The Commentariat -- Jan. 24, 2013

My column in the New York Times eXaminer calls out New York Times business columnist Eduardo Porter for writing a column founded on phony facts. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Given our current trajectory, it's safe to say that even by 2016 the biggest increase in [federal] spending, by far, will have come during the Bush years." With a chart to prove it.

Daily Kos has a petition urging Harry Reid to pass powerful filibuster reform with only Democratic votes. They will email the signatures to Reid's office Thursday morning.

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Democratic lawmakers plan to formally reintroduce a bill Thursday that would ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, the most ambitious -- and politically risky -- element of proposals unveiled by President Obama to limit gun violence. The 'Assault Weapons Ban of 2013' is similar to one passed in 1994 that expired with little protest in 2004. The measure will be unveiled Thursday morning by a slate of Democratic co-sponsors, led by longtime gun control advocates Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.), who have pushed for the ban before in part because of their personal histories with gun violence." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "If there is a path to new gun laws, it has to come through West Virginia and a dozen other states with Democratic senators like [Sen. Joe] Manchin [ConservaD-W.Va.] who are confronting galvanized constituencies that view any effort to tighten gun laws as an infringement."

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Reelected and unconcerned about ever having to face voters again, [President] Obama seems determined to push a far-reaching agenda -- on guns, climate change and gay rights, among other topics -- that looks toward his presidential legacy. [Harry] Reid (D-Nev.), significantly more encumbered, must worry about how to protect 20 Democratic-held Senate seats that will be up for grabs in 2014, while Republicans are defending only 14 spots. For some Democrats up for reelection next year, supporting the president will be politically treacherous terrain, and no issue may capture that disconnect better than gun control."

House Republicans Surrender, Declare Victory. Jed Lewison of Daily Kos has the details.

Gail Collins writes a moving column on military women serving in combat positions. ...

... "Misconceptions." Linda Greenhouse on the history of abortion rights. Her commentary on the "real reason" the Justices ruled for Roe is eye-opening.

** Jesse Eisenger of ProPublica, in the New York Times: "We are never going to have a full understanding of what bad behavior bankers engaged in in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have failed to hold big wrongdoers to account." But a few private lawsuits, like one brought against Morgan Stanley, "are explosive. Hundreds of pages of internal Morgan Stanley documents, released publicly last week, shed much new light on what bankers knew at the height of the housing bubble and what they did with that secret knowledge.... The documents suggest a pattern of behavior larger than this one deal: people across the bank understood that the American housing market was in trouble. They took advantage of that knowledge to create and then bet against securities and then also to unload garbage investments on unsuspecting buyers."

Jill Lawrence of the National Journal: "President Obama says he's very concerned about income inequality. If he wants to elevate that issue in his second term, he should consider naming Jennifer Granholm as his next Labor secretary. The Current TV host and former two-term Michigan governor would be a highly symbolic choice, given that her Republican successor recently signed a law making Michigan -- birthplace of the organized labor movement -- a right-to-work state."

There Is Plenty the Matter with Kansas. John Eligon of the New York Times: "This month, the largest tax cut in Kansas history took effect, and most of its Medicaid system was handed over to private insurers. [A] bill introduced this week would pare taxes further, with the goal of eventually eliminating the state's individual income tax. [Gov. Sam] Brownback [RTP] has already slashed the state's welfare roll and its work force. He has merged government agencies and is proposing further consolidation. He is pushing for pension changes, to change the way judges are selected and for altering education financing formulas." State taxes on the poor are rising as services decline; taxes on the rich have gone down.

Thomas Edsell in the New York Times: "... much of the Republican electorate, as presently constructed, is profoundly committed -- morally and ideologically -- to 'traditional values.' You're asking groups of people to change who were brought together by their resistance to change. Their opposition to change is why they are Republicans." AND here are maddening facts Edsell includes,

In North Carolina, Bloomberg news found that Democrats won 2.22 million votes to 2.14 million cast for Republican candidates, but Republicans won 9 of the state's 13 House seats. Similarly, in Pennsylvania, Democrats won 2.7 million votes to the Republicans' 2.6 million, but Democrats ended up with only 5 of the state's 18 districts.

Ryu Spaeth, writing in The Week on the President's inaugural address. "Throughout his speech, Obama subtly argued that the Constitution and other founding documents do not have all the answers; that wisdom and foresight is not exclusive to a group of men from the 18th century; and that it is up to a new generation, confident in its own hard-won knowledge and abilities, to chart a path forward." CW: Spaeth is right. The philosophical chasm between Obama & Sir Nino Scalia could not be wider. It is not for nothing the Supreme Martyr looked as furious as funny. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Obama chose to embrace an old but often-forgotten tradition of closely associating liberalism with the 'positive freedoms' necessary to make 'negative freedoms' meaningful.... In particular, Obama made the long-lost liberal case that collective action is necessary to the achievement of individual freedom, instead of implicitly conceding that social goals and individual interests are inherently at war." ...

... Kenneth Baer, a former member of the Obama administration, in a Washington Post op-ed: the concepts Obama expressed were "firmly mainstream." And Newt Gingrich didn't think it was very liberal. ...

... E. J. Dionne: Obama's role model is Ronald Reagan. "Like Reagan, Obama hopes to usher in a long-term electoral realignment -- in Obama's case toward the moderate left, thereby reversing the 40th president's political legacy. The Reagan metaphor helps explain the tone of Obama's inaugural address, built ... on a philosophical argument for a progressive vision of the country rooted in our history."

Jamelle Bouie: the Republican plan to rig the presidential election "would take the existing malapportionment of our political system -- rural states have more representation relative to their populations -- and amplify it by an incredible extent.... If implemented on a large scale, this scheme would result in mass disenfranchisement, and rival Jim Crow in the number of people it (effectively) removed from the electoral process.... A large number of those disenfranchised would be African Americans." ...

... Ari Berman of The Nation: "Election reform should be a top priority of the new Congress." CW: yes, it should. And good luck with that.

The Cowardly, Lyin'. Paul Krugman has a takedown of Paul Ryan that is not to be missed. ...

... BUT Krugman's arch-rival, Jon Stewart, does him one better. Pretty much everything you need to know about Lyin' Ryan:

Secretary Clinton in one of the finer moments during her testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee answering the intelligence-challenged Ron Johnson (RTP-Wisconsin):

... Dana Milbank seems to have a lot more respect for Clinton today than he did back in the day he reserved a bottle of Mad Bitch beer for her. ...

... Steve Benen wrote a great post on Sen. Johnson back in November when Johnson said Americans were too damned dumb to appreciate the conservative message. In the same news conference, he announced he would tutor his new Senate colleague Tammy Baldwin (Big D-Wis.) on fiscal matters because of his superior knowledge of the federal budget. Johnson was elected to public office for the first time in 2010. Baldwin, a mathematician, "has been in public office for two decades" and in the House since 1999. Benen noted,

For the record, Ron Johnson believes affordable contraception is easily distributed over the Internet, thinks 'sunspot activity' is responsible for global warming, believes the Great Recession ended before President Obama took office; and sees public investment in alternative energy as roughly the same thing as 'the Soviet Union.'

CW: wouldn't it be fun to go to a meeting of the GOP Ignoramus Club? Here you have Louisiana State Sen. Mike Walsworth auditioning for club membership in remarks that leave the witness flabbergasted. Thanks to Phil Platt Plait of Slate, Zack Kopplin of Louisiana & Akhilleus for bringing us documentary evidence of a genuine specimen proving the existence of evolutionary throwbacks. Science Is Awesome:

Nicholas Kristof's column sort of irritated me. I'd like to know what you thought of it.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: Benjamin "Netanyahu's weakened position could set the stage for ... an improvement in his ties with [President Obama]."

Local News

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Rhode Island, the only state in New England that has not legalized gay marriage, began taking up the matter this week. The State House is expected to pass a bill Thursday that would allow anyone to marry 'any eligible person regardless of gender.'"

Grammar Lesson*

Merriam-Webster sez: "Farther and further have been used more or less interchangeably throughout most of their history, but currently they are showing signs of diverging. As adverbs they continue to be used interchangeably whenever spatial, temporal, or metaphorical distance is involved. But where there is no notion of distance, further is used 'our techniques can be further refined'. Further is also used as a sentence modifier 'further, the workshop participants were scarcely optimistic -- L. B. Mayhew', but farther is not. A polarizing process appears to be taking place in their adjective use. Farther is taking over the meaning of distance 'the farther shore' and further the meaning of addition 'needed no further invitation.'"

* See Comments.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday handily passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, paving the way for a showdown in the State Senate in the only New England state where it is not allowed."

Christian Science Monitor: "A federal judge in Chicago sentenced an American citizen to 35 years in prison on Thursday for his role in providing surveillance information and videos laying the groundwork for the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, that left more than 160 dead and hundreds wounded. David Coleman Headley, a US citizen of Pakistani heritage, was arrested in October 2009. He agreed shortly afterward to cooperate with US investigators and intelligence officials, and he testified against one of his fellow co-conspirators."

New York Times: "As French forces fight Islamist rebels in Mali, the country has ramped up police and army presence at home and is sending special forces to help protect uranium production sites in Niger."

Reuters: "The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday."

AP: "President Barack Obama will nominate Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, tapping an attorney with broad experience in prosecuting white-collar crimes to lead an agency that has a central role in implementing Wall Street reform. A White House official said the president would announce White's nomination during a ceremony in the State Dining Room Thursday afternoon. At the same event, Obama will renominate Richard Cordray to serve as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.... The president used a recess appointment last year to ... install Cordray as head of the bureau." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "In its choice of Ms. White and Mr. Cordray, the White House is sending a signal about the importance of holding Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing. Both picks are former prosecutors."

AP: "Democratic Sen. John Kerry, on a smooth path to confirmation as secretary of state, is likely to face friendly questioning when he testifies before the committee that he's served on for 28 years and led for the past four. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman will sit at the witness table Thursday when he appears before the panel.... The five-term Massachusetts senator is widely expected to win overwhelming bipartisan support...." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Sen. John F. Kerry, testifying before a Senate committee on his nomination to become secretary of state, said U.S. foreign policy is defined by much more than military intervention abroad and the fight against terrorism, and he called for consensus on promoting American leadership on matters ranging from food security to climate change."

Washington Post: "North Korea threatened Thursday to carry out a nuclear test as part of an 'all-out action' against the U.S., which it called the 'main player' behind recently adopted international sanctions."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 23, 2013

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on a column -- that irked me -- by NYT business columnist Eduardo Porter.

** Read Harold Meyerson on "The Obama Majority." If you helped make it happen in one way or another, be proud of yourself.

Dwight David Obama. Rich Miller of Bloomberg News: "Federal outlays over the past three years grew at their slowest pace since 1953-56, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Expenditures as a share of the economy sank last year to 22.8 percent, their lowest level since 2008, according to Congressional Budget Office data." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the idea that we've had some kind of spending surge, and that current deficits reflect that surge, is just wrong, and distorts public discussion." ...

... CW: this is terrible news for the deficit hawks a/k/a "entitlement" slashers, who tout the deficit as a dandy excuse to cut little old ladies' benefits AND get themselves speaking engagements.

Todd Ruger of the BLT: "Senate Democrats announced on Tuesday that they are still pushing filibuster reform, but are opting to negotiate with Republicans rather than act alone." ...

... Git 'er Done, Mitch. Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option. 'I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we're going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,' Reid told reporters."

Thomas Ferraro of Reuters: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, signaled on Tuesday that despite earlier indications to the contrary, he may allow a vote on a possible ban on assault weapons. Reid, a longtime gun-rights advocate from Nevada, recently indicated he would not permit a vote because the Republican-led House of Representatives was unlikely to go along with such a prohibition. But after a weekly meeting with fellow Senate Democrats, Reid told reporters he expects 'to have a free amendment process' on gun legislation." ...

... Paranoia as Marketing Tool, Ctd. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of the National Rifle Association, angrily accused President Obama on Tuesday of demonizing law-abiding gun owners and of wanting to put 'every private personal firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government.' ... Speaking on the same day that a gunfight on a Texas college campus left four people hospitalized, Mr. LaPierre ... said there were only two reasons government would want to expand the background check system..: 'Either to tax them, or to take them.'"

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "The House plans to vote Wednesday on a measure that would leave the $16.4 trillion borrowing limit [i.e., the debt ceiling] intact but suspend it from the time the bill passes until mid-May. The declaration that the debt ceiling 'shall not apply' means that the government could continue borrowing to cover its obligations to creditors until May 18. This approach -- novel in modern times -- would let Republicans avoid a potentially disastrous fight over the debt limit without actually voting to let the Treasury borrow more money.... White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that ... President Obama 'wouldn't stand in the way' if the bill passes the House." ...

     ... ** UPDATE. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Avoiding an economic showdown with President Obama, the House on Wednesday passed legislation to suspend the nation's statutory borrowing limit for three months, without including the dollar-for-dollar spending cuts that Republicans once insisted would have to be part of any debt limit bill."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "From the stimulus to the health care law to showdowns over taxes and spending, Republicans have often found that their uncompromising stands simply left them on the sidelines, unable to have an impact on legislation and unable to alter it much once it passed.... Now, some in the party say, it is time to take a different tack." ...

... Really? Jonathan Chait of New York: "... as part of his concessions to the looniest wing of the Republican party, [Speaker Boehner] has also committed himself to passing a budget that would reach full balance within a decade.... "The inescapable fact is that Boehner has committed now to voting on something that would require even more draconian cuts to social spending than the Ryan budget [of 2011]." ...

... Steve Benen: "Ryan intends to unveil a plan to balance the budget in one decade instead of three.... Ryan will either present a budget plan so absurd that it will be literally laughable, filled with outrageous magic asterisks, or it will be the most brutal and regressive plan ever seriously considered by a major American political party."

Mark Murray of NBC News: "... what is being mostly overlooked [about President Obama's "liberal" inaugural speech] is how many of the policies and viewpoints Obama articulated in his inaugural address are supported by majorities of Americans."

Sarah Stillman, in the New Yorker, on how she -- as a young woman -- learned from an older woman why abortion rights matter. Stillman doesn't exactly say it, but I will: fuck Paul Ryan. (See Comments re: fucking Paul Ryan.) ...

... AND, speaking of fucking Paul Ryan, Tuesday he tried to weasel around his "makers & takers" rhetoric. Ed Kilgore is not letting Ryan get away with it. ...

... PLUS, Charles Pierce thinks Ryan, admittedly the First-Runner-Up in the Vice Presidential Pageant, is a phony.

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Ron Kirk, the United States trade representative, will step down in late February, his office said Tuesday."

Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Yair Lapid, "a prominent [Israeli] journalist and the host of a popular television show," was a surprise winner in the Israeli elections. "His party placed second, when polls said it would come in fourth." ...

... Amy Teibel of the AP: "A badly weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by extending his hand to a new centrist party that advocates a more earnest push on peacemaking with the Palestinians after Israel's parliamentary election produced a stunning deadlock.... A surprising strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, [which Lapid leads,] in Tuesday's vote turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt a setback to Netanyahu."

Here's Juan Cole's depressing assessment of Obama's policy plans vis-a-vis the Middle East & Iran in particular. Cole is right about the drones being a tad unpopular with the locals, but with that exception, he doesn't mention a better plan for dealing with Iran. Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link.

Tom Shanker of the New York Times: "A Defense Department inquiry into potentially inappropriate e-mails between Gen. John R. Allen, the American commander in Afghanistan, and a socialite in Tampa, Fla., has cleared him of wrongdoing, senior Pentagon officials disclosed Tuesday." ...

     ... UPDATE. Jim Kuhnhenn & Darlene Superville of the AP: "The White House said Wednesday it will go ahead with Gen. John Allen's nomination to become commander of NATO forces in Europe, following his exoneration in a Pentagon investigation of questionable email exchanges with a Florida woman linked to the sex scandal that led David Petraeus to resign as CIA director." ...

... Jill Kelley & Scott Kelley write an op-ed in the Washington Post, which I didn't read. Actually, Dee Dee Myers is whoring employed as their PR person, so I suppose Myers or her staff wrote the op-ed. Howie Kurtz of Newsweek also interviewed Jill Kelley; I did read that to see if there was one iota worth linking; there wasn't, but you can find the interview on the Daily Beast site if you can't get enough of Kelley whining about how unfair the press is.

"It Is the Dignity." Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books on what ails the South. I was struck that Wills' Southern grandmother was probably very much like Barack Obama's white grandmother. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Wills & Obama each had to hold two opposing ideas of one significant person in their mind at the same time. It ain't easy -- although we all have to do it to one degree or another. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Right Wing World

Whenever I talk about religious liberty, you know they turn it around. All they talk about -- they don't talk about denying religious liberty. They talk about contraception. And I'm not talking about contraception. Government doesn't have a role in contraception. Government does have a role in protecting your civil rights especially today on MLK Day. The man who really came up with the American non-violent protest theory of civil disobedience. It's pretty egregious that they can't get any higher than contraception when we're talking about protecting people’s religious liberty. -- Kenny Cuccinelli, Virginia Attorney General & former ward of Kate Madison, talking about "them" ...

... Sorry, Kenny, I'm going to have to leave this one to Larry Wilmore:

Catherine Candisky of the Columbus Dispatch: "State Board of Education President Debe Terhar said she was not comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler when she posted a photograph of the Nazi leader on her Facebook page with a message critical of the administration's new gun-control efforts."

Local News

Bobby Jindal Determined to Make Louisiana Worst State to Live & Die In. Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect. Fresh from turning a slightly progressive state tax system into a highly regressive one, Louisiana Gov. & presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal (R) "has authorized elimination of the state's hospice program for Medicaid recipients.... "When coupled with existing cuts to education and a large tax increase on the bottom 80 percent of Louisiana residents, it's a catastrophe. Indeed, Jindal seems devoted to engineering a Louisiana that works little for its most vulnerable citizens, and does as much as possible to satisfy the wants of wealthy, entrenched interests." ...

... CW: about 45 percent of Louisianans who are eligible for Medicaid are people of color. Jindal is no doubt counting on his constituents figuring that percentage is even higher. Pardon me for practicing political psychology without a license, but Jindal is trying to prove his neck is as red as the typical Republican primary voter's. If people have to die alone & in pain to advance his presidential ambitions, so be it.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military's ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said on Wednesday."

... New York Times: "In long-awaited testimony, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday asserted that she had moved quickly to improve the security of American diplomats after the September attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans and prompted a scathing review of State Department procedures." ...

... Washington Post: "In one of her last duties as America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will appear before both houses of Congress on Wednesday to answer questions about a terror attack that killed four Americans in Libya and exposed lapses in judgment and security at the State Department."

AP: "The Upper Midwest remains locked in the deep freeze, with bitter temperatures stretching into a fourth day across several states. The cold snap arrived Saturday night as waves of Arctic air swept south from Canada, pushing temperatures to dangerous lows...."

Gunfight at Lone Star College. AP: "A volley of gunshots about noon Tuesday at Lone Star College prompted a lockdown and eventual evacuation of the campus in north Houston. In the end, three people were hospitalized, including a maintenance worker caught in the crossfire and two others who authorities believe were involved in the gunfire. Late Tuesday, Harris County sheriff's officials said Carlton Berry, 22, had been charged with aggravated assault in the shooting. Berry remained hospitalized, the officials said."

New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron promised Britons a far-reaching referendum within five years on membership in the European Union -- provided he wins the next election -- in a long-awaited speech on Wednesday whose implications have alarmed the Obama administration and are likely to set the markers for a divisive debate within Britain and across Europe." ...

... Reuters: "Leading British business figures warned Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday that his plan for an in-out referendum on the European Union membership was a risky gamble that could damage the economy and throttle foreign investment."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 22, 2013

There is some excellent commentary on the President's inaugural speech on the Inauguration -- Part 2 page below. I especially admired Jim Fallows' close reading (the second of two of his posts I linked.) Fallows, a former presidential speechwriter, knows how to parse a president's prose.

Ray Bolger, Gloria Borger.Vice President Biden speaks with CNN's Gloria Bolger Borger about his relationship with President Obama.

    ... CW Update: I think you can see why I keep getting those two mixed up.

Richard Stevenson & John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama made addressing climate change the most prominent policy vow of his second Inaugural Address, setting in motion what Democrats say will be a deliberately paced but aggressive campaign built around the use of his executive powers to sidestep Congressional opposition."

Inauguration Day DocuDump. Jamie Dupree of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A new plan unveiled on Inauguration Day by House Republicans would postpone any showdown on a debt limit increase until mid-May, a big change for GOP lawmakers who wanted to use the debt limit as a major battle over budget cuts." Via Greg Sargent.

New York Times Editors: "The best way to end the Senate's sorry history of inaction is to end the silent filibuster, forcing lawmakers to explain themselves if they want to block legislation supported by the majority." ...

... BUT Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will present colleagues with options for reforming the Senate's filibuster rules in a Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday. Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are close to reaching a deal to speed the pace of work in the Senate, but some of the details remain unresolved. The agreement between Reid and McConnell is not expected to include the talking filibuster...."

Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "As the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision turns 40 years old on Tuesday, the debate over abortion rages on in state capitols from Richmond to Phoenix." ...

... Mark Murray of NBC News: "As the 40^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision takes place on Tuesday, a majority of Americans -- for the first time -- believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. What's more, seven in 10 respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is the highest percentage on this question since 1989." CW: we have crazy right-wing misogynists to thank for this change in popular opinion.

How Low Can They Go? Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "The [Virginia] state Senate is split 20-20 between Republicans and Democrats. On Monday, while state Sen. Henry Marsh (D) -- a 79-year-old civil rights veteran -- was reportedly in Washington to attend President Obama's second inaugural, GOP senators forced through a mid-term redistricting plan that Democrats say will make it easier for Republicans to gain a majority.... The new redistricting map revises the districts created under the 2011 map and would take effect before the next state Senate elections in Virginia and would redraw district lines to maximize the number of safe GOP seats.... After using the absence of civil rights leader Marsh to push through the legislative changes, the Senate adjourned in honor of a well-known Confederate general." Thanks to contributor Lisa for the link.

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough admitted on Sunday that Republicans only kept their majority in the House of Representatives as a result of gerrymandering, noting that the GOP received less votes than Democrats in the 2012 election." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Mitch McConnell Campaign Puts Lies in Writing. Alexandra Jaffe of The Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is calling for supporters to back his opposition to expanded gun controls, warning in a new email that 'they're coming for your guns.... You and I are literally surrounded. The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights. On your freedom,' the email opens. It goes on to warn that 'our freedom is under direct assault ... from those who want to shred our Constitution.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Aargh! Campaign 2016

Calling Dr. Freud. Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "On Saturday, [Vice President] Biden attended the State Society of Iowa 'First in the National Celebration' where he slipped up and referred to himself as the president instead of as the V.P. I'm proud to be president of the United States, but I am prouder to be....' Biden said as the crowd started to laugh and cheer. 'I'm proud to be vice president of the United States but I am prouder to be Barack Obama, President Barack Obama's vice president.' It wasn't just the state of Iowa that he seemed to be courting. For his official swearing in at the Naval Observatory on Sunday, Biden invited members of two other early primary states -- New Hampshire and South Carolina."

Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government. The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die. -- Taro Aso, Japan's Finance Minister

News Ledes

AP: "The New Mexico teenager accused of gunning down five family members over the weekend ambushed his father as he returned home from an overnight shift at a rescue mission, then reloaded his rifles and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people, authorities said Tuesday." Read on.

AP: "A shooting on a Texas community college campus wounded three people Tuesday and sent students fleeing for safety as officials placed the campus on lockdown, officials said."

Reuters: "The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch and expanded existing U.N. sanctions thanks to a deal secured by the United States and Pyongyang's ally China."

AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election on Tuesday, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister, according to exit polls. But a lackluster performance by Likud, along with surprising gains by a centrist newcomer, raised the strong possibility that he will be forced to form a broad coalition."

New York Times: "A Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday that Prince Harry must have 'mental problems,' following the broadcast of remarks by the royal in which he said that killing militants from an Apache helicopter was similar to playing video games." See the interview of Harry, posted earlier, under Infotainment.

AP: "Russia began evacuating its citizens from Syria on Tuesday, the strongest indication yet that Moscow sees President Bashar Assad's grip on power slipping nearly two years into the conflict. Four buses carrying about 80 people, mostly women and children, crossed into Lebanon in the early afternoon at the Masnaa border crossing, where an official from the Russian Embassy in Beirut was waiting for them."

AP: "Algerian forces are scouring the Sahara desert for five foreigners missing since Islamist militants attacked a remote natural gas plant, an official said Tuesday."

Reuters: "The United States has started transporting French soldiers and equipment to Mali as part of its logistical aid to French forces fighting Islamist militants in the north of the country, a U.S. official said on Tuesday."

New York Times: "The Israeli public went to the polls on Tuesday after a sprawling election campaign that almost certainly ensured another term for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative, but left open the larger questions of what kind of government he might lead or what course the country might take." ...

... Reuters: "Britain said on Tuesday prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are almost dead because of expanding Jewish settlement in occupied territory, and warned Israel it was losing international support. Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke as Israelis voted in an election likely to yield a hardline rightist government keener to thicken settlement on land where Palestinians want to establish statehood than seek peace."