The Commentariat -- February 2

** A History Lesson. Jack Balkin: "All able bodied male citizens were part of the militia, and therefore were required to bear arms in defense of the state. In fact, the federal government passed a militia act in 1792 that required that every citizen purchase a weapon and ammunition.... Hence citizens were automatically made part of the militia, and this mean that they might be called upon to lay down their lives for their fellow citizens and the republic.... What is lost in the debate over the individual mandate is that the point of the individual mandate is also civic republican in nature. It requires citizens to make a far less significant but also public-spirited sacrifice on behalf of other Americans who cannot afford health insurance." Via Ben Smith.

It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. -- Judge Roger Vinson, in his ruling against the Affordable Care Act

On first read, the most striking aspect of Judge Vinson’s ruling today is not its remedy — striking the Affordable Care Act in its entirety — but the impression one gets that the opinion was written in part as a Tea Party manifesto. -- Mark Hall, law professor

CW: here's the immediate problem with Vinson's irresponsible ruling. Amy Goldstein & N. C. Aizenman of the Washington Post: there is "... striking disagreement over the ruling's practical effects, even for the states in which the decision has the greatest direct impact." The New York Times has a story on the same subject here. Some of these right-wing ideological governors & attorneys general plan to cut people out of ACA-mandated programs now. Assholes. ...

... BUT Richard Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "Most insurers, hospital executives and state officials expect they'll keep carrying out President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even after a federal judge cast its fate in doubt by declaring all of it unconstitutional." ...

... Ezra Klein interviews economist Mark Pauly, who first proposed the individual mandate to the Bush I administration, & which went on to be "promoted by congressional Republicans, the Heritage Foundation, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney." Pauly says his "fix" for the bouhaha over the individual mandate "would be to simply say raise everyone’s taxes by what a health insurance policy would cost -- Congress definitely has the power to do that -- and then tell people that if they obtain insurance, they'll get a tax break of the same amount." ...

... Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Democratic and Republican lawmakers believe the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of President Obama’s healthcare law, and some of them are already exerting pressure on the justices.... Republicans want the case to reach the Supreme Court swiftly. The Obama administration, however, is in no rush for it...."

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. Photos via Salon.Our Favorite Dictators. Alex Pareene of Salon on "where else in the world American taxpayer dollars are helping to prop up dictatorships with poor human rights records."

Mark Landler, et. al., of the New York Times: "The story of how Mr. Mubarak, an Arab autocrat who only last month was the mainstay of America’s policy in a turbulent region, suddenly found himself pushed toward the exit is first and foremost a tale of the Arab street.... But it is also one of political calculations, in Cairo and Washington, which were upset repeatedly as the crowds swelled. And it is the story of a furious scramble by the Obama White House — right up until Mr. Obama’s call Tuesday night for change to begin 'now' — to catch up with a democracy movement unfolding so rapidly that Washington came close to being left behind." ...

... Wall Street Journal reporters on how the U.S. & Egyptian governments were blindsided by the strength & persistence Egyptian uprising. CW: What isn't in the headline, but is in the report is acknowledgment that the protest leaders themselves were surprised at the success of the protest. ...

Tony Karon of Time: "... for all the words uttered Tuesday, the terms and duration of the political transition will not be decided by either Mubarak or the opposition.... The outcome of their battle of wills may be decided by other actors, first and foremost the country's armed forces." Read Karon on new Veep Suleiman's role in the "transition": Karon backs up my seat-of-the-pants take on the "Plan B" Mubarak & Suleiman have been engineering.

Politico: "A member of Norway’s parliament has nominated WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize."

Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Police brutality in Egypt is 'routine and pervasive' and the use of torture so widespread that the Egyptian government has stopped denying it exists, according to leaked cables released today by WikiLeaks. The batch of US embassy cables paint a despairing portrait of a police force and security service in Egypt wholly out of control. They suggest torture is routinely used against ordinary criminals, Islamist detainees, opposition activists and bloggers." Read the documents here. ...

... Greg Jaffe and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A mental health specialist recommended that the [Bradley Manning] ... not be deployed to Iraq, but his immediate commanders sent him anyway, according to a military official familiar with a new Army investigation."

John Schwartz & Mark Schrope of the New York Times: "The Gulf of Mexico should recover from the environmental damage caused by the enormous" BP oil spill last year faster than many people expected, according to new estimates in reports commissioned by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion compensation fund.  That prediction will be central to Mr. Feinberg’s plan for paying people who claim their livelihoods were devastated by the spill. It is certain to be controversial among those who believe the damage will be longer-lasting and therefore should result in higher payouts for the spill’s victims." CW: speaking of dictators, I'm not sure Feinberg is so benevolent.

Dina ElBodhdady of the Washington Post: "A record number of homeowners are kicking in cash when they refinance their mortgages, in most cases to qualify for interest rates that are now near historic lows, mortgage financier Freddie Mac reported this week. In the fourth quarter, 46 percent of borrowers who refinanced their primary mortgages brought cash to settlement to lower the balance on their loans, Freddie Mac said. That's the highest share of so-called 'cash-in' refinances since the company started tracking the numbers in 1985." CW: this is a good thing.

Dana Milbank isn't convinced Jay Carney, who will become President Obama's press secretary, is going to be as press-friendly as, well, the press thinks he'll be. Milbank cites as evidence an "official" e-mail he received from Carney while Carney was working for Vice President Biden: "'You are a hack.' ... The body of the message began with the phrase 'shamelessly misrepresented,' continued on to refer to 'your hackneyed storyline' and concluded: 'Fabrication is a legitimate tool - for fiction. You should try it; it suits you.'"

And now, for a history lesson from the Tea Party, brought to you by Tom Tomorrow, observer of "This Modern World":

FOR A SLIGHTLY LARGER IMAGE, CLICK ON THE CARTOON.

News Items

New York Times: "Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a bid by Republicans to repeal last year’s sweeping health care overhaul, as they successfully mounted a party-line defense of President Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.... Lawmakers in both parties joined forces, however, to repeal a tax provision in the law that would impose a huge information-reporting requirement on small businesses. That vote was 81 to 17, with 34 Democrats and all 47 Republicans in favor."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Calling the move risky, Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced on Tuesday anti-deficit legislation that could impose automatic cuts in Social Security and other entitlement programs. McCaskill, of Missouri, was the only Democrat to join with a group of Republicans to press for a far-reaching debt reduction plan that would tie federal spending to the nation's economic output."

Washington Post: "After months of resistance, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) announced Tuesday that he will enforce a ban on earmarks in all Senate spending bills, ending a cherished practice by lawmakers that had become a symbol of wasteful excess. The Senate moratorium, which will remain in place for two years, follows a similar move by the GOP-led House and a veto threat by President Obama in his State of the Union address last week."

The Hill: Darrell Issa "says the White House’s response to his first major request for documents and records was inadequate. As a result, [he] is refining his request and asking for copies of e-mails between key White House officials. He is also seeking a series of interviews with top-level staff at the Department of Homeland Security...."

New York Times: "Government-subsidized health insurance – one of many perks of serving in Congress – kicked in on Tuesday for new members. But a group of more than a dozen freshman Republicans who campaigned vigorously on overturning President Obama’s new health care law will be opting out."

President Obama signed the New START treaty this morning. No link.

New York Times: "Egypt’s powerful military signaled a shift on Wednesday, calling on protesters who have propelled tumultuous changes here to 'restore normal life.' On the streets, the tactics and calculations seemed to be shifting too, possibly spurring the military’s concern as pro-Mubarak demonstrators — some of them in apparently confrontational mood — turned out in larger numbers than in the past days of antigovernment tumult. By the early afternoon, a potentially combustible mood seized Tahrir Square as hundreds of pro-Mubarak protesters converged on what has been the epicenter of the antigovernment demonstrations." ...

... AP: "Hundreds of pro-government supporters attacked protesters Wednesday in Cairo's central square, where thousands were pushing ahead with demonstrations demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. ...

... NBC News Update: "Several thousand supporters of embattled President Hosni Mubarak, including some on horses and camels and wielding whips, charged into a crowd of anti-government protesters Wednesday, instigating violent clashes as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn." ...

... New York Times Update: "As chaos gripped Cairo’s central Tahrir square on Wednesday, journalists covering the scene on the ground found themselves the targets of violence and intimidation by demonstrators chanting slogans in favor of President Hosni Mubarak. One prominent American television correspondent, Anderson Cooper of CNN, was struck in the head repeatedly." See video above.

New York Times: "President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said on Wednesday that he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013, a stunning concessions to protesters that marked yet another reverberation of the anger that has rocked the Arab World. Mr. Saleh, an American ally who has been in office for 32 years, also said that his eldest son, Ahmed, who heads the elite Republican Guard, would not seek the presidency, as government opponents had feared."