The Commentariat -- September 30

I have a comments page up on Off Times Square, the subject of which is President Obama & Civil Liberties. Write on this or something else.

[Anwar] Al-Awlaki was born here, he’s an American citizen, he was never tried or charged for any crimes. To start assassinating American citizens without charges - we should think very seriously about this.... If the American people accept this blindly and casually, that we now have an accepted practice of the President assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it’s sad. -- Rep Ron Paul (R-Texas) ...

... Glenn Greenwald: "After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.).  It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its."

Yesterday I linked to a New York Times op-ed by Fred Bergsten, an Assistant Treasury Secretary under Jimmy Carter, who wrote that reducing the U.S. trade deficit would greatly improve the U.S. economy and the jobs situation; lowering the trade deficit would, in effect, be a tax-free stimulus. David Dayen of Firedoglake gets into the weeds on legislation that has been floating around Congress, some of which is about to come up for a Senate vote, that -- by imposing tariffs on China -- would move toward doing exactly what Bergsten proposes. But, oh, there are impediments, as Dayen explains, even though members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have favored such legislation in the past. ...

... Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post cites academic studies that demonstrate the disastrous effect China has had on U.S. jobs -- and why the legislation is needed. Among the findings: "Between 2001 and 2010, the U.S. trade deficit with China cost Americans 2.8 million jobs.... Most of those jobs — 1.9 million — were in manufacturing.... As China’s productivity soared during the past decade, the value of its currency should have risen correspondingly. Instead, China purchased dollars..., [thus] depressing the yuan and making Chinese exports about 28 percent cheaper than they would be if the yuan had been allowed to appreciate...."

News You Can Use. Ann Carrns of the New York Times: "Starting Saturday, big banks must comply with a new regulation that caps the fees they can charge merchants for processing debit card purchases. But some consumers are already seeing the impact of the change, in the form of higher fees charged on their checking accounts, as banks seek to recoup lost revenue. Bank of America is the latest bank to say it will begin charging a monthly fee for checking accounts that use debit cards. Starting early next year, the bank will charge $5 a month, in any month that the customer uses a debit card to make a purchase." (Emphasis added.) Here's a more detailed NYT article on the same subject. ...

Plum Island. AP photo.More News You Can Use, If You Want to Buy an Island. Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "Deep within President Obama’s proposals to raise revenue and reduce the deficit lies a method that has garnered bipartisan support, something rare in Washington these days. It involves selling an island, courthouses, maybe an airstrip, generally idle or underused vehicles, roads, buildings, land — even the airwaves used to broadcast television. Among the listings: Plum Island, N.Y., off the North Fork of Long Island, which the government has already begun marketing as 840 acres of 'sandy shoreline, beautiful views and a harbor.' As former home to the federal Animal Disease Center, it may need a bit of 'biohazard remediation,' making it a real fixer-upper."

Paul Krugman: "Despite what Republican presidential candidates are saying, regulation and taxes are not responsible for America’s weak job growth." ...

... In a blogpost, Krugman asks: "If fear of future regulations and taxes is holding business back, as everyone on the right asserts, why didn’t the Republican victory in the midterms set off a surge in employment?" ...

... Meanwhile, Some of the Newly Unemployed Don't Have to Worry. "Pay for Failure." Eric Dash of the New York Times: "The eye-popping severance package continues to thrive in spite of the measures put in place in the wake of the financial crisis to crack down on excessive pay.... Last week, Léo Apotheker was shown the door after a tumultuous 11-month run atop Hewlett-Packard. His reward? $13.2 million in cash and stock severance, in addition to a sign-on package worth about $10 million.... At the end of August, Robert P. Kelly was handed severance worth $17.2 million in cash and stock when he was ousted as chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon.... A few days later, Carol A. Bartz took home nearly $10 million from Yahoo after being fired...."

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones takes a more nuanced position on President Obama's failure to be a civil libertarian than did Jonathan Turley in the L.A. Times op-ed linked in yesterday's Commentariat. While Serwer concedes that the Obama polices are no different from Bush's (Turley says Obama's policies are worse than Bush's), he notes that Obama, unlike Bush (for much of his tenure), has Congressional cover. That is, Bush just did what he did, while Obama is acting under Congressional authority. Serwer cites New York Times reporter Charlie Savage:

... once Congress adjusted statutes late in the Bush years to kind of retroactively approve what the government had been doing, the rule of law concerns sharply diminished. But the civil libertarian concerns remained. Now we know that Obama was not the civil libertarian many of his supporters hoped he would be; he was just a rule of law guy.

... Savage's speech, delivered at a Harvard Law-Brookings forum on "Law, Security & Liberty" on September 17, 2011, is here. If you have 40 minutes to listen to Savage, it will be 40 minutes well-spent:

Steve Benen adds to John Dickerson's post linked yesterday on the criticism (by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others) that President Obama has not shown "leadership": Benen writes, "... the president’s critics are raising the wrong complaint. For the right, the criticism should be that Obama may be an effective leader, but he’s effectively leading the nation in a liberal direction they disapprove of. For the left, the criticism should be that Obama isn’t leading the nation to the left quickly or aggressively enough. But to characterize him as a passive bystander is absurd."

Nathaniel Popper of the Los Angeles Times: "The race is on to tap one of the most vital sources of campaign cash — Wall Street — and the early results are not looking good for President Obama. The president's campaign struggled this week to sell out a fundraising dinner Friday at Manhattan's gilded Four Seasons restaurant despite its being hosted by America's No. 1 capitalist, Warren Buffett.... The dinner for 100 was also a relative bargain at $10,000 a plate; recent fundraisers in Hollywood and New York have gone for $35,800 a pop." ...

... Justin Elliott of Salon has a rundown of the big-bucks donors to Republicans & Democrats who will make their money talk in 2012.

The Obama Strategy. Jackie Calmes & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "With his support among blue-collar white voters far weaker than among white-collar independents, President Obama is charting an alternative course to re-election should he be unable to win ... industrial states traditionally essential to Democratic presidential victories.... What buoys Democrats are the changing demographics of formerly Republican states like Colorado..., Virgnia and North Carolina. With growing cities and suburbs, they are populated by increasing numbers of educated and higher-income independents, young voters, Hispanics and African-Americans, many of them alienated by Republicans’ Tea Party agenda." ...

... BUT Ron Brownstein & Scott Bland of the National Journal: "New census data show that the Great Recession and its aftermath have battered virtually every state in the nation — and that some of the heaviest blows have landed on states that may loom the largest in the 2012 presidential election."

Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times: "The group that powered Joe Miller, Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell to Republican primary victories is back in action. Tea Party Express, the California-based political action committee, has endorsed Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock in his bid to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar."

Right Wing World

... right to work is the way to go if you want good jobs. -- Mitt Romney, claiming that states that don't allow "closed shop" unions create more and better jobs

Josh Hicks of the Washington Post fact-checks Romney's assertion: "Romney’s remarks appeared rooted in actual Labor Department data, even though he spouted some numbers that didn’t match his own analysis. Regardless, the former governor exaggerates the importance of these statistics, and he fails to acknowledge that factors other than labor laws play a role in determining job growth. Romney earns two Pinocchios for his claim that 'good jobs' and job growth result from right to work laws. His statistics are technically correct but his reasoning is too simplistic and ultimately could be misleading to ordinary people."

Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post on Rick Perry's misplaced regrets: "I'm sorry for the things I said that might cost me votes."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris will no longer take part in a national foreclosure probe of some of the nation's biggest banks, which are accused of pervasive misconduct in dealing with troubled homeowners. Harris removed herself from talks by a coalition of state attorneys general and federal agencies investigating abusive foreclosure practices because the nation's five largest mortgage servicers were not offering California homeowners relief commensurate to what people in the state had suffered, Harris told The Times on Friday."

AP: "The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation. The ruling announced Friday by the Pentagon's personnel chief follows the Sept. 20 repeal of a law that had prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military."

President Obama spoke at an event honoring outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen late this morning. Voice of America: "U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey will be sworn as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Friday. President Barack Obama will be in attendance when the 37-year veteran becomes the nation's top uniformed officer, replacing retiring Navy Admiral Mike Mullen. Mr. Obama nominated Dempsey to succeed Mullen in May, only a month after Dempsey assumed the post of chief of staff of the Army."

** New York Times: "In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry [in Yemen] said American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning. In Washington a senior Obama administration official confirmed that Mr. Awlaki was dead. But the circumstances surrounding the killing remained unclear. It was not immediately known whether Yemeni forces carried out the attack or if American intelligence forces, which have been pursuing Mr. Awlaki for months, were involved in the operation." ...

     ... ** Updated Lede: "Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who was a leading figure in Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate and was considered its most dangerous English-speaking propagandist, was killed in an American drone strike that deliberately targeted his vehicle on Friday, officials in Washington and Yemen said. They said the strike also killed a radical American colleague traveling with Mr. Awlaki who edited Al Qaeda’s online jihadist magazine." (Emphasis added.) ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Yemen’s official news agency reported that the young Web-savvy American thought to be behind Inspire, a magazine for Al Qaeda, was killed in the same Friday strike that killed the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The report, citing an unnamed defense official, said the man, Samir Khan, was killed in the strike, along with two other people, and identified him as an American citizen and a computer specialist."

Washington Post: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged Thursday making the final decision to allow [Solyndra,] a struggling solar company, to continue receiving taxpayer money after it had technically defaulted on a $535 million federal loan guaranteed by his agency.... Also Thursday, a law enforcement official confirmed that the criminal probe of Solyndra is focused on whether the company and its officers misrepresented the firm’s finances to the government in seeking the loan or engaged in accounting fraud."

Washington Post: "After a remarkable run as the most successful atom smasher in the world, the Tevatron — a four-mile underground ring about 50 miles west of Chicago — will smash no more. At 2 p.m., Pier Oddone, director of Fermilab, the Energy Department facility that operates the Tevatron, will command the shutdown of the mammoth machine. Operators will switch off dual beams of particles that have been colliding since 1985, sprouting terrific sprays of fleeting particles that offered a glimpse of the subatomic world."

The Hill: "Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, at the moment Democrats in Congress don't have enough votes to pass President Obama's jobs bill, but Durbin added that that situation would change." The WLS Radio report is here.

Can You Hear Us Now? Crain's New York: "The city's most experienced agitators — the labor and community groups that typically organize local marches, rallies and sit-ins — have been largely missing from the Occupy Wall Street protest.... But that's about to change. A loose coalition of labor and community groups said Thursday that they would join the protest next week.... The United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers Union Local 100 are all expected to participate. The Working Families Party is helping to organize the protest and MoveOn.org is expected to mobilize its extensive online regional networks...."

Los Angeles Times: "Pakistani political leaders meeting Thursday in the capital [Islamabad] denounced U.S. allegations that the country's premier spy agency assisted insurgents in attacking American targets in Afghanistan, but also stressed the need to keep lines of communication open with Washington."

The Commentariat -- September 29

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square.

E. J. Dionne on why conservatives hate Warren Buffett & why characters like those on the Wall Street Journal editorial board try to subject him to higher standard of disclosure than they do all their hedge-fund manager & right-wing secret campaign-donor friends who pay taxes at a rate lower than many of us do. CW: wouldn't it be fun to know what tax rate the Koch brothers pay? I'd guess, because they own an energy company, they pay even less than hedge-fund operators do.

New York Times Editors: "The American Bar Association, the Judicial Conference of the United States and every major organization focusing on criminal justice opposes mandatory minimum sentences. The federal and state governments should get rid of them — and the injustices they produce."

Law Prof. Jonathan Turley, in a scathing Los Angeles Times op-ed, excoriates President Obama as "a disaster for civil liberties." Turley writes, "... the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties." He isn't saying anything Glenn Greenwald & other civil libertarians haven't been saying from the get-go, but his review of Obama & Holder's appalling record of excusing war criminals, etc., and publishing it in an MSM outlet, is welcome.

Glenn Greenwald has a good post on the dismissive way in which the mainstream has dismissed & marginalized the Wall Street protesters. It's what mainstream types do when outliers protest their shenanigans.

John Dickerson of Slate: "What the president's [conservative] critics really mean when they say the president 'isn't leading' is that he hasn't announced that he is supporting their plans, or that he hasn't decided to commit public suicide by announcing a position for which they can then denounce him. By any measure [including Chris Christie's in his critique of the President], Obama is a leader.

Fred Bergsten, an Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Jimmy Carter, in a New York Times op-ed: "The United States runs an annual trade deficit of about $600 billion, or 4 percent of our entire economy. Eliminating that imbalance would create three million to four million jobs, according to Commerce Department estimates, at no cost to the budget.... Mr. Obama has set a goal of doubling the nation’s exports over five years. But his administration has done little to achieve that goal, which is inadequate to begin with.... First, the United States must, in effect, weaken the dollar by 10 to 20 percent. This step alone would produce one million to three million jobs.... Second, the United States must negotiate a reduction in foreign regulations, monopoly practices and other barriers to the export of American services.... Third, we must get serious about defending the intellectual property rights of our companies...."

"Regulatory Uncertainty: a Phony Explanation for Our Jobs Problem." Lawrence Michel of the Economic Policy Institute: "An examination of current economic trends, and especially what employers are doing in terms of hiring and investment, debunks this story [which conservatives tell] about regulatory uncertainty as the cause of our dismal job growth." (CW: the paer is longish & wonkish.) Via Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post.

Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog reports on the Justice Department's decision to ask the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate during this court term. ...

... Here's the White House explanation, laid out in a blogpost by Stephanie Cutter, a senior advisor to President Obama:

We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional.  We are confident the Supreme Court will agree. ...

... Massimo Calabresi of Time weighs in on possibilities of how the Court might rule & how these could effect President Obama's standing -- and his re-election chances.

Paul Ryan Proposes to End Employer-Based Health Care Insurance. Reuters: "In a speech to Stanford University's Hoover Institution in California, [Rep. Paul] Ryan [R-Wisc.] said his measure, which would effectively dismantle the way most Americans receive medical coverage, should be part of any Republican plan to replace President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul." Ryan's plan would "eliminate healthcare tax breaks for business, [which] would likely encourage most companies to drop their employer-sponsored plans."  ...

... Cameron Joseph of The Hill: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will soon send out press releases pressuring 50 potentially vulnerable House Republicans to take a stand on ... Ryan's (R-Wis.) Tuesday speech calling for the government to end the practice of giving tax breaks to companies that provide health insurance to their workers." ...

... David Morgan of Reuters: "With billions of dollars in Medicaid spending at risk in Congress, states are forming a loose confederacy to oppose any federal cuts that could damage state budgets already awash in red ink.... Lobbyists say governors, legislators and other state officials, Republican and Democrat alike, have found common ground in a push to convince a special congressional deficit panel that White House-backed Medicaid cuts totaling $41 billion will only weaken a system that already struggles to deliver care to 60 million beneficiaries."

Cara Buckley of the New York Times: "In summer 2010, Congress set aside $1 billion for a program intended to bail out people in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. It was estimated that the program, administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, would help as many as 30,000 households. But the program is now ending after achieving lackluster results and stirring widespread recrimination. Fewer than 15,000 households are expected to receive help despite enormous demand, and perhaps half of the money will go unspent." CW Surprise: Congress & the Obama Administration blame each other.

Drones Rule. Christian Caryl in an NYRB review: "... the US Air Force now trains more UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] operators each year than traditional pilots.... The US aerospace industry has for all practical purposes ceased research and development work on manned aircraft. All the projects now on the drawing board revolve around pilotless vehicles. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies around the country eagerly await the moment when they can start operating their own UAVs."

CW: Oh, we just can't highlight this story enough times. Ezra Klein in Bloomberg News on the powerlessness of workers when unemployment is high. Gee, Klein uses Amazon's Allentown warehouse as an exemplar. Are you buying that new Kindle Fire? And don't think this is going on only in Allentown, or only at Amazon.

Jonathan Bernstein reveals the secret coded messages in President Obama's schools back-to-school speech. CW: short & funny.

Ben Smith on The Accidental Governator. Arnold says he had no intention of running for governor of California -- he announced his candidacy as a gag while appearing on Leno to promote "Terminator 3."

Right Wing World

Forget Krugman. And Stiglitz. Forget Baker & Reich & DeLong. Joshua Holland of AlterNet: God will save the economy. If she feels like it. According to conservative fundamentalists. Which is one reason right-wing politicians want to starve the government -- their base thinks that god will decide what needs fixing and will fix it.

The idea for a health care plan is not mine alone. I was told that Newt Gingrich was one of the very first people that came up with an individual mandate. -- Mitt Romney (Romney also noted the right-wing Heritage Foundation also supported the individual mandate)

Michael Shear & Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "If he runs for president, Chris Christie might highlight the themes he mentioned on Tuesday night in his speech at the Reagan Presidential Library, promising a new era of bipartisanship and compromise like the one he largely takes credit for achieving as governor of New Jersey." BUT "Despite the legislative accomplishments that his office frequently promotes, Mr. Christie’s brief tenure at the helm of New Jersey’s government in Trenton has been marked by as much acrimony as there has been agreement." CW: OR, you think a guy who yells at & belittles whomever he pleases is a model for bipartisanship?

Making Up Stuff Because, Well, It's Sensational! Greg Sargent: "... the [right-wing] Daily Caller took a terrible hit yesterday after falsely reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency is looking to hire 230,000 new 'bureaucrats' — at a cost of $21 billion! — to implement new climate rules. The tale quickly went viral on the right." Once the Daily Caller's claim was completely debunked the editor did what you'd expect; in the face of overwhelming evidence the story was completely false, he backed the original story. ...

... Dave Weigel of Slate: guess who else stands by the bogus story even after learning it was not true? -- why, Sen. Jim Science-Is-a-Hoax Inhofe (R-Okla.). CW: Evidently, the oath of office comes with a "no-shame" clause.

... Steve Benen: "The conservative media world ... just doesn’t seem to care [about facts]. It explains a great deal about why those who rely on outlets like these seem so woefully uninformed about current events." ...

... AND this from Benen: Rick Perry gets the Boston Tea Party story wrong, too. "The moral of the story? If you learn American history from right-wing talk radio, you’re bound to get a lot of the details wrong."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry, facing a conservative backlash over his labeling as heartless those who oppose his state law giving college tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants, said Wednesday that the tone of his remarks was 'inappropriate.'" CW: Right. Because bigots opposed to sound economic policies that help innocent non-white young people might like cute puppies.

Ah, looks like Florida Republicans are going to screw up the primary calendar by moving their primary to a date in January 2012, before everybody else's, per Alex Pareene of Salon. CW: this is bad news for secondary candidates like the lovely Michele, who might be able get their special blocs, like the lovely apocalyptic crowd, to give them early boosts. Candidates with cash have a big advantage in a state the size of Florida. Plus, the Republican electorate is more mainstream here, so far-right candidates have less appeal. I'm betting Karl Rove & Co. are not unhappy about Florida's expected move, no matter what they may say on the teevee.

Funny Money. Murray Waas & Peter Henderson of Reuters: "Contradictions in sworn statements about Rick Perry's fundraising for his 2006 reelection bid raise questions about whether aides to the Texas governor, who is now running for president, gave false or misleading testimony under oath. In a civil suit later filed by Chris Bell, Perry's Democratic challenger in that race, the testimony of aides David Carney and Deirdre Delisi was directly contradicted by a sworn statement from Perry's own gubernatorial campaign committee."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States Capitol Police on Thursday said they were investigating The Onion, a satiric media organization, for making false reports on Twitter claiming that there was a hostage situation inside the Capitol building."

New York Times: "This week, Judge James Zagel of United States District Court indefinitely delayed ... sentencing [of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich], which had been set for Oct. 6. He offered no explanation."

AP: "Federal agents raided a Boeing plant that makes military helicopters in suburban Philadelphia on Thursday and charged more than three dozen people with distributing or trying to get prescription drugs, among them powerful painkillers."

AP: "German lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund, a major step toward tackling the sprawling debt crisis, in a vote that also helped strengthen Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government." Here's the Spiegel story (English). ...

... Reuters: "Following a now-familiar script, Europe again averted disaster in its debt crisis when German lawmakers rallied behind Chancellor Angela Merkel to approve a stronger euro zone bailout fund on Thursday. But bigger challenges loom for the euro zone now. Financial markets are already anticipating a likely Greek default and demanding more far-reaching measures to prevent the crisis that began in Athens from spreading far beyond Europe and its banks."

The Commentariat -- September 28

I've posted a comments page on Off Times Square on Frank Rich's column, linked yesterday. Write on this or something else.

Timothy Homan of Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan would help avoid a return to recession by maintaining growth and pushing down the unemployment rate next year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News." CW: Too bad "journalistic discretion" prevents Homan from directly stating what economists think of the Republican "plan," but he sure hints at it here:

A reduction in government spending, the end of the payroll- tax holiday and an expiration of extended unemployment benefits would cut GDP by 1.7 percent in 2012, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli in New York. ...

... Of course, as Steve Benen points out, "I don’t imagine this will make much of a difference to Congress. Republicans, after all, 'do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities,' even though they occasionally claim 'every economist' agrees with the GOP agenda.... The choice for Congress seems to down to recovery and jobs vs. negligence and ignorance." CW: I'd say ignorance is the clear frontrunner here.

"Governing by Crisis." New York Times Editors: "... the country will probably be wrung through several more near-shutdowns as the 2012 budget process stumbles along, all prompted by conservatives in the House who will use any choke point to achieve their obsessive goal of shrinking government. Republicans should think of the broad American public, rather than catering to the extreme elements of their base, the next time they push the government to the brink." Right.

Jonathan Chait, now of New York Magazine, writes a great little post on "class warfare," the "hypersensitivity of the rich," & their outsized influence on powerful politicians & media elites like Our Mister Brooks. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "There is no such thing as a self-made person":

... Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post tries to figure out Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe & what his strategy is for 2012. The big question is whether the course correction we've seen in September -- the newly-aggressive Obama -- is a hiccup or a guide to the next 14 months. ...

... A Fine Example of the "New" Obama: If asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher makes me a class warrior, a warrior for the middle class, I will accept that; I’ll wear that as a badge of honor. Because the only class warfare I’ve seen is the battle that’s been waged against the middle class in this country for a decade now. -- Barack Obama in Colorado yesterday

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post on why the Obama White House is taking the Affordable Care Act directly to the Supreme Court: "(1) the Obama administration will definitely handle the case; ... (2) the review might not have been granted — or gone against the administration; & ... (3) the move shows confidence." ...

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate cites numerous expert opinions on how the Supremes will handle the ACA case. She argues that since the Chief Justice likely does not want to make the Court part of a presidential election contest, there's a good chance the Court will kick the can down the road, possibly until 2015, when the major provisions go into effect.

... Duke Helfand of the Los Angeles Times: "The price of health insurance provided by employers for families jumped 9% this year over 2010 as rising healthcare expenses contributed to the largest premium increases in six years, a national survey shows.... Employers picked up most of the cost, but workers continued to struggle to keep up with the growth in their share, which has far outpaced any growth in their earnings."

Tom Friedman Is a Sap. Rick Hertzberg does a masterful job of demonstrating how Tom Centrist Friedman is ludicrously obtuse. If you've ever taken Friedman seriously, you owe it to yourself & your country to read Hertzberg's takedown. If, BTW, you're confused by the end, don't blame Hertzberg; it's Friedman who is just plain nonsensical. See also Matt Taibbi's take on Our Mister Brooks -- who "really is a sap" -- under today's Right Wing World. These guys work for the New York Times! Friedman has three Pulitzers!

Ezra Klein on why a third party presidential candidate, if s/he won, wouldn't solve any of the problems third-party advocates cite. CW: what Klein doesn't mention, and what I think is most obvious, is that a third-party president would have absolutely no clout with Congress. Nobody on the Hill would have her back. Various presidents (Jimmy Carter, Billary Clinton) have been accused of not cementing good relations with Congress to get things done. What kind of relationship would a third-party candidate -- one who defeated the preferred candidate of every Member of Congress -- have with Congress?

Karen Garcia: "Thousands of U.S. Postal Service employees are in danger of losing their jobs, thanks to a wholly manufactured budget crisis created by Congressional Republicans. On paper, the Post Office is nearly bankrupt because of a law forcing it to prepay medical retirement benefits so far into the future (75 years) that the presumed beneficiaries haven't even been born yet. The pension fund is actually flush with cash overpayments, $47 billion in the past four years alone."

Contra economist Michele Bachmann, whose policy for full employment is to eliminate the minimum wage, Chris Isidore of CNN Money reports, "Getting the economy going will require more than just creating a large number of low-wage positions, said Paul Osterman, economics professor at MIT. Raising the minimum wage to get more cash to the working poor is just as crucial, he said. About 20% of American adults who have jobs are earning only $10.65 an hour or less, according to Osterman's analysis. Even at 40 hours a week, that amounts to less than $22,314, the poverty level for a family of four." Thanks to Doug R. for the link.

Vale, Mens Rea. Gary Fields & John Emschwiller of the Wall Street Journal: "For centuries, a bedrock principle of criminal law has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty.... This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent.... Overall, more than 40% of nonviolent offenses created or amended during two recent Congresses—the 109th and the 111th, the latter of which ran through last year — had 'weak' mens rea requirements at best..." CW: AND how stupid is this? --

In 1998, Dane A. Yirkovsky, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, man with an extensive criminal record, was back in school pursuing a high-school diploma and working as a drywall installer. While doing some remodeling work, Mr. Yirkovsky found a .22 caliber bullet underneath a carpet.... He put it in a box in his room, the records show. A few months later, local police found the bullet during a search of his apartment.... Federal officials contended that possessing even one bullet violated a federal law prohibiting felons from having firearms. Mr. Yirkovsky pleaded guilty to having the bullet. He received a congressionally mandated 15-year prison sentence, which a federal appeals court upheld but called 'an extreme penalty under the facts as presented to this court.' Mr. Yirkovsky is due to be released in May 2013.

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: a town clerk in Upstate New York says that because of her religious beliefs, she won't sign marriage licenses for gay couples seeking them, but she has delegated the authority to a deputy -- who shows up by appointment only. Can she do that? The courts are likely to decide.

CW: Yesterday I embedded a BBC interview of independent trader Alessio Rastani, whose view of the market was so radical that the thought arose among the conoscenti that he might be a "Yes Man," a group who perpetrate elaborate hoaxes "to get at the truth." I kinda ignored the buzz, because the general consensus was that Rastani was a real trader. Felix Salmon of Reuters makes the case for yes & no. Salmon's explanation of who typical "independent traders" are, however, is interesting; in fact, his whole post is entertaining. Read it; then remind yourself that Republicans think regulating the financial industry is bad for business.

CW Correction: some while back I link to this Washington Post story about the DOJ's spending $16 a pop for muffins served at a conference. Turns out, according to Ruth Marcus of the Post: "About that $16 muffin — it didn’t actually cost that much.... As it turns out, the receipt on which the Justice Department’s inspector general based that assessment was written in a kind of catering short-hand. The muffin billing actually included: free meeting space, complimentary coffee, fresh fruit, assorted baked goods, taxes and tip. In short, a decent price for a continental breakfast."

Right Wing World *

There is no better motto for the federal government than that of a pizza place. It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and you’re high as a kite and the stuff in your fridge is weirding you out — if you order it, pizza will come. Pizza will come! Oh, pizza will most definitely come. And if you vote for me, America, I promise you that I will deliver. -- Kenan Thompson, impersonating Herman Cain

I think it’s great! I’m going to use that in my next debate: If you vote for me, America, I will deliver. -- Herman Cain, reacting to the skit ...

... The SNL bit & Cain's reaction appears in this Fox "News" interview of Cain, beginning at about 4:40 minutes in:

The Meaning of Repulican Straw Polls & the Iowa Primary. Dana Milbank: "The straw polls are tilted by a small and unrepresentative sample of voters choosing the most ideological candidates. But it seems to me that makes the straw polls a close approximation of the Republican primary electorate. There are 3 million people in Iowa, for example, of whom just more than 600,000 are registered Republicans. But the 2008 Iowa Republican caucus had 120,000 participants. Of those, 60 percent were self-described evangelicals or born-again Christians."

"Why David Brooks Really Is a Sap." After mocking David Brooks' "Newspaper Op-Ed Writing 101" style, Matt Taibbi gets into the substance of Brooks' big lie on taxing the overtaxed super-rich: "I defy David Brooks to come out publicly and explain how it's fair that he should pay more than twice the tax rate that [billionaire John] Paulson or George Soros pays.... If we can't even get rich pundits to object to being personally screwed by the system, if we can't even get those people to talk about it, it'll be a long time before we get around to seriously considering making changes."

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones asks why Republicans are still courting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in an effort to get him to run for president even though he's said he would commit suicide before h'd run. "Answer: because Republicans are in a panic. They don't trust Romney, they're increasingly worried that Perry is unelectable, they think Bachmann is a nutcase, and the rest of their field are just fill-ins. So Christie is their once and future saviour. He yells at constituents! He killed a tunnel that liberals loved! He yells at teachers! He cut budgets! He yells at Democratic legislators! What's not to like?" ...

     ... Dan Amira of New York Magazine totes up five things wingers won't like: Christie's positions on illegal immigration, gun control, climate change, Race to the Top, & -- as Stewart highlighted -- religious prejudice. ...

     ... Travis Waldron of Think Progress adds another: "... Christie (R) recently signed an anti-bullying law that advocates have heralded as the nation’s toughest and a major step forward in the fight to prevent students from being bullied for any number of reasons, including their sexual orientation."

So, Monday I linked this New York Times op-ed by Prof. Matthew Sutton, on how fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic fears/hopes are driving political discourse as right-wing candidates cash in on & stoke them. ...

... Here's Sutton, appearing on Lawrence O'Donnell's show:

... THEN, right on cue, along comes some nut to yell at President Obama that he is the Antichrist. In this clip, the Antichrist seems more intent on making sure the accuser doesn't lose his jacket. Sly devil:

... This is the trouble with these Hollywood events. You never know when Mel Gibson is going to show up. -- Jon Stewart

* Where the crazies rule.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday upheld most of the sections of Alabama’s far-reaching immigration law that had been challenged by the Obama administration, including portions that had been blocked in other states."

New York Times: "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced on Wednesday that it had arrested 2,901 immigrants who have criminal records, highlighting the Obama administration’s policy of focusing on such people while putting less emphasis on deporting illegal immigrants who pose no demonstrated threat to public safety."

New York Times: "A 26-year-old man from a town west of Boston was charged Wednesday with plotting to blow up the Pentagon and the United States Capitol using remote-controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives. The suspect, Rezwan Ferdaus..., is an American citizen and has a physics degree from Northeastern University..., according to an F.B.I. affidavit. Mr. Ferdaus also tried to provide detonation devices, weapons and other resources to Al Qaeda to carry out attacks on American soldiers stationed overseas, law enforcement officials said."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to settle the constitutional question over the 2010 health-care law this term, meaning that the decision will probably come next summer in the thick of the presidential campaign. The Justice Department asked the justices to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, which is the only appeals court to say Congress exceeded its power in passing the law. The law requires almost every American to have health insurance." The New York Times has a more expansive story here.

President Obama gave his annual back-to-school speech this afternoon.

President Obama participated in an Open for Questions forum this morning.

New York Times: "Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the fugitive former leader toppled from power a month ago, has likely taken refuge near the Algerian border under the protection of sympathetic nomadic tribesman who have fought for him, officials of the new Libyan government said Wednesday."

New York Times: "Seeking to stake a claim in the tablet computer market alongside Apple and Samsung, Amazon.com on Wednesday revealed plans to begin selling a color touchscreen tablet. Named the Kindle Fire, the device has a 7-inch touchscreen, weighs 14.6 ounces and is outfitted with a dual-core processor. But the most important feature may be the price. At $199 the Fire is less than half the price of the Apple iPad, which starts at $499." CW: wonder if Amazon will give free Kindle Fires to all those temps in Allentown; nah, but the temps had better work fast to move those Kindles outta there, or they're toast.

Guardian: German negotiators are at loggerheads withtheir French counterparts over pledges to quadruple the eurozone's €440bn (£382bn) bailout fund ahead of a crucial vote in the Bundestag on Thursday that could decide the fate of the currency zone. Attempts by Berlin to write off up to 50% of Greek debts as part of a wider rescue package faced stiff opposition from France, which is concerned many of its banks would need to find extra funds to cope with the resulting losses." The Guardian is running a liveblog on the negotiations here. ...

... New York Times: "Europe took another step in its slog toward approval of a broader bailout fund for overly indebted countries Wednesday, as Finland’s parliament agreed to contribute its share despite an unresolved dispute over its demand for collateral from Greece."

New York Times: "The Greek Parliament voted late Tuesday in Athens to back a hugely unpopular property tax, one of a series of new austerity measures. The vote could clear the way for a crucial injection of international financing meant to at least temporarily stave off a default on government debt."

Los Angeles Times: the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, accused of manslaughter in the death of entertainer Michael Jackson, began yesterday. The New York Times story is here.