The Commentariat -- January 5, 2014

Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "... for all its echoes, the bloodshed that has engulfed Iraq, Lebanon and Syria in the past two weeks exposes something new and destabilizing: the emergence of a post-American Middle East in which no broker has the power, or the will, to contain the region's sectarian hatreds. Amid this vacuum, fanatical Islamists have flourished in both Iraq and Syria under the banner of Al Qaeda, as the two countries' conflicts amplify each other and foster ever-deeper radicalism. Behind much of it is the bitter rivalry of two great oil powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rulers -- claiming to represent Shiite and Sunni Islam, respectively -- cynically deploy a sectarian agenda that makes almost any sort of accommodation a heresy."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: The idea of amnesty for Edward Snowden "won widespread attention last month when Richard Ledgett, who leads an N.S.A. task force evaluating damage from the disclosures, said on the CBS News program '60 Minutes' that it was 'worth having a conversation about' it to prevent further revelations. That position won further attention in the last week with editorials in The Guardian and The New York Times urging clemency.... Debates about the idea played out on CNN, ABC and elsewhere, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former State Department official in the Obama administration, posted a message on Twitter in favor of clemency. But inside the White House and the Justice Department, Mr. Ledgett's suggestion has been met with stony opposition. The administration has made no move to reach out to negotiate any kind of deal and makes clear that it has no plans to." ...

... CW: I'm really sorry I missed this segment, which aired about two weeks ago. It seems to me both Greenwald & Toobin get stuff wrong. To their credit, both of these often-over-the-top commentators behave themselves:

Michael Hiltzig of the Los Angeles Times: "Here's a business practice likely to keep booming in 2014: corporate extortion.... By the estimate of the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, state and local tax incentives funnel $50 billion in tax revenue into corporate coffers every year. On a national basis, ITEP says, this is worse than a zero-sum game: The incentives are 'much more likely to reshuffle investment between geographic areas than ... to spur genuinely new economic activity.' The trendsetter for the coming year may turn out to be Boeing. The aerospace company has been dangling the prospect of a big airliner production facility in front of several states, including California, since mid-November. That's when union machinists in Everett, Wash., rejected its demands for big concessions on pension and healthcare benefits. The process started only days after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the biggest state tax break in history into law -- a package that will give Boeing up to $8.7 billion in benefits through 2040." ...

... Scott Hamilton of CNN: "A standoff between Boeing and thousands of unionized workers based in Washington state came to an unexpected end Friday after workers voted in favor of a contract to build the company's new commercial jet. The deal keeps economic activity worth billions inside the state, and means hundreds of thousands of jobs will be retained."

Frank Bruni writes a moving column about a dying man who just received an honorable discharge from the Marines after having been given a "less than honorable" discharge in 1956 when his superior learned he was gay. "... now that the military accepts gays, there is also a process that permits those who were dishonorably discharged to appeal for reclassifications of those dismissals as honorable. A military spokesman said last week that he didn't know how many veterans had sought to take advantage of it, or with what success." CW: I hope Bruni's column leads to more affected ex-servicemen & women learning of the new policy & taking advantage of it.

Amy Goldstein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "More than 100,000 Americans who applied for insurance through HealthCare.gov and were told they are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) remain unenrolled because of lingering software defects in the federal online marketplace.... To try to provide coverage to these people before they seek medical care, the Obama administration has launched a barrage of phone calls in recent days in 21 states, advising those who applied that the quickest route into the programs is to start over at their state's Medicaid agency."

Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's inspector general will investigate a federal agency whose mission is to exterminate birds, coyotes, mountain lions and other animals that threaten the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers. The investigation of U.S. Wildlife Services is to determine, among other things, 'whether wildlife damage management activities were justified and effective.' Biologists have questioned the agency's effectiveness, arguing that indiscriminately killing more than 3 million birds and other wild animals every year is often counterproductive. Reps. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) and John Campbell (R-Irvine) requested the review, calling for a complete audit of the culture within Wildlife Services. The agency has been accused of abuses, including animal cruelty and occasional accidental killing of endangered species, family pets and other animals that weren't targeted."

Salon republishes a portion of A Neurobiography of the Brain by D. F. Swaab. In this section, Swaab discusses the religious brain & the evolutionary advantages of religion.

TBogg, in a funny piece in the Raw Story, predicts how Mitt Romney will address the Melissa Harris-Perry hoohah: "Unless Ann Romney is on with him, because Ann will cut a bitch, Mitt will probably be firm but gracious and will talk about the importance of family and about love being color blind and he will say that it is time to move on and maybe he'll make a little joke and will smile that uncomfortable-with-human-emotions grimace-smile of his and will end up kind of laughing this whole nothing-burger off. HA HA HA HA HA HA." CW: We'll learn later in the day if TBogg is an oracle. ...

     ... Update: Katie Glueck of Politico: "Mitt Romney said on Sunday he's forgiven MSNBC after a host and other panelists on the network made comments about his adopted black grandchild. Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' the former Republican presidential candidate said he accepted the apology of MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, who a day earlier offered an emotional on-air walk-back." CW: Sounds as if Mitt was gracious. Wait for the video.

Local News

Susan Craig & Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, [New York] Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Australian officials have asked an American icebreaker to help with the rescue of Chinese and Russian vessels that are surrounded by ice floes off Antarctica...."

AP: " U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that America would support Iraq in its fight against al-Qaida-linked militants who have overrun two cities in the country's west, but said the U.S. wouldn't send troops, calling the battle 'their fight.'"

AP: "Two warring factions from South Sudan held direct peace talks on Sunday for the first time since conflict began roiling the country last month, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for safety."

AP: "The deep freeze expected soon in the Midwest, New England and even the South will be one to remember, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia. It hasn't been this cold for decades...."

Yahoo! News: "A Delta jet skidded off the runway at John F. Kennedy International airport shortly after landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said. There were no immediate reports of injuries but the New York airport is now closed due to ice and snow, airport officials said."

The Commentariat -- January 4, 2014

Internal links removed.

The President's Weekly Address. White House: "In this week's address, President Obama says Congress should act to extend emergency unemployment insurance for more than one million Americans who have lost this vital economic lifeline while looking for a job":

     ... The New York Times story, by Peter Baker, is here. ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the 'fiscally irresponsible' decision to end long-term unemployment benefits, a Harvard economist said on Friday. Professor Lawrence Katz based his assessment on official forecasts of the impact to the economy of 1.3 million jobless Americans losing benefits." ...

... Amy Goodman in the Guardian: "The long-term unemployment rate is at the highest it has been since the second world war, while the percentage of those receiving the benefits is at its historic low.... On the other end of the economy, a year-end stock market rally is expected to boost the massive bonuses Wall Street is preparing to hand out." Alexis Goldstein of the Other 98% "points out the bonuses are essentially publicly financed because Wall Street banks obtain funds from the Federal Reserve at very low rates. These banks also can afford huge bonuses, she says, because 'they continue to commit crimes that are very profitable'." ...

... Jeff Mason of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will ratchet up his administration's push for an extension of emergency unemployment benefits on Tuesday with an event at the White House attended by people whose benefits have expired."

Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday reflected on his eight-year tenure at the helm of the nation's economy, celebrating the central bank's accomplishments but also highlighting what he called 'uncompleted tasks.' ... Bernanke saved his toughest critiques for Washington. Since federal stimulus spending ended in 2010, the government has been a drag on economic growth, he said. After the 2001 recession, government employment rose by 600,000. During the current recovery, he said, it has declined by 700,000 jobs. 'Although long-term fiscal sustainability is a critical objective, excessively tight near-term fiscal policies have likely been counterproductive,' he said. 'Most importantly, with fiscal and monetary policy working in opposite directions, the recovery is weaker than it otherwise would be.'" The text of the speech is here. C-SPAN has the video here.

Whiney Little Sisters. AFP: "The US Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to throw out a challenge from a nuns' group against a birth control mandate in the Obamacare health reform law. The Little Sisters of the Poor had asked the US high court to exempt it from the controversial birth control clause, saying that providing birth control was contrary to its religious beliefs. The US government, in its written response..., argu[ed] that the provision does not apply to the nuns anyway. The Little Sisters' lawsuit is 'not about the availability or adequacy of a religious accommodation,' the Justice Department brief said. Instead, the nuns group wants to 'justify its refusal to sign a self-certification that secures the very religion-based exemption the objector seeks.'" (Emphasis added.) ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "As a new round of religion-based challenges to President Barack Obama's health care law head to the Supreme Court, advocates on both sides of the issue say the administration's arguments are likely facing a chilly reception." CW: Okay, then: universal health insurance is the answer.

Jenna Johnson & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "Maryland lawmakers are expected to pass legislation as soon as next week to assist the hundreds of people -- or, possibly, thousands -- who tried to sign up for health insurance through the state's new exchange program, encountered problems and were left uncovered when the new year began."

Brady McCombs & Paul Foy of the AP: "Legal arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about Utah's overturned same-sex marriage ban have focused heavily on whether gay and lesbians can be suitable parents.... Lawyers for the state set the tone for the debate in a 100-page filing with the high court this week that made several references to their belief that children should be raised by straight couples. An attorney for same-sex couples says the state's argument has no scientific backing and that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry actually causes severe harm to their children. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is considering Utah's request to put an immediate halt on gay marriages in Utah."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that the Obama administration may continue to withhold a Justice Department memo that apparently opened a loophole in laws protecting the privacy of consumer data. The memo establishes the legal basis for telephone companies to hand over customers' calling records to the government without a subpoena or court order, even when there is no emergency, according to a 2010 report by the Justice Department's inspector general. The details of the legal theory, and the circumstances in which it could be invoked, remain unclear." ...

... Bernie Sanders: "U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and other elected officials." ...

... ** I firmly disagree with the New York Times' Jan. 1 editorial ('Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower'), calling on President Obama to grant Snowden 'some form of clemency' for the 'great service' he has done for his country. -- Fred Kaplan, in Slate

Kaplan's piece is REQUIRED READING for Reality Chex readers who support clemency, a pardon or hugs. kisses & the Nobel Peace Prize for Ed Snowden. Any contributors who write in support of letting Snowden off the hook will be quizzed on Kaplan's column! -- Constant Weader

... Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will file a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency 'soon,' his office confirmed to The Hill. Paul had been gearing up for months to lead a suit against the agency, charging that the surveillance program gathering metadata on U.S. citizens has violated people's Fourth Amendment rights. He will file the papers in the D.C. District Court as a private citizen." ...

     ... CW: Besides being a private citizen, Paul is a U.S. Senator. He could sponsor a bill that limited the NSA's activities. Then again, maybe doing his boring day job is not what Li'l Randy has in mind. As Trujillo reports, "Paul's Senate campaign website already encourages individuals to 'please sign below and join my class-action lawsuit and help stop the government's outrageous spying program on the American people.' The solicitation, which asks for individuals' names, email addresses and zip codes, also asks for a donation to help 'stop Big Brother from infringing on our Fourth Amendment freedoms.'" ...

... Update: Grace Wyler of New York has more on the pending suit, including the name of Paul's legal advisor -- Ken Cuccinelli. CW: Last year Paul campaigned for Cuccinelli, who thinks women and gays should be subject to all kinds of unreasonable searches and seizures. (In fairness to Cuccinelli, he did warn Gov. Bob Transvaginal Probe off said probe on Fourth Amendment grounds.) Thanks to MAG for the link.

** The Ghost of Decisions Past. Dana Milbank: "John Roberts ... invoked both Scrooge's ghosts and George Bailey's guardian angel in the first sentence of his annual report on the federal judiciary ... in which he begged for more money for the courts.... I agree with Roberts on the merits.... But ... Roberts and his fellow jurists are being starved by a system that they, in large part, created.... His conservative majority has made the Roberts Court the most pro-business court since the 1930s, and he and his fellow justices have done a great deal to expand the rights of the wealthy and the powerful -- most notably by allowing them to spend unlimited sums to purchase lawmakers and to sway elections. The wealthy and corporate interests have responded by buying a Congress determined to shrink government and to weaken its reach -- including that of the courts.... Roberts may see his fellow jurists as victims of a Dickensian system. But they are the authors of this Christmas carol." Read the whole column.

** Eric Lipton of the New York Times exposes one way in which Last Year's Member of Congress becomes This Year's Lobbyist, making a mockery of so-called House ethics rules -- and federal criminal law. Featured in Lipton's piece -- last year's Ohio Congressman (and John Boehner BFF) Steve LaTourette & the two lobbying groups he runs. One, the Main Street Partnership, is a ha-ha "tax-exempt social welfare" group with secret corporate benefactors.

New York Times Editors: "... the current practice of contracting out vast swaths of government work indefinitely -- with little or no attempt to develop the needed technical and managerial expertise within the government or to enforce labor standards -- has created a bloated federal-contractor sector in which the public good is often subservient to profit."

New York Times Editors: "Rebuffed by Congress on stronger gun safety laws, President Obama is wisely using use his executive powers in a more focused attempt to bar mentally ill people from eluding federal watch lists and purchasing firearms. Two sensible changes proposed for the background check system would allow states and mental health providers more discretion than they have now in reporting information about potentially violent people." ...

... Here's the White House statement on the executive action gun safety measures.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "South Sudan is in many ways an American creation, carved out of war-torn Sudan in a referendum largely orchestrated by the United States, its fragile institutions nurtured with billions of dollars in American aid. But a murky, vicious conflict there has left the Obama administration scrambling to prevent the unraveling of a major American achievement in Africa."

The Chair Recognizes the Gentleman from Canada. AP: "U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz vowed months ago to renounce his Canadian citizenship by the end of 2013, but the Calgary-born Republican is still a dual citizen.... Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, wonders what's taking so long. Kurland said Friday that unless there's a security or mental health issue that hasn't been disclosed, renouncing citizenship is a simple, quick process."

New Yorker: "On this week's Political Scene podcast, Mattathias Schwartz and Patrick Radden Keefe join Curtis Fox ... to discuss American drug policy at home and abroad":

... "Ruth Marcus, David Brooks & Reefer Madness." Dave Weigel of Slate: "Marcus and Brooks sound like perfect parodies of clueless Acela Corridor pundits who think a lot about 'society' without bothering to explore it.... We've been waiting for the prohibitionist backlash to follow a legalization experiment like Colorado's, and it seems relevant that the lashers have started with such thin and logically lazy arguments. That's all they've got, as people in the rest of the country keep getting arrested?" ...

... Charles Pierce: "Laws against marijuana certainly have molded our culture, especially profoundly, if you happen to be young and black." CW: One day when I was young and white (also female and cute), two LAPD came to my apartment to ask me about a burglary that occurred across the hall. While one of them was asking me what-all I had seen or heard, the other was pocketing the little bag of weed I had left on the kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure the "white" part was important. ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the Nation: "Somehow, [Brooks has] written a whole column about the drug war that doesn't once contain the words 'arrest' or 'prison.' It's evidence not just of his own writerly weakness but of the way double standards in the war on drugs shield elites from reckoning with its consequences.... A recent ACLU report tells us that between 2001 and 2010, there were over 8 million marijuana arrests in the United States, 88 percent of them just for possession. The vast majority of these arrests, of course, are not of those in Brooks's cohort. White people and African-Americans smoke pot at similar rates, but the latter are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested." CW: Contributor Safari also did a good job of covering this in yesterday's Comments. ...

... The Libertarian Argument Against Brooks & Marcus. Matt Welch of Reason: "The absence of prohibition is not the presence of government sanction. There are a countless number of perfectly legal activities I may find personally abhorrent ... but keeping them legally permissible is not a case of my values being trampled by the state. If anything, the opposite is true: The more government uses laws to shape behavior, the more it is likely to offend your core values, whatever they may be." ...

... In Another Confessional, Jeffrey Goldberg, in Bloomberg News, does a great job of explaining to Brooks why legalization is a good idea. Also, the post is uncharacteristically funny. ...

... Update. The next two pieces come via Driftglass who contributes the image below, and much more:

Artwork by Driftglass.... I should have known: Matt Taibbi says it best, and makes the same point I made in today's Comments: "The Brooks column is particularly infuriating because in just a few hundred words it perfectly captures why marijuana needs to be legalized. Here's this grasping, status-obsessed yuppie who first admits that that he smoked an illegal drug without consequence in his youth, then turns around and tells us, as a graying and bespectacled post-adult, that it would be best if the drug remained illegal for the masses." ...

... Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress: "'Is this a great fucking country or what?' Gary Greenberg, the psychotherapist who had unintentionally convinced journalists around the country that he had grown up toking up with a New York Times columnist, was having a good day. Greenberg's essay, a takedown of David Brooks' anti-pot confessional column written as if Greenberg and Brooks were childhood smoking buddies, had become easily the most popular piece ever published on Greenberg's personal blog. He had gotten interest from (among others) The Atlantic, The Washington Examiner, and The Huffington Post." Except it was a parody. ...

     ... Warning to journalists. Headlines of other likely parodies:

Burns gets advance copy of Brooks' Yale class syllabus.
American Economics Association honors David Brooks.
David Brooks enters monastery, takes vow of silence.
I had sex with David Brooks.

... More on Drugs. The New York Times gives Mike Tyson plenty of space to explain why he has had so many problems with drugs & alcohol. Like Brooks, he wants to be sober to be a better person.

Ben Goessling of ESPN: "The Minnesota Vikings announced Friday they will retain two local attorneys to conduct an independent review of the allegations former punter Chris Kluwe made against the team Thursday."

Another Excellent Reason Not to Watch the Sunday Shows. According to Matt Wilstein of Mediaite, Mitt Romney is expected to address Melissa Harris-Perry's controversial "comedy" segment in which she highlighted the fact that one of Romney's grandchildren is black when he appears on "Fox 'News" Sunday."

News Ledes

AP: "The leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that carried out attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria's civil war died on Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, the army said. In a short statement, the Lebanese army said Majid al-Majid 'died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated.'"

AP: "The death toll from the latest violent clashes in Egypt between Islamist protesters and security forces has risen to 17, a security official said Saturday. Friday's protests were the deadliest in months, coming less than two weeks ahead of a key referendum on an amended constitution."

Reuters: "President Vladimir Putin has eased restrictions on demonstrations in the Black Sea Winter Olympics venue of Sochi, his latest bid to burnish Russia's image ahead of the Games."

The Los Angeles Times' full obituary of Phil Everly is here.

The Commentariat -- January 3, 2014

Internal links removed.

Steven Rich & Barton Gellman of the Washington Post: "In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world. According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build 'a cryptologically useful quantum computer' -- a machine exponentially faster than classical computers -- is part of a $79.7 million research program titled, 'Penetrating Hard Targets.' Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park." ...

... Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of the New York Times: The Times editorial of yesterday, calling for Edward J. Snowden to be offered clemency or a plea bargain [generated a great deal of heat]. By midday, it had already drawn well over 1,200 online comments, as well as articles about it in other media outlets, including Politico, Fox News, The Nation, and USA Today. Andrew Rosenthal, The Times's editorial page editor, told me Thursday that the editorial had been under discussion by the editorial board for weeks." ...

... Greg Sargent: "Of course Snowden is the reason why the debate unfolded as it has. Indeed, you don't have to look any farther than the initial pages of the report released by the Obama-appointed panel for clear proof of this." ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "I wouldn't defend every last thing Snowden has done. But life is messy, and you don't always get to control events with precision. Realistically, your choice is between (a) approving of what Snowden did, warts and all, or (b) approving of the status quo, with all of us none the wiser about what our government is doing. I'd say the choice is obvious." ...

     ... CW: That's ridiculous: a good example of the "false dilemma" fallacy. Obviously, there's a Choice (c): approving of some of what Snowden has done & disapproving of the some of what Snowden has done. One need not embrace warts. In addition, despite the limits of the Times editorial board's imagination -- they argued Snowden had no other choice than to go public after his supervisors demonstrated they shared none of his concern about the surveillance state -- Snowden had the option to take less drastic action. As I suggested some while back, he could have taken some or all of his data dump to Sen. Ron Wyden's national security guy, for instance. Or he could have released to U.S. media only those documents that made a case that the NSA was overstepping its legal, Constitutional and/or ethical authority. Drum is arguing, "I hadda kill the guy because he stole my pencil." Would Snowden have gotten into legal trouble if he'd taken my suggestions? Probably so. But he also would have been a hero to everyone but the NSA & their supporters. It would have been much more politically problematic to prosecute somebody who exposed only wrongdoing than it is to prosecute somebody who has released embarrassing (at the least) national security secrets to a host of foreign press. ...

... CW: I've avoided linking Ruth Marcus's Washington Post column for two days because I'm not a Marcus fan. But I do think she mostly gets it right about Snowden: "Time has not deflated Edward Snowden's messianic sense of self-importance. Nor has living in an actual police state given the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower any greater appreciation of the actual freedoms that Americans enjoy.... The Snowden of Gellman's interview is seized with infuriating certitude about the righteousness of his cause. Not for Snowden any anxiety about the implications for national security of his theft of government secrets, any regrets about his violations of a duty of secrecy.... The whistleblower personality is rarely an attractive one.... And personality would not matter -- at least it would not be so grating -- if Snowden's behavior were more upstanding and his actions more justified." ...

     ... OR, as contributor Diane wrote yesterday, " I'm stickin' with my original assessment, he's an immature little prick." ...

... ALSO, Charles Pierce doesn't like Ruth Marcus. AND he thinks Snowden is as deserving of living in the U.S.A. as are Elliott Abrams & Ollie North. CW: This is the "two wrongs make a right" fallacy. One of you pro-fessional debaters may come up with a more appropriate fallacy. But it's a fallacy: "George Zimmerman beat a murder rap so every murderer should get off scot-free."...

... ** Digby has a very good piece on "the necessary give and take between government power and a free press." Also of note, Gellman claims that "Snowden gave all the documents to the three journalists, Gellman, Greenwald and Poitras, and they have all been going through institutional news organizations with editors and lawyers and other journalists vetting the material in consultation with experts. Snowden has nothing to do with how the material is being released."...

... CW: Gellman's assertion seems to conflict with Greenwald's hints that Snowden has "access to a trove of pilfered documents stored on a data cloud":

[Snowden] has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published. If anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives. I don't know for sure whether has more documents than the ones he has given me... I believe he does. -- Glenn Greenwald

New York Times Editors: "A careful review of ... Justice Sonia Sotomayor's perplexing decision to issue a temporary injunction against requiring an order of Colorado nuns to fill out paperwork required by the health care reform law's contraception mandate ... should persuade Justice Sotomayor and her Supreme Court colleagues, who may also become involved now, that the alleged threat to religious liberty is nonexistent and the stay should be lifted while litigation proceeds in the lower courts.... The audacious complaint in this case is against the requirement that such groups sign a short form certifying that they have religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services, a copy of which would go to their third-party insurance administrator.... Adding a level of absurdity to the controversy, Little Sisters of the Poor's insurance plan qualifies as a self-insured 'church plan.'... In this case, contraceptives would not be made available even indirectly to the nuns' employees." ...

... Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Eleven GOP attorneys general say the Obama administration is breaking the law by repeatedly making changes to ObamaCare without going through Congress. The attorneys general specifically criticize President Obama's executive action that allowed insurance companies to keep offering health plans that had been canceled for not meeting ObamaCare's more rigorous standards.... HHS did not respond to a request for comment." ...

... Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "Supporters of President Obama's health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits as people sought care from primary care doctors. But a rigorous new study conducted in Oregon has flipped that assumption on its head, finding that the newly insured actually went to the emergency room more often.... The finding casts doubt on the hope that expanded insurance coverage will help rein in rising emergency room costs just as more than two million people are gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Instead, the study suggests that the surge in the numbers of insured people may put even greater pressure on emergency rooms and increase costs."

James MacPherson of the AP: "Following a string of explosive accidents, federal officials said Thursday that crude oil being shipped by rail from the Northern Plains across the U.S. and Canada may be more flammable than traditional forms of oil. A safety alert issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation warns the public, emergency responders and shippers about the potential high volatility of crude from the Bakken oil patch. The sprawling oil shale reserve is fueling the surging industry in eastern Montana and western North Dakota, which is now the nation's second-largest oil producer behind Texas."

"Paul Krugman is off today," so I bring you instead a lecture from Ruth Marcus's BFF David Brooks on the Evils of Weed. ALSO, how Brooks overcame his habit: "I smoked one day during lunch and then had to give a presentation in English class. I stumbled through it, incapable of putting together simple phrases, feeling like a total loser." As a result of his abstention he became a "more integrated, coherent and responsible" person and totally not a loser. ...

... ALSO, if this government publication is right, then so is Brooks.

    ... CW: Update: After I ID'd Ruth Marcus as Brooks' BFF, I turned to the Washington Post, & what should I find but a new Marcus column titled "The Perils of Legalized Pot." I didn't read past her confessional.

Tom Kludt of TPM: "Chris Kluwe, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings, wrote in Deadspin on Thursday that his public support for same-sex marriage played a role in his release from the team. Specifically, Kluwe identified 'two cowards' and a 'bigot' at the Vikings organization who were behind his release." ...

... Here's Kluwe's account. CW: I found it pretty compelling reading. ...

... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "... to those who say we've nearly won the fight on gay rights, realize there remains an incredible amount of work to do even in the entertainment industry. Something is still very wrong when a child-marriage-advocating bigot like Phil Robertson gets to stay on the air on A&E of all places, while Chris Kluwe gets blacklisted from the NFL." ...

... John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: "If two coaches, at least, were acting in a homophobic manner, and one coach was rabidly homophobic, and nothing was done about it -- other than to fire someone who was pro-gay -- then the Vikings have a serious problem with homophobia in the management of that team."

Okay, here's your Krugman fix. Paul Krugman: "We could have a debate about whether rising inequality is a problem, and whether measures intended to curb it would do more harm than good. But we can't have that kind of debate if the anti-populist side won't acknowledge basic facts -- and it won't. In his [Wall Street Journal] piece Bret Stephens trashes Obama, accusing him of making a factual error when he did no such thing; then proceeds to commit just about every statistical sin you can imagine in an attempt to minimize the rise in inequality. In the process he leaves his readers more ignorant than they were before. When this is what passes for argument, how can we have any kind of rational discussion? Oh, and just FYI: this is the kind of journalism that the great and the good deem worthy of a Pulitzer Prize." ...

... Cockroaches, Zombies & Nonsense. Krugman again: "Consider three arguments one might make against 21st-century populism: 1. Inequality isn't increasing. 2. OK, inequality is increasing, but it's not a problem. 3. OK, it would be nice to have lower inequality, but any proposed solutions would do more harm than good. Which of these arguments does the right choose, when making its stand? The answer is, all three."

Peter Beinart in the Atlantic: "Democrats in 2014: the Party of John Edwards.... It was Edwards, during his 2004 presidential run, who returned the focus to inequality by flipping Clintonism on its head. In his 1992 campaign, Clinton had talked a lot about 'rewarding work.' Democrats, he insisted, would help people who 'played by the rules' -- for instance, via an expanded earned income tax credit for the working poor -- but they would stop coddling welfare recipients. In 2004, Edwards took that judgmental tone but redirected it. In his narrative, the people disrespecting work were not welfare mothers but trust funders, people who lived off their investments rather than the sweat of their brow."

"How can there be snow if there's global warming?"

... Commenters today mentioned the segment above. The short segment that preceded it is quite good, too:

... Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "... behind the scenes at the State Department [Secretary of State John] Kerry has initiated a systematic, top-down push to create an agencywide focus on global warming. His goal is to become the lead broker of a global climate treaty in 2015 that will commit the United States and other nations to historic reductions in fossil fuel pollution." ...

... Laura Barron-Lopez of the Hill: "Climate change and energy will be a major policy battleground in the 2014 midterms, advocates on both sides of the issue promise. Republicans like Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) plan to go on the attack against President Obama's climate action plan, which they have dubbed a 'war on coal.'" ...

... Mike Ciandella of News Busters: "The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to do with the expedition." CW: May be true of print media as well. I linked two AFP stories on the rescue effort; one never mentioned the group's makeup, & the other called it a "scientific expedition" with "tourists," but never hinted the party was gathering climate change data.

Local News

Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times: "A Mexican immigrant without a green card on Thursday won the right to practice law in California, an unprecedented ruling that could permit others in similar circumstances to become lawyers. The state Supreme Court agreed unanimously that Sergio C. Garcia -- who passed the bar examination four years ago -- should receive a law license while awaiting federal approval of his green card application. The court, which has the final word on licensing lawyers, said it was able to approve Garcia's admission to the state bar because the Legislature had passed a law last year that cleared the way."

Freeeedom! Jim Forsyth of Reuters: "Magpul Industries, a manufacturer of ammunition magazines, is moving its corporate headquarters to Texas, making good on its threat to leave its base in Colorado because of new restrictions on guns. 'Moving operations to states that support our culture of individual liberties and personal responsibility is important,' Magpul Chief Executive Richard Fitzpatrick said in a statement on Thursday. Magpul threatened last year to leave in response to new state laws that ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, require universal background checks for gun buyers and force gun buyers to pay for their own background checks.... Texas Governor Rick Perry welcomed Magpul.... 'In Texas, we understand that freedom breeds prosperity, which is why we've built our economy around principles that allow employers to innovate, keep more of what they earn and create jobs,' Perry said in a statement." CW: "Freedom" + "personal responsibility" = firearms that hold more than 15 rounds. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear repeating rifles and semi-automatic shotguns, shall not be infringed."

Congressional Race

Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade: "Gay singer and 'American Idol' runner-up Clay Aiken is actively considering a bid to represent North Carolina's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House, according to two Democratic sources familiar with his plans."

Right Wing World

Space Aliens! Invading Canadians! And Chinese! Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Jim Garrow today appeared on [Fox "News" contributor] Erik Rush's radio show..., where he predicted that President Obama will try to distract Americans from his supposed scandals ... by claiming that he is now in touch with alien life. This must be Obama's Plan B, as Garrow previously claimed that Obama almost launched a devastating nuclear attack on the US with the goal of killing 90% of Americans in order to help George Soros make money.... Another guest, Nancy Smith of the Tea Party news show 'Politichicks,' said ... 'Personally I've already heard some other sources saying the very same thing that you're saying.' ... As for the Americans who rise up against Obama and aren't deceived by his alien plot, Rush predicted that patriotic civilians and soldiers will fight Obama's Chinese-United Nations army. Garrow even said that Obama will send in troops from Canada to bring down the insurgency." With audio. CW: I invite you to read the whole post because, yes, there's more. Via Charles Pierce. ...

... Doktor Zoom of Wonkette is very concerned.

Canadian News

I've been the best mayor that this city's ever had. -- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ...

... Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "As he had promised, Ford was the first candidate to register for the 2014 race. Immediately after he filed his nomination papers at city hall Thursday morning, he revealed his early communications strategy: a relentless focus on money matters, a refusal to address questions about his behaviour while in office."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "Phil Everly, who with his brother, Don, made up the most revered vocal duo of the rock-music era, their exquisite harmonies profoundly influencing the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and countless younger-generation rock, folk and country singers, died Friday in Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Patti Everly, told The Times. He was 74."

Washington Post: "A rejuvenated al-Qaeda-affiliated force asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago."

AP: "... starting Sunday tundra-like temperatures are poised to deliver a rare and potentially dangerous sledgehammer blow to much of the Midwest, driving temperatures so far below zero that records will shatter. One reason? A 'polar vortex,' as one meteorologist calls it, which will send cold air piled up at the North Pole down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast." ...

... AP: "A blustering winter storm that dropped nearly 2 feet of snow just north of Boston, shut down major highways in New York and Pennsylvania and forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights nationwide menaced the Northeast on Friday with howling winds and frigid temperatures. The brutal weather -- which brought plummeting temperatures to some areas that forecasters predicted could see highs just above zero and wind chill readings of minus 10 degrees and colder by early Friday -- dumped 21 inches of snow in Boxford, Mass., by late Thursday and 18 inches in parts of western New York near Rochester. Up to 7 inches fell in New York City by Friday morning."

New York Times: "Months after diplomats declared that they had come up with a plan and a timetable to dispose of Syria's lethal chemical weapons -- and with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the weapons inspectors -- the centerpiece of the mission, a workhorse American military ship that will ferry the weapons to sea for destruction, remains [in Portsmouth, Virginia], waiting like a sad bride for her groom.... Late last month, the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group charged with the removal efforts, said in a joint statement that security conditions in Syria had 'constrained planned movements' and that bad weather had foiled plans to move the weapons out by the target date of Dec. 31. "

New York Times: "Amid the chaos of Syria's civil war, Hezbollah has been moving long-range missiles to Lebanon from bases where it had stored them inside Syria, including long-range Scud D missiles that can strike deep into Israel, according to an Israeli national security analyst."

AP: "An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic was told to halt its journey home on Friday after concerns that a Chinese vessel involved in the dramatic rescue may also become stuck in the heavy sea ice."

Cute Baby Story. ABC News: Three sets of New Years twins will have a lifetime of explaining to do. In each case one baby was born on Dec. 31 and the other on Jan. 1. They're twins, yet they were born in different years." CW: One is a tax deduction for 2013; the other is not.