The Commentariat -- October 5, 2015

Internal links & defunct videos removed.

Afternoon Update:

Matthew Rosenberg & Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, on Monday responded publicly to criticism over the American airstrike that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the city of Kunduz, claiming that Afghan forces had requested the strike while under fire and conceding that the military had incorrectly reported at first that American troops were under direct threat. But General Campbell's comments, in a sudden and brief news conference at the Pentagon, did not clarify the military's initial claims that the strike, which killed 22 people, had been an accident to begin with. Doctors Without Borders has repeatedly said that there had been no fighting around the hospital, and that the building was hit over and over by airstrikes on Saturday morning, even though the group had sent the American military the precise coordinates of its hospital so it could be avoided." ...

... Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "The airstrike that killed 22 people at a Doctor's without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan Saturday was requested by Afghan forces, not U.S. troops, according to the top U.S. general in Afghanistan."

*****

Ha Ha. The fates are laughing at me. I am lost & alone in South Carolina for the foreseeable future, on the best-forgotten Strom Thurmond Highway. The crack South Carolina Highway Patrol directed me right into the area most deeply affected by this 1,000-year flood. There is no way out! Not sure how long I'll have power. Here's the New York Times' story on the rains & flooding. The front page of the (South Carolina) State has links to many storm-related stories. -- Constant Wader

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world's economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress and will inject a new flash point into both parties' presidential contests."

Mike DeBonis & Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The Republican chairman of a high-profile House committee on Sunday shook up the race to succeed outgoing Speaker John A. Boehner, launching a challenge to the heavy favorite, Majority LeaderKevin McCarthy. The bid by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), chairman of the Oversight ... Committee, comes amid unrest from conservatives driven by doubts that McCarthy (Calif.) will be any more inclined than Boehner to embrace the right flank of the House Republican Conference. Chaffetz said on 'Fox News Sunday' that he was 'recruited' by members displeased with McCarthy's ascent and that he would 'bridge the divide' in the House GOP." ...

... Rachel Bade & John Bresnahan of Politico: Chaffetz pans McCarthy, saying he -- Chaffetz -- is a better public speaker than McCarthy. CW: I don't think that's "panning" McCarthy; it's just stating a fact. ...

... Contributor MAG notes that, buried deep in her column yesterday, MoDo had a point:

Chaffetz (Crabbe), Gowdy (Malfoy) & Goyle (Chaffetz).... See today's Comments thread.

... Jake Sherman, et al., of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner is considering delaying the internal election for House majority leader and majority whip, leaving only the party vote for speaker to be decided on Thursday, according to multiple Republican sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and and Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) are circulating a letter requesting a delay in the elections for the No. 2 and No. 3 slots in leadership. There is also widespread interest in considering a change in internal party rules that would force candidates to resign chairmanships and leadership slots to run for new office." ...

... CW: Good. Let's drag out this stuff. I'd like to hear more about how well the white supremacist candidate for majority leader is doing: Scott Wong of the Hill: "House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said Sunday he has secured the votes to be elected majority leader, the No. 2 job in GOP leadership." CW: Also let's see if he's as good at whipping votes for himself as he's been at whipping votes for stuff Boehner has had to withdraw at the last moment because Scalise can't count. Should Scalise's auld acquaintances be forgot, Amanda Terkel of the Huff Post brings them to mind.

... Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "When he steps down in October, Boehner will leave a legacy not just in official Washington but in the city itself, thanks to a private school voucher program he helped create and keep alive over the past 12 years.... Like his legacy inside Congress, Boehner's legacy in the District is divisive. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has opposed the voucher program from the start. She has argued that it's both unaccountable and has been unfairly thrust upon the District, whose Democratic leaders bristle at congressional intervention and -- for the most part -- have objected to using public funds for private school tuition.... A 2013 Government Accountability Office report found that the voucher program was poorly managed. A 2012 Washington Post investigation found that hundreds of students were going to uncredited or unconventional schools.... Tuition at most participating private schools is too high to be covered by the vouchers.... (Catholic schools are popular choices for voucher recipients, in large part because tuition there is often lower.) The program is opposed by teachers unions, who want to preserve public dollars for traditional public schools. And a 2010 study found no statistically significant improvement in math or reading skills for voucher recipients...." ...

... Jonathan Chait: how a "sting operation intended to expose the alleged depravity of social liberalism instead wound up exposing the fragile psyche of the American right, which remains unable to handle the realities of holding partial power in a divided government without regularly freaking out."

Lauren Carroll of PolitiFact: "Critics of the House of Representatives’ Benghazi investigation have recently begun to make a strong claim -- that it is officially the longest congressional investigation in history.... In recent days, the claim that this is the longest-running investigation ever has gone somewhat viral. We saw it in The Hill, Salon, The New York Times, Esquire, MSNBC, ABC News and, notably, a Twitter account belonging to [Hillary] Clinton's campaign.... However, we found numerous examples of congressional committee investigations that have lasted much longer than the Benghazi panel's 17 months."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. When the Golden Boys of Our Gilded Age Dance at the Charity Ball. Paul Theroux, in a New York Times op-ed: "When [Tim] Cook of Apple said he was going to hand over his entire fortune to charity, he was greatly praised by most people, but not by me. It so happened that at that time I was traveling up and down Tim Cook's home state of Alabama, and all I saw were desolate towns and hollowed-out economies, where jobs had been lost to outsourcing, and education had been defunded by shortsighted politicians.... Mr. Cook, investor in and benefactor of China, is not only the guiding hand at Apple, but he is also on the board of Nike, which makes virtually all its products outside the United States.... To me, globalization is the search for a new plantation, and cheaper labor...."

Susan Page of USA Today: "'I think there was a reasonably good chance that, barring stabilization of the financial system, that we could have gone into a 1930s-style depression,' [former Fed chair Ben Bernanke] says now in an interview with USA Today. 'The panic that hit us was enormous -- I think the worst in U.S. history.' With publication of his memoir, The Courage to Act, on Tuesday..., Bernanke has some thoughts about what went right and what went wrong. For one thing, he says that more corporate executives should have gone to jail for their misdeeds. The Justice Department and other law-enforcement agencies focused on indicting or threatening to indict financial firms, he notes, 'but it would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual action, since obviously everything what went wrong or was illegal was done by some individual, not by an abstract firm.'"

Still Awesome. Charles Pierce: The absence of those "jobs-killing regulations" is killing workers: "It is the opinion of virtually every Republican presidential candidate -- and far too many 'moderate' Democrats -- that controlling predatory, murderous industry is a job best left to the states, like Texas. Apparently, just as the semi-monthly massacre is the price we pay for having a Second Amendment, the occasional loss of a town to preventable industrial accidents is the price we pay for having a Tenth. Freedom is a tough room."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "On Monday, a group whose goal is to prevent gun violence will release a report urging the administration to issue a series of regulations that would clarify existing laws in an effort to reduce gun-related crimes. The group, Everytown for Gun Safety, writes that Mr. Obama could help protect potential gun victims from attackers, especially in cases of domestic abuse, by encouraging five relatively small changes to the way the federal and state governments interpret laws that are already on the books." See also stories on Hillary Clinton's gun safety proposal linked under Presidential Race. ...

... Scott Keyes of the Guardian: "After Thursday's mass shooting in Oregon -- the 45th school shooting in the US this year..., attention has focused on the state's policy of allowing guns on college campuses.... Oregon is one of fewer than a dozen states, along with more conservative counterparts like Mississippi and Utah, which allow concealed carry on college campuses.... A frequent refrain among conservatives is that violent rampages happen in places like college campuses and movie theaters precisely because guns are banned there.... (There is no evidence of a shooter ever selecting a target precisely because it is a gun-free zone.) In the Umpqua case, though, at least one student (and likely others) was carrying a concealed weapon during the massacre.... An armed Umpqua student, John Parker Jr, explained just how difficult, if not impossible, it would have been for an armed bystander to stop the attack."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The new [Supreme Court term], which opens on Monday, marks the start of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s second decade on the court and will reveal whether the last term's leftward drift and acrimony were anomalies or something more lasting. The court will decide major cases on politically charged issues, including the fate of public unions and affirmative action in higher education. It will most probably hear its first major abortion case since 2007 and revisit the clash between religious liberty and contraception coverage." ...

... Nina Totenberg reports for NPR.

Alissa Rubin & Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that it was withdrawing from Kunduz, a day after its hospital there was hit by what appeared to be an American airstrike, leaving the remaining residents in the embattled northern Afghan city even more vulnerable. The aid organization also raised the death toll in Saturday's airstrike on the hospital, saying that three more patients had died, raising the total fatalities to 22 -- 10 patients and 12 staff members. The charity has said that at least three of the dead patients were children, and that 37 people were wounded in the attack.... The charity, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières, or M.S.F., called on its Twitter feed for an independent investigation, 'under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed.' 'Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning,' it said. 'The hospital was repeatedly & precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.' The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that an investigation of the episode under the auspices of the NATO military headquarters in Afghanistan would be completed in a matter of days. The United States military has also opened 'a formal investigation to conduct a thorough and comprehensive inquiry,' it said in the statement. The Afghan government has also vowed to investigate the airstrike." ...

... Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "The attack that killed at least 19 people at an Afghan hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is the latest in a long line of bloody misjudgments by foreign forces in Afghanistan. Deaths from Nato airstrikes, which at their worst point killed hundreds of Afghan civilians a year, were a key factor in turning Afghan sentiment against foreign troops during more than a decade of war." ...

... Eric Schmitt & Tom Arango of the New York Times: "With alarming frequency in recent years, thousands of American-trained security forces in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia have collapsed, stalled or defected, calling into question the effectiveness of the tens of billions of dollars spent by the United States on foreign military training programs, as well as a central tenet of the Obama administration's approach to combating insurgencies.... The Pentagon-trained army and police in Iraq's Anbar Province, the heartland of the Islamic State militant group, have barely engaged its forces, while several thousand American-backed government forces and militiamen in Afghanistan's Kunduz Province were forced to retreat last week when attacked by several hundred Taliban fighters. And in Syria, a $500 million Defense Department program to train local rebels to fight the Islamic State has produced only a handful of soldiers." ...

... Phillip Carter, in a Washington Post op-ed, on why the U.S.'s "security assistance" programs don't work: "It fails first and most basically because it hinges upon an alignment of interests that rarely exists between Washington and its proxies.... Second, the security-assistance strategy gives too much weight to the efficacy of U.S. war-fighting systems and capabilities.... The third problem with security assistance is that it risks further destabilizing already unstable situations and actually countering U.S. interests."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd." Charles Pierce: "Politico Finds a New Way to Call President Obama Uppity." ...

... CW: I had to fact-check Driftglass because of his seemingly-preposterous claim that Tuck Chodd had not only Rich Lowry & Ruth Marcus ("when you can't get David Brooks, David-Brooks-in-a-dress-will-do") on his Press the Meat panel of expert journalists, he added "Amy Holmes (of Glenn Beck's The Blaze) to bring in the unhinged, the shut-in and the doomsday preppers." Driftglass was right! Go to the videotape! Next week, how about Crazy Internet Guy? AND his cat?

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew a crowd of more than 20,000 [in Boston, Mass.] on Saturday night, building on the momentum of a week during which he posted a quarterly fundraising total that nearly matched that of Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. The boisterous turnout at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center appeared to far exceed a previous record for a primary candidate in Massachusetts: a crowd of about 10,000 that came to see then-senator Barack Obama eight years ago as he campaigned for the presidency, according to the Boston Globe." ...

... Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker profiles Bernie Sanders & discusses his popularity among younger voters.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "On the heels of the nation's latest mass shooting, Hillary Rodham Clinton will issue proposals on Monday to curb gun violence, including holding out the potential of using executive actions. Mrs. Clinton ... will announce the new proposals in separate town-hall-style events in New Hampshire, a state with a Democratic senator who has voted for some gun-control measures but where there is a thriving gun and hunting culture." ...

... Greg Sargent: Clinton's proposal challenges President Obama to do something and Bernie Sanders (& all Republican candidates) to address gun policy issues.

Worse than Cheney. Paul Krugman: "... you might expect people like [Marco] Rubio, who says he wants to 'unleash our energy potential,' and [Jeb] Bush, who says he wants to 'embrace wind and solar as engines of jobs and growth.' But they don't. Indeed, they're less open-minded than Dick Cheney, which is quite an accomplishment. Why?... Follow the money. We used to say that the G.O.P. was the party of Big Energy, but these days it would be more accurate to say that it's the party of Old Energy."

"Operation Wetback," Redux. And Yuuuge. William Finnegan of the New Yorker: Donald Trump's "political shortsightedness is astounding, and the idea that we would revert to the unsuccessful immigration-control methods of a dubious 1954 campaign is absurd and depressing."

News Ledes

New York Times: "An American Airlines jetliner with 147 passengers onboard made an emergency landing in Syracuse on Monday after the pilot fell ill and died, aviation officials said. The aircraft's co-pilot took control of the plane after the captain became incapacitated, and landed safely at Syracuse Hancock International Airport shortly after 7 a.m."

New York: "The Coast Guard believes that the cargo ship El Faro, which has been missing since Hurricane Joaquin struck the Caribbean, sank in the storm. The ship had a crew of 33, and 28 Americans were aboard."

New York Times: "Henning Mankell, the Swedish novelist and playwright best known for police procedurals that were translated into a score of languages and sold by the millions throughout the world, died Monday morning in Goteborg, Sweden. He was 67.

New York Times: "Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering 'therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases,' the Nobel Committee announced on Monday. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won for developing a new drug, Avermectin, which has radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). They shared the prize with Youyou Tu, who discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced death rates from malaria."

Guardian: "Islamic State militants have destroyed the Arch of Triumph in the ancient city of Palmyra, a monument that dates back to the Roman empire, Syria's chief of antiquities told the Guardian. Maamoun Abdulkarim said sources in the city, which was conquered by Isis after a week-long siege in May, had informed him the arch was destroyed on Sunday in the latest act of vandalism against Syria's cultural heritage perpetrated by Isis."

The Commentariat -- Oct. 3 & 4, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

CW: I'll be out for all or most of the weekend. Also, the NYT seems to be having some problems: between 1:52 am ET & 5:40 am (so far), they haven't added any content.

Michael Crowley of Politico: "Vladimir Putin is weak, Russia faces a 'quagmire' in Syria, and critics of U.S. policy in Syria are talking 'mumbo-jumbo.' That was President Barack Obama's defiant take at a White House press conference on Friday afternoon, at which he fielded questions about Russia's surprise air strikes on Syrian rebels." CW: Sorry I missed this earlier; it wasn't on the White House schedule as of late Friday morning. ...

... Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "President Obama vowed Friday that he would not sign another short-term funding measure, pushing lawmakers to craft a long-term budget agreement. Speaking to the press two days after signing a two-month continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down, Obama said that would be the last he is willing to tolerate. Government funding is now set to expire Dec. 11 after the latest agreement." ...

... The presser begins at about 19 minutes in:

White House: "In this week's address, the President emphasized that we need to do everything we can to strengthen economic growth and job creation":

... Also see clip under Presidential Race. ...

... ** Daniel Drezner (a fairly conservative writer) in the Washington Post: "The most obvious difference between tea party conservatives and [President] Obama is their divergence on a host of policy issues. But another significant difference is that the president, like [Speaker] Boehner, is a traditional politician who recognizes the limits of what can be accomplished without political support. This president has not been afraid to use his executive branch powers to enact controversial policies, but he also recognizes the hard limits of that approach." ...

Rachel Bade & John Bresnanhan of Politico: "House Oversightand Government Affairs Chairman Jason Chaffetz [RTP-Utah] is planning to run for House speaker, taking on Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in what appears to be a long-shot bid to lead House Republicans, according to multiple sources." ...

.. Oops! I Forgot. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancey suddenly remembers he did know about agency personnel circulating an e-mail urging the Service to publicize the fact that Jason Chaffetz once unsuccessfully applied for a Secret Service job. Carol Leonnig & Jerry Markon of the Washington Post report: "The director of the Secret Service knew that unflattering, private information about a congressman was circulating among agency staff members before it was leaked to the news media, contrary to an earlier statement made to federal investigators.... President Obama picked Clancy as director this year against the advice of an administration panel of experts, who urged selecting an outsider to help improve the Secret Service. Clancy is a 27-year veteran of the agency." CW: Now, this is something actually worthy of an investigation by Chaffetz's House Oversight Committee, but I guess it would look bad for a public official to investigate why federal agents would break privacy laws to humiliate him. So Planned Parenthood. Because beating up on Cecile Richards looks so manly. And somewhere there's an Obama advisor saying, "Toljaso." ...

... CW: I'd say it's no coincidence that the White House just (Oct. 2) published a video of President Obama's commending the Secret Service (on September 29) for keeping safe the Pope & members of the U.N.:

Larry Buchanan, et al., of the New York Times: "Criminal histories and documented mental health problems did not prevent at least eight of the gunmen in 14 recent mass shootings from obtaining their weapons, after federal background checks led to approval of the purchases of the guns used." A case-by-case report of "how they got their guns." ...

... ** Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "... the only amendment necessary for gun legislation, on the local or national level, is the Second Amendment itself, properly understood, as it was for two hundred years in its plain original sense. This sense can be summed up in a sentence: if the Founders hadn't wanted guns to be regulated, and thoroughly, they would not have put the phrase 'well regulated' in the amendment." ...

... CW: We often discuss here how winger presidential candidates & crazy Congress inflame the nut-base with irresponsible rhetoric & careless legislative agendas. But few of these presidential hopefuls or elected representatives have done as much to validate & encourage the crazies as did Nino Scalia & the Supreme confederates in their 2008 5-4 decision in Heller v. D.C. Heller confirmed to these freeedom/gun-loving nuts that government officials had been depriving them of their Constitutional rights for 200 years, & now, by god, they were going to exercise those rights. While I don't deny that much of the right's antipathy to President Obama is racist & tribal, it is also no coincidence that he ascended to the presidency at the same time Nino instantly released the freeedom/gun guys from the long national nightmare of reasonable gun safety laws.

This is fairly hilarious. Tom Kingston of the Los Angeles Times: "A week after Pope Francis met Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for her refusal to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples, the Vatican on Friday suggested that she exploited the meeting to promote her views, denied that the pope fully supports her and cast doubt on her account of the encounter. The Vatican later noted that Francis did have a private 'audience' in Washington with a former student of the pope, Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine who along with his longtime partner and some friends met with Francis." CW: Don't punk the Pontiff, Kimbo. ...

... Philip Pullella of Reuters: "One Vatican official said there was 'a sense of regret' that the pope had ever seen Kim Davis.... While [Vatican spokesman Federico] Lombardi declined to take questions on the incident, his assistant, Canadian priest Father Tom Rosica, laid the blame on the Vatican embassy in Washington, saying it had underestimated the impact of Davis's presence at the reception.... Rosica said he did not believe the pope was even indirectly involved in inviting Davis.... Asked if the pope had been set up intentionally by someone in the embassy, Rosica said: 'No, reading all of the information, listening to all of the facts, these things happen.'" ...

... Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter: "Rosica said the Vatican was unsure who the meeting was organized by, and that it might have been an initiative by the Vatican's ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Vigano.... Rosica said ... Francis had personally approved Friday's press statement after a meeting with Lombardi on the issue." ...

... Jason Horowitz of the New York Times writes an informative background story on Vigano, who was at the center of the "Vatileaks" scandal & whose "exile" to the U.S. was a major demotion. CW: As contributor Diane & I have speculated, Vigano will go, & it turns out there's a ready-made mechanism to do that: "In January, Archbishop Viganò will turn 75, the age at which bishops must submit a formal request to the Vatican for permission to resign. These requests are not automatically accepted, and bishops often stay in their appointments long after. It seems unlikely, church analysts say, that Archbishop Viganò will be one of them." MEANWHILE, lawyer is Mat Staver is not helping his client Kim Davis's case: "... Mathew D. Staver said in an interview that the Vatican's version of events was 'absolute nonsense' and that 'somebody is trying to throw some people under the bus.'" Since Francis reportedly personally approved the official Vatican statement distancing the Pope from Davis, Staver is calling the Pope a liar. Even if he's right, which is doubtful, that's pretty stupid. ...

... Rosie Scammell & David Gibson of Religion News Service: "After breaking the news Tuesday night, Davis' camp said the meeting had been requested by the pope and validated Davis' efforts.... [Davis' attorney Mat] Staver on Tuesday told CBS News that the Vatican contacted him a few days before the pope was to arrive on his first visit to the U.S., because Francis had been following Davis' saga 'and obviously is very concerned about religious freedom not just in the United States but worldwide.'" ...

... Laurie Goodstein & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "The church distanced itself on Friday from the case of [Kim] Davis, the Rowan County, Ky., clerk who defied a judge's order and refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It said 'the only real audience' Francis gave in Washington was to a former student of his. Contacted by phone, a former student of Francis, Yayo Grassi, said he had been granted a meeting with the pope. Mr. Grassi is an openly gay man living in Washington, and he said he had been accompanied by his partner of 19 years, Iwan Bagus, as well as four friends." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Arne Duncan, the secretary of education and a member of President Obama's original cabinet, will step down in December after a long tenure in which he repeatedly challenged the nation's schools to break out of their hidebound ways." CW: Buh-bye. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Noam Scheiber & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The International Association of Fire Fighters, one of the country's more politically powerful unions, has abandoned its initial plans to endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, according to union sources. Harold A. Schaitberger, the union's general president, informed Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, in a telephone call on Monday. According to a union official, Mr. Schaitberger told Mr. Mook that the executive board and rank-and-file members -- the latter were recently polled -- did not support a Clinton endorsement.... In recent weeks, as Mrs. Clinton's numbers in some polls have sagged and she has faced an increasingly formidable challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, some labor unions appear to have had second thoughts.... 'Secretary Clinton doesn't sell well here,' said Roy L. McGhee III..., an I.A.F.F. board member who represents Texas and Oklahoma. 'I think the Republican attack machine, the media machine, has made sure of that. The vice president will do better. He's popular among firefighters.'"

Larry Lessig in Politico Magazine: "I'm running for President. Or trying. After raising $1 million in less than 30 days, I entered the primary on September 9 as the Democrat's only non-politician.... But [my] message is being stifled with the tacit approval of the Democratic Party leadership, who are deploying the oldest method available for marginalizing campaigns they don't like: keeping me out of the Democratic presidential debates." ...

... CW: The question is, should the Democratic party let every person who can put up $1MM participate in the debates?

Stuff happens. -- Jeb Bush, responding to Oregon mass murder ...

... Yeah, He Really Said That. Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "While speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Greenville, South Carolina, on Friday, Jeb Bush weighed in on the latest school shooting to take place in the United States, this time in Oregon, just a day before. 'We're in a difficult time in our country and I don't think more government is necessarily the answer to this,' Bush said. 'I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It's very sad to see. But I resist the notion, and I had this challenge as governor -- look, stuff happens. There's always a crisis. The impulse is always to do something and it's not necessarily the right thing to do.'" ...

... Daniel Strauss of Politico: "The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza asked if Bush made a mistake with the phrasing. 'No, it wasn't a mistake, I said exactly what I said. Why would you explain to me what I said wrong?' Bush said. Lizza responded, 'Well you said "stuff happens.'" "'Things" happen all the time. "Things," is that better?' Bush said." Bush went on to say that people die all the time & "you don't solve the problem by passing the law."... "Asked to react to Bush's comment, President Barack Obama was blunt. 'I don't even think I have to react to that one, I think the American people should hear that and make their own judgments based on the fact that every couple of months we have a mass shooting,' Obama said at a press conference Friday afternoon. 'They can decide whether they consider that "stuff happens."'"

... Politico reprises some of the Doofus's "growing number of unfortunate comments." ...

... Matt Flegenheimer Jeb!, who last week revived the "free stuff" for black people meme, has had problems addressing issues important to minorities since before he became governor of Florida. What will you do for blacks if elected governor? "Probably nothing." CW: "Probably nothing" & "free stuff" do make nice bookends to an undistinguished, elitist political career. It's about time for Jeb! to quit the campaign trail & go back to ruining public schools, one of his signature causes.

Dana Milbank: "The day [Donald] Trump clinches the nomination I will eat the page on which this column is printed in Sunday's Post. I have this confidence for the same reason [Mitt] Romney does: Americans are better than Trump.... Consider what Trump said in Keene, N.H., this week about those fleeing Syria in the largest refugee crisis since World War II. 'This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time,' he said of the desperate masses fleeing Syria's civil war. 'A 200,000-man army, maybe.... I don't know that it is, but it could be possible.' And what would happen to the refugees under President Trump? 'They're going back,' he said. To their deaths, presumably."

Paul Waldman: "... there's one thing that distinguishes [Ben Carson] from other candidates: ... only he fully embraces an apocalyptic vision of the American nightmare that is upon us.... If you listen to Carson, you won't have to wait long before he references some bizarre conspiracy theory or says something indicating that he thinks everything is about to turn to hell.... Conspiracy theorists ... seem to have slunk back away from the center of the conservative movement, at least to the point where Republican presidential candidates feel no need to court them. Except for one, Ben Carson. By all indications, he's doing it not by way of some clever political strategem, but because he actually believes what he says. Which is the most disturbing thing of all."

Beyond the Beltway

Catherine Thompson of TPM: "The sheriff investigating a mass shooting at an Oregon community college ... posted a ["truther"] video to Facebook in 2013 that raised questions about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin posted a link to a YouTube video called 'The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed,' which summarized conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting and quickly racked up millions of views, about a month after the massacre took place. The post was deleted or made private sometime after 2:30 p.m. Friday.... The viral video was quickly debunked in arenas as disparate as The Huffington Post and Glenn Beck's website TheBlaze...." ...

... At about the same time he posted the truther video, Hanlin wrote to Vice President Biden expressing his vehement opposition to gun control laws, which he believes violate the Second Amendment. He vowed to nullify "any federal regulation enacted by Congress or by executive order of the President offending the Constitutional rights of my citizens." ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The letter is also riddled with language commonly used by the 'Oath Keepers,' a right-wing veterans and law enforcement group that is closely associated with armed, anti-government militias.... Hanlin's letter also blurs the line between a matter that is lawfully within state officials' discretion and something much more akin to insurrection.... What Hanlin may not do ... is unilaterally assign himself the power to decide what is or is not constitutional and then refuse to 'permit the enforcement' of federal laws by 'federal officers within the borders of Douglas County Oregon.'"

News Ledes (October 3)

New York Times: "A United States airstrike appears to have badly damaged the hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the Afghan city of Kunduz early Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, including members of the hospital staff. The United States military, in a statement, confirmed the 2:15 a.m. airstrike, saying it had been targeting individuals 'who were threatening the force' and that 'there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.'" ...

... CW: No, people you killed or injured are not "collateral damage." They're people, dead or barely alive. Own up to what you do in words, not in insulting euphemisms. ...

     ... Guardian Update: "A US airstrike appears to have hit a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing nine staff members and injuring up to 37 people." CW: So we're now killing genuine heroes. What a catastrophe.

The Commentariat -- October 2, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

This is fairly hilarious. Laurie Goodstein & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "The church distanced itself on Friday from the case of [Kim]. Davis, the Rowan County, Ky., clerk who defied a judge's order and refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It said 'the only real audience' Francis gave in Washington was to a former student of his. Contacted by phone, a former student of Francis, Yayo Grassi, said he had been granted a meeting with the pope. Mr. Grassi is an openly gay man living in Washington, and he said he had been accompanied by his partner of 19 years, Iwan Bagus, as well as four friends." Emphasis added. CW: Nice try, Kimmy.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Arne Duncan, the secretary of education and a member of President Obama's original cabinet, will step down in December after a long tenure in which he repeatedly challenged the nation's schools to break out of their hidebound ways." CW: Buh-bye.

*****

Joseph Hoyt, et al., of the Washington Post: "A shooter described as a 20-year-old man opened fire on a rural community college campus in Oregon on Thursday morning, killing multiple people and injuring even more. Ellen F. Rosenblum, the Oregon attorney general, said her office believed that 13 people were killed in the shooting and another 20 people were injured." ...

... Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "That brings the total of mass shootings this year -- incidents where 4 or more people are killed or injured by gunfire -- to 294." More than the number of days in the year. ...

Liam Stack of the New York Times has a sketchy profile of the gunman Chris Harper Mercer. Hey, he was a young loner who wore military garb, shaved his head, posted a picture of himself with a rifle, admired the Irish Republican Army, hated religion & after years of not speaking to people began yelling at them. Who would have thought he could become a mass murderer? ...

... The Guardian, via Raw Story, has more on Harper-Mercer: "a self-described conservative who loved guns and conspiracy theories."

... Steve M. "... the right will treat this massacre as an assault on Christianity -- and you know whose fault that is." ...

... Despite what you hear on CNN & certified right-wing media, Umpqua Community College is not a "gun-free zone." Judd Legum of Think Progress explains. ...

... The New York Times has updates here. The Oregonian is updating here. ...

Our thoughts and prayers are not enough.... Somehow this has become routine.... Each time this happens I'm going to bring this up. Each time this happens I am going to say we can actually do something about it. -- President Obama, on the Oregon shootings

... President Obama remarks on the shootings & on gun safety legislation:

... Sam Stein & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "To promote the general welfare, members of Congress have the power to craft laws, pass them and send them to the president for his or her signature. In the wake of instances of gun massacres, however, politicians reliably and reflexively reach for the most casual response possible: condolences of 140 characters or less to nobody in particular. Why even bother? The mass shooting at a community college in Oregon gave us this same rote reaction." Except Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): "This is on us. Silence from Congress has become quiet endorsement of those whose minds unhinge and veer toward mass violence."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a major new regulation on smog-causing emissions that spew from smokestacks and tailpipes, significantly tightening the current Bush-era standards but falling short of more stringent regulations that public health advocates and environmentalists had urged. The Environmental Protection Agency set the new national standard for ozone, a smog-causing gas that often forms on hot, sunny days when chemical emissions from power plants, factories and vehicles mix in the air, at 70 parts per billion, tightening the current standard of 75 parts per billion set in 2008."

Carl Hulse & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "A bipartisan group of influential senators on Thursday proposed a far-reaching plan to cut mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders and promote more early release from federal prisons in what they described as the most important criminal justice reform effort in a generation."

Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "The government will reach its borrowing limit around Nov. 5, the Treasury Department said Thursday, setting up what promises be a tense round of negotiations over raising the debt ceiling just as House Republicans transition to a new leadership team with Speaker John Boehner set to step down at the end of the month. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew wrote Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday to inform Congress that the debt limit would need to be increased earlier than under previous estimates."

Julian Hattem, et al., of the Hill: "Republicans are scrambling to contain the damage from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) remarks about the Benghazi Committee amid a firestorm of criticism. Outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was forced to defend the Benghazi panel on Thursday after McCarthy -- his presumed successor for the gavel -- linked the success of the investigation to Hillary Clinton's falling poll numbers." ...

...Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to pull Democratic participation from the select committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks in the wake of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) comments linking the panel to Hillary Clinton's falling poll numbers. Pelosi said McCarthy's comments show the panel is political, 'unethical' and should be dismantled." ...

... ** Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.): "[Thursday], Benghazi Select Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy tried to explain away Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s confession on Fox News that the core Republican goal in establishing the Benghazi Committee was always to damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and never to conduct an even-handed search for the facts. As Chairman Gowdy said: 'I would just encourage people to look at what is done as opposed necessarily to what is said.' So, here are the facts about what the Select Committee has done to date." Do read Cummings' list. It's downright comical. Via Paul Waldman. See also Rucker & Costa's piece linked under Presidential Race below.

Kevin Drum: on manly Putin v. weakling Obama: "Like clockwork, every time another country hauls out its military -- the Egyptian airstrikes in Libya, Jordan's airstrikes against ISIS -- American conservatives go wild. Why can't Obama commit to that kind of serious action? But also like clockwork, this routinely ignores the fact that (a) the military action they're admiring is pretty small, and (b) Obama is already doing the same thing on a much bigger scale."

Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "... when ... asked about [President] Obama's plan to give shelter to thousands of refugees, [Rep. Mo] Brooks [R-Ala.] called it 'horrendous' and 'an abdication of responsibility.' 'I think it's an impeachable offense,' the Alabama Republican said. 'But we don't have the votes to even get articles of impeachment out of the House of Representatives or the Judiciary Committee.'... Such rhetoric is having an effect.... Donald Trump initially supported bringing in more Syrian refugees, telling MSNBC, 'It is a huge problem and we should help as much as possible.' However, after uproar on the issue from conservatives over the past month, Trump reversed himself at a town hall this week, saying of Syrian refugees, 'If I win, they're going back.'" ...

... CW: You do wonder why, after President Obama has committed so many "impeachable offenses," the majority-GOP House can't boot the guy. Why, way back in 2010, someone came up with 64 "impeachable offenses." I didn't know stuff a sitting president supposedly did in college or jobs his wife had before he was president were impeachable offenses, but apparently so. See what-all you can learn on the Internets?

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Despite the cutesy vehicular nickname, [the Cadillac] tax is actually on high-cost health insurance plans (those costing at least $10,200 for a single person and $27,500 for families). It's no wonder that [Hillary] Clinton, like other poll-sensitive or perhaps misguided politicians, has come out against it: This tax, like so many other taxes, has proved hugely unpopular, repelling an unholy alliance of unions, businesses and the public at large.... But here's a fun fact that might help turn the tide: This tax would probably help you get a raise." Rampell explains why.

Guardian: "The United States paved the way for the execution of a convicted serial killer in Virginia on Thursday night when the US supreme court denied his request for a stay and a federal judge separately rejected a concern that the drugs used to put him to death are unsafe. Attorneys for Alfredo Prieto, 49, wanted his execution delayed as they sought more information about the drugs, which were obtained from Texas's prison system, to ensure they will not bring about a painful death."

Samantha Vicent of the Tulsa World: "The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office is seeking a request for an indefinite stay of the state's three upcoming executions." ...

... Jonah Shepp of New York: "In [Richard] Glossip's case, an indefinite stay is welcome but insufficient, according to his supporters, who say abundant evidence suggests he is innocent."

Republicans on the Planned Parenthood Inquisition complained about Cecile Richards' high salary. BUT Margo Sanger-Katz & Claire Miller of the New York Times: "Her pay puts her in the top 1 percent of all earners in the United States. But her salary is actually on the low side when it is compared with executive pay at other large nonprofits. When compared with the pay for hospital executives running nonprofit health care organizations of similar budgets, it is actually well below the norm." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "In a lengthy speech to the UN general assembly, punctuated by long pauses in which he glared at delegates after denouncing them as 'obsessively hostile' to Israel, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu said he hoped the shared threat posed by Tehran and Islamic State would remake the politics of the region. 'Common dangers are clearly bringing Israel and its Arab neighbours closer and as we work together to thwart those dangers, I hope we'll build lasting partnerships,' he said."

Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we're doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything. -- Kim Davis, to ABC News ...

Or not. ...

... Pope Walks It Back. Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "Pope Francis' encounter with Kim Davis last week in Washington, which was interpreted by many as a subtle intervention in the United States' same-sex marriage debate, was part of a series of private meetings with dozens of guests and did not amount to an endorsement of her views, the Vatican said on Friday.... 'Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City,' Father [Federico] Lombardi said in the statement, referring to the Vatican's term for its embassy. He added: 'Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the pope's characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.'" ...

... Fred Barbash of the Washington Post describes Lombardi's clarification as "a formal statement." ...

Mugshot of the perp.... CW: This comports with Charles Pierce's theory that conservo-archbishop & papal nuncio Carlo Vigano set up Francis. We discussed this in yesterday's Comments thread after contributor pat highlighted Pierce's post. I predict Francis will find Carlo another job where he won't be doing any nuncioing. ...

... Jay Levine of CBS 2 Chicago: "A highly placed source inside the Vatican claims the Pope was blindsided.... It is a meeting some charge was orchestrated by the man who lived there, the Pope's representative here, Carlo Maria Vigano. Not even the Papal Spokesman Federico Lombardi knew about it ahead of time. Nor did the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which would have opposed it.... A close advisor to Pope Francis tweeted that the Pope was, in his words, 'exploited' by those who set up what the CBS 2 source says was a 'meeting that never should have taken place.'"

Presidential Race

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's upcoming appearance before the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi ... may have turned into a political gift for Clinton following this week's suggestion by the likely next House speaker, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), that the taxpayer-funded Benghazi investigation was politically motivated. Clinton's allies say his comments will help recast Clinton's scheduled Oct. 22 hearing as a partisan inquisition rather than a fact-finding mission about the attacks in Libya.... With Clinton struggling to gain momentum in the Democratic nominating fight, McCarthy's comments amount to a unifying force for the party to rally to her defense, as well as give her an opening to do what she finds most comfortable: fight back against Republicans." ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear on 'Saturday Night Live' this weekend, the latest -- and highest stakes -- appearance of her current push to show her funny, personable side as the campaign heads into the critical first Democratic debate and she faces headwinds in Iowa and New Hampshire and a potential challenge from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr." ...

... CW: Unfortunately, Hillary has repeatedly proved that as an actor & comedian, she is more like Al Gore than President Obama. Also too: Amy, maybe you should have mentioned Bernie Sanders by name. He not a "headwind." ...

... Paul Waldman: "... we've passed the point where the [Bernie] Sanders campaign is just a novelty. It doesn't matter whether he’s going to be the nominee or not. He should be getting more (and more comprehensive) coverage than he has gotten up to this point. He may not like all of it, but he's earned it." ...

... Gene Robinson: "Sanders's money haul has to worry Clinton, not just for its size but for the way it was achieved. The vast majority came in small donations -- Sanders's average contribution is less than $25. This means he can keep going back to these same supporters later in the campaign. Far more of Clinton's donors, by contrast, have already maxed out their allowable contributions for the primaries. ...

Who Do That Voodoo that Jeb! Do? They All Do. Paul Krugman: "So Donald Trump has unveiled his tax plan. It would, it turns out, lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit. This is in contrast to Jeb Bush's plan, which would lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit, and Marco Rubio's plan, which would lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit. For what it's worth, it looks as if Trump's plan would make an even bigger hole in the budget than Jeb's. Jeb justifies his plan by claiming that it would double America's rate of growth; The Donald, ahem, trumps this by claiming that he would triple the rate of growth. But really, why sweat the details? It's all voodoo.... But never forget that what it's really about is top-down class warfare."

Mark Salter, former John McCain chief-of-staff & campaign advisor, in Real Clear Politics: "I can't recall any senator who was as nearly universally loathed by his colleagues as [Ted] Cruz.... The heart of colleagues' contempt for him [is] ... belief that he is an imposter. He deliberately sets up conservatives to fail by goading them into empty gestures and self-defeating stunts like shutting down government, which make it harder to persuade more Americans to embrace conservative policies.... And Cruz bets on them to fail. He stokes the anger of grassroots conservatives in the hope that it devours everyone but him. He offers false hope and misinformation as a plan, stands defiantly in the imaginary breach, and scurries to blame others for his singular lack of success." CW: Tell us what you (and McCain) really think, Mark.

Update: Ben Carson Still a Bigot. Jonah Shepp: "Given his lower-than-Wikipedia-level understanding of Sharia (Islamic religious law) and how it applies to the everyday life of a practicing Muslim, it's no wonder [Ben Carson] wouldn't support a Muslim president of the United States. So it came as no surprise on Thursday when we learned that he would apply the same religious test to Supreme Court justices.... At [interviewer Hugh Hewitt]'s prodding, Carson also said he would investigate the background of federal judge Abdul Kallon, who was appointed to an Alabama district court in 2009. The U.S. Senate, including both of Alabama's Republican senators, confirmed Kallon unanimously, but apparently that's not good enough for Hugh Hewitt or Ben Carson.... Ben Carson himself could be obeying Sharia at this very moment and not even know it." ...

... CW: The Supreme Court has three Jewish members. Two have been on the Court for decades. But I keep watch, because at any moment they could impose Mosaic Law. First, it will be little things like banning shrimp & cheeseburgers. The next thing you know, you'll have to sacrifice a goat or at least a couple of turtle doves if you're caught wearing a linen-cotton-blend shirt.

Beyond the Beltway

Jim Crow Playbook. Chapter 2: How to Really, Really Make Sure a Voter ID Law Has the Desired Outcome. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "... Alabama has shuttered 31 driver's license offices, many of them in counties with a high proportion of black residents. Coming after the state recently put into effect a tougher voter ID law, the closures will cut off access -- particularly for minorities -- to one of the few types of IDs accepted. According to a tally by AL.com columnist John Archibald, eight of the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters saw their driver's license offices closed. 'Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one,' Archibald wrote. Archibald also noted that many of the counties where offices were closed also leaned Democrat." ...

... John Archibald: "So roll out the welcome wagon to the Justice Department, and tell the world what it already so desperately wants to hear. That Alabama is exactly what they always thought she was. That Alabama refuses to pay for its own government, and used it as an excuse to keep black people from the polls. That Alabama hasn't changed a bit." ...

... AND, as Charles Pierce reminds us -- Thanks, John Roberts. ...

... PLUS, Steve M.: "A legal challenge to this law[, which is inevitable,] could well wind up in the Supreme Court. If it does, and if President Rubio or Bush or Fiorina or Carson has stacked the bench sufficiently, what Alabama is doing will almost certainly be declared constitutional. That will be an open invitation to the states to pull the same stunt.

Roberto Ferdman of the Washington Post: How asset tests to qualify for food stamps -- like the one recently passed by the nincompoops in Maine's state legislature & signed by Gov. Pepe LePew (RTP) -- keep the impoverished in poverty.

Veronica Rocha & Brittny Majia of the Los Angeles Times: "A fire Wednesday night at a Planned Parenthood facility in Thousand Oaks [northwest of Los Angeles] was determined to be arson, authorities said. Ventura County sheriff's Capt. John Reilly said Thursday someone likely used a rock to shatter a window at the Planned Parenthood facility in the 1200 block of West Hillcrest Drive, then threw gasoline inside the office and ignited it. The attack comes more than six weeks after the office was vandalized, he said."

Nathan Pemberton of New York: "The Stonewall Inn, the Greenwich Village bar 'Where Pride Began' is [now] a designated landmark, the first and only landmark to honor the gay-rights' movement in the city. The designation prevents it from being torn down or forced to renovate, unlike the rest of the relentlessly gentrifying Village these days."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Russian warplanes have struck targets deep inside the Islamic State's heartland province of Raqqa for the first time, Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday."

AP: "U.S. hiring slowed sharply in September, and job gains for July and August were lower than previously thought, a sour note for a labor market that had been steadily improving. The Labor Department says employers added just 142,000 jobs in September, depressed by job cuts by manufacturers and oil drillers."

Weather Channel: "While Joaquin may go down as one of the more destructive hurricanes on record in the central Bahamas, the odds of the U.S. mainland seeing its first landfalling hurricane in 15 months are now very low as the forecast track continues to trend farther to the east."