The Commentariat -- May 11

I've posted an Open Thread for today on Off Times Square. Be creative!

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "House Speaker John A. Boehner ... is scheduled to give the commencement address this Saturday at the Catholic University of America in Washington.... More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching.... The letter writers go on to criticize Mr. Boehner’s support for a budget that cut support for Medicare, Medicaid and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. They call such policies 'anti-life.' ... The professors point out that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also recently issued a similar letter expressing the hierarchy’s concerns about budget cuts in programs that aid the poor." Boehner is a Roman Catholic.

Tapped. Floyd Norris of the New York Times: In the Raj Rajaratnam/Galleon case, the investigation preceded the crime.

Sometimes the IRS Has Good News. Ben Smith of Politico: "The Internal Revenue Service appears to have begun to enforce a tax on gifts to the non-profit organizations [501(c)4s] that were a key vehicle for anonymous politics in the last five years and had promised to play a large role in the presidential cycle, a move which could reshape the place of money in politics in 2012.... Gifts to other political organizations are not taxable under federal law. The gift tax ... may run as high as 35%, mirroring income tax rates -- for contributions to 501(c)4s.... All those ads attacking out-of-control taxes and deficits, meanwhile, may wind up doing their own small part to fill the U.S. Treasury."

Fear of Windshield Wipers. Karen Garcia: Democrats "are milking the Bin Laden assassination for all it's worth" and "have co-opted the tried and true panic button of the right to make fear of terror trump fear of job loss, fear of going hungry because of crazily rising food prices, fear of going homeless because of the continued foreclosure crisis and scandal, fear of getting sick because that much vaunted health care reform has somehow lost its luster now that more of us are uninsured and underinsured and jobless and broke than ever before."

New York Times Editors: "For all his talk of supporting the hopes of the undocumented, [the Obama] administration has been doubling down on the failed strategy of mass expulsion. It is pressing state and local police to join in an ill-conceived program called Secure Communities, which sends arrested people’s fingerprints through federal immigration databases, turning all local officers and jails into arms of the Department of Homeland Security. Many lawmakers and police agencies say it erodes public safety by making immigrants, especially victims of domestic violence, afraid to report crimes.... And they feel betrayed because what the administration once billed as a transparent, voluntary program aimed only at dangerous convicted criminals turns out to be none of those things. The Homeland Security Department’s own data show that more than half of those deported under the program have no criminal records or committed only minor crimes." ...

... Annie Lowrey in Slate: "The United States can grow faster by stealing the rest of the world's smart people. The low-hanging fruit of immigration is not simply an open-door policy, but rather letting in — or, really, rolling out the red carpet for — highly skilled and educated workers and entrepreneurs." We already know it will work.

Philip Rucker & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats unveiled a plan Tuesday to save $21 billion over the next decade by eliminating tax breaks for the nation’s five biggest oil companies.... With the proposal, Democrats sought to reframe the debate over debt reduction to include fresh revenue as well as sharp cuts in spending. For the first time, Democratic leaders suggested an equal split between spending cuts and new taxes.... That represents a larger share for taxes than has been proposed by either President Obama or the bipartisan commission he appointed to recommend how to cut the national debt."

Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: as Chinese labor costs go up, U.S. wages are coming down. Yippee! We're competitive! Especially in Mississippi!

Tom Friedman: "The systems in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that created a Bin Laden are alive and well," and we are heavily funding them. Assuming Friedman is right, and he relies on other sources, so he may well be, his column is worth reading.

Tom Shanker & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The killing of Osama bin Laden has set off a reassessment of the war in Afghanistan and the broader effort to combat terrorism, with Congress, the military and the Obama administration weighing the goals, strategies, costs and underlying authority for a conflict that is now almost a decade old. Two influential senators — John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana — suggested Tuesday that it was time to rethink the Afghanistan war effort, forecasting the beginning of what promises to be a fierce debate about how quickly the United States should begin pulling troops out of the country." ...

... Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "With Osama bin Laden now swimming with the fishes, the U.S. has but one sensible path: to draw down U.S. forces to 15,000-25,000 by the end of 2013, try cutting a deal with the Taliban, and refocus American power in the region on containment, deterrence and diplomacy."

David Streitfeld of the New York Times: For the last three years, federal agencies have backed new mortgages as large as $729,750 in desirable neighborhoods in high-cost states like California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts." But the FHA, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are about to cut the size of the loan it will guarantee by as a much as one-third, a move which sellers, buyers and realtors say will have a bog negative impact on sales of high-end housing. Includes a multi-media table covering affected counties.

One Step Forward. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "After 33 years of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to change its constitution and allow openly gay people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons. The outcome is a reversal from only two years ago, when a majority of the church’s regions, known as presbyteries, voted against ordaining openly gay candidates." ...

... One Step Back. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The Navy is revoking guidance to its chaplains about conducting same-sex marriages at military chapels following an uproar by Republican lawmakers and social conservatives claiming the move would violate a law prohibiting federal recognition of gay marriage. Despite the decision, military officials said Tuesday night that the Defense Department may still eventually permit gay troops to use military chapels in states that recognize homosexual marriages for same-sex weddings...."

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A panel of three federal appeals court judges aggressively questioned attorneys in a Virginia courtroom Tuesday who argued over the constitutionality of the federal health care overhaul — appearing particularly skeptical of arguments that sought to invalidate the law." CW: this is really a News Lede, but the article is chock-full of legal theory, so I've stuck it in the Commentariat....

... BESIDES, I wanted to share Dahlia Lithwick's take on the arguments. She conveys pretty much the same information Helderman does, but Lithwick makes it more fun. Something about broccoli.

Kareem Fahim of the New York Times: the specter of death squads looms over Benghazi, Libya, a city controlled by rebels.

Right Wing World *

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post complains about "the incoherent, impervious-to-facts economic philosophy undergirding [Speaker] Boehner’s remarks" to Wall Street on Monday. She debunks five big lies he told in the course of his speech:

The recent stimulus spending binge hurt our economy and hampered private-sector job creation in America.

The massive borrowing and spending by the Treasury Department crowded out private investment by American businesses of all sizes.

... We will never balance the budget and rid our children of debt unless we cut spending and have real economic growth. And we will never have real economic growth if we raise taxes on those in America who create jobs.

... In 1990..., our nation’s leaders struck a so-called bargain that raised taxes as part of a bipartisan plan to balance the budget. The result of that so-called bargain was the recession of the early 1990s. It wasn’t until the economy picked back up toward the end of that decade that we achieved a balanced budget.

A tax hike would wreak havoc not only on our economy’s ability to create private-sector jobs, but also on our ability to tackle the national debt.

Mike Huckabee's "Prophetic Voice." Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: Mike Huckabee has said "... Janet Porter, the onetime co-chair of Huckabee's Faith and Values Coalition..., is his 'prophetic voice.' But that voice has said some weird things over the years: Porter has maintained that Obama represents an 'inhumane, sick, and sinister evil,' and she has warned that Democrats want to throw Christians in jail merely for practicing their faith. She's attributed Haiti's high poverty rate to the fact that the country is "dedicated to Satan," and she suggested that gay marriage caused Noah's Flood. And there's this: In a 2009 column for conservative news site WorldNetDaily, Porter asserted that President Barack Obama is a Soviet secret agent, groomed since birth to destroy the United States from within.... Huckabee, contacted through his political action committee, did not respond to a request for a comment. The Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991, also could not be reached."

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

The El Paso Times Editors comment on President Obama's visit to El Paso & on the need for immigration reform.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire investor who once ran one of the world’s largest hedge funds, was found guilty on Wednesday of fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in Manhattan. He is the most prominent figure convicted in the government’s crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street."

New York Times: "Rebels in the contested western city of Misurata stormed the city’s airport on Wednesday afternoon, swarming over the grounds from the south and east and reclaiming it from the military of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Seizing the airport in Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city, which has been under siege for nearly two months, marked one of the most significant rebel victories in the Libyan conflict. The airport and its approaches were the last remaining pieces of significant terrain in the city to be controlled by the Qaddafi soldiers."

In a video, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich announces he will run for President. CW: I can't bear to watch, but the video is here.

Wall Street Journal: "The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, worried that a proposal to cap federal spending could gain traction in Congress, have mounted a drive to discredit the idea. The proposal would limit federal spending — for everything from Medicare and other entitlements to discretionary items like military, education and foreign aid programs — to 20.6% of the nation's gross domestic product, when the cap is fully phased in. If Congress did not comply, the cap would be enforced with across-the-board spending cuts." CW: the bill is truly terrible, and Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) proves she's a lambrain by co-sponsoring it.

Washington Post: "The United States and China on Tuesday pledged to deepen their cooperation on economic and military matters, setting aside a year of tension over issues such as arms sales to Taiwan and the value of China’s currency with what officials referred to as a 'milestone' agreement."

Washington Post: "NATO carried out its most forceful [bombing] attacks in weeks in Libya on Tuesday, part of an apparently coordinated push with rebel forces to bring an end to Moammar Gaddafi’s 41-year-long rule."

Politico: "Senate Democrats will re-introduce the long-stalled DREAM Act, hoping to tap into momentum from President Barack Obama’s speech along the border Tuesday about America’s need to pass comprehensive immigration reform."