The Commentariat -- October 19, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "As the [House Benghazi] committee's chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, prepared to go on television to provide his latest defense of the investigation, the committee's top Democrat, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, released information undercutting one of Mr. Gowdy's recent allegations about Mrs. Clinton's use of her private email when she was secretary of state. Mr. Gowdy had claimed this month that messages sent and received by Mrs. Clinton included the name of a Central Intelligence Agency source in Libya. That information was 'some of the most protected information in our intelligence community,' Mr. Gowdy said. The fact that Mrs. Clinton sent and received these materials, he said, debunked her 'claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address.' But Mr. Cummings said on Sunday that the C.I.A. had informed the committee that information about the source was not classified." ...

... Here's Cummings' letter to Gowdy. Once again, he lets it rip. ...

... Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that he has told Republican colleagues to 'shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about. And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we have done, why we have done it and what new facts we have found.'... House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested in a recent Fox News interview that the committee was formed to drive down Clinton's poll numbers. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) and Bradley F. Podliska, a former Republican staffer on the committee, also called the investigation politically motivated. Gowdy said McCarthy, Hanna and Podliska are 'three people who don't have any idea what they're talking about.'" CW: Pretty cheeky to say right there on the teevee that your own majority leader doesn't know what he's talking about.

Nancy Cordes of CNN: "After weeks of insisting he would not run for Speaker, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan - according to those close to him - is now open to leading the fractured Republican conference, and seriously considering launching a bid for speaker of the House. But there's a caveat.... Ryan's confidants tell CBS News he will not horse trade with the House Freedom Caucus, a group of 40 or so deeply conservative members who have been demanding changes to House rules and other very specific promises from candidates for Speaker in exchange for their support. Ryan's confidants say he is not going to negotiate for a job he never sought...."

... Yastreblyansky, writing on Steve M.'s blog, has some thoughts on John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan & Democrats vis-a-vis the speaker's job.

Lauren Gardner of Politico: "Last spring's deaths of eight passengers in an Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia called attention to a glaring hole in the nation's rail safety network: railroads' failure to install an advanced anti-collision technology that Congress had mandated in 2008. But five months later, lawmakers are preparing to give railroads years past this December's deadline to put the systems in place -- heeding the railroads' warnings that they would otherwise have to impose a nationwide freeze on rail traffic that could wreck the economy and threaten national security. More than 100 oil, gas, coal, farming, manufacturing, retail and other business groups are also urging lawmakers to postpone the mandate, as are the U.S. Conference of Mayors, local transit agencies, newspaper editorials, more than 150 House members and nearly half the Senate."

Washington Post Editors: "... improper payments [by federal agencies have] ... totaled $1 trillion since fiscal 2003, the first year in which the GAO produced a government-wide estimate.... Three-quarters of the improper payments come from just three programs -- Medicare, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit -- all of which are meant to help the elderly and the poor. Nearly 10 percent of Medicare's $603 billion in outlays last year was improperly paid.... Everyone complains about waste, fraud and abuse, but it is remarkable how bureaucrats and special interests can come up with excuses not to carry out the managerial reforms necessary to eliminate them."

Paul Krugman: "... we can learn a lot from Denmark, both its successes and its failures. And let me say that it was both a pleasure and a relief to hear people who might become president talk seriously about how we can learn from the experience of other countries, as opposed to just chanting 'U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!'"

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling! Ari Rabin-Havt of the Nation: "All the serious people in Washington know we have a debt problem.... There's just one problem. The numbers relied upon by ... far too many ... inside the Beltway, including the Congressional Budget Office itself, are completely bogus. The methodology used by the CBO to create these projections exaggerates the federal government's long-term debt projection by as much as 440 percent, creating a phony fiscal crisis where none exists.... How can there be such a large discrepancy in the numbers?... The CBO assumes that Social Security and Medicare Part A will draw on the general fund of the US Treasury to cover benefit shortfalls following the depletion of their trust funds, which at the current rate will occur in 2034. That would obviously lead to an exploding debt, but it's a scenario prohibited by law."

Reuters: "The US approved conditional sanctions waivers for Iran on Sunday, though it cautioned they would not take effect until Tehran had curbed its nuclear programme as required under the historic nuclear deal reached in Vienna in July. President Obama welcomed 'adoption day', saying: 'Today marks an important milestone toward preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful going forward.'" President Obama's statement is here.

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "In a setback for its multibillion-dollar effort to help Mexico fight its drug war, the U.S. State Department has decided that Mexico failed to reach some human rights goals, triggering a cutoff of millions of dollars in aid. The move, which has not been reported previously, affects a small portion of the annual anti-drug funds given to Mexico. But it is a clear sign of U.S. frustration."

Christopher Jensen of the New York Times: "Even as Volkswagen embarks on the task of fixing the emissions systems it disabled on almost 500,000 of its diesel vehicles in the United States, the automaker faces another hurdle: persuading owners to make the repair at all. That's because the software that allowed Volkswagen to fool federal emissions tests also lowered the car's performance and fuel economy while the device was turned on. So for owners, the prospect of having a car's emissions cleaned up, only to have the car perform worse -- whatever the pollution -- is not sitting well."

Alexander Stille of the New Yorker: "The honeymoon for Pope Francis is over -- at least in Rome. The first two weeks of the Synod on the Family have been characterized by open rebellion, corridor intrigue, leaked documents, accusations of lack of transparency, and sharp divisions among the bishops and cardinals. In the first real crisis of his papacy, Francis finds himself in the position of enjoying a rare degree of popularity among the public but facing an unusual degree of dissent within an institution generally so respectful of hierarchy."

Presidential Race

Greg Sargent: "As we continue to wait for Joe Biden to tell us whether he will run for president, a new CNN poll brings us what I believe is the most comprehensive polling yet on which candidate Democrats prefer on the issues -- and Hillary Clinton leads Biden and Bernie Sanders on all of them. The new poll casts doubt on whether there is all that much of a clamor among Democrats for Biden to enter the race."

Matea Gold, et al., of the Washington Post: "As he brags that he is turning down millions of dollars for his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has leveled a steady line of attack against his rivals: that they are too cozy with big-money super PACs and may be breaking the law by coordinating with them. 'You know the nice part about me?' he told reporters in Iowa in August. 'I don't need anybody's money.' What Trump doesn't say is that he and his top campaign aide have connections to a super PAC collecting large checks to support his candidacy -- a group viewed by people familiar with his campaign as the sanctioned outlet for wealthy donors." ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Jeb Bush ... threw a series of punches at Donald Trump on Sunday, saying his rival for the Republican presidential nomination was an 'actor' who was not serious about running for the White House and whose remarks about the 9/11 attacks undercut his 'credibility' as commander-in-chief. True to form, Trump hit back immediately, razzing Bush on Twitter even as the former Florida governor continued to talk on television. In a pre-taped interview with Fox News Sunday, Trump also said that had he been president, 'there's a good chance' the 11 September hijackers 'would not have been in our country'. All but one of the 19 men who hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania entered the country legally on business or tourist visas. One entered on a student visa." ...

... Ezra Klein: "I don't know if Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination. But even if he doesn't, it's increasingly clear he's going to destroy Jeb Bush before he loses. Over the past week, Trump and Bush have been in an argument that basically boils down to the question of was George W. Bush president on 9/11/2001?... Jeb Bush ... argues that his brother was only responsible for what happened after 9/11, suggesting, perhaps, that someone else bore the responsibilities of the presidency on 9/11/2001. Or, to be a bit kinder to his position, he argues that the measure of as president isn't whether something like 9/11 happens, but whether it happens again.... The result is this absolutely brutal interview CNN's Jake Tapper conducted with Bush. 'If your brother and his administration bear no responsibility at all,' Tapper asks, 'how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi?' Bush's response is almost physically painful to watch":

     ... CW: Jeb! is right about one thing: the Obama administration did not provide the security force Ambassador Stevens repeatedly requested in the months prior to his assassination; in fact, the State Department reportedly reduced the security force. This, of course, is analogous to the Bush administration's ignoring the infamous presidential daily briefing memo titled, "Osama bin Laden determined to attack in U.S." Moreover, no one in the Obama administration is claiming that "Obama kept Benghazi safe," but Jeb! repeatedly claims " my brother kept us safe." While it is true that the Libyan government was ultimately responsible for securing the Benghazi facility, no one at State could have thought Libya was up to the task. ...

... Kevin Drum: "Trump has lately moved on to a more defensible criticism of George Bush, asking Jeb, 'why did your brother attack and destabilize the Middle East by attacking Iraq when there were no weapons of mass destruction?' This is ... interesting ... because it gives us another chance to harass Trump for lying about his opposition to the war during the second GOP debate.... 'I'm the only person up here that fought against going into Iraq.'... So far, no one has managed to find even the slightest record of Trump opposing the Iraq War before it started.... It wasn't until November 2004 -- nearly two years after the war started -- that he finally spoke up."

Say What? Tom McCarthy: "... Ben Carson on Sunday upended a widely accepted narrative of the hunt for Osama bin Laden..., suggesting US ally Saudi Arabia cultivated secret ties with the terrorist leader and knew where he was after the attacks.... Pressed by ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Carson [said]..., 'I think [moderate Arab states] would have been concerned, and if we were serious about it ... I think that would have trumped any loyalty they had to Osama bin Laden.' Stephanopoulos said: 'But they didn't have any loyalty to him. The Saudis kicked him out. He was their enemy.' Carson responded: 'Well, you may not think they had any loyalty to him. But I believe otherwise.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: In Wyoming, a bicyclist shot & killed a combat service dog, who did two tours in Iraq, under conditions that his owner & handler find highly suspicious. CW: I hate stories like this.

Melissa Montoya, et al., of USA Today: "A manhunt was underway Sunday after a shooting rampage at a zombie-themed festival left one person dead, five wounded and pandemonium on downtown streets [of Fort Myers, Florida]. The wounded victims at ZombiCon on Saturday night were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to police Lt. Victor Medico. The shooting was the second instance of gunfire downtown within a week. ZombiCon, an annual event in its ninth year, was expected to draw more than 20,000 people." The Fort Myers News-Press story is here.

Packing Heat in the City of God. George Hunter of the Detroit News: "Violence marred a church service Sunday when a man with a brick attacked the pastor, who whipped out his Glock handgun and fired several shots, killing the man, Detroit police said. The incident allegedly happened about 15 minutes into the 1:30 p.m. service at the City of God ministries storefront church on Grand River near Lahser, Assistant Chief Steve Dolunt said. 'The pastor had had issues with the man before,' Dolunt said.... The pastor was taken into police custody for questioning, Dolunt said." ...

... Dear Pastor: In a roomful of people, there is more than one way to subdue a brick-wielding attacker. The other ways do not involve deadly force. Love, CW

Your Heartwarming Story of the Day. AP: "After a California couple called off their wedding, the bride-to-be's family decided to turn the $35,000 event into a feast for the homeless. The bride's mother, Kari Duane, said Sunday that rather than cancel the reception, they invited Sacramento's homeless for a once in a lifetime meal on Saturday at the Citizen Hotel, one of the city's finest venues.... She said they had already paid for a reception that would have hosted 120 guests. About 90 homeless single people, grandparents and whole families with newborns showed up and enjoyed a meal that included appetizers, salad, gnocchi, salmon, and tri-tip sirloin."

Way Beyond

Nicky Woolf of the Guardian: "Canadians head into a nail-bitingly close election on Monday in which the incumbent Conservative, Stephen Harper, is struggling to hold on to power in the face of a challenge by Justin Trudeau's Liberal party." ...

News Ledes

New York Times: "The wave of deadly attacks that has roiled Israel this month hit the southern desert city of Beersheba on Sunday, where a Palestinian armed with a pistol and a knife grabbed another weapon from a soldier, fatally shot him and wounded at least nine other people, including several police officers, according to the police. In the confusion as the attack unfolded, a migrant who was apparently mistaken for a second assailant was shot and seriously wounded by an Israeli security guard, then beaten by a mob. He later died of his wounds, according to Israeli news reports. Witnesses who said they knew the man identified him as an Eritrean asylum seeker."

Reuters: "More than 10,000 migrants are currently in Serbia, stranded by limits imposed further west in Europe, the UN refugee agency said on Monday, and warned of shortages in aid. Thousands of people clamoured to enter Croatia from Serbia on Monday after a night spent in the cold and mud, their passage west slowed by a Slovenian effort to limit the flow of refugees into western Europe."

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2015

Internal links removed.

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Without a viable alternative to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), some centrist Republicans say they'd have little choice but to seek Democratic help in electing a new Speaker.... Such a scenario remains unlikely, even with the House GOP in apparent disarray.... There have been no formal discussions between the parties about the possibility of a coalition Speaker, and some Democrats have dismissed the notion out of hand."

Kevin Sack & Sheri Fink of the New York Times take a deep dive into the work of the Clinton Foundation & how its work intersected with Hillary Clinton's position as Secretary of State."

Maureen Dowd: "As enjoyable as it is seeing Sidney Blumenthal on the hot seat, Gowdy and Company should have left the email matter to another congressional committee and the Justice Department. They just couldn't stop themselves, any more than they could stop themselves from cutting Democrats out of witness interviews or from trumpeting that Clinton's aide Huma Abedin was going to testify on Friday.... Republicans are still savoring the idea of getting Hillary to raise her hand to take the oath.... But it's going to be less a showdown than a show trial. The verdict is already in. The Republicans are guilty. It's not that Hillary has gotten so much more trustable. It's just that the Republicans are so much less credible."

Elizabeth Drew, in the New York Review of Books, on the Congressional fight over the Iran nuclear deal. First of a two-part series: "The president's congressional victory on the nuclear agreement with Iran had many sources, not least of which were the nature and tactics of the opposition. It might have been more difficult to achieve if the Republicans as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allied American group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had given any sense that they had thoughtfully considered the deal that six nations reached with Iran, or if they had offered any alternative."

Presidential Race

Alec Baldwin is pretty funny & Larry David nails Bernie Sanders; hate the way the moderator gayifies Anderson Cooper:

Dave Weigel & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post examine Sanders-style socialism & distinguish it from other socialistic ideologies & policies.

AP: In Alabama, "Hillary Clinton on Saturday said she would champion voting rights from the White House, telling African American Alabama Democrats Republican state policies were 'a blast from the Jim Crow past'. Clinton said Republicans were dismantling the progress made by the civil rights movement, and blasted Alabama governor Robert Bentley for closing driver's license offices in 31 counties where most residents are African American. Alabama requires photo identification to vote. Clinton also mocked the Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush for their opposition to restoring Voting Rights Act provisions which the US supreme court struck down." (See related story linked in Beyond the Beltway.)

T. C. Sottek of the Verge: "Harvard professor and Democratic presidential candidate Larry Lessig had what sounded like a crazy plan: run for president, pass a single bill, then leave the White House. He got enough attention for that plan to raise more than $1 million, but Lessig has since faced a Sisyphean climb toward recognition; he was excluded from the first Democratic debate, and polls very low when his name is actually given to people for consideration. Now, Lessig's campaign just looks like the average sort of crazy. He's running to serve a full term as president, because people just didn't understand the complexity of his original plan. In an essay published at The Atlantic, Lessig announced the change and explained why he was making it." ...

... John Cole of Balloon Juice: Lessig has "also begun to discuss the other issues, although not on his website. He's not too bad on the issues, I will add, but appears to be completely clueless and indifferent regarding the entire political process. Personally, I would not mind him in the debates- yank Webb and Chaffee and put in Lessig."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump says he doesn't flat out blame former president George W. Bush that the Sept. 11 terror attacks happened on his watch. But he can think of three reasons why one could hold Bush responsible." CW: Number 1: Immigration policy. Natch. Trump's Reason No. 2 is unfair, too: he cites the fact, correctly, that the FBI, CIA & National Security Council weren't sharing information (and there is evidence they still are not adequately doing so). But the Bush administration could not reasonably have changed that dynamic in the few months Bush had been in office before the 9/11 attacks. If anything, the onus should be on the Clinton (& earlier) administrations -- and of course on the agencies themselves.

CW: Judd Legum of Think Progress does not take the latest Trump-Bush dust-up very seriously: "On Friday, Donald Trump generated substantial controversy when he asserted that George W. Bush was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks.... Calendars from that era indicate that January 20, the day Bush was sworn in as president, occurred some time before September 11."

Meghashyam Mali of the Hill: "The Secret Service is extending protection to GOP presidential contenders Donald Trump and Ben Carson, while beefing up Dem front-runner Hillary Clinton's security, according to a report from Newsmax on Saturday. Trump and Carson will receive agents as early as next week, with each candidate being assigned approximately two dozen agents. The report cites a source close to the agency's planning."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley on Friday asked a state agency to provide driving tests in all Alabama counties one day each month, reversing a decision to permanently shutter rural driver's license offices in the face of budget cuts. The announcement to partly restore the services came after weeks of backlash over a state decision to close 31 part-time driver's license offices in rural areas. While state officials argued it was necessary because of budget cut, critics said the closures saved little money while creating a hardship for people in rural and impoverished areas of the state."

Esther Lee of Think Progress: "A jury acquitted two former sheriff's deputies of involuntary manslaughter on Friday after the death of a black college student inside a Savannah, Georgia jail holding cell on New Year's Day. Matthew Ajibade, 22, died from blunt force trauma after he was tasered several times while strapped in a restraint chair. A Chatham County Superior Court jury did convict the former deputies of lesser charges: Jason Kenny was found guilty of cruelty to an inmate, while Maxine Evans was found guilty of public records fraud and three counts of perjury for lying in her grand jury testimony."

Way Beyond

Jeremy Keehn of the New Yorker discusses the Canadian parliamentary elections, which will be held tomorrow. Keehn focuses on Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal party. ...

... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times has more on the Canadian elections.

News Lede

New York Times: "A military airstrike in northwest Syria has killed the leader of a shadowy Qaeda cell that American officials say has been plotting attacks against the United States and Europe, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The leader, Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen, was the highest-ranking leader of a network of about two dozen veteran Qaeda operatives called the Khorasan Group, and the fifth senior member of the group to be killed in the past four months. His death was announced in a Pentagon statement describing Thursday's operation, which American officials said was a drone strike."

The Commentariat -- October 17, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Barack Obama blocked off the prospects for future oil drilling in the Arctic on Friday, imposing new lease conditions that make it practically impossible for companies to hunt for oil in the world's last great wilderness. The Department of Interior said it was canceling two future auctions of Arctic offshore oil leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and turned down requests from Shell and other oil companies for more time on their existing leases." CW: Now check out Marco Rubio's energy plan -- story linked under Presidential Race.

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Given the gains that have flowed to those at the tip of the income pyramid in recent decades, several economists have been making the case that the government could raise large amounts of revenue exclusively from this small group, while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income. It is 'absurd' to argue that most wealth at the top is already highly taxed or that there isn't much more revenue to be had by raising taxes on the 1 percent, says the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel in economic science, who has written extensively about inequality. 'The only upside of the concentration of the wealth at the top is that they have more money to pay in taxes,' he said." CW: Gosh, you'd almost think the NYT had become a librul newspaper. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Wayne Simmons, a TV military analyst who was charged this week with lying about having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, hoodwinked not only Fox News, but the Pentagon. Media coverage of Simmons's arrest has focused on his TV analysis for Fox News, but Simmons was also involved in a Pentagon program for military analysts that gave them direct access to top officials during the George W. Bush administration.... A source who worked in [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld's Pentagon said that Simmons was indeed part of the program, and that he met with Rumsfeld himself.... The story to me is not, 'Fox has a hack on to talk about whatever.' It's more like, this guy was given access to senior officials."

Brian Beutler on "the enormous role coincidence played in saving the country from another near-catastrophe, or outright default:'... We owe the prospect of an uneventful debt limit resolution to a deus ex machina. Boehner's heir presumptive, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abandoned the race for speaker to the tune of Yakety Sax, denuding the House Benghazi Committee along the way and compelling Boehner to consider increasing the debt limit -- either without precondition, or as part of a genuinely bipartisan agreement -- before he leaves Congress." ...

... Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "'I do think that we're cooked as a party for quite a while as a party if we don't win in 2016,'" Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus told the conservative Washington Examiner. 'I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn't lose and a presidential party that's had a really hard time winning,' Priebus concluded, adding, 'we're seeing more and more that if you don't hold the White House, it's very difficult to govern in this country.'" ...

... CW: Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Yes, Republicans lost the last two presidential elections, but they lost in 2008 largely because of the economic downturn & in 2012 because there was an incumbent Democrat running. They control both houses of Congress & the Supreme Court. They control 70 percent of all state legislative bodies, and 31 governorships (to the Democrats' 18).

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Huma Abedin, Hillary Rodham Clinton's longtime personal aide, testified behind closed doors for eight hours on Friday before the Republican-controlled Benghazi committee, as Mrs. Clinton and House Democrats continued to try to discredit the panel for what they say are efforts to undermine her presidential bid. Ms. Abedin said in a brief news conference that she had answered all of the committee's questions, but she declined to address what she said and did not criticize the panel." ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "A partisan feud broke out during Friday's closed-door testimony by a top Hillary Clinton adviser, as Democrats blasted the GOP-led Benghazi panel for summoning the witness in the first place while conservative activists circulated emails they said showed the aide's testimony was relevant."

... one in three American women was having an abortion when it was illegal; and one in three is having an abortion now.... If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. -- Gloria Steinem, to Emma Brockes of the Guardian

Gail Collins: "It's incredible that we've built a society that relies on women in the labor force yet makes no discernible effort to deal with [child care].... In 1971, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that would have made quality preschool education available to every family in the United States that wanted it, with tuition based on the family's ability to pay. Also after-school programs for older children. Forty-four years ago! Richard Nixon vetoed it, muttering something about 'communal approaches to child rearing.' You may be stunned to hear that while the Republicans talk endlessly about ginning up the American economy, the idea of helping working mothers stay in the labor force does not come up all that often. Although Ben Carson has described preschool as 'indoctrination.'" ...

... CW: Get over it, Gail. When are you going to learn that "family values = patriarchy"?

White House: "In this week's address, the President highlighted the problems in our criminal justice system":

Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ruled Friday that Texas officials can continue to deny U.S. birth certificates to the children of immigrants who cannot supply required identification because they entered the country illegally.... In his ruling denying an emergency order sought by families, Judge Robert L. Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio ... noted the families' attorneys had 'provided evidence which raises grave concerns regarding the treatment of citizen children born to immigrant parents,' [but] he said the court needed more evidence before issuing the emergency injunction they had sought." Pitman is an Obama appointee.

"Thanks, Obama!" Peggy Noonan blames President Obama for Donald Trump's success. Really: "He was a literal unknown, an obscure former state legislator who hadn't completed his single term as U.S. senator, but he was charismatic, canny, compelling. He came from nowhere and won it all twice. All previously prevailing standards, all usual expectations, were thrown out the window. Anyone can run for president now...." (No link.) ...

... Steve Benen: "For one thing, the president wasn't a 'literal unknown.'... It's true that Obama only had 12 years of experience in public office when he was elected president, but (a) that's triple the number of years Mitt Romney had under his belt; (b) it's largely consistent with the historical average for modern American presidents; and (c) and it's more than many of the leading Republican presidential hopefuls have this year...." ...

... Steve M.: "Who really lowered the bar?... I'd say it's the party that put George W. Bush and Dan Quayle on two tickets each. I'd say it's the party that gave respectful consideration to presidential aspirants such as Pat Robertson, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain. And I say it's the party that made Sarah Palin its vice presidential candidate, then made her a superstar. If the bar's low, Peggy, your party's voters are the reason."

CW: I probably pay way too little attention to Hollywood given the role films play in cementing our perceptions of "norms." One of those norms is extreme gender-bias, exhibited most dramatically in the types of films that Hollywood produces: they're almost all male-oriented, & of those, most are geared to appeal to teenaged boys. In that vein, the films' producers are extremely ageist: for instance, earlier this year, the actor "Maggie Gyllenhaal was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, at 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. Hollywood offers women fewer jobs, on-screen & off. And when women do get work, no matter how important their role in a film, it is likely they will be paid less than their male co-stars. Ergo, this story about actor Bradley Cooper's plan to do something about that is worth noting.

Presidential Race

Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Joe Biden is running for president -- a fact that has been obvious, and true, for weeks. He spent the week continuing to phone key Democrats in early voting states and huddle with his kitchen cabinet.... If you look closely at Biden's recent public activity, it looks very much like that of other candidates in the weeks before they declared. Most obviously, there has been no direction from him to shut down any talk of running.... When a sitting vice-president works the phones after his party's debate stressing that he is not ruling out running for president, that is the activity of a man running for president." ...

"No, He Can't." Jamelle Bouie: Yo, Bernie, there will be no revolution. Bouie cites the "Obama revolution" as evidence. CW: I think he's absolutely right.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "In an interview with Bloomberg, [Donald] Trump was asked how he would demonstrate compassion during a crisis such as a hurricane or attacks on the World Trade Center. Saying that he has more heart and is more competent than the leaders who dealt with those tragedies, Mr. Trump then criticized the former president. 'When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,' Mr. Trump said. Blaming 9/11 on Mr. Bush is taboo for Republicans and has largely been off-limits for Democrats. Pressed on whether he really meant to blame the attacks on Mr. Bush, the billionaire developer did not back down.... Jeb Bush on Friday called Mr. Trump 'pathetic' for daring to attack his brother in such a way." ...

How pathetic for to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe. -- Jeb! ...

There seems to be a small logical problem with second sentence, but I can't quite put my finger on it. -- Paul Waldman

... Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "This is entering the realm of the surreal. He's now putting the words attacked and kept us safe in the same sentence! Jeb Bush is one step away from citing 9/11 as evidence that George W. Bush prevented 9/11." ...

... Gary Legum of Salon: "Let's face it: Jeb sucks at this whole running-for-president thing, and he's just wasting our time now.... He'll keep going, out of stubbornness, delusion or both. But as the race stands now, there is nothing left for him to do but make his concession speech. Or, seeing as how he can't open his mouth without gibberish pouring out of it, have someone else do it for him."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "CNBC will allow the Republican presidential candidates 30-second opening and closing statements at a debate this month, bowing to the demands of Donald J. Trump and other leading candidates that they be allowed to introduce themselves." ...

... Married to the Mob. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Throughout his early career, Trump routinely gave large campaign contributions to politicians who held sway over his projects and he worked with mob-controlled companies and unions to build them.... No serious presidential candidate has ever had his depth of business relationships with the mob-controlled entities.... Trump's donations were ... cited by the organized crime task force's report as an example of the close financial relationships between developers and City Hall.... Trump also dealt with mob figures in Atlantic City, where he was pressing to go into the casino business, according to court records, gaming commission reports and news accounts."

He's Not a Scientist, Man. Jeremy Peters & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio traveled on Friday to eastern Ohio, with its vast underground natural gas deposits, and laid out an energy policy that would rely on drilling and hydraulic fracturing and roll back many of the most aggressive components of President Obama's environmental agenda. Mr. Rubio said he would immediately allow construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline to go forward, which Mr. Obama has yet to commit to. Mr. Rubio would also permit more offshore oil and gas drilling, which the president has already expanded, and effectively nullify an international climate change accord the administration is pursuing." ...

... CW: Rubio, who represents Florida, is not running for re-election to the Senate. In response to a question by a young man wearing a Miami University sweatshirt, Rubio said he didn't know what would happen first under his plan: oil spill residue covering Florida's beaches, or water covering the whole peninsula. In an exchange that grew somewhat heated, Rubio repeatedly questioned the young man's claim that Miami University was in Ohio. ...

... Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "The tensions between the [Rubio & Bush camps] hit a new high this week as Rubio's campaign bragged that its 'smart budgeting and fiscal discipline' left more money in the bank 'than Jeb Bush for President' and other campaigns. Bush's top spokesman fired back Friday on Twitter, pointing to a report that said Rubio’s campaign inflated its numbers and adding a stinging rebuke: 'Lying about budgets. Guess Marco picked up something in the Senate.' Heightening the drama of this once unthinkable showdown between mentor and protege is that it may be decided in Florida...."

Simon Maloy of Salon takes a look at what-all Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, et al., consider "tyrannical," acts or conditions, against which patriots must take up arms: gay rights & ObamaCare figure prominently. Further, the evil despots have infiltrated all three branches of government: the presidency, the Congress (the entire Democratic caucus), the Supreme Court. "... so much of the conservative movement has come to define 'tyranny' as 'something the Democrats did that I disagree with.' They actively encourage conservative voters to believe that they're being persecuted and having their rights stripped away as part of a broader agenda to purge religious liberty from the land. When you pair that message with a passionate call to arm oneself to defend against the voiding of your rights, you're crossing into insurrectionist territory...." See also today's comments along this vein. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Question of the Day: Is this GOP presidential candidate (a) posturing, or (b) stupid?

I've been spending more time going after Bernie and socialism because I don't want America to succumb to the notion that there's anything good about socialism. I think it's not an accident of history that most of the times when socialism has been tried that attendant with that has been mass genocide of people or any of those who object to it. Stalin killed tens of millions of people. Mao killed tens of millions of people. Pol Pot killed tens of millions of people. When you have a command economy, when everything is dictated from one authority, that's socialism, but it doesn't come easily to those who resist it. -- Rand Paul

Beyond the Beltway

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "The California Supreme Court refused Friday to review the conviction of a Riverside County boy who at age 10 killed his neo-Nazi father, letting stand a ruling that said someone that young can knowingly waive their legal right to remain silent. The court, meeting in closed session, voted 4 to 3 against hearing the case, with the three justices appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown dissenting, according to an order issued Friday.... Court records said [the boy] Joseph was of low-average intelligence, suffered from attention deficit disorder, had been exposed to many illicit drugs when his mother was pregnant and had been kicked out of several schools for violent behavior." ...

... CW: Writing for the majority, Justice Mortimer "Mort" Fleegan noted, "When I was a child, I regularly watched 'Law & Order.' By the time I was nine, it was clear to me that George Washington never should have revealed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree. Despite my mother's repeated grillings, I never admitted to her that I was the one who tortured and maimed all the neighbors' small pets. I knew my rights. Every citizen, no matter his age, has a duty to know his rights."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on the criminal trial of Donald Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, "whose Upper Big Branch mine became, in April 2010, the site of the nation's deadliest coal mining disaster in nearly 40 years.... He is the first coal baron ever to face criminal charges -- the central character, prosecutors say, in a historic case of conspiracy to flout health and safety laws in pursuit of profits." Audio tapes he secretly recorded may make the case for the prosecution."

News Ledes

AP: "Thousands of migrants surged into tiny Slovenia on Saturday as an alternative route opened in Europe for them after Hungary sealed its border for their free flow, adding another hurdle in their frantic flight from wars and poverty toward what they hope is a better life in Western Europe."

AP: "Palestinian assailants carried out five stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Saturday, authorities said, as a month-long outburst of violence showed no signs of abating. The unrest came despite new security measures that have placed troops and checkpoints around Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. At least four assailants were killed."