The Commentariat -- November 27
In a short post, Ken Layne of Wonkette assesses the decline & fall of the American era.
Dahlia Lithwick & Dave Weigel in Slate: when Russ Feingold leaves the Senate in a few weeks, who will stand up for civil liberties?
Kevin Sack & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "As the Obama administration presses ahead with the health care law, officials are bracing for the possibility that a federal judge in Virginia will soon reject its central provision as unconstitutional and, in the worst case for the White House, halt its enforcement until higher courts can rule. The judge, Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond, has promised to rule by the end of the year on the constitutionality of the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance...."
"Soft Dollars." Jenny Strasburg & Michael Rothfeld of the Wall Street Journal: "A sweeping insider-trading investigation is raising questions about how hedge funds and other big investors dole out a common, and controversial, currency that flows freely across Wall Street. The currency is known as soft dollars. Stock brokerages award soft dollars to investors much like an airline doles out frequent-flier miles, giving the most clout to the biggest traders. The clients then use the soft dollars in a variety of ways, but largely spend them on investment research."
A Second Exodus. John Leland of the New York Times: "Since the American invasion [of Iraq] in 2003, refugees have been a measure of the country’s precarious condition, flooding outward during periods of violence and trickling back as seemed to stabilize." A new exodus "shows how far the nation remains from being stable and secure."
"The 'Vanity Fair' of Al Qaeda." Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times: "An offshoot group in Yemen is producing Inspire magazine, an online propaganda periodical with color photos and interviews with celebrity jihadists. Experts say the target audience appears to be disaffected Muslims in the English-speaking world.... " ...
Tobin Harshaw of the New York Times has a nice roundup of opinions on the farcial Afghan Peace Talks with a Stranger. CW: can we leave now?
Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "On St. Patrick's Day 2009, the government stripped the Irish-born [John] Dullahan's security clearance and fired him from his job at the Defense Intelligence Agency in a manner that has no precedent at the Pentagon - invoking a national security clause that states that it would harm the interests of the United States to inform him of the accusations against him. As a result, Dullahan, a Vietnam veteran who served at military posts around the world and as a U.N. weapons inspector in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, cannot appeal to a board of senior agency officials, as others in his position might. He is, in effect, stranded."
With not much going on in poli-stats, Nate Silver takes a break to cover a really important electoral scandal: "the controversy over the performance of Bristol Palin and her partner, Mark Ballas — who survived until the final week of ["Dancing with the Stars"] in spite of frequently receiving among the lowest marks from the judges — has been too much about Tea Party politics and not enough about the show’s flawed scoring system, a system which Silver explains gives the audience much more say than the judges.
Stupid, or Sly as a Fox? Tim Molloy of The Wrap: Fox Nation, a subsidiary of "... Fox News, post[ed] a fake Onion story about President Obama alongside its real news stories. The satirical story, with the headline "The Onion: Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail," appeared in the Nation section of the site Friday.... The original Obama headline didn't mention The Onion, and the only clue for readers was a link to the satirical site after the first two paragraphs of the story.... The fake news of the president's novel-length missive remained on the site for several hours, even after Mediaite pointed it out -- and after Fox News updated its site with breaking news that the president needed 12 stitches for a basketball injury."