The Commentariat -- Ides of March 2013

I will be away most of the day today, so I won't be posting. -- Marie

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Multiple reports out today suggest that Dem leaders in the House and Senate are edging towards supporting Chained CPI for Social Security as part of the 'grand bargain' Obama wants to replace the sequester with -- and that's already sparking sharp pushback from Congressional liberals." CW: there is no excuse for this. None.

John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday will propose diverting money from oil and gas leases on federal lands to finance research on replacing hydrocarbons in cars and trucks."

Paul Krugman: "Way back in 2010, when everybody in Washington seemed determined to anoint Representative Paul Ryan as the ultimate Serious, Honest Conservative, I pronounced him a flimflam man.... Since then, his budgets have gotten even flimflammier.... This time around, quite a few pundits and reporters have greeted his release with the derision it deserves.... The Senate Democratic plan ... is ... an extremely cautious proposal, one that doesn't follow through on its own analysis.... The proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus ... calls for substantial new spending now, temporarily widening the deficit, offset by major deficit reduction later in the next decade, largely though not entirely through higher taxes on the wealthy, corporations and pollution." That's the plan Krugman likes. ...

... Steve Benen likes it, too: "... on Capitol Hill, when it comes to creating millions of jobs in a hurry, this is the only game in town" -- the CPC budget.

Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "A provision to keep Saturday [postal] deliveries, being considered as part of a Senate budget resolution, is similar to legislation that the House passed last week, but it is unclear what Congress can do to compel the Postal Service to continue delivering mail six days a week. The agency does not receive federal appropriations, getting nearly all of its $65 billion in revenue from the sale of stamps and other services."

"I Am Not a Sixth-Grader." Dianne Feinstein really does not Joe McCarthy, Jr., giving her a condescending lecture on the Bill of Rights:

     ... Update. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Saying she felt 'patronized' by Senate colleague Ted Cruz, Sen. Dianne Feinstein explained Thursday why she felt the need to raise her voice in anger at the Texas Republican during a debate over gun control. 'I felt he was somewhat arrogant about it,' Feinstein said...." CW: funny, everybody else felt that way, too. With video.

Carol Leonnig & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "A federal grand jury in Miami is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), examining his role in advocating for the business interests of a wealthy donor and friend.... Menendez has intervened in matters affecting the financial interests of Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, seeking to apply pressure on the Dominican government to honor a contract with Melgen's port-security company, documents and interviews show. Also, Menendez's office has acknowledged he interceded with federal health-care officials after they said that Melgen had overbilled the U.S. government for care at his clinic."

Political scientist John Sides, writing in Salon, argues that the "47-percent" video had little to no impact on the presidential election. CW: one thing Sides doesn't mention in his post -- so maybe he & his colleague didn't test for it -- was potential voters' degree of certainty. It seems to me that the 47-percent remark would have the effect of cementing people's impressions of Romney. Up till then, anyone watching the election closely would know Romney didn't give a flying fuck for ordinary Americans, but casual voters probably did not have enough info to form an opinion. The 47 percent tape -- which got extensive media attention -- left little doubt about Romney's view of us unwashed masses.

Kevin Cirilli of Politico: "Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), once a staunch opponent of gay marriage, says that he now supports same-sex nuptials after his son told him he was gay." CW: typical of so many Republicans, Portman can dredge up some empathy only after a situation directly affects him. So sorry, I'm not impressed. This was a no-brainer before he found out his son was gay -- something he learned, BTW, two years ago.

     ... Update. Here's Portman's self-serving op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch. Something about God & soul-searching. ...

     ... CW Update 2. I see Steve Benen has precisely the same take I had: "Why must empathy among conservatives be tied so directly to their own personal interactions?" He adds,

It seems the key to American social progress in the 21st century is simple: more conservatives having more life experiences. Indeed, I'd be glad to introduce Republican lawmakers to more Americans who are poor, in the hopes they'll stop trying to cut health care programs; students, in the hopes they'll stop opposing education investments; women, in the hopes they'll stop opposing women's health care; and African Americans, in the hopes that they'll stop supporting voter-suppression tactics.... If [Portman's] son came out as unemployed, would the senator give another look to economic stimulus and extended jobless benefits?

Aruna Viswanatha & Emily Flitter of Reuters: JPMorgan Chase & Co ignored risks, misled investors, fought with regulators and tried to work around rules as it dealt with mushrooming losses in a derivatives portfolio, a Senate report alleged in a damning review of the largest U.S. bank's management. Senior managers at the bank were told for months about the bad derivatives bets that ended up costing the bank more than $6.2 billion but did little to rein them in, according to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on Thursday."

Tim Egan has hopes for the pope. ...

... Jon Anderson in the New Yorker: "Whatever the truth, Francis the Humble, it would seem, has much to clear up about what he thought, how he behaved, and what he did during his country's Dirty War."

Right Wing World

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones lists "Nine CPAC Events We Initially Thought Were Parodies."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States will deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors along the Pacific Coast to increase the Pentagon's ability to blunt a potential attack from North Korea, in a clear response to recent tests of nuclear weapons technology and long-range missiles by the North."

New York Times: "Two affiliates of SAC Capital, the giant hedge fund, settled insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $614 million on Friday, in what the agency said was the biggest ever settlement for such cases. The settlements spare SAC's founder, the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who hasn't been charged with wrongdoing. Mr. Cohen, one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world, has long been considered a target of federal investigators."

AP: "... alleged victims of clergy abuse in the U.S. are demanding swift and bold actions from the new Jesuit pontiff: Defrock all molester priests and the cardinals who covered up for them, formally apologize, and release all confidential church files."

ABC News: "A critical eyewitness testified in the Steubenville, Ohio, rape trial this morning, saying he watched and recorded a high school football player accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl penetrate the alleged victim with his finger in the back seat of a car. Mark Cole, 16, was in the car with the defendants Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, as they drove from one alcohol-fueled party to his home on the night of Aug. 11. All three boys played football together at Steubenville High School."

Reuters: "Italy's new parliament sat on Friday for the first time since an inconclusive general election produced a political stalemate that meant deputies and senators were unable even to elect speakers for either chamber."

The Commentariat -- March 14, 2013

** Floyd Abrams & Yochai Benkler, in a New York Times op-ed: "Anyone who holds freedom of the press dear should shudder at the threat that the prosecution's theory [in the Bradley Manning case] presents to journalists, their sources and the public that relies on them."

** John Podesta, chairman of the Center for American Progress & formerly Bill Clinton's chief-of-staff, in a Washington Post op-ed: "In refusing to release to Congress the rules and justifications governing a [drone] program that has conducted nearly 400 unmanned drone strikes and killed at least three Americans in the past four years, President Obama is ignoring the system of checks and balances that has governed our country from its earliest days. And in keeping this information from the American people, he is undermining the nation's ability to be a leader on the world stage and is acting in opposition to the democratic principles we hold most important."

Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "As the Obama administration pushes for gun-control legislation, it will have to contend with the changed legal understanding of the Second Amendment that culminated in Heller. That transformation was brought about in large part by a small band of lawyers and scholars backed by the NRA."

** "Stuck on Cruz Control." Dana Milbank: "Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result, it has been said, defines insanity. But among Senate Republicans, the lunatics are running the asylum. A few of the most junior members, with support from conservative activists, are calling the shots, while the caucus's nominal leaders, intimidated by the newcomers' power, have become followers."

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Wednesday..., Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a budget blueprint that proposes only minor trims to Medicare and Medicaid -- the biggest drivers of government spending -- and vows to make the cuts 'without harming beneficiaries.' Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats have declared their opposition to a proposal that has emerged as Obama's biggest selling point to Republicans: his offer to apply a less-generous measure of inflation to Social Security, resulting in slightly smaller annual cost-of-living increases." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "The Ryan budget was on the ballot last November not only because Ryan was on the ticket with Mitt Romney but also because Romney offered a similar approach. It takes nerve to dismiss the results of an election that Ryan himself called a 'referendum.' ... [Sen. Patty] Murray, [who presented the Senate budget,] has done a service by asking for more revenue than Obama did in his most recent offer. This should help make clear that the 'center; in this debate is ... roughly where the president is right now."

Our biggest problems in the next 10 years are not deficits. -- President Obama, to House Republicans ...

... Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times on President Obama's meeting with House Republicans yesterday.

Nicholas Confessore & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama joined former campaign staff members and some of his most ardent supporters on Wednesday night, headlining a two-day meeting of an independent group, Organizing for Action, that is intended to bolster his agenda in Congress. The new group hopes to cut through Washington's legislative logjams by harnessing the millions of volunteers and donors who helped elect Mr. Obama to a second term last fall, turning their enthusiasm and money to grass-roots lobbying on issues like immigration, climate change and the expansion of Medicaid."

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "On the day he named a replacement for the United States ambassador slain at the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September, President Obama also met with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan of Libya and emphasized the need for his country's help in finding the attackers who carried out the assault that led to death of the envoy and three other Americans.... Mr.Obama ... announced that he was naming a career diplomat, Deborah K. Jones, as the new envoy to Tripoli, filling a job that has been vacant since the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Ms. Jones previously served as ambassador to Kuwait, and in posts in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Turkey, Ethiopia and Iraq."

** CW: I missed this report, which should have been headline news EVERYWHERE. Instead, I had to back into it from other commentary: Brad Johnson, writing in Grist: "The State Department's 'don't worry' environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, released late Friday afternoon, was written not by government officials but by a private company in the pay of the pipeline's owner. The 'sustainability consultancy' Environmental Resources Management (ERM) was paid an undisclosed amount under contract to TransCanada to write the statement, [emphasis added] which is now an official government document. The statement estimates, and then dismisses, the pipeline's massive carbon footprint and other environmental impacts, because, it asserts, the mining and burning of the tar sands is unstoppable." Here's another report from Lisa Song of Inside Climate News.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Scott Prouty revealed himself on MSNBC's 'The Ed Show' Wednesday night as the bartender who shot a damaging video of Mitt Romney dismissing President Obama's supporters during a closed-press fundraiser last year." ...

     ... I really like this guy. You can watch the whole interview (in segments) on "The Ed Show" site.

Hope Yen of the AP: "A record number of U.S. counties -- more than 1 in 3 — are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere... The U.S. [is encountering] its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents.... Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas ... would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year."

Emily Schmall & Larry Rohter of the New York Times:" Jorge Mario Bergoglio ... is in some ways a history-making pontiff, the first from the Jesuit order and the first non-European to fill the post in more than 1,200 years. But Cardinal Bergoglio is also a conventional choice, a theological conservative of Italian ancestry who vigorously backs Vatican positions on abortion, gay marriage, the ordination of women and other leading issues of the day -- leading to heated clashes with Argentina's current left-leaning president." ...

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "... the first Latin American pope also represents a cultural bridge between two worlds -- the son of Italian immigrants in a country regarded by some as the New World colony Italy never had.... Bergoglio remains a fierce critic of socially progressive trends, including gay marriage, representing a continuity of BenedictXVI's conservative doctrine. Though questioned for some of his actions during Argentina's Dirty War, he may also be a target hard for progressives to hit. In recent decades, he has emerged as a champion of social justice and the poor who has spoken out against the evils of globalization and slammed the 'demonic effects of the imperialism of money.'" ...

... Michael Warren of the AP: "It's without dispute that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, like most other Argentines, failed to openly confront the 1976-1983 military junta while it was kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a 'dirty war' to eliminate leftist opponents. But the new pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that this was a failure of the Roman Catholic Church in general, and that it's unfair to label Bergoglio with the collective guilt that many Argentines of his generation still deal with.... Bergoglio twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court in trials involving torture and murder inside the feared Navy Mechanics School and the theft of babies from detainees. When he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman told the AP."

... CW: As contributors Akhilleus & Dave S. remarked in yesterday's Comments, Charles Pierce has the goods on Pope Francis. Best hope: he'll be a fascist for the poor & excommunicate Paul Ryan & John Boehner. My advice to liberal Roman Catholics remains -- become an Episcopalian. They've got apostolic succession AND incense. It's okay if you say your Rosary & go to confession, too. And you could be gay &/or a girl & become a priest or bishop. In other words, Catholicism without the Beanie Boys & their Main Man. ...

... BUT, Francis does carry his own luggage. The AP reporter, Nicole Winfield, describes this as a "display of humility." CW: this reminds me that President Jimmy Carter also occasionally carried his own luggage. Republicans criticized him for this "display of humility," calling it "undignified." If Francis doesn't get a little more "dignified," he may end up a one-term pope.

Gail Collins sees the only way to get a budget compromise will have to involve white smoke & red beanies. CW: I was cool with it till she got to the part where Paul Ryan ascends into heaven. I don't foresee that happening. Under any circumstance. Even the concept of miracles has limitations.

Local News

The lieutenant governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll, abruptly resigned on Tuesday, the result of a criminal investigation into an Internet sweepstakes company for which she once served as a consultant.... Her tenure as lieutenant governor has been marred by scandal and poor judgment, and Ms. Carroll was increasingly viewed as an embarrassment to the man who chose her for the job. Gov. Rick Scott" CW: Ha! America's Worst Governor AND Worst Lieutenant Governor. The Tampa Bay Times story, by Tia Mitchell, is here.

Steve Neavling of Reuters: "Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is expected to announce on Thursday an emergency state takeover of Detroit, putting a lawyer with extensive experience managing corporate bankruptcies in charge of the destitute city's finances. The dramatic move will culminate the long decline of the once thriving center of the U.S. auto industry and birthplace of the Motown trend in popular music." The Detroit Free Press story is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Matthew Keys, a 26-year-old deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters, has been charged with assisting the hacking collective Anonymous in an attack on the Web site of The Los Angeles Times, the Justice Department said Thursday. A federal indictment of Mr. Keys, formerly a Web producer at KTXL Fox 40, which, like The Los Angeles Times, is owned by the Tribune Company, said that he went by a user name of 'AESCracked' and assisted in a cyberattack on the newspaper's Web site. The attack reportedly allowed the group to gain access and alter a news feature."

Reuters: "Authorities on Thursday killed a man suspected of shooting dead four people a day earlier in separate incidents at a barbershop and a car wash in neighboring upstate New York towns, Governor Andrew Cuomo said."

New York Times: "The American commander in Afghanistan quietly told his forces to intensify security measures on Wednesday, issuing a strongly worded warning that a string of anti-American statements by President Hamid Karzai had put Western troops at greater risk of attack both from rogue Afghan security forces and from militants. The order came amid a growing backlash against Mr. Karzai's public excoriation of the United States, including a speech on Tuesday in which he suggested that the government might unilaterally act to ensure control of the Bagram Prison if the United States delayed its handover."

New York Times: "China’s new Communist Party leader,Xi Jinping, completed his formal transition to power on Thursday, assuming the presidency during a parliamentary meeting which has sent signals that his government will try to be more responsive to an impatient public while defending the party's top-down control."

New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to sign agreements Thursday to form a government with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, two dynamic, first-time politicians...."

A representation of traces of a proton-proton collision measured in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience in the search for the Higgs boson, or as contributor Patrick asserts, a Flying Spaghetti Monster.AP: "Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape. The elusive particle, called a Higgs boson, was predicted in 1964 to help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang. The particle was named for Peter Higgs, one of the physicists who proposed its existence, but it later became popularly known as the 'God particle.'"

The Commentariat -- March 13, 2013

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

NEW. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "President Obama headed back to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to win over his loudest critics in Congress: the restless and resistant House Republican majority.... The president was to spend an hour with Speaker John A. Boehner and the 231 other House Republicans...."

"Parallel Universes." Jeremy Peters & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats and House Republicans on Tuesday outlined vastly divergent approaches to shoring up the government's finances, a reminder of how far apart they remain on fiscal policy even as both sides insist publicly that a bipartisan compromise is possible.... President Obama made a rare appearance at a gathering of Democratic senators -- his first of four meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week -- to explore ways that the two parties could overcome differences.... The Republican plan sets out to balance the budget in a decade and would cut spending by $4.6 trillion through 2023, in large part by rolling back many of Mr. Obama's signature legislative accomplishments." ...

... CW: The plan is here, and it comes with a picture of Smilin' Ryan suitable for framing & reminiscent of Tom DeLay's mugshot. As you may recall, DeLay explained his upbeat mugshot thus: "Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile." Wonder who it is we're supposed to see through Ryan there whose budgets are so anti-Christian that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (Ryan is a Roman Catholic) called him out. ...

... ** All this is of course better illuminated by Charles Pierce: "Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from Wisconsin and most recent first runner-up in the vice-presidential pageant, has released his latest 'budget,' which is only a budget in the same way that what the guy says to the pigeons in the park is a manifesto. It is constructed from the same magical thinking, the same conjuring words, the same elusive asterisks, and the same obvious obfuscations of its actual intent that Paul Ryan and his running mate put forward in the last campaign, in which they were so thoroughly rejected that Ryan couldn't even carry his home town.... [His philosophy] has blinded him to the very real human effects of what would occur if his 'budget' ever was adopted, it also has blinded him to his own staggering hypocrisy -- a man seeking to demolish the very safety net that got him through high-school and college, a man talking about the perils of government who's never had a real job outside of it." ...

This to us is something that we're not going to give up on, because we're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people. -- Paul Ryan, in his presser yesterday, via Jed Lewison of Daily Kos

Freud lives! -- Constant Weader

... Ezra Klein does well, too: "Ryan's budget is intended to do nothing less than fundamentally transform the relationship between Americans and their government. That, and not deficit reduction, is its real point, as it has been Ryan&'s real point throughout his career.... The opening paragraph is a recitation of ills that Ryan's budget does little to fix, and the first chapter is an attempt to justify his cuts through a horror story that doesn't add up.... It is Ryan's unusual ideology, and not the specific state of our finances, that justifies this budget.... These ideas are ... deeply unpopular, and considered quite radical. That's why Newt Gingrich rejected Ryan's initial budget as 'right-wing social engineering.'" ...

... Neil Irwin & Ezra Klein on Ryan's Morning in America Apolcalyptic vision:

... Dana Milbank: Ryan's "budget eliminates ___ loopholes in the tax code, cutting the ___ and the ____ deductions. It reduces spending on the ____ program by _____ and the _____ program by _____. Retirees would see ____, students would experience ____ and the poor would be _____. There are so many blanks in Ryan's budget that it could be a Mad Libs exercise. But this is not a game. It's black-box budgeting -- an expression of lofty aims, with binders full of magic asterisks in lieu of specific cuts to government benefits.... Mostly, Ryan would achieve his aims through sleight of hand."

... The Misogynist's Plan. Bryce Covert of The Nation: Ryan's budget "would especially take an enormous toll on the country's women.... Women voters roundly rejected him and his running mate in 2012." CW: so maybe this is Ryan's Revenge?

... Wherein Kevin Drum sez, "At this point, I honestly have only one wish for all this: that the press finally wises up and refuses to call [Ryan's budget] a "deficit reduction" plan. It's not. It's a plan to dramatically cut domestic spending, full stop, mostly on the poor, the middle class, and the elderly. Every other component of the plan increases the deficit." ...

... CW: Sorry, Kevin, but the New York Times reporters (article linked above) repeatedly mentioned the deficit reduction aspects of the plan. And Lori Montgomery, who wrote the Washington Post report on Ryan's budget, & who has long taken dictation from the Granny Starver, is still at it: ergo, she has no qualms about writing shit like this, "That would let him wipe out deficits by 2023 without raising taxes." Clearly, Montgomery doesn't listen to Irwin & Klein & isn't as smart as Dana Milbank, who -- though not the expert Montgomery is supposed to be -- can read a so-called budget, as apparently she cannot. Too busy filling steno pad pages with "Paul Loves Lori," I guess. ...

     Update: Now comes Annie Lowrey, a/k/a Mrs. Ezra Klein, with a New York Times piece that claims "Mr. Ryan's budget balances by 2023." Lowrey admits Ryan's budget is short on details, & the point of her analysis is that many/most economists say a balanced budget isn't necessary -- ever. However, the he-said/she-said quality of her piece is ultimately misleading. ...

     ... A more reasoned analysis comes from Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: "... in critical ways the budget is exceedingly vague -- and, as a result, its claim to reach balance in ten years is hard to take seriously.... Make no mistake: his budget is extreme. And, in its reverse Robin Hood policies, its ideological rigidity, and its calculated vagueness, it sadly reflects some of the worst features of American politics at this crucial time."

... Paul Krugman sez, in "Flamflam Forever," "I took Paul Ryan's measure two and a half years ago. All the Very Serious People were very angry with me -- Ryan was the Serious, Honest Conservative, the guy centrists demonstrated their centrism by praising. But he was an obvious phony. His 'plan' was all smoke (I couldn't even find any mirrors).... Meanwhile, he was pursuing radical redistribution away from the needy to the wealthy.... Nothing has changed, except that the plan has gotten even crueler.... The only really interesting question is how the VSPs will react. Have they had enough of the Flimflam Man? Or does hype spring eternal?"

... New York Times Editors: "Mr. Obama should have no illusions about the core beliefs of some of his Republican dining partners.... That was made clear on Tuesday when the House Budget Committee chairman, Representative Paul Ryan, unveiled his 2014 spending plan: a retread of ideas that voters soundly rejected, made even worse, if possible, by sharper cuts to vital services and more dishonest tax provisions." ...

... Andy Rosenthal of the New York Times: "The Republicans have hit a sour spot in politics -- they are 180 degrees opposed to what most Americans want on just about any issue you care to name.... The budget is not merely terrible policy, but also bears no resemblance to what Americans want -- at least judging from their rejection of the G.O.P. presidential ticket last year as well as more recent public opinion surveys." ...

... CW: Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker takes the most stunningly positive view of House Republicans that anyone who isn't batshit crazy could make. I'm not buying it, but I thought you might want a second opinion ...

... As for me, I'm going with Lizza's colleague at the New Yorker, John Cassidy: "The plan is a joke. It's dead on arrival, and nobody should pay much attention to it, except as another exhibit in the indictment of latter-day Republicanism. Ryan's numbers don't add up. His proposals -- cutting domestic programs, converting Medicare to a voucher program, returning Medicaid to the states, reducing the top rate of income tax to twenty-five per cent -- were roundly rejected by the voters just five months ago. And the philosophy his plan is based upon -- trickle-down economics combined with an unbridled hostility toward government programs designed to correct market failures -- is tattered and shopworn.... He's been trotting out this pablum for six years now." Apparently, the New Yorker editors do not allow their writers to use terms like "horseshit." ...

... George Zornick of The Nation has an interesting piece on Obama v. Bernie Sanders & Tom Harkin on chained CPI, part of the discussion in Tuesday's meeting between Obama & Senate Democrats. ...

... ** George Stephanopoulos talks to President Obama about the budget & stuff. Transcript. .

CW: we've covered this before, but it bears repeating. Steve Benen: "Congressional Republican leaders are now saying they won't even talk to the president unless Obama agrees -- before any meetings even take place -- to give them what they want. In other words, when the White House announces that all efforts at deficit reduction in the coming years will include literally nothing but 100% spending cuts, then GOP leaders will be prepared to negotiate with the president. Please, Beltway pundits, remind me again how all the president has to do to resolve political paralysis is 'lead' and offer good-faith compromises." ...

... Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Republicans will use the expiration of the debt limit this summer as leverage to get President Obama to consider entitlement reforms." CW: that is, Congressional Republicans enjoy destroying the government & it is something they intend to do as a matter of course until they get their way. The question for me still remains, when does irresponsibility cross over into treason?

Robert Scheer of TruthDig, in The Nation: "... according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, [U.S. corporations] 'parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year' shielding more than 40 percent of their profits from US taxes. They all do it, including Microsoft, GE and ... Abbott Laboratories. Many, like GE..., have avoided taxes altogether in some recent years. But they all still expect Uncle Sam to come to their aid with military firepower in case the natives abroad get restless and nationalize their company's assets. We still have a blockade against Cuba because Fidel Castro more than a half century ago dared seize an American-owned telephone company."

Senators Totally Cool with Revolving Door. Dina ElBoghdady of the Washington Post: "For all the rumblings about Mary Jo White's ties to big interests on Wall Street..., not a single senator voiced even slight opposition to President Obama's pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, despite previous concerns by some about her ability to effectively police Wall Street."

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "The $2.3 billion federal E-Rate program, which subsidizes basic Internet connections for schools and libraries, should be overhauled and expanded to provide those community institutions with new, lightning-fast connections to the Web, [Jay Rockefeller {D-W.Va.},] the chairman of a Senate committee that oversees the F.C.C., said Tuesday.... The initiative is one that Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, has already endorsed, but with a less-aggressive goal."

Wherein veteran journalist Charles Pierce explains professional journalism to that young whippersnapper Ezra Klein. Thanks to contributor Diane for the link.

Local News

Drew Singer of Reuters: "Two high school football players accused of raping a girl will face trial in Steubenville, Ohio, on Wednesday in a case that has become a national example of social media's powerful influence in modern society." The New York Times story is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "... a gathering of Catholic cardinals picked a new pope from among their midst on Wednesday -- choosing the cardinal from Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first leader of the church ever chosen from South America. The new pope, 76, to be called Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, is also the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years." The Times' Lede blog has updates. ...

... Here's a profile by John Allen of then-Cardinal Bergoglio, published in the National Catholic Reporter March 3.

New York Times: "Google on Tuesday acknowledged to state officials that it had violated people's privacy during its Street View mapping project when it casually scooped up passwords, e-mail and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users."

New York Times: "Black smoke billowed from a makeshift chimney atop the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, signaling that the 115 cardinals of the Roman Catholic church eligible to vote for a new pope had again failed to elect a successor to Benedict XVI.... A first ballot also ended inconclusively on Tuesday, signaled by the inky black smoke from the copper chimney jutting from the chapel's roof. Two ballots had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. Voting is set to continue -- up to two rounds each morning and afternoon -- until the cardinals reach a two-thirds majority of 77 votes." ...

     ... Update: for those of you transfixed by news from the Vatican, ABC News accommodates you with a live smoke-cam. CW: Go ahead, just sit there & watch it. I can't think of a more fruitful way to spend your day.

AP: "Now, more than two years after [civil rights attorney Mary] Han was found dead in her garage in what authorities deemed a suicide, the [Albuquerque police] department is under scrutiny amid questions over whether officers mishandled the investigation into the death of their former adversary. The state attorney general's office is looking into the matter. It has also asked federal officials, who last year launched a civil rights probe into the department's high number of police shootings, to look at the case." Han was a frequent critic of the Albuquerque police.