The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2013

CW: I will be away most of the day, & will update when I can.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Janet L. Yellen took a giant step on Thursday toward becoming the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve Board when the Senate Banking Committee sent her nomination to the full Senate with a 14-8 vote.... Three Republican senators -- Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma -- voting in favor of her nomination. One Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, voted against her. "

White House: "President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors":

Jonathan Capehart: "The GOP is out to destroy the country." CW: Capehart admits his headline is over the top, but I'd say it is also on the mark.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, is poised to move forward on Thursday with a vote on what is known on Capitol Hill as the 'nuclear option,' several Democrats said. Mr. Reid and the senators who have been the most vocal on stopping the Republican blockade of White House nominees are now confident they have the votes to make the change." ...

     ... ** UPDATE: "Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, set in motion on Thursday a series of procedural steps that, if followed through, would eliminate the use of the filibuster against nominees to cabinet posts and the federal judiciary, a change that would mark the most fundamental shift in the way the Senate functions in more than a generation.... Senate Democrats moved toward a vote late Thursday morning." The Washington Post story, by Paul Kane, is here. ...

... Jamelle Bouie in the Daily Beast on the Senate filibuster: "Yes, there's value in being able to block right-wing nominees and legislation. At the same time, a GOP president also has the right to staff government as he sees fit, to say nothing of the fact that the filibuster has been a historic burden for liberals, not an advantage. And honestly, if Republicans win the Senate, I have a hard time believing they won't end the filibuster as a matter of course, regardless of what Democrats do. Better for Reid to do this now, while there's still something to gain, than to wait for the other side." ...

... Gail Collins on the Senate filibuster: "Change the rules."

Kelly Kennedy of USA Today: "Buoyed by a report showing that health care spending has risen by the lowest rate ever recorded, White House officials said Wednesday a continuation of the trend could lead to more jobs and lower-than-expected costs. Reduced health care costs for employers could lead to 200,000 to 400,000 new jobs per year by the second half of the decade, said Jason Furman, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.... The Affordable Care Act is, in part, responsible for the lower costs, Furman and other health experts agree, while Republicans say the declining rate of increases comes purely because of the slowed economy An economy hobbled by the recession and the economic crisis in 2008 played a role in some of the reduced spending growth, Furman said, but the report cited 'structural change' caused, in part, by the law." ...

     ... Steve Benen: "It looks like the law's many detractors will have to cross another complaint off their list.... It's the sort of thing Republicans should be pretty happy about -- which generally means they'll ignore the news and/or issue a press release declaring the opposite, assuming no one will know the difference." ...

... Sandhya Somashekhar & Ariana Cha of the Washington Post: "As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals.... A number of the nation's top hospitals -- including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and children's hospitals in Seattle, Houston and St. Louis -- are cut out of most plans sold on the exchange.... A number of the nation's top hospitals -- including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and children's hospitals in Seattle, Houston and St. Louis -- are cut out of most plans sold on the exchange." ...

... Sarah Bosely of the Guardian: "Secret conversations are taking place in Florida between healthcare stakeholders and the legislature that will most likely lead to the Republican-controlled state accepting Medicaid expansion money, according to senior figures in the health industry."

... Jonathan Kaminsky of Reuters: "Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.... Nearly 25,000 individuals and families have so far submitted hard-copy applications..., with nearly two-thirds of those applicants eligible for Medicaid.... But none of those applicants has actually been enrolled, with manual processing of the paperwork slowing the process dramatically." CW: That makes Healthcare.gov look pretty slick! ...

... But Not Slick Enough. Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: "Despite weeks of work by a small army of software experts to salvage HealthCare.gov, navigators in states that depend on the federal insurance exchange say they still cannot get most of their clients through the online enrollment process. Those navigators said they had seen improvements in the system since its disastrous rollout on Oct. 1, particularly in the initial steps of the application process. But the closer people come to signing up for a plan, the more the system seems to freeze or fail, many navigators said." CW: See Victoria D.'s remarks in today's Comments. ...

... Paul Krugman: "... at this point there's enough information coming in to make semi-educated guesses — and it looks to me as if this thing is probably going to stumble through to the finish line. State-run enrollments are mostly going pretty well; Medicaid expansion is going very well (and it's expanding even in states that have rejected the expansion, because more people are learning they're eligible.) And healthcare.gov, while still pretty bad, is starting to look as if it will be good enough in a few weeks for large numbers of people to sign up, either through the exchanges or directly with insurers.... Obama personally may never recover his reputation; Democratic hopes of a wave election in 2014 are probably gone, although you never know." ...

... Today's Munch Prize goes to Tom Edsall of the New York Times, who is nearly beside himself with doom and gloom. Here's but one of many bad tidings of discomfort & misery: "The increasingly complex and technical character of the health care system ... is what has turned the disastrous rollout of the HealthCare.gov portal into an ever escalating political crisis. This crisis has in turn generated a pervasive fear that the services provided under the Affordable Care Act, once they are finally in place, will themselves be subject to fatal technical glitches." One of Edsall's major points is that the ACA redistributes benefits from middle-class white people to poorer "those" people, which neither Medicare nor Social Security does.

"Cruz Care." Greg Sargent: "... the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is set to launch a new campaign designed to refocus the debate on the Republican position on health care, which Dems will widely label as 'Cruz Care.' With Ted Cruz set to roll out his own health plan -- one that will probably look like the usual grab bag of GOP reform ideas, which just aren't a reform alternative to Obamacare -- Dems plan to tar GOP Senate candidates across the country with it...." ...

... Jonathan Weisman & Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: lacking any policy agenda of their own, the GOP strategy has been to develop & hammer a series of attacks on the ACA: "The effort has its roots in a strategy developed last spring, when House Republican leaders -- plagued by party divisions that were thwarting legislative accomplishments -- refocused the House's committees on oversight rather than on the development of new policies." ...

... Woe Is Mitch. Jon Terbush of the Week: Kentucky's "exchange marketplace has been one of ObamaCare's early bright spots. And continued success, coupled with a turnaround for the law at the federal level, could make ObamaCare relatively popular there over the coming months. That would put [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.], facing challengers on both his right and left, in a tricky bind." Via Greg Sargent.

** David Dayen of Salon: The big $13 billion JPMorgan settlement is a scam!

Christopher Drew & Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "Emails obtained by criminal investigators show that from 2009 to early 2011, several ship crews and contracting officials filed complaints about [Leonard Glenn Francis's] 'gold-plated' fees for fuel, port security and other services. In 2010, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened investigations into questionable charges in Thailand and Japan by his company, documents show. Despite those red flags, in June 2011, the Navy awarded Mr. Francis $200 million in contracts, giving him control over providing supplies and dockside services for its fleet across the Pacific."

NEW. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Obama administration has ordered a government-wide reassessment of how almost 5 million Americans have been granted classified information security clearances and whether each person currently approved to see sensitive national security secrets truly has a need for such access." ...

... NEW. James Glanz of the New York Times: "The National Security Agency is authorized to spy on the citizens of America's closest allies, including Britain, even though those English-speaking countries have long had an official non-spying pact, according to a newly disclosed memorandum.... The memo, provided by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, is labeled secret and 'NOFORN,' indicating that it may not be shared with any foreign country."

Ari Shavit of Haaretz, in the New York Times: "The Bush administration's decision to go after Iraq rather than Iran was a fatal one, and the long-term consequences are only now becoming clear, namely a devastating American failure in the battle to prevent a nuclear Iran, reflected in Washington’s willingness to sign a deeply flawed agreement."

Marisa Kendall of the Fort Myers, Florida, News-Press: "U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fort Myers, will take a leave of absence after pleading guilty to a possession of cocaine charge, he said during a packed news conference Wednesday night." With video of Radel's Wednesday night news conference. CW: But really, folks, it's all about me, Trey Radel. ...

He would talk about his life, of being a traveler. He would talk about hiking, taking his backpack and hiking in Colombia. And, you know, it always led to, because of who Colombia is, it always led to drugs. We'd go to break and I'd say 'Man, I bet the coke was crazy' and he’d say, 'Oh my God, you have no idea.' -- Mike Adams, radio producer, on Rep. Trey Radel (RTP-Fla.)

... David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday morning, admitting he had purchased the drug from an undercover officer in Dupont Circle last month.... If Radel completes probation, he won’t have a conviction on his record, according to the U.S. attorney's office.... Charging documents say he purchased cocaine in the nation's capital on several occasions." ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: Although he was caught by DEA agents last month, "Radel first informed House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) of the situation Tuesday afternoon, according to a senior GOP aide familiar with the conversation. Radel had requested the meeting earlier in the day before reports of his arrest first surfaced, and the meeting occurred in Boehner's office at the U.S. Capitol shortly after the news broke, the aide said." ...

... After pleading guilty Wednesday to concaine charges in Washington, D.C., Rep. Trey Radel (RTP-Fla.) will hold a news conference in his Cape Coral office at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. Indications are that he will not resign his Congressional seat. The Fort Myers News-Press is liveblogging developments. ...

... Fort Myers, Florida, News-Press Editors: "U.S. Congressman Trey Radel, who ran on family values, must resign immediately." ...

... Dana Milbank: Radel "acted Wednesday as though the most important thing was his job, not his recovery. He plans to 'continue serving this country.' Rather than checking himself into inpatient rehab, as then-Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) did after crashing into a Capitol Police barricade in 2006, Radel opted for outpatient treatment, and his attorney made only a vague reference to his plans to undergo inpatient treatment later."

Local News

Monique Garcia of the Chicago Tribune: Illinois "Gov. Pat Quinn today signed a historic measure into law making Illinois the 16th state in the nation to allow gay marriage. The Democratic governor put pens to paper at a desk brought up from Springfield that his administration says President Abraham Lincoln used to write his first inaugural address. That speech, delivered on March 4, 1861 as the Civil War was unfolding, called on Americans to heed 'the better angels of our nature.'" CW: Maybe Quinn should have hunted down the desk of Lincoln's predecessor James Buchanan, who was gay and might have married his long-time lover had they had the benefit of today's state laws.

News Ledes

$$$. New York Times: "After spending more than a decade behind bars for the murder of a teenage girl in Greenwich, Conn., Michael C. Skakel, a cousin of the Kennedys, was ordered free from prison on Thursday to await a possible retrial."

Los Angeles Times: "The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 16,000 for the first time, a testament to investors' hope that the plodding economy can gain momentum in the coming year."

Business as Usual on the Afghan Front. Washington Post: "President Hamid Karzai told a national assembly Thursday that he supports a newly forged agreement to allow U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, but then he raised new uncertainties by saying he won't sign the deal until next spring. Karzai spoke a day after U.S. officials said the accord's language had been finalized, and as an assembly of 2,500 Afghan officials began considering it."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2013

** Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is prepared to move forward with a vote that could severely limit the minority party's ability to filibuster presidential nominees, possibly as early as this week, Democratic officials said Tuesday. Exasperated with a Republican blockade of three of President Obama's nominees to an influential appeals court, Mr. Reid has been speaking individually with Democratic members to gauge the level of support for a change in filibuster rules. If he determines there is enough support, he could schedule a vote this week, an aide who has spoken with him directly said Tuesday." CW: I've already written to my Senator, Bill Nelson, who could be a fence-sitter, urging him to support filibuster reform. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Reid has concluded Senate Republicans have no plausible way of retreating from the position they've adopted in this latest Senate rules standoff, [a senior Democratic leadership] aide says. Republicans have argued that in pushing nominations, Obama is 'packing' the court, and have insisted that Obama is trying to tilt the court's ideological balance in a Democratic direction -- which is to say that the Republican objection isn't to the nominees Obama has chosen, but to the fact that he's trying to nominate anyone at all." ...

... Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Senate Democrats who were previously opposed to changing filibuster rules via the 'nuclear option' are so fed up with GOP obstruction of the president's nominees that they now say they want to go nuclear." ...

... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "The nation, quite frankly, doesn't have time to wait out the next two years watching Republicans obstruct absolutely everything, then sit tight as a Republican president himself gets obstructed by Democrats until 2020. The cost of inaction is far, far too high." ...

... Charles Pierce: "It's time, Harry. Really, it is.... This business with the judges has long passed over the International Fk You Line.... This is mucking around with two of the three branches of the federal government in order to work your will in the third.... It is a blatant defiance of popular sovereignty, and the Republicans have grown so comfortable with it that they're not even trying very hard these days to concoct decent lies about why they're doing it."

Clusterfuck. Robert Pear of the New York Times: Henry Chao, "the chief digital architect for the federal health insurance marketplace, said Tuesday [in a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing] that 30 percent to 40 percent of the [ACA software] project was still being built.... [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius said last month that the security of the federal website had been tested by the Mitre Corporation and that the company 'did not raise flags about going ahead' on Oct. 1. But Jason Providakes, a senior vice president at Mitre, said at the hearing on Tuesday: 'Mitre is not in charge of security for HealthCare.gov. We were not asked, nor did we perform end-to-end security testing.'" ...

... Philip Rucker & Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday sought to redirect some of the political blame for the botched rollout of the federal health insurance exchange to Republicans, characterizing GOP lawmakers as rooting for the law's failure. Addressing a gathering of business executives, Obama acknowledged that the health-care rollout 'has been rough, to say the least,' and he lamented the government's archaic information-technology procurement system." Video of the full session is here. The Wall Street Journal has a transcript here. ...

One of the problems we've had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure and -- and that makes, I think, the -- the kind of iterative process of fixing glitches as they come up and fine-tuning the law more challenging. -- President Obama, at yesterday's Wall Street Journal forum

... Katie Thomas, et al., of the New York Times: "Of the 13 states that have so far said they will allow consumers to renew canceled plans, all but four are led by Republican governors and have generally been opposed to the new health care law. Of the eight that have said they will not carry out the policy, six are in Democratic-led states, many of which have actively worked to put the law into effect and have argued that allowing such an extension could undermine its success. They include New York, which announced its decision on Tuesday, and Massachusetts. Many other states, including California and New Jersey, are still weighing their options." ...

... Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Maryland is wrestling with stubborn technological problems with its online insurance exchange, posting weak enrollment even as other states have signed up tens of thousands of consumers for plans under President Obama's new health-care law." ...

... Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: In a "heavily-orchestrated" visit to Miami, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, "'Here in Florida, there are 3.5 million uninsured and eligible Floridians who stand to benefit from full implementation of the law.' ... By not expanding Medicaid, Sebelius said, about 1.9 million Floridians will go without some form of health coverage, including '318,000 of whom are right here in the Miami area.'" ...

... The Washington Post has a state-by-state breakdown of ACA enrollees for the period October 1 to November 2. ...

... Some Are More Equal than Others. "A Gold-Plated Insurance Exchange." Robert Pear of the New York Times: "While millions of Americans have been left to fend for themselves and go through the frustrating experience of trying to navigate the federal exchange, members of Congress and their aides have all sorts of assistance to help them sort through their options and enroll." ...

... Dana Milbank: "It was all I could do to keep my knees from knocking as I stood in an alcove in the Capitol basement, listening to Republican leaders describe all the terrible things that Obamacare has produced.... The Republicans’ scary-movie strategy ... is sabotage, plain and simple -- much like the refusal by red-state governors to participate in setting up the exchanges in the first place. But those sabotaging the new law should be careful what they wish for: Instead of killing the law, they are likely to make it more expensive to taxpayers." CW: I hate to tell you, Dana, but that's what they want to do. The more costly it is, the more easily they can justify repeal. ...

... Jonathan Capehart: One reason a majority of Americans say they oppose ObamaCare -- they don't understand it, & they don't understand the insurance market. And of course Republicans have done all they can to confuse people. CW: I'd add, and so have the media. ...

     ... Thanks, Brian Williams. Excellent reporting! What? Is David Gregory writing your copy?

Today's Munch Prize goes to Sarah Dutton, et al., of CBS "News": "President Obama's job approval rating has plunged to the lowest of his presidency, according to a new CBS News poll released Wednesday, and Americans' approval of the Affordable Care Act has dropped it's lowest since CBS News started polling on the law. Thirty-seven percent now approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, down from 46 percent in October -- a nine point drop in just a month. Mr. Obama's disapproval rating is 57 percent -- the highest level for this president in CBS News Polls." ...

... "The Party of Zilch." Ron Fournier, longstanding reliable Democrat-basher, now of the National Journal: "The Republican Party stands for nothing. As Barack Obama threatens to fumble away his presidency along with the Democratic Party's reasons for existence -- championing an active, efficient government -- the GOP lurches into the leadership breach with ... zilch."

How to Nullify Roe v. Wade. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: " The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an emergency application asking it to block a Texas law that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The decision was effectively 5 to 4 and split along ideological lines, though only seven justices noted their votes. The effect of the ruling, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the four dissenters, was to leave 24 counties in the Rio Grande Valley without abortion clinics. 'It may,' he added, 'substantially reduce access to safe abortions elsewhere in Texas.'"

Dave Jamieson of the Huffington Post: "According to officials at the National Labor Relations Board, the agency's general counsel investigated and 'found merit' in workers' claims that Walmart 'unlawfully threatened' employees for taking part in walkouts surrounding last year's Black Friday shopping season. The agency said that Walmart intimidated, surveilled or punished workers in 14 different states, violating U.S. labor law. The agency also said that Walmart illegally threatened workers in statements made in two news broadcasts.... The general counsel's charge amounts to an allegation by a prosecutor -- not a ruling by the board. Such cases are often resolved before the board actually moves to prosecute a company." ...

... McScrooge. Adam Peck of Think Progress: "McDonald's McResource Line, a dedicated website run by the world's largest fast-food chain to provide its 1.8 million employees with financial and health-related tips, offers a full page of advice for 'Digging Out From Holiday Debt.' Among their helpful holiday tips: 'Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.' Elsewhere on the site, McDonald's encourages its employees to break apart food when they eat meals, as 'breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full.' And if they are struggling to stock their shelves with food in the first place, the company offers assistance for workers applying for food stamps." ...

... Wait, Wait, Nancy. Paul Ryan is fighting for you.

... Oh, Shucks. Maybe Not. Kevin Drum on Paul Ryan's alleged anti-poverty initiative (WashPo story linked in yesterday's Commentariat) "... everything he's ever done -- everything -- boils down to a single sentence: reduce taxes on the rich and reduce spending on the poor. That's it. There's literally nothing else he's ever seriously proposed.... How is it that so many people seem so willing to pretend otherwise?" ...

Okay. Definitely Not. You cure poverty eye to eye, soul to soul. Spiritual redemption: That's what saves people. -- Paul Ryan

... Jonathan Chait: "Paul Ryan: Poor people need Jesus, not food stamps." Sorry, Nancy. Get back to your fry station. And pray.

Blow. Aaron Blake, et al., of the Washington Post: "Freshman Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) has been charged with possession of a controlled substance. According to court charging documents, on Oct. 29, Radel 'unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally possessed' a quantity of cocaine. The charges are as a result of a D.C. Superior Court Grand Jury indictment. Radel was charged Tuesday and will be arraigned Wednesday. In a statement, he said problems with alcohol led to an 'extremely irresponsible choice' and said he will seek treatment. CW: Ah, yes, the Rob Ford defense. That should work. Radel is my Congressman & a flaming winger who used to have a local Limbaugh-type radio show. I just got a letter from him today, which I promptly tossed in the recycling, without reading it. It was printed on card stock of the type Rydel might use to cut lines. ...

... Trey Has a Habit. Catalina Camia & Donna Leger of USA Today: A DEA official "said several federal agencies working as part of a task force arrested a dealer who told them one of his cocaine customers was a congressman. The dealer, working with federal agents, set up a buy on Oct. 29, and Radel ... purchased the cocaine...." ...

... John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Radel has missed all four votes in the House this week." ...

... Also, one of Family Guy Trey's entrepreneurial efforts was to register sexually-charged Spanish-language Web addresses. "I, as a business guy, as an entrepreneur, have bought all sorts of domain names," Radel said. Yes, all sorts. Like "www.mamadita.com," slang for "little blow job."

Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department finalized a $13 billion settlement on Tuesday, punctuating a long legal battle over the risky mortgage practices that became synonymous with the financial crisis." CW: This story has been updated since I linked it Tuesday evening. ...

... ** Joe Coscarelli of New York: "It's like Rob Ford meets Florida Man meets Rep. Peter Russo from House of Cards.... This, from an interview with Roll Coll, you couldn't make up if you tried: Q: What's your favorite vacation spot outside Florida? A: Cartagena, Colombia."

President Obama's handwritten tribute to President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Senate Race

Emily Schultheis of Politico: The National Republican Senatorial Committee came under fire Tuesday for tweeting a photo that superimposed Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes's head on the body of 'Obama Girl,' the model who starred in a series of 2007 music videos about her crush on President Obama.... NRSC spokeswoman Brook Hougesen called the tweet a mistake. 'We agree, it's extremely offensive. It was a mistake made by a junior staffer and disciplinary action has been taken,' she said." CW: Yeah, junior staffers do the darndest things. Sadly, the NRSC has absolutely no control over their sexist, tasteless antics.

Local News

Rene Stutzman & Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel: Admitted killer & acclaimed right-wing folk hero "George Zimmerman left the Seminole County jail this afternoon, the day after he was accused of pointing a gun at his girlfriend during a domestic dispute and arrested on domestic violence charges. Zimmerman's bail was set at $9,000 during today's hearing. News crews later spotted him as he walked out of the jail about 4:30 p.m.... The judge said he was setting the bond higher than normal because of the reported strangulation attempt. He also ordered Zimmerman to wear a satellite monitor, to give up and stay away from guns and ammunition and to stay away from his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe."

Canadian News

Another typical day at the office for Toronto Mayor & prime minister hopeful Rob Ford:

News Ledes

Caroline Kennedy arrives at the Japanese Imperial Palace. AFP/Getty Image.

Bloomberg News: "Caroline Kennedy was greeted by thousands of cheering Japanese as she passed through the streets of Tokyo to present her credentials to Emperor Akihito as the U.S.'s first female ambassador to Japan. Spectators, many of them elderly, lined the streets snapping photos of Kennedy, 55, as she passed in a century-old horse-drawn carriage."

New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had completed a bilateral security agreement that will be submitted to a grand council of elders in Kabul the next day, but he stated emphatically that there had been no discussion of an American apology to President Hamid Karzai or to his nation as part of the deal."

Washington Post: "The [Virginia] state inspector general's office has opened an investigation into why the son of Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds was released from custody the day before he apparently stabbed his father and then shot himself to death." Three nearby hospitals said they had open beds available for Austin Deeds.

Washington Post: "Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), a freshman lawmaker from the New York City area, was attacked and robbed Tuesday evening in the Eastern Market area" of Washington, D.C.

The Commentariat -- Nov. 19, 2013

... CW P.S.: Don't blame me for David Gregory, Marco Rubio, et al.

     ... You can share your own rendition of President Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Today is the 150th anniversary of the address. ...

     ... Update: Akhilleus is right. Charles Laughton gets the inflections just right:

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Monday denied President Obama his third nominee in recent weeks to the nation's most powerful and prestigious appeals court and insisted they would not back down, inflaming a bitter debate over a president's right to shape the judiciary.... Republicans have raised few objections to any of the candidates' qualifications or political leanings. Rather, Republicans are trying to prevent Mr. Obama from filling any slots on the court, fearing that he will alter its conservative tilt. Democrats accused Republicans of exercising a nakedly political double standard for confirming presidential nominees.... Judge [Robert] Wilkins became the fourth of Mr. Obama's choices for the powerful court blocked by Republicans this year." ...

I am deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans have once again refused to do their job and give well-qualified nominees to the federal bench the yes-or-no votes they deserve. The D.C. Circuit, considered the Nation's second-highest court, has three vacancies. These are judgeships created by Congress. Chief Justice John Roberts and the Judicial Conference of the United States believe that these vacancies should be filled, not removed. And my constitutional duty as President is to nominate highly qualified individuals to fill these vacancies. -- President Obama, in a statement

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "White House officials said Monday that the administration was considering allowing people to sign up for health care coverage directly with insurance companies as a way to work around the struggling HealthCare.gov website." ...

... Sharon LaFraniere & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The pace of enrollment in health plans through the troubled federal insurance marketplace has nearly doubled since the end of October as software engineers have resolved some 200 of the more than 600 initial defects that had rendered the site all but unusable, according to people familiar with the repair effort. As of mid-November, the number of enrollees, which the Obama administration defines as people who have selected a marketplace plan, was more than 50,000 -- up from 27,000 in the entire month of October, but still a fraction of the number the administration once hoped for. Despite the progress, specialists are worried about whether they can meet the administration's goal of enabling four in five users to enroll through the online federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, by the end of the month." ...

... Noam Levy of the Los Angeles Times: "Despite the disastrous rollout of the federal government's healthcare website, enrollment is surging in many states as tens of thousands of consumers sign up for insurance plans made available by President Obama's health law. A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November, according to state officials." ...

... Jamelle Bouie in the Daily Beast: "... what's frustrating about the current conversation over Obamacare is the extent to which there's been collective amnesia regarding the GOP's categorical opposition to the law. Pundits who see the problems with Healthcare.gov as an indictment of 'big government liberalism' ... neglect to grapple with the concrete consequences of the GOP's monomaniacal crusade against the Affordable Care Act.... In this alternate world where conservatives care about governing, Obamacare has its issues, but -- with working state exchanges and a full Medicaid expansion -- it's more stable and popular than it is now." ...

... Juliet Eilperin & Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration brought in a private consulting team to independently assess how the federal online health-care enrollment system was developing, according to a newly disclosed document, and in late March received a clear warning that its Oct. 1 launch was fraught with risks. The analysis by McKinsey & Co. foreshadowed many of the problems that have dogged HealthCare.gov since its rollout, including the fact that the call-in centers would not work properly if the online system was malfunctioning and that insufficient testing would make it difficult to fix problems after the launch. The report was provided to The Washington Post by the House Energy and Commerce Committee." ...

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic on six things the media don't get about the ACA: "... lots of people losing coverage are losing policies they never liked much, that they would have dropped soon anyway, and that would have left them facing potential financial ruin if they got sick. Even those with truly good policies had no guarantees that in one year, let alone two or three, they'd still be able to pay for them." CW: Most of this is review material for Reality Chex readers, but Cohn provides some charts that quantify his assertions. ...

... ** Jonathan Chait of New York: "The most common fallacy of journalism, and one of the most common fallacies of the human brain in general, is the assumption that whatever is happening at the moment will continue to happen forever." Read the whole post. ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "You think some news stories about people in the individual market having to pay more for a new insurance plan tug at lawmakers' heartstrings? Wait until you see the stories about the 5-year-old girl with leukemia who'll get kicked off her coverage if Republicans in Congress have their way. Right now we're talking about a few people who are supposedly the 'losers' in the ACA, but the most they've lost is some money they'll have to pay for a more comprehensive plan. If you repeal the law, the country would be overflowing with people whose losses are genuinely catastrophic." ...

... AND today's Munch Award goes to Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair, writing in Politico: "... the fiasco of the launch of Obama's sweeping health care overhaul has put the reputation of Big Government progressivism at risk for at least this generation. And its future now rests on the president's ability to reverse that debacle and to demonstrate that his approach to covering millions of uninsured Americans is not only an enlightened -- but workable -- policy."

Adam Liptak & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Congressional critics of the National Security Agency program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans stepped up their efforts as the Supreme Court on Monday turned away an unusual challenge to the scope of the surveillance."

Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post: "Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried Monday to quell the outrage sparked by his recent comments that injected race and class into the debate about the new Common Core academic standards taking root in classrooms across the country. Duncan said Friday that he was fascinated by the fact that some opposition to the standards was coming from 'white suburban moms' who fear that 'their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were.' [CW: Also, ungrammatical.] The comment lit up social media sites, prompting pointed responses from bloggers, an open letter from a school superintendent, digital images of Duncan's official federal portrait with the word 'bigot' emblazoned across it and one congressman's* call for Duncan's firing. Duncan, whose office declined interview requests Monday, posted a statement late in the day on his agency's Web site."

     * The congressman calling for Duncan's firing is Steve Stockman (RTP-Texas). Stockman is "the nuttiest freshman in Congress." He has repeated threatened to file articles of impeachment against President Obama & has called for special prosecutors to investigate Obama for whatever. So, big whup.

Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer.... Olivera Perkins of the Plain Dealer: "This isn't a merchandise display. It's a food drive - not for the community, but for needy workers [in a Canton, Ohio, WalMart].... While Walmart officials and many employees see the food drive bins as a symbol of generosity, others see it differently. 'That captures Walmart right there,' said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's labor school. 'Walmart is setting up bins because its employees don't make enough to feed themselves and their families.'" ...

... "The Walton Family is by far the richest family in the world." CW: I hope some of you got a chance to read Edward McClelland's piece on Washingtonomics v. Lincolnomics, linked in yesterday's Commentariat. The article discusses Sam Walton's Washingtonian business model, which is sickening. ...

... "What WalMart Can Learn from Henry Ford." Robert Reich, in Salon: "Walmart just reported shrinking sales for a third straight quarter.... What Walmart's CEO doesn’t get is that a large portion of Walmart's customers are lower-wage workers who are working at places like ... Walmart. And Walmart, not incidentally, refuses to raise its median wage (including its army of part-timers) of $8.80 an hour.... If Walmart were to boost its wages, other employers of low-wage workers would have to follow suit in order to attract the employees they need.... Walmart is so huge that a wage boost at Walmart would ripple through the entire economy, putting more money in the pockets of low-wage workers. This would help boost the entire economy -- including Walmart's own sales. (This is also an argument for a substantial hike in the minimum wage.)" ...

... Josh Eidelson of Salon makes the case that Boeing's impending exit from Seattle is the work of the Tea Party. CW: I don't disagree with any of Eidelson's analysis, but here again you can blame Washingtonomics.

Expand Social Security!

Lori Montgomery, reliable GOP ally at the Washington Post, has a long feature on anti-poverty crusader Paul Ryan: "Since February, Ryan (R-Wis.) has been quietly visiting inner-city neighborhoods with another old [Jack] Kemp ally, Bob Woodson, the 76-year-old civil rights activist and anti-poverty crusader, to talk to ex-convicts and recovering addicts about the means of their salvation. Ryan's staff, meanwhile, has been trolling center-right think tanks and intellectuals for ideas to replace the 'bureaucratic, top-down anti-poverty programs' that Ryan blames for 'wrecking families and communities' since Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty in 1964. Next year, for the 50th anniversary of that crusade, Ryan hopes to roll out an anti-poverty plan to rival his budgetary Roadmap for America's Future in scope and ambition.... His idea of a war on poverty so far relies heavily on promoting volunteerism and encouraging work through existing federal programs, including the tax code. That's a skewed version of Kempism, which recognizes that 'millions of Americans look to government as a lifeline,' said Bruce Bartlett, a historian who worked for Kemp and has become an acerbic critic of the modern GOP."

Robed Barbarians. New York Times Editors: "In nearly all of the 32 states that permit capital punishment, a jury makes the final decision on whether a defendant will live or die. Not so in Alabama, where elected judges may override a jury verdict of life in prison and unilaterally impose a death sentence. Since 1982, Alabama judges have overridden 95 such verdicts, sentencing defendants to death even though the jury voted for life -- many times by a vote of 12 to 0.... On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to this law, which appears to violate a 2002 ruling that capital defendants 'are entitled to a jury determination of any fact' necessary to sentence them to death. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a 12-page opinion, joined partly by Justice Stephen Breyer, dissenting from the court's decision not to hear the current case.... The death penalty should have no legitimate mooring at all in modern American society, and it certainly should not be imposed by a judge who is worried about keeping his job."

Andrew Tangel of the Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. Department of Justice and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are close to finalizing an agreement over a $13-billion settlement stemming from faulty mortgage investments that fueled the financial crisis of 2008, a person close to the negotiations said late Monday. The final deal, which has been in the works for weeks, could be announced as soon as Tuesday...."

Kim Barker of ProPublica: "The dark money giant Crossroads GPS, launched by Republican strategist Karl Rove, told the IRS it raised almost $180 million in 2012, including one donation of $22.5 million, another of $18 million and another of $10 million. Fifty donations were for $1 million or more. Because the group is a social welfare nonprofit, none of the donors have to be made public.... 'There is no way in the world that $20 million-plus contributions, $10 million-plus contributions, that are funding campaign ads should be kept secret from the American people,' said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21...." CW: Even Justice Scalia would agree with Wertheimer on that. Thanks to contributor Diane for the link.

AP: "Google is paying $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia to make amends for the Internet search leader's snooping on millions of people using Safari Web browsers in 2011 and 2012. The settlement announced Monday stems from a technological loophole that enabled Google's DoubleClick advertising network to shadow unwitting Safari users, even though the browser's maker, Apple Inc., prohibited the tracking without obtaining a person's permission."

Senate Race

Frank Bruni: "If Liz Cheney, whose bid for the Senate has always had a stench of extreme opportunism, wants to discuss traditions and values, I'm all for it. Let's start here: Isn't there a tradition of close-knit family members' taking care not to wound one another? Is there not value in that?" ...

... Gene Robinson: "... the tension between the Cheney sisters reflects the larger struggle within the Republican Party to keep pace with a changing America." ...

... Ditto. Matea Gold & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Richard B. Cheney and his wife, Lynne, on Monday jumped into a bitter public clash between their two daughters over gay marriage, an anguished personal fight that reflects a broader debate within the Republican Party over allowing same-sex couples to marry." ...

... Charles Pierce: "I could care less if Liz and Mary fight over the human-blood punch at Thanksgiving this year. What I care about is the fact that Liz Cheney has all of her father's geopolitical bloodlust and none of his obvious charm, and that she belongs in the United States Senate as much as does a gaboon viper. What makes me happy is that the Republican voters of Wyoming appear to have caught on to the cut-rate Borgia family act that Liz is trying to pull out there, and she is apparently being ratfked by the opposition. Republicans are eating their own! In this particular instance, I'm sending the barbecue sauce." Thanks to Diane for the link.

Local News

Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel: Conservative & gun-rights hero "George Zimmerman was arrested Monday after he cocked and pointed a shotgun at his girlfriend, shattered a glass-top table then pushed her out of the house and barricaded himself inside after she ordered him to move out, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. He surrendered peacefully a few minutes later and was hauled off to jail, where he was being held without bail on domestic violence and aggravated assault charges.... In addition to the aggravated assault with a weapon, a felony, he's accused of domestic violence battery and criminal mischief -- for breaking the table and damaging other property belonging to Scheibe." Includes audio of Zimmerman's 911 call. Amusing. ...

     ... Update: "After spending the night in the Seminole County Jail, accused of pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend, George Zimmerman is due in court this afternoon." Includes audio of (former) girlfriend Samantha Scheibe's 911 call.

Canadian News

Rob Ford.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Afghan officials said Tuesday that President Hamid Karzai would clear the way for a long-term security pact with the United States after receiving assurances that President Obama would issue a contrite letter acknowledging American military mistakes in Afghanistan and vowing not to repeat them."

New York Times: "Unable to find a country willing to dispose of Syria's chemical weapons, the United States is considering plans to place the chemical components of the weapons on an barge where they would be dissolved or incinerated, according to senior American officials."

Washington Post: "The day before he stabbed his father at the family's home, the son of Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D) underwent a psychiatric evaluation but was not admitted to a hospital because no bed was available. Deeds was listed in fair condition late Tuesday after his son, Austin, stabbed him in the face and chest, then shot himself in what investigators described as an apparent attempted murder and suicide. The incident thrust the senator back into the spotlight after several years of quiet. Deeds vaulted to the statewide political stage in 2009 as the Democratic nominee for governor, only to lose to Republican Robert F. McDonnell (R)."