clements, was killed in his home Tuesday night, according to a statement from Gov. John Hickenlooper."
Reuters: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO-led forces have reached an agreement on the departure of foreign troops from a strategically key province near the capital, coalition forces said, but it was unclear if U.S. special forces would leave."
AP: "A mortar shell explosion killed at least seven Marines and injured several more during mountain warfare training in Nevada's high desert, prompting the Pentagon to immediately halt the use of the weapons until an investigation can determine their safety, officials said Tuesday. The explosion occurred Monday night at the Hawthorne Army Depot, a sprawling facility used by troops heading overseas, during an exercise involving the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Lejeune, N.C."
AP: "Computer networks at major South Korean banks and top TV broadcasters crashed en masse Wednesday, paralyzing bank machines across the country and prompting speculation of a cyberattack by North Korea."
ABC News: "In a study that's sure to shake up the soda ban debate, Harvard researchers have linked the sugary drinks to 180,000 deaths a year worldwide, 25,000 in the United States alone."