The Commentariat -- Feb. 23, 2015

Internal links removed.

** Paul Krugman: Education is the new Bowles-Simpson: "... whatever serious people may want to believe, soaring inequality isn't about education; it's about power." ...

... Lawrence Mishel, in a New York Times op-ed: "Contrary to conventional wisdom, wage stagnation is not a result of forces beyond our control. It is a result of a policy regime that has undercut the individual and collective bargaining power of most workers. Because wage stagnation was caused by policy, it can be reversed by policy, too." ...

... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Robert Reich: "The rise of 'independent contractors' Is the most significant legal trend in the American workforce -- contributing directly to low pay, irregular hours, and job insecurity. What makes them 'independent contractors' is the mainly that the companies they work for say they are. So those companies don't have to pick up the costs of having full-time employees. But are they really 'independent'? Companies can manipulate their hours and expenses to make them seem so. It's become a race to the bottom." Thanks to Janicefor the link.

Juan Williams in the Hill: "After a terrible, bone-breaking accident and two eye surgeries, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the former Senate Majority Leader, is scheduled to be back on Capitol Hill this week. Somehow the bruised Reid looks good compared to the new Republican Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.). In just over a month, McConnell has come to look like the beaten man. He is on the brink of breaking his promise to avoid shutting down government agencies.... 'It's not a good start for the future,' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) conceded. 'But hopefully we'll get it put together.'" ...

Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Lawmakers will begin returning to Washington on Monday with only five days left to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)." ...

... Here's Jeh Johnson Scaring Me Again. John Bacon & David Jackson of USA Today: "The secretary of Homeland Security warned shoppers at Minnesota's iconic Mall of America and similar venues to be vigilant in the wake of new terrorist threats. 'I'm not telling people to not go to the mall,' Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press. 'I think that there needs to be an awareness.'... Hours later, department spokeswoman Marsha Catron said in a statement, 'We are not aware of any specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic commercial shopping center.'" ...

... Really, Marsha? Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "The Mall of America has increased its security after a video online purported to show al Shabaab, a terrorist group associated with al Qaeda, threatening to attack the Minnesota mall, according to multiple news reports. The group called for an attack similar to the one it carried out in the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. According to USA Today, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are both aware of the threat." ...

... Oh, for Pete's Sake. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The US homeland security secretary on Sunday seized on a new threat of attacks against western shopping centres by Islamist terrorists to pressure Congress to avert a partial shutdown of his department and agree to a funding deal. Jeh Johnson said a propaganda video released by al-Shabaab on Saturday calling for strikes on the Mall of America in Minnesota, Oxford Street and two Westfield malls in London, and Canada's West Edmonton Mall, showed 'all the more reason why I need a budget'."

Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "President Obama is expected to speak to the AARP on Monday afternoon to discuss retirement-related issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the speech. Obama's remarks come as his administration has put new emphasis in recent weeks on considering regulations -- dubbed 'fiduciary standards' -- for the financial advice industry that are vehemently opposed by the business community. A senior House staffer and two financial services industry sources each said they expect Obama to discuss the new regulations, which administration officials are expected to move ahead with any day."

Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "Governors of those 34 states, even the Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act, say they are concerned at the chaos that could ensue if the court rules the federal subsidies unconstitutional." Via Greg Sargent.

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: Police are using cell-tower simulators, called Stingrays, to collects "information not just about a criminal suspect's communications but also about the communications of potentially hundreds of law-abiding citizens.... A gag order imposed by the FBI -- on grounds that discussing the device's operation would compromise its effectiveness -- has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.... So far, there is virtually no case law on how the Fourth Amendment -- which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures -- should apply to this technology."

Truth-Deniers. Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Over the weekend, Greenpeace released a batch of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that showed [aerospace engineer Willie] Soon received more than $1.2 million from Exxon Mobil, Southern Company, the American Petroleum Institute and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.... Conservatives denounced the weekend's revelations regarding Soon's funding. Blogs cited the reports as further evidence of a concerted campaign to silence scientists like Soon, who they say need to seek alternative avenues of funding thanks to the establishment.

Gail Collins interviewed Justice Ruth Ginsburg for the Times Sunday Review, & I missed it. Collin's column is delightful.

 

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "Giuliani must have muted the sound whenever Obama spoke. He certainly has every right to his opinion about the tenor of the president's remarks. But he has no business claiming something that is so factually incorrect -- or easily disproved."

Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "... since [Rudy] Giuliani's disastrous run for the Republican Presidential nomination, in 2008, he has become a national embarrassment of a distinctive type.... At one level, one could see Giuliani's statements as simply incorrect.... But Giuliani's attacks on the President are not principally meant as assertions of fact. They are meant to tap into a deep wellspring of American political thought, one defined by the Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter five decades ago. In an article in Harper's, Hofstadter described 'the paranoid style in American politics,' which he said was characterized by 'heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.'"

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Sunday suggested that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) had increased the national security of the United States by saying that President Barack Obama did not love America.... [CNN's Gloria] Borger pointed out that Giuliani's comments went beyond national security policy. 'These remarks were hateful,' she observed.... Issa replied, '... Now, the reality is I believe the president believes strongly in America, I just think he views America differently."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Heather of Crooks & Liars: "Brian Stelter spoke to former CBS correspondent Eric Engberg about his recent post questioning Bill O'Reilly's version of events on his reporting in Argentina":

... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "On the friendly territory of Media Buzz — on which host [Howard] Kurtz framed the dispute over O'Reilly's claims as a matter of 'semantics,' not facts and exaggerations -- O'Reilly spent as much time attacking his critics as defending his assertions." CW: As a matter of semantics, I won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. And the Oscar for Best Song last night. (Some quibblers might say I only watched the acceptance speeches of the "real" winners.) ...

... Video of the Kurtz segment is here. Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post reports on it, if you don't care to watch. ...

... O'Reilly Never Played Well with Others. Terrence McCoy: CBS News could hardly wait to get rid of cub reporter Bill O'Reilly, whom the news organization kicked out of Buenos Aires for being a "'disruptive force' who threatened his bureau's morale and cohesion," according to Eric Engberg. "... retired CBS national editor Sam Roberts in a Facebook thread beneath Engberg's Facebook post.... 'Dan Rather walked into my office and shut the door," Roberts wrote. 'He said, "Under no circumstances is O'Reilly to be assigned any story for the Evening News."'" When O'Reilly's agent called Roberts a few weeks later, Roberts told the agent O'Reilly should take a local station job he had been offered. "He'll never make it here," Robert told the agent." ...

... MEANWHILE, the New York Times finally gets around to O'Reilly. CW: It looks as if reporter Emily Steel has produced a good piece to put in the portfolio she presents with her Fox "News" employment application.

Jim Romenesko: "Investigative reporter Ken Silverstein has resigned from First Look Media's The Intercept after 14 months, saying he and others were hired 'under what were essentially false pretenses [by being] told we would be given all the financial and other support we needed to do independent, important journalism, but instead found ourselves blocked at every step of the way by management's incompetence and bad faith.'" From Silverstein's Facebook page, Feb. 20: "You know what's cool about being a former employee of First Look/The Intercept? That Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Betsy Reed and Pierre Omidyar all believe in Free Speech and the First Amendment so they won't mind my writing about my time working for and with them. Tentative title: 'Welcome to the Slaughterhouse.'"

Presidential Race

James Hohmann of Politico: "... being seen as a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination is testing whether the 47-year-old [Scott] Walker is really ready for the klieg lights. Since saying 'I'm going to punt' when asked about evolution in London 10 days ago, operatives from rival campaigns have begun quietly raising doubts about his preparedness. He's also taken heat from establishment Republicans for meeting with Donald Trump...." ...

... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: Scott Walker is "making an aggressive effort to win the hearts of the party’s Christian conservatives. In doing so, he is stressing a much harder line on social issues than he did just a few months ago, when he faced a robust challenge from a well-funded Democratic woman in his run for re-election as governor. The shift in emphasis and tone is noticeable not only on abortion, but also on same-sex marriage, another issue of intense interest to social conservatives." ...

... Steve Benen: Walker "won't say whether he accepts modern biology. He won't say whether Obama loves America. He won't say whether the Christian president is a Christian. He has a record of repeatedly dodging simple, straightforward questions, which most political leaders are able to answer effortlessly. It may be debatable whether these are good questions. It's not debatable that Walker has provided cringe-worthy answers.... In recent weeks, he's made a fine impression with radical elements of the Republican Party's base, but he's simultaneously making it clear to everyone else that when it comes to genuine leadership abilities, Scott Walker is obviously not ready for prime time." ...

... Robert Samuels of the Washington Post: "The anti-union law passed [in Wisconsin] four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative than many had predicted.... The once-thriving public-sector unions were not just shrunken -- they were crippled." (See also Paul Krugman's column & Lawrence Samuels' NYT op-ed, linked above.)

Fracking Man. Adam Smith & Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times: Jeb Bush suddenly started speaking about the joys of fracking right after he & his family made big investments in -- fracking. "The technology is not just a key part of his policy on energy and the economy, but foreign policy as well..... Bush's fracking investments are not the only time his private business life has overlapped with his public policy advocacy. His work as an education reformer coincided with his financial stake in Academic Partnerships, an online higher education company." Via David Atkins. ...

... Karen Tumulty & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: Columba Bush, Jeb's wife, likes to buy expensive jewelry. Also, she's a famous tax cheat. But we knew that.

News Lede

Guardian: "Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company and remains tax domiciled in Hong Kong."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 22, 2015

Internal links removed.

Phil Stewart of Reuters: "The United States is considering slowing a planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to ensure that 'progress sticks' after more than a decade of war, new Defense Secretary Ash Carter said during an unannounced visit to Kabul on Saturday."

Carol Morello & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is weighing a new round of sanctions against Russia in response to its continued 'land-grabbing' in eastern Ukraine despite a cease-fire agreement, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Saturday. Speaking to reporters in London, where he met with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Kerry said he expected that the United States and its European allies would impose some 'very serious' sanctions and other steps to punish Moscow after repeated cease-fire violations by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists."

** William Saleton of Slate explains President Obama's remarks about terrorism & Islam. "He sees the connections but chooses to be careful in how he talks about them. If his language isn't as blunt as yours, maybe that's not because you're more clearheaded about the threat or more courageous in facing it. Maybe he has good reasons, and you should listen to them." CW: You can use Saleton's careful explanation the next time your Crazy Uncle Rudy starts railing about the POTUS. Try this: "Look, Rudy, what you're doing is giving the terrorists what they want. And you're encouraging more Muslims to become terrorists. Obama isn't the danger here; you are." With any luck, Rudy won't even show up at Thanksgiving this year.

** Nicholas Kristof: "Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, a Duke University sociologist, aptly calls the present situation 'racism without racists'; it could equally be called 'misogyny without misogynists.' Of course, there are die-hard racists and misogynists out there, but the bigger problem seems to be well-meaning people who believe in equal rights yet make decisions that inadvertently transmit both racism and sexism." Read the results of the studies Kristof cites. Life isn't fair.

This Climate Scientist for Hire. Justin Gillis & John Schwartz of the New York Times: One of a handful of climate-denying scientists, who is the go-to guy for confederates & oil companies, has taken cash for the papers -- what he calls "deliverables" -- he writes for the fossil-fuel industry. Documents newly-released under a Greenpeace FOIA request "show that corporate contributions were tied to specific papers and were not disclosed, as required by modern standards of publishing.... Though often described on conservative news programs as a 'Harvard astrophysicist,' Dr. [Willie] Soon is not an astrophysicist and has never been employed by Harvard. He is a part-time employee of the Smithsonian Institution with a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering." CW: The irony here is that perhaps the most common argument from deniers (up there with "God is the culprit") is that greed-for-grants motivates most climate scientists' work. I guess the childish taunt, "It takes one to know one" has teeth.

Democrats: We Need a Bumper Sticker!" Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "The Democratic Party lacks a 'single narrative' and must tighten its pitch to voters in order to compete in future elections, an interim report from the Democratic National Committee found. The report released at the party's winter meeting recommended forming a national project to bring together party leaders, activists and messaging experts to hone in on a theme." ...

... CW: Well, yeah, that's true. But the real problem is that Democrats have been running away from their traditional themes -- which pretty much explains why voters don't know what, if anything, they stand for.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. is fairly furious that the media seem only now to be noticing that Rudy Giuliani is a bigoted ideologue. Rudy's remarks, & his doubling-down on them, is classic Giuliani; it's not a newly-minted Crazy Uncle Rudy. ...

     ... Update. Steve has gone from furious to perplexed: "... it always surprises me when people who have power and clout utter pronouncements that are indistinguishable from the crap your right-wing uncle forwards you every few days.... Giuliani ... may have once been a serious candidate for president of the United States and he may now be a globetrotting international security consultant, but he wallows in the same pool of ignorance as your uncle.... That's what are right-wing elites are like now -- they're ignoramuses with money." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn & Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani says he is getting death threats at his office in the wake of controversial comments that President Barack Obama doesn't love America.... Giuliani didn't tell CNN if he had alerted police to those calls...."

     ... CW: Why would Rudy have to alert the police? He is, after all, a "globetrotting international security expert." He can swat these flies away all by hisself. ...

... CW: If you go back to mid-January & follow Rudy's logic, as he expressed it to fellow-theologian & philosopher Sean Hannity, you will kinda have to conclude that Giuliani thinks President Obama is a Muslim. ...

... Dave Weigel tries to put the Rudy Giuliani media frenzy in context. CW: Weigel is missing one element: by concentrating on Rudy (i.e., beating a dead horse), the media can pretend they're way too busy to pursue Bill O'Reilly's tall-tale reportage. ...

... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast tries to explain why O'Reilly gets away with his fake claims. ...

... BUT, Thank You, Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "The apparent goal of O'Reilly's frenzy was to keep the story from breaking into the next week. A Facebook posting by a former CBS News correspondent, however, appears likely to keep the questions flowing toward the O'Reilly camp. An extensive rant by Eric Jon Engberg, who served as a CBS News correspondent for 27 years, calls into question several of O'Reilly's statements about the reporting -- and O'Reilly's subsequent recollections of it.... Now that a nearly three-decade CBS News correspondent has spoken up, O'Reilly will have to find a new defense." CW: Too bad Wemple's blog doesn't appear in print. ...

... CW: Both Engberg & Wemple conclude that O'Reilly's fabrications don't rise to the level of Williams' "claim[ing] to be the target of an enemy attack." But for some odd reason, Engberg & Wemple ignore O'Reilly's multiple claims & implications that he was reporting in the Falkland Islands, not in Buenos Aires. At least Williams was in the vicinity of where he "claimed to be the target," not 1,000+ miles away.

God News

Where was the Bible written, again? -- Jon Stewart, on Alabama's anti-Sharia Law state constitutional amendment, which, because of a little quirk of the U.S. Constitution, was written to exclude judicial consideration of "foreign law" ...

... CW: Brian Tashman:'s post, linked below, is a bit old, but I think it's helpful in understanding not just where the confederates are going, but whence they come:

... Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore threw his state into turmoil ... when he ordered probate judges to defy a federal judge's ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.... Moore, who has a history of making extreme anti-gay statements, insists that the federal judge is the one who is really breaking the law since she violated divine law by ruling for marriage equality. Moore's call for statewide defiance of the federal judiciary's 'tyranny' stems from a belief that the Constitution was made to protect biblical commandments, so that anything that goes against his personal interpretation of the Bible is therefore in violation of the Constitution. Moore shares that belief with a powerful ally: Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate activist who is also one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the Religious Right's reimagining of American law." ...

... CW: I found Tashman's piece via Paul Rosenberg, who covers the same topic -- though more extensively -- in Salon. Rosenberg's piece is rather first-drafty, so you'll have to do your own editing. ...

... In case you still think Christian Reconstructionism is just a far-out, fringey thing, here's more evidence of its pervasiveness:

... Dave Boucher of the Tennessean: "That reference to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence isn't enough for Rep. James VanHuss, R-Jonesborough. He wants to change the Tennessee constitution so that it includes the phrase: 'We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior.' That's in addition to Rep. Jerry Sexton's bill that would make the Bible the official book of Tennessee."

Jim Yardley of the New York Times: Recent news that James Foley, an American whom ISIS murdered, had converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam, has discomfited some Roman Catholics who viewed him as a Christian martyr.

Presidential Race

Redeemer Boy. Maureen Dowd: "Jeb ... wanted to bolster his negligible foreign policy cred, so the day of his speech, his aide released a list of 21 advisers, 19 of whom had worked in the administrations of his father and his brother. The list starts with the estimable James Baker. But then it shockingly veers into warmongers. It's mind-boggling.... If he wants to reclaim the Bush honor, Jeb should be holding accountable those who inflicted deep scars on America, not holding court with them. Where's the shame?"

Scott Walker still has no idea if President Obama loves the U.S., & he isn't sure if Obama is a Christian, either. As to MSM reporters asking him these questions, he objects. CW: I think he has a point, but it's a weak one. ...

... Here's the story, by Dan Balz & Robert Costa, where the reporters ask him if President Obama is a Christian. "Told that Obama has frequently spoken publicly about his Christian faith, Walker maintained that he was not aware of the president's religion.... Walker suggested that he is being held to a different standard than some Democrats." Later on, Walker's spokesperson Jocelyn Webster changed the story: "Of course the governor thinks the president is a Christian." ...

... CW: So (a) the liberal media are picking on me; (b) ask my spokeslady. This guy should definitely quit doing Q&As because he has no As. ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Conservative media mouthpieces have spent so much time not only denigrating any social policy to the left of Attila the Hun but questioning the President's very allegiance and faith, that conservative candidates looking to win a GOP primary can't help but engage on these most ridiculous of questions. All of which buoys the conventional wisdom that any Republican candidate to emerge from the GOP primary clown car is going to wind up weakened and battered by the process rather than strengthened. Republican primary voters wouldn't have it any other way."

Beyond the Beltway

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Chris Michaud of Reuters: "A recently retired suburban New York police office[r] shot and killed his two daughters before killing himself at the family's home.... Glen Hochman, 52, who retired from the White Plains police force last month, killed two daughters, ages 17 and 13, before killing himself in Harrison, an affluent town about 15 miles northeast of New York City.... Hochman's wife and an older daughter were not home at the time." ...

... Steve Barnes of Reuters: "A university professor, his wife and his sister were found shot to death on Friday night in the family's burning home in a prosperous Little Rock suburb, Arkansas authorities said. 'The initial indication is murder-suicide, but it's an open investigation so I can't comment beyond that,' Captain Jim Hansard of the Maumelle, Arkansas police department, said on Saturday."

Today in Stupid. Nicole Garcia of KSAZ Phoenix, Arizona: A prank caller, posing as Circle K corporate security, urged Circle K employees to discharge fire extinguishers inside the store, although there was no fire, then throw the extinguishers through the store's plate glass windows. So they did. "Circle K Corporate asked FOX 10, not to run this story." CW: Oh, thank the Founders for freedom of the press. ...

... CW Sunday Sermon: It would be more fun to laugh at the employees for stupid if I didn't have a powerful suspicion that their corporate controllers had frightened these minimum-wage serfs into unquestioning submission. So the stupid is probably corporate scare tactics imposed by the same yahoos who tried to quash the story. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured. The damages are to be $655.5 million, under a special terrorism law that provides for tripling the $218.5 million awarded by the jury in Federal District Court."

AP: "A river ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in central Bangladesh on Sunday after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 31 people, officials said. A rescue operation was underway, but it was not clear how many people were missing."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 21, 2015

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The White House on Friday said that lawyers at the Justice Department would seek an emergency order from an appeals court to allow the federal government to issue work permits and provide legal protections to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants while it appeals a judge's ruling halting the programs. The move came in response to a ruling issued by a federal judge on Monday night indefinitely postponing President Obama's sweeping executive actions on immigration." ...

... AND Now a Judicial Whack from the Left. Molly Hennessy-Fiske & Christine Mai-Duc of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction halting the Obama administration's policy of locking up immigrant mothers and children applying for asylum in order to deter others from illegally crossing the border. In a 40-page opinion issued Friday, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington said the government's policy of using deterrence as a reason to detain the immigrants instead of releasing them while their asylum claims were being processed was 'likely unlawful.'" Boasberg is an Obama appointee.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "About 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government, and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected. The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from congressional Democrats, also announced that it would give several million people more time to buy health insurance so they could comply with federal law and avoid tax penalties."

Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "The Obama administration wants a single new agency..., the Food Safety Administration, a colossus that would be housed within the Department of Health and Human Services to 'provide focused, centralized leadership, a primary voice on food safety standards and compliance with those standards,' the administration said in its new budget request. At least 15 government agencies -- from the Environmental Protection Agency to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- have some role in making sure the food Americans eat is safe, according to the Government Accountability Office, a situation that has defied streamlining for decades. And the Obama administration's new push to untangle that web is already running into opposition from some food safety experts, consumer groups and the inspectors who would be most affected."

White House: "In this week's address, the President underscored the importance of continuing to grow our economy and support good-paying jobs for our workers by opening up new markets for American goods and services":

Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: "Taunting Republicans, President Barack Obama said Friday it's 'not an accident' that the economy is improving under his watch and chided GOP critics for 'doom and gloom' predictions that haven't come true. Obama said he welcomed the attention Republicans have been giving to the middle class, 'but so far at least the rhetoric has not matched the reality.' In a speech at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting, Obama gave a rousing defense of his economic policies and promoted his agenda as the right policy and political prescriptions for Democrats heading into the 2016 elections":

Matthew Lee & Julie Pace of the AP: "In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world."

Evan Perez & Wes Bruer of CNN: "A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism. Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to -- and in some cases greater than -- the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.​ The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010." ...

... CW: And here I just got thru saying that Jeh Johnson doesn't spend any time frightening me.

Rudy the Rudest Party-Crasher Ever. Nicholas Confessore & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Remarks by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York about President Obama set off an uproar at a reception for Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin on Wednesday. But it turns out that Mr. Giuliani was not scheduled to speak at the event, or even attend.... The gathering, at New York's '21' Club, was meant to give Mr. Walker an opportunity to mix with and impress some of New York's wealthy financiers and [discredited] supply side economists." ...

People find him unemotional except on subjects where he gets emotional. Not the slaughtering of the Christians, not the slaughtering of the Jews, not the slaughtering of the Syrians, but Ferguson. -- Rudy Giuliani, Friday, on President Obama

CW Translation: The POTUS is black, so he only cares about black people.

CW: Worth noting: Contra Rudy, reporters & pundits suggested President Obama was not at all emotional in his comments about the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Giuliani is so twisted by racial animus that he has no touch with reality. Thus, in Rudy's imagination, anything Obama says about bias or crimes against blacks is over-the-top socialism, & everything he says about other injustices is insincere at best. Giuliani is one crazy, vicious pipsqueak. And I don't feel one bit sorry for him.

... Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today that he feels 'sorry' for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is under fire for recently questioning President Obama's love for America.... 'It's sad to see when somebody who's attained a certain level of public stature and even admiration tarnishes that legacy so thoroughly,' Earnest said of the former Republican mayor. Earnest said the president has expressed his love for America on numerous occasions and highlighted the last line of this year's State of the Union address when President Obama said 'God bless this country we love.'" ...

... "What Rudy Knows about Love." Wayne Barrett, who has written a book on Rudy, wrote a nearly-perfect takedown in the Daily News of Mr. 9/11-a-Slur-&-a-Lie. CW: I linked Barrett's commentary in yesterday's Comments. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... Steve M. "Barack Obama's grandfather fought in World War II. Rudy Giuliani's was barred from military service because he was a felon. Yeah, maybe Giuliani's right. Maybe we really are formed by the character of the people who raised us." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "As Wayne Barrett points out, Giuliani's father was a mob enforcer, and he and his five brothers all avoided military service during World War II. What about this upbringing in any way suggests it conveyed some deeper patriotism than Obama's?... Any attempt to salvage an idea from Giuliani's gaseous smear invariably fails. His dark insinuation that this liberal Democratic president hates America in a way unlike other Democratic presidents is under-girded by nothing but a generalized suspicion neither he nor his supporters can define." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Mr. Giuliani’s road to and through City Hall was punctuated with racial controversy. From his 1993 campaign challenging David N. Dinkins, the city's first African-American mayor, during which Mr. Giuliani stood with rowdy protesting police officers -- some of whom carried signs suggesting that voters should 'Dump the washroom attendant!' because Mr. Dinkins had proposed a commission to look into police misconduct -- to his writing off a black New Yorker killed by the police as 'no altar boy' (though he actually was), Mr. Giuliani has had a complicated relationship with African-Americans." ...

... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. If you're going to claim you're not being racist, you first have to start by using an actual dog whistle instead of whatever it was you used in the "loves America" comments, because maybe you thought that was a dog whistle, but people could totally hear it. Then, you have to do better than 'but his mother was white.' It's a funny thing, but turning to completely racially based logic is about the least convincing possible way to rebut charges of racism."

... Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Crude as he is, Giuliani isn't wrong to sense a difference between Obama and his predecessors. Previous presidents have been profuse with their praise of America's perceived exceptionalism. And they've done so without question or reservation.... Barack Obama's view is a little different. Compared with the visions of his predecessors, his is less triumphant and informed by a kind of civic humility.... Why does his praise come with a note of reservation?... By choice as much as birth, Obama is a black American. And black Americans, more than most, have a complicated relationship with our country...." ...

... CW: One need not be black to share Barack Obama's view of "American exceptionalism." One need only look to Giuliani himself to see our flaws.

Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story publishes the transcript of Bill O'Reilly's non-responsive response to the Mother Jones story, linked here yesterday. Turns out Mother Jones reporter David Cohn is a liar. Al Franken, too! Sen. Franken is never mentioned in Corn's Mother Jones story. O'Reilly's just can't get over the author of Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. ...

... CW: C'mon, WashPo & NYT: you all knocked yourselves out tracking down Brian Williams' exaggerations & fabrications. Can't you throw O'Reilly a bone? He's, like, the most popular star on cable "news"! ...

... Steve M.: "The folks in the mainstream press won't hold O'Reilly to the same standard [as they hold Williams] because he and his defenders will shout and bray and beat their chests, and the MSM will shrink back from this dominance challenge.... This kind of thuggish behavior seems to have worked extraordinarily well for Murdoch for decades...." ...

... Dylan Byers of Politico: "The editors-in-chief at Mother Jones have written a letter to Fox News requesting that Bill O'Reilly apologize for saying that journalist David Corn deserved to be 'in the kill zone.'..."

Presidential Race

** Dana Milbank: "What Rudy Giuliani did this week was stupid. What Scott Walker did ought to disqualify him as a serious presidential contender." Read the whole post. ...

... "Spineless." Washington Post Editors: "On two occasions in recent days, [Walker] has proved himself incapable of saying basic truths that might offend some of his potential voters: First, that evolution is real, and second, that an honorable politician riticizes his opponent's policies, not his patriotism." ...

... Also, too, Walker is sleazy, sneaky & "doesn't love American workers": Patrick Marley & Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "After saying in his re-election bid that he wouldn't push so-called right-to-work legislation, Gov. Scott Walker committed Friday to signing it, acting after GOP leaders fast-tracked the proposal for a Senate vote next week. Walker as a lawmaker sponsored the labor legislation two decades ago and as governor was careful never to say he would veto it, but as recently as September he said he wouldn't be 'supporting it in this session.'" ...

... Charles Pierce provides an overview of Walker's budget proposal for the state of Wisconsin: "Where it is not actively hostile to the interests of anyone except his state's plutocrats and out-of-state mining interests, there is in the budget a low-running contempt for the concept of the government's obligation to do much of anything except protect the wealth of the wealthy and throw the right people in jail. His idea of 'going big and bold' is to be petty and small-minded. His budget is a melange of childish vandalism, cut-rate empire building, and the construction of a Potemkin record for the consumption of oligarchical moneybags and hayshaking god-botherers in Iowa and elsewhere."

Charles Pierce: "As a presidential candidate in 2016, [Rand Paul] has enough problems, and he's picking up new ones almost by the day, and he's going to have to answer for his father's lifelong devotion to, among other things, the oldest form of American sedition." ...

     ... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed has video of Ron Paul's remarkable speech advocating for nullification & secession.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Hillary Clinton has hired a self-oppo research firm.

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Maureen McDonnell was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison after an emotional, hours-long hearing in which the former first lady of Virginia apologized publicly for the first time since she and her husband were first accused of public corruption."

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. AP: "Police say a 55-year-old southwestern Michigan woman who died after accidentally shooting herself in the head in January was adjusting a handgun in her bra holster at the time." Thanks to Barbarossa for the lead.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Yemen's ousted president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi appeared to rescind his resignation and attempt to reclaim his position in a statement on Saturday after escaping house arrest by the Houthi militia in the capital Sanaa and fleeing to Aden. The statement, signed 'president of the republic of Yemen' and read out on al-Jazeera news channel, was his first public comment since he resigned last month when the Houthis overran his private residence and the presidential palace."

Weather Channel: "Hypothermia has been blamed for the deaths of at least 20 people as an arctic blast, known as the Siberian Express, continues to push through the central and eastern parts of the U.S. The toll includes nine people in Tennessee, six in Pennsylvania, two in Illinois and one each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Several other deaths suspected of being related to the cold are still being investigated."