The Commentariat -- Feb. 24, 2014

Thom Shanker & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: " Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to shrink the United States Army to its smallest force since before the World War II buildup and eliminate an entire class of Air Force attack jets in a new spending proposal.... The proposal ... takes into account the fiscal reality of government austerity and the political reality of a president who pledged to end two costly and exhausting land wars. A result, the officials argue, will be a military capable of defeating any adversary, but too small for protracted foreign occupations."

E. J. Dionne: "One of the disappointments of Obama's time in office is his failure to lead a thoroughgoing reform of the way the federal government works and to launch an inspiring campaign to bring fresh talent to its ranks. The devotion he won from young Americans in 2008 presented him with an extraordinary opportunity to draw a new generation into government service, much as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the 1930s and John F. Kennedy did, even in his brief time in office, in the 1960s. Alas, Obama didn't really try. Now he can, and he should."

Greg Sargent: "While [Americans for Prosperity] is spending huge sums of cash on ads that hype or even invent stories about the law's supposed victims, the group is actively working to block health coverage under Obamacare from reaching untold numbers of real people." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Even supporters of health reform are somewhat surprised by the right's apparent inability to come up with real cases of hardship.... Why can't the right find these people and exploit them? The most likely answer is that the true losers from Obamacare generally aren't very sympathetic. For the most part, they're either very affluent people affected by the special taxes that help finance reform, or at least moderately well-off young men in very good health who can no longer buy cheap, minimalist plans. Neither group would play well in tear-jerker ads." ...

... "The Right's Sociopathic Scam." Brian Beutler of Salon: "If [Julie Boostra, the cancer-stricken star of an AFP anti-Obamacare ad] and AFP get their way, she'll be just as much a victim of Obamacare repeal as all the people who face health circumstances similar to hers. And the saddest part of that tragic irony is that Boonstra doesn't even seem to understand what her circumstances are, or why it doesn't make sense to devote her energies to repealing the law.... AFP, and everyone else on the right 'supporting' Julie Boonstra, are using her as a weapon in a war against herself."

... Steve Peoples & Ken Thomas of the AP: " America's governors, Republicans* and Democrats alike, suggest that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is here to stay."

     * Except for Bobby Jindal.

Zeke Miller of Time: "Republican Governors Association Vice Chair Bobby Jindal will take the lead when GOP governors visit the White House Monday morning for a business meeting with PresidentBarack Obama. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the embattled chairman of the organization, left this weekend's meeting of the National Governors Association early on Sunday morning to avoid the press & photo-ops with Obama return home for his daughter Sarah's 18th birthday...."

Last night, President Obama welcomed governors & their spouses to dinner at the White House. He begins with jokes:

Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... under [Jim] DeMint, a South Carolinian who gave up his Senate seat last year to take the helm, [the] Heritage [Foundation] has shifted. Long known as an incubator for policy ideas and the embodiment of the party establishment, it has become more of a political organization feeding off the rising populism of the Tea Party movement.... In recent months, some of the group's most prominent scholars have left. Research that seemed to undermine Heritage's political goals has been squelched, former Heritage officials say. And more and more, the work of policy analysts is tailored for social media." ...

... CW: Actually, Krugman was eviscerating Heritage's work product well before DeMint took over. Last fall he wrote on his blog, "... it has done nothing but junk 'research' at least since 2000.... They took the think out of that think tank a long time ago." Weisman & Steinhauer should read their own damned newspaper.

Byron Tau of the Politico: "National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday she has no regrets about her now-infamous round of TV interviews in 2012 about the the attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Rice, appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' said that nobody in the Obama administration intended to mislead the American people when she appeared on Fox, ABC, CNN, NBC and CBS in 2012 shortly after the attacks."

Promoting Putin's Puppet. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Several conservative bloggers repeated talking points given to them by a proxy group for the Ukrainian government -- and at least one writer was paid by a representative of the Ukrainian group, according to documents and emails obtained by BuzzFeed. The Ukrainian campaign began in the run-up to high-stakes Ukrainian parliamentary elections last year, and sought to convince skeptical American conservatives that the pro-Russian Party of Regions, led by President Viktor Yanukovych, deserved American support. During that period, articles echoing Ukrainian government talking points appeared on leading conservative online outlets, including RedState, Breitbart, and Pajamas Media." ...

... CW: If left-leaning bloggers had been taking payola in exchange for propagandizing for an anti-Western, Soviet-style tyrant, wingers would not just have accused the bloggers of being anti-American commies, they would have demanded that the Obama administration hang the bloggers for treason. And surely, surely Darrell Issa would be investigating the traitors while teabaggers like Steve King & Michele Bachmann filed articles of impeachment against Obama. Meanwhile, Tailgunner Ted would take to the well of the Senate, wave sheafs of paper & declare, "I have here in my hand a list of 157 communist bloggers, a list of names that was made known to the President of the United States...."

Raffi Khatchadoourian in the New Yorker: "... the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor..., the most complex machine ever built..., could solve the world's energy problems for the next thirty million years, and help save the planet from environmental catastrophe."

Edward Wyatt & Noam Cohen of the New York Times: "Comcast, the country's largest cable and broadband provider, and Netflix, the giant television and movie streaming service, announced an agreement Sunday in which Netflix will pay Comcast for faster and more reliable access to Comcast's subscribers. The deal is a milestone in the history of the Internet, where content providers like Netflix generally have not had to pay for access to the customers of a broadband provider. But the growing power of broadband companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T has given those companies increased leverage over sites whose traffic gobbles up chunks of a network's capacity. Netflix is one of those sites, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all Internet traffic at peak hours. The agreement comes just 10 days after Comcast agreed to buy Time Warner Cable...."

Badger News

"You're Not Answering My Question." Josh Israel of Think Progress: "On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace grilled Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) about thousands of pages of e-mails released this week suggesting he knew his Milwaukee County Executive staff was illegally coordinating efforts with his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Walker refused to offer any specific defense, repeating that he was not charged and attempting to change the subject":

...

... Digby: " I guess Roger Ailes has someone else in mind for 2016. (Or Chris Wallace woke up with some sort of longing for the days when he was an actual newsman instead of a hack...).... I don't know why anyone would be surprised that the GOP Governors are all crooks. It's a defining feature of consrvatism. (They call it 'freedom.')"

Jason Stein, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "In the heat of the 2010 governor's race, Scott Walker urged both county employees and campaign aides to go to news websites and post comments promoting him and his record, newly unsealed documents show. It was just such anonymous posts by a county worker on campaign issues that prompted prosecutors to expand a secret 'John Doe' investigation -- launched to probe into missing money in a veterans fund -- to also examine whether taxpayer dollars were being used illegally to finance political operations."

I'm Not Christie. Zeke Miller: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came to Washington this weekend with a clear message to deliver to the national press: He's not New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie."

I'm just grateful that I don't have Democratic governors who have those challenges. We don’t get indicted, we don't get criminal investigations -- we create jobs. -- Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, chair of the Democratic Governors Association ...

New Jersey News

Revote on a Crooked Deal. Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: “The Port Authority next month will reconsider a controversial decision made two years ago to lease a North Bergen parking lot to NJ Transit for $1 a year, two sources said on Saturday. The vote in 2012 to reduce NJ Transit's lease payments to the Port Authority from more than $900,000 a year to $1 came under scrutiny last week when The Record reported that records indicated that Port Authority Chairman David Samson voted for the deal at the same time as his law firm was representing NJ Transit." Samson is a Christie appointee.

Congressional Election 2014

Nolan Finley of the Detroit News: "Rep. John Dingell is leaving the Congress he's served for longer than anyone else in United States history. At a luncheon Monday in his beloved Downriver, the Dearborn representative says he will announce he won't seek re-election this fall to the seat he's held since 1955."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Harold Ramis, a writer, director and actor whose sly but boisterous silliness helped catapult comedies like 'Groundhog Day,' 'Ghostbusters,' 'Animal House' and 'Caddyshack' to commercial and critical success, died on Monday in his Chicago-area home. He was 69."

New York Times: "Gary Melius, a well-known Long Island developer and prominent political patron, was shot in the head by a masked gunman on Monday afternoon in the parking lot of his opulent Gold Coast estate in Suffolk County, the police said. His daughter rushed him to Syosset Hospital and he was later transferred to North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, where he was undergoing surgery late Monday afternoon. He was described by the authorities as alert and conscious earlier in the day."

Gary Melius purchased Oheka Castle in 1984. The house was built in 1917 and its exteriors were featured prominently in the movie 'Citizen Kane.'” New York Times photo.New York Times: "The trial of Kerry Kennedy, who is accused of driving in 2012 under the influence of a sleeping pill, got underway on Monday.... The trial here in Westchester County has attracted widespread attention in part because it involves a member of the Kennedy clan. Ms. Kennedy is the former wife of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy."

AP: " Egypt's interim prime minister announced Monday the resignation of his Cabinet, a surprise move that could be designed in part to pave the way for the nation's military chief to leave his defense minister's post to run for president. Hazem el-Beblawi's military-backed government was sworn in on July 16, less than two weeks after Field Marsh Abdel-Fettah el-Sissi, the defense minister, ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after a year in office."

New York Times:"Ukraines acting interior minister issued a warrant on Monday for the arrest of former President Viktor F. Yanukovych, accusing him of mass killing of civilian protesters in demonstrations last week." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Russian leaders expressed their distrust and dislike of the new government of Ukraine on Monday, saying it came to power through 'armed mutiny,' just hours after the authorities here announced a nationwide manhunt for ousted president Viktor Yanukovych on charges of 'mass murder of peaceful civilians.' Russia questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine's interim leadership...."

AP: "Uganda's president has signed a controversial anti-gay bill that has harsh penalties for homosexual sex. President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill Monday at his official residence in an event witnessed by government officials and journalists. Government officials clapped after he signed the bill."

Guardian: "Washington will seek the extradition of Mexico's most-wanted man, the US attorney's office announced Sunday, as reports emerged that Joaquín Guzmán Loera spent his final days of freedom scrambling through tunnels and drains before ending up pinned to a bed in a beachside condominium unable to reach a Kalashnikov rifle lying on the floor.... The Mexican ambassador to the US, Eduardo Medina Mora, had earlier rejected calls for an American trial...." ...

     ... The Los Angeles Times has background on "Guzman's famous Houdini-style string of getaways."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 23, 2014

** ... Mike Lofgren, a former GOP Congressional aide, has a long piece in Bill Moyers' Journal on what he calls the "Deep State" -- the vast, entrenched labyrinth of insiders who actually pull the strings in Washington. There are also some interesting-looking sidebars on some of the issues Lofgren raises. ...

... A follow-up piece by Moyers (which seems to have disappeared!) on Trans-Pacific Partnership is based on reporting by Lee Fang. Lee's Republic Report piece is here.

** Simon Head in Salon: "Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers."

Gregory Clarkson in the New York Times: "To a striking extent, your overall life chances can be predicted not just from your parents' status but also from your great-great-great-grandparents'." CW: I found Clarkson's thesis -- and the methodology he used to arrive at it -- pretty fascinating.

Do-Nothing Republicans Finally Do Something: Invent a Constitutional Crisis. Tim Devaney of the Hill: "House Republicans will push the Obama administration to roll back regulations over the next few weeks as they combat an 'imperial presidency.' In an email to House Republicans, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) accused President Obama of 'effectively rewriting the laws' and called on the GOP to fight to 'restore the balance of power created by our Founders. President Obama has provided new clarity as to what constitutes an imperial presidency,' Cantor wrote Friday in the email obtained by The Hill. 'Declaring that he has a "pen and a phone," he has acted to effectively rewrite the laws of the United States.'"

Perception Skews Right. New York Times Editors: "Republicans were successful in discrediting the very idea that federal spending can boost the economy and raise employment. They made the argument that the stimulus was a failure not just to ensure that Mr. Obama would get no credit for the recovery that did occur but to justify their obstruction of all further attempts at stimulus."

Christi Parsons & Melissa Harris of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama plans to announce on Tuesday the opening of two new manufacturing institutes in the Chicago and Detroit areas as part of a larger plan to use public-private partnerships to advance his agenda despite opposition from Republicans in Congress. Several federal agencies will join forces with companies and universities to run the institutes, which will be devoted to bridging the gap between applied research and product development...."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Obama's annual budget request to Congress will propose a significant change in how the government pays to fight wildfires, administration officials said, a move that they say reflects the ways in which climate change is increasing the risk for and cost of those fires. The wildfire funding shift is one in a series of recent White House actions related to climate change as Mr. Obama tries to highlight the issue and build political support for his administration's more muscular policies...."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "President Obama is stepping up his efforts to coalesce and energize the Democratic base for the 2014 elections, backing off on issues where his positions might alienate the left, and more aggressively singling out Republicans as being responsible for the country's problems."

Everything Is Obama's Fault -- Including Chris Christie. Maureen Dowd: "The governor was a beneficiary of America's desperate hunger for genuine leadership. You can blame Obama for the Christie tulip craze. The president has been so wan, he confused people into thinking that bluster was clarity. In a climate with no leadership, the bully looks like a man. If you've only been drinking water, Red Bull tastes like whiskey. Obama's ethereal insipidity made Christie's meaty pugilism attractive; Obama's insistence on the cerebral made voters long for the visceral, even the gracelessly visceral." ...

     ... CW: Dowd borrows liberally from Alec MacGillis's excellent reporting for the New Republic on Chris Christie's modus operandi, a piece I recommended several days ago. MoDo isn't kind enough to link to MacGillis's piece, so I here it is. ...

... Steve M.: "Maureen Dowd thinks America joined Cult of Christie because Barack SpockBambi was too much of a metrosexual girlyman.... Was America ever actually attracted to 'Christie's meaty pugilism'? ... Back when he was known primarily as a big lug with anger management issues, in 2011..., the public had decidedly mixed feelings about Christie. His favorable ratings got into the 40s and 50s much later, after he stopped being known primarily for being an angry lout and started being known for his response to Sandy -- Obama outreach included."

Chris Christie, Still Beloved by the Rich

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will fundraise alongside New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday in Boston. The joint appearance is a signal by Romney to the Republican establishment that he remains an ally of the embattled Garden State governor...." CW: Too bad. Looks like Mitt is not going to be releasing his Chrisco oppo file anytime soon. ...

... Paul Steinhauser of CNN: "As Christie convenes two days of Republican Governors Association meetings ... in the nation's capital Friday and Saturday, an RGA official tells CNN that the group has raised $18 million since Christie took over as RGA chairman in late November. That's a new fundraising record for the first three months of a new RGA chairman's tenure."

Local News

A Savvy Businesswoman. Huffington Post: "In perhaps the greatest display of entrepreneurial spirit in modern history, a California Girl Scout has been selling cookies outside of a San Francisco marijuana dispensary. Danielle Lei, 13, set up shop in front of The Green Cross on Monday, selling a whopping 117 boxes in just two hours, according to Mashable. That's about one box per minute." ...

... Heather Burke of CBS Denver: "Although pot shops are becoming a big market in the state, it's one the Girl Scouts of Colorado don't want to dip into. They issued a statement that reads, 'We recognize these are legitimate businesses, but we don't feel they are an appropriate place for girls to be selling cookies in Colorado.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "A day after President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled the Ukrainian capital and was removed from power by a unanimous vote in Parliament, lawmakers moved swiftly on Sunday to dismantle the remaining vestiges of his government by firing top cabinet members, including the foreign minister. With Parliament, led by the speaker, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, firmly in control of the federal government -- if not yet the country as a whole -- lawmakers began an emergency session on Sunday by adopting a law restoring state ownership of Mr. Yanukovych's opulent presidential palace, which he had privatized."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 22, 2014

Internal links removed.

The President's Weekly Address:

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama to the White House on Friday morning, provoking a sharp rebuke from the Chinese government, which warned that the meeting would severely damage relations between Washington and Beijing But this time, in contrast to previous meetings, the White House seemed unruffled by the diplomatic repercussions of the visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader, which comes as the United States is taking a firmer line with China on a range of territorial disputes with its neighbors."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who drew fire last spring over the Justice Department's aggressive tactics for secretly obtaining reporters' phone logs and emails as part of leak investigations, on Friday signed new guidelines narrowing the circumstances in which law enforcement officials may obtain journalists' records.The rules, which will be published in the Federal Register next week, carry out a set of changes that Mr. Holder announced last July and described in a six-page report at the time."

Jad Mouawad & Ian Austen of the New York Times: "Responding to concerns about the safety of trains carrying oil around the country, federal regulators on Friday outlined steps to reduce the risk of rail shipments and bolster confidence in the fast-growing industry The Department of Transportation said the major railroads had agreed to eight voluntary measures one month after the secretary of transportation, Anthony R. Foxx, met with railroad executives in response to a series of derailments and explosions involving trains carrying crude oil."

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama will correct a historical act of discrimination next month when he awards the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest commendation for combat valor, to a group of Hispanic, Jewish and African-American veterans who were passed over because of their racial or ethnic backgrounds. The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress into past discrimination in the ranks and will hold a particular poignancy when conducted by the nation's first African-American president." ...

... "Here is the complete list of the latest Medal of Honor recipients, including 19 Hispanic, Jewish and African American veterans who were overlooked due to their racial or ethnic backgrounds. Biographical information in this [photo] gallery provided by the White House."

Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times: " The secretary of defense announced Friday that he would not reconsider the Medal of Honor nomination of a Marine from San Diego who was killed in Iraq. Secretary Chuck Hagel agreed with his two predecessors that the nomination of Sgt. Rafael Peralta does not meet the 'proof beyond a reasonable doubt' standard required for the nation's highest award for combat bravery. Peralta, an immigrant from Mexico who enlisted the day he received his green card, was killed in November 2004 while Marines were clearing houses in Fallouja of barricaded insurgents." ...

... Ernesto Londoño of the Washington Post: "... new accounts from comrades who fought alongside Peralta that day suggest it may not be true. In interviews, two former Marines who were with Peralta in the house when he was shot said the story was concocted spontaneously in the minutes after he was mortally wounded -- likely because several of the men in the unit feared they might have been the ones who shot him."

Brent Snavely of the Detroit Free Press: "Citing public statements by Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker and other Tennessee politicians, the UAW asked the National Labor Relations Board to set aside the results [of the unionization vote in VW's Chattanooga plant] and conduct a new election. Workers at the 3-year-old factory in Chattanooga voted 712-626 against UAW representation at the plant. 'Senator Corker's conduct was shameful and undertaken with utter disregard for the rights of the citizens of Tennessee and surrounding states that work at Volkswagen Chattanooga,' the union said in a 58-page document filed Friday. 'It is a more than adequate basis for sustaining these objections.' However, Gary Kotz, a partner with the Detroit firm of Butzel Long that often represents companies, said this appeal faces an uphill battle" since the union is not alleging Volkswagen did anything wrong.

Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "The nation was nearly a year into the Great Recession before then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke accepted the magnitude of the country's economic distress. The financial system was rapidly unraveling in September 2008. Investment bank Lehman Brothers had collapsed, and the Fed was rescuing insurance giant AIG from the brink of insolvency with an $85 billion bailout. Wall Street was panicking, with stock markets falling more than 4 percent in a day. More than a million workers had lost their jobs. Even so, Bernanke thought the Fed had probably done enough, according to newly released transcripts." ...

... Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "As the world's financial system stood on the verge of collapse in October 2008, Janet L. Yellen was not even a full voting member of the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee, but she was not shy about admonishing her colleagues for not acting faster.... After months in which some members of the Fed committee resisted taking steps to prop up the economy, Ms. Yellen lectured her colleagues: 'Frankly, it is time for all hands on deck when it comes to our policy tools.' New transcripts of the Fed's meeting in 2008, based on recordings made at the time, provide one of the most revealing views to date of Ms. Yellen, who was sworn in earlier this month as chairwoman of the central bank."

AP: "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the University of Notre Dame in a case over parts of the federal health care law that forces it to provide health insurance for students and employees that covers contraceptives. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld a federal judge's earlier ruling that denied the Roman Catholic school's request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent it from having to comply with the birth control requirement as the university's lawsuit moves forward."

Matthew Perrone of the AP: "The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to revamp its system for regulating hundreds of over-the-counter drugs, saying the decades-old process is not flexible enough to keep pace with modern medical developments."

Tim Egan writes a superb column on the California drought & GOP climate-change deniers. CW: I'm beginning to think those deniers are more insane than stupid, ignorant or just plain mendacious.

Dana Milbank: Arthur Brooks, the head of the right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute, invites the Dalai Lama to a confab & says he's all for "brotherhood & compassion."

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Seeing an opportunity to distinguish himself from potential 2016 rivals and/or behave like a decent human being, on Thursday evening Senator Rand Paul tweeted that Ted Nugent should apologize for the 'offensive' remarks he made about President Obama. Declaring that you're not cool with people calling the president a 'subhuman mongrel' and 'chimpanzee' shouldn't really count as a bold move, but other Republicans couldn't bring themselves to offer such a strong defense of President Obama." ...

... AND Nugent Himself Is Way Sorry. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "After a little more than 24 hours of controversy, Ted Nugent has apologized to President Obama for his comment that the president is a 'subhuman mongrel.' ... In his apology, Nugent appeared to regret more the fact that his language has been tied to Republican politicians from his state, such as [Texas Attorney General Greg] Abbott, Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz.... 'I do apologize ... not necessarily to the President -- but on behalf of much better men than myself,' he said in an interview with conservative radio host Ben Ferguson, who's also a CNN political commentator.... Later on in the interview -- after some people on Twitter argued Nugent's comments weren't a real apology -- Ferguson asked Nugent if he was directly apologizing to the President for the comments. 'Yes,' the subhuman asshole Nugent replied."

Charles Pierce checks out some recent thought bubbles of Pretend-Dems Joe Manchin & Heidi Heitkamp.

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "As of this Saturday, February 22nd, eight years will have passed since Clarence Thomas last asked a question during a Supreme Court oral argument. His behavior on the bench has gone from curious to bizarre to downright embarrassing, for himself and for the institution he represents."

Frank Rich on the oppressive government of Russia & the oppressive governments of U.S. states that are attempting to pass "religious rights" laws to discriminate against gays.

Beyond the Beltway

Adam Serwer of NBC News: "The Arizona legislature sent a bill to the Gov. Jan Brewer's desk Thursday that would carve a massive hole into state law allowing business owners to turn away gay and lesbian customers, employers to deny equal pay to women, or individuals to renege on contract obligations -- as long as they claim to be doing so in the name of religion. Brewer, a Republican who vetoed similar legislation last year, has not said whether she will sign the bill.... The Arizona bill is one of several bills across the country aimed at providing legal protection to those who wish to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. As of Friday, however, it's the only one to actually pass, with similar bills in Idaho, Tennessee, and South Dakota being defeated and a bill in Kansas being held up in the state Senate." ...

... Arizona Republic Editors: "We urge the governor to veto this bill as part of her continuing message that Arizona is open for business."

James Kelleher of Reuters: "Same-sex couples in Illinois' Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, can wed immediately and do not have to wait to tie the knot until a new state law legalizing gay marriage takes effect in June, a federal judge ruled on Friday."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "Detroit officials Friday laid out a plan for exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history that calls for slashing pensions for non-uniformed retirees by nearly one-third and repaying bondholders just $1 of every $5 owed to them by the city. The proposed plan of adjustment, filed in federal bankruptcy court in Detroit, puts dollar figures on the potential cuts facing parties owed money by Detroit for the first time since the city filed its $18 billion bankruptcy case in July. The plan would also cut pensions for police and firefighters, many of whom do not receive Social Security benefits, by 10 percent. City union leaders and retirees reacted to the plan with alarm...." ...

... Detroit Free Press Editors: "... the ultimate responsibility for making Detroit pensioners whole still rests with [Michigan Gov. Rick] Snyder [R]. Snyder has committed to pushing for $350 million from state coffers. But based on Friday's legal filings, it's not enough."

Gail Collins: "Election season in Texas! They're voting right now in the primaries. And I know you are interested because whatever happens in Texas has a way of coming back and biting the rest of the nation.... And on the positive front, experts in Texas say there's absolutely no chance that the guy who legally changed his name to SECEDE is going to win a nomination for governor.

Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "State Sen. Ron Calderon has been indicted in a sweeping corruption case, accused of taking about $100,000 in bribes. Federal authorities allege that Calderon (D-Montebello) took the bribes from a Long Beach hospital official as well as people connected to what he believed was a Hollywood studio. In fact, the studio was an FBI front and the business associates were FBI agents. Authorities claim Calderon received cash bribes, trips and dinners in exchange for 'official acts.' Calderon, 56, faces 24 counts of fraud, wire fraud, honest services fraud, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and aiding in the filing of false tax returns.... Calderon's brother, Thomas, faces changes for fraud, wire fraud, honest services fraud, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and aiding in the filing of false tax returns. Thomas Calderon is a former assemblyman who most recently served as a consultant for the Central Basin Water District."

Gubernatorial Race

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest Kansas poll finds that Sam Brownback has continued to become even more unpopular in the last year, and that he slightly trails his Democratic opponent [Paul Davis] for reelection. Only 33% of voters in the state approve of the job Brownback is doing, compared to 51% who disapprove."

Presidential Election 2016

Whatever Happened to President Rubio? Jonathan Chait answers: "Everything Rubio touches has turned to shit."

News Ledes

** New York Times: " An opposition unit took control of the presidential palace outside Kiev on Saturday, as leaders in Parliament said Ukraine's president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, had fled the capital a day after a deal was reached aimed at ending the country's spiral of violence. Members of an opposition group from Lviv called the 31st Hundred -- carrying clubs and some of them wearing masks -- were in control of the entryways to the palace Saturday morning. And Vitali Klitschko, one of three opposition leaders who signed the deal to end the violence, said that Mr. Yanukovych had 'left the capital' but his whereabouts were unknown, with members of the opposition speculating that he had gone to Kharkiv, in the northeast part of Ukraine." ...

     ... Update: "Abandoned by his own guards and reviled across the Ukrainian capital but still determined to recover his shredded authority, President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled Kiev on Saturday to denounce what he called a violent coup, as his official residence, his vast, colonnaded office complex and other once impregnable centers of power fell without a fight to throngs of joyous citizens stunned by their triumph.... It was far from clear that the day's lightning-quick events would be the last act in a struggle that has not just convulsed Ukraine but expanded into an East-West confrontation reminiscent of the Cold War." ...

     ... Los Angeles Times Update: "Ukraine's ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko, a bitter foe of the embattled president, was freed from jail Saturday by parliament and rushed to the capital where she addressed more than 30,000 supporters in Independence Square chanting: 'Yulia, Yulia, Yulia!' The charismatic Tymoshenko heaped praise on anti-government protesters who have witnessed Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich leave the capital city in the past day after the parliament voted to remove him for office and call a new presidential election in April. She urged protesters to remain in the square until a new president is elected." ...

     ... New York Times: Opposition forces storm the presidential palace gates and find inside -- "about a half-dozen large residences of various styles, a private zoo with rare breeds of goats, a coop for pheasants from Asia, a golf course, a garage filled with classic cars and a private restaurant in the form of a pirate ship, with the name 'Galleon' on the stern.... There was no sacking.... Members of the Lviv-based 'hundred,' who had repeatedly confronted Mr. Yanukovych's security forces on the streets, posted guards around his residential compound and prevented looting even as swarms of gawking Kiev residents strolled through its grounds."

Washington Post: "Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán, the man who supplied more illegal drugs to the United States than anyone else on Earth, was captured by Mexican Navy commandos without a shot early Saturday morning in the Pacific coast resort town of Mazatlan, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities." ...

     ... The Los Angeles Times provides the backstory.

New York Times: "A top United States military commander said Saturday that the U.S. Army is working on starting a formal dialogue and exchange program with the Chinese People's Liberation Army before the end of the year. The commander, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the U.S. Army chief of staff, told reporters at a news conference in Beijing that the program was aimed at expanding cooperation and 'managing differences constructively.'"