The Commentariat -- July 14, 2013

Meghashyam Mali of Reuters: "Attorney General Eric Holder faces a crucial decision on whether to press federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, after the neighborhood watchman was acquitted Saturday in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. The NAACP and other leading civil rights groups are pressing for Holder to open a federal case against Zimmerman, after he was found not guilty on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges by a Florida jury." ...

... CW: the Zimmerman case -- because it is so high-profile -- is an ideal candidate for federal charges. Except against wealthy defendants, where it's worthwhile to bring a civil suit, the threat of a federal rap is the only deterrent against reckless disregard for human life. ...

... Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker: "There’s fear that the verdict will embolden vigilantes, but that need not be the concern: history has already done that." Thanks to Diane for the link. ...

** ... Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic: "... you can go looking for trouble in Florida, with a gun and a great deal of racial bias, and you can find that trouble, and you can act upon that trouble in a way that leaves a young man dead, and none of it guarantees that you will be convicted of a crime. But this curious result says as much about Florida's judicial and legislative sensibilities as it does about Zimmerman's conduct that night. This verdict would not have occurred in every state. It might not even have occurred in any other state. But it occurred here, a tragic confluence that leaves a young man's untimely death unrequited under state law. Don't like it? Lobby to change Florida's laws." ...

... Paul Campos in Salon: "Trayvon Martin was stalked by George Zimmerman because he was black. Trayvon Martin is dead because he was black. George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin because the boy Zimmerman killed was black."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "When President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be 'prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,' it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country. In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to 'unlawful command influence,' tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault."

Mitra Taj of Reuters: "Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents [Edward] Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst. 'Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,' Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion. 'The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.'" ...

     ... Glenn Greenwald confirms that he has a persecution complex: "About the Reuters Article. ... Like everything in the matter of these NSA leaks, this interview is being wildly distorted to attract attention away from the revelations themselves. It's particularly being seized on to attack Edward Snowden and, secondarily, me, for supposedly 'blackmailing' and 'threatening' the US government. That is just absurd." CW translation: "You people are picking on Ed & me." While it is true that Taj does not recite the question to which Greenwald responded, I'll be damned if I can see where a reasonable reader would infer that Greenwald is blackmailing or threatening anyone or that the reporter is attacking Snowden. As Greenwald would say, "That is just absurd." ...

     ... CW Update: well, okay, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs writes, "Today, Glenn Greenwald is basically issuing blackmail threats to the US government.... What an amazingly arrogant, skin-crawlingly creepy statement, even for this most arrogant of journalists. Is Greenwald trying to get Edward Snowden killed?" So I stand corrected. Still, I don't take Greenwald's remarks -- in context or out -- as tantamount to blackmail.

Charles Pierce has a nice little essay on the Majority Party in the U.S. House of Representatives: John Boehner "is no more the actual Speaker Of The House than Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is vice-president of the United States. The House Of Representatives is being led by the vicious and demented Id of one of the two major political parties...."

Congressional Race

Matt Gouras of the AP: "Popular former Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Saturday morning that he will not run for Montana's open U.S. Senate seat in 2014, an announcement that complicates Democratic efforts to retain their majority in next year's elections." ...

... Well, maybe that's not so bad. Kathleen Geier of Washington Monthly: "I’ve been less than impressed; Schweitzer is ardently opposed to even the most mild forms of gun control and his anti-tax, pro-war-on-drug rhetoric and policies are the last thing we need more of in Congress. On top of that, recent stories about his alleged links to 'secret money' and rumors of more damaging info to come were causing Montana Democratic officials to have second thoughts about his possible senate candidacy.... There may be an upside here. This Politico story identifies three potential Democratic candidates for the senate seat, and all of them are women."

Local News

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post profiles Maureen McDonnell, wife of the Virginia governor, who is mightily culpable in the financial scandals that have all but ruined his future in politics.

Paul Nussbaum, et al., of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "In the weeks before the deadly Market Street collapse, the building's owner repeatedly warned top city officials and Salvation Army officials that the demolition could endanger the adjacent Salvation Army thrift store. But that did not prompt the city to step in. Nor did it stop the owner from rapidly demolishing the building - with devastating consequences."

News Ledes

New York Times: "George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, igniting a national debate on racial profiling and civil rights, was found not guilty late Saturday night of second-degree murder. He was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge."

San Francisco Chronicle: "The third passenger to perish in the Asiana Airlines crash was among the ill-fated group of students on their way from China on a summer tour to learn English, officials confirmed Saturday. Liu Yi Peng, 15, of Jiangshan city in Zhejiang province, died Friday, the same day police confirmed that another fatally injured student in the group, Ye Meng Yuan, 16, had been run over by a fire truck. It is not known whether Ye was alive at the time."

God, Sex and Procreation

I'm trying to figure out how the abstinence thing works with the anti-abortion thing. According to Christian conservatives, God wants us to have sex only under certain strict conditions: with our spouses of the opposite sex when our immediate purpose is to procreate and we don't enjoy ourselves too much.

Otherwise, we must abstain from having sex (and even thinking about sex).

Also according to Christian conservatives, God has a plan for each of us.

So let's say, God forbid (and I mean that literally), a woman has sexual relations under other than those prescribed circumstances. And let's say, God forbid (and I mean that literally), she gets pregnant as a result of said ungodly encounter.

If God did not want the woman to have sex in the first place, then God cannot have wanted her to get pregnant. The pregnancy is not part of God's plan.

If God did not want the woman to get pregnant, then God did not want her to have a child. Ergo, God would want the woman to have an abortion.

The Commentariat -- July 13, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "The departure of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Friday quickly turned into another chance for the Obama administration to push for comprehensive immigration reform. Both Napolitano and President Obama mentioned immigration in their official statements on the changes at DHS, and both used similar language charged with the politics of the ongoing debate in Washington."

A terrific column by Gail Collins on the starve-the-poor/lard-the-rich farm bill. ...

We'll get to that later. -- John Boehner, on the food stamps program ...

... New York Times Editors: The priorities of House Republicans "were clear, as a bare majority rushed to provide $195.6 billion over 10 years to Big Agriculture. Most of the money went to subsidies for crop insurance and commodities, demanded by the corn, rice and sugar barons who fill campaign coffers. The choice made by the House in cutting apart the farm bill was one of the most brutal, even in the short history of the House's domination by the Tea Party."

Corporations Are People, My Friend. Washington Post Editors on the 10th Circuit's "reckless" decision to consider Hobby Lobby a "person" with, um, religious beliefs that exempted the corporation from having to cover workers' contraception. "The Justice Department should appeal this decision. The White House offered a fair compromise to religious groups. But private businesses should not be able to impose the religious views of management onto employees while calling themselves equal-opportunity employers." ...

... Here's more on the decision from Kristen Wyatt of the AP. CW: sorry I missed the decision when it came down two weeks ago.

New York Times Editors: "Gary Gensler, the reform-minded chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, got the best deal he could on Friday, when the commission voted 3 to 1 to approve guidance on how new rules on derivatives will apply internationally, as required under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. But, in the face of unified opposition to strong 'cross-border' regulation -- from the big banks; their government allies in both the United States and Europe; and a swing-vote Democrat on the commission, Mark Wetjen -- the deal falls short of what's needed to protect American taxpayers and the global economy from the calamitous effects of reckless bank trades."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been criticized for the Justice Department's aggressive tactics in secretly obtaining phone logs and e-mails of reporters as part of leak investigations, announced new guidelines on Friday that would significantly narrow the circumstances under which journalists' records could be obtained. A White House spokesman said that President Obama supported the Justice Department's changes...." Holder is still calling for Congress to pass a media shield law. You can read the DOJ report here. CW: I haven't looked at the details yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that guidelines released in a Friday afternoon docudump will not satisfy critics.

Lost in the Mail? Jim Heintz of the AP: "Russian immigration officials said Saturday they have not received an application from Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency leaker who wants to get asylum in Russia.... Snowden had made a previous bid for Russian asylum, but President Vladimir Putin said he would have to agree to stop further leaks of information about American intelligence service activities before it would be considered. Snowden withdrew the bid, but participants in Friday's meeting said he was now ready to agree to stop leaks.... Obama and Putin discussed Snowden, among other issues, during a telephone call on Friday, the White House said in a terse statement that provided no specifics of their conversation about the NSA leaker." ...

... Will Englund of the Washington Post has a more comprehensive report on Snowden's asylum request & notes the "semantics" of his promise to stop leaking. ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The White House openly criticised Russia for giving Edward Snowden a 'propaganda platform' on Friday, after the whistleblower was permitted to meet human rights activists in the Moscow airport where he has been trapped for three weeks." ...

... Julian Pecquet of the Hill: "The Obama administration on Friday urged human rights groups not to help National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden seek asylum. A U.S. Embassy official called a human rights activist who was set to meet with Snowden at a media event at the Moscow airport to reiterate the administration's position that he is an accused criminal, not a whistle-blower." ...

... Steve Holland & Arshad Mohammed of Reuters: "President Barack Obama planned to raise U.S. concerns directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday about Moscow's handling of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for disclosing secret surveillance programs. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and Putin would speak by phone about Snowden later in the day, a conversation that was set up in recent days as Washington seeks to persuade Moscow to send Snowden back to the United States to face espionage charges." ...

... Here's the formal statement Snowden made yesterday, via WikiLeaks. ...

... "The Terminal." Hannah Allam & Matt Schofield of McClatchy News: "Beginning a third week holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone, Edward Snowden finds himself far enough away to evade U.S. authorities, but also too far from any of the sympathetic nations willing to shelter him. Aviation experts say that even if Snowden accepts the tentative offers of Venezuela, Nicaragua or Bolivia to give him shelter, it's virtually impossible to chart a flight plan to those nations that doesn't include traveling over or refueling in a U.S.-friendly country that could demand inspection of the plane -- and detain him."

SEK of Lawyers, Guns & Money: "... it's clear that Zimmerman's guilty of a premeditated action, and if his defense manages to convince the jury that 'sensible' racial animus trumps that, we're all the poorer for it." ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Just another morning on 'Fox and Friends.'" Geraldo Rivera blames Al Sharpton for the murder-two count in the Zimmerman trial; AND THEN SEZ, "How would the ladies of that jury have reacted [to seeing Martin]? I submit that if they were armed, they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self-defense." Yes, Geraldo, everybody's a racist. When people (of any color, I guess) see a black teenager wearing a hoodie, they just start shooting. Totally understandable.

Conservative Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker: "What Republicans are selling appeals to an ever-diminishing market that doesn't even include their erstwhile allies in business and industry. And their self-immolation may prove to have been nothing more than a bonfire of vanities."

Local News

David Rauf of the Houston Chronicle: "Senate Republicans Friday pushed through strict new abortions laws, claiming victory in a contentious battle at the Legislature and making Texas one of the toughest states in which to have the procedure. The Senate voted 19-11 to pass the bill and make good on a vow from the state's top two leaders to pass the bill after it was derailed by a filibuster and raucous protests in the gallery last month. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature. He has said he intends to sign the bill." ...

... Headline of the Week, by Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "You're Allowed to Carry a Gun into the Texas Senate Gallery, But Not a Tampon." ...

... Chris Tomlinson of the AP: "Troopers thoroughly checked the bags of person entering the gallery, which holds almost 500 spectators. Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Rick DeLeon said no props -- including speculums and coat hangers -- would be allowed into the Senate gallery, per decorum rules. Troopers tossed tampons, perfume bottles, moisturizers, pencils and other things into the garbage." ...

... Houston Chronicle: "DPS officials said people who hold concealed handgun licenses were expedited through [the checkpoints] and allowed to carry their firearms into the gallery, which is standing policy at the Capitol."...

... As "public debate" on the Texas abortion bill began, citizen Sarah Slamen spoke to a state senate committee -- until they shut her up & troopers physically moved her from the podium. That's how "debate" works in Texas's version of democracy. They can deprive you of basic health care, they can probe your vagina, but their delicate ears cannot be forced to hear you say no. Thanks to safari for the link:

... MEANWHILE, over in the Texas house, Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R), previously most famous for objecting to the use of rape kits because they "clean the woman out"; that is, cause an abortion. Laubenberg voted for the extreme anti-abortion bill because of her respect for "what she calls the 'pre-born life' of fetuses, despite her statement in 2007 that fetuses aren't 'people' enough to receive healthcare." Via Justin Acuff of Addicting Information. CW: The twisted & inverted logic which these confused ideologues must invent & navigate is, well, mindboggling.

Chris Blank of the AP: "Doctors who perform drug-induced abortions in Missouri will have to be in the room to administer the initial dose and won't be allowed to do it remotely via teleconferencing, according to a new law set to take effect next month. Gov. Jay Nixon (D) said Friday that he decided not to veto the new abortion measure but also wouldn't sign it -- a strategy he employed with other abortion restrictions passed in 2010 and 2011 that were also allowed to passively become law."

Dan Levine of Reuters: "Gay marriage opponents asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to stop same-sex weddings in the state and order that a voter initiative banning the nuptials remain in effect.... Protectmarriage.com attorneys wrote in their brief that the injunction against Prop. 8 only applies to the two couples who were plaintiffs in the federal litigation, not to the state as a whole. 'Because those plaintiffs have recently been married, all relief due under that injunction has already been provided,' they wrote, 'and therefore none of the county clerks are required by that injunction to stop enforcing Proposition 8 in the future.'"