The Commentariat -- Dec. 16, 2013

In his column, Paul Krugman follows up on his recent blogpost on economic inequality: "... inequality is rising so fast that over the past six years it has been as big a drag on ordinary American incomes as poor economic performance, even though those years include the worst economic slump since the 1930s. And if you take a longer perspective, rising inequality becomes by far the most important single factor behind lagging middle-class incomes." ...

... Larry Summers sees inequality as one of the reasons for "stagflation": "Consumption may be lower because of a sharp increase in the share of income held by the very wealthy and the rising share of income accruing to capital." CW: IMHO, this is a poorly-written, jargonistic, meandering column, unsuitable for a general readership. Summers may be accustomed to being the smartest guy in the room, but I doubt he's often the best writer in the room. ...

... Kay, in Balloon Juice, on a New York Times op-ed by American Enterprise Institute "public intellectual" Arthur Brooks: "If [conservatives are] defending on income inequality, and they are, they know it's a political problem. That's good news. Shifting blame for income inequality to public schools and public school teachers means they think they have to explain income inequality away somehow, and they are casting around for an excuse that doesn't implicate conservatives, conservatism, or anyone who is at all wealthy or powerful in government or the private sector.... You have to love the logic that says a problem that was partially caused by the deliberate and careful dismantling of any rights, protections or leverage for workers will be solved if we take away rights, protections and leverage from the small group of middle class workers who retain them, like teachers."

Kathleen Geier of the Washington Monthly: Unemployment has a "catastrophic effect on personal happiness," studies find.

Noam Scheiber of the New Republic attempts to define populism & deprive anti-populists of their broadsides against it. "... when powerful economic interests are involved, the burden of proof should fall on self-interested elites rather than popular opinion, whereas Third Way proposes something akin to the opposite. That's not a trivial difference. It's the schism that's increasingly defining the Democratic Party."

Everything Bad Is Obama's Fault, Ctd. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldiver & Jennifer Agiesta of the AP: "An Associated Press-GfK poll ... found a striking level of unease about the [Affordable Care Act] among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help.... Employers trying to control their health insurance bills have been shifting costs to workers for years, but now those changes are blamed increasingly on 'Obamacare' instead of the economy or insurance companies."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times on the do-nothing Congress, which this year was way worse than usual. ...

... Do-Nothing Congress to Continue Doing Nothing in 2014. Reid Wilson of the Washington Post: "After the Senate reconvenes in January, observers say, the coming year is unlikely to yield significant legislative action. Democrats will probably advance measures intended to draw political contrasts with Republicans -- including a proposal to raise the minimum wage and a number of smaller bills that they say would boost jobs and strengthen the economy. None of those measures are likely to win Republican votes or spur action in the GOP-controlled House."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader, said Sunday that Republicans jockeying for the White House in 2016 and Tea Party challengers in 2014 have imperiled the budget deal. Durbin estimated that Democrats will lose three members of their caucus on the vote, which means they'll need at least eight Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with them. The challenge Democratic leaders face in trying to round up the vote has been compounded by the outspoken opposition to the deal from Republicans weighing presidential bids and a slew of Republican primary races in 2014." ...

... NEW. Brian Beutler of Salon has an excellent piece on the Senate dynamics vis-a-vis the budget bill. ...

We also don't want to have shutdown drama so we can focus on replacing Obamacare, so we can focus on showing better ideas and what this is coming in. 'Cause we don't think people like this law and we don't think it's gonna get any more popular. -- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), on why Republicans think the budget deal he cut is so great ...

... Wait. It Gets Worse. Damian Paletta of the Wall Street Journal: "House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) signaled that Republicans would not raise the debt ceiling next year without some sort of concessions from Democrats, saying lawmakers were still crafting their strategy. 'We, as a caucus, along with our Senate counterparts, are going to meet and discuss what it is we want to get out of the debt limit,' Mr. Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. 'We don't want "nothing" out of the debt limit. We're going to decide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt limit fight.'" ...

     ... CW: I hope you see what Ryan is threatening here. Congress passes legislation that requires expenditures. It passes appropriations bills that do not cover those expenditures. Then Ryan says Congressional Republicans should "get something" for failing to pay their own bills. If Democrats do not reward them for their profligacy, they'll damage the government's credit & threaten world markets. This kind of sabotage is qualitatively similar to Snowden's. Both men are proud of their dirty tricks; both are self-aggrandizing saboteurs. The main difference is that Snowden didn't target any particular Americans, while Ryan intends to help the rich & hurt the poor.

     ... Update. Ed Kilgore: "... the White House and congressional Democrats are ... going to have to be willing to look Paul Ryan in the eye and ... say: 'We'll see you in Hell, Granny-Starver, before we give you a thing in exchange for a debt limit increase.' ... You don't say 'Ho-Ho-Ho' to a man threatening to blow up the economy if he isn't allowed to liberate more people from the terrible affliction of government assistance with trifles like food and shelter."

John Miller of CBS "News" goes inside the NSA & delves into "the Snowden Affair," Parts 1 & 2:

He was taking a technical examination for potential employment at NSA. He used a system administrator privileges to go into the account of the NSA employee who was administering that test, and he took both the questions & the answers & used them to pass the test. -- Rick Ledgett, head of the Snowden task force

So, if true, a despicable little fraud from the git-go. -- Constant Weader

... Greg Mitchell of the Nation has a good rundown of the criticisms of Miller's story. ...

... NEW. Dylan Scott of TPM: "... the Daily Beast and Huffington Post have reported in recent days that Miller was under consideration for a job at the NYPD in an intelligence or counterterrorism role. On Monday, the New York Post's Page Six reported that Miller was on the verge of taking such a job. Miller, who had previously worked for new NYPD chief Bill Bratton in New York as a spokesperson and Los Angeles as counterterrorism chief, did not mention any pending career move during the segment." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Suspected Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was tormented by voices in his head, according to the Boston Globe, which published the results of a five-month investigation into the attack on Sunday.... According to the 18,000-word report, Tsarnaev brothers were coequals in planning the twin bombings that killed four and wounded more than 260 others. And despite suspicions that Tamerlan made contact with Islamist radicals during a 2012 visit to Kyrgyzstan, the paper concludes the brothers' violence was 'more likely rooted in the turbulent collapse of their family and their escalating personal and collective failures.'" The Globe report is here.

** Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "The oxymoronic quest for humane executions only accentuates the absurdity of allowing the death penalty in a civilized society. It's understandable that Supreme Court Justices have tried to make the process a little more palatable; and there is a meagre kind of progress in moving from the chair to the gurney. But the essential fact about both is that they come with leather straps to restrain a human being so that the state can kill him. No technology can render that process any less grotesque." Toobin writes a brief history of U.S. methods of execution.

Mark Thompson of Time: "President Obama nominated  Vice Admiral Michelle Howard for a fourth star Friday, becoming the first woman in Navy history to attain the rank -- assuming Senate approval -- of full admiral. She currently serves as deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans, and strategy. She has been tapped to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the Navy's second-ranking officer, and a single step below the chief of naval operations, the service's top officer."

James Carroll has the cover story for the New Yorker on Pope Francis's first year as pontiff. "'Who am I to judge?' With those five words, spoken in late July in reply to a reporter's question about the status of gay priests in the Church, Pope Francis stepped away from the disapproving tone, the explicit moralizing typical of Popes and bishops. This gesture of openness, which startled the Catholic world, would prove not to be an isolated event. In a series of interviews and speeches in the first few months after his election, in March, the Pope unilaterally declared a kind of truce in the culture wars that have divided the Vatican and much of the world." ...

Pope Francis appears to be a decent fellow -- a mensch -- and a sincere advocate of goodwill and peace on Earth. But who am I to judge? -- Barry Blitt, who drew the New Yorker cover

Local News

In my oath it says I'll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado. It doesn't say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature. -- Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Colorado, on why he doesn't have to enforce Colorado's new gun safety laws ...

... Colorado -- Where the Wild West Is Still Wild. Erica Goode of the New York Times: "Some [Colorado] sheriffs ... are refusing to enforce the [new gun] laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be 'a very low priority,' as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes."

Justice Robert's pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined. -- North Carolina State Sen. Bob Rucho, in a tweet ...

... Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Rucho was a primary sponsor of a bill this year to prohibit North Carolina from setting up a health insurance exchange or participating in the Medicaid expansion. About 377,000 North Carolinians would be eligible for Medicaid coverage if the state were not refusing to take part." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "This is Rucho's most controversial tweet to date, though not for lack of trying. Since joining the site in October, Rucho has asked what the president is 'smoking' and marked the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination by declaring 'JFK could have been the founder and leader of the Tea Party. The real democrat party has been hijacked.'"

The Dumbest Bush Is Yet to Come. Will Weisert of the AP: "George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's 37-year-old son..., is launching his political career by running for Texas' little-known but powerful land commissioner post. But rather than campaigning on the mainstream Republicanism embodied by the family name, Bush says he's 'a movement conservative' more in line with the tea party. As if to underscore the point, he says he draws the most inspiration not from the administrations of his grandfather, George H. W. Bush, or his uncle, George W. Bush, but from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of that chamber." CW: What this country needs is a Newt clone.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Ray Price, who was at the forefront of two revolutions in country music as one of its finest ballad singers and biggest hit makers, died on Monday at his home in Mount Pleasant, Tex. He was 87."

NBC News: John C. Beale, "the EPA's highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change, deserves to go to prison for at least 30 months for lying to his bosses and saying he was a CIA spy working in Pakistan so he could avoid doing his real job, say federal prosecutors."

AP: "An official Chinese newspaper on Monday accused the U.S. Navy of harassing a Chinese squadron earlier this month, shortly before a near collision that marked the two nations' most serious sea confrontation in years."

AP: "The bogus sign language interpreter at last week's Nelson Mandela memorial service was among a group of people who accosted two men found with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks, one of the interpreter's cousins and three of his friends told The Associated Press Monday. But Thamsanqa Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determined he was not mentally fit to stand trial, said the four."

Boston Globe: "Four buildings at Harvard University have been evacuated and police from five different agencies are on the Cambridge campus, some of them with bomb-sniffing dogs, to investigate 'unconfirmed reports' that explosives had been hidden in the buildings. No detonations of explosives have been reported." ...

     ... Update: "The bomb scare at Harvard University today was triggered by an e-mail warning that explosives had been planted in four buildings at the heart of the storied campus, according to a law enforcement official. At 2:44 p.m., the university announced that the the Science Center, the last of the four buildings, had been deemed safe."

Guardian: "The United Nations has launched an appeal for $6.5bn (£4bn) for Syria and its neighbours to help 16 million people in 2014, many of whom are hungry or homeless victims of a 33-month-old Syrian conflict that has no end in sight."

Guardian: Former Chilean President "Michelle Bachelet has promised major tax and education reforms to help ease Chile's social divisions after sweeping back to power with a huge majority in presidential elections on Sunday. The centre-left candidate won with about 62% support, the highest share of votes for any presidential candidate since the country returned to holding democratic elections in 1989."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 15, 2013

Mark Mazzetti & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials. Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked -- unlike other N.S.A. facilities -- was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials."

Huh. Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute argues in the right-wing National Review in favor of an extension of the emergency federal unemployment-insurance program. He makes a rational, non-ideological economic argument. Wonders never cease.

Paul Krugman: "It has taken an amazingly long time, but inequality is finally surfacing as a significant unifying issue for progressives -- including the president. And there is, inevitably, a backlash, or actually a couple of backlashes." ...

... Kathleen Geier in the Washington Monthly on economic inequality: "... the policy fixes for economic inequality are fairly clear: a higher minimum wage, stronger labor unions, a more progressive tax system, a more generous social welfare state, macroeconomic policies that promote a full employment economy, and much more powerful government regulations, particularly in the banking and finance sector." Geier builds on Krugman's post.

Dana Milbank awards Selfies to self-centered, hypocritical Washington officials. CW: Ted Cruz might have been Fourth Runner-Up for Time's Person of the Year, but he gets first Selfie ever. And he deserves it.

Chris Geider of BuzzFeed: "A federal judge struck down Utah's criminal ban on cohabitation between a married individual and another person not his or her spouse, a prong in the state's law against polygamy. The Friday ruling did not address legal polygamy -- actually being married to multiple people -- but only what U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups referred to as 'religious cohabitation.'" CW: It was a star-studded case: the plaintiffs star in a TLC reality show called "Sister Wives"; their attorney is well-known lawyer Jonathan Turley. ...

... Turley takes to his blog to boast about his big win. CW: If I won a big case in federal court, I'd brag about it, too.

Amanda Marcotte of AlterNet, in Salon explains Christian conservative belief system & how it impacts the Christian rights' view of the U.S.: "Over and over again, right-wingers warn that all the things they hate, from pro-gay Broadway shows to immigration to multiculturalism, are not just signs of an evolving American society, but portend the actual end of it.... But really, what all these fantasies of cities burning down and impending war and destruction are expressing is a belief that the culture of white conservative Christians is the culture of America. So it follows that if they aren't the dominant class in the United States, then America isn't, in their opinion, really America anymore."

AFP: "Pope Francis said he knew a lot of 'good' Marxists but was no communist himself, following criticism of his diatribes against unfettered capitalism from conservative commentators in the United States. 'Marxist ideology is wrong. But in my life I have met a lot of Marxists who are good people, so I do not feel offended,' Francis said in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa published on Sunday." CW: "Diatribes"?? ...

... The English translation of the La Stampa interview by Andrea Tornielli is here.

Elizabeth Tenety, the Washington Post's "On Faith" editor, says that what people like about Pope Francis is what they like about Jesus.

Faux "News"

Andy Borowitz publishes children's letters to Megyn Kelly along with Kelly's responses. CW: I think Borowitz made up the kids' letters & sent them to Kelly. No doubt Borowitz is just another race-baiter, like the ones Kelly complained about yesterday. But I'm pretty sure Kelly's answers are real. Thanks to James S. for the link.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Joan Fontaine, the patrician blond actress who rose to stardom as a haunted second wife in the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Rebecca' in 1940 and won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a terrified newlywed in Hitchcock's 'Suspicion,' died at her home in Carmel, Calif., on Sunday. She was 96."

CBS "News": "Actor-writer-director Tom Laughlin, whose production and marketing of 'Billy Jack' set a standard for breaking the rules on and off screen, has died."

New York Times: "The European Union on Sunday broke off talks with Ukraine on the far-reaching trade deal that protesters here have been demanding for weeks, and a top official issued a stinging, angry statement all but accusing Ukraine's president of dissembling during the negotiations." ...

... Guardian: "Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved freezing temperatures and aggressive policing to return to central Kiev on Sunday to demand political change, sending a message to authorities that the crisis over the government's failure to sign an EU integration pact is unlikely to end soon." ...

... Guardian: "Senator John McCain on Sunday told thousands of Ukrainian protesters camped on Kiev's main square that Ukraine's destiny lay in Europe and that it would make Europe better." CW: Ah, a cast of hundreds of thousands. Apparently the US network green rooms are getting too small for McCain. ...

     ... UPDATE. But Wait. A sojourn in Kiev didn't stop McCain from appearing on a Sunday show. CNN: "Sen. John McCain joined CNN's 'State of the Union" from Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday after the Arizona Republican addressed thousands of protesters who are angry over the Ukrainian government's decision to backpedal away from an agreement with the European Union." You cannot keep that man off the teevee.

CNN: "The rampage [at Arapahoe High School in Colorado] might have resulted in many more casualties had it not been for the quick response of a deputy sheriff who was working as a school resource officer at the school, [Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson] Robinson said. Once he learned of the threat, he ran -- accompanied by an unarmed school security officer and two administrators -- from the cafeteria to the library, Robinson said.... He praised the deputy's response as 'a critical element to the shooter's decision' to kill himself, and lauded his response to hearing gunshots."

Reuters: "China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat."

Guardian: "The actor Peter O'Toole who found stardom in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81...." The New York Times' obituary is here. The Los Angeles Times has a good slideshow here. ...

     ... Here's a much-expanded New York Times O'Toole obituary.

New York Daily News: "Thousands of drunken Santas went dashing through the snow under the influence Saturday, dutifully earning their places on Saint Nick's 'naughty' list. The red-faced revelers -- many from out of town -- overwhelmed parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan for SantaCon...." With photos.

AP: "... Nelson Mandela has been buried in the African ground he loved. His casket was lowered into the earth after military jets and helicopters with South African flags displayed flew over the pallbearers." The New York Times story, which includes a slideshow, is here.

AFP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in New Delhi[, India,] on Saturday he no longer 'trusts' the United States, accusing the Americans of saying one thing and doing another in his troubled homeland. Karzai's statement to journalists came a day after he insisted he would not be 'intimidated' into signing a security pact allowing US troops in Afghanistan to stay on after next year."

AFP: "Iran said on Saturday that it had safely returned a monkey to Earth after blasting it into space in the second such launch this year in its controversial ballistic programme."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 14, 2013

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama honors the memories of the 26 ... children and educators who were taken from us a year ago in Newtown, Connecticut":

Manu Raju & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Democrats are on the cusp of securing enough GOP votes to break a filibuster next week on the bipartisan budget, temporarily ending the fiscal crises that have dominated Washington for the past several years. With 53 Democrats and two independents expected to back the measure, four Republicans -- John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Richard Burr of North Carolina -- said that they would vote to cut off debate on the budget, putting proponents just one vote shy of advancing the measure to final passage. Several additional GOP senators signaled Friday that they may also vote to advance the deal...."

David Welna of NPR: "After pulling two consecutive all-nighters, a bleary-eyed Senate is taking a breather on Saturday.... After consulting with McConnell, Reid announced Friday that they would put off further votes until Monday evening."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Mr. Boehner's tough talk in taking on interests considered vital to generating Republican voter enthusiasm and building fierce opposition to President Obama's agenda appeared to represent a turning point in Republican coalition building in the aftermath of the government shutdown." ...

... Kevin Bogardus of the Hill: "Business lobbyists are pumping their fists over Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) slap-down of conservative groups. Executives at trade groups told The Hill they were pleasantly surprised by the strident remarks this week from the typically laid-back Speaker." ...

... CW: If you read between the lines of the two stories above, you can hardly miss noticing that this "turning point" is all about politics & not slightly about principle. Not just Mitch McConnell, but quite a number of sitting MOCs are being Tea-Pee'd; plus business lobbyists are not amused by the radical right's purity code that shut down the government & is threatening their best Congressional water-carriers.

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The White House continued its slow-motion staff shake-up on Friday by replacing President Obama's chief legislative lobbyist in hopes of improving the president's prickly relations with Congress heading into the new year. Miguel Rodriguez stepped down as the White House director of legislative affairs and will be replaced by Katie Beirne Fallon, currently deputy White House communications director and a veteran Senate aide.... The switch capped a week in which the president recruited his former legislative director, Phil Schiliro, to return to the White House for a few months and enlisted John D. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton and co-director of Mr. Obama's transition, to join the staff for a year." CW: Yeah, I think a game of White House musical chairs will convince Congressional Republicans they want to play nice with the President. ...

... AND David Sanger & Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "President Obama has decided to keep the National Security Agency and the Pentagon's cyberwarfare branch under the same command despite concerns that it concentrates too much power in the hands of a single military official responsible for both surveillance and directing a growing arsenal of cyberweapons. As a practical matter, the decision means that Mr. Obama must appoint a four-star military officer to succeed Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the first person to simultaneously run the two organizations, when he retires early next year." ...

... AFP: "A National Security Agency official said in an interview released Friday that he would be open to cutting an amnesty deal with intelligence leaker Edward Snowden if he agreed to stop divulging secret documents. Rick Ledgett, who heads the NSA's task force investigating the damage from the Snowden leaks, told CBS television's '60 Minutes' program that some but not all of his colleagues share his view." ... Here's the CBS "News" report, by John Miller. With video. Among those who don't favor amnesty for Snowden is Gen. Keith Alexander, who heads the NSA. ...

... Craig Timberg of the Washington Post & Ashkan Soltani: "The cellphone encryption technology used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over public airwaves every day.... The agency's ability to crack encryption used by the majority of cellphones in the world offers it wide-ranging powers to listen in on private conversations." ...

... Matthew McKnight of the New Yorker: "This week in the magazine, Ryan Lizza asks, 'Why won't the President rein in the intelligence community?' And on this week's Political Scene podcast, Lizza and Patrick Radden Keefe join Dorothy Wickenden to discuss this question":

Peter Baker: "President Obama vowed on Friday to join Bill de Blasio, the mayor-elect of New York, and other urban leaders in an effort to combat growing inequalities in American society and pressed Congress to extend unemployment benefits now set to expire":

Angie Holan of PolitiFact: "PolitiFact has named 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,' the Lie of the Year for 2013." CW: Here's the e-mail I sent to PolitiFact: 

One little problem with your 2013 Lie of the Year -- by your own account, Obama never made an unqualified claim that 'if you like your health plan, you can keep it' in 2013. It might be the lie of 2009 or of 2010, but not of 2013. You should at least have admitted that much in your report.

By calling this the 2013 Lie of the Year, readers will naturally infer that the lie was told in 2013. It wasn't, at least not by Obama. You also, slyly, don't directly attribute the lie to Obama this year. But the clear implication of the report is that you are attributing the Lie of the Year to the President. All of this slithering around the facts kinda makes your 2013 Lie of the Year story, uh, Half-True.

This Snoop Dog video, which promotes ObamaCare,

     ... has displeased the guy who makes Greggers look like Astaire:

     .... to wit; I worry about something that seems aim to glorification of the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States as opposed to simply advocating young people go out and sign up for this entitlement program. -- Karl Rove ...

     ... CW: I'll let Steve M. handle this one. (Link fixed; thanks to contributor Nancy.)

Art by Driftglass.CW: Now that I don't have to, I never read David Brooks anymore. But Driftglass whetted my appetite, if only because his claims about Brooks' latest proposal seemed so outlandish, I had to think Driftglass might be kidding. But no.

     Here's Brooks: "Make the executive branch more powerful.... It's a good idea to be tolerant of executive branch power grabs and to give agencies flexibility." ...

     Here's Driftglass: "As [he is] a professional power-groveler, it should come as no surprise that David Brooks wants a king so bad he can taste it. It is mildly surprising that he would actually say it in print." Read the whole post.

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The National Guard will distribute identification cards to the gay spouses of its personnel, overriding the resistance of several states that opposed a new military policy permitting such cards to spouses regardless of sexual orientation.... Nine states -- Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia -- said the issuing of ID cards violated their state constitutions, and would not provide them at National Guard facilities, which are under state control. The states' actions rankled Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel...."

Barry Meier of the New York Times has a long story on the Robert Levinson, the C.I.A.-affiliated American who disappeared in 2007 on a mission to Iran. ...

... Charles Pierce: "... Robert Levinson was a spy, and we were told he was something else. The Iranians were the ones telling the truth on this deal. That does not fill me with glee."

Elias Isquith of Salon: "Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaii public official who verified and approved the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, died on Wednesday, the only fatality in a tragic plane accident that occurred off the coast of Molokai. Like clockwork, this sent the birther movement into a tizzy of speculation. Donald Trump, for example, was quick to insinuate something nefarious afoot." CW: Apply Right Wing World Rule No. 1: "If anything bad happens, it's Obama's fault." I'm thinking drones, arent' you? Thanks to James S. for the link.

Local News

In This Friday Afternoon Trenton Newsdump:

... Jenna Portnoy of the Star-Ledger: New Jersey "Gov. Chris Christie today announced Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has resigned, effective immediately. The announcement comes as the scandal over the closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge has reached a national level. Baroni has said lanes were closed for a traffic study, but Democrats believe the move was retribution against the Fort Lee mayor for his failure to endorse Christie for governor.... Christie today flat out denied any involvement in the politics surrounding the closures.... David Wildstein, the agency's director of interstate capital projects, announced his resignation last week. Wildstein is off the payroll as of today, Christie said. Assemblyman John Wisniewski on Thursday subpoenaed Port Authority documents from seven officials, including Wildstein and Baroni, who has said the lane closures were part of a traffic study. The study has yet to surface."

SantaCon. Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Every year since 1997, thousands of men and women have dressed up as Santas, elves, reindeer or some other holiday confection and descended on [New York C]ity's streets for a daylong bar crawl.... On Saturday, the Santas are coming to town again.... SantaCon remains shrouded in mystery. There is no official leader, no tickets or sign-in sheets, and the details of the route remain a closely guarded secret until the last possible moment. The rules -- if they can be called that -- are simple: Don't make children cry, and dress up. This year, the organizers also took to Twitter to remind Santas that unsolicited sexual advances are wrong." CW: Also, you can wear a Santa suit even if you're not a white guy, though clearly your costume will not fool Megyn Kelly. ...

... Faux "News," CYA Edition

Oh. We Didn't Get the "Joke." Hadas Gold of Politico: "Megyn Kelly said Friday evening she was making off-hand and 'tongue-in-cheek' comments about Santa Claus and Jesus Christ being white, and that the controversy over the segment is a result of 'race-baiting' while the real debate was lost.... Kelly said she was simply trying ot make the same point as [Aisha] Harris was in her piece for Slate; that all the Santa's depicted in modern society are white and whether that should change." CW: Totally believable, Megyn. And, yeah, it's all our faults, as you say, "for assuming the worst in people." I feel just terrible for "misinterpreting" the assertions which you are your guests made in claiming myths were facts.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Another round of wintry weather battered the U.S. Midwest and East Coast on Saturday as a massive storm spanning more than 1,000 miles dumped heavy snow, snarling air traffic and making roads treacherous. Airlines reported weather-related delays and cancellations, with major airports in Chicago, Washington, New York City and Newark, New Jersey, scrubbing dozens of flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and FlightStats.com. Nearly 1,000 U.S. flights were cancelled...."

AP: "John Kerry returned Sunday to the winding waterways of Vietnam's Mekong Delta region where he once patrolled on a naval gunboat in the search for communist insurgents. But nearly 50 years later, Kerry was promoting sustainable aquaculture and trade in a rapidly expanding economy rather than hunting Viet Cong guerrillas at the height of the Vietnam War. This was Kerry's first visit back to the Delta since the war."

AP: "A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School on Friday alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building. Police immediately locked down the scene on the eve of the Newtown massacre anniversary -- a somber reminder of how commonplace school violence has become." ...

     ... Update: " A teenager who wounded a fellow student before killing himself at a suburban Denver high school entered the building with a shotgun, a machete, three Molotov cocktails and ammunition strapped to his body, likely intending to track down a librarian who had disciplined him, authorities said Saturday." ...

     ... Denver Post Update: "The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him." CW: His views appear to be liberal.