The Commentariat March 31, 2014

Internal links removed.

Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times: " President Obama's healthcare law, despite a rocky rollout and determined opposition from critics, already has spurred the largest expansion in health coverage in America in half a century, national surveys and enrollment data show. As the law's initial enrollment period closes, at least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage. Some have done so through marketplaces created by the law, some through other private insurance and others through Medicaid, which has expanded under the law in about half the states." ...

... Excellent Timing. Fredreka Schouten & Kelly Kennedy of USA Today: "The federal government's healthcare enrollment website -- HealthCare.gov -- went down briefly early Monday for extended maintenance as heavy traffic was building on the last day of open enrollment for 2014." CW: Really, could these programmers be any more clueless? Who scheduled a maintenance check on the last official day of sign-ups? ...

... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Republicans have mostly tolerated the portions of the [ACA] that benefit the middle class.... The real controversy, as with Medicaid five decades ago, centers on health care for the poor."

Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "Climate change is already having sweeping effects on every continent and throughout the world's oceans, scientists reported Monday, and they warned that the problem is likely to grow substantially worse unless greenhouse emissions are brought under control. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically summarizes climate science, concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct."

Thomas Frank in Salon: Plutocracy is the norm. It will not dismantle itself. "That is our job."

Zombies! Paul Krugman: "... the belief that America suffers from a severe 'skills gap' is ... a prime example of a zombie idea -- an idea that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die.... If employers are really crying out for certain skills, they should be willing to offer higher wages to attract workers with those skills. In reality, however, it's very hard to find groups of workers getting big wage increases.... Influential people move in circles in which repeating the skills-gap story ... is a badge of seriousness, an assertion of tribal identity.... Moreover, by blaming workers for their own plight, the skills myth shifts attention away from the spectacle of soaring profits and bonuses even as employment and wages stagnate."

CW: Brad DeLong has an opinion piece in the New York Times. I don't understand a word of it. If anyone wants to translate, thank you very much. If economists & other experts want to have influence, they have to learn to write for people with a high-school education. See Krugman above.

Speaking of lying brainiacs, as we do in today's Comments section, Driftglass has a lovely review of the expert guests commissioned to Tell Lies Using Big Words on the Sunday shows. ...

... Charles Pierce does the same. Turns out one of the healthcare experts was Rick Santorum -- so no Big Words. Except maybe "abstinence."

Ayn Rand Lives! Jonathan Chait: The funniest thing happened on the way to Paul Ryan's plan to show the poor some love. He drafted the House budget, & it slashes the hell out of poverty programs. Again. But hey, he's thinking about thinking about maybe doing some anti-poverty thingee sometime.

** Jamelle Bouie in Slate: "Nearly twice as many whites as blacks favor the death penalty.... There's no separating capital punishment from its role, in part, as a tool of racial control.... Not only [were] whites immune to persuasion on the death penalty, but when researchers told them of the racial disparity -- that blacks faced unfair treatment -- many increased their support.... If you needed a one-word answer to why whites are so supportive of the death penalty, 'racism' isn't a bad choice."

N. Montenegro of the USCCB: "The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, joined by bishops on the border, will travel to Nogales, Arizona, March 30-April 1, 2014, to tour the U.S.-Mexico border and celebrate Mass on behalf of the close to 6,000 migrants who have died in the U.S. desert since 1998. The Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. on April 1, followed by a press conference at 10:30 a.m." Via Greg Sargent. ...

... As Sargent points out, the USCCB is stepping up pressure on the Obama administration: in this letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the Most Rev. Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, rips the administration's immigration enforcement policies. ...

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Across the country, immigrant-rights advocates report mounting disillusionment with both parties among Latinos, enough to threaten recent gains in voting participation that have reshaped politics to Democrats' advantage nationally, and in states like Colorado with significant Latino populations." CW: Another good reason for Republicans to stall/fight immigration reform.

Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "... both G.M. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than previously acknowledged, ignored or dismissed warnings for more than a decade about a faulty ignition switch that, if bumped, could turn off, shutting the engine and disabling the air bags. General Motors has recalled nearly 2.6 million cars and has linked 13 deaths to the defect." ...

... Christopher Jensen & Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "... the revolving door between the [National Highway Transportation Safety Administration] and the automotive industry is once again coming under scrutiny as lawmakers investigate the decade-long failure by General Motors and safety regulators to act more aggressively on a defective ignition switch that G.M. has linked to 13 deaths. When David J. Friedman, acting administrator of the highway safety agency, testifies before House and Senate panels on Tuesday and Wednesday, a central question will be why the agency failed to push for a recall."

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Military officials said they are investigating the conduct of a U.S. Marine who was on assignment for President Obama's trip to the Netherlands last week, after witnesses said he was talking in detail about his job and passing around his government security badge during a night of drinking at a bar.... Circulating an official pass that would allow someone to gain entry to the summit would be a serious security breach...." CW: I can't help feeling President Obama's security detail isn't all that interested in protecting him.

Beyond the Beltway

Jim Miller of the Sacramento Bee: "The ... FBI affidavit against [California state Sen. Leland] Yee and more than 20 other defendants says the San Francisco Democrat's focus on retiring a $70,000 campaign debt from his unsuccessful 2011 mayor's race and raising money for his 2014 candidacy for secretary of state led him to accept bribes in return for official favors and arrange overseas weapons deals.... Money is a never-ending concern of politicians facing campaign costs that run into the six and seven figures." CW: Another good reason for campaign finance reform -- it will free up candidates from the need to run guns, consort with gangsters & take bribes.

The Rich Are Different from You & Me. Cris Barrish of the Delaware News Journal: "A Superior Court judge who sentenced a wealthy du Pont heir to probation for raping his 3-year-old daughter noted in her order that he 'will not fare well' in prison and needed treatment instead of time behind bars, court records show.... [A] The lawsuit filed by [du Pont heir Robert] Richards' ex-wife accuses him of admitting to sexually abusing his infant son between 2005 and 2007, the same period when he abused his daughter starting when she was 3." CW: See, if you're rich, abusing & raping infants & toddlers is an illness; if you're not rich, it is naturally a crime; if you're black, it's a death-penalty crime (see Jamelle Bouie above). The American justice system is not that difficult to understand.

News Ledes

AP: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rushed to the Middle East on Monday for a surprise visit aimed at rescuing his Mideast diplomatic efforts, as peace talks approached a critical make-or-break point. Kerry landed in Israel late Monday before heading to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then to the West Bank town of Ramallah to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas." ...

... Guardian: "Russia flaunted its grip on Crimea on Monday, with the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, flying in to the newly annexed territory for a cabinet meeting, cementing the sense of resignation in Kiev and the west that the seizure of the territory is irreversible. At the same time, Russian forces appeared to be pulling back from the border with eastern Ukraine. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, said in a phone conversation with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that he had ordered a 'partial withdrawal' from the border, according to Berlin. The developments came after a four-hour meeting on Sunday between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in which both sides put their visions for resolving the Ukraine crisis on the table. After the meeting in Paris, Lavrov said Ukraine should introduce federalisation of power."

AFP: "The United States criticized China as provocative Monday after its coast guard tried to block a Philippine vessel that was rotating troops in the tense South China Sea."

Seattle Times: The death toll from the Snohomish County mudslide climbed by three to 21 on Sunday, and searchers found four additional victims who are not part of that official count. The number of people still missing after nine days of searching stands at 30." ...

     ... Update: "The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit Monday afternoon released a list of 22 people missing in the Oso mudslide."

The Commentariat -- March 30, 2014

Steve Yaccino & Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls. The bills, laws and administrative rules -- some of them tried before -- shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote. Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, in particular cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election." ...

... CW: Any Republican who gave a rat's ass about American "values" would be speaking out -- screaming -- against this systematic disenfranchisement of eligible voters. I have never held a high opinion of Republican motives or policies, but ten years ago you could not have convinced me that the party would stoop so low. These actions make Nixon's secret dirty tricks against political rivals & journalists look like small potatoes; these are open & notorious dirty tricks against vast swaths of defenseless American citizens. The Republican party has no shame. ...

... CW: And how about the indignity of not being able to eat, drink or breathe? Thanks to Barbarossa for the link to this excellent essay by Dan Kaufman on the Wisconsin legislature's (and Gov. Scott Walker's) approval of "the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine" to be blasted out of the hills & river valleys of Upstate Wisconsin, endangering not only the lifelines of the local Chippewa tribe but also Lake Superior (and probably a good portion of the continent's water supply). How could this happen? Mining executives and their "supporters have donated a total of $15 million to Governor Walker and Republican legislators, outspending the mine's opponents by more than 600 to 1."

** Bruce Ackerman in the Nw York Times: "Dignity is a Constitutional principle." CW: Ackerman doesn't go there, but he could just as well apply his "Constitutional principle" to the indignity of being a person of color or an elderly person or a student going to the polls & being denied her right to vote.

Andrew Roth & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "A day after the Russian leader Vladimir V. Putin reached out to President Obama to try to peacefully resolve the standoff over Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry scrambled his travel plans to meet with his Russian counterpart in Paris on Sunday, according to a State Department official."

Tim Egan of the New York Times: "'This was a completely unforeseen slide,' said John Pennington, the emergency manager of Snohomish County. 'It was considered very safe.' He said this on Monday, two days after the equivalent of three million dump truck loads of wet earth heaved down on the river near the tiny town of Oso. Unforeseen — except for 60 years' worth of warnings, most notably a report in 1999 that outlined 'the potential for a large catastrophic failure" on the very hillside that just suffered a large catastrophic failure.' ... Logging above the area of the current landslide appears to have gone beyond the legal limits, into the area that slid...."

Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "The White House on Friday opened the way to cutting emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry, saying it would study the magnitude of leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas. The announcement seemed designed to please the international community -- which is meeting in Yokohama to finalise a blockbuster climate report -- as well as environmental groups suing to force the Obama administration to regulate the oil and gas industry."

Bishop Gene Robinson in the Daily Beast: "... Christians complaining about 'discrimination' should realize what real victimization looks like."

Tim Townsend has a good piece in the Daily Beast on the first books of the Bible & the evolution of God's relationship to his flawed creation: mankind. The piece is ostensibly about the film "Noah," which premiered this week.

Presidential Election 2016

Anybody But Rand. Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Many of the Republican Party's most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates and starting talks on fundraising strategy. Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP's brightest hope to win back the White House." ...

... Yeah, and the Democrats can't think of anyone but Clinton. Both parties are stuck in a fairly ignominious past. What are people who care about the present & future to do?

Ken Vogel of Politico: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to Sheldon Adelson in a meeting Saturday for stepping on a fault line in Middle East politics during a speech he gave earlier in the day...." Christie used the term "occupied territories" to describe, um, the occupied territories. CW: This conjures for me the unpleasant image of a fat man, settling himself with difficulty into position to kiss the wrinkled ass of a tetchy oligarch. Politics is hard.

The Other Clinton

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Clinton Library took the wraps off another batch of White House documents Friday afternoon, offering new insights into how aides scrambled to address the Monica Lewinsky scandal, how the hot-button issue of race tied the White House staff up in knots and how former President Bill Clinton cast a wide net for advice in advance of his major speeches."

Odd News

Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor: "Three days after an FBI agent was cleared of wrongdoing in the bizarre killing of an associate of slain Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the only surviving bombing suspect, alleged that the FBI attempted to recruit the elder Tsarnaev as an informant. In court filings on Friday, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense team said that new information suggests the FBI interviewed Tamerlan on several occasions before the attack, and even pressured him to surreptitiously report on the Chechen underworld."

News Ledes

New York Times: "As Secretary of State John Kerry began his meeting [in Paris] with his Russian counterpart on Sunday evening to seek a political solution to the tense standoff over Ukraine, the federalization of the country was likely to be at the core of the discussion." ...

... Guardian: "Russia on Sunday night repeated its demand that the US and its European partners accept its proposal that ethnic Russian regions of eastern and southern Ukraine be given extensive autonomous powers independent of Kiev as a condition for agreeing a diplomatic solution to the crisis over its annexation of Crimea." The Washington Post story is here. ...

... Reuters: " The United States on Sunday pledged $10 million to bolster border security in Moldova at a time when concerns are rising about divisions within the country over a trade deal with Europe and Russia's intervention in neighboring Ukraine. The pro-Western Moldavan government is pushing ahead with an EU trade deal by the summer despite the increasing debate on whether to integrate with Europe or stick with former Soviet master Russia."

Reuters: "U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has sent America's top general in Europe back early from a trip to Washington in what a spokesman on Sunday called a prudent step given Russia's 'lack of transparency' about troop movements across the border with Ukraine."

AP: "American mediators held urgent contacts with Israeli and Palestinian officials Sunday in hopes of salvaging troubled Mideast peace talks -- searching for a formula to bring the sides back together and extend the negotiations beyond a current late-April deadline." ...

... Guardian: "The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, on Sunday began his visit to Israel, at a time of heightened tensions with Israel's defence minister. Dempsey and Moshe Yaalon tried to portray business as usual, weeks after Yaalon angered US officials."

Guardian: "Egypt's presidential election will be held in late May, the electoral commission announced on Sunday, finally setting dates for the crucial vote widely expected to be won by the country's former military chief who ousted an elected president last year."

Seattle Times: " The number of people believed missing in last weekend's deadly mudslide has dropped dramatically from 90 to 30."

The Commentariat -- March 29, 2014

Internal links removed.

Reuters: "Russian president Vladimir Putin called Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a US diplomatic proposal for Ukraine and the US president told Putin that Russia must pull back its troops and not move deeper into Ukraine, the White House said. It was believed to have been the first direct conversation between Obama and Putin since the US and its European allies began imposing sanctions on Putin's inner circle and threatened to penalise key sectors of Russia's economy." ...

     ... ** Update: Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia reached out to President Obama on Friday to discuss ideas about how to peacefully resolve the international standoff over Ukraine, a surprise move by Moscow to pull back from the brink of an escalated confrontation that has put Europe and much of the world on edge. After weeks of provocative moves punctuated by a menacing buildup of troops on Ukraine's border, Mr. Putin's unexpected telephone call to Mr. Obama offered a hint of a possible settlement. The two leaders agreed to have their top diplomats meet to discuss concrete proposals for defusing the crisis that has generated the most serious clash between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War."

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama assured the Saudi king Friday that the United States is not pursuing naively a negotiated resolution to Iran's nuclear program, and he discussed ways of strengthening Syria's moderate rebel forces now being battered by extremist groups inside the movement and by the Syrian military. Obama and King Abdullah, along with senior advisers, spoke for two hours at the royal desert compound outside this desert capital, his last stop of a four-nation visit to Europe and the Middle East."

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "With minimal reference to Edward Snowden..., General Keith Alexander ended his NSA directorship and his 39-year army career on Friday.... But Alexander's run at the NSA will be forever linked to the revelations of its global surveillance dragnets." ...

... Aw, shucks. Shouldn't Alexander's career be forever linked to this? --

Keith Alexander's Hollywood-designed Information Dominance Center, modelled after Star Trek's Starship Enterprise.

Vice President Biden delivered this week's presidential address:

Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "So: right now, we have passed a law meant to expand coverage to all Americans, and yet it does not reach the poorest of our fellow citizens in nearly half the states in the country. That, on its face, is a major policy failure. No one really wanted to say this during the law's drafting, but its underlying goal was to get coverage to people in red states where there was no local political will to address the problem. CW: An excellent piece. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link.

Mary Flaherty & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Maryland officials are set to replace the state's online health-insurance exchange with technology from Connecticut's insurance marketplace..., an acknowledgment that a system that has cost at least $125.5 million is broken beyond repair."

Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "The past couple of weeks have marked a turning point in American ugliness as the mob has turned its full fury on first lady Michelle Obama. From criticism of her trip to China to a recent 'tell-all' by former White House assistant press secretary Reid Cherlin in the New Republic about Obama's allegedly tyrannical behavior, the gloves have been removed."

AP: "General Motors is boosting by 971,000 the number of small cars being recalled worldwide for a defective ignition switch, saying cars from the model years 2008-2011 may have gotten the part as a replacement.... Of the cars being added to the recall, 824,000 were sold in the U.S."

The Guardian: "David Cameron has hailed the first same-sex marriages in England and Wales as sending a 'powerful message' about equality in Britain." ...

... Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "With the stroke of midnight, same-sex couples were, for the first time, permitted to marry in England and Wales, and many did in middle-of-the-night celebrations. The weddings united same-sex partners who have for a decade been allowed to form civil partnerships, but until now have been prohibited from tying the knot. The change is largely being taken in stride, with little rancor from opponents and a sense from supporters that same-sex marriage was long overdue."

Jonathan Chait on the question of whether or not there is such a thing as "a culture of poverty."

New Jersey News

** Salvador Rizzo of the Star-Ledger: "Gov. Chris Christie announced today that David Samson, whose chairmanship of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has come under fire in recent months, has resigned. Samson, a close ally of Christie and a former attorney general of New Jersey, is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Attorney of New Jersey in the face of accusations that his law firm, Wolff & Samson, had enriched itself by lobbying for companies with business before the Port Authority." The New York Times story, by Mark Santora, is here. ...

... As Rachel Maddow pointed out some while back, "the annual budget for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is bigger than the entire budgets of 9 states." (CW: I don't think that's 9 states combined.)

New York Times Editors: "The only thing wrong with the resignation announcement on Friday of David Samson, Gov. Chris Christie's top appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was that it took so long."

Jason Grant of the Star-Ledger: Michael Critchley, "the lawyer for Bridget Anne Kelly, fired back today against allegations that largely blamed her for the George Washington Bridge lane closings, blasting the report commissioned by Gov. Chris Christie's office as containing 'venomous, gratuitous, and inappropriate sexist remarks.'" The Bergen Record report, by Michael Phillis, is here.

Gail Collins seems a tad unimpressed with Christie's complete exoneration & his pomposity & self-righteousness.

Kate Dries of Jezebel: It's all Bridget Kelly's fault because she's an emotional, incompetent girl & Bill Stepien dumped her or something. Dries lays out the "evidence" of Kelly's instability that for some unknown reason caused her to think dumping on Fort Lee drivers would make everything all better. ...

... CW: C'mon, people. No wonder those high-priced lawyers can't figure out the motivation for the bridge closings: the person who caused them is a hysterical female prone to acting out in bizarre ways. It's impossible to tell what such whack-jobs will do for no apparent reason.

Alec MacGillis of the New Republic picks out & analyzes some tidbits from the report. Interesting.

Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway

Zack Ford of Think Progress: "Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that the 322 same-sex marriages that took place on Saturday in Michigan will be recognized by the federal government. A federal judge had ruled that Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional but had not stayed his ruling, so the marriages took place during the window when the amendment was unenforceable."

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Once again, Ken Dentzer, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) handpicked Secretary of State, has unsuccessfully attempted to mount a massive purge of Florida';s voter rolls. And once again, he has been forced to abandon this effort due to his lack of an accurate list of who is and is not eligible to vote. In a memo, Dentzer told the state's local election supervisors that the purge would be postponed until 2015."

Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times: "Reeling from embarrassing bribery, corruption and voter fraud scandals, the [California] state Senate took the unprecedented action Friday of voting to suspend three Democratic lawmakers from office pending the resolution of criminal charges against them. The paid suspensions of Sens. Leland Yee, Ronald S. Calderon and Roderick Wright all but guarantee Democrats will not regain their supermajority in the Senate this session. And the controversies are expected to become anti-incumbent campaign fodder in other districts in this year's elections. The bipartisan 28-1 vote came two days after Yee was arrested in his hometown of San Francisco and charged by federal authorities with conspiracy to traffic in firearms without a license and accepting campaign funds in exchange for political favors." ...

... Joe Coscarelli of New York: "After a federal indictment came down against him this week, [Leland] Yee instantly became one of the most insane political characters in recent memory, accused by the FBI of everything from taking donations in exchange for favors to palling around with a Chinatown gangster named Shrimp Boy and attempting to smuggle guns. Yee, a Democrat, just happens to be a vocal anti-gun and video-game-violence crusader."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "More than 100 aftershocks have been reported since a magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled Southern California on Friday night. Most of the aftershocks have been small, but some were strong enough to be felt in the areas around the epicenter in northwestern Orange County. Meanwhile, officials surveyed the damage, which for the most part was considered minor."

Los Angeles Times: "A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft searching the South Indian Ocean reported Saturday seeing 'three suspicious objects' that could be debris from the long-missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The announcement came as China stepped into a more proactive role in the frustrating 3-week-old search for the plane. Beijing has been publicly critical of Malaysia's efforts to find the Boeing 777, which disappeared March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Out of 227 passengers, 153 were Chinese."