The Commentariat -- March 1, 2014

Michael Shear & Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "As Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of carrying out an armed invasion in the Crimea region, President Obama on Friday warned Russia not to intervene militarily, saying the United States would stand with the world to condemn a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty":

... Here's a transcript of President Obama's remarks....

... The New York Times is liveblogging events. ...

... Julie Pace & Matthew Lee of the AP: "U.S. officials said Friday that President Barack Obama may scrap plans to attend an international summit in Russia this summer and could also halt discussions on deepening trade ties with Moscow, raising specific possible consequences if Russia should intervene in Ukraine.... The administration's warning that trade talks could be halted came as Russian officials were in Washington for economic discussions with Obama advisers.... Separately, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he would not address specific U.S. options, "but this could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a provocative way.' Asked about options in a CBS News interview, he said that 'we're trying to deal with a diplomatic focus, that's the appropriate, responsible approach.'" ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times provides background: "Crimea, a multiethnic region populated by Russians, Ukrainians and Tatars, has been the focus of territorial disputes for centuries, and in recent decades it has frequently been a source of tension between Ukraine and Russia." ...

... Told Ya So, Part 1. McCain Reprises His Brilliant 2008 Performance. Jay Newton-Small of Time: "In response to reports of a Russian takeover in parts of Crimea, Arizona Senator John McCain said on Friday, 'We are all Ukrainians,' before calling for swift U.S. economic aid to Ukraine, condemnation of Russia at the United Nations, sanctions against Russian officials and the installation of U.S. missiles in the nearby Czech Republic.... McCain made his declaration in response to a question from TIME about his famous 2008 statement, 'We are all Georgians.' ... In the interview Friday, McCain said President Obama has 'been incredibly naïve' about Putin's goals. 'Putin wants to restore the Russian empire, that's his ambition, he's stated it many times. Therefore no one should be surprised,' McCain said. 'I predicted it and I'm not a genius. But I know Putin.'" ...

     ... CW: I'm trying to remember. Was it President Obama who said of Putin, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul"? Well, whoever it was, he surely was "incredibly naive."

... Told Ya So, Part 2. CNN: "In 2008, when she was the GOP vice presidential nominee, [Sarah] Palin questioned in a speech whether then-Sen. Barack Obama would have the foreign policy credentials to handle a scenario in which Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. 'After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence -- the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next,' she said in Reno, Nevada on October 21, 2008." Palin wrote Friday on Facebook, "Yes, I could see this one from Alaska.... I'm usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as 'an extremely far-fetched scenario' by the 'high-brow' Foreign Policy magazine." "In October 2008, Foreign Policy labeled Palin's prediction as 'strange.'" ...

     ... CW: Palin usually is "not one to say say Told Ya So" because Palin seldom gets anything right. And if you think she wrote that speech in October 2008 (or if she could find Georgia & Ukraine on a map), I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. (At least she would know they're not in Africa, because she thought Africa was a country.) ...

... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "Top [Republican] lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services said Thursday that the world would be better off if the Cold War was still on -- and if Obama wasn't cutting the defense budget." ...

I look back wistfully at the Cold War. There were two superpowers, they knew what we had, we knew what they had, mutually assured destruction meant something. It doesn't mean anything anymore. Now we have these people who are not rational, not logical, they're nuts. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe (RNuts-Okla.)

Your Official Friday Afternoon News Dump. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration said Friday that it would allow some people to receive federal subsidies for health insurance purchased in the private market outside of health insurance exchanges. The sudden shift was the latest in a series of policy changes, extensions and clarifications by federal officials trying to help beneficiaries and minimize political damage to Democrats in this election year. Federal officials said they had agreed to provide such assistance retroactively because technical problems had prevented consumers from using online exchanges to obtain insurance and financial aid in some states. Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon, a Democrat, had specifically asked the federal government to allow financial assistance, in the form of tax credits, for people buying insurance outside the state's troubled exchange." ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "More than a decade ago, Arkansas Rep. Josh Miller (R) was in a catastrophic car accident that broke his neck and left him paralyzed. Medicare and Medicaid paid the $1 million bill for his hospitalization and rehabilitation. But this week, as the Arkansas legislature has debated continuing its privatized Medicaid expansion..., Miller has remained steadfast in his opposition.... The difference, he said, is that some of the 100,000 people who have gained coverage through Arkansas's Medicaid expansion don't work hard enough or just want access to the program so they can purchase and abuse prescription drugs." (In the accident that critically injured Miller, "He was driving with a friend, alcohol was involved, but Miller said he couldn't remember who was driving.to the point that he does not know who was driving.... He was uninsured.") ...

... The Arkansas Times report, by Max Brantley, is well-worth reading, too, as it provides more detail. And this thought from Brantley:

A coldly rational person might say a cook in a fast-food restaurant, working long hours at low pay to feed a family, looks more deserving than an uninsured person injured on a drunken joy ride. I would not. No one should be pre-judged on a subjective merit test for health care.

     ... CW: What defines a Republican is his sociopathic certainty that he is uniquely "deserving" while others are unworthy.

Gail Collins: "The biggest difference between the fortunes of gay rights and abortion rights ... is that politicians who vote to limit women's rights to control their own bodies know that, for the most part, they're only hurting poor people. Low-income women are five times as likely to have an unintended pregnancy as their most affluent sisters. And the lawmakers who busy themselves throwing up barriers to abortion in their own states realize, deep in their hearts, that if their middle-class constituents want to end a pregnancy, they can get on a plane and go where it's easy to take care of the problem."

Dana Milbank performs a post-mortem on Dave Camp's tax reform proposal. The takeaway: Camp didn't do the politics right. ...

     ... A Congress Crammed with Mini-Cruzes. CW: In Partisan World, too many politicians don't do the politics right. Although officially as well as in their heart-of-hearts, they're politicians, they are inexperienced pols. They come from gerrymandered districts, so they don't really have to run for office; the only people they are required to cajole are fatcat donor-lobbyists. Then, if they're Republicans, their usual goal is to do nothing; John Boehner recently defined legislative "success" as repealing old laws, not creating new ones. Add to that mix hackery, hubris, & fear & loathing of the other, and it's little wonder we have a catatonic Congress. They simply don't know how to legislate. Ted Cruz is an exemplar, not an anomaly.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "We're still combing through the thousands of pages of previously withheld documents released Friday by the Clinton Library." Blake runs down "some of the most interesting things we have found. It will continue to be updated." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Post homes in on correspondence that shows how Hillary Clinton's aides worked to polish her image. I find these memos both amusing & baffling: For instance, in 1999, after Clinton had been in politics for decades, did she really need to be told -- in writing -- to "be real," along with other "style pointers," in advance of a meeting with Sen. Moynihan?

... Here's the Clinton Library page with links to the documents.

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama said he took action this week to launch new manufacturing hubs and expand a competition to fund transformative infrastructure projects":

Gubernatorial Election

Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who on Thursday said he will run for an unprecedented fourth term in office, wants to challenge the notion that the state is unmanageable." ...

... CW: Sorry, I plumb forgot to link this yesterday. Anthony York of the Los Angeles Times: "Jerry Brown finally made it official Thursday: He's running for an unprecedented fourth and final term as governor. The announcement, widely expected, was made in minimalist Brown style, with a post on Twitter."

News Ledes

AP: "A group of knife-wielding men attacked a train station in southwestern China on Saturday, leaving at least 27 people dead and another 109 injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in China in recent years."

Guardian: "Iran's president said on Saturday the Islamic Republic has decided not to develop nuclear weapons out of principle, not only because it is prevented from doing so by treaties. President Hassan Rouhani also urged Iran's military leaders to let diplomacy prevail in dealing with potential foreign threats, in a clear reference to efforts to end the nuclear dispute and decades of hostile relations with the west."

Guardian: "Lawyers for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are seeking to have multiple charges against him dismissed. In a court filing late on Friday his lawyers said some charges were repetitive and that the number could sway jurors weighing whether to find him guilty and sentence him to death."

New York Times: "The newly installed, pro-Russia prime minister of Crimea declared on Saturday that he had sole control over the military and the police in the disputed peninsula and he appealed to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for help in safeguarding the region."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 28, 2014

Internal links removed.

** Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The Supreme Court's ban on recording devices has been so effective that there are only two images of the court in session, which were snapped via hidden cameras in the 1930s. That's why it's remarkable that someone managed to record video of Supreme Court oral arguments and post it on YouTube this week, even though it's shaky and only two minutes long. The events in the video are almost as rare. It shows a man interrupting arguments in a patent case on Wednesday to protest the Citizens United decision, as well as footage from oral arguments on the campaign finance case McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which took place on Oct. 8.... The protester was identified by the court as Noah Kai Newkirk, 33, of Los Angeles. He was quickly pulled from the room by police officers, and charged under the federal law banning, 'a harangue or oration' and 'loud, threatening or abusive language in the Supreme Court building.'":

@MAG: Per your request:

     ... P.S. You can play Seat the Justices here. ...

... CW: Let me just say, while we're at it, that we should all be appalled that we allow the so-called public sessions of our third branch of government to remain completely hidden from public view. Not only are we prohibited from seeing the sessions ever, it is only in extraordinary circumstances that we have been permitted to hear the deliberations contemporaneously. It's a goddamned crime against the public interest. ...

... I'm just asking for video recordings of Supreme Court proceedings. I'm not asking that the Supremes take us on their workouts (even though I'd like to see Justice Ginsburg prove she can do 20 pushups, as she claims):

** Bernie Becker of the Hill: "A group of Democratic senators urged the Obama administration on Thursday to cap the amount of political activity that tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups can engage in at 5 to 15 percent. The 15 senators, in public comments on a proposed regulation change that grew out of the IRS targeting controversy, said that the rules need to ensure that 501(c)(4)s can't use their tax-exempt status to go around campaign finance rules." The senate signators were Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) signed the letter. CW: Gee, no Republicans.

Zeke Miller of Time: "Vice President Joe Biden rallied Democrats on Thursday ahead of this year's midterm elections.... Speaking at the Democratic National Committee's annual winter meeting, Biden maintained that Democrats enjoy an advantage on policy, saying a 'majority of the American people ... agree with us on every issue we are for. ... What we're worried about is the Koch brothers and their friends bringing in millions and millions and millions of dollars,' he said. But, he added, 'money can't buy an election when you're selling a bad set of goods.' The vice president called for an end to worries about the future of the party, in light of a spate of recent news stories about the DNC's more modest role and financial troubles. 'Give me a break,' he said. 'There is no Republican Party.'"

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Democrats cash in on Republicans' sexist attacks on Democratic women leaders.

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "The federal budget deficit fell precipitously to $680 billion in the 2013 fiscal year from about $1.1 trillion the year before, the Treasury Department said Thursday. That is the smallest deficit since 2008, and marks the end of a five-year stretch when the country's fiscal gap came in at more than a trillion dollars a year."

Stacy Kaper of the National Journal: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is looking for senators who would allow her military sexual-assault bill to pass even if they don't vote for it directly. The New York Democrat's controversial bill -- which would take away commanders' power to decide which sexual-assault cases are prosecuted -- has been granted a vote by leaders of both parties and could come to the floor as soon as next week. Gillibrand has 55 publicly declared supporters for her legislation, and if she could convince 60 members to vote yes on a procedural vote to take up her bill, it could pass with a simple majority using the votes she already has racked up."

The GOP Is Against Everything. Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans. In a 56-41 vote Thursday, the motion to waive a budget point of order against the bill failed, as Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the Republican roadblock. GOP Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) voted with Democrats."

... Charles Pierce has a very good response to the craven GOP senators who blocked the bill. So does Bernie Sanders, via Pierce:

Don't tell me that enabling a family to have a child is a political issue. When you have a 70-year-old woman taking care of her husband who had both legs blown off in Vietnam, and she's taking care of him 24 hours a day, don't tell me that's a political issue. I find it incredible that we had several Democrats come down to speak but very few Republicans, and then, when they did, I heard Iran sanctions and I heard Benghazi. Tell me what Benghazi or Iran sanctions have to do with caring for our veterans. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

... Steve M. has an excellent response, too, noting that Republicans probably won't pay for throwing veterans under the bus because "everybody knows" Republicans love the troops. ...

     ... CW: Maybe Bernie could have gotten unanimous consent if the bill had described veterans as "military contractors."

Awkward! Russell Berman of the Hill: John Boehner "began his weekly Capitol press conference by attacking President Obama for intending to 'pack it in for the year' and said Republicans would, by contrast, demonstrate leadership by presenting an alternative vision to the country. But when pressed on whether the House would actually hold votes on major legislation in 2014, the Speaker quickly backed away, and wouldn't commit to anything more than continued 'conversations' in the coming month." CW: As far as I can tell, Boehner's definition of "leadership" is "do nothing but attack President Obama." ...

... Boehner's presser, however, was not a complete waste of time. I am happy to pay my Boner Tax for this moment:

... So here's President Obama, "packing it in:"

... Don Lemon of CNN: "In a moving and heartfelt message Thursday, President Barack Obama challenged young minority men to make good choices.... The message was part of his new initiative called 'My Brother's Keeper,' where leading foundations and businesses will donate at least $200 million over five years towards programs aimed at minority youth of color.... A White House official said Obama improvised a good portion of his remarks and was more emotional than many planners of the event anticipated." CNN pulled some highlights:

... Here's the full speech:

Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama will announce Friday that two software firms have pledged more than $400 million worth of software for American classrooms during an appearance at the inaugural White House Film Festival. Software maker Adobe will provide some $300 million in free copies of programs like Photoshop and Premiere Elements that will help students and educators complete digital creative projects. Prezi, a Hungarian software company, is providing $100 million in licenses for its professional presentation program."

New York Times Editors on how raising the minimum wage affects businesses that employ low-wage workers: "Scholarly studies and the experience of businesses themselves show that what companies lose when they pay more is often offset by lower turnover and increased productivity. Businesses are also able to deal with higher costs by modestly increasing prices and by giving smaller increases to higher-paid employees."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Clinton Presidential Library will make its first release on Friday of records that were previously withheld from the public under legal provisions that expired early last year, a spokeswoman for the National Archives said. About 4,000 to 5,000 pages will be put online at 1 P.M. Friday, with paper copies becoming simultaneously available at the library in Little Rock.... More releases are expected in the next couple of weeks. Politico reported Tuesday that about 33,000 pages of records withheld as confidential advice to President Bill Clinton or information about candidates for appointments to federal office, were still unavailable to the public even though the legal basis to withhold them under the Presidential Records Act ran out in January 2013.... Some of the records come from then first lady Hillary Clinton's office...."

Paul Krugman on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: "... both Harry Reid ... and Nancy Pelosi ... have come out against giving the president crucial 'fast-track' authority, meaning that any agreement can receive a clean, up-or-down vote. So what I wonder is why the president is pushing the T.P.P. at all. The economic case is weak, at best, and his own party doesn't like it.... My guess is that we're looking at a combination of Beltway conventional wisdom -- Very Serious People always support entitlement cuts and trade deals -- and officials caught in a 1990s time warp, still living in the days when New Democrats tried to prove that they weren't old-style liberals by going all in for globalization. So don't cry for T.P.P. If the big trade deal comes to nothing, as seems likely, it will be, well, no big deal."

Optic Nerve. Spencer Ackerman & James Ball of the Guardian: "Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not. In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery -- including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications -- from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.... Optic Nerve, the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show, began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, according to an internal GCHQ wiki page accessed that year."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Conservative activists said Thursday that they will continue to press for additional legal protections for private businesses that deny services to gay men and lesbians, saying that a defeat in Arizona this week is only a minor setback and that religious-liberty legislation is the best way to stave off a rapid shift in favor of gay rights." ...

     ... CW: This gang is like (or one-and-the-same as) the anti-abortion crowd. They have taken up a cause that gives them permission to think about sex all the time. Since gay sex is even more taboo in their view than is extramarital hetero-sex, the anti-gay-marriage gang must be more hyper-excited than the fellas in the misogynists' club.

Tami Luhby of CNN: "Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab. Signs on the door and at tables alert diners to the fee, which is also listed separately on the bill.... Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, an upscale restaurant is also asking guests to pony up for its employee health care costs. Since it opened in November, Republique's tab comes with an optional 3% surcharge that allows it to employ all of its 80 workers full-time and provide them with health insurance. The fee is explained in a sign and on the menu, and servers explain it to diners without prompting." ...

... "ObummerCare Tax." Jonathan Chait: "Conservatives find this development very exciting.... There are costs associated with all kinds of government regulations and spending, but he’s not creating a line item on his tab to highlight his share of, say, financing the Department of Defense.... As an act of propaganda, this is completely self-defeating. Customers are told that the dreaded Obummercare may 'ultimately' put the restaurant out of business -- maybe one day, when the Sharia FEMA camp portion is phased in. But in the meantime, they're covering it by making the two people buying lunch fork over an additional 20 cents to cover health insurance for the restaurant's employees. That really doesn't sound like the worst deal in the world." ...

     ... CW: It is also an admission/reminder to customers that the restaurant proprietor heretofore has been happy to see her/his underpaid employees try to get along without affordable health care. Maybe the 15- or 20-cent ObummerCare Tax will encourage customers to give the underpaid wait staff slightly larger tips.

** John Schwartz of the New York Times: "In the 10 years since Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham after convicting him on charges of setting his house on fire and murdering his three young daughters, family members and death penalty opponents have argued that he was innocent. Now newly discovered evidence suggests that the prosecutor in the case may have concealed a deal with a jailhouse informant whose testimony was a key part of the execution decision.... [The informant, Johnny] Webb, and the prosecutor at trial, John Jackson -- who would later become a judge -- explicitly denied that any deal existed...." The Innocence Project found written evidence of a deal; also when he became a judge, Jackson continued to try to cut Webb's time & reduce the charges against him. "The Innocence Project also contends that prosecutors suppressed an effort by Mr. Webb to recant his testimony."

Luke Harding of the Guardian writes a frightening piece on what appears to be a Russian coup in the Crimea. CW: It sure looks as if Putin is doing something about that nostalgia he has for the good ole days of the Soviet Union.

New Jersey News

Ashley Killough, et al., of CNN: "Officials in Fort Lee, New Jersey released 911 audio Friday from the week in September when two out of three access lanes were closed to the George Washington Bridge, ultimately causing massive traffic gridlock across the city for four days in a controversy that has roiled the Christie administration. The 26 hours of emergency dispatch audio will reveal more information about whether the traffic jam, which was allegedly orchestrated by top former appointees of Gov. Chris Christie, led to harm or death due to delayed emergency response time from the unusually high congestion."

Shawn Boburg, et al., of the Bergen Record: "The private messages that linked Governor Christie's office to lane closures at the George Washington Bridge also contain jokes about causing 'traffic problems' at the home of a New Jersey rabbi associated with the Port Authority, newly released documents show. The information is contained in 20 pages of messages that previously had redactions shielding who sent and received texts between former Port Authority executive David Wildstein and others. The documents do not shed any new light on potential further involvement of the governor's office.... In the new batch of texts, the most insensitive texts were authored by [former Christie aide Bridget] Kelly, [former Christie campaign manager Bill] Stepien and Wildstein. The messages also confirm media reports that Port Authority police officer Chip Michaels, a friend of Christie's from their childhood in Livingston -- where Wildstein also grew up -- helped Wildstein survey and keep track of the backups throughout the closures." ...

... CW: There's a pdf of the e-mail exchanges here, but they're still heavily redacted, & I found them hard to follow.

Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "... let's not forget that the press started asking questions about the lane closures in September -- it wasn't until January, after weeks of denying complicity -- that Christie finally conceded that his administration had been up to no good. In those intervening months, Christie did nothing to investigate what had happened, even though it was obviously that this wasn't an issue that wouldn't disappear without a full accounting of what transpired. And the most logical explanation for his lack of investigation is simple: He already knew." ...

     ... CW: Lewison is right. Christie's claims that he wasn't interested in learning the details of the plot(s) that ruined his chance to be POTUS make no sense -- unless he was ordering, encouraging or at least aware of the covert ops his top aides were managing. If your trusted associates & friends betrayed & destroyed your future prospects, wouldn't you want to know who, when, where & why?

Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway

Andrew Wolfson & Doug Stanglin of USA Today: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered Kentucky officials to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed out of state. U.S. District Court Judge John Heyburn ruled that Kentucky's Constitution and laws banning recognition of such marriages 'violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and they are void and unenforceable.' The decision amounted to a final ruling of his Feb. 12 opinion in the case."

Right Wing World

Get Your People in Line, Ladies. CW: It appears Bill O'Reilly thinks black ladies Valerie Jarrett & Michelle Obama have it in their power to make black kids (link fixed) be more like what O'Reilly surmises white kids are like. Jarrett & Obama just need to tell their black friends to comport themselves to standards Loofah Man has set for them. Now I'm wondering why Laura Bush didn't make all the white kids of the USA into Little Goody Two Shoes. Guess Laura was a slacker. I don't think O'Reilly has any idea he's a flaming racist.

News Ledes

Chattanoogan: "District Attorney Herbert 'Buzz' Franklin said Friday he will not prosecute a man who shot and killed a man with Alzheimer's who was outside his home."

New York Times: "After nearly 20 months of celebrity theater and an incalculable amount of effort and courtroom expense, the misdemeanor trial of Kerry Kennedy ended on Friday in breakneck fashion, as jurors took one hour to find her not guilty of driving under the influence of a drug: a sleeping pill that she said she took by accident."

New York Times: Actor "Philip Seymour Hoffman was killed by a poisonous mix of drugs that included not only heroin but also cocaine, amphetamines and sedatives, the New York City medical examiner announced on Friday. The medical examiner ruled his death an accident."

Guardian: "The Federal Reserve has no authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin, chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Thursday.... 'Bitcoin is a payment innovation that's taking place outside the banking industry. To the best of my knowledge there's no intersection at all, in any way, between Bitcoin and banks that the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise and regulate. So the Fed doesn't have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway,' said Yellen. Yellen said there were concerns about the currency being used for for money laundering but that regulators were confident that US law was 'adequate to meet enforcement needs'."

The Guardian has a liveblog of events re: the Ukraine crisis. ...

... New York Times: "Amid fears of a Kremlin-backed separatist rebellion here against Ukraine's fledgling government, armed men in military uniforms took up positions at two Crimean airports as Ukraine's interior minister warned of 'a direct provocation,' but there was no sign of any violence." ...

... New York Times: "For now, Mr. Putin's strategy for retaining Russia's influence in a country where the Kremlin has profound interests, from its largest foreign military base to gas pipelines that fuel its economy, remains unknown and full of risks. Even so, events are subtly forcing Moscow's hand." ...

... The Times has a useful map of the Ukraine that identifies the ethnic, cultural & political divide that is straining the country.

AP: "The Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Tokyo filed for bankruptcy protection Friday and its chief executive said 850,000 bitcoins, worth several hundred million dollars, are unaccounted for. The exchange's CEO Mark Karpeles appeared before Japanese TV news cameras, bowing deeply for several minutes. He said a weakness in the exchange's systems was behind a massive loss of the virtual currency involving 750,000 bitcoins from users and 100,000 of the company's own bitcoins. That would amount to about $425 million at recent prices."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 27, 2014

Internal links removed.

Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "The Army has disqualified 588 soldiers as sexual assault counselors, recruiters and drill sergeants for infractions ranging from sexual assault to child abuse to drunken driving, USA Today has learned. The number of disqualified soldiers from what are called 'positions of trust' is 10 times higher than the initial number the Army reported last summer after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered that troops in sensitive positions be screened for previous criminal or unethical behavior.... The Army is moving to get rid of 79 of the soldiers, said ... an Army spokesman. Others could face further action from their commanders, he said." ...

These continued reports paint a very clear picture of why nine out of 10 sexual assault victims don't report their attack and why the military needs a reformed, independent and transparent system of justice. -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

Two Congressional Heroes Speak Truth to Power

Alan Fram of the AP: "The Senate's top Democrat criticized a pair of billionaire brothers in unusually harsh terms Wednesday, accusing the conservative duo of being 'un-American,' spreading lies about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and lacking a conscience. In a pair of appearances on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., became the latest Democrat this election year to denunciate Charles and David Koch.... The brothers' representatives said Reid's attack was 'disgraceful' and accused him of attacking people hurt by the 2010 health care law. Reid's focus was on television ads that are being used against Democratic congressional candidates, commercials that he said misleadingly criticize the health care law. 'When you make billions of dollars a year you can be as immoral and dishonest as your money will allow you to be,' Reid said.":

     ... Update: Burgess Everett of Politico under the headline "Harry Reid Tempers Koch Criticism." CW: The "tempering"?: "Reid went back to the floor & said, 'I can't say that every one of the Koch brothers ads are a lie, but I'll say this … the vast, vast majority of them are.... It's too bad that they are trying to buy America. And it's time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers, who are about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine.'" (Video above.) ...

... Update: Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post gives Reid's truths two Pinocchios, concluding that "He would have been on safer ground if he dropped the harsh rhetoric and had simply said that many of the ads have serious problems and even rely on actors, not real people." CW: Maybe so, but I'm still with Reid. ...

... ** Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Texas Arizona), in a New York Times op-ed: "If the president approves the Keystone XL pipeline on the basis of the lobbying and bad science that has been offered to support it, much of his good work will be undone and a business-as-usual atmosphere will settle back on Washington.... As the news media has reported widely, the contractor chosen by the State Department to assess the pipeline's environmental impacts violated federal conflict-of-interest rules to get the job.... That company, Environmental Resources Management, did work for TransCanada, Keystone's parent company, in the recent past and told the State Department the exact opposite on disclosure forms...." ...

... Matthew Daly of the AP: "A consulting firm that helped write an environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline complied with federal rules regarding possible conflict of interest, the State Department's inspector general said Wednesday.... A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, a strong Keystone supporter, said the inspector general's report was the latest study to find no reason for the Obama administration to continue blocking the project.... But Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., a pipeline critic, said the inspector general's review was overly narrow. The report focused on 'whether the State Department followed its own flawed process for selecting a third-party contractor,' Grijalva said. 'The fact that the answer is 'yes' doesn't address any outstanding concerns about the integrity of ERM's work, the State Department's in-house ability to evaluate its quality or whether the process itself needs to be reformed.' Far from inspiring confidence in the project, the report 'is evidence of the problem,' Grijalva said." ...

... By Contrast

Blah, blah, blah, blah. -- Speaker John Boehner, in response to a question about tax increases in Rep. Dave Camp's (R-Mich.) tax reform proposal

I have no hope for [tax reform] happening this year. -- Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Tuesday, on Camp's proposal

... "GOP Loves Tax Reform in Theory. In Reality? Not So Much." Lisa Desjardins of CNN: Republicans, who have spent years clamoring for tax reform, were much less enthusiastic Wednesday when faced with a sweeping tax overhaul plan in an election year, reticent to discuss whether the proposal from House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Michigan, should even get a vote. Camp's 'Tax Reform Act of 2014' would lower tax rates for most Americans, but presents conservatives with an uncomfortable tradeoff: It raises the tax bill for large banks and the wealthy. ...

... AND Michelle Obama Speaks Truth to My Fat Butt. Helena Evich of Politico: "The Obama administration will unveil the most sweeping update to nutrition labeling on food packages in more than two decades on Thursday -- and Americans are in for a reality check about how many calories and how much sugar they are consuming.... First lady Michelle Obama -- whose staff was key in getting the proposal out of FDA, where the labeling revamp has been in the works for 10 years -- is slated to announce the changes at a Let's Move! anniversary event at the White House with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg."

Dana Milbank: Their "newfound love of activist judges is the latest manifestation of what has been called Obama Derangement Syndrome: The president's opponents are so determined to thwart him that they will reverse long-held views if they believe that doing so will weaken his stature. Republicans have, for example, long deplored the filing of 'frivolous lawsuits.' But at Wednesday's hearings, they were contemplating legislation that would authorize either chamber of Congress to file lawsuits against President Obama -- even though legal experts, including one of the Republican committee members' own witnesses, have said the efforts would fail."

** Peter Beinart has an excellent piece in the Atlantic which eviscerates Dubya's fake "freedom agenda" (elsewhere called the "Bush Doctrine") & knocks New York Times writer Peter Baker's false equivalency re: Bush's & Obama's international policy. (CW: Beinart claims Baker's reporting is "usually excellent"; I would disagree with that. I've spoken to Baker personally about his he-said/she-said domestic political reporting. Baker is, IMO, a rather callow reporter, & false equivalencies are his trademark.) At any rate, the next time somebody tells you Bush was dedicated to making the world safe for democracy, Beinart gives you the goods to refute that claim.

Michael O'Brien of the Atlantic on how the Fed let the international depression happen: On September 16, 2008, the day after Lehman crashed & burned, "... the Fed was just as worried about an inflation scare that was already passing as it was about a once-in-three-generations crisis. It brought to mind what economist R. G. Hawtrey had said about the Great Depression. Back then, central bankers had worried more about the possibility of inflation than the grim reality of deflation. It was, Hawtrey said, like 'crying Fire! Fire! in Noah's flood.'"

CW: While I was deleting those desperate e-mails from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, this happened. Edward-Isaac Dovere & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "The Democratic National Committee ... is $15 million in debt, with an over $8 million bank loan due in June -- an amount that exceeds its current cash on hand. President Barack Obama may be starting to pay more attention to the DNC..., but that attention comes after five years of presidential disengagement, the last year spent prioritizing the independent Organizing for Action that sprouted from his reelection campaign.... The RNC has $9.8 million cash on hand. And no debt."

Beyond the Beltway

Many Arizona businesses posted this sign in their storefronts over the past few days.

Dan Nowicki, et al., of the Arizona Republic: "Facing intense pressure from political and business interests and a growing public outcry, Gov. Jan Brewer announced Wednesday that she had vetoed Senate Bill 1062, the divisive right-to-refuse service legislation. 'Religious liberty is a core American and Arizona value -- so is non-discrimination,' Brewer said." ...

... The New York Times story, by Fernanda Santos, is here. ...

... Gail Collins: "Arizona. Wow. How often do you find yourself saying, 'Go, entrenched interests of the business community!' Yet here we are.... Struggles for human rights always begin with brave men and women who stand up, isolated, against the forces of oppression. But, in the United States, victory really arrives on the glorious day when the people with money decide discrimination is bad for business. Thanks, Arizona."

Robert Garrett of the Dallas Morning News: "A federal judge in San Antonio ruled Wednesday that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutionally deprives some citizens of due process and equal protection under the law by stigmatizing their relationships and treating them differently from opposite-sex couples. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia cited recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings as having trumped Texas' moves to ban gay marriage.... Although Garcia issued a preliminary injunction against the state's enforcing its 2003 law and 2005 constitutional amendment that limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, he stayed it from taking effect until his ruling can be reviewed on appeal. Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state would appeal.... Abbott strongly opposes legalizing gay marriage, as do four of his fellow Republicans in next week's GOP primary for lieutenant governor. So do three GOP candidates in the race to succeed Abbott as attorney general." ...

... Steve M.: "So I guess the Texas governor's race will now be entirely about gay marriage."

Congressional Races

Jonathan Martin & Megan Thee-Brenen of the New York Times: "Republicans are in a stronger position than Democrats for this year's midterm elections, benefiting from the support of self-described independents, even though the party itself is deeply divided and most Americans agree more with Democratic policy positions, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows." CW: Obviously, this makes sense only if the respondents have no idea what the parties' policy positions are. I'd say that is the case.

Lynn Bartels & Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post: "Republican Congressman Cory Gardner intends to drop his re-election bid to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Mark Udall, lobbing a bombshell that alters Colorado's political landscape for the November elections. Shortly after The Denver Post first reported Gardner's plans, the GOP front-runner in the Senate race, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, revealed he was going to run for Gardner's seat in the 4th Congressional District." ...

... Buck, you may recall, is a Tea Party loon. If you don't recall, Josh Israel of Think Progress is here to remind you.

News Ledes

Guardian: "Rebekah Brooks signed off payments to public officials half a dozen times during her editorship of the Sun and News of the World, she told the Old Bailey on Thursday. Brooks admitted sanctioning cash payments to public officials when she believed there was an overwhelming public interest in the information being published, the court heard."

Washington Post: "The parliament building in Ukraine's Crimea was seized by armed men, described by witnesses as ethnic Russian separatists, in a direct challenge to Ukraine's new leaders." ...

... Washington Post: "Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, has asked for and received a security guarantee from Russia, news agencies reported from Moscow. Yanukovych still considers himself the rightful president of Ukraine, according to a statement distributed to Russian news organizations, and believes that his opponents have violated a deal reached last Friday that would have allowed him to remain in office until a presidential election could be held in December."

Washington Post: "NATO defense ministers agreed here Thursday to begin preparing for a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of this year, as a senior U.S. military official warned that 'the progress we've made is not sustainable' by Afghan forces without an ongoing U.S. and international troop presence. The alliance also expressed strong concern for ongoing events in Ukraine and urged Russia 'not to take any action that could create misunderstanding.'"

AP: "Kerry Kennedy said she doesn't remember anything that happened as she drove on a New York interstate one summer day in 2012 -- swerving out of her lane, hitting a tractor-trailer and blowing a tire -- because she accidentally took a sleeping pill before getting behind the wheel.... Kennedy testified Wednesday, the third day of her drugged-driving trial in White Plains."