The Commentariat -- Oct. 26, 2014

Internal links, illustration & related text removed.

Sabrina Tavernise, et al., of the New York Times: New York's "carefully planned response was a world apart from the scene that unfolded in a Dallas hospital last month when a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, became the first person to test positive for Ebola in the United States.... The often rudderless response [in Dallas] lasted two weeks, and in the end, two nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, fell ill with the virus. Both have recovered, but the searing experience stunned experts, and shook Americans' confidence in their health care system.... In effect, the United States has become 19th-century Britain: We provide superb education for elites, but we falter at mass education." ...

... As Marvin Schwalb points out, not every response to Ebola in these parts is perfect (blame Chris Christie!):

... Anemona Hartocollis & Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: "A nurse who was being quarantined at a New Jersey hospital after working with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone criticized her treatment on Saturday as an overreaction after an initial test found that she did not have the virus. 'I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa,' the nurse, Kaci Hickox, wrote in an essay on the website of The Dallas Morning News, in collaboration with a friend who works for the paper. 'I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear, and most frightening, quarantine.'" ...

... Noam Scheiber of the New Republic: "The authorities in New York clearly lied in their press conference ... about Craig Spencer, the New York physician who contracted Ebola while volunteering for Doctors Without Borders in Guinea. Among the many accurate pieces of information that Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and city Health Commissioner Mary Bassett disseminated to the public was the following whopper: That Dr. Spencer acted entirely appropriately and responsibly.... This is clearly not true.... He decided to ride the subway, go bowling, and frolic at the High Line Park on Wednesday." Scheiber is okay with the lie because it avoided public panic. CW: I think the lie was stupid & I thought so when I read it because I already knew Spencer had been all over the city. And that too was damned stoopid.

Nicholas Kristof: "THE best escalator to opportunity in America is education. But a new study underscores that the escalator is broken.... A new Pew survey finds that Americans consider the greatest threat to our country to be the growing gap between the rich and poor. Yet we have constructed an education system, dependent on local property taxes, that provides great schools for the rich kids in the suburbs... and broken, dangerous schools for inner-city children.... Too often, America's education system amplifies not opportunity but inequality."

Thomas Frank on how Barack Obama is just like Jimmy Carter. Thanks to Terence for the link.

Charles C. W. Cooke of the National Review, in the New York Times: "If supporters of the right to keep and bear arms want their pleas to be heard in their proper context, they might consider talking a little less about Valley Forge and a little more about Jim Crow -- and attempting to fill their ranks with people who have known much more recently what tyranny really looks like." CW: This is a remarkable essay: historically & theoretically correct -- & stunningly naive. If black people want to get shot dead with impunity, they should openly pack heat in stand-your-ground states.

God News

Ross Douthat with News from the Vatican: Oh my god oh my god. The Holy Roman Catholic Church is in CHAOS. Stop the gays! Stop the divorcees! "... this pope may be preserved from error only if the church itself resists him." ...

... Bad News, Ross. Cathy Grossman of Religion News Service: A new survey by religion researcher David Kinnaman finds that 38 percent of Americans are "churchless"; that is, "roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually 'post-Christian' and 'essentially secular in belief and practice.'" Via Steve Benen.

Sarah Jones in Americans United for Separation of Church & State: Alabamians will vote next week on a ludicrous state constitutional amendment to outlaw Sharia law. To make the amendment look less silly, its authors didn't use the word "Sharia." "At Americans United, we are often asked why we don't support these bills. The answer is always the same: Because there isn't a real threat that our courts or legislatures are implementing Sharia law. We have yet to receive a report about a Muslim community or Muslim elected official attempting to legislate based on Sharia principles.... We do, however, receive many reports about fundamentalist Christians doing exactly that." Via Benen.

CW: Isn't it time for conservative Christians to do something about the shocking fact that four months of the year -- January, March, May & June -- are named for pagan gods? It's bad enough that two months are named for pagan dictators -- July & August -- but gods? In Christianland, the calendars months should be something like Epiphany, February, Easter, Josephus, Mary, Jesus, September, October, November, December, Reaganus, Christmas.

November Elections

Alabama. See God News, above.

Kentucky. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is giving his reelection campaign a $1.8 million personal loan to stave off a new round of attack ads from Democrats."

Mississippi. Geoff Pender of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger: "The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld the dismissal of Chris McDaniel's lawsuit over his June GOP primary loss to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran. The court ruled four to two, upholding a lower court decision that McDaniel waited too long to file the challenge of his loss. Three justices did not participate.... Neither McDaniel nor his lead attorney Mitch Tyner answered definitively on Friday whether the ruling will put end to his trying to overturn the election...."

Beyond the Beltway

Another Murder in Gunland. David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "A Gary, Indiana man shot and killed a 13-year-old neighbor boy for laughing at him on Friday night. According to the Gary Post-Tribune, police have not released the shooter's name, but said that he shot Kobe Jones, 13, nine times.... Gary Police Lt. Thomas Pawlak told the [Gary] Post-Tribune that the gunman's home was broken into and robbed some time on Friday afternoon..... As [the shooter] was having a noisy tantrum in his back yard, a crowd of neighborhood residents gathered. Jones made the mistake of laughing at his neighbor's histrionics."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Under the cloud of a bitter war in their nation's east, Ukrainians on Sunday were projected to have elected the most pro-European parliament in their country's 23-year-old history, firmly backing an effort to steer their nation away from Russia's orbit."

New York Times: "The Obama administration has been pushing the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse their decision ordering all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined, an administration official said on Sunday."

     ... The Washington Post story is here.

The Commentariat -- Oct. 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "The governors of New York and New Jersey announced Friday afternoon that they were ordering all people entering the country through two area airports who had direct contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to be quarantined." ...

... Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "Nina Pham, a 26-year-old nurse who became infected with Ebola while caring for a Liberian patient, walked out of a Maryland hospital on Friday, thanked God and others for her recovery, then went to the White House for a hug from President Obama before her return home to Dallas." ...

... Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: The Soviet Union once worked on developing Ebola as a biological weapon. "The research began amid intense secrecy with an ambitious effort to assess Ebola's potential as a biological weapon, and it later included attempts to manipulate the virus's genetic coding, U.S. officials and researchers say. Those efforts ultimately failed as Soviet scientists stumbled against natural barriers that make Ebola poorly suited for biowarfare.... Now, at a time when the world is grappling with an unprecedented Ebola crisis, the wall of secrecy surrounding the labs looms still larger...." ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Speaking in a local radio interview on Thursday, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown [D] blamed the NRA for a lack of a U.S. surgeon general, and Congressional Republicans for cuts to public services." CW: Sherrod Brown is one of my very favorite Senators. And proof that somebody with a coif like Rand Paul's can still be a righteous smart guy. ...

... Gail Collins: "Two years after the Sandy Hook tragedy, the top gun-control priority in the United States is still background checks. There is nothing controversial about the idea that people who buy guns should be screened to make sure they don't have a criminal record or serious mental illness.... The problem, of course, is the National Rifle Association, which does not actually represent gun owners nearly as ferociously as it represents gun sellers."

The Two Faces of John Roberts -- Are Both White! Garrett Epps of the Atlantic on Chief Justice John Roberts inconsistent holdings on race: when it suits him, he says the law should be absolutely color-blind. But when a lower court concluded that the Texas voter ID the law was purposely racially discriminatory (i.e., not color-blind), Roberts let it stand anyway, so as not to inconvenience the state or something.

"What Happened to that GOP Lawsuit?" Josh Gerstein of Politico: "It takes about 10 minutes to walk from the Capitol to the federal courthouse just down the hill, but House Republicans haven't managed to make that trip in the four months since they announced they'd be suing the president.... Some attribute the delay to electoral politics -- suggesting that Republicans were worried it could rile up the Democratic base -- though the GOP is mum on why the suit has yet to be filed.... 'I thought this was a constitutional crisis and the republic was in jeopardy because Obama overstepped his bounds. Now, they can't even get around to filing it?' asked former House Counsel Stan Brand, a Democrat. 'It, to me, emphasizes the not-serious nature of it.'"

Paul Krugman: "Profits are very high, so why are companies concluding that they should return cash to stockholders rather than use it to expand their businesses?... This kind of divergence -- in which high profits don-t signal high returns to investment -- is what you'd expect if a lot of those profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns on capital."

Josh Marshall of explains Sarah Palin AND Fox "News": "... Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol have now spoken out about their notorious boozy family brawl, recasting Bristol's attack on the event's host as a morality tale about violence against women and media bias.... In talking about themselves they're already railing about Hunter Biden and Chelsea Clinton and media bias and the 'war on women' and the rest. As she has since she stepped onto the national stage six years ago, Palin is the ultimate avatar of base Republican culture since she views herself as an eternal victim, with all the grievance and resentment that entails.... In very broad terms, the origin of Fox News is analogous."

** Annals of Journalism, Ctd. "When Politicians Lie." The Washington Post publishes an essay "excerpted from the Press-Enterprise Lecture [former Post editor Ben Bradlee ]delivered at the University of California, Riverside, on Jan. 7, 1997."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lynne Marek of Chicago Business: "Chicago Sun-Times journalists, whose colleague Dave McKinney resigned this week, are asking the newspaper's owners for reassurance that the latter won't seek to influence editorial content. The request comes in a petition that's posted on the reporters' union website. It follows the exit of Mr. McKinney, the Springfield bureau chief, who questioned in his resignation letter whether the newsroom is insulated from owners' interests." ...

... CW: Back in the Dark Ages when I lived in Chicago, the Sun-Times, although published in tabloid format, was a decent alternative to the righty-right-wing Tribune. Not any more, I guess. I haven't linked to it very often as (a) their Website sucks, & (b) their content is usually fairly sketchy.

November Elections

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones introduces us to Dan Patrick, the next lieutenant governor of Texas: "Man Who Believes God Speaks to Us Through 'Duck Dynasty' Is About to Be Texas' Second-in-Command." ...

... CW: How Republicans can stop the flow of immigrants without building fences: publish truthful profiles of themselves in all the major media of the world. Who would want to come to a place run by people like this?

Presidential Election

Katharine Seelye & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: The Boston Two-Step. When Hillary met Liz. Also, Martha was there. ...

... Maggie Haberman of Politico has more on the Hillary Clinton-Elizabeth Warren offstage meeting.

The Most Interesting Man in Washington, Ctd. Paul Waldman: "... what if placating the right isn't as hard as it appears? That question is right now being contemplated by Rand Paul, who is running for the White House harder than anybody. Paul has now given a speech outlining his foreign policy vision (which every candidate is supposed to have). The speech shows just how Paul is navigating the tension between the two competing incentives that will define his candidacy.... If you took out the five Reagan references and changed some words and phrases here and there, the speech Paul gave could have been delivered by Barack Obama. The difference between a Republican and a Democrat, apparently, is that the Republican says that we should always be prepared for war, but war should be a last resort, while the Democra says that war should be a last resort, but we should always be prepared for war.... And also, Reagan Reagan Reagan." ...

... Steve M.: "Unless you think all the older Republicans are going to stay home while under-35s do all the voting, this is a recipe for failure in the GOP primaries." ...

... CW: I dunno. In the 2012 GOP primaries, Romney beat off a handful of professional wingers. Yeah, he said he was "severely conservative," but even the dumbest of dumb bunnies knew he was less conservative than the other candidates (including Jon Huntsman, Jr.). Somehow millions of actual severe conservatives pulled the lever for Mitt. Why? Because Mitt looked & sounded more like a president than, say, Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich. Winning is everything.

Beyond the Beltway

AND Anthony Weiner, who is not Rep. Anthony Weiner or Mayor Anthony Weiner is still Anthony Weiner. Jordan Sargent of Gawker: "It's been three years (only!) since Anthony Weiner's political career went limp because he sent photos of his dick to random women via social media, and yet he has still not learned how to use Twitter." CW: Actually, he's known all along how to use Twitter: as a medium for sending sexy pictures, this time "favorite-ing" a body-shot of "Sugarfuzz," a woman who urges married men to contact her "to indulge your sexual fantasies by having an affair." Calling Dr. Kate Madison.

The Commentariat -- Oct. 24, 2014

Internal links removed.

** Tim Egan: "How did we lose our democracy? Slowly at first, and then all at once.... You can trace the Great Breach to Justice Kennedy's words in the 2010 Citizens United case, which gave wealthy, secret donors unlimited power to manipulate American elections. The decision legalized large-scale bribery -- O.K., influence buying -- and ensured that we would never know exactly who was purchasing certain politicians.... At the same time that this court has handed over elections to people who already have enormous power, they've given approval to efforts to keep the powerless from voting.... We Americans have long boasted of having free and fair elections. Thanks to this Supreme Court, they are neither." (See also Open Secrets report, linked under November Elections below.) ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the political right has always been uncomfortable with democracy. No matter how well conservatives do in elections, no matter how thoroughly free-market ideology dominates discourse, there is always an undercurrent of fear that the great unwashed will vote in left-wingers who will tax the rich, hand out largess to the poor, and destroy the economy.... History says they're wrong.... The truth is that a lot of what's going on in American politics is, at root, a fight between democracy and plutocracy. And it's by no means clear which side will win."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Denise Grady of the New York Times: "Almost a decade ago, scientists from Canada and the United States reported that they had created a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against the Ebola virus. The results were published in a respected journal.... The researchers said tests in people might start within two years, and a product could potentially be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011. It never happened.... Only now is the vaccine undergoing the most basic safety tests in humans -- with nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola and an epidemic raging out of control in West Africa. Its development stalled in part because Ebola was rare.... But experts also acknowledge that the lack of follow-up ... reflects a broader failure to produce medicines and vaccines for diseases that afflict poor countries. Most drug companies have resisted spending the enormous sums needed to to develop products useful mostly to poor countries with little ability to pay for them." ...

... AP: "A Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to the city after treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the virus, according to preliminary test results, city officials said Thursday. He's the fourth confirmed case in the U.S.... Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency room doctor, returned from Guinea more than a week ago.... He was rushed to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola center, and was being treated in a specially built isolation ward." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Marc Santora, is here. ...

     ... New York Times UPDATE, by Marc Santora: "Disease investigators are looking for anyone who came into contact with New York City's first Ebola patient since Tuesday morning, health officials said Friday, adding they were acting out of an abundance of caution to ensure that they find anyone who might have been at risk of infection." ...

     ... Washington Post UPDATE, by Mark Berman: "The federal government is considering altering the protocols for doctors and health-care workers who return to the United States from West Africa, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Friday morning.... The possible change would come in the wake of Thursday's diagnosis of Craig Spencer, a doctor who had treated Ebola patients in Guinea, one of the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic." ...

... Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "Unlike Ebola, the influenza virus is truly airborne. And if recent history is any guide, it will kill thousands in the coming months." ...

... Edgar Walters & Jay Root of the Texas Tribune: Texas Gov. Rick Perry "and other Texas leaders are pointing fingers at the Obama administration, asking for a ban on most flights from West Africa and criticizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for weak oversight. Meanwhile, a task force Perry assembled is recommending that the state give its health officials more power to quarantine people at risk for infectious disease. Missing from the official talking points is the reality that the state of Texas had full legal power from day one to order travel restrictions or impose quarantines on nurses or other health sector workers ... but did not use that power. Seven people were isolated, but not health care workers.... Perry, who was traveling in Europe when [nurse Amber] Vinson asked Texas health officials for help getting home from Ohio, later blamed the CDC for its 'indefensible' decision allowing Vinson to board a commercial plan. But Vinson's family said she was cleared for travel both by county health officials and the CDC."

Congress May Unite against Nazis. Richard Lardner of the AP: "Legislation to stop suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving U.S. Social Security benefits will be introduced soon, the latest response to an Associated Press investigation that revealed millions of dollars have been paid to former Nazis who were forced out of the United States. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, will release details of the bill Friday.... Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., said they will propose a similar bill in the Senate." CW: Couldn't they get a Senate Republican co-sponsor? Surely, surely we can finally expect some bipartisan legislation. Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Here's the underlying AP story (October 20), by David Rising.

Juliet Eilperin & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The apprehension of a man who jumped the White House fence Wednesday night and was bitten by a guard dog highlighted one of the Secret Service's most effective weapons: its canines. Secret Service agents and K-9 units quickly subdued the latest fence jumper, whom authorities identified as Dominic Adesanya, 23, of Bel Air, Md., after he punched two of the Secret Service dogs, Hurricane and Jordan, authorities say."

Rachel Bade of Politico: "Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed almost all counts brought against the [IRS] in two cases, ruling that both were essentially moot now that the IRS granted the groups their tax-exempt status that had been held up for years. Walton, a President George W. Bush-appointee, also said individual IRS officials could not be fined in their individual capacity for allowing such treatment because it could hurt future tax enforcement." The Tea party plaintiffs can appeal.

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... government lawyers ... conducted a comprehensive review of the incident [in which FBI agents and lawyers working for Independent Counsel Ken Starr first confronted Monica Lewinsky] in 2000, two years after the encounter. Their findings are contained in a report -- recently obtained by The Washington Post -- that key players had long believed was under court-ordered seal. According to the report, a prosecutor who confronted Lewinsky 'exercised poor judgment and made mistakes in his analysis, planning and execution of the approach.' The report, written by two lawyers appointed to investigate the matter by Robert W. Ray, Starr's successor as independent counsel, concluded that the 'matter could have been handled better.'... The report says prosecutors' actions did not amount to 'professional misconduct' but were more serious than mere mistakes."

Gene Robinson: "The purposes, parameters and prospects of the war [against ISIS] are increasingly uncertain. Americans have a right to be concerned about the whole enterprise.... If degrade-and-destroy is really the goal, I don't see how deeper involvement will be avoided. This has morass written all over it. And morasses, as Obama knows, are dumb."

A. O. Scott, the New York Times film critic, reviews "Citizenfour," Laura Poitras' "partial, partisan view" of Ed Snowden. Scott likes it, describing the film as "a tense and frightening thriller that blends the brisk globe-trotting of the 'Bourne' movies with the spooky, atmospheric effects of a Japanese horror film. And it is also a primal political fable for the digital age, a real-time tableau of the confrontation between the individual and the state."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Hadas Gold & Dylan Byers of Politico: "CNN's Carol Costello apologized on Thursday for joking about a police recording of Bristol Palin." CW: No, Carol, you were right the first time. These people are hilarious rubes, & only not-laughable thing about them is that one of them could have become vice president of the United States. ...

... Contra me, Arit John in Bloomberg, sees Bristol as a victim of sexual assault. But that presumes you believe her screaming, drunken claims. I don't....

... T Bogg of the Raw Story: "Yup. Forget the eyewitness accounts, the police reports, and transcripts taken from a  police interview at the scene. It's all bullshit created by a vast leftwing conspiracy out to destroy America's Favorite Snowbilly Family, and Bristol Palin is here to set the record straight because she was there, man."

November Elections

Open Secrets: "Almost $4 billion will be spent for this year's midterm election, the Center for Responsive Politics is projecting. That figure makes this year's election by far the most expensive midterm ever."

Manu Raju of Politico: “'I think Obama being so unpopular is the biggest factor in this election,' said Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster with the firm Public Policy Polling. 'And I think at the end of the day, it may be too much for a lot of the Democratic Senate candidates to overcome.'... Still, even as the map looks ripe for a GOP Senate takeover, at least 11 battleground states remain within or right at the margin of error, according to an average of public polling. That means if Democrats succeed in driving up turnout as they've vowed to do all year -- particularly in states like Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina -- they could tilt the electorate by one or two points in their direction and win enough races to hold the Senate."

Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View: "There's more evidence Obamacare is here to stay. Take a look at the governor's races in nine states where Republican candidates have a decent chance of replacing Democratic incumbents. All of these states have carried out Medicaid expansions, a major part of the Affordable Care Act. But no matter how strongly these Republican candidates claim to hate Obamacare, check out their websites: Not a single one of the nine reveals any plans to roll back Medicaid expansion."

Alaska. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is endorsing independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott for governor and lieutenant governor of Alaska.... The campaign said Palin endorsed the pair, who last month joined on a single ticket, at a reception she hosted Tuesday night.... The endorsement is ... a snub to the incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell, who served as Palin's lieutenant governor and took over as governor in 2009, after Palin stepped down. But the two have long been at odds over the state's oil tax laws." CW: Sounds like Palin's endorsement of the other guys was inspired by a grudge. That fits.

Georgia. Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Democrat Michelle Nunn has jumped into a narrow lead in recent polling of the state's open Senate race, a slight edge driven as much by questions about Republican David Perdue's business career as the former charity executive's centrist appeal."...

... Don't get giddy. Nate Silver: "... the race will require a runoff if neither candidate wins 50 percent of the vote Nov. 4. The dynamics of a potential runoff are a bit unclear but probably somewhat unfavorable to Nunn."

Iowa. The Revolutionary. Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, said during an NRA event in 2012 that she would use a gun to defend herself from the government. 'I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,' Ernst said at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. 'But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family -- whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.'" ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... if you think that the way to resolve policy differences or personal arguments with the government is ... through the use of violence against the government, you have announced that you have no commitment to democracy.... Ernst should be given the opportunity to elaborate -- and pressed to answer specific questions about when she thinks it's acceptable for an American citizen to use violence against representatives of the American government." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The picture of IA GOP SEN nominee Joni Ernst that's emerging from exposure of her pre-2014-general-election utterances is of a standard-brand Constitutional Conservative embracing all the strange and controversial tenets of that creed. There's Agenda 21 madness. There's Personhood advocacy. There are attacks on the entire New Deal/Great Society legacy -- and perhaps even agricultural program -- as creating 'dependency.' And now, inevitably, there's the crown jewel of Con Con extremism: the belief that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to enable 'patriots' to violently overthrow the government if in their opinion it's overstepped its constitutional boundaries." ...

... ** Steve M.: "In an obvious way, the fact that Ernst can say this and still be the favorite to win a U.S. Senate seat is a clear example of white privilege.... Ernst feels free to make this reckless statement, to a crowd that didn't find it the least bit objectionable, because she feels pretty safe in the assumption that she'll never be called to back those words up with actions. That's because she lives in a country where, regardless of all the hotheaded rhetoric, the government never really tyrannizes people like her and her audience, i.e., heartland white people of some means.... They talk the talk, knowing they won't ever to have to walk the walk." ...

... Dylan Byers of Politico: "Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst skipped out on a scheduled meeting with The Des Moines Register on Thursday, prompting criticism from one of the paper's leading political columnists.... Rekha Basu, a Register columnist..., noted that Ernst, an Iowa state senator, had also 'begged off meetings with The Cedar Rapids Gazette and The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.'" ...

... Charles Pierce: "Joni Ernst, career crackpot, veteran juggler of pig testicles, and determined foe of Agenda 21, the secret UN plot to steal all our golfs, seems to have gone into a kind of delay game as she edges toward the Senate election in Iowa.... Perhaps she's down in the root cellar, stocking up the canned goods and keeping the crystal set in trim.... She's going to bring down an F-16 with her 9-mil, but she doesn't have the fortitude to stand up to the editorial board of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. She's leading in the polls, by the way."

Kansas. "The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster." Mark Binelli in the Rolling Stone: "In 2012, [Gov. Sam Brownback] enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls ... in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid." This is a long piece that also covers some of the other GOP-led near-fiascos.

Kentucky. McConnell as the Anti-Beatle -- Money Can Buy Mitch Love. One way to use that Koch, et al., dark money -- pay people to pretend they're ardent supporters. Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill (October 20): "Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is offering volunteers all-expenses-paid trips to join his bus tour and 'contribute to an enthusiastic atmosphere' at his events.... Bussing in supporters isn't a new tactic for McConnell, who has done it to fill out crowds during his previous appearances at the annual Fancy Farm picnic." ...

... Beck for Grimes. Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Glenn Beck doesn't think it would be 'all that bad for the country' if Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) loses reelection to Alison Lundergan Grimes (D).... The nationally syndicated talk radio host told his army of conservative listeners on Thursday that even though Grimes is 'gonna be worse' for America, making her a senator could be worth the price of ousting an establishment Republican whom he suggested has added 'poison' to Congress."

New Hampshire. Tim Buckland of the New Hampshire Union Leader: "The perceived threat from Ebola dominated the first portion of the second televised debate held Thursday night between U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and her challenger, former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown." ...

... Wolf Blitzer fact-checks Scottie:

... James Pindell of WMUR Manchester: "... in [Scott] Brown's latest campaign finance report, Brown is listed as donating $244 to his campaign on Sept. 9, the day of the Republican primary. His employer is listed as 'Commonwealth of MA' and [h]is occupation as 'state senator.'" CW: Later, Brown participated in a debate with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Wherever) in Concord & thanked Michele Bachmann for reminding him the town was the site of the "shot heard 'round the world." Via Paul Waldman. Wait, wait, it gets worse ...

... Charles Pierce: "The other night, in a debate, and in a Real Journalism question from my man Chuck Todd, former senator McDreamy was asked why he didn't just run for the Senate from Massachusetts again.... 'Because I live here, he said as the crowd did everything but throw tomatoes.... 'I was born at the Portsmouth Naval shipyard...My mom was a waitress at Hampton Beach.' The problem is that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in Kittery, which is in Maine. Now, there's a longstanding historical dispute over this, but as of a Supreme Court decision in 2001, the shipyard is not in New Hampshire. So Scott Brown's reason for running for the Senate in New Hampshire, and his primary rebuttal to the charge of being a carpetbagger come to New Hampshire, is that he was born in Maine. Genius!... He's leading in the latest poll, by the way." Read the whole post. It's hilarious -- except for that last jolt of reality. ...

... CW P.S. Hampton Beach actually is in New Hampshire, so good on Scottie. He's one for three, which in baseball is pretty good.

Presidential Election

Paul Waldman in the American Prospect: "... so far, no Republican has gotten nearly the good press Rand Paul has, and it sure looks like it's the product of careful planning and execution.... The other GOP candidates underestimate him at their peril."

"The Most Misunderstood Man in New Jersey." Edgar Sandoval & Larry McShane of the New York Daily News: Gov. Chris "Christie didn't back down an inch Thursday, two days after declaring -- before a firestorm of outrage -- that he was 'tired of hearing about the minimum wage.' But the governor, speaking at a Garden State diner, explained that most people missed his point.... 'The President wants to focus (on minimum wage) because he's a class warrior,' Christie said. '... Our focus should be on creating better paying jobs for everyone in our country.' Diner workers, while quick to pose for photos with Christie, said the governor lacked empathy for their plight."

Beyond the Beltway

Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "... an Amnesty International report released Thursday night ... paints a damning portrayal of the Ferguson police force, which it accuses of committing numerous human rights abuses. The report was deeply skeptical of whether Ferguson cop Darren Wilson was justified in the killing of unarmed Michael Brown, criticized Missouri law it said violates international standards and condemned the local police response for shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, intimidating protesters and restricting residents' right to peaceful assembly." The report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday unleashed perhaps his strongest diatribe against the United States yet, using an international meeting of Russia experts to sell Moscow's view that American meddling has sparked most of the world's recent crises, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East. Instead of supporting democracy and sovereign states, Mr. Putin said during a three-hour appearance at the conference, the United States supports 'dubious' groups ranging from 'open neo-fascists to Islamic radicals.'"

Washington Post: "The body found on an abandoned property outside of [Charlottesville, Virginia] has been confirmed as the remains of University of Virginia sophomore Hannah Graham, a grim result that came nearly six weeks after the 18-year-old from Fairfax County went missing."

Seattle Times: "Two students are dead after one of them opened fire Friday morning in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School cafeteria before turning the gun on himself, according to law-enforcement sources. Police said a girl was killed and two other girls and two boys were wounded in the 10:45 a.m. shooting.... Jarron Webb, 15, said the shooter was angry at a girl who would not date him, and that the girl was one of the people shot. He said he believes one of the victims was his friend since kindergarten." Marysville is near Seattle.

Guardian: "European leaders have struck a broad climate change pact obliging the EU as a whole to cut greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030. But key aspects of the deal that will form a bargaining position for global climate talks in Paris next year were left vague or voluntary, raising questions as to how the aims would be realised."

New York Times: "American security officials said Thursday that they were looking into a new report that Islamic State militants had used chlorine gas as a weapon against Iraqi police officers last month near Balad, north of Baghdad."

Bloomberg News: "Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of Ebola, opening a new front in the international effort to prevent the outbreak of the deadly viral infection from spreading further."

New York Times: "Frank Mankiewicz, a writer and Democratic political strategist who was Senator Robert F. Kennedy's press secretary, directed Senator George S. McGovern's losing 1972 presidential campaign and for six years was the president of National Public Radio, died Thursday at a hospital in Washington. He was 90."