The Commentariat -- Aug. 7, 2013

Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Barack Obama will refuse to hold talks with Vladimir Putin when he visits Russia for the G20 summit next month as a row over granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden plunged their relationship into one of its chilliest phases since the end of the cold war. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that it had decided to snub the Russian leader by pulling out of the planned bilateral summit in Moscow, but is expected to take part as normal in the broader G20 meeting of international leaders in St Petersburg."

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "In an appearance in Phoenix, Mr. Obama endorsed bipartisan efforts in the Senate to wind down [Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac] and end their longtime implicit guarantee of a federal government bailout. That dread prospect, once thought improbable, was realized in the fall 2008 financial crisis; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then bankrupt, were rescued by the government at great cost to taxpayers, who only now are being repaid. The president made clear that he will only sign into law a measure that puts private investors primarily at risk for the two companies, which buy and guarantee many mortgages from banks to provide a continuing stream of money for lenders to provide to additional home buyers":

President Obama appeared on Jay Leno's show last night. Mediaite has the full interview (in three parts) here.

Dr. Frankenstein's Anti-ObamaCare Monster. Steve Benen: "... as far as some Tea Partiers are concerned..., conservative Republicans who see the shutdown strategy as folly are suddenly the enemy. It appears that Republican officials have created a monster, and like Frankenstein, they aren't altogether pleased with the results." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... 'stories' which shriek about premium increases are not improving public understanding of Obamacare." ...

... Erika Eichelberger of Mother Jones has an amusing piece on "The Seven Craziest Obamacare Conspiracy Theories.... Obamacare is going to implant you with a microchip. Obamacare is going to tax your golf club. Obamacare is going to create a massive unprecedented federal database to hold all of your 'intimate ... secrets.'" CW: These would be more amusing if great swaths of your garden-variety FoxBots didn't believe them. ...

... Oh Yeah? Sharon Begley of Reuters: "The federal government is months behind in testing data security for the main pillar of Obamacare: allowing Americans to buy health insurance on state exchanges due to open by October 1." CW: unrefuted evidence that President Obama doesn't care if your neighbors find out you have an STD.

** Katie McDonough of Salon: "Since Nebraska first jump-started the trend back in 2010, close to a dozen state legislatures across the country have passed laws banning abortion at 20 weeks. Most ... are given grave-sounding titles like the 'Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,' or some near-identical riff on the words 'fetal,' 'pain' and 'protection.' All of them ... rest on the stated premise that a fetus can experience pain at 20 weeks.... But ... the limited research used to support such claims has been refuted as pseudoscience by both the Journal of the American Medical Association and the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (Not to mention smaller studies....) The neural structures necessary to feel pain have not yet developed, any observable responses to stimuli at this gestational stage -- like the fetal 'flinching' during an amniocentesis -- are reflexive, not experiential." Thanks of Barbarossa for the link. CW: read the whole piece.

Oren Kerr, in the New Yorker: "In a major decision last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the location of your cell phone when you place a call is not protected by the Fourth Amendment, which guards against 'unreasonable searches and seizures.' ... The decision is a win for the government and police powers, with the caveat that other cases are pending and may reach a different outcome. And if they disagree, it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide." Kerr explains the logic behind the Fifth Circuit's opinion, & it is rather neat. So if you want to know why James Clapper's ability to hoover your phone records is consistent with the Fourth Amendment, here it is. Cue Glenn Greenwald.

James Traub of Foreign Policy, in a New York Times op-ed: "Tea Partyers often style themselves as disciples of Thomas Jefferson, the high apostle of limited government. But by taking the ramparts against immigration, the movement is following a trajectory that looks less like the glorious arc of Jefferson's Republican Party than the suicidal path of Jefferson's great rivals, the long-forgotten Federalists, who also refused to accept the inexorable changes of American demography."

PolitiFact Blows It Again. Steve Benen: Eric Cantor said this weekend on Fox "News" that the deficit is growing, but it is unquestionably shrinking. PolitiFact called Cantor's claim "half-true." "... even by [PolitiFact's] standards, this is a doozy. Cantor said the deficit is growing; PolitiFact knows that the deficit is shrinking; but it nevertheless tells the public that the claim is 'half true' because in future years, if certain budget conditions happen a certain way, Cantor's claim might someday become true. I suppose my follow-up question for PolitiFact is this: what incentive do political leaders have to tell the truth when you tell the public their patently false claims are 'half true'?" ...

... Paul Krugman: "It is, of course, the same old problem: news organizations in general, and PolitiFact in particular, are set up to deal with a world in which both parties generally respect reality, and in which dishonesty and delusion are roughly equally distributed between the parties. Faced with the highly asymmetric reality, they choke -- treating mild Democratic exaggerations as if they were equivalent to outright falsehoods on the other side, treating wild misrepresentations on the GOP side as if they were slight misstatements. This should be simple: PolitiFact should just rule on the facts; it should seek to be party-blind, which isn't the same as being 'nonpartisan', with its connotation of 'balance'. But apparently it can't do it." ...

... CW: Actually, PolitiFact's problem is that its reporters read the New York Times. Here's Jonathan Weisman reporting in the Times on July 8: "The federal budget deficit will fall to $759 billion for the fiscal year that ends this September.... The White House projected the deficit to bottom out at $496 billion in 2018, then start ticking back up to $593 billion in 2022." This week, in a Times opinion post titled "Someone Tell Cantor: the Deficit Is Shrinking," Juliet Lapidos emphasized the White House's/Weisman's/PolitiFact's qualification. She wrote: "Granted, this trend won't last: 'The White House projected the deficit to bottom out at $496 billion in 2018, then start ticking back up to $593 billion in 2022.'" PolitiFact was following Lapidos' lead. ...

... Update: PolitiFact responds to Benen & Krugman. Worth noting here: on July 24, PolitiFact rated as "true" President Obama's remark that the deficit was falling at the fastest rate in 50 years. ...

     ... This is worth noting, because, as Jonathan Bernstein writes, "Here's the thing: it just can't be true that the deficit is falling at a record pace, and also half-true that the deficit is 'growing.' ... The real story here, and the real reason I've stopped paying attention to PolitiFact, is that they handle criticism extremely badly. They got this wrong; that's okay. In my view, they probably shouldn't have looked at it in the first place.... Or, having done it, they could realize that their two ratings really didn't reconcile, and they could have admitted error and dealt with it. But if they treat legitimate criticism [the way they did in their response to Benen & Krugman]..., then how can you take them seriously?"

Evan Perez of CNN: "Federal authorities have filed the first criminal charges in the investigation of the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, people briefed on the matter said. Several suspects charged in the armed assault last September 11 include prominent Libyan militia figure Ahmed Abu Khattala, the sources said. Other identities were not disclosed. The counts initially sought months ago in New York are still under seal, according to the sources." CW: let's see how Republicans spin this.

Interesting. Alan Zarembo of the Los Angeles Times: "A tour of duty in Afghanistan or Iraq -- even one involving combat -- does not increase a service member's risk of suicide, according to a study that tracked more than 150,000 troops for up to eight years. The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., challenges the common assumption that the stresses of being in a war zone and exposure to the horrors of battle are behind a sharp increase in the military's suicide rate over the last decade."

Local News

** Kyung Lah of CNN: Air Force veteran Eldonna "Fernandez, along with Army veteran Gerri Tindley, joins 11 other women who have publicly accused [San Diego Mayor Bob] Filner, 70, of making unwanted advances, from groping to verbal passes. They are also among at least eight female veterans and members of the National Women's Veterans Association of America (NWVAA) in San Diego who have made accusations against the mayor. Almost all of the women were victims of sexual assault while they were in the military. The women, like Fernandez, say the former chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee used his significant power and credentials to access military sexual assault survivors, who they say are less likely to complain." ...

     ... CW: I know sexual harassment isn't a crime, but I do hope prosecutors from the feds on down are looking for criminal laws to to charge Filner with breaking.

CNN: "Former President Bill Clinton said he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, have many 'personal friends' in the New York City mayoral race and added that he shouldn't talk about the contest. His comments came in an interview with CNN in Kigali, Rwanda, where Clinton is on a six-stop trip in the continent with his daughter for their work with The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. 'We are a hundred miles from that race and everyone understands that we are not going to be involved, as long as our personal friends and people who we feel obligations are involved,' he told CNN's Nima Elbagir.... 'Neither Hillary or I was ever involved in the political campaign, and they understood that from the beginning,' he said. 'There are too many people running for mayor who have been my supporters, who supported her for senator, her for president'":

... Michael Musto interviews Weiner's "friend" Sydney Leathers for Gawker. CW: I read a little of it; definitely not a must-read.

Senatorial Races

Betting on Booker. David Halbfinger, et al., of the New York Times: "... how a few tech moguls and entrepreneurs, many of them also campaign donors, not only made a financial bet on [Newark Mayor Cory Booker's] political future but also provided the brainpower and financing to help create a company that could make him very rich." The tech company with which they gifted Booker also has provided jobs for Booker's friends & supporters. CW: nobody would claim Cory doesn't know how to network.

Kyle Roerink of the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune: "Senate candidate Liz Cheney improperly received a state resident fishing license based on an application with incorrect information, according to Wyoming Game and Fish Department records. Cheney ... received her resident license just 72 days after closing on her Wilson house in May 2012. State law requires residents live in the state 365 consecutive days before they can receive a resident hunting or fishing license, which are cheaper than out-of-state licenses. Cheney's application also lists her as a 10-year resident of Wyoming.... 'The clerk must have made a mistake,' she said. 'I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.' ... The fine for a false statement on the application is $220 and is a misdemeanor.... If Game and Fish imposes the fine and Cheney chooses to contest the fine in court, a judge could ratchet up the fine to $1,000." An official of the state's Game & Fish says the agency will "follow up on this like any other residency issues... It's at the initial stages of verification.'" Via Charles Pierce, who is unimpressed with Cheney's carpetbagging skills. CW: since Cheney & her husband are multi-millionaires, the few bucks they saved on an in-state license is the height of stupid. Of course, um, maybe the clerk made a mistake.

Presidential Race 2016

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Republicans have begun trying to damage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's political image ahead of her expected 2016 White House bid." CW: no doubt this will come as a shock to Clinton, as Republicans have never done anything like this before.

Alex Massie of the Spectator has a good piece on the appeal or lack thereof of presumptive presidential candidates: "Being likeable is one thing but it's more important for a candidate to be respected. That means they need to project some brand of presidentialism which is not quite the same thing as being able to talk Average Joe even if that quality may also be extremely useful. We don't know if [Chris] Christie can do that yet." Massie argues that Li'l Randy won't make the cut. Via Jonathan Bernstein. CW: But what about Dubya? Massie never mentions him. How is it possible that anyone thought Dubya seemed presidential? -- especially compared to Kerry, who seems like Abe Lincoln in slo-mo.

News Ledes

Houston Chronicle: "One of the biggest capital murder trials in U.S. military history came to an abrupt halt on its second day as Maj. Nidal Hasan's standby counsel team asked that its role in the proceeding be modified. Lawyers on the team said Hasan is intentionally seeking the death penalty in his court-martial. The military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, cleared the court Wednesday morning so she could conduct a closed hearing on the matter. The trial in the 2009 shooting that left 13 people dead and 31 wounded is scheduled to resume Thursday morning."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Ariel Castro's home is no more. The modest house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where Castro kept Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight locked up for more than a decade, is nothing more than a pile of rubble after crews used an excavator to tear down the property.... A crush of media and onlookers gathered before daybreak as crews from the Cuyahoga Land Bank, in charge of the demolition, and Independence Excavating prepared to tear down the home." ...

     ... Guardian: "The house is being torn down as part of a deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence."

Daily Beast: "The crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda's senior leaders and representatives of several of the group's affiliates throughout the region."

New York Times: "A day after the United States and Britain moved to withdraw personnel from Yemen, a move that had followed embassy closures, Yemeni security officials said Wednesday that the authorities here had foiled an audacious plot by Al Qaeda to seize an important port and kidnap or kill foreigners working there." ...

     ... Update: here's the White House statement.

... Washington Post: "The Obama administration authorized a series of drone strikes in Yemen over the past 10 days as part of an effort to disrupt an al-Qaeda terrorism plot that has forced the closure of American embassies around the world, U.S. officials said. The officials said the revived drone campaign -- with four strikes in rapid succession -- is directly related to the emergence of intelligence indicating that al-Qaeda's leader has urged the group's Yemen affiliate to attack Western targets."

The Commentariat -- Aug. 6, 2013

Mark Felsenthal & Margaret Chadbourn of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will propose overhauling the U.S. mortgage finance system in a speech on Tuesday, weighing in on a tangled and polarizing problem that was central to the devastating financial crisis in 2007-2009 and that continues to slow the economic recovery, the White House said. Obama will propose eliminating mortgage finance entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over time, replacing them with a system in which the private market buys home loans from lenders and repackages them as securities for investors, senior administration officials said." ...

... Justin Sink of the Hill: "Obama is trying to gain momentum for his economic plan ahead of the tough negotiations on the debt ceiling and federal budget that will dominate the autumn agenda. This week's multimedia push will involve the latest speech in the president's series on the middle class, his sixth appearance on 'The Tonight Show' with Jay Leno, a web chat with prospective home buyers, and a pair of events with soldiers and veterans."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: Sen. Barbara "Mikulski [D-Md.], who legislates with two parts accommodation and one part coercion, now finds herself at the center of a spending brawl on Capitol Hill. At 77, she is the longest serving woman in Congress, the first female leader of its most august committee [the Senate Appropriations Committee] and the fulcrum in a fiscal fight that will dominate Washington this fall."

Michelle Norris of NPR interviews Jack Hanson, who as a young white man living in Cincinnati, Ohio, participated in the 1963 March on Washington, & his wife Ethel Hanson, who stayed home with their four sons. With audio. Thanks to contributor Diane for the link.

Eric Schmitt & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Time: "The Obama administration's decision last week to close nearly two dozen diplomatic missions and issue a worldwide travel alert resulted from intercepted electronic communications in which the head of Al Qaeda in Pakistan ordered the leader of its affiliate in Yemen, the terrorist organization's most lethal branch, to carry out an attack as early as this past Sunday, according to American officials. The intercepted conversations last week between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of the global terrorist group, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, revealed one of the most serious plots against American and other Western interests since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, American intelligence officials and lawmakers have said." ... CW: evidently al-Zawahri & al-Wuhayshi don't read the Guardian. so were unaware that the NSA was following their chit-chats. ...

... Gene Robinson: "... U.S. foreign policy helped to create the decentralized al-Qaeda, a branch of which is believed to be trying to launch some kind of strike. The most fateful choice, and the biggest strategic error, was the decision to invade Iraq. George W. Bush's epic misadventure diverted resources and attention from the war in Afghanistan, giving a reprieve to the Taliban.... First Bush and then Obama discovered the expediency of remotely piloted drone aircraft as instruments of war. Obama has waged what amounts to a campaign of targeted assassination, decimating the ranks of the various al-Qaeda branches.... The inevitable collateral damage -- deaths of civilians, destruction of infrastructure -- helps recruit new al-Qaeda conscripts." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Almost all of the extra-constitutional atrocities attributed to the 'war' on terror have their philosophical -- and, in many cases, their literal -- roots in the equally futile 'war' on drugs.... Consider how unremarkable drug-testing without probable cause -- which is essentially both an unwarranted search and forcible testimony that might be incriminating -- has become.... Which is why the latest revelations of government spying come as no surprise.... Again, I don't recall any 'national debate' about whether or not this program, and the crimes in office on which it apparently depends, was a good idea in a self-governing democracy." (See yesterday's Commentariat for link to the underlying Reuters story.) ...

... bmaz of emptywheel says much of the Reuters reporting is not new -- some of the "revelations" appear on the DEA's Website. "The takeaway that is important from the Reuters piece is that all the frothing about, 'golly, what if those NSA capabilities bleed out of terrorism and into traditional criminal cases' is nuts. It already is, and has been for a long time." ...

CW: Yeah, I know it's "extraneous" bullshit, but Driftglass disposes of Glenn Greenwald for this tweet: "How irrational to choose Russia over the luxurious, super-max hellhole of life-long solitary confinement the US generously provides people" Driftglass counters with example before concluding: "I understand how Mr. Greenwald's incessant and often hilariously apocalyptic conflations, exaggerations and character assassinations feed his gargantuan ego and titillate the ganglia of the Spleenwald horde. What I do not understand is how it in any way advances his stated goal of ignoring all extraneous issues and maintaining a laser-like focus on stimulating open, rancor-free public debate on the important and consequential subjects of NSA surveillance and the FISA court."

** Greg Dworkin, in Daily Kos, tries to explain "libertarian populism." CW: If you're still confused, it could be because libertarian populism is internally inconsistent & often short on specifics.

Bigots, Liars & Nihilists

Steve Benen: "Can a President be a radical socialist & a Wall Street shill? ... For good or ill, Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to reach compromises with congressional Republicans, frequently offering to accept GOP policy goals that congressional Democrats find abhorrent. But because so many congressional Republicans have become post-policy nihilists, GOP officials not only reject attempts at compromise, they often announce their opposition to whatever it was they urged Obama to do in the first place."

And all the while [we are] keeping our eye focused on trying to deal with the ultimate problem, which is this growing deficit. -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Sunday on Fox "News"

Someone tell [that prevaricating dickhead] Cantor. The deficit is shrinking. -- Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times

The Life-Threatening Lies of Koch-Paid Retainers. A few days old, but worth the read: Christopher Flavelle of Bloomberg News on the realities of the "Burn Your [Nonexistent] ObamaCare Card" movement: "Opponents of Obamacare are trying to persuade people who are eligible for subsidized health insurance not to sign up. Let's consider what makes that campaign so offensive. [These right-wing groups are making their political point] on the backs of Americans with no health insurance, and no other options to obtain it." Flavelle called one of the winger-promoters of the movement, & she first claimed that getting coverage under ObamaCare doesn't guarantee access to health care. "That claim is absurd on its face." She then claimed that people could just sign up for insurance when they got sick. "But it isn't that simple. While you can't be denied coverage because you're sick, you still need to buy that coverage during the annual open enrollment period, as with employer-sponsored insurance." CW: Flavelle doesn't specifically say so, but the Koch brother's FreedomWorks is the driving force behind the scheme. Via Jonathan Cohn.

All I'm saying is that you cannot say you are against Obamacare if you are willing to vote for a law that funds it. If you're willing to fund this thing, you can't possibly say you&'re against it. -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Via Greg Sargent

The Party of Nobody But Rushbo. Alex Roarty of the National Journal: Increasingly, white voters won't vote for the Party of Bigots even if they might think Republican have the right economic ideas. (CW: Roarty makes his point much more nicely.)

AP: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out publicly for the first time Monday in favor of immigration reform, an issue he's been working on behind the scenes for several months. The 29-year-old billionaire made his remarks in San Francisco at the debut screening of 'Documented,' an autobiographical documentary by activist and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. Wearing his trademark hoodie* and sneakers, Zuckerberg disputed the notion that he and other Silicon Valley leaders are just trying to secure more H1B visas for high-tech workers."

* Zuckerberg was not followed or shot dead for "looking suspicious."

Senatorial Races

Alex Roarty: "When [Rep.] Tom Cotton [R-Ark.] declares his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, the decorated infantry veteran will be a rare consensus choice for a party with a history of destructive infighting. He has no primary opponent, no doubts about his conservative bona fides, and Republicans have little doubt he has the chops to knock off Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor."

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "All four Democrats vying for a spot on the ballot in New Jersey's special U.S. Senate election debated for the first time Monday, revealing similar stances on foreign policy but disputing Newark Mayor Cory Booker's record on education."

Gubernatorial Race, or Something

Shefali Luthra & Adam Wollner of the Texas Tribune: Texas "State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said Monday that she will either run for re-election or for Texas governor, and that she's working hard to make her decision. Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon [in Washington, D.C.], Davis said those were the only two options, and that she's not considering joining the lieutenant governor's race.... Since the filibuster, Davis has appeared at fundraisers in Washington and spoken on national television. She has been the subject of speculation over a potential statewide run in 2014. In the final two weeks of June, Davis' campaign raised almost $1 million in donations."

Presidential Race 2016

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday called on CNN and NBC to rethink their decisions to shoot films about Hillary Clinton, calling each a 'thinly veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election.' Priebus also threatened, if the networks push forward with their plans, to avoid partnerships with them for any 2016 presidential debates." ...

... Zeke Miller of Time: "Republican Party officials believe the 20 GOP primary debates during the 2012 cycle hurt their party and Mitt Romney. CNN's John King, in particular, drew attacks when he questioned former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about his prior marital infidelities in a debate before the South Carolina primary, while Republicans have long been weary of working with NBC given the liberal-leanings of its cable network MSNBC. Priebus has previously proposed a more modest 10 to 12 debates, in part to protect better-funded candidates from insurgents who capitalize on their time before the cameras." Priebus is using the Hillary movie excuse as a pretext to discourage state parties from hosting debates. ...

... Hiding Out in the Fox Hole. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... it's not a good idea for the GOP to threaten not to deal with the unaffiliated press. After all, that risks sending them deeper into their closed information feedback loop, in which Republicans only hear the partisan version of the news supplied by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.... This is a problem for campaigning -- or, as David Plouffe says: 'Better RNC debate plan. Held in hermetically sealed Fox studio.'"

Local News

Nick Carey & Joseph Lichterman of Reuters: "In a high-stakes hearing on Friday in Detroit's bankruptcy filing, a judge approved a city plan to form a creditors' committee of retired workers, but gave unions and pension funds that opposed the plan a measure of satisfaction by declaring an independent trustee -- and not the city -- will select committee members. Federal bankruptcy Judge Steve Rhodes' ruling on the city's effort to create a new negotiating partner independent of unions and pension funds was a key moment in a three-hour session that packed the largest courtroom in Detroit's downtown federal building."

Beauty & the Bomb. Christine McCarthy of KUTV Salt Lake City: "Miss Riverton, crowned in June and set to compete in the Miss Utah pageant, was arrested early Saturday morning along with her three friends after allegedly throwing homemade bombs at people and homes. A probable cause statement released by the Salt Lake County Jail states that Miss Riverton, Kendra Gill, as well as [others]..., admitted to buying plastic bottles, aluminum foil and household chemicals at a local store before building the bombs and throwing them from their car.... One home that was allegedly targeted was that of Stone's ex-girlfriend.... None of the bombs hurt anyone but they could have easily maimed or killed anyone they exploded near, [Fire Capt. Clint] Mecham said." CW: makes you wonder why she had planned for the talent competition.

News Ledes

AP: "The U.S. government has accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud, saying the company failed to disclose risks and misled investors in its sale of $850 million of mortgage bonds during 2008. The Justice Department filed a civil suit Tuesday against the bank and several subsidiaries in federal court in Charlotte, N.C. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related suit against Bank of America there, too."

New York Times: "Nearly four years after going on a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here in 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told a jury of senior Army officers on Tuesday that 'the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.'"

ABC News: "A gunman with a property dispute showed up at a Ross Township, Pa., supervisors' meeting and opened fire [Monday] night, shooting apparently at random before he was subdued by two attendees, a witness and Monroe County officials said. Three people were killed in the shooting rampage, and three others were wounded, including the shooter, county officials said. The suspect, who was under arrest tonight, was wounded when he was tackled by one of the township officials at the meeting."

New York Times: "After days of alarms and embassy lockdowns, the United States and Britain on Tuesday stepped up security precautions in Yemen, with Washington ordering 'nonemergency' government personnel to leave and the Foreign Office in London saying it has withdrawn its diplomatic staff in the capital Sana 'due to increased security concerns.'"

The Commentariat -- Aug. 5, 2013

Tom Toles of the Washington Post. ViaAnnie Laurie in Balloon Juice. ... Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times: "How divided are Republicans in Congress? So divided, one conservative joked, that it shouldn't be called a civil war: 'It's not organized enough for that.' ... Perhaps the biggest problem the Republicans have is one of leadership. When asked to identify the leader of the Republican Party, the first-place winner in the Pew poll was, accurately enough, 'nobody.'" ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "... Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk." ...

... They'll Be Busy While They're Sulking. Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "An array of interest groups has methodically plotted how to use the congressional recess to press causes." ...

... Oh, But They Planned for That. The AP takes a look at the House GOP's planning kit for promoting their agenda during the August recess. It's the usual "bash Washington/blame Obama" stuff. I like the part where it advises them to emphasize their accomplishments.

** Frank Rich: "Washington may be a dysfunctional place to govern, but it's working better than ever as a marketplace for cashing in. And that's thanks, more than anything, to the Democratic Establishment." CW: Thanks to MAG for the link. Rich doesn't say so, but the ONLY thing that could change Them-v.-the-Rest-of-Us is a strict Constitutional amendment requiring public financing of political campaigns & banning private financing. Since, typically, the Congress proposes amendments (state legislatures can do so, too), that clearly is not going to happen. Some have promoted the idea of a "popular amendment" since the Constitution derives from the people, but that won't happen either.

** John Shiffman & Kristina Cooke of Reuters: "A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues..., law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin -- not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.... Federal agents are trained to 'recreate' the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence -- information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.... Legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records." ...

... Brendan Sasso of the Hill: "Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, revealed on Sunday that the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance programs uncovered information about current terrorist threats to the United States." Chambliss tied the closings of most of the U.S. Middle East embassies -- see News Ledes -- to a threat detected by the NSA. ...

... Barbara Starr of CNN: "An intercepted message among senior al Qaeda operatives in the last several days raised alarm bells that led to the closing of embassies and consulates Sunday across the Middle East and North Africa, CNN has learned. CNN has agreed to a request from an Obama administration official not to publish or broadcast additional details because of the sensitivity of the information." ...

... Max Ehrenfreund in Washington Monthly: "Marci Wheeler is speculating openly that these warnings might be politically motivated.... It would be premature to assume anything about the current warning, and it is partly a measure of Wheeler's cynicism that she is speculating. Not completely, though. It's also a measure of the degree to which the military and the intelligence communities have lost reporters' trust over the past ten years, beginning with the invasion of Iraq." ...

... Wheeler's post is here. CW: I have to admit the second I read that Chambliss, a Southern conservative Republican who is no fan of the administration (and has a dismal ACLU rating), went on the teevee to claim the embassy closings & travel warnings were the result of intelligence gathered "under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to intercept communications between suspected terrorists," I just thought, "Isn't that perfect!" Plus, who do you suppose Barbara Starr's source is? James Clapper's top aide? ...

... Not Exactly News. Glenn Greenwald: "... members [of Congress] who seek out basic information - including about NSA programs they are required to vote on and FISA court (FISC) rulings on the legality of those programs - find that they are unable to obtain it. Two House members, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, have provided the Guardian with numerous letters and emails documenting their persistent, and unsuccessful, efforts to learn about NSA programs and relevant FISA court rulings." Here's a LOL bit: "In early July, Grayson had staffers distribute to House members several slides published by the Guardian about NSA programs.... But, according to one staff member, Grayson's office was quickly told by the House Intelligence Committee that those slides were still classified..., and directed Grayson to cease distribution or discussion of those materials in the House, warning that he could face sanctions if he continued." ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "... amid a national debate over how much the government should be able to find out about the private activities of its citizens in the name of combating terrorism, the next issue seems teed up for Supreme Court review: Cellphones." CW: courts have ruled in various ways on this, but it seems to me there's an easy answer: to protect evidence, officers should be able to confiscate cellphones found on suspects, but they should have to get warrants to access the data on a confiscated phone unless there is a compelling reason -- say, in a kidnapping case -- to review the data immediately. Ditto for people questioned but not arrested; if you're going to carry around incriminating evidence, you should expect to be incriminated. P.S. When I called up this article, it came with a Galaxy ad. Big WashPo knows I'm interested in cellphones.

Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Cities and towns across the country are pushing municipal unions to accept cheaper health benefits in anticipation of a component of the Affordable Care Act that will tax expensive plans starting in 2018.... Cities including New York and Boston, and school districts from Westchester County, N.Y., to Orange County, Calif., are warning unions that if they cannot figure out how to rein in health care costs now, the price when the tax goes into effect will be steep, threatening raises and even jobs.... But some prominent liberals express frustration at seeing the tax used against unions in negotiations."

Richard Riordan & Tim Rutten in a New York Times op-ed: "President Obama should propose, and push Congress to establish, a public employee pension reform program..., [which] would essentially serve as an insurance agency. It would not bail out distressed local retirement plans. Instead, cities, and perhaps states, would be permitted to sell bonds to cover their pension liabilities, with the federal government guaranteeing repayment. Participants would pay fees -- a kind of insurance premium -- to finance the program, so there would be no net cost to Washington.... We must avoid demonizing public employees and their unions. "

E. J. Dionne: liberals must be more tolerant of religion so as not to alienate religious progressives. CW: I get that, but religious progressives should be more tolerant of non-religious liberals, too. There is a widespread -- and wholly erroneous notion -- that a person can't have morals or ethics unless based on faith in a higher power and/or an afterlife.

Buh-bye, Burbs? Washington Post: "In her new book, 'The End of the Suburbs,' Leigh Gallagher argues that the suburban way of life, once the epitome of the American dream, is becoming increasingly undesirable. Capital Business reporter Jonathan O'Connell, who has questioned whether Washington can grow up with its 20-somethings, chatted with Gallagher this past week about how Americans choose to live. An abridged version of that conversation follows."

"The Second Guantanamo." Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "The United States holds 67 non-Afghan prisoners there, including some described as hardened al-Qaeda operatives seized from around the world in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than a decade later, they're still kept in the shadowy facility at Bagram air base outside Kabul. Closing the facility presents many of the same problems the Obama administration has encountered in its attempt to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. Some U.S. officials argue that Bagram's resolution is even more complicated -- and more urgent. The U.S. government transferred the prison's Afghan inmates to local authorities this year. But figuring out what to do with the foreign prisoners is proving to be an even bigger hurdle to shutting the American jail. 'Is there a plan? No. Is there a desire to close the facility? Yes,' Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said in an interview."

Senate Race

Nate Cohn of the New Republic: "The last few weeks have been full of bad news for Senator Mitch McConnell. He earned a long awaited tea party challenger and, yesterday, two polls showed Allison Lundergan Grimes, the likely Democratic nominee, ahead by 1 and 2 points. As a result, Democrats are starting to believe they have a good chance in Kentucky. They shouldn't get their hopes up. Certainly not yet. Mitch McConnell is a clear favorite because he's a Republican incumbent running in a red state, assuming he wins the primary."

Election 2012

Howell Raines reviews Dan Balz's book on the 2012 election. "Dan Balz's history of the 2012 campaign ends with an astonishing scene from a post-election interview with Mitt Romney. When the reporter brings up his infamous '47 percent.' remark, Romney blurts, 'Actually I didn't say that.' He then retrieves his iPad and leads Balz, line by line, through an excruciatingly delusional exegesis of the speech that crippled his campaign. Balz ... resists the temptation to belabor the obvious. The Republican nominee just didn't understand, then or now, what happened last fall, particularly voters' mystifying insistence on verbal precision. Like his father, George, whose Republican presidential candidacy in 1968 flamed out when he said he had been "brainwashed" by the generals and others about the Vietnam War,' Mitt Romney is a master of the self-immolating quote." CW: The whole review is entertaining.

Local News

Rick Hertzberg on New York City's history of sex scandals. Highly entertaining & beautifully-written, as usual.

News Ledes

San Francisco Chronicle: "BART trains will be rolling for at least another week after Gov. Jerry Brown stepped in late Sunday night to block an impending strike, just hours before the scheduled 12:01 Monday walkout by the transit system's union workers. At the request of BART management, the governor appointed a three-member board of inquiry to investigate the stalled negotiations."

Military Times: The trial of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood & wounded 30 more (which he admits), begins today. ...

... The New York Times has a story on the uniqueness of the trial.

AP: "Prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to present lengthy closing arguments to jurors as they lay out their cases in the racketeering trial of reputed gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger. Closing arguments were scheduled for Monday in U.S. District Court...."