The Commentariat -- Sept. 25, 2013

Paul Kane & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The Senate moved Wednesday to take up a House-passed temporary spending bill that defunds President Obama's health-care law.... Shortly after 1 p.m., the funding bill passed its first procedural hurdle in the Senate, which voted unanimously to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed on the House's continuing resolution. The Senate now is scheduled to hold up to 30 hours of debate on the funding bill."

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned congressional leaders Wednesday that he will exhaust emergency borrowing measures 'no later than Oct. 17,' leaving him with less than $30 billion on hand to pay the nation's bills. In a letter sent to all members of Congress, Lew urged immediate action to raise the federal debt limit, which stands at $16.7 trillion. Without additional borrowing authority, Lew warned, cash on hand 'would be far short of net expenditures on certain days, which can be as high as $60 billion.'"

It's Almost Over!

There was clapping when the marathon ended. Not sure if it was for or agin Ted. Harry Reid described Ted's speech as a "waste of time." Reid contrasts Ted with Republicans who "worked to accomplish things for this country.... A bad day for government is a good day for the Tea Party." Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) spoke passionately of the benefits of the ACA. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has been speaking for a few moments & he hasn't said a true word yet. ...

... Jeremy Peters & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz ended his overnight assault on the new health care program at noon Wednesday after more than 21 hours on the Senate floor, clearing the way for a test vote on a plan to finance the government after Oct. 1 only if money is denied for the health law." ...

... Ed O'Keefe & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) ended his marathon talking attack on President Obama's health-care law after 21 hours and 19 minutes -- a feat of stamina that likely will complicate House GOP efforts to pass a funding bill aimed at averting a looming government shutdown." ...

... Jonathan Weisman: "Many Senate Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their colleague, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, in his tangled procedural fight over funding the government even as he took to the Senate floor and declared he would speak 'until I cannot stand' to rally voters against the new health care law. While the Senate appeared increasingly likely to override Mr. Cruz in a preliminary vote scheduled for Wednesday, Mr. Cruz pressed ahead with his opposition and compared his fight to leaders who stood against the Nazis, ended the cold war or launched the American Revolution.... Yet outside the chamber, his colleagues worked to actively thwart his efforts to block a vote to take up the House-passed bill that does precisely what he wants: funds the government through mid-December while defunding the Affordable Care Act.... Mr. Cruz's lonely stand was not really a filibuster. The first vote in a multiday process to get to a final showdown is set for around 10 a.m. Wednesday. Mr. Cruz could talk until then, but he is not able to delay or thwart the vote itself.... Senate Republicans pushed Mr. Cruz Tuesday to give up his stalling tactics.... If Mr. Cruz keeps up his crusade, the final vote cannot happen until Sunday." ...

... Sahil Kapur of TPM has more on "Rule 22," which governs debate in this instance & explains why Cruz's speechifying is a "fake filibuster." "An actual filibuster requires 41 votes to deny cloture and block legislation from moving forward. Cruz does not have that many votes." ...

It is just a form of governmental terrorism. -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), referring to Cruz's marathon Senate speech ...

... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times: Cruz's ploy "also struck [Rep. Peter] King as an unprincipled attempt to change the law without consent of the voters.... Mr. King himself said he had voted against the Obama health care overhaul at every opportunity, then voted to repeal it, and thinks it's a law that ought to be undone. 'But I also believe in democracy, and I don't mean that in a Fourth of July way,' he said. 'We've lost on the House floor, we lost on the Senate floor, the president signed the bill, the Supreme Court held it to be constitutional, and the 2012 election was run on Obamacare as much as any issue. President Obama won. I still think we should try to repeal the bill. But you repeal it the same way you passed it. You get bills through both houses of Congress, and you get the president to sign it.'" CW: Worth bearing in mind: King is running for president, & Cruz is expected to run against him. ...

... All about Ted. Dana Milbank: "A couple of hours before Sen. Ted Cruz launched his doomed filibuster, his Republican colleagues staged an intervention.... They pleaded with their junior colleague to reconsider his plan to block a vote on legislation that would keep the government open. The filibuster, ostensibly in opposition to Obamacare, would do nothing to halt the hated health-care reforms, they said. It would make Republicans look foolish. It would leave House Republicans with too little time to avoid a shutdown. And it could cause Republicans to be blamed for that shutdown.... His action hurt his fellow Republicans without doing anything to abolish Obamacare. But the filibuster did achieve something: It gave Cruz more TV exposure and further endeared him to the tea party. And for the ambitious senator from Texas, the most important thing has always been Ted Cruz." ...

... McKay Coppins, et al., of BuzzFeed: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's quixotic campaign to defund Obamacare -- currently culminating in an hours-long quasi-filibuster on the Senate floor -- has caused conservative activists across the country to swoon. But one key contingent of the Republican Party is decidedly unimpressed with the gambit: big-ticket donors.... Like most Americans, Republican donors generally oppose Obamacare -- but many disagree with the tactics Cruz has employed to block it. The Texas senator has pursued a strategy that could force a government shutdown unless funding for the law is revoked.... Several Republicans expressed doubt that the activist support Cruz is receiving will ultimately make up for the credibility he's losing among the big-money crowd." CW: This BuzzFeed piece is in line with safari's excellent comment in today's Comments section. ...

... Here's Ted comparing those very same Republican Senators to the reviled Neville Chamberlain:

... CW: I checked C-SPAN at 8:30 pm ET Tuesday, & Ted is still at it (with a little assist from Jim Inhofe. ...

     ... Update: I see Ted's "heroic" stand is getting a lot of help from his friends. Mostly when I tune into CSPAN, it's Not Ted speaking. ...

     ... Update 2: It's 3 am ET, & Ted & Mike are continuing their excellent conversation. Mike seems a little tired & confused, but Ted looks great. Makes me wonder if Ted is human.

     ... Update 3: It's 9 am ET, & Ted still looks great; he's speaking coherently (I guess, at least in complete sentences), & he doesn't have a weekend stubble. Even his clothes, which appear to be the same outfit he had on yesterday, looked pressed & fresh. Definitely. Not. Human.

... AND the Usual Suspects. Ed O'Keefe & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Cruz ... was joined in his efforts by several other Republican senators, including Mike Lee (Utah), David Vitter (La.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.). Paul even sent a callout on Twitter asking supporters to send him questions that he said he would ask Cruz later on the Senate floor." ...

... No doubt you'll want to pass along to the kiddies this reading of Green Eggs & Ham.

     ... As contributor Ken Winkes pointed out in today's Comments, the author of Green Eggs & Ham, Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) was a lefty. Matt Yglesias of Slate: "Admittedly, Green Eggs and Ham lacks the overt left-wing politics of a Butter Battle Book or The Lorax but this is still a progressive book. In broad strokes, it's a book advocating openness to experience -- one of the key moral dimensions on which liberals and conservatives differ.... The Democrats' bet on the Affordable Care Act is that it's like green eggs and ham -- they're convinced the public will like it when they try it. Conservatives like Cruz .. are engaging in flailing desperate tactics to make sure nobody tries the green eggs and ham. Because deep down they fear that Dr. Seuss was right." ...

... NEW. Tal Kopan of Politico: Sen. Claire "McCaskill [D-Mo.] said she thinks the book's message is a good one for Republicans to learn, that when Obamacare exchanges open Oct. 1 and Americans enroll, they will try it and like it, just like the main character in Dr. Seuss's book and the infamous green eggs and ham":

... CW: From contributor Kate M., composed, I think, by a friend of hers:

... CW: Apparently all over the Internets inquiring minds are wanting to know who Corner Guy is:

... Benny Johnson of BuzzFeed has the answer (you should read/look at the whole post). Corner Guy is John R. Ellis, IV. AND, curiously, "he is Ted Cruz's legal counsel" AND "he got his JD at Samford University Cumberland School of Law.... And a BA in political science and government from the University of North Texas." I say this is curious because according to a GQ profile by Jason Zengerle (linked yesterday), "As a law student at Harvard, he refused to study with anyone who hadn't been an undergrad at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Says Damon Watson, one of Cruz's law-school roommates: 'He said he didn't want anybody from 'minor Ivies' like Penn or Brown.'" (GQ editors have since added a note to Zengerle's report: noting that "GQ's original article should have reported that Cruz voiced his reluctance rather than flat-out refused." Their explanation is in the editor's note at the linked page.) I hate to tell Ted, but the U. of North Texas is not exactly an "ivy," or even a "minor ivy," & neither is Samford U. I guess Ted isn't an elitist anymore. At all. Not one bit. ...

... Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "The House Republican leadership is seriously considering attaching a one-year delay of Obamacare's individual mandate to the Senate bill to avert a government shutdown, according to senior GOP aides. If House Republicans decide to go this route, it would all but provoke a government shutdown, since Senate Democrats might not even schedule a vote on a bill that includes that provision, Senate leadership staffers say. Even if the Senate schedules a vote, there might not be time to move the legislation through the slow-moving chamber." ...

... MEANWHILE, Up the Road in New York City.... Martha Moore of USA Today: "In a nearly hour-long pitch for his signature legislative achievement, [President] Obama and his health care ally, former president Bill Clinton, said that mandated health insurance would improve the economy and torpedo the budget deficit, all for the cost, Obama said, of a monthly cellphone bill":

I can tell you right now that in many states across the country, if you're, say, a 27-year-old young woman, don't have health insurance, you get on that exchange, you're going to be able to purchase high-quality health insurance for less than the cost of your cellphone bill. -- Barack Obama, Tuesday

... ALSO. Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Hillary Clinton made a forceful case in support of Obamacare's implementation and slammed the "noisy minority" of Senate Republicans advocating defunding the program, saying a government shutdown will be blamed on Republicans and 'we've seen that movie before.' 'I find the debate over the issue to be quite unfortunate,' Clinton said at an afternoon panel at the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan, two hours before her husband and President Obama were set to take the stage to discuss the health care initiative." ...

... Robert Pear & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: " The Obama administration on Tuesday provided the first detailed look at premiums to be charged to consumers for health insurance in 36 states where the federal government will run new insurance markets starting next week, highlighting costs it said were generally lower than previous estimates.... However, the data provided only a partial picture of the reality that consumers will face."

Tom Edsall of the New York Times takes a look at the work of some social scientists to try to figure out why Tea Party conservatives are so radical, or -- as some traditional conservatives observe, not actually conservative at all. Edsall concludes, "Until more white voters come to terms with their status as an emerging American minority, the forces driving voters to support Tea Party candidates and elected officials who adamantly reject compromise will remain strong -- and the Republican Party will remain fractured." ...

... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Democrats are working hard to exploit massive unrest in the Republican Party over the looming government shutdown, which many see as one of their best chances of holding the Senate or even gaining the House in next year's midterm elections."

Shashank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times: "Signaling that he may be serious about giving up his chemical weapons, Syrian President Bashar Assad has disclosed the locations of dozens of poison gas production and storage sites to international inspectors, according to Western officials." ...

... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "In what may have been the most widely awaited speech at the United Nations, Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, preached tolerance and understanding on Tuesday, denounced as a form of violence the Western sanctions imposed on his country and said nuclear weapons had no place in its future. Mr. Rouhani, whose speech followed President Obama's by more than six hours, also acknowledged Mr. Obama's outreach to Iran aimed at resolving more than three decades of estrangement and recrimination, and expressed hope that 'we can arrive at a framework to manage our differences.'" ...

... CW: It's a Three-Fer for MoDo! A confluence of circumstances gave her a chance to bash President Obama, President Clinton & Secretary of State Clinton. ...

... OR, you might prefer John Judis's analysis: "President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday to the United Nations was his most significant foreign policy statement since becoming president.... The speech ... displayed what has always been the most attractive feature of Obama's foreign policy, one that clearly sets him off from his predecessor -- his willingness to court erstwhile enemies and adversaries, or to put it in negative terms, his not possessing what my former colleague Peter Scoblic called an 'us versus them' view of the world."

Obama 2.Zero. Daniel Klaidman of the Daily Beast: "It’s been two months since the Homeland Security secretary [Janet Napolitano] announced her plans to resign, but the White House still isn't close to settling on a replacement, according to administration officials familiar with the search. At least two potential candidates have rebuffed their advances."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post tells a slightly different story from the L.A. Times story I linked yesterday re: the 2007 background check of Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter. The Times story doesn't mention USIS, but Whitlock writes, "Alexis's security clearance background check was performed by USIS, a Falls Church government contractor, on behalf of the federal Office of Personnel Management. Last week, OPM said in a statement that the check was performed properly, 'in compliance with all investigative standards.' Portions of the check provided to the Navy, however, do not mention that he had been charged with a gun-related crime in Seattle, only that he had been engaged in a verbal altercation with a construction worker."

** Where's My Pitchfork Lynchin' Rope? Ezra Klein: "AIG's CEO Robert Benmosche -- who came in to rescue the company after the 2008 financial crisis -- told the Wall Street Journal that the outrage over the bonuses promised to AIG's members was just as bad as when white supremacists in the American South used to lynch African Americans.... Yes, enduring some public criticism for receiving multimillion-dollar bonuses after helping crash the global economy is a lot like being hanged from a tree by your neck until you die." CW: Seriously, somebody should shake some sense into these reprehensible, thin-skinned crybabies. ...

... Matt Taibbi: "Stories like this 'hangman nooses' thing give some insight into the oft-asked question of how the 2008 crisis could ever have happened, the answer being that the people who run our economy, like Benmosche, are basically idiots." Read Taibbi's whole post as he wanders into other aspects of Benmosche's assholedness. Thanks to contributor MAG for the link. ...

... Digby: "I honestly don't know when I've ever seen a more repulsive spectacle than these vastly wealthy Wall Street barons whining and blubbering over and over again about how unfair it is that they aren't popular. Even now! What a big bunch of Marsha, Marsha, Marsha losers. Just crawl off somewhere, count your money and STFU." ...

... AND for readers who think, "Oh, well, so what? This is just hyperbole," Paul Waldman of the American Prospect provides a point-by-point about all that is wrong with Benmosche's false analogy.

George Chen of the South China Morning Post: "Beijing has made the landmark decision to lift a ban on internet access within the Shanghai Free-trade Zone to foreign websites considered politically sensitive by the Chinese government, including Facebook, Twitter and newspaper website The New York Times." Via Alex Rogers of Time.

News Lede

New York Times: "Over two decades at the nonprofit Metropolitan New York Council on Jewish Poverty, [William E.] Rapfogel and two confederates stole more than $5 million, much of it taxpayer money, said [a criminal] complaint, which detailed the schemes and charged Mr. Rapfogel with grand larceny, money laundering and other crimes."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 24, 2013

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, [President] Obama sounded a cautiously optimistic tone about the prospects for diplomacy, saying he had instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue face-to-face negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program":

... Jay Solomon, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "Plans were set Monday for the highest-level engagement between the U.S. and Iran in more than 30 years, fueling cautious optimism about the prospect for progress in curtailing Iran's nuclear work after a decade of threats and stalled diplomacy."

Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton ... are set to appear together Tuesday to discuss Obama's health care law at a session sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative, the former president's foundation. The joint appearance comes exactly one week before people who don't have health insurance can start signing up on Oct. 1 for coverage plans through new insurance marketplaces. It also comes as the Obama administration and those who stand to benefit from the law's success, such as insurance companies, launch a campaign to inform consumers about their options under the law."

Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threw the first punches Monday in what is likely to be a weeklong slugfest over ObamaCare.  Cruz asked for unanimous consent to pass the House continuing resolution that would fund the government while stripping money for ObamaCare, but Reid objected. Cruz then tried to call up the measure and hold all amendment votes to a 60-vote threshold -- and Reid objected to that as well." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Facing opposition from the Senate's most conservative hard-liners, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid has set up a series of procedural tallies, starting on Wednesday, that should culminate on Sunday in votes to remove language from the House spending bill that would strip funding from the Affordable Care Act and then to pass a spending measure to keep the government operating through mid-December. It would be up to House Republican leaders to accept that Senate bill or precipitate a shutdown. 'We will not bow to Tea Party anarchists,' Mr. Reid said Monday, denouncing what he called 'extremist Republicans' and 'fanatics.'" CW: Alexander Bolton of the Hill reported last Thursday that Reid would make these maneuvers. Reid's tactics are reliant, to a great extent, on the tacit cooperation of Mitch McConnell. Guess what? -- Weisman reports, "Signaling a serious split among Republicans, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced that he would not support efforts by the most conservative Senate Republicans to block consideration of the House bill in an effort to slow down the legislative process." ...

     ... CW: As Paul Kane of the WashPo reports (linked below), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the minority whip, who often acquiesces to Cruz's crazy plans -- reputedly out of fear that a Friend of Ted will primary him -- is nixing this one. ...

... Dana Milbank: No, the Republican members of Congress are not insane for voting to shut down the government & preparing to cause the government to default on the debt; they are rationally following their own self-interest. "211 of the 234 Republican seats in the House are 'safe,' leaving only 23 even marginally competitive.... Many of them are safe because district lines have been drawn to make them uncompetitive. The only way these Republican lawmakers would lose their seats is if they were ousted by a challenger in a low-turnout primary dominated by conservative activists and distorted by an explosion of independent expenditures by ideological group."

Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times takes on the Koch-brothers funded group, Generation Opportunity whose Crazy Uncle Sam ads "perpetuate outright lies" bent on "sabotaging the Affordable Care Act by discouraging young people from signing up for health insurance exchanges." CW: unfortunately, this is post, which does not appear in the print edition, is an editorial. The paper's news story on the never-ending anti-ObamaCare ads, by Michael Shear, mentions the "creepy Uncle Sam ads," but does not identify them as Koch-funded & does not even hint that the ads "perpetuate outright lies." If you want to know how the New York Times aids & abets right-wing propaganda, there's your answer. ...

... It turns out the fine federal agencies leveled against JP Morgan Chase aren't as big a loss to the company as one would think. Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times writes that the money is not coming from the bank; it's coming from shareholders: "The same shareholders who were ostensibly the victims of the scandal that already cost them $6 billion. The victims, if you want to call them that, become victimized twice." ...

... Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase ... is bracing for a lawsuit from federal prosecutors in California who suspect that the bank sold shoddy mortgage securities to investors in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to people briefed on the matter. The case, expected as soon as Tuesday, could foreshadow other actions stemming from the bank’s crisis-era mortgage business. Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia, the people briefed on the matter said, are also investigating JPMorgan's sale of mortgage securities."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent has agreed to plead guilty to leaking classified information to The Associated Press about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen last year, the Justice Department announced on Monday. Federal investigators said they identified him after obtaining phone logs of Associated Press reporters. The retired agent, a former bomb technician named Donald Sachtleben, has agreed to serve 43 months in prison, the Justice Department said. The case brings to eight the number of leak-related prosecutions brought under President Obama's administration; under all previous presidents, there were three such cases."

Charlie Savage: "The military on Monday effectively pronounced the end of a mass hunger strike among detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- a six-month protest that at one point swept through a majority of the inmate population, refocused global attention on the prison, and pushed the Obama administration to revive the effort to shutter it." The number of prisoners on strike is now 19, down from 106 at the height of the strike. "David Remes, a lawyer for several Guantánamo detainees, said participation had fallen off because detainees had largely achieved their goals."

** Joe Nocera: "What has been most stupefying about the reaction to the Navy Yard rampage is how muted it has been. After the horror of Newtown, people were galvanized. This time, the news seemed to be greeted with a resigned shrug. 'Is this the new normal?' David Gregory asked Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association on Sunday on 'Meet the Press.'.... It's sure starting to feel that way." ...

... Becca Clemmons of the Los Angeles Times: "Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis obtained a secret-level security clearance after a federal personnel report failed to mention that a 2004 arrest involved a firearm, the Navy said Monday." Although the Navy learned of the altercation thru a fingerprint check (Alexis failed to report it on his app), their report states that Alexis was arrested for "deflating the male person's tires." But "the Seattle police report says Alexis shot out the tires and was charged with malicious mischief.... The personnel office said Seattle police would not provide records on the 2004 incident. The office interviewed Alexis, who did not say that a weapon was involved. The personnel office said it could not force police departments to cooperate."

     ... CW: sounds like a bullshit excuse to me. The NSA can read my e-mails, but the Navy can't get a police report for the purposes of a security clearance? News reporters get them all the time.

Paul Kane of the Washington Post with the next installment of the Nobody Likes Ted Show. Kane brings us up-to-date on Cruz's antics in yesterday's brief Senate session. ...

... Far-right Wall Street Journal editors write a withering critique of Ted & Mike's Excellent Adventure:

When Mr. Cruz demands that House Republicans "hold firm," he means they should keep trying to defund ObamaCare even if it results in a shutdown that President Obama will blame on Republicans. It's nice of him to volunteer House Republicans for duty. The supposedly intrepid General Cruz can view the battle from the comfort of HQ while the enlisted troops take any casualties.

The Lee-Cruz strategy, to the extent it's about more than fund-raising lists or getting face time on cable TV, seems to be that if the House holds "firm" amid a shutdown, then the public will eventually blame Mr. Obama and the Democrats, who will then fold and defund ObamaCare.... Miracles happen, but it would rank as one for the ages if Mr. Obama agreed to defund his signature Presidential achievement.

... Jason Zengerle profiles Ted Cruz for GQ. Cruz is one arrogant dick. "He has come to the reluctant but unavoidable conclusion that he is simply more intelligent, more principled, more right -- in both senses of the word -- than pretty much everyone else in our nation's capital." Zengerle provides plenty of examples & testimonials. ...

... Frank Bruni piles on. Here's the Chris Wallace interview (conducted this past Sunday), which Bruni recommends. Wallace reminds Tailgunner Ted of Senate Rule 22, which he says has been around for years:

     ... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday wasn't rattled by news that some of his fellow Republicans encouraged a Fox News anchor to trash him on air, and instead called his detractors 'fearful' of him for not following 'the clubby way Washington does business.'" ...

... Republican strategist Steve Schmidt "deeply regrets" his part in aiding & abetting the winger "freak show," which he did by giving Sarah Palin a national presence:

Gubernatorial Race

Ben Pershing & Peyton Craighill of the Washington Post: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe has vaulted into the lead over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II..., according to a new Washington Post/Abt SRBI poll. McAuliffe leads 47 percent to 39 percent among likely voters, with Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis's 10 percent suggesting an unrest among voters not satisfied with either major-party contender.... The shift in the race has come almost exclusively from female voters, who prefer McAuliffe by a 24-point margin over Cuccinelli. The candidates were effectively tied among women in a Washington Post poll in May."

News Ledes

AFP: "The Israeli delegation will boycott Iranian President Hassan Rowhani's address to the UN General Assembly later Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced."

Chicago Tribune: "Two men in their 20s opened fire into a park on the South Side -- wounding a 3-year-old boy and 12 other people -- after one of the men had been grazed by a bullet hours earlier, police said today. They did not aim at anyone in particular but 'just shot into the park' because they believed it was controlled by a rival gang, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters. Police identified the gang member[s] out for vengeance as Bryon Champ, 21..., [and] Tabari Young, 22. Kewane Gatewood, 20, supplied the high-powered gun Champ used, while Brad Jett, 22, acted as a lookout, police said."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 23, 2013

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, 'How do I know you won't sting me?' The scorpion says, 'Because if I do, I will die too.'

The frog is satisfied, and they set out. But in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp, 'Why?'

Replies the scorpion: 'It's my nature.'

-- Aesop (and others)

... ** Roger Simon of Politico: "There are scorpions among us. They sit in Congress, committed not to solving problems, but blocking solutions. They would take the food out of the mouths of children. They would put the insurance companies back in charge of health care. They would shut the government down, refuse to pay the nation's bills, destroy the trust that other countries place in us when they buy our bonds, they would do all this rather than give President Obama the slimmest of political victories. Why? It is their nature." ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "Conservatives seem, in particular, to believe that freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat. Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies.... SNAP, in short, is public policy at its best. It not only helps those in need; it helps them help themselves. And it has done yeoman work in the economic crisis, mitigating suffering and protecting jobs at a time when all too many policy makers seem determined to do the opposite. So it tells you something that conservatives have singled out this of all programs for special ire."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama's health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers. Even though insurers will be forbidden to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, they could subtly discourage the enrollment of sicker patients by limiting the size of their provider networks." ...

At heaven's door, St. Peter is probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. -- Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), encouraging Ohio's Republican legislature to accept the Medicaid expansion provision of the Affordable Care Act

Practicality and compassion are both missing in the manufactured rage against the abstraction known as 'Obamacare.' -- E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post

... Carrie Brown & Glenn Thrush of Politico attempt to follow the history of Barack Obama's evolution on health insurance reform. They claim it all started when Obama aides needed to come up with something for him to say at a 2007 healthcare forum on a topic about which rival Hillary Clinton was an expert. According to Brown & Thrush, the aides thought Obama "probably wasn't going to get elected anyway," so it didn't matter WTF he said. CW: I wouldn't take this report as gospel.

Igor Volsky's "Compete Guide to the GOP's Three-Year Campaign to Shut down the Government." "Past Congresses have used the debt ceiling as a 'vehicle for other legislative matters' or nongermane amendments, but as the timeline [in this post] demonstrates, the Republicans that came to power after the 2010 midterm elections demanded something entirely different: they threatened to push the nation into default and shut down the government unless Congress approves deep structural budget cuts during a period of economic recession." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Brigid Schulte & Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "President Obama, addressing yet another memorial gathering after a deadly mass shooting, said Sunday evening that he senses 'a creeping resignation' in the United States that homicidal lunacy like the Washington Navy Yard massacre 'is somehow the new normal.' But he said ;it ought to be a shock to us all' and should spur Americans to demand 'a common sense' balance between gun rights and gun control. 'We cannot accept this,' Obama said of the Sept. 16 attack that killed a dozen people at the Navy Yard. 'As Americans bound in grief and love, we must insist here today there's nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work'":

Coral Davenport of the National Journal: "President Obama sees his new global-warming regulations as a cornerstone of his legacy. Republicans see them as fresh political ammunition. On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the first in a series of historic and controversial climate-change rules aimed at reining in carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation's top source of greenhouse-gas emissions.... An hour after Obama's EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, formally announced the climate rules, [GOP] strategists began linking them to 2014 Democratic candidates."

Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama travels Monday to New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, where he is scheduled to sit down with world leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will also address the General Assembly, focusing on the challenges in the Middle East, including the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Iran's nuclear ambitions and peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians." ...

... George Packer of the New Yorker: "In plain language [based on the U.N. investigative report], President Bashar al-Assad, along with other members of his regime, is a war criminal. His patron, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, has been exposed as a liar.... A political solution leading to a new Syrian government has always been the Administration's official policy, but Obama has shown little energy in pursuing it.... The latest debate over the use of force has passed, while the war goes on. What remains on the table is the use of politics.

Joe Hagan of New York interviews Hillary Clinton. It's her first post-Secretary interview & a long piece (you'll have to click through as the single-page versions is screwed up [at 5:00 am ET]).

David Cohen of Politico: "Bill Clinton says Lawrence Summers, his former Treasury secretary, did not deserve the criticism he received when he was under consideration to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve." ...

... Here's Bill Clinton, in the same interview with Fareed Zakaria, on President Obama's decision to go to Congress re: Syria & on the NSA leaks:

Frank Rich sees Rand Paul as a "valuable" voice in the Republican party. CW: Paul may be the "wacko bird" in the eyes of his party's hawks & chicken-hawks, BUT ...

Nobody Likes Ted. Evan McMurry of Mediaite: "Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said Sunday morning that he'd received opposition research from other Republicans about Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in advance of Cruz's appearance [Sunday] morning, a serious indication of how upset the GOP is with the Senator leading the risky charge to defund ObamaCare." ...

... Here's one reason Republicans Don't Like Ted. Jonathan Chait on how Ted Cruz turned the GOP ObamaCare defunding plan "from disaster to utter fiasco." ...

... Steve Benen: "... even if Senate Republicans felt overwhelming pressure from unhinged Tea Party activists and actually endorsed [Cruz's latest] scheme, they'd make it impossible to blame Democrats for the shutdown -- GOP senators would have created the shutdown by filibustering their own bill." ...

... CW: Last week contributor Keith Howard wrote, "I think any person with a functioning brain only needs to watch Cruz in action for a few minutes to conclude that he is a dangerous psychopath -- a completely selfish backstabber, vicious, untrustworthy, and void of any moral principle." (Howard has argued elsewhere that mincing words in unproductive.) I don't like to make derogatory comments about anyone's personal appearance, but Cruz does look to me like a Hollywood casting director's pick for the villain in a psychopath-on-the-rampage flick. For instance, looking at this picture of Cruz smiling & Sen. Mike Lee scowling, I think Happy Cruz looks a lot scarier than Angry Lee.

Whether or not you watched any of the Sunday shows, Charles Pierce's recap is well-worth a read. CW: What's discouraging is that regular, honorable Americans tune into those shows & have no fucking idea they are being had by the GOP AND the lovely hosts.

This map, developed by Deadspin, was first published several months, ago, but it's worth a look-see, as it does speak to our priorities:

Justin Rosario of Addicting Info links the map above to this clip, which I think is from the first episode of the first season of the HBO series "The Network Newsroom." The character, news anchor Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels, who just won a Emmy for his second-season performance) is obnoxious & the speech is holier-than-thou preachy, but the substance is well-taken:

News Ledes

New York Times: "Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a stunning personal triumph in Sunday's national elections in Germany, becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008 and winning strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing troubled Europe."

Washington Post: " Kenyan security forces swept into an upscale shopping mall late Sunday to try to end a two-day standoff with heavily armed Islamist militants after a gruesome attack that reflected the surprising resiliency of one of Africa's most brutal insurgent groups. Authorities later said that most hostages had been freed, but they provided few details. It appeared that at least some members of Somalia's al-Shabab militia, which asserted responsibility for the attack, were still holed up early Monday in the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, where they killed 68 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya in 15 years." ...

     ... Update: "By Monday evening, Kenyan security forces said they controlled much of the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, although several militants from al-Shabab, a group allied with al-Qaeda, appeared dug in, determined to fight to the death.... Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday that 'two or three Americans' and 'one Brit' were among the perpetrators of the attack. "