The Commentariat -- March 19, 2014
Kathy Lally of the Washington Post: "Russian-backed forces broke into Ukrainian Naval headquarters in Sevastopol Wednesday and raised the Russian flag, a reminder of the potential for dangerous confrontation a day after Moscow declared the Crimean peninsula part of Russia. Apparently no shots were fired and it was difficult to identify the attackers, who one witness said numbered about 200 and rammed through the gate of the office complex in a truck. The individuals who stormed the base, however, were well-organized and carried off the takeover without incident. After it was over, soldiers wearing unmarked uniforms and holding automatic weapons were guarding the gate." ...
... Will Englund of the Washington Post: "Invoking the suffering of the Russian people and a narrative of constant betrayals by the West, President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Russia was within its rights to reclaim Crimea, then signed a treaty that did just that." The New York Times story, by Steven Myers & Ellen Barry, is here. ...
... "Putin's Irony Curtain." Massimo Calabresi of Time: No, Vladimir, Crimea is not just like Kosovo.
... Matt Smith & Alla Eshchenko of CNN: "... after a member of its military was killed, another wounded and more captured when masked gunmen seized their base near the Crimean regional capital, Simferopol, Ukraine's defense ministry authorized its forces to open fire." ...
... Olesya Vartanyan & Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "If history is a guide, Crimeans' celebration may be short-lived." The reporters examine the desolation in the "tiny mountainous enclave of South Ossetia, who, five and a half years ago, were similarly ecstatic.... These days South Ossetia's economy is entirely dependent on budgetary funds from Russia. Unemployment is high, and so are prices, since goods must now be shuttled in through [a] tunnel.... Its political system is controlled by elites loyal to Moscow, suddenly wealthy enough to drive glossy black cars, though many roads are pitted or unpaved. Dozens of homes damaged in the 2008 war with Georgia have never been repaired." ...
... Katie Van Syckle of New York: "... one downside of being caught in an international power struggle, with the threat of U.S. sanctions rivaling those of the Cold War, is the death of tourism -- a main source of revenue for the region. On the eve of the summer season, flights to the area -- except for those to and from Moscow -- have been canceled, significantly limiting access to the Ukrainian coast, a historic getaway for czars like Nicholas II." ...
... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: It's about the money. Unfortunately, "We're long past the era when America and its allies can spend vast sums to promote Western ideals and interests around the world. Except, of course, in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the U.S. is on pace to spend the equivalent of eight or nine Marshall Plans." Also Beinart explains the McCain Doctrine: "If only America were fighting more wars, Russia would never have taken Crimea." See also advice from foreign policy expert Mitt Romney linked below.
Barton Gellman of the Washington Post & Ashkan Soltani: "The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording '100 percent' of a foreign country's telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden. A senior manager for the program compares it to a time machine -- one that can replay the voices from any call without requiring that a person be identified in advance for surveillance.... At the request of U.S. officials, The Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify the country where the system is being employed or other countries where its use was envisioned." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The Pentagon's intelligence watchdog said he was 'not aware' of the National Security Agency's bulk domestic phone records collection programs before the Guardian exposed it in June, nor does his office have investigations open into the controversial surveillance. The admission by Anthony C Thomas, the deputy Defense Department inspector general for intelligence and special program assessments -- who has oversight responsibilities on the National Security Agency -- comes despite months of public assurances that the NSA's vast surveillance activities are thoroughly overseen, including by the Pentagon inspector general."
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to 24 veterans Tuesday, most of whom were initially passed over because they were Hispanic, Jewish or African American. The emotional ceremony marked the culmination of a 50-year campaign waged by Korean War veteran Mitchel Libman, now 83, who was convinced that his childhood friend from Brooklyn was denied the nation's highest commendation for combat valor because he was Jewish." ...
... Here's the very short version:
Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.... The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.... Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry's consensus about next year."
CW: What with positing that Maybe Everything Was God's Fault yesterday, I didn't have it in me to tell you that Mitt Romney said, "No, Everything Is Obama's Fault." Ari Berman had more fortitude & did a fine job of debunking Romney's Wall Street Journal op-ed:
Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: Another clueless billionaire -- Home Depot founder Ken Langone -- compares leftish populism to Nazism. Cohn explains why Langone's analogy is far from apt. ...
... Ken Lovett of the New York Daily News: Langone says he might be sorry: "If my choice of words was inappropriate -- and they well may have been that -- I extend my profound apologies to anyone and everyone who I may have offended." CW: If you're offended I compared you to Hitler, then I apologize on the chance that maybe I should have thought of another more appropriate evil despot. Also, routers & table saws are on sale at Home Depot this week.
Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor, in Slate: corporations are people, my friend, & that is why they should lose the Supreme Court case. "Religious liberty is certainly appropriate for some not-for-profit corporations, like churches or nonprofits with a religious mission. If Hobby Lobby's owners wanted to form such an organization, there was a convenient and readily available option: They could have incorporated as a nonprofit.... By asking the Supreme Court to let them enjoy all the protections of this corporate form, but not all of its duties, Hobby Lobby’s owners want to have their corporate cake and eat it, too."
James Fallows of the Atlantic, an experienced pilot with a deep interest in aviation, on one implausible and one plausible theory on what happened to Malaysia Air flight 370.
** Harold Meyerson has a long piece in the American Prospect on how to raise American workers' wages. He also knocks down the standard-issue claims about why U.S. workers are not getting their piece of the pie. (Hey, Tom The-World-Is-Flat Friedman, you should read this.) ...
... Ben Casselman of Nate Silver's new FiveThirtyEight venture susses out whether or not more Americans are trying to sustain themselves in minimum- & low-wage jobs. If Casselman's analysis -- which makes at least one ridiculous assumption & expresses complete ignorance of factors contributing to low wages ("Economists aren't sure"), then I am singularly unimpressed with Silver's product.
New Jersey News
William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors in New Jersey issued a subpoena last week to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seeking records relating to its chairman, David Samson, and contracts on two bridge projects worth $2.8 billion that he voted to award to construction companies tied to his law firm, according to people briefed on the matter. The subpoena, which focused on Mr. Samson's potential conflicts of interest, was issued by the United States attorney's office in New Jersey, which along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal inquiry into the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge and other suspected wrongdoing by current and former aides, appointees and associates of Gov. Chris Christie, the people said."
Alec MacGillis of the New Republic discovers that Christie allies rigged the supposedly competitive bids for those "Stronger than the Storm" ads that featured the Christie family -- at state expense -- during his re-election campaign. The whole process was a sham; the fix was in from the get-go.
Erin O'Neill of the Star-Ledger: " A group of Rutgers University students, as well as union representatives, were kicked out of a town hall meeting with Gov. Chris Christie [yesterday]. The group rose up in unison after Christie finished answering a question about why parents who send their children to Catholic schools have to pay taxes to support public schools and started shouting at the governor, blasting him for his handling of Hurricane Sandy relief aid." ...
... CW: Also worth noting: some people who attend Christie town halls are incredibly stupid/selfish to think only people whose children are currently enrolled in public schools should pay school taxes.
Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway
Maureen Dowd likes "the soft-spoken" L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, & contrasts him with the "abrasive" NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who can't get along with that nice Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Gubernatorial Race
Rick Pearson & Bob Secter of the Chicago Tribune: "First-time candidate Bruce Rauner eked out a surprisingly narrow victory over state Sen. Kirk Dillard for the Republican governor nomination in Tuesday's primary as Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn launched an early TV attack ad against his wealthy challenger."
Congressional Races
Katherine Skiba & Kim Geiger of the Chicago Tribune: "Sen. Dick Durbin's run for re-election against Republican Jim Oberweis promises to be a costly, rough-and-tumble contest in which the longtime Democratic lawmaker has key advantages. In a closer-than-expected GOP primary race Tuesday, Oberweis emerged the victor, capturing 56 percent of the vote to Doug Truax's 44 percent, with 98 percent of the state's precincts reporting, according to unofficial returns."
Alex Roarty of the National Journal on David Jolly's win over Alex Sink in Florida 13th's special election: "... leaders at the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] described a first-of-its-kind political operation deployed on behalf of a Republican congressional candidate. Led by Honeybadger, a continually updating system that integrates real-time data with existing voter files, they say they were able to track voters they had to target, discover what messages would motivate them to go to the polls, and project exactly how much ground Jolly had to recover when early absentee voting didn't swing his way.... And, NRCC officials say, none of it existed in 2012." ...
... CW: Unless I miss my guess, "Honeybadger" is named for Nancy Pelosi; data analysis showed that "urging [voters] to vote now or watch Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi move one step closer to reclaiming the speaker's gavel." Republicans will be disgusting as often as possible.
News Ledes
CNN: "The Justice Department is set to announce as soon as Wednesday a billion-dollar agreement with Toyota to settle a federal probe of the automaker's handling of customer complaints related to unintended acceleration...."
New York Times: "The authorities [in Malaysia] said Wednesday that they were trying to recover data deleted from a flight simulator custom-built by the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, whose actions, along with those of his first officer, have fallen under growing scrutiny."