The Commentariat -- Dec. 24, 2014

Internal links removed.

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "The American economy grew last quarter at its fastest rate in more than a decade, providing the strongest evidence to date that the recovery is finally gaining sustained power more than five years after it began. Bolstered by robust spending among consumers and businesses alike, economic output rose at an annual rate of 5 percent during the summer months, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, a sharp revision from its earlier estimate of 3.9 percent. The advance followed a second quarter where growth reached a rate of 4.6 percent after a decline last winter that was exacerbated by particularly harsh weather." ...

... Jeremy Herron & Joseph Ciolli of Bloomberg News: "U.S. stocks rose, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallying past 18,000 for the first time, after data showed the world's largest economy grew at the fastest pace since 2003 last quarter. Treasuries declined with gold, while the dollar and crude oil advanced." ...

... MEANWHILE, in Russia. Ksenia Galouchko & Olga Tanas of Bloomberg News: "After arresting a decline in the ruble, Russia is now trying to avert a banking crisis. Lawmakers rushed legislation through the lower house of parliament today allowing the Deposit Insurance Agency to buy stakes in banks before they face bankruptcy proceedings to keep the system stable. While the ruble strengthened for a third day as the government told state-run exporters to sell foreign currency, it's still down 30 percent in three months. Standard & Poor's said today it may cut Russia's credit rating to junk in part because of concern about the banking system." ...

... MEANWHILE, in the U.S. Presidential Race. Paul Waldman: "... if both growth and job creation remain strong for the next two years, it'll be somewhere between difficult and impossible for a Republican to win the White House in 2016, since the state of the economy swamps every other issue in presidential campaigns." ...

     ... Could Be One Reason Republicans greeted the outstanding economic news with -- total silence. Steve Benen made a search. ...

... AND This. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Improving views of the economy have helped hike President Barack Obama's approval rating to a 20-month high, a new CNN/ORC poll showed Tuesday, as markets climbed to record levels at news of an economy in overdrive. More Americans still disapprove of the job Obama is doing as President. But at 48%, Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in CNN polling since May 2013. The gains were driven by newfound backing among women, independents and millennials -- groups where Obama's approval numbers jumped 10 percentage points from a month ago. Meanwhile, Obama's approval numbers ticked down among men, Republicans and Americans between 35 and 49 years old."

David Joaquim of the New York Times: "An 18-month congressional investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's mistreatment of conservative political groups seeking tax exemptions has failed to show coordination between agency officials and political operatives in the White House, according to a report released on Tuesday." But outgoing chair of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) won't STFU. Still, "A representative of Mr. Issa, Caitlin Carroll, would not comment on the failure to find a link to the White House but noted that the investigation was not over. It will continue in the 114th Congress under the committee's new chairman, Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah...." ...

... But Never Mind. Over at the Daily Caller (and elsewhere in Right Wing World, Patrick Howley is calling the committee report a "bombshell" & cherrypicking some cherry bombs. CW: As Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), the ranking member on the committee, told the Times, "It is revealing that the Republicans -- yet again -- are leaking cherry-picked excerpts of documents to support their preconceived political narrative without allowing committee members to even see their conclusions or vote on them first." That's funny. Democrats didn't get a copy of the committee report but a "reporter" at the Daily Caller "obtained an advance copy." I wonder how that happened.

Three Stupid Republican Tricks

(1) Brian Faler of Politico: "Republicans are salivating at the chance to make radical changes in Congress' budgeting rules aimed at making it easier to cut taxes. It could blow up in their faces.... Republicans say ... the new rules, known in budget circles as 'dynamic scoring,' will provide a fairer picture of the impact of tax cuts.... The idea is that cutting taxes unleashes economic growth, which in turn produces additional revenue. Republicans want to count that [CW: imaginary] extra revenue against what the Treasury loses when Congress hands out tax cuts.... Incoming House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calls it 'reality-based scoring.' The effort, which Ryan is leading, aims to make it easier to finance what Republicans hope will be a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the Tax Code.... 'Any effort by Republicans to interfere with the professional integrity of the CBO by selecting someone to push their failed "trickle down" economic theory of tax cuts for the wealthy through dynamic scoring would undermine the credibility of CBO and the entire budget process,' said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee."

(2) Ezra Klein on Republicans v. ObamaCare. "... the biggest fight in American politics in recent years began with Democrats creating a law that was a giant subsidy from blue states to red states and has evolved into Republicans working to turn the law into a giant subsidy from red states to blue states. It's a strange spectacle." In addition, if the anti-ACA plaintiffs in King v. Burwell are "successful, then it will be possible for a state that opposes to Obamacare to withdraw from both the Medicaid expansion and the exchange subsidies -- that is to say, from pretty much all of Obamacare's benefits. But they will still pay all of its costs.... Obamacare will become a pure subsidy from the states that hate the law most to the states that have embraced it. It's like a fiscal version of reverse psychology."

(3) Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "According to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, 64 percent of the American public supports establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. And even greater numbers want to get rid of the trade embargo.... Everyone supports an end to the embargo by wide margins, even Republicans.... The only subgroup that opposes it -- barely -- is conservative Republicans, who make up about 17 percent of the population. So naturally that means the embargo will stay in place. It no longer really matters what the other 83 percent of us think." (No link.)

All I Want for Christmas Is an Exploding Head. Steven Zeitchik & Richard Verrier of the Los Angeles Times: "Sony will give 'The Interview' a 'limited theatrical release' beginning Christmas Day, the company said Tuesday, releasing the movie in a handful of independent theaters across the country. The movie will screen at an unspecified number of locations in the 19-theater Alamo Drafthouse chain and the Plaza Atlanta in Georgia, owners confirmed shortly before Sony made its announcement. Other independent venues are expected to join them." ...

     ... Update. Ben Beaumont-Thomas of the Guardian: "Sony has confirmed that over 200 sites across the US will show The Interview, as well as possibly releasing it on-demand on Christmas Day -- reversing an earlier decision to withdraw the film from distribution entirely." ...

... Brian Stelter of CNN: "On Tuesday, a White House spokesman said 'the president applauds Sony's decision to authorize screenings of the film.'... In light of concerns about security at theaters, an FBI official said 'we are fully engaged with Sony on the decision' to release the movie."

We’ve had four months of propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police. -- Rudy Giuliani on "Fox 'News' Sunday"

... that is simply Four-Pinocchio false. -- Michelle Ye Hee Lee of the Washington Post

We've had four months of propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police. -- Rudy Giuliani, same show

Obama has continuously encouraged working with police to find solutions and make change. He has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of law enforcement in communities of color and the fact that police officers have a dangerous job. Giuliani's claim is an outlandish distortion of what Obama actually said. We rate this Pants on Fire. -- Lauren Carroll of PolitiFact

Steve M.: "Many right-wingers said there should have been an indictment in the Garner case. Are they guilty of cop murder, too? Read the whole post. ...

... Rocco Parascandola, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Slain Police Officer Wenjian Liu believed in leading a life of service -- and his dedication was evident on the day he was killed: He volunteered to work a fill-in shift when a fellow officer was late.... The family's statement thanked the emergency responders and medical staff at Woodhull Hospital who tried to save the mortally wounded officers. It thanked Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio 'for their condolences and their support.'... [Emerald Snipes,] the daughter of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man killed in an NYPD chokehold in July, placed a candle at the site -- and said she was touched by the heartrending message [slain Officer Rafael] Ramos' son [Jaden] posted online after his father's murder.... 'I know how it feels in this season to not have your father around,' she said." ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Vice President Joe Biden will attend the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, one of two New York City police officers shot this weekend in a grisly execution-style killing. President Obama asked Biden to attend the funeral service this Saturday, according to White House spokesman Eric Schultz. He will be joined by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. The president is on vacation in Hawaii with his family." ...

... ** Michelle Conlin of Reuters: "... a number of black NYPD officers say they have experienced the same racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life.... Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling.... The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.... All but one said their supervisors either dismissed the complaints or retaliated against them by denying them overtime, choice assignments, or promotions."

Jon Herskovitz of Reuters: "A grand jury in Houston decided on Tuesday not to indict a police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in a case that has been placed into a national debate about the role race plays in police interactions with the public." The Houston Chronicle story, by Cindy George, is here.

This Is Your Police Force. Joanna Rothkopf of Salon: "TMZ has obtained a video of a song performed at a charity event held at the Elks Lodge in Glendale, California which refers to Michael Brown as a 'roadkill dog.' The event was hosted by retired LAPD officer Joe Myers as part of a charity golf tournament. About half of the 50-60 guests were also officers, according to TMZ. In the video, Gary Fishell, a former federal investigator, sings a parody of the song 'Bad, bad Leroy Brown.'... In an interview with TMZ, Fishell's lawyer says that Fishell now realizes the song was 'off color and in poor taste.'... Myers was unapologetic...: 'How can I dictate what he says in a song? This is America. We can say what we want. This is a free America.'" Rothkopf publishes the lyrics (as does TMZ here). ...

     ... CW: According to the TMZ story, none of the guests objected to the song, which was not "off-color & in poor taste." It was horrifying. And no, Joe, the First Amendment is not a vehicle for condoning monsters. When someone says terrible things, you call him out. That is your First Amendment right AND your responsibility as a human being. Your job as an LAPD officer was to uphold the Constitution, not hide behind it, you depraved coward.

Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration plans to lift its lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with other men, and will propose replacing it with a one-year ban after homosexual activity, the agency announced on Tuesday. Gay rights groups, which have long advocated for a change to the ban, largely decried the announcement, saying that expecting gay blood donors to remain celibate for a year is not reasonable or medically necessary." ...

... Here's the statement by FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The Supreme Court will decide as soon as Jan. 9 whether to take up the issue of gay marriage in a potentially monumental case. An update to the court's schedule on Tuesday made clear that the justices will consider hearing appeals from rulings upholding bans on gay marriage at their Jan. 9 conference. If at least four justices vote to hear one or more of the cases, the court would be on track to hear arguments and issue a decision by June."

GOP Crime Blotter

Nate Raymond of Reuters: "U.S. Representative Michael Grimm of New York said he would not resign from Congress following his guilty plea on Tuesday to a federal felony tax charge.... Grimm, a Republican, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to aiding the preparation of a false tax return in connection with a health food restaurant, Healthalicious, that he co-owned before his political career.... As part of a plea deal, Grimm, whose trial had been scheduled for February, also signed a statement of facts, admitting to concealing over $900,000 in gross receipts from 2007 to 2010 and lying during a 2013 deposition.Grimm's defiant declaration that he will not resign could put U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders in a difficult position...." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Republican leaders — starting with House Speaker John Boehner -- should now do the right thing and persuade Mr. Grimm to go away. They could do this by threatening to ostracize him by denying him committee slots. Alternatively, the House could vote to throw him out, adding to his embarrassment and his party's. Mr. Grimm should do everyone a favor by packing his bags now."

Larry O'Dell of the AP:  "Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell should perform community service rather than serve prison time for his federal corruption convictions, an international relief organization said Tuesday. [Televangelist Pat Robertson's] Operation Blessing International said it offered McDonnell jobs heading its hunger relief program in Appalachia or working at its orphanage and fish farm in Haiti if U.S. District Judge James Spencer agrees to spare McDonnell prison time."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "Howie Kurtz Mansplains the News." (See also yesterday's Commentariat & commentary.) Simon Maloy of Salon: "This is Howard Kurtz taking it upon himself to explain 'basic' reporting to women who've been doing the job for years, clueing them in to trade secrets like 'quote Republicans.' Good job, Howard. Thanks for saving journalism."

Joanna Rothkopf: "In the spirit of the season (the spirit is harsh, blanket judgement), the website Mediaite conducted a survey of cable news hosts from CNN, Fox News and MSNBC which asked respondents to rank their colleagues from best to worst. Unsurprisingly (or, perhaps, surprisingly since Bill O'Reilly was nominated in the same category), Sean Hannity was voted Worst Host on Fox News. Hannity was really sad and mad about it and had to stomp around Twitter to cool off."

U.S. Census Bureau: "Florida passed New York to become the nation's third most populous state, according to U.S. Census Bureau state population estimates released today. Florida's population grew by 293,000 over this period, reaching 19.9 million. The population of New York increased by 51,000 to 19.7 million. California remained the nation's most populous state in 2014, with 38.8 million residents, followed by Texas, at 27.0 million. Although the list of the 10 most populous states overall was unchanged, two other states did change positions, as North Carolina moved past Michigan to take the ninth spot."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Obama administration is accelerating its efforts to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center, preparing to move dozens of inmates out of the prison in coming months in a step forward for President Obama's redoubled attempt to achieve a core national security objective before he leaves office."

New York Times: "Three digital distributors joined an expanding effort to save 'The Interview,' as Sony Pictures Entertainment disclosed the first deals to show the film online after a terror threat limited access to theaters. Among the partners named on Wednesday morning were Google Play, YouTube Movies and Microsoft’s Xbox Video. Sony also said it would show the film on a website of its own."

Weather Channel: "A pair of storms and a few other weather systems may make a mess of your Christmas travel plans.... In all, more than 5,600 flights were delayed and more than 500 cancelled nationwide Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com. Thirteen different U.S. airports each had more than 100 delayed or canceled flights."

New York Times: "The elder President George Bush was taken to a Houston hospital Tuesday night after experiencing shortness of breath, a family spokesman said. Mr. Bush, 90, would be held at least overnight at Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution, said the spokesman, Jim McGrath. He is expected to be fine, Mr. McGrath said."

Reuters: "Alan Gross, the contractor freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail, will receive $3.2m from the US government as part of a settlement with his employer, the USAid agency announced on Tuesday. Gross was employed by Maryland-based company DAI as part of a USAid-financed project in Cuba. DAI had sought $7m for Gross...."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A Berkeley[, Missouri,] police officer fatally shot a suspect who pointed a gun at him late Tuesday, St. Louis County police said early today. Police did not identify the person killed but Toni Martin, who was at the scene, said he was her 18-year-old son, Antonio Martin. Several protesters also arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting. Many stayed overnight.... The officer saw two people outside the station, got out of his vehicle and approached them. One of the suspects pulled out a handgun and fired at the officer. 'Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him'" the release from the county police said. 'The second subject fled the scene.'" Berkeley is about two miles from Ferguson, Mo. ...

     ... CW: Let's see if the police story holds up. There are surveillance cameras which may have captured the confrontation.

New York Times: "A federal administrative judge has upheld the dismissal of the director of the Veterans Affairs health care system in Phoenix for accepting more than $13,000 in airline tickets and other gifts from a consultant for the health care industry, for failing to disclose some of the gifts and for placing a high-ranking doctor on administrative leave for providing Senator John McCain with information about patient suicides. The former director, Sharon Helman, had also been implicated in the falsification of the hospital's waiting lists for care, a problem at Phoenix and other veterans' hospitals that roiled the Department of Veterans Affairs this year and led to the resignation of the department's secretary, Eric K. Shinseki. But the administrative judge, Stephen C. Mish, concluded that the department had not provided sufficient evidence to justify firing Ms. Helman for the manipulation of waiting lists, which concealed delays in providing care to veterans."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 23, 2014

Internal links, defunct graphic & photo removed.

     ... Thanks to safari for the link.

CW: As my god Mithras pushes back, ever so slowly, against the darkness, let us acknowledge this:

** Charles Pierce: "This is an incredibly perilous time for democracy at the most basic levels.... If the CIA is insubordinate to the president, whom the country elected, then it is insubordinate to all of us. If the NYPD runs a slow-motion coup against the freely elected mayor of New York, then it is running a slow-motion coup against all the people of New York." ...

... This Is Stupid. Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday called for protesters to suspend demonstrations in the aftermath of the killing of two New York police officers, who were gunned down in Brooklyn as they sat in their patrol car." CW: Yes, please. Let's let a (now-dead) maniac control the conversation. ...

     ... Digby: "Siding with victims of police brutality is reason for 'blue rage' in the police department? That tells you something." ...

... This Is Stupid, Too. Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: NYPD Chief Bill Bratton "appeared to place blame [for the police killings] on recent demonstrations following the non-indictments of officers involved in the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. 'It's quite obvious that the targeting of these two police officers was a direct spinoff of the issues of these demonstrations,' Bratton said." ...

     ... New York Times Editors: "Mr. Bratton had chosen his words poorly earlier in the day, in a morning TV interview, saying that 'the targeting of these two police officers was a direct spinoff of this issue of these demonstrations.'" CW: Yeah, poor word choice. ...

     ... Jerry Markon & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "A coalition of protest groups released a statement blasting both Bratton and the police union, accusing them of trying to link the protests to the officers' shootings as a way of silencing the demonstrations." ...

     ... Digby again: "... are to understand that the problem is that if you protest the killing of unarmed black citizens you are sending a message to the police that black people are out to get them? How far down the rabbit hole do we have to go for that to make sense?.... If [police officers] are unable to act in a professional manner, 'keep calm and carry on' in the face of criticism then they really are far too delicate to be cops." ...

... Washington Post Editors (sometimes get it right): "... those who have protested the killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and others bear no responsibility for the twisted mind and crimes of [Ismaaiyl] Brinsley, who committed suicide after killing the two officers. On the contrary: It is in the long-term interest of the police, as well as of the communities they serve, to shape reforms that might reduce the incidence of police violence while still valuing officers' safety and fighting crime.... Finding the right balance won't be easy. It's made more difficult by inflammatory, unsupported rhetoric like that of [Rudy] Giuliani." ...

... Gene Robinson: "It is absurd to have to say this, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, activist Al Sharpton and President Obama are in no way responsible for the coldblooded assassination of two police officers in Brooklyn on Saturday. Nor do the tens of thousands of Americans who have demonstrated against police brutality in recent weeks bear any measure of blame.... No one better appreciates the need for an active, engaged police presence than residents of high-crime neighborhoods. But nobody should be expected to welcome policing that treats whole communities as guilty until proved innocent -- or a justice system that considers black and brown lives disposable." ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Monday said police union leaders should be more focused on keeping guns from the insane than pointing fingers at politicians over the murder of two New York City policemen. Rangel offered criticism of New York City police union leaders who have directed their ire at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio." ...

We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police. -- Rudy Giuliani ...

... CW: Paul Waldman echoes a sentiment I expressed the other day: "It's hard to find words to describe what a despicable lie this is.... Every single time Barack Obama has spoken about these issues, he has stressed that violence of any kind, even when people are protesting over legitimate grievances, is utterly wrong and unacceptable. He makes sure, in all his public statements, to include praise of police officers. If he had ever said anything like 'everybody should hate the police,' it would have been rather dramatic, to say the least. But he never said anything even remotely resembling that." ...

     ... A major part of the problem is that Rudy Sack o'Shit Giuliani made his remarks on Fox "News." You can bet Foxbots don't listen to President Obama's speeches, so they only way they "learn" what he has said is through the Fox filter. Ergo, they now believe -- since America's Mayor said it was so -- that Obama has spent four months whipping up hatred of the police, when nothing could be further from the truth. ...

... Half a Nation of Halfwits. Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... two decades' worth of statistics tell us that black men are killed by police at 21 times the rate white men are, and yet half the public has persuaded itself that police treat blacks and whites no differently."

... CW: Speaking of Halfwits, contributor Mae F. points out that Rudy Giuliani has fingered me as an identity thief. (Yes, the actor who plays the thief Marie is a deadringer for me.)

Michael Weissenstein & Andrea Rodriguez of the AP: "Cuba said Monday that it has a right to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, the clearest sign yet that the communist government has no intention of extraditing America's most-wanted woman despite the warming of bilateral ties. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has urged President Barack Obama to demand the return of fugitive Joanne Chesimard before restoring full relations under a historic detente announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro last week."

Foster Klug & Hyung-Jin Kim of the AP: "AP: "Key North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after a nearly 10-hour shutdown that followed a U.S. vow to respond to a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames on Pyongyang. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the Internet stoppage in one of the least-wired and poorest countries in the world, but outside experts said it could be anything from a cyberattack to a simple power failure. The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible." ...

... Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "North Korea's already tenuous links to the Internet went completely dark on Monday after days of instability, in what Internet monitors described as one of the worst North Korean network failures in years. The loss of service came just days after President Obama pledged that the United States would launch a 'proportional response' to the recent attacks on Sony Pictures, which government officials have linked to North Korea.... The biggest impact would be felt by the country's elite, state-run media channels and its propagandists, as well as its cadre of cyberwarriors. If the attack was American in origin -- something the United States would probably never acknowledge -- it would be a rare effort by the United States to attack a nation's Internet connections." ...

... Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "When asked for comment, a White House National Security Council representative told CNBC, 'We don't have any new announcements on North Korea today.' 'We aren't going to discuss publicly operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in anyway except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen,' Marie Harf, a deputy spokeswoman at the State Department, said during a media briefing."

... The Washington Post story, by Cecilia Kang, et al., is here. ...

... Sam Biddle of Gawker: "The evidence linking agents of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the recent digital implosion of Sony remains vague. And even though the feds are squarely blaming North Korea, many security experts aren't buying it." ...

... Sheera Frenkel of BuzzFeed: "Cybersecurity experts looking at the FBI's explanation for why North Korea was behind the Sony hack say the logic keeps coming up short, as they increasingly question whether someone else could be behind one of the worst hacks in U.S. history. These experts have called into question the timeline of the attack, aspects of the language used, and the capabilities of North Korea's bandwidth. Some say the FBI was too quick to point the finger without looking further than the most obvious clues in the malware."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The State Department envoy who negotiates detainee transfers from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is resigning, dealing another blow to President Obama's efforts to close a facility that top administration officials say is a blight on the country's international standing. The resignation of Cliff Sloan, a close confidant of Secretary of State John Kerry, comes as officials at the State Department and the White House have increasingly expressed frustration with the Defense Department's slow pace of transferring approved prisoners."

Ho Ho Ho. William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island who was easily re-elected to his third term in Congress last month despite a pending federal indictment, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony charge of tax fraud, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.... A guilty plea by the congressman, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, would almost certainly put him under tremendous pressure to resign." ...

... John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: House Speaker John "Boehner's office declined to comment, and an aide to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did not respond to a request for comment." ...

... Ben Jacobs & David Freedlander of the Daily Beast: "Grimm faces no legal pressure to leave office. There is no requirement for a member of Congress to resign after pleading guilty to a felony. However, House Rule XXIII suggests that a representative who has been convicted of an offense that may result in at least two years' imprisonment should 'refrain from voting.' A report by the Congressional Research Service notes that members are 'expected to abide by this rule, even though it is technically advisory.'"

Lucy McCalmont of Politico: "Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says his biggest challenge will be righting the course of Congress, adding -- in a swipe at outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid -- that his own chamber 'basically didn't do squat for years.'" CW: Yeah, that was Harry Reid's fault. ...

... Here's Carl Hulse of the New York Times on McConnell's big challenge. CW: Aw, poor Mitch. In the spirit of the season, let's see what the evangelist Paul had to say about that: "... whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap."

What we're simply striving for is accuracy in score keeping. We know for a fact that it is not accurate or prudent to ignore the effects of economic growth on policies we make in Congress. -- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), incoming Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee & Famed Innumerato know for confusing Ayn Rand novels with facts ...

Funny how outlier theories become "facts" when they suit Republican ways & means. As for well-founded, near-universally accepted scientific theories? Not so much. Asked if human activity caused climate change, Ryan said, "I don't know the answer to that question," Ryan said. "I don't think science does, either." ...

... CW: I believe I mentioned this was coming. Dave Weigel of Bloomberg Politics: "Incoming Republican leaders in Congress won't reappoint Doug Elmendorf to another term as head of the Congressional Budget Office, according to a party aide briefed on the decision. The move comes after a campaign from conservative lawmakers who want to change the way the CBO calculates the costs of government, said the aide.... Republican lawmakers ... agreed with calls from incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price for a new director who might introduce so-called dynamic scoring to CBO analysis." ...

     ... CW: So we will find ourselves with a partisan CBO, rendering any so-called analysis from that office meaningless. "Scoring" bills for their likely effects on the economy will become an exercise in numbers-massaging. This is not to suggest that the CBO always got it right -- as I recall, the office underestimated some of the positive effects of the ACA & the stimulus -- but the point is that the office tried to get it right. Now it will start with the GOP-preferred outcome & work backwards to find rationales that might support the pie-in-the-sky/fake intents of Republican legislation. We have all moved into Right Wing World, a place where facts don't matter.

It's about Doctors' Rights, Not Women's Rights. Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "A Richmond appeals court panel on Monday rejected a North Carolina law requiring that women seeking abortions first undergo ultrasounds, with the fetal image displayed and described to them in detail by a doctor. The three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's finding that the 2011 law violated the free speech of doctors by forcing them to provide the image and description even if the woman averted her eyes or actively tried not to listen." ...

... Annals of "Justice," Ctd.

Just in Time for Christmas. Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Oklahoma City on Monday said that the state can resume executing prisoners this winter, rejecting the argument by some medical experts that using the same sedative involved in the bungled execution of Clayton D. Lockett in April amounted to an illegal experiment on human subjects. Judge Stephen P. Friot of Federal District Court, ruling against condemned prisoners who sought to delay new executions, said that lethal injection was more humane than historical methods like hanging, and that since the sedative in question, midazolam, had been successfully used in a dozen executions elsewhere, it should not be considered new or experimental." CW: Friot is a George W. Bush appointee.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Gawker: "Last night, Baltimore's WBFF[, a Fox affiliate,] aired a video of protesters chanting 'kill a cop' -- evidence, it claimed, of murderously violent rhetoric on the part of anti-brutality protesters in Washington, D.C. The only problem? The protesters weren't chanting 'kill a cop' at all, and there's video evidence to prove it.... This week Baltimore's corrupt, inept, and ineffectual police department issued a statement in which they all but explicitly promised retaliatory violence for what they've characterized as an 'atmosphere of unnecessary hostility' created by politicians and pundits, but of course this line crumbles at the slightest scrutiny: police are killing civilians with impunity, and the media is doing the dirty work of casting those outraged about these killings as the true villains. If there's an atmosphere of unnecessary hostility, it is the direct handiwork of police and their apologists."

Egberto Willies in Daily Kos: "... Chuck Todd said that ... the tone of the president’s presentation of the new policy was not sufficiently deferential to the exile community in Florida." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. CW: Just another example of why the public is ignorant: top media put more emphasis on phony superficialities than on substance. Yes, the President made an historic foreign policy advance, but what was his tone?

Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "Rolling Stone magazine said Monday that it had asked the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to conduct a review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. In an editor's note that will appear in the magazine's next issue, Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone's editor and publisher, said that the review would be led by Steve Coll, the journalism school's dean, and Sheila Coronel, the dean of academic affairs, and that it would evaluate 'the editorial process that led to the publication of the story.' The report will be published unedited and in its entirety on Rolling Stone's website, and excerpts will appear in the magazine."

Girl "Reporters" Are Silly. Howie Kurtz of Fox "News": "President Obama took a victory lap the other day, and nobody in the press tried to slow him down. Obama skated in a year-end news conference, easily handling questions that were bland, tentative or rambling. This is not unrelated to the fact that he skipped the front-row TV correspondents -- Jonathan Karl, Ed Henry, Major Garrett -- who tend to ask more confrontational and, yes, theatrical questions." ...

     ... CW: Kurtz never mentions that President Obama called on only female reporters, but he's counting on you to know that that; after all, it was a major news story over the weekend. But the message is clear: he complains about the questions these women asked but says male reporters, whom he mentions by name but not gender, would have asked more "confrontational" questions. ...

Presidential Election

Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: Elizabeth Warren isn't running for president. But she also is not shutting down the draft-Warren movement.

Chris Christie Is a Star Student at the GOP Foreign Policy College. Jill Colvin of the AP: "The calls, which generally last about 90 minutes, typically begin with several experts discussing a region's history, recent developments and the views of foreign leaders of the countries involved, followed by a detailed question-and-answer session. The format is designed, they said, to expose Christie to multiple points of view and help him build a deeper understanding of history and world affairs." CW: If his opponent is, say, Rick Perry, he ought to do fine. Against Hillary Clinton, not so much.

News Lede

AFP: "Ukraine took a historic step toward NATO on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that stoked Russia's anger ahead of talks on ending the ex-Soviet state's separatist war. Lawmakers in the government-controlled chamber overwhelmingly adopted a bill dropping Ukraine's non-aligned status -- a classification given to states such as Switzerland that refuse to join military alliances and thus play no part in wars."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 22, 2014

Internal links removed.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... , President Obama said he would 'review' whether to return North Korea to the list [of nations that sponsor terrorism], part of a broader government response to a damaging cyberattack on Sony's Hollywood studio.... Republicans pushed back at Mr. Obama's characterization of the attack as only cybervandalism. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, told CNN..." "blah, blah, war, blah." (Paraphrase.) ...

     ... You can watch excerpts of Candy Crowley's interview of President Obama here. ...

... CW: I wonder if Prince Rebus & the Republican party will still promote the film "The Interview" (see yesterday's Commentariat) when they find out President Obama made the movie. At least, that's what North Korea claims. Maybe we've found someone who blames Obama for more stuff than the GOP does: Kim Jong-un. Congrats, GOP! You're better than a goofy dictator....

... Jonathen Behr of CBS Moneywatch: "Big corporations tend to have insurance to protect them from nearly all imaginable risks. But Sony (SNE) may find it difficult to get its insurers to cover the $100 million or so it's reportedly losing from canceling the release of the film 'The Interview.'" ...

... Uri Friedman of the Atlantic suggests that Sony had other options in making the film; for instance, the main character could have been lightly fictionalized. ...

... Ditto David Carr of the New York Times: "... while I am all for bold creative choices, was it really important that the head being blown up in a comedy about bungling assassins be that of an actual sitting ruler of a sovereign state? If you want to satirize a lawless leader, there are plenty of ways to skin that cat, as Charlie Chaplin demonstrated with 'The Great Dictator,' which skewered Hitler in everything but name." In the end, Carr, like Prince Rebus, says he'll watch the movie when it airs as a way of doing his "bit for artistic freedom." ...

... CW: Personally, I do my for artistic freedom by not watching crap movies. Sony has a right to make them, & I have a right to ignore them. BTW, how surprising is it that someone who thought jokes about President Obama's race were funny also thought exploding an actual dictator's head was funny, too? (Although she apparently got the filmmakers to cut back a little on the gore)? This insensitivity is of a kind.

** A Note to Neocons from Paul Krugman: "War makes you poorer and weaker, even if you win.... There is a still-powerful political faction in America committed to the view that conquest pays, and that in general the way to be strong is to act tough and make other people afraid. One suspects, by the way, that this false notion of power was why the architects of war made torture routine -- it wasn't so much about results as about demonstrating a willingness to do whatever it takes." ...

... Alec Luhn in Politico: Russians with money respond to the ruble crisis by -- shopping!

Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: Maurice "Greenberg, the former chief executive of A.I.G. ... is not the most sympathetic figure. But the lawsuit he has brought on behalf of Starr International, a large stockholder in A.I.G., seeking compensation for shareholder losses during those crucial days of the financial crisis, raises troubling issues.... To me..., the case's significance lies in the information it unearthed about what the government did in the bailout -- details it worked hard to keep secret. And new documents produced after the trial seem to bolster Starr's case, casting doubt on central testimony by some of the government's witnesses."

New York Times Editors: "Prosecute the torturers and their bosses.... The nation cannot move forward in any meaningful way without coming to terms, legally and morally, with the abhorrent acts that were authorized, given a false patina of legality, and committed by American men and women from the highest levels of government on down.... The American Civil Liberties Union is to give Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. a letter Monday calling for appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate what appears increasingly to be 'a vast criminal conspiracy, under color of law, to commit torture and other serious crimes.'"

CW: A reader has recommended these videos featuring Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill & Pardiss Kebriaei, a senior lawyer at the legal advocacy group the Center for Constitutional Rights. I am not self-loathing enough to punish myself during this joyous season to watch them, but maybe you'll find them fascinating.

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Sally Quillian Yates, a longtime prosecutor and the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia since 2010, is expected to be announced as the pick for deputy attorney general, the official who runs Justice Department operations day to day. Yates, who has served as the vice chair of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s advisory committee, is the first woman to serve as the U.S. attorney in Atlanta." ...

     ... CW: At his end-of-year news conference, President Obama called on female reporters only, ignoring the male reporters who had pressing questions about Cuban cigars. Now the President wants to replace not only the male attorney general with a woman but also the male deputy AG. It's almost as if this President thinks women are at least as competent as men.

Mark Santora & David Goodman of the New York Times: "The man who shot and killed two police officers in New York City on Saturday afternoon, targeting them solely because of the uniforms they wore, boasted to two people about what he was about to do just moments before he opened fire on the officers as they sat in their patrol car. In a chilling and detailed account of the shooting, the police department's chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, said that the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, first walked past the patrol car, crossed the street and then approached the car from behind. He stood outside the passenger side window and fired four shots into the vehicle, killing the officers, Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40. Mr. Brinsley fled the scene but was followed by two Consolidated Edison workers whom the police called heroic. They alerted the police that Mr. Brinsley had headed down onto a Brooklyn subway platform, where he was confronted by police officers and killed himself with a single bullet." ...

... Kim Barker & Al Baker of the New York Times: "Ismaaiyl Brinsley ... had an extensive history with the police, having been arrested 20 times -- mainly for petty crimes like stealing condoms from a Rite Aid drugstore in Ohio. He spent two years in prison after firing a stolen gun near a public street in Georgia. Mr. Brinsley had also suffered from mental problems." ...

     ... The Washington Post story on Brinsley's background, by Peter Holley, is here. ...

... Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "The long-simmering tensions between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Police Department he has pledged to reshape have reached an extraordinary nadir." CW: That's not necessarily a bad thing; the NYPD, like many police departments across the country, needs a serious housecleaning & attitude adjustment. ...

... Liz Robbins & Nikita Stewart of the New York Times: "One day after two police officers were fatally shot at point-blank range as they sat in their squad car in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, leaders of several groups who had been rallying for criminal justice reform scrambled to condemn the killings while still keeping the push for police reform alive. Justice League NYC, an organization that had met with Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday, held a march as planned on Sunday night. But after the killings, the route was redirected to end at First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem for a service of healing to remember all victims of violence -- including police officers." ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani blames Obama, Holder & Al Sharpton for the officers' assassinations, because the leaders' "created an atmosphere of severe, strong, anti-police hatred in certain communities.... We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police." ...

... CW: Okay, maybe I'm not being completely fair to Kim Jong-un. ...

... Hudson Hongo of Gawker has more. ...

... So does T. Bogg of the Raw Story. ...

... CW: I don't know what-all Al Sharpton has said, but I've read most of what Obama & Holder have said publicly about the police. Nothing they said came anywhere near "propaganda" or "anti-police hatred." Their remarks were always measured & supportive of police. It's worth noting that Rudy Giuliani is a former federal law enforcement official & of course mayor of New York City. It is a true outrage that a person who held these important posts could make public comments that are (a) flat-out lies (b) invented to attack the highest-ranking American official & highest-ranking law-enforcement official. Even Fox "News" should not allow this lying, twisted, reckless, malevolent sack of shit near a microphone. And, yeah, that characterization of Giuliani was as "measured" as he deserves. I'd say it to his face.

... Trevor Eischen of Politico: "On Sunday, Obama spoke out against the killing of the police officers Saturday, saying there is no justification for the slayings." ...

... Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama is offering full support and federal assistance to the New York Police Department in the wake of the killing of two officers. The White House says Obama called New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton on Sunday from Hawaii, where the president is vacationing and offered condolences."

Emily Badger of the Washington Post on the extraordinary rise of single-parenthood, especially among blacks, over the past decades.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Here's something I'm way late picking up, but it's worth knowing what kind of "independent journalism" Maureen Dowd practices. Matthew Zeitlin of BuzzFeed: "Leaked emails from Sony suggest that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd promised to show Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal's husband, Bernard Weinraub, -- a former Times reporter -- a version of a column featuring Pascal before publication." Read the whole post. ...

... CW P.S. Do I feel guilty about linking to a story that relies on the Sony hacks? Yes. A teensy bit.

Presidential Election

Justice Sink of the Hill: Marco & Randy bicker on talk shows & Twitter.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Joe Cocker, the gravelly British singer who became one of pop's most recognizable interpreters in the late 1960s and '70s with passionate, idiosyncratic takes on songs like the Beatles' 'With a Little Help From My Friends,' died on Monday at his home in Crawford, Colo. He was 70. The cause was lung cancer, his agent, Barrie Marshall, said."

New York Times: "The fate of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl now rests with a four-star Army general at Fort Bragg, N.C., who will decide whether the soldier, who disappeared from his tiny Army outpost in rugged eastern Afghanistan in 2009, should be court-martialed and what, if any, charges will be filed against him. A Pentagon statement on Monday said the military's investigation of the sergeant's disappearance had been forwarded to Gen. Mark Milley, the commander of Army Forces Command, who will 'determine appropriate action -- which ranges from no further action to convening a court-martial.'"

Merry Christmas, You Power-Hungry Hypocrites." Religion News Service: "Pope Francis launched a blistering attack on the Vatican bureaucracy Monday, outlining a 'catalog of illnesses' that plague the church's central administration, including 'spiritual Alzheimer's' and gossipy cliques. The pope's traditional Christmas greeting to the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Holy See was less an exchange of warm wishes than a laundry list of what the pontiff called the 'ailments of the Curia' that he wants to cure." Here's the National Catholic Reporter story. CW: Iesus Christus! Bet it sounded worse in Latin!

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney will not be charged in connection with the on-duty fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton at Red Arrow Park, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Monday. The decision comes nearly eight months after the shooting. Chisholm has said he was waiting on reports from an outside expert on the use of force."

Weather Channel: "... we're monitoring not one, but two storms that may make a mess of your holiday travel plans, much as Winter Storm Cato did right before Thanksgiving. Already, aviation forecasters at the National Weather Service say that a 'high impact event' is likely for airports in the New York City area on Wednesday due to the combination of heavy rain and gusty winds."

BBC News: "The Spanish king's sister, Princess Cristina, is to face a tax fraud trial over alleged links to her husband's business dealings."