The Commentariat -- July 12, 2012

CW: it's another day in DemoLand, so again I'll be ignoring you in favor of salvaging baseboards & door moldings, choosing lovely, affordable fixtures for the bahth & making other executive decisions.

CW: Linda Greenhouse has a fascinating take on Chief Justice John Roberts' switcheroo on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and it please me that she agrees with a theory I proffered in a NYTX column: "I doubt there was a single reason for the chief justice's evolution..., but let me suggest one: the breathtaking radicalism of the other four conservative justices. The opinion pointedly signed individually by Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr. would have invalidated the entire Affordable Care Act.... This astonishing act of judicial activism has received insufficient attention..., but it surely got the chief justice's attention as a warning that his ostensible allies were about to drive the Supreme Court over the cliff and into the abyss."

They’ve got a website, God bless them. It's always good to put a website up with some black faces on it. Outreach. -- Michael Steele, former RNC chair, on the GOP's effort to woo black voters

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Even that website, it turns out, doesn’t exist."

Presidential Race

Gail Collins: "Barack Obama, who ... has royalty income, is a small business. Possibly the only small business the Republicans do not love."

"Don't know much about his-to-ry, Part 1":

... Part 2:

We've of course released all the financial statements that are required by law and then two years of tax returns -- the most recent year will be released as soon as that's prepared. Other financial disclosure is there, the same information that John McCain, or John Kerry for that matter released when they were running for president. -- Mitt Rmoney

Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: [Romney] has released one year of his returns and an estimate of his 2011 returns.... He received an extension and said at the time he would release them in the next six months, which would be October. John McCain released two years, but John Kerry actually released more than that in his 2004 race, going back to 1999. He released many more returns as a United States senator, as many as twenty. McCain released a total of six documents, two for himself, two for his wife Cindy McCain, and two for the McCain Family Foundation.

... Does he know one and one is two?

CW: a vignette in a piece by Adam Serwer on Romney's "long, troubled history with the NAACP": "in 2006 the local NAACP slammed Romney for referring to a perennially unfinished public works project in Boston, the Big Dig, as a 'tar baby.' Eric Fernstrom, a top Romney adviser (then and now), claimed that Romney was unaware of the racial connotation and was merely trying to describe 'a sticky situation.' Still, Romney apologized." CW: I find it totally believable that Romney would have no idea he was making a racial slur. The guy has never had anything but the most minimal contact with people of color, and no interest in any cultural niche that differs from his own. When you're busy making millions, you don't have time to consider the sensibilities of others.

I believe his vested interests are in white Americans. You cannot possibly talk about jobs for black people at the level he's coming from. He's talking about entrepreneurship, savings accounts -- black people can barely find a way to get back and forth from work. -- Charlette Stoker Manning, chair of Women in NAACP, on Rmoney's speech before the NAACP convention

Judd Legum & Scott Keyes of Think Progress have a good follow-up report on reaction to Romney's speech at the NAACP convention. Um, people didn't like it. ...

Right Wing World

... Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Rush Limbaugh said Mitt Romney’s speech Wednesday to the NAACP fell flat because it was 'over these people's heads' and that the group booed the Republican candidate, who 'sounded like Snow White with testicles,' simply because he's white. Limbaugh... claimed that President Barack Obama insulted the group by sending Vice President Joe Biden instead. CW: I didn't see anything in the news about attendees booing Biden, and he looks as white as Romney. Of course recognizing the internal inconsistency in his own argument is "over Rushbo's head."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The most senior officials at Penn State University failed for more than a decade to take any steps to protect the children victimized by Jerry Sandusky, the longtime lieutenant to head football coach Joe Paterno, according to an independent investigation of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the university last fall." Former FBI director Louis Freeh led the investigation. The group's report is here.

New York Times: "Wells Fargo, the nation's largest home mortgage lender, has agreed to pay at least $175 million to settle accusations that its independent brokers discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom, the Justice Department announced on Thursday. If approved by a federal judge, it would be the second largest residential fair-lending settlement in the department's history."

Washington Post: "Vice President Biden made an impassioned appeal to the nation's oldest civil rights group Thursday, calling on members to rally behind the first black president and reject a Republican vision for the country that would roll back progress for minorities. Speaking at the NAACP conference in Houston a day after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared there, Biden delivered a sharp rebuttal to Romney's contention that his policies would be better for black families than President Obama's have been...."

New York Times: "Yahoo confirmed Thursday that a file containing approximately 400,000 usernames and passwords to Yahoo and other companies was stolen Wednesday. A group of hackers, known as the D33D Company, posted usernames and passwords for what appeared to be 453,492 accounts belonging to Yahoo, but also Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, MSN, SBC Global, Verizon, BellSouth and Live.com users."

The Commentariat -- July 11, 2012

CW: I won't be doing much today. I have a crew here ripping out my so-called master bathroom, & I have to "attend to" them.

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is titled "David Brooks on Why the Maid's Daughter Can't Get a Good Job." ...

     ... The NYTX front page is here. A rather fabulous entry on the page: Patrick Somerville's "Thank You for Killing My Novel."

"GOP to the Uninsured: Drop Dead." Matt Miller of the Washington Post: "The Republican message to uninsured Americans in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent ruling couldn't be clearer: You're on your own." CW: Miller is fairly conservative (he's one who advocated for a third-party presidential candidate), so this both fairly damning -- & accurate.

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Americans paid the lowest tax rates in 30 years to the federal government in 2009, due in part to tax cuts sought by President Obama to combat the Great Recession, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday."

Presidential Race

New York Times Editors: "Mr. Romney has resisted all demands for more [financial] disclosure, leading to growing criticism from Democrats that he is trying to hide his fortune and his tax schemes from the public. Given the troubling suspicions about his finances, he needs to release many more returns and quickly open his books to full scrutiny." A pretty good rundown of Mitt's shady shelters.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Waging old battles with new zeal, the House passed a bill on Wednesday to repeal President Obama's health care overhaul law less than two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld its major provisions as constitutional. The bill was approved by a vote of 244 to 185, with five Democrats supporting repeal. It has no chance of approval in the Senate and would face a veto from Mr. Obama if it ever got to him."

Washington Post: Mitt Romney's "speech [in Houston, Texas] before the NAACP drew him the most hostile reception from any campaign audience so far this year and Romney appeared visibly unsettled by three rounds of loud boos from the crowd."

AP: "A federal judge on Wednesday continued to block a state law that threatened to shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic and make it nearly impossible for a woman to get the procedure in the state. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the law July 1 and extended that order Wednesday, though he did not say when he would rule on the clinic's request to put the law on hold for a longer period. If he grants that request, the case eventually would go to trial."

Washington Post: "About 2.3 million Northern Virginia residents were without emergency 911 telephone service for several days last week after a backup generator failed following severe thunderstorms in the region, a senior Verizon official told government leaders Wednesday. The outage, which prevented hundreds, perhaps thousands, of calls for help from getting through to emergency responders, was among the worst public safety fallouts from the June 29 storm...."

Washington Post: House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) "joined other lawmakers Wednesday in calling on Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) to disclose more details about his absence from Congress since June 10. Jackson's wife also said she hoped doctors would soon release information about the lawmaker, while some Democrats said again that the congressman should be permitted to sort out his personal issues beyond the public spotlight." ...

     ... ABC News Update: "Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who took a mysterious leave of absence from Capitol Hill last month is being treated for a 'mood disorder,' his physician said Wednesday."

AP: "The president of Florida A&M University submitted his resignation Wednesday, the same day the university was sued by parents of a drum major who died during a hazing. It was unclear if the two events were related. James Ammons announced the resignation, which takes effect Oct. 11, in a letter to the chairman of the university's governing board."

New York Times: "In a case that is part parable of high-society travail and part police-beat mystery, investigators awaited the outcome on Wednesday of further tests to discover what killed American-born Eva Rausing, one of Britain's richest women, after her body was discovered at her upmarket home and her husband arrested." More on the troubled lives of Rausing & her husband Hans Kristian Rausing from the Guardian.

The Commentariat -- July 10, 2012

Lauren LaCapra of Reuters: "A quarter of Wall Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow released on Tuesday. In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would commit insider trading if they could get away with it.... And 30 percent said their compensation plans created pressure to compromise ethical standards or violate the law." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Slate: The LIBOR "rate-fixing scandal should destroy the credibility of banks.... When tighter regulation of trading is proposed, the concern is raised that stringency will push activity to foreign centers." In other words, the "concerned" people [CW: I like to call them One Percenters & Republicans] are promoting "an economic development strategy based on turning your country into an appealing location for dishonest banking." ...

... Ben Protess & Mark Scott of the New York Times: "As big banks face the fallout from a global investigation into interest rate manipulation, American and British lawmakers are scrutinizing regulators who failed to take action that might have prevented years of illegal activity. Politicians in both London and Washington are questioning whether regulators allowed banks to report false rates in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis and afterward." CW: or Congress -- whose members have refused to fully fund regulatory agencies, have kissed the asses of banksters while bending over backwards to discourage regulation, and looked the other way at the revolving door between agencies & financial institutions -- could look in the fucking mirror.

CW: I've been too lazy to read this New York Times op-ed by Thomas Ricks -- who argues for a military draft -- because it (a) covers old ground, and (b) is not going to happen (it's so socialistic!). But because Carlyle mentions it in today's Comments, I've added the link. Besides, Carlyle's rationale -- in my opinion -- is better (& more socialistic!) than Ricks'.

Reconstruction Redux. Charles Pierce: "There is no question that a national campaign to suppress minority voters continues apace in this country. Sooner or later, it appears, the [Voting Rights Act] is going to turn up in front of the Supreme Court and we'll see how liberal John Roberts really is."

Sarah Laskow in Salon: "... a new study, published in the formidable Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences..., shows that fluids may have traveled from deep within Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale, one of the formations at the center of the gas boom, into shallow aquifers hundreds of feet above. These fluids aren't products of fracking, but if they can travel up through layers of rocks, close to the surface, it means that fracking fluids could, too.... Natural pathways link deep formations and shallow aquifers."

Charles Pierce: "What in the hell are American soldiers even doing in Mali, let alone joyriding around at night with a couple of local hookers? 'Counterterrorism' is an insufficient answer in a democracy because, as history fairly wells screams into our ears, sooner or later, one of these little exercises in adventurism either blows back on us with a vengeance." ...

... Tom Junod in Esquire: "The Obama administration has taken pains to tell us, over and over again, that they are careful, scrupulous of our laws, and determined to avoid the loss of collateral, innocent lives. They're careful because when it comes to waging war on individuals, the distinction between war and murder becomes a fine one. Especially when, on occasion, the individuals we target are Americans and when, in one instance, the collateral damage was an American boy." CW: I disagree with Junod, but I expect a lot of people will find his arguments compelling.

Brad Plumer of the Washington Post on "how air-conditioning transformed the U.S. economy." He might have mentioned A/C made conservative Southern states, with their anti-union laws, more viable locales for their plants.

Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: President "Obama's critics, primarily on the political left, say he has repeatedly failed ... to protect American jobs from being moved overseas. They point to a range of actions they say he should have taken: confronting China, reining in unfettered trade and reworking a U.S. visa program that critics say ends up sending high-tech jobs abroad.... American jobs have been shifting to low-wage countries for years, and the trend has continued during Obama's presidency. From 2008 to 2010, U.S. trade with China alone cost about 450,000 American jobs because of the growth of Chinese exports, said Robert E. Scott, a pro-labor advocate at the liberal Economic Policy Institute."

Dana Milbank: "... if the wealthy are going to accuse Obama of class warfare, he might as well do something to merit the charge." ...

... Suzy Khimm of the Washington Post: "Well, that was quick. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) both pushed for an extension of the Bush tax cuts to households earning up to $1 million, breaking from President Obama's proposal to make the cut-off $250,000. But hours after Obama revived the issue by pushing for a one-year-long extension, both have backed off." ...

... BUT There's No Herding Cats. Mark Landler & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "President Obama and Congressional Republicans pressed ahead on Monday with politically charged proposals on tax cuts and health care, in competing efforts to frame the election-year debate. But each risked opening fissures in their own ranks, as lawmakers played up alternatives to the aggressive approaches of their leaders."

** Sam Baker of The Hill: "Repealing President Obama's healthcare law would let members of Congress keep their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire -- a benefit they lost under the health law. The Affordable Care Act — specifically, a Republican amendment to the Affordable Care Act -- kicked members of Congress and their aides out of the healthcare program for federal employees." ...

... Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "After ignoring the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Democrats have begun using it as a political weapon this election." One of the ads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running against targeted Republicans, including Mary Bono Mack:

CW: Knowing what we know -- which isn't much -- I think Scott Lemieux of American Prospect has precisely the right, balanced view of Justices Breyer & Kagan's votes on the Medicaid portion of the ACA.

Presidential Race

I urge you to go to Driftglass for the caption. Or maybe you'll want to make up your own first & compare.

You Have His Word on That. Emily Friedman of ABC News: "Mitt Romney said there is 'nothing hidden' in his tax returns that have yet to be released, responding to a question during a radio interview set to air later today regarding an onslaught of criticism from Democrats -- including President Obama -- on his refusal to be more transparent with his financial records."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee easily outraised the formidable Obama money machine for the second month in a row A nonstop schedule of high-dollar events around the country brought in $106 million during June to Mr. Obama's $71 million, giving him and his party four times the cash on hand that it had just three months ago."

Local News/Right Wing World Edition

He's Still a Dumb MoFo. Chuck Lindell of the Austin Statesman: "In a sharply worded letter to federal officials Monday, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas will not participate in two key initiatives under the Affordable Care Act, noting that the law recently approved by the U.S. Supreme Court 'will find no foothold here.' ... One in four Texans lacks health insurance -- about 6 million residents -- the highest rate in the nation."

Edith Honan of Reuters: "Maine Governor Paul LePage apologized on Monday for calling the U.S. Internal Revenue Service the 'Gestapo' during criticism of President Barack Obama's healthcare law.... 'It was not my intent to insult anyone, especially the Jewish Community, or minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered,' LePage said in a statement on his website."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Justice Department and FBI have launched a review of thousands of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve a new trial because of flawed forensic evidence, officials said Tuesday. The undertaking is the largest post-conviction review ever done by the FBI. It will include cases conducted by all FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985 and may reach earlier if records are available...."

Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday it had received word as early as 2007 from the British bank Barclays about problems with the benchmark interest rate that underpins much of global lending."

New York Times: "Russia said on Tuesday that it had dispatched a flotilla of 11 warships to the eastern Mediterranean, some of which would dock in Syria. It would be the largest display of Russian military power in the region since the Syrian conflict began almost 17 months ago. Nearly half the ships were capable of carrying hundreds of marines."

New York Times: "The Episcopal Church on Tuesday approved an official liturgy for blessing same-sex unions, enabling priests who have the approval of their bishops to bestow the church's blessing on gay couples whether they live in a state where same-sex marriage is legal or not."

AP: "Seeking an election-year fight over taxes, President Barack Obama is hitting the road to press Congress to extend tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners, framing a debate with Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans over tax fairness. Obama was making his pitch Tuesday in Iowa.... He faces a tough contest there against Romney this fall." ...

... Politico: "White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that President Obama would veto a full, across-the-board extension of the Bush tax cuts that included no tax increases on upper earners."

CNN: "A controversial Indiana law that would keep low-income women from using federal Medicaid benefits to receive any kind of reproductive medical care from Planned Parenthood is unacceptable because it denies women the freedom to choose their health care providers, according to a federal hearing officer."

Haaretz: "Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was acquitted on Tuesday morning of the charges against him in two major cases, and convicted only of breach of trust, in a third. Jerusalem District Court president, Moussia Arad, headed the panel of judges that found Olmert not guilty of the charges in the Rishon Tours and Talansky affairs, and convicted him only on one count -- breach of trust, in the Investment Center affair. Accusations over the Talansky affair led to Olmert's forced resignation as prime minister."

Washington Post: "Emboldened by a decree issued by President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's Islamist-dominated parliament convened briefly on Tuesday, defying a ruling by the country's top court and a threat from the nation's generals."

AP: "The International Criminal Court sentenced a Congolese warlord to 14 years in prison on Tuesday, a watershed moment for the 10-year-old tribunal and a potential landmark in the struggle to protect children during wartime. Judges found Thomas Lubanga guilty in March of recruiting and using children in his Union of Congolese Patriots militia — sending them to kill and be killed during fighting in Congo's eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003. Tuesday's announcement was the first time the tribunal had sentenced a convicted war criminal."

AFP: "South Korea's Samsung won a patent battle Monday against US rival Apple, with a British judge ruling that Samsung's Galaxy tablet was not 'cool' enough to be confused with Apple's iPad.... He ... gave Apple 21 days to appeal against the decision."