The Commentariat -- December 18

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Latino leaders have turned up the pressure on senators facing a vote on Saturday on a bill that would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, saying support of the measure will be used as a litmus test by Latino voters in the 2012 elections.

** Dana Milbank: "The only reason WikiLeaks has been a sensation is the absurd secrecy of the Obama administration, in some ways worse than that of George W. Bush.... The [WikiLeaks] episode spotlighted Obama's surprisingly poor record on government openness. The administration has already undertaken four prosecutions of government leakers, more than any predecessor, in some cases using the arcane, World War I-era Espionage Act. At the same time, the administration stymied efforts in Congress to pass a 'shield law' to protect journalists' confidential sources." ...

... Mark Hosenball & Jeremy Pelofsky of Reuters: "WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's crusade for greater official transparency could backfire by provoking a U.S. government crackdown on leaks that might entangle even journalists, legal experts warn."

Read Charles Blow's column in the New York Times. Then read the comments, which are wonderful.

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "A month ago President Obama was the big loser of 2010, the leader whose party had given up historic losses in the House and who was facing questions about his future. On Friday, with the stroke of his pen on a compromise tax bill, he reminded his adversaries of the essential resilience of the occupant of the Oval Office." ...

... Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "As President Obama prepared to sign his $858 billion tax deal Friday, White House aides moved quickly to soothe the anger among liberal constituency groups.... An e-mail distributed to black leaders declared the package a 'major victory for African-Americans,' arguing that a series of middle-class tax cuts will give 'targeted' aid to minorities. The White House also invited ... the Rev. Al Sharpton to Friday afternoon's bill signing and scheduled a private meeting with top labor union leaders who had railed against extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy."

In an article titled, "Explaining the Crisis with Dogma," Joe Nocera of the New York Times follows up on Paul Krugman's criticism [see yesterday's Commentariat] of the Republicans on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Nocera both mocks & laments their imaginative Cliff Notes "presponse" to the commission's final report, to be published next month.

Matt Yglesias & Ezra Klein attack the Ryan-Rivlin health "reform" plan:

     ... Yglesias (you'll have to read his whole post; it's complicated) says the plan represents "a sleight of hand designed to make you think that the structural shift is saving money' when in fact it does nothing of the sort." CW: sounds like "death panels for all" to me. ...

    ... Klein says Paul Ryan, Alice Rivlin (& Republican proponents of this crappy idea) are really promoting a version of ObamaCare with another name & a lousier deal. "Right now, Medicare is much cheaper than private insurance. If you think that moving Medicare to a model of private insurance sold on exchanges will make it even cheaper, what you're saying is that an ObamaCare model will not only be cheaper than the current private-insurance system, but cheaper than the even-cheaper Medicare system."

Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart & Rep. Anthony Weiner on the 9/11 Responders Bill, which Senate Republicans are filibustering (because they are subhuman):

Mark Mazzetti & Salmon Masood of the New York Times: "The Central Intelligence Agency’s top clandestine officer in Islamabad was pulled from the country on Thursday amid an escalating war of recriminations between American and Pakistani spies, with some American officials convinced that the officer’s cover was deliberately blown by Pakistan’s military intelligence agency."

CW: evidently you don't have to be intelligent to get on the House Intelligence Committee. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times reports that Weeper of the House-to-be John Boehner has appointed as one of its new members Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

To Hell with Little Girls. ABC News: "This week, House Republicans blocked passage of a bipartisan bill to protect women and girls in developing countries from child marriages. The bill needed a two-thirds majority of the House to pass, but fell short by the count of 241-166." The Senate had passed the bill unanimously. At the last minute, Republican leadership sent out a memo claiming the bill "could end up funding abortions."

Help the Torturers! AP: "When the CIA decided to waterboard suspected terror detainees in overseas prisons, the agency turned to a pair of contractors. The men designed the CIA's interrogation program and also personally took part in the waterboarding sessions. But to do the job, the CIA had to promise to cover at least $5 million in legal fees for them in case there was trouble down the road, former U.S. officials said."

** New York Times: "The Obama administration issued long-awaited, long-delayed guidelines on Friday to insulate government scientific research from political meddling and to base policy decisions on solid data. Under the guidelines, government scientists are in general free to speak to journalists and the public about their work, and agencies are prohibited from editing or suppressing reports by independent advisory committees."

The Commentariat -- December 17

"PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen 'government takeover of health care' as the 2010 Lie of the Year."

President Obama signs the tax-cut deal into law:

... Washington Post: "President Obama signed into law the most significant tax bill in nearly a decade Friday, a day after overcoming liberal resistance in Congress to continue for two more years tax breaks enacted under president George W. Bush and to provide a fresh federal boost for the tepid economic recovery." ...

... New York Times: "Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance. The vote sealed the first major deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans.... Administration officials said Mr.Obama would sign the package into law on Friday. The final vote in the House was 277 to 148 after liberal Democrats failed in one last bid to change an estate-tax provision in the bill that they said was too generous to the wealthiest Americans and that the administration agreed to in a concession to Republicans. The amendment failed, 233 to 194." Washington Post story here.

Sam Graham-Felsen, Barack Obama's chief blogger during the 2008 campaign, has had enough, as he writes in the Washington Post: "... at seemingly every turn, Obama has chosen to play an inside game. Instead of actively engaging supporters in major legislative battles, Obama has told them to sit tight as he makes compromises behind closed doors.... Obama has made it clear that, for the most part, his administration isn't seriously interested in deploying this massive grass-roots list - which was once heralded as a force that could reshape politics as we know it - to fight for sweeping legislative change."

Howard Fineman: "The new, more Republican Congress won't arrive in town until next month, but the Tea Party Era unofficially began on the Hill Thursday night.... The GOP brass, led by Senate party leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)..., eagerly back[ed] the successful efforts of Tea Party favorites to block debate on a $1.1 trillion 'omnibus' spending bill that would fund the entire federal government until next October -- but which contained billions of dollars in 'earmarks' Republicans, including McConnell, once stoutly defended." ...

... BUT Alex Pareene of Salon wonders how long it will take Republicans to demoralize their base. Even Fox "News," Pareene points out, is already calling out "real Republicans" on their hypocrisy on earmarks. "The right is paying attention, and it is even beginning to actually hold its leaders accountable for their rhetoric -- by demanding that they live up to its apocalyptic incoherence." ...

... AND Jonathan Chait figures out the "Secret Senate Plan," which explains some weird voting patterns of moderate Republicans. ...

... AND, speaking of the Secret Senate Plan, Jon Stewart devotes his entire show to the First Responders' Bill, which passed in the House, but which Senate Republicans blocked en masse:

     ... You can watch the rest of the show here. Or click on the other segments at the end of the video above.

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Majority Leader Reid won't make promises on when or if significant legislation, including DADT repeal, will be brought up for a vote in the lame-duck session. With video. ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times on a Senate vote on DADT repeal: "The bill’s greatest obstacle is no longer votes, but the clock." ...

... Sam Stein Update: "Reid announced that he was filing cloture on two of the party's other major priorities: the DREAM Act, which would grant pathways to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, and the stand-alone repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the military law that restricts openly gay members from serving. Votes on those measures, a leadership aide told The Huffington Post, would now come on Saturday morning."

CW: forget Michael Gerson's first paragraph; remember, he's a first-joint winger. But his assessment of President Obama's strategy on "selling" the tax-cut deal & on his other ham-fisted political miscalculations is closer to the mark. On the tax-cut deal:

Obama launched into an assault on partners and opponents. Republicans are 'hostage-takers' who worship the 'Holy Grail' of trickle-down economics. Liberal opponents are 'sanctimonious,' preferring their own purity to the interests of the poor.... It is difficult to imagine the president's advisers sitting in the Oval Office and urging this approach: 'Mr. President, the best course here would be to savage likely supporters of the bill and to embitter your political base. This will show just how principled you are, in contrast to the corruption and fanaticism all around you.' -- Michael Gerson

Paul Krugman makes sport of the Republicans on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, who wrote their own separate report, one that "is all of nine pages long, with few facts and hardly any numbers. Beyond that, it tells a story that has been widely and repeatedly debunked — without responding at all to the debunkers." Krugman adds, "... we learned ... what happens when an ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient facts. And the answer is, the facts lose."  Here's a pdf of the Republican members' "Financial Crisis Primer."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Even the toned-down, public version of the one-year [Afghanistan-Pakistan War] progress report released by the White House on Thursday makes clear President Obama is still in search of the leverage he needs to persuade, or compel, Pakistan to close down the safe haven for terrorists and insurgents that has let a battered al Qaeda leadership and a vigorous Taliban survive." ...

... Dan Froomkin: "President Barack Obama asserted on Thursday that the White House's questionable assessment of progress in Afghanistan 'reflect[s] the dedication of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, whose memory we honor and whose work we'll continue.' But the reality is that a year ago, when Obama was choosing between escalation and deescalation in the region, Holbrooke was one of several top advisors who cautioned him that the path he ultimately chose -- sending in 30,000 more American troops -- simply could not succeed." ...

... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The White House report on Afghan strategy released Thursday was notable as much for what it did not say as for what it did.... President Obama is on a political timetable, needing to assure a restless public and his political base that a withdrawal is on track to begin by the deadline he set of next summer and that he can show measurable success before the next election cycle. Afghanistan, and the American military, are running on a different clock, based on more intractable realities." ...

... New York Times Editors: "For Americans, anxious about the war in Afghanistan, there is not a lot of comfort or clarity to be found in President Obama’s long-promised strategy review." ...

... Brave New Foundation more starkly puts the lie to the Administration's rosy assessment of "progress":

... Mark Thompson of Time has more on the "difficulties" NATO forces face. Problems with Pakistan aside, "The get-out-of-Afghanistan card for the nearly 100,000 U.S. troops now there requires training sufficient Afghan army and police to take their place. The U.S. is trying to build an Afghan security force 305,000 strong (171,000 troops, 134,000 police) by next October. Currently, they're up to 250,000, including 146,000 soldiers and 115,000 cops." CW: see "Afghan Police Jumping Jacks" video in yesterday's Commentariat for a reality check on how well that effort is going.

Anne Kornblut & Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "Nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks and decades after hijackers first began to target passenger airliners, the United States has invested billions of dollars in an airport system that makes technology the last line of defense to intercept terrorists. It has yet to catch one." ...

... My old friend Bob Poole, a leading libertarian, has been railing against TSA policies & practices for years. Here he is a year ago, suggesting "a risk-based approach to aviation security," and a month ago suggesting a refinement of the risk-based approach.

Ben Armbruster of Think Progress: a World Public Opinion polls provides more statistical evidence that Fox "News" watchers are more misinformed and less knowledgeable about issues than are people who get their news elsewhere.

This idea that you can’t be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up by sellouts and careerist hacks who don’t stand for anything and are impatient with people who do. It’s possible to do this job with honor and dignity. It’s just that most of our politicians – our president included, apparently – would rather not bother. -- Matt Taibbi ...

... ** "Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame." Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "In an era of Democratic waffling and compromise, the Independent from Vermont actually stands up for what he believes in."

... if there’s one thing that’s truly toxic in this country, it is its middle class, with its debt-laden suburban mansions, humongous S.U.V.’s and minivans, garages crammed with yesterday’s gadgets and an insatiable need to surpass the Joneses. If in 2030, these middle-class “values” of overconsumption and waste were to infect half a billion Indians, it would be a disaster for our planet. -- Sridhar Subramanian, who immigrated to the U.S. from India, in a letter to the editor of the New York Times in response to David Brooks' truly stupid column suggesting we export our middle class values

Peter S. Goodman of the Huffington Post on the Home Affordable Modification Program: "Even those who supposedly manage to get help have wound up battered and mistreated along the way, highlighting how many more simply give up along the way."

Barry Meier of the New York Times: "Unlike new drugs, many of which go through a series of clinical trials before receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration, critical implants can be sold without such testing if a device, like an artificial hip, resembles an implant already approved and used on patients.

"The End Is Near." Gordon Dickson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Two weeks after controversy erupted because the Fort Worth Transportation Authority accepted ads with the atheist message 'Millions of Americans are Good Without God,' the T board revised its policy Wednesday night to ban all religious ads effective Jan. 1."

The Commentariat -- December 16

President Obama speaks to the press about the progress of the AfPak War:

... New York Times: "A review of President Obama’s strategy for the war in Afghanistan concludes that American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule in July, despite finding uneven signs of progress in the year since the president announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops, according to a summary made public Thursday." The Times has the President's summary report here. Washington Post story here. ...

... ** New York Times: "The International Committee of the Red Cross, which usually seeks to avoid the public eye, held a rare news conference [in Kabul] on Wednesday to express deep concern that Afghanistan security had deteriorated to its worst point since the overthrow of the Taliban nine years ago and was preventing aid groups from reaching victims of conflict." ...

... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Although the numbers of American and German troops in the north[ern part of Afghanistan] have more than doubled since last year, insecurity has spread, the Taliban are expanding their reach, and armed groups that purportedly support the government are terrorizing local people and hampering aid organizations, according to international aid workers, Afghan government officials, local residents and diplomats." ...

... Carlotta Gaul & Ruhullah Khapalwak of the New York Times: "... residents and even a Taliban commander say the surge of American troops this year has begun to set back the Taliban in parts of their southern heartland [of Afghanistan] and to turn people against the insurgency — at least for now. The stepped-up operations in Kandahar Province have left many in the Taliban demoralized, reluctant to fight and struggling to recruit, a Taliban commander said in an interview this week." ...

... Rajiv Chandrasekaran & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "While [President Obama's national security team] concluded that Obama's counterinsurgency strategy is showing signs of progress, divisions persist beneath the appearance of harmony. But skeptics in the administration have decided to hold their fire until late next spring, when Obama must decide how many troops he intends to withdraw starting in July to fulfill a pledge he made when he announced a troop increase last December." ...

... Despite President Obama's assurance that "we are on track to achieve our goals" in Afghanistan, Michael Crowley of Time thinks this exercise session better characterizes the status of the war effort:

John Cassidy of the New Yorker bids Larry Summers adieu.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts with an Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information." ...

... CW: well, they could always waterboard the Manning kid, whom Glenn Greenwald writes is being held "under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture." ...

... This is the dark side of American exceptionalism.... In much the same way that a previous generation of Americans countenanced legalized segregation, ours has countenanced legalized torture. And there is no clearer manifestation of this than our routine use of solitary confinement. -- Atul Gawande, New Yorker

Philip Rucker & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Republican senators say they'll vote against their own earmarks. CW: you can bet they won't vote against them if their whip count shows the bill will fail. ...

... Alex Pareene of Salon: "Republicans were only delaying and obstructing action in the Senate to force a vote on the Bush tax cuts, in order to restore confidence to our nation's job-creating billionaires. Once the Senate approved the tax cut deal, Republicans immediately ... threatened to bring all Senate activity to a halt, for days, while also demanding that they not have to go to work on or after Christmas. Sen. Jim DeMint wanted to do that thing where one senator can demand that bills be read aloud in their entirety. DeMint was going to give the New START treaty and the omnibus spending bill the bedtime story treatment, until, apparently, Mitch McConnell made him back down." CW: do read all of Pareene's post. Here's a tweet on the subject from Jim Manley, Harry Reid's chief of staff:

Dan Froomkin of the Huffington Post: "Even as President Obama on Thursday attempts to put a good face on the war in Afghanistan, Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and several dozen other anti-war protesters will be chaining themselves to the White House fence, inviting arrest in the name of peace. 'We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism,' explained Mike Ferner, the president of Veterans for Peace, the group organizing Thursday's Lafayette Square rally and civil disobedience."

NRA Favors Guns for Criminals. Sari Horwitz & James Grimaldi of the Washington Post: a "controversial proposal by officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives calls for a measure strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association: requiring gun dealers to report multiple sales of rifles and shotguns to ATF.... In the past few days, the plan has quietly gained traction at Justice. But sources told The Post they fear that if the plan becomes public, the NRA will marshal its forces to kill it. Such is the power of the NRA."

Dana Milbank on President Obama's outreach to business: "If he keeps it up, this socialist president will earn himself a tickertape parade on Wall Street." ...

... ** The Structural Injustice of the Revolving Door. Jim Fallows on former Obama OMB Director Peter Orszag's move to Citigroup: "The idea that someone would help plan, advocate, and carry out an economic policy that played such a crucial role in the survival of a financial institution [Citigroup] -- and then, less than two years after his Administration took office, would take a job that (a) exemplifies the growing disparities the Administration says it's trying to correct and (b) unavoidably will call on knowledge and contacts Orszag developed while in recent public service -- this says something bad about what is taken for granted in American public life." ...

     ... Update: Fallows elaborates on his original post: "What I meant was, 'Politically this is damaging and should be shocking.' He notes that the Beltway Gang shrugged this off as so unnewsworthy that the Washington Post didn't bother to cover Orszag's zig to Citi; most of the media coverage came as a result of Fallows' original post on the Orszag move. As one of Fallows' readers remarked, 

Sarah Palin, another money grabber, gets some vindication when people like Orszag make these choices. Her rhetoric about the 'elites' (see Administration to New York Times to Citi) ... starts to have some resonance.

... Ezra Klein likes Orszag & thinks he's an ethical person, BUT "The problem is what it will make the public think. Orszag now becomes part of a long list of public servants whose subsequent career decisions make people trust the government less. Maybe that conclusion is incorrect on their part, but it's not unfair."

Greg Sargent lays out the statistics to prove Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos is wrong to oppose repeal of DADT. "Amos' comments ... are reliant on a noxious stereotype.... The Pentagon study emphasizes that the potential negative impacts of repeal can be mitigated by a 'clear message' and 'strong leadership.' Gen. Amos would be doing the Marines under his command a favor by showing some." The underlying story from the Washington Post: Gen. James Amos, "the Marine Corps' top general, suggested Tuesday that allowing gays to serve openly in the military could result in more casualties because their presence on the battlefield would pose 'a distraction.'" 

“Salutat” (1898) by Thomas Eakins & Andy Warhol’s “Camouflage Self-Portrait (Red)” (1986) are in “Hide/Seek,” at National Portrait Gallery. Photos by Artists Rights Society via the New York Times.Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post on the high-stakes culture war surrounding the "Hide/Seek" exhibition of gay & lesbian portraiture at the National Portrait. At a New York Public Library event, the exhibition's curators, Jonathan Katz and David C. Ward, tried to present a scholarly retrospective of the exhibit, but the controversy surrounding it was the main interest of the standing-room attendees. ...

... Stephen Colbert's interpretation of Eric Cantor's threat to defund the Smithsonian is as classic as the works mounted in the Hide/Seek installation:

Kevin Sack of the New York Times: "With a loose web of conservative plaintiffs leading the charge, and judicial rulings breaking thus far along ideological lines, the drive to scuttle the Obama health care law is once again highlighting the role of partisanship in America’s courts."

Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair: Glenn Beck & the tea party lunacy he gins up will have a long-lasting, dangerous effect on U.S. "... a whole new audience has been created, including many impressionable young people, for ideas that are viciously anti-democratic and ahistorical."