The Commentariat -- Aug. 13, 2013

Pete Yost & Paul Elias of the AP: "Attorney General Eric Holder announced a major shift Monday in federal sentencing policies, targeting long mandatory terms that he said have flooded the nation's prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be far better spent." Holder's full remarks before a meeting of the American Bar Association, are here. ...

The real value of these proposals will be in the implementation, which drug policy reform advocates have good reason to be wary about. For example, despite a 2009 Justice Department memo urging U.S. attorneys not to go after marijuana businesses that are legal under state law, more state-legal medical marijuana providers were shuttered by federal actions during the first term of the Obama administration than were closed during George W. Bush's two terms. And, we're still waiting for the administration to announce its response to the marijuana legalization laws in Colorado and Washington.... -- Tom Angell, Chairman, Marijuana Majority

The focus on racial disparity in the drug war is positive, but it sounds incredibly hollow given that at the same time President Obama is considering picking Ray Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security. As NYPD commissioner Kelly is responsible for the stop-and-frisk policy that a federal judge just declared an unconstitutional violation of the 14th amendment. -- Jon Walker of Firedoglake

... Ed Kilgore: "Long before Rand Paul drew national attention to his own support for sentencing reform, there was a quiet movement slowly but surely developing on the Right ... in favor of calling off the madness of mandatory minimums. Just as importantly, this trend was being fed by various tributaries of the conservative stream, not just libertarians but conservative evangelicals and budget-conscious fiscal hawks. Just last week, in fact, the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], which probably contributed more to the spread of mandatory minimum legislation in the states than just about any other single source, reversed its position and endorsed sentencing reform. So Holder may be pushing on an unlocked door. Still, a whole generation of pols -- mostly Republicans, to be sure, but also many Democrats trying to prove themselves as 'tough on crime' -- have prospered politically from the 'Three Strikes' era." ...

... Steve M.: already the right is complaining that the administration should not be implementing sentences changes "by executive fiat," even when the writers agree with Holder on the underlying issue. "Um, you Republicans could solve this by helping to pass a bill. But you won't, will you? You certainly won't now that the policy is associated with Holder. Will you?" ...

... Charlie Savage & Erica Goode of the New York Times: "Two decisions Monday, one by a federal judge in New York and the other by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., were powerful signals that the pendulum has swung away from the tough-on-crime policies of a generation ago. Those policies have been denounced as discriminatory and responsible for explosive growth in the prison population."

** Peter Maass in the New York Times Magazine on how Laura Poitras helped Ed Snowden reveal the NSA's surveillance programs. After extensive e-mail contacts initiated by Snowden, "along with her reporting partner, Glenn Greenwald..., Poitras flew to Hong Kong and met the N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, who gave them thousands of classified documents...." ...

... "In the course of reporting his profile of Laura Poitras, Peter Maass conducted an encrypted question-and-answer session, for which Poitras served as intermediary, with Edward J. Snowden." The article is a full transcript of that conversation. ...

... CW: I don't regularly agree with libertarian Conor Friedersdorf, but he has an excellent post in the Atlantic detailing one-by-one the obfuscations & lies President Obama told in his Friday press conference about NSA programs. "... throughout the surveillance debate, the executive branch, including Obama, has lied, obfuscated, and misled the American people in a variety of ways. Before Edward Snowden's leaks, they could at least tell themselves that the disinformation was serving the purpose of keeping al-Qaeda operates from learning the general contours of our surveillance capabilities. But today, when that excuse has long since expired, Obama is still lying, obfuscating, and misleading the American people.... With the stakes so high, and his performance so dubious in so many places, Friday's speech has got to be one of the low points of his presidency." ...

... Gene Robinson: "The modest reforms Obama proposed [re: the U.S.'s surveillance apparatus] do not begin to address the fundamental question of whether we want the National Security Agency to log all of our phone calls and read at least some of our e-mails, relying on secret judicial orders from a secret court for permission. The president indicated he is willing to discuss how all this is done -- but not whether." CW: Yo Bama. When you've lost Gene Robinson, you've lost. ...

... BUT Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast looks on the bright side: "No, they were not 'bold and sweeping' proposals [to change surveillance practices]. At the same time, it sure seemed to me like this was the first time in my adult life I'd ever heard a sitting president propose checks on his administration that he didn't have to offer. And Obama didn't have to offer these.... On May 23, [before any of Snowden's leaks became public,] he gave a speech at the National Defense University in which he foreshadowed the moves he just announced." ...

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "In another setback for President Obama's health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care. The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014."

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Hillary Clinton's self-imposed absence from the country's political discourse ended Monday when the former secretary of state issued biting criticism of Republican-backed voter ID laws during a speech to a group of lawyers. Clinton said her appearance at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association marked the beginning of a speaking series she'll embark upon that will also include an address on the United States' national security policies next month in Philadelphia." ...

... "The Most Trusted Name in News." David Brock of Media Matters, in a Politico op-ed: CNN chief Jeff "Zucker has apparently made it his mission to compete with Fox News by having CNN from time to time become a pale copy.... CNN is tilting and slanting to the right, but without Fox's overt ideological agenda. CNN under Zucker has lent legitimacy to the right's agenda, especially the never-ending complaint that the network never airs enough conservative points of view -- a fair point, he said, and something he has vowed to correct. Now it is becoming clear that he is paying more than lip service to this demand for a course correction," with what he hints will be an unfavorable biopic of Hillary Clinton. "Just last week, CNN aired an hour-long special, 'The Truth About Benghazi,' that pushed long-debunked myths.... Just a few months ago, former producer Peter Dykstra, who oversaw CNN&'s environmental beat for 13 years, revealed top CNN executives now describing environmental stories as 'elite issues or liberal issues.' ... The shift toward more sensationalist coverage has also moved CNN into the infotainment business and out of the news business...."

Farenthold & a friend. That's Blake on the right, in the ducky pj's, circa 2010. If you're going to be impeached, might as well be by a guy who happily has his picture snapped while wearing pj's & wrapping his arm around a scantily-clad unidentified woman. (This is what I mean by too many clowns to cover; see my comment below on another anti-Obama clown.)A question I get a lot: 'If everyone's so unhappy with the president's done, why don't you impeach him?' I'll give you a real frank answer about that: If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate and he wouldn't be convicted. -- Rep. Blake Fahrenthold (R-Texas)

Farenthold wants to assure America that yes, the entire House of Representatives are exactly the sort of petty dumbasses that Farenthold considers his people, but I promise you: Nobody in the country had any doubt about that. -- Hunter of Daily Kos

... Tom Kludt of TPM: "A spokeswoman for Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) repeatedly declined Monday to say whether or not the congressman believes President Barack Obama is an American citizen, telling TPM it's a 'moot point.'" ...

... CW Update: Here's the full shot of Rep. Ducky Boy & friends. Contributor Noodge links to a fine piece by Juanita Jean, but she uses a photo which obscures the face of the young -- how young? -- lady on the left. I leave it to you to decide if she is a minor; I can't be sure, and surely, surely Ducky Boy had no idea! ...

     ... Update Update: Noodge explains, "The 'M' on the young lady's hand was, apparently, to indicate that she is a minor so she wouldn't be served alcohol." As Noodge says, that means she's less than 21, but could be 18 or older, so legally an adult. Farenthold would have been about 48 at the time the photo was taken. Wikipedia: "Farenthold lives with his wife Debbie and two daughters Morgan and Amanda in Corpus Christi." ...

... Here's another 4-shot; this time it's Ducky Boy & the family. The daughters appear to be about the ages of Ducky's young friend in the photo above. Ducky does not appear nearly as comfortable with the wife & kiddies as he was with his other friends; note how awkwardly he holds his arms at his sides & his "smile" looks more like a grimace:

Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor: "Over the weekend Republican National Committee chief Reince Priebus doubled down on his threat to withhold 2016 GOP presidential debates from CNN and NBC if the networks air planned programs on Hillary Rodham Clinton. On CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday, host Candy Crowley asked Mr. Priebus whether he'd throw Fox News into the debate penalty box as well, given a New York Times report that a Fox sister company is in talks to produce the Hillary Clinton miniseries now slated to appear on NBC. Priebus made it clear Fox would not be included in any RNC boycott. First of all, he downplayed the Times report, saying he 'doesn't know the truth of anything you're talking about.' ...

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Republican congressmembers have lost their enthusiasm for townhall-style meetings. "Though Republicans in recent years have harnessed the political power of these open mic, face-the-music sessions, people from both parties say they are noticing a decline in the number of meetings. They also say they are seeing Congressional offices go to greater lengths to conceal when and where the meetings take place." Tea party groups, who love opportunities to confront members of Congress, are furious, & Democrats think it's a hoot.

Ashlee Vance of Bloomberg BusinessWeek: "Almost a year after Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors (TSLA) and SpaceX, first floated the idea of a superfast mode of transportation, he has finally revealed the details: a solar-powered, city-to-city elevated transit system that could take passengers and cars from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. In typical Musk fashion, the Hyperloop, as he calls it, immediately poses a challenge to the status quo -- in this case, California's $70 billion high-speed train that has been knocked by Musk and others as too expensive, too slow, and too impractical. In Musk's vision, the Hyperloop would transport people via aluminum pods enclosed inside of steel tubes.... Musk published a blog post detailing the Hyperloop on Monday. He also held a press call to go over the details." ...

... Brad Plumer of the Washington Post: "Musk claims a Hyperloop would be ridiculously cheap, with tubes from San Francisco to Los Angeles costing just $6 billion or $7.5 billion (depending on whether the pods could transport cars). That's just one-tenth the cost of California's tumultuous high-speed rail project. But is this low price tag really plausible? Even if the Hyperloop technology did work, there's good reason to think it'd be a lot pricier than Musk is letting on."

Science Daily: "Smart people are just as racist as their less intelligent peers -- they're just better at concealing their prejudice, according to a University of Michigan study. 'High-ability whites are less likely to report prejudiced attitudes and more likely to say they support racial integration in principle,' said Geoffrey Wodtke, a doctoral candidate in sociology. 'But they are no more likely than lower-ability whites to support open housing laws and are less likely to support school busing and affirmative action programs. ... Intelligent whites give more enlightened responses than less intelligent whites to questions about their attitudes, but their responses to questions about actual policies aimed at redressing racial discrimination are far less enlightened.... According to Wodtke, the broader implication of this study is that racism and prejudice ... result from the need of dominant groups to legitimize and protect their privileged social position.... Thanks to James S. for the link.

Senate Race

Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "As New Jersey residents prepared to vote in a primary on Tuesday to fill a seat in the United States Senate, candidates traveled around the state to make their final pitches."

Local News

Jim Morrill of the Raleigh News & Observer: North Carolina "Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday signed into law a bill requiring voters to produce a photo ID when they go to the polls, and it was immediately met with legal challenges in federal court questioning its constitutionality. The new law brings sweeping changes to the state's election process by reducing the early-voting period by a week, abolishing same-day voter registration and ending straight-party voting.... Just hours after McCrory signed the bill, two separate lawsuits challenging the law were filed in federal court in Greensboro. A third lawsuit is expected to be filed in state court Tuesday. Congressman G.K. Butterfield also asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to 'take swift and decisive action by using any legal mechanisms' to protect North Carolina's voting rights."

Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "His poll numbers have plummeted, and his campaign donations have all but dwindled, but in a wide-ranging interview with BuzzFeed Monday night, Anthony Weiner appeared defiant, hopeful, and even a bit annoyed by the suggestion that he could possibly lose the New York City mayoral race this fall.' BuzzFeed also has several short items highlighting some of Weiner's remarks. A few headlines: "Huma Will Play Role In Hillary Clinton's 2016 Campaign"; "Stop-And-Frisk Is 'Racial In Nature'"; "I'm Still Seeing A Therapist."

Joan Greve of ABC News: "Republicans have joined Democrats in condemning a Missouri State Fair rodeo act that featured a bull nearly stampeding a clown wearing an Obama mask.... The clown has reportedly been 'permanently banned' from performing at the fair 'ever again.' Missouri State Fair officials issued an apology for the 'disrespectful' show...." CW: sorry I didn't link to any stories about this yesterday, but there are just so many clowns I can stomach in a day. This one didn't make the cut.

Travis Loller of the AP: "A Tennessee judge's decision to change a baby's first name from Messiah to Martin is drawing strong reactions from people who believe the judge overstepped her powers and those who think parents' creativity should have some limits. Thousands of people have commented online about the judge's order since WBIR-TV published its story over the weekend.... While Messiah may not be a traditional English name, it is becoming more popular. Messiah was No. 4 among the fastest-rising baby names in 2012, just ahead of King but behind Major at No. 1, according to the Social Security Administration's annual listof popular baby names. And other religious names are very common, such as Mohammed in Islamic culture and Jesus ... in Hispanic culture."

News Ledes

See the August 14 Commentariat for New Jersey U.S. Senate race primary results

New York Times: "After a decade of rapid consolidation in the nation's airline industry, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to block the proposed merger between American Airlines and US Airways, which would create the world's largest airline. The move, joined by attorneys general from six states and the District of Columbia, surprised industry officials, who had expected little resistance to the deal. But it underscored a newly aggressive approach by the Justice Department's antitrust division, which has been more closely scrutinizing proposed mergers as the economy recovers."

Al Jazeera: "Israel has released 26 Palestinian prisoners on the eve of renewed Middle East peace negotiations. Buses carrying the inmates, most of whom were held for attacks on Israeli citizens, left Ayalon prison in the centre of the country late on Tuesday."

The Commentariat -- Aug. 12, 2013

David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Federal prosecutors will no longer seek long, 'mandatory minimum' sentences for many low-level, nonviolent drug offenders, under a major shift in policy aimed at turning around decades of explosive growth in the federal prison population, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. planned to announce Monday.... The change responds to a major goal of civil rights groups, which say long prison sentences have disproportionately hurt low-income and minority communities."

Kremlin on the Potomac. Michael Phillips, an attorney writing in the New Yorker on "how the government killed a secure e-mail company." Well, actually Phillips doesn't tell you, because how the feds forced Lavabit to shut down is a secret. Even the fact that there are secrets is secret. "The truth may never come out." CW: worth noting -- it isn't just Fourth Amendment considerations that are at issue here. There's a huge First Amendment issue when the government -- via the FISA court -- tells private individuals they cannot even reveal actions or charges or orders against them. ...

What makes us different from other countries is not simply our ability to secure our nation. It's the way we do it, with open debate and democratic process. -- President Obama, at his Friday afternoon press conference ...

... Her writing is a bit disjointed, but Jennifer Hoelzer, formerly an aide to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), disproves President Obama's claim, made in his Friday afternoon presser, that he was totally into transparency, "open debate & the democratic process" & was already tweaking NSA programs to allay critics' concerns when Ed Snowden interfered. ...

... Keith Laing of the Hill: "During an appearance on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he was comfortable with Obama's recent attempts to improve the [NSA surveillance] program following leaks about its existence from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. But Clyburn said he voted last month with Republicans to defund the NSA surveillance program because it required trusting more people than the president."

Oh, Another Friday Afternoon News Dump. Jonathan Weil of Bloomberg News: "The Justice< Department made a long-overdue disclosure late Friday: Last year when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder boasted about the successes that a high-profile task force racked up pursuing mortgage fraud, the numbers he trumpeted were grossly overstated." Weil writes that he himself forced the disclosure by repeatedly asking for proofs that turned out to be nonexistent. Holder "used a press conference with the cameras rolling to give out numbers that proved to be false -- and they appear to have been willfully false. He should be just as eager to hold another press conference to set the record straight...."

"A Revolt of Their Own." AP: "Midway between the 2012 and 2014 election campaigns, moderate Republican conservatives are beginning to foment a revolt of their own — a backlash to anti-spending tea party shrillness as budget cuts begin to significantly shrink defense and domestic programs. Tea party forces may have dominated the House GOP's approach to the budget so far, but pragmatists in the party have served notice they won't stand idly by for indiscriminate spending cuts to politically popular community development grants, education programs and even Amtrak."

Just so you know, global warming is a total fraud. Rep. Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA) ...

... Lee Fang of the Nation: "Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a senior member of the House Science Committee, used a portion of his time at a town hall this week to launch into a rant about global warming, which he described as a plot by liberals to 'create global government to control our lives.'"

Paul Krugman: Economist Milton Friedman, "who used to be the ultimate avatar of conservative economics, has essentially disappeared from right-wing discourse.... Instead, Rand Paul turns to the 'Austrian' view of thinkers like Friedrich Hayek -- a view Friedman once described as an 'atrophied and rigid caricature' -- while Paul Ryan, the G.O.P.'s de facto intellectual leader, gets his monetary economics from Ayn Rand, or more precisely from fictional characters in 'Atlas Shrugged.' ... Modern conservatism has moved so far to the right that it no longer has room for even small concessions to reality." ...

... The New York Times gives a lot of op-ed space to "austerity scaremongers" Glenn Hubbard & Tim Kane. Where to start? No doubt to confuse readers, since they certainly know better, Hubbard & Kane repeatedly & purposefully use the the terms "deficit" & "debt" interchangeably. They do this, apparently, in service of their claim that the U.S. will have "a trillion dollars in red ink" after 2023. So if you want to know where Eric Cantor & Rand Paul are getting the disinformation they spread about growing deficits & trillion dollar deficits, here's a clue. The Hubbard & Kane pretend that Detroit, which of course can't "print" money, is just like the federal government. The U.S. is going bankrupt! Finally, they say we should add a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, which would tie Congress's hands to help the economy in future recessions or depressions.

Tony Barboza of the Los Angeles Times: "California is feeling the effects of climate change far and wide, as heat-trapping greenhouse gases reduce spring runoff from the Sierra Nevada, make the waters of Monterey Bay more acidic and shorten winter chill periods required to grow fruit and nuts in the Central Valley, a new report says. Though past studies have offered grim projections of a warming planet, the report released Thursday by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment took an inventory of three dozen shifts that are already happening." ...

... ** Joe Stiglitz in the New York Times: "Detroit's travails arise in part from a distinctive aspect of America's divided economy and society.... Our country is becoming vastly more economically segregated, which can be even more pernicious than being racially segregated.... The disintegration of Detroit precedes the conflicts over social-welfare programs and race relations (including riots in 1967) and reaches back into the postwar decades, a time when the roots of deindustrialization, racial discrimination and geographic isolation were planted. We've reaped what we've sown.... Our government spent decades papering over the growing weaknesses by allowing the financial sector to run amok, creating 'growth' based on bubbles. We didn’t just let the market run its course. We made an active choice to embrace short-term profits and large-scale inefficiency." CW: Read the whole essay, including the part about the "smart" bankers who cheated Detroit & will try to cheat city workers again during bankruptcy proceedings.

Senatorial Race

** "Anybody But Booker." Susie Madrak in Crooks & Liars: "If you want to risk a Manchurian candidate who, while running as a nominal Democrat, is and has been deeply entrenched with the vulture capitalists and their disaster capitalism education 'reform', grew up in and has never rejected the religious right (while selling himself as gay-friendly, he's cultivated the same extremist movement that has promoted homophobia in Uganda and benefited from their mythology of Newark's 'transformation'), is steeped in Wall Street money and philosophy and is deeply admired by the usual right-wing think tanks, you should vote for Cory Booker in tomorrow's NJ Senate primary." Thanks to Kate M. for the link. ...

... Michael Gartland & Susan Edelman of the New York Post: "Cory Booker pocketed 'confidential' annual payouts from his former law firm while serving as Newark mayor. Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey's Senate race, received five checks from the Trenk DiPasquale law firm from 2007 until 2011. During that time, the firm raked in more than $2 million in fees from local agencies over which Booker has influence. 'This was a settlement buyout for my interest in the firm,' the mayor told The Post at a campaign stop in Jersey City yesterday. 'I had an equity stake, and we had a negotiated settlement.'"

Presidential Race 2016

Hillary Drops Hints. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Hillary "Clinton these days talks freely about women breaking barriers. She has woven a theme of women's empowerment throughout almost all of her public remarks in the seven months since she stepped down as secretary of state."

Joe Drops a Hint. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be the keynote speaker at Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry fund-raiser next month, a signature political event that often showcases as featured speakers those aspiring to be president."

The Donald Drops a Hint. Kasie Hunt of NBC News: "Donald Trump on Saturday made his first-ever political visit to Iowa, speaking to conservative Christians, stoking speculation about his political plans." ...

... Tal Kopan of Politico: "Donald Trump, in the early presidential caucus state of Iowa this weekend for an event featuring many potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls, defended his questioning of President Barack Obama's place of birth in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's 'This Week.'"

Patrick O'Connor of the Wall Street Journal: More hints from Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal & Amy Klobuchar.

Peter King Lacks Subtlety. Jordy Yager of the Hill: "Rep. Peter King [R-N.Y.] says he's dead serious about exploring a bid for the White House, even as GOP strategists and consultants offer steep and potentially insurmountable odds for the New York Republican."

Idylls of the King Messiah Stupid

Heidi Wigdahl of WBIR, Knoxville, Tennessee: "A Newport, [Tennessee,] mother is appealing a court's decision after a judge ordered her son's name be changed from 'Messiah.' ... 'The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ," Judge [Lu Ann] Ballew [a Child Support magistrate,] said." CW: Later Judge Ballew ordered the parents of a young teen to stop referring to her as a "Virgin," explaining that Virgin is a title that has only been earned by the mother of the Messiah. She ejected a father named "Jesus" from the courtroom & told a couple their children could not name their dogs "King" & "Prince" as those are titles reserved for the Windsors of England. (Actually, "messiah" is a title that means "anointed one," a title the ancient Jews gave to savior kings like Cyrus the Great of Persia, who freed the Jews from their Babylonian captivity, & Judas & Simon Maccabee, who led a successful revolt against the Selecuid rulers of Judea.)

Local News

Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "In a repudiation of a major element in the Bloomberg administration's crime-fighting legacy, a federal judge has found that the stop-and-frisk tactics of the New York Police Department violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and called for a federal monitor to oversee broad reforms. In a decision issued on Monday, the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, ruled that police officers have for years been systematically stopping innocent people in the street without any objective reason to suspect them of wrongdoing. Officers often frisked these people, usually young minority men, for weapons or searched their pockets for contraband, like drugs, before letting them go, according to the 195-page decision." CW: worth noting -- President Obama is reportedly considering NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who oversaw this discriminatory, unconstitutional horror show, as the nominee to head Homeland Security. Don't like James Clapper listening in on your phone calls? Wait till Ray Kelly grabs you, throws you on the sidewalk & bootnecks you.

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "James J. 'Whitey' Bulger, the notorious gangster who rampaged through Boston's underworld for decades before fleeing and eluding a worldwide manhunt for more than 16 years, participated in 11 murders, a federal jury found today as it handed down its verdict in a racketeering case that had riveted the city. A jury of four women and eight men returned to US District Court in Boston with their verdict this afternoon after 32 1/2 hours of deliberations over five days, bringing a resounding end to Bulger's decades of evading justice. They found Bulger guilty of 31 of the 32 counts he faced." The New York Times story is here.

New York Times: "President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico on Monday, pushing one of the most sweeping economic overhauls here in the past two decades, proposed opening his country's historically closed energy industry to foreign investment. The president's plan, which would rewrite two constitutional amendments, challenges a bedrock assumption of Mexico's national identity -- its total sovereignty over its energy resources -- by inviting private companies to explore and pump for oil and natural gas."

The Commentariat -- Aug. 11, 2013

In a New York Times op-ed, crime novelist John Grisham writes of the horrible mistreatment of Gitmo/Bagram prisoner Nabil Hadjarab, an Algerian who grew up in France & who does not seem to have ever had any connection to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

Not Our Fault. Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration points to checks and balances from Congress as a key rationale for supporting bulk collection of Americans' telephone communications data, but several lawmakers responsible for overseeing the program in recent years say that they felt limited in their ability to challenge its scope and legality. The administration argued Friday that lawmakers were fully informed of the surveillance program and voted to keep it in place as recently as 2011.... Yet some ... members of the intelligence and judiciary committees ... describe regular classified briefings in which intelligence officials would not volunteer details if questions were not asked with absolute precision.... Additional obstacles stemmed from the classified nature of documents, which lawmakers may read only in specific, secure offices; rules require them to leave their notes behind and restrict their ability to discuss the issues with colleagues, outside experts or their own staff." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "Perhaps what Snowden did was to remind Obama that invisible checks and balances are not quite what the Founders had in mind." Thanks to contributor cowichan for the link. ...

... Julian Assange of WikiLeaks: "Today [Friday] was a victory of sorts for Edward Snowden and his many supporters. As Snowden has stated, his biggest concern was if he blew the whistle and change did not occur. Well reforms are taking shape, and for that, the President and people of the United States and around the world owe Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude."

** Larry Cashes In. Louise & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Among the top contenders for the position [or Fed chair, Lawrence] Summers has by far the most Wall Street experience and the most personal wealth. In addition to rejoining the Harvard faculty in 2011, he jumped into a moneymaking spree.... Mr. Summers, 58, has been employed by the megabank Citigroup and the sprawling hedge fund D. E. Shaw. He works for a firm that advises small banks as well as the exchange company Nasdaq OMX. And he serves on the board of two Silicon Valley start-ups: both financial firms that may pursue initial public offerings in the next year. One of them, Lending Club..., [operates on] a new business model that ... consumer advocates say may lead to risky borrowing.... Some senators ... are raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and noting his role in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law ... and his opposition to regulating derivatives in the 1990s -- decisions that many critics say contributed to the financial crisis."

Burgess Everett of Politico: The failure in the Senate of a transportation bill, one in which all but one GOP senator -- Susan Collins -- voted "nay," is a sign that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is clamping down on caucus members on fiscal votes. The plan is to push for spending cuts, spending cuts, spending cuts to highlight the party's 2014 campaign message. CW: very original.

"Death Panels!" Paul Krugman: the Wall Street Journal editorial board is "fanatically opposed to Medicaid expansion -- that is, it's eager to make sure that millions have no health coverage at all. On the other side, it claims to be outraged at the notion of setting priorities in spending on those who do manage to qualify for Medicaid. It's OK for people to die for lack of coverage; it's an utter horror if taxpayers decline to pay for marginal care." Krugman wants to know if the board is cynical or nuts. CW: if they're not nuts, Harry Reid is likely to push them over the edge ...

... Karoud DeMirjian of the Las Vegas Sun: Senate Majority Leader Harry "Reid said he thinks the country has to 'work our way past' insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS' program 'Nevada Week in Review.' 'What we've done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we're far from having something that's going to work forever,' Reid said. When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: 'Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes'"; i.e., single-payer. CW: in case you've forgotten what a creep Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Insurance State) is, Reid recalled that Lieberman's opposition to the public option was what killed that plan in 2009. Lieberman also said he favored allowing people 55+ to buy into Medicare until it turned out that would pass with his vote.

Elections Matter. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama's environmental policies are likely to play a prominent role in defining his second term.... Cutting carbon emissions and preparing for the impacts of climate change are the biggest environmental policies the president is pursuing, but they are not the only ones. His deputies are laying the groundwork to manage public lands across broad regions, drawing on high-tech mapping to balance energy interests against conservation needs. They also are preparing to weigh in on a controversial mining proposal in Alaska.... The shift has alarmed some industry officials, as well as coal allies."

How Democracy Works -- for a Constituency of Fat Cats. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: freshman congressmembers who score seats on the House Financial Services Committee cash in -- by doing big favors for their financial industry benefactors. It's not entirely their fault as the leadership of both parties stress fundraising & gauge the status of freshmen on how much cash they haul in.

"Fatal Mercies." Frank Bruni is quite good in a column on assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

Maureen Dowd manages to turn an Obama press conference, which had absolutely nothing to do with Hillary Clinton, into a column about Hillary Clinton. Weird. ...

... CW: What I don't get is why Dowd didn't devote her column today to "Hillary the Mini-Series," which is a perfect fit for Dowd's superficial metier. Bill Carter of the New York Times: "While NBC has come under heavy fire, especially from Republican critics, for agreeing to broadcast the series, the project may wind up being produced by another company: Fox Television Studios, the sister company of the conservative favorite, Fox News.... A spokesman for FTVS, as the studio is known, confirmed that NBC is in 'the early stages' of discussions to bring the Fox unit in as the production company on the as yet unnamed mini-series, which will star Diane Lane as Mrs. Clinton." ...

... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: "If this happens, it might be in part because [Rupert] Murdoch thinks Hillary would be more of a traditionalist on defense than Rand Paul in particular.... And it's just possible that, by not putting the kibosh on this possible NBC-Fox alliance, Murdoch is subtly tipping his hand right now."

Gubernatorial Race

Hunter Walker of TPM: "Ken Cuccinelli, the attorney general and Republican nominee for governor in Virginia, told supporters recently they should have no question about his support for E.W. Jackson, the GOP's polarizing nominee for lieutenant governor in that state.... Cuccinelli previously made attempts to distance himself from Jackson, including during a radio interview in June where he said he "absolutely" wants to be judged separately from Jackson and added, "E.W.'s going to have to introduce himself individually to the rest of Virginia.' ... Jackson has made negative, national headlines for past statements criticizing gays, accusing President Barack Obama of harboring 'Muslim sensibilities,' comparing Planned Parenthood to the KKK, praising the Constitution's original clause to count blacks as three-fifths of a person, and for his efforts in the late 1980's to fight desegregation in Boston." (Jackson is black.)

Local News

Eric Russell of the Portland (Maine) Press-Herald: Maine "Gov. Paul LePage made his dislike of the Portland Press Herald abundantly clear Friday while sitting in a fighter jet simulator: He said from the cockpit that he would like to blow up the newspaper's building. The Republican governor made the offhand remark while participating in a fighter jet simulation at Pratt & Whitney, a defense contractor in North Berwick. In video footage from the event, LePage is asked, 'What would you like to do?' He replies: 'I want to find the Portland Press Herald building and blow it up.'" CW: in related news, Florida Gov. Rick Scott relinquished his title as America's Worst Governor."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and as a team with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84." Her Los Angeles Times obituary is here.

AP: "A harrowing weeklong search for a missing California teenager ended Saturday when FBI agents rescued the girl and shot and killed her apparent kidnapper at a campsite deep in the Idaho wilderness. Hannah Anderson, 16, appeared to be uninjured and will be reunited soon with her father at a hospital, authorities said. Her suspected abductor, James Lee DiMaggio, 40, was killed after his campsite was found in Idaho's rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, roughly 40 miles from the tiny town of Cascade."