The Commentariat -- March 18, 2013

** Michael Luo of the New York Times: "The National Rifle Association and its allies are challenging states' efforts to take guns away from domestic violence offenders who have been served with civil protection orders.... In statehouses across the country, though, the N.R.A. and other gun-rights groups have beaten back legislation mandating the surrender of firearms in domestic violence situations.... Intimate partner homicides account for nearly half the women killed every year, according to federal statistics." Read the whole article. This is a situation where the NRA has persuaded state & federal legislators to effectively grant licenses to kill (mostly) women. ...

... Benjamin Goad of The Hill: "A growing number of states are moving forward with legislation to exempt them from new federal gun controls and, in some cases, brand as criminals anyone who tries to enforce them. While many of the bills are considered symbolic or appear doomed to fail, the legislative explosion reflects a backlash against legislative and regulatory efforts in Washington to tamp down on gun violence."

Paul Krugman: "The really striking thing, during the run-up to the [Iraq] war, was the illusion of consensus. To this day, pundits who got it wrong excuse themselves on the grounds that 'everyone' thought that there was a solid case for war. Of course, they acknowledge, there were war opponents -- but they were out of the mainstream.... What we should have learned from the Iraq debacle was that you should always be skeptical and that you should never rely on supposed authority. If you hear that 'everyone' supports a policy, whether it's a war of choice or fiscal austerity, you should ask whether 'everyone' has been defined to exclude anyone expressing a different opinion. And policy arguments should be evaluated on the merits, not by who expresses them...."

Obama 2.0. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to announce Monday that he will nominate Thomas E. Perez, who heads the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, to be the next secretary of labor, a choice that promises to provoke a debate with Republicans about voting rights and discrimination."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In Congress, Republicans are pushing an agenda that is almost identical to the one that their party lost with in November, with no regrets and few efforts to reframe it even rhetorically. The House will vote this week on the third iteration of Mr. Ryan's budget, which would again try to turn Medicare into a subsidy for private insurance purchases, slash the top income tax rate and cut deeply into programs the president campaigned to protect. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans forced a vote to eliminate financing for the president's health care law. The effort failed, 52-45, but it was at least the 54th time that one chamber or the other had voted on a proposal to repeal all or part of the law, which was enacted three years ago.... Which raises the question: What are elections for?" ...

... AND. Greg Sargent watched the Sunday shows: "The GOP position, with no exaggeration, is that the only way Republican leaders will ever agree to paying down the deficit they say is a threat to American civilization is 100 percent their way; they are not willing to concede anything at all to reach any deal involving new revenues to reduce the deficit, or to get the entitlement reform they want, or to avert sequestration they themselves said will gut the military and tank the economy But ... but ... but Obama needs to lead and prove he's Serious by offering still more entitlement cuts than he already has!"

... BUT -- Lipstick on an Elephant. AP: "The Republican National Committee will formally endorse immigration reform on Monday and outline plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups -- gay voters among them -- as part of a multi-step roadmap designed to make the GOP more 'welcoming and inclusive' for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012." ...

     ... Update: the report is here. ...

... Zeke Miller of Time: "More than anything, [the report] is a rejection of the politics of 'arithmetic,' as RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will say when he announces the report's recommendations in a thinly veiled shot at Mitt Romney's 47 percent comments. 'The RNC cannot and will not ..write off any demographic, community, or region of this country.'"

... UH-OH. Alexander Burns of Politico: "An outside group aligned with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has commissioned a report that warns conservatives against adopting an all-spending cuts, all-the-time message, and suggests that leaders on the right put a heavier emphasis on less abstract issues such as education and gas prices. The poll, commissioned by the nonprofit YG Network and obtained by Politico, shows that even Americans concerned about deficits and debt are far more concerned with their own personal economic well-being."

Fire Ed DeMarco. Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Prominent state attorneys general are calling on President Obama to fire the acting director[ Edward J. DeMarco] of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and name a new permanent director, arguing that current policies are impeding the economic recovery. Under ... DeMarco, the F.H.F.A., which oversees the bailed-out mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has refused to put in place a White House proposal to reduce the principal on so-called underwater mortgages.... Led by Eric T. Schneiderman of New York and Martha Coakley of Massachusetts, the attorneys general argue that writing down the principal on underwater mortgages ... would aid the recovery. They note that write-downs were a central part of a multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement that 49 state attorneys general negotiated with five major banks a year ago."

I tend to agree with Glenn Greenwald's column, published last week, on President Obama's penchant for secrecy. ...

... BUT Driftglass's note of caution is worth heeding: "Mr. Greenwald does have the litigator's fetish for framing every sentence in the most aggressively dichotomous way possible down cold. Ordering dessert with him must be a bitch; 'Are you going to order the tiramisu or are you objectively pro-Hitler?' Because in Glennview there are always two-and-only-two acceptable positions on all issues: agreeing with Glenn 100% right down the line and worse-than-Cheney." Read all of Driftglass's post.

Charles Pierce responds to this BBC report, which I linked this past weekend & thought was a very big deal, but which received little attention here in the Good Ole U.S.A.: "There were 22,000 more Americans who died in Vietnam after Nixon sabotaged the peace talks in order to win an election."

CNN Feels Really Sorry for Rapists. David Edwards of Raw Story: "CNN broke the news on Sunday of a guilty verdict in a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio by lamenting that the 'promising' lives of the rapists had been ruined, but spent very little time focusing on how the 16-year-old victim would have to live with what was done to her":

... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "CNN continued with this awful slanted reporting throughout the afternoon ... even after a storm erupted on social media, condemning their coverage. The sheer contempt they showed for their audience, and for the victim of this terrible crime, was breathtaking." ...

... Mallory Ortberg of Gawker: "It's perfectly understandable, when reporting on a rape trial, to discuss the length and severity of the sentence; it is less understandable to discuss the end of two convicted rapists' future athletic and academic careers as if it were somehow divorced from the laws of cause and effect. Their dreams and hopes were not crushed by an impersonal, inexorable legal system; Mays and Richmond raped a girl and have been sentenced accordingly.... That isn't how rape trials ought to be discussed by professional journalists." ...

... Charles Pierce monitors the Sunday shows, including CNN's poor-little-rapists marathon.

Right Wing World *

Has-Beens Bickering. Sahil Kapur of TPM: Palin & Rove take swipes at each other. AND more from David Edwards of Raw Story.

E. J. Dionne asks if conservatives "believe in American greatness.... Conservatives ... need to consider where the strong America they honor came from in the first place."

"At CPAC, the Marriage Fight is Over." Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Opponents of gay rights spoke to a nearly empty room, while supporters had a standing room-only crowd:"

Joe Coscarelli's story on the son of the New York City Fire Chief -- who is apparently in line to become an FDNY firefighter -- is not the type of local story I usually link, but it's disgusting enough to read. And you know the little Nazi (perfectly apt term here) is gonna get the job.

* Where there is sometimes good news.

The Commentariat -- March 17, 2013

Faith & Begorrah! I've been working so hard I forgot it was St. Paddy's Day. No corned beef and green beer at our house this year. Also, another day of next to no posting for me. I should be getting back to normal-ish Monday. -- CW

** David Taylor of BBC News: "Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said nothing."

Andrew O'Hehir in Salon on a progressive view of the papacy. Hint. It's a fraud! Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link. A very interesting perspective.

Right Wing World

The Perfect Couple. "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced Sarah Palin on Saturday, crediting her for his election." -- New York Times. AP photo.Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin's ... reception at a large gathering of conservatives on Saturday underscored her enduring popularity with the right. In a speech here, she offered zingers for the Republican base but also a strenuous defense of her Tea Party friends who are challenging the Republican establishment." ...

... Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette sorta liveblogged Palin's speech, so if you just happened to miss it, Schoenkopf's re-cap is mighty helpful.

Jillian Rayfield of Salon: "A panel hosted by the Tea Party Patriots, intended to teach CPAC attendees how to fight back against charges that they are racist, devolved quickly into the crowd shouting down a liberal black woman who repeatedly tried to ask questions." CW: we're not racists; we just think black people should be grateful to slaveholders for feeding & clothing them. Yes, both these views were sincerely expressed during the panel discussion. The ungrateful slaves guy is Scott Terry, & apparently one of his fave books is "Slavery Defended," which convinced him that slavery was "a moral good." ...

... So then after a white guy screams at a black guy, they throw the black guy out.

Pretend President Paul Wins Another Election. Emily Schultheis & James Hohmann of Politico: "Rand Paul edged out Marco Rubio in the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, reinforcing their standing as the preeminent favorites of the Republican base heading into 2016. Sen. Paul (R-Ky.) received 25 percent and Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) 23 percent of the 2,930 votes cast by attendees at the conference. Former Sen. Rick Santorum finished third, with 8 percent."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged in an interview Friday that he’s open to a presidential bid and pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term if he’s reelected next year." CW: I also am open to a presidential bid. If elected, I will serve. I hope most of you are polished your oaths of office, too. (You'd better. You won't get much help from CJ Roberts.)

The Commentariat -- March 16, 2013

I will be away again most of the day today, so I won't be posting. -- Marie

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: the White House put out a chart yesterday that suggests Medicare is no longer growing faster than G.D.P., which is at odds with most projections. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "And if that's the case, there's really no deficit problem.... What this really means is that we need an immediate moratorium on 'grand bargain' talk." CW: can you hear us now, Mr. Prez?

Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "When Republicans say Obama needs to show 'leadership,' what they mean is that he ought to just embrace the Ryan budget."

Sahil Kapur of TPM: "House Republicans unanimously voted down a measure Friday that would have raised the federal minimum wage, from its current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2015. Six Democrats joined 227 Republicans in voting it down; 184 Democrats voted yes. The legislation was proposed as a last-minute amendment upon passage of the SKILLS Act, which reauthorizes a jobs training program." CW: Quick, somebody put all the kids of House Republicans to work at minimum wage. (See Sen. Rob Portman [R-Ohio]. sudden gay-rights advocate.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "By Portman’s own account..., he opposed gay marriage until he realized that opposition to gay marriage stands in the way of his own son's happiness.... The signal failure of conservative thought is an inability to give any weight to the perspective of the disadvantaged.... Why should any of us come away from his conversion trusting that Portman is thinking on any issue about what's good for all of us, rather than what's good for himself and the people he knows?" ...

... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Mr. Portman said that he and his wife were surprised to learn their son was gay but that they 'were 100 percent supportive.' Supportive enough to tell the Romney campaign that his son was gay, but not supportive enough to back off his public opposition to equal rights for gay people while he was under consideration for the V.P. slot.... He says that the issue of marriage equality should be left up to the states.... Until this week, Mr. Obama also took that position as part of his 'evolution' on the issue, but has now dropped it. And for good reason. It's sort of like, say, letting states decide whether to ban inter-racial marriage."

Ted Cruz Doesn't Understand the Constitution. Greg Sargent: "The truly wrongheaded aspects of his remarks concern his assertions about the First and Fourth Amendments -- which embody a simplistic view of the Bill of Rights." See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's Comments section. I don't know if Patrick is a lawyer, but I know he's smarter than Ted Cruz. One of the most striking problems of conservatism is that it seems to preclude its adherents from seeing the world in terms other than stark black-and-white. ...

... Gail Collins: Cruz "could not have asked [Feinstein his Bill of Rights question] in a more patronizing way if he had illustrated his remarks with pictures of large, brightly colored stick figures.... Cruz sat sullenly while Feinstein gave her response. 'I would note that she chose not to answer the question that I asked,' he said when she finished. Other Democratic senators jumped in and pointed out some of the ways that other parts of the Bill of Rights were, indeed, limited by exceptions. Interestingly, none of the Republicans came to Cruz's support."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. The vote followed the passage of three other measures: one that would expand the use of background checks to private gun sales, one that would make the already illegal practice of buying a gun for someone who is legally barred from having one -- known as a straw purchase -- a felony and increase penalties for the crime, and one that would renew and increase financing for school safety efforts." Now the question is what will Harry Reid -- friend of the NRA -- do?

Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "A top JPMorgan Chase executive struggled to defend his actions on Friday as lawmakers scrutinized the bank's multibillion-dollar trading loss. For nearly an hour, the executive, Douglas L. Braunstein, was berated for playing down JPMorgan's risky bets to investors and regulators on a conference call in April, just weeks before the bank disclosed the costly blowup.... The long, and often tense, Congressional hearing on Friday put JPMorgan in a tough position. While the investment bank has tried to distance itself from the trading debacle, the hearing, which follows a nine-month inquiry, is renewing the pressure on JPMorgan and its influential chief executive, Jamie Dimon."

Daniel Wakin, et al., of the New York Times: "For the first time since the election of Pope Francis two days ago, the Vatican on Friday formally defended him from accusations that, decades ago, in the so-called Dirty War in his home country of Argentina, he knew about serious human rights abuses but failed to do enough to halt them. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said there had 'never been a credible accusation against him' relating to the period in the 1970s when he was the superior of the Jesuit order in Argentina." CW: well, all right then. That settles that, doesn't it? ...

... Rachel Maddow speaks to Sister Simone Campbell about Pope Francis. Thanks to Waltwis for the heads-up:

... The New Yorker's Joan Acocella and Margaret Talbot join host Amy Davidson to discuss how Pope Francis might change the Church.

Local News

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The House of Delegates voted 82-56 to repeal Maryland's death penalty on Friday, making the state the sixth in as many years to abolish executions and delivering a major legislative victory to Gov. Martin O'Malley. The bill, which passed the Senate last week, now heads to the governor for his signature. O'Malley (D) has lobbied lawmakers for years to end capital punishment, and he put the full weight of his office behind it this session."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Little more than a week after Arkansas adopted the country's most stringent abortion limits, banning the procedure at 12 weeks of pregnancy, the North Dakota Legislature on Friday passed a more restrictive bill that would ban most abortions as early as 6 weeks into pregnancy. The Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, also passed a second measure that would ban abortions sought because of a genetic abnormality or to select the sex of the child. Both bills must be signed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, to become law. As of Friday afternoon, the governor had not said whether he would do so.No other state has barred abortions because of evidence that a fetus has a genetic defect like Down syndrome, which rises in incidence with maternal age, leading many pregnant women to seek tests for the disorder.

Right Wing World

Dana Milbank: "The cardinals of the conservative movement, assembling for their annual [CPAC] confab, skipped the usual recitations of their common creed in favor of an emotional and inconclusive argument over what had gone wrong with their movement, how it could be fixed, and who, in a puff of white smoke, could lead them to spiritual renewal."

Aaron Blake & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney made a wistful but triumphant return to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, receiving standing ovations from the audience as he expressed optimism about the Republican Party's future and vowed to work with conservatives to achieve 'larger victories' after failing to win last year's presidential election." Article includes briefs on other brilliant CPAC speeches.

Steve Benen: "How does Wayne LaPierre argue against an idea that 91% of Americans endorse? According to his speech at CPAC, by repeating some of the silliest paranoia imaginable.... LaPierre is creating an imaginary threat to an imaginary proposal. His entire fantasy is built on the notion that a background check system necessarily means a national registry -- that there is no effort to create such a registry in reality is an inconvenient detail he prefers to ignore."