The Commentariat -- Feb. 22, 2013

GOP's Latest "Blame Obama" Sequester Con. Brian Beutler of TPM: "Senate Republicans along with influential conservative commentators [Karl Rove] are proposing to provide federal agency heads the flexibility they currently lack to allocate the sequester's cuts at their discretion.... The GOP proposal would give the executive branch more discretion over where to make those cuts for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends in September.... In effect, it's a sequester replacement bill minus the political cost of proposing specific alternative cuts to federal programs." ...

... Ed Kilgore explains the history of the "less stupidity" option which Rove, et al., & Senate Republicans are proposing. In the end, "... the 'less stupidity' option is facing a bipartisan veto, and worse yet, the knowledge that it would not actually happen is probably why Senate Republicans are proposing it in the first place. If that puzzles you, welcome to the wonderful world of budget politics, where reality is never close to the surface." ...

... Ernesto Londoño & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "After staying largely on the sidelines of the debate over deficit reduction, the U.S. military's service leaders have begun painting a stark picture of the toll a congressionally mandated budget cut could take on the readiness of the world's largest armed forces. The $46 billion dent to the Pentagon's fiscal 2013 budget ... [is] forcing commanders across the military to plan for painful reductions and argue that American lives and livelihoods are hanging in the balance.... The military's service chiefs are amplifying the months-long warnings of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and others and providing what they have described as the specific and serious consequences of the across-the-board cuts." CW Note: this is the Post's top story. Kinda nice of them to do Obama's work for him, isn't it? ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the legacy of that year of living foolishly [-- 2011 --] lives on, in the form of the 'sequester,' one of the worst policy ideas in our nation's history.... The right policy would be to forget about the whole thing.... Unfortunately, neither party is proposing that we just call the whole thing off. But the proposal from Senate Democrats at least moves in the right direction, replacing the most destructive spending cuts -- those that fall on the most vulnerable members of our society -- with tax increases on the wealthy, and delaying austerity in a way that would protect the economy. House Republicans, on the other hand, want to take everything that's bad about the sequester and make it worse...."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Sequester is happening because Republicans in the supercommittee balked at raising adequate revenue.... No matter whose brainchild it was, Republicans voted for a deal that included the sequester as the enforcement mechanism. They can't now disown their vote by insisting it was the other guy's idea." ...

... Dear John (Boehner): We're Just Not All That into You." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A new survey from the Pew Research Center and USA Today [see link to USA Today story below] ... shows a failure to reach a deal [on the sequester] would lead 49 percent of Americans to blame congressional Republicans and 31 percent to blame President Obama. This isn't all that surprising.... Obama is much more popular than both Congress and the Republican Party, which means he's likely to come out on top in the blame game."

Donna Cassata of the AP: "Barring any new, damaging information, Chuck Hagel has secured the necessary votes for the Senate to confirm him to be the nation's next defense secretary. A vote ending the bitter fight over President Barack Obama's choice for his revamped second-term, national security team is expected next week. Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former GOP senator from Nebraska...." ...

... MEANWHILE ... Morgan Whitaker of NBC News: "Led by Texas Senator John Cornyn, 15 Republican Senators are calling on President Obama to withdraw his nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, questioning his ability to handle the job along with how effective he could be without bipartisan support."

Zack Coleman of The Hill: "The front-runner to fill the vacancy atop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pledged to push ahead with actions to confront climate change during a wide-ranging speech Thursday. 'As President Obama said, climate change is a priority -- and we are going to take action,' Gina McCarthy, the EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, told attendees at the Georgetown Climate Center Workshop in Washington, D.C."

Susan Page of USA Today: "President Obama starts his second term with a clear upper hand over GOP leaders on issues from guns to immigration that are likely to dominate the year, a USA Today/Pew Research Center Poll finds. On the legislation rated most urgent -- cutting the budget deficit -- even a majority of Republican voters endorse Obama's approach of seeking tax hikes as well as spending cuts." ...

... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "One conclusion that jumps from the Pew Research Center/USA Today national survey released Thursday is that the coalition that reelected President Obama last fall remains in step behind him -- and is largely unified behind the key elements of his increasingly aggressive second-term agenda. But the poll also suggests that failure to generate more-rapid economic recovery could nonetheless strain the powerful coalition Obama has assembled."

Dubya speechwriter Michael Gerson, now a columnist for the Washington Post, takes a swipe at his not-ready-for-primetime party: "... last year's Republican primary process was entirely disconnected from the actual needs of the party. One candidate pledged to build a 20-foot-high electrical fence at the border crowned with the sign, in English and Spanish, 'It will kill you -- Warning.' Another promised, as president, to speak out against the damage done to American society by contraception. Another warned that vaccinations may cause 'mental retardation.' In the course of 20 debates and in tens of millions of dollars of ads, issues such as upward mobility, education, poverty, safer communities and the environment were rarely mentioned.... Candidates will need to do more than rebrand existing policy approaches or translate them into Spanish." CW: yes, Marco, he's talking to you.

Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Vice President Biden told an audience Thursday in Connecticut that things have changed in the gun violence debate -- the politician who has to worry now is the one who votes against new regulations on firearms purchases, rather than the one who votes for them.... Democrats are gearing up to make support for gun control a key plank in their 2014 platform.... It's worth noting that polling backs up Biden.... Guns are now a liability for the GOP rather than for Democrats." McMorris-Santoro has a clip of the speech. You can watch the whole speech here. ...

... McCain to Grieving Mother: "Tough." David Taintor of TPM: "At Wednesday's town hall, [Caren] Teves told [Sen. John] McCain that her son, Alex, was killed in the massacre, and she urged the senator to support a ban on assault weapons. McCain responded: 'I can tell you right now you need some straight talk. That assault weapons ban will not pass the Congress of the United States.' The crowd, many of whom appeared to be pro-gun, burst into cheers and applause at McCain's comments":

David Firestone of the New York Times: "The 13 Republican governors who have refused the expansion [of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act] know full well that they are giving away billions of dollars, hurting their own low-income residents, and forcing taxpayers to subsidize Medicaid programs in other states but not their own. Yet they are trapped by their years of furious opposition, issuing alarmist statements like this one, from Rick Perry of Texas: 'To expand this program is not unlike adding a thousand people to the Titanic.'"

Jon Huntsman in the American Conservative: "... conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry.... There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love. All Americans should be treated equally by the law, whether they marry in a church, another religious institution, or a town hall." ...

... Zack Ford of Think Progress: "Laura Bush Objects To Being Quoted Accurately Supporting Marriage Equality. This week, the Respect for Marriage Coalition launched a new $1 million print and television ad campaign highlighting bipartisan support for marriage equality. Unfortunately, it seems Former First Lady Laura Bush is not happy about being included in the ads.... The campaign has agreed to remove Bush from the ads."

Andrew Leonard of Salon on how right-wing governors are undermining higher education in the name of "fiscal responsibility" -- especially in the humanities, which wingers see as bastions of Marxism.

David Montgomery of the Washington Post: activist and heiress Naomi Pitcairn & Code Pink throw a posh going-to-prison party at the Hay-Adams hotel for convicted whistleblower John Kiriakou. CW: and I say to him, "Thank you for your service to our country."

Dashiel Bennett of the Atlantic: "Approximately 150 federal and state law enforcement agents launched a massive raid on one of the biggest perpetrators of government fraud in America: The Scooter Store. Yes, that's right. The nation's largest provider of single-person electric vehicles and power chairs is the target of a federal investigation, probably because many of the people who ride around their 'personal mobility devices' don't actually need them. In January, CBS This Morning ran a cutting exposé on the company, detailing how it 'railroads' doctors into prescribing the chair for their patients, most of whom are on Medicare or Medicaid. That way they can bill the government for their highly dubious medical device, while the patient gets a cool new scooter without paying for it, and The Scooter Store makes a nice profit." CW: This doesn't surprise me on bit. Their ads are really attractive come-ons. I'm delighted to see the feds cracking down on the perps behind the Scooter Store.

"A Carter Won Obama the Election":

     ... CW: I happen to agree with President Carter. There's a perfect irony in this of course, since both Mitt Romney & his running mate Paul Ryan accused Obama of being "worse than Carter."

Local News

Before & After. Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post: "The Indiana state Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound procedure both before and after having a medication-induced abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy." CW: Every one of the SOBs who voted for this entirely unnecessary procedural hoop-jumping exercise should be required to have a brain MRI both before and after they vote for this crap. At their own expense. Meddling assholes.

News Ledes

AP: "The U.S. and its NATO allies revealed Friday they may keep as many as 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends next year, largely American forces tasked with hunting down remnants of al-Qaida and helping Afghan forces with their own security."

AP: "The Pentagon on Friday grounded its fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine blade in one plane. The problem was discovered during what the Pentagon called a routine inspection at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., of an F-35A, the Air Force version of the sleek new plane. The Navy and the Marine Corps are buying other versions of the F-35, which is intended to replace older fighters like the Air Force F-16 and the Navy F/A-18."

Reuters: "Los Angeles County health officials have asked for federal assistance to analyze and contain an outbreak of tuberculosis within the city's homeless population, a spokeswoman for the county agency said on Friday."

Reuters: "Six tanks at Washington state's Hanford Nuclear Reservation are leaking radioactive waste, but the leak has not posed an immediate public health risk, Governor Jay Inslee's office said on Friday."

Reuters: "Boeing Co on Friday gave U.S. aviation regulators its plan to fix the volatile battery aboard its new 787 Dreamliner, even though investigators have not yet determined what caused the batteries to overheat on two planes last month."

Reuters: "Britain suffered its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency on Friday, after Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A rating, dealing a major blow to finance minister George Osborne<. Moody's cut Britain's rating by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, with a stable outlook, blaming weak prospects for Britain's economy over the coming years which have thrown the government's deficit reduction strategy off course."

New York Times: "The Department of Justice has decided to join a lawsuit against Lance Armstrong and several associates that accuses them of using taxpayer money to finance doping on the United States Postal Service cycling team, according to a lawyer for Armstrong." CW: that is, the Department of Justice has decided to take another easy case while allowing the big banks to continue cheating. Thanks for looking out for me, Eric Holder.

Guardian: Oscar Pistorius will be freed on bail pending his murder trial. This is a liveblog. No stories are up yet. ...

     ... Update: Al Jazeera has the story here.

New York Times: "The European Commission delivered a bleak assessment Friday of Europe's economic prospects, saying that growth would be just 0.1 percent in the 27-nation European Union in 2013 and that the 17-nation euro zone would shrink 0.3 percent over the same period. The downbeat forecast, coming a day after data showed a slump in business activity in the euro area worsened unexpectedly this month, added to perceptions that Europe is continuing to struggle with the dual burdens of trying to stimulate growth while cutting spending to pare deficits and balance budgets."

Reuters: "A major winter storm headed northeast into the U.S. Great Lakes on Friday and threatened New England after blanketing states from Minnesota to Ohio with blinding snow, sleet and freezing rain. The storm dumped more than a foot of snow in Kansas on Thursday, forcing airports to cancel hundreds of flights and stranding motorists on highways."

ABC News: "Rapper Kenny Clutch has been identified by Las Vegas police as the man killed in a drive-by shooting on the Vegas strip, which set off a multi-state manhunt for the black Range Rover from which the shots were fired. Clutch, whose real name is Kenneth Cherry Jr., was the victim of the Thursday morning shooting in the valet area of the Aria Resort and Casino. Three people were left dead and three injured in the attack, including two who died when their taxi was struck by the careening sports car and exploded into flames."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 21, 2013

Al Jazeera: "A US senator has said that an estimated 4,700 people have been killed in America's secretive drone war, the first time a government official has offered a total number of fatalities caused by nearly a decade of drone strikes, local media reported. Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the drone raids, revealed the figure in a speech on Wednesday in his home state of South Carolina.... The figure cited by Graham matches the high end of a tally by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. It says the number killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia is between 3,072 and 4,756." ...

... Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "... Graham wasn't citing an official government number when he put the amount of U.S. drone kills at 4,700, according to a spokesman. 'It appears that number was cited on cable networks such as MSNBC earlier this month,' said Graham's press secretary Kevin Bishop. He attached an MSNBC clip from early February in which the number is cited." CW: BTW, I am so glad Graham is an avid MSNBC watcher.

Stupid Republican Trick. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Despite new calls from the White House on Wednesday to enact a combination of tax increases and cuts to postpone the so-called sequester, the House is moving forward on a legislative agenda that assumes deep and arbitrary cuts to defense and domestic programs -- once considered unthinkable -- will remain in place through the end of the year." ...

... National Constitituion Center (whatever that is): "Congressional staffers face layoffs and furloughs in two weeks, but Congress members made sure their own paychecks were safe when passing the 'sequester law' in 2011." ...

... Ernesto Londoño & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Defense Department officially notified its 800,000 civilian employees on Wednesday that they are likely to be placed on periods of unpaid leave, as the Obama administration scrambled to deal with congressionally mandated budget cuts set to kick in next week." ...

Boehner Puts Himself between a Rock & a Hard Place & a Rock & a Hard Place. Etc. Jonathan Chait: House Speaker John Boehner has promised one faction of his fractured party that he would let the sequester happen & has promised another faction that he will not let the sequester happen. At the same time, "Boehner's end goal, as explained in [a Wall Street Journal] op-ed, is to 'reform America's safety net and retirement-security programs.' He has no proposal to do so, however. And for good reason. Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is really, really unpopular.... There seems to be no outcome for him that would let him attain even the minimal goal of keeping his job, let alone advancing some policy outcome he prefers." ...

... "The GOP's Astonishingly Bad Message." Byron York of Right Wing World the Washington Examiner pretty much agrees with Chait: "In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner describes the upcoming sequester as a policy 'that threatens U.S. national security, thousands of jobs and more.' ... Boehner and the GOP are determined to allow the $1.2 trillion sequester go into effect unless President Obama and Democrats agree to replacement cuts, of an equal amount, that target entitlement spending. If that doesn't happen -- and it seems entirely unlikely -- the sequester goes into effect, with the GOP's blessing."

... ** Greg Sargent: a new study by Thomas Hungerford of the non-partisan Congressional Research Service "found: The single greatest driver of income inequality over a recent 15 year period was runaway income from capital gains and dividends. This finding is directly relevant to the current debate, because Obama and Democrats want to offset the sequester in part by closing loopholes enjoyed by the wealthy, such as the one that keeps tax rates on capital gains and dividends low.... Republicans are openly conceding the sequester will damage our national security, even as they refuse to avert it by agreeing to the closing of loopholes benefiting the wealthy.... The new study lend[s] more ammo to the Democratic argument that Republicans would sooner damage our military and economy than ask for a penny in new revenues from the very rich." ...

... Kevin Drum: "... there's very little evidence that low rates on capital gains have any effect on economic growth at all." ...

... I've simply never seen compelling evidence that tax increases significantly hurt growth, labor supply, jobs, wages, or that rate decreases provide much of a boost the other way. And when you factor in the benefits of the investment and services government provides -- something the literature tends to ignore --the hyper-responsiveness arguments are even less compelling. -- Economist Jared Bernstein, from an earlier article by Drum

Stupid Obama Tricks

Scott Shane & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The White House is refusing to share fully with Congress the legal opinions that justify targeted killings, while maneuvering to make sure its stance does not do anything to endanger the confirmation of John O. Brennan as C.I.A. director. Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators' demands for full access to the classified legal memos..., Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.... The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators...."

NEW. Daily Kos: "While the largest protest yet against the Keystone XL pipeline massed in front of the White House, [and while Ed Henry, president of the White House Correspondents Association, was whining reporters couldn't get access to Obama's game with Tiger Woods,] President Obama was golfing in Florida with oil and gas company executives." CW: P.S. If you want to know why I don't list the author of this report, it is because s/he goes by a cutesy pseudonym. If Intertoobz writers want us to take them more seriously, they should come up with more serious names.

Craig Timberg & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Start asking security experts which powerful Washington institutions have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies, and this is the usual answer: almost all of them.... The rising wave of cyber-espionage has produced diplomatic backlash and talk of action against the Chinese, who have steadfastly denied involvement in hacking campaigns. A strategy paper released by the Obama administration Wednesday outlined new efforts to fight the theft of trade secrets." ...

... AP: "The Obama administration announced a broad new effort Wednesday to fight the growing theft of American trade secrets following fresh evidence linking cyberstealing to China's military." CW: sorry, I can't find a copy of the administration's strategy paper.

Julie Pace of the AP: "Facing heightened expectations from gay rights supporters, the Obama administration is considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage -- a move that could have a far-reaching impact on same-sex couples across the country. The administration has one week to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the justices." ...

     ... UPDATE. Greg Sargent: "In an interview with an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco, President Obama made his most extensive comments yet on the question of whether his administration will weigh in with a friend-of-the-court brief on the Proposition 8 case set to be heard by the Supreme Court."

Linda Greenhouse: "... striking down Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act] would be a truly radical move, a march off a cliff of the [Supreme] Court's own making. Not so long ago, conservatives were attacking the Affordable Care Act's health-insurance mandate as 'unprecedented.' Invalidating a core federal civil rights law because the Supreme Court views it as outdated would be unprecedented indeed." But the Supremes are poised to do it anyway. "How can it be that the Voting Rights Act is in such peril? The trouble isn't really that I don't know the answer. It's that I'm afraid I do."

Ezra Klein: "... the rules of reportorial neutrality don't apply when it comes to the deficit. On this one issue, reporters are permitted to openly cheer a particular set of highly controversial policy solutions."

What the Hell is Regina Benjamin Doing? Don't know who she is? Mark Bittman of the New York Times had to look it up, too. Because, um, it would appear that whatever Benjamin is doing, it is not her job.

Gail Collins on the Postal Service's new clothing line. And other nonsense.

Juan Cole: "The Washington Post is surprised by the 'mysterious' high cost of gasoline in the US but does not mention in this article that the US government, at the insistence of the Israel lobbies, reduced Iran's petroleum exports by 40% in 2012 by strong-arming countries to leave it in the ground and not import it on threat of third-party US sanctions." Thanks to Kate M. for the link.

Stupid Senatorial Tricks

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Former senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a Republican, disclosed Wednesday that he has a son born in secrecy over 30 years ago.... Domenici said he kept the matter secret because the mother of the child,Michelle Laxalt, asked him to do so. Her father, Paul Laxalt, was himself a U.S. senator from Nevada from 1974 to 1987 and served as chairman of the Republican National Committee." The Los Angeles Times story by John Glionna, which is more extensive is here. ...

... Lauren Ashburn of Newsweek comments.

Raymond Hernandez & Sam Dolnick of the New York Times: Sen. Robert "Menendez [D-N.J.], a brawler who once wore a bulletproof vest to testify in a federal corruption case against a powerful political mentor, has dug in, determined to outlast his detractors. To fend off critics and rivals, he has hired an aggressive crisis team that includes a veteran of his previous battles, Matthew A. Miller. He has reached out to top Democrats -- including Harry Reid..., to reassure them that the worst is over.

Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "The long search for the Real John McCain continues.... Right now, like it or not, the five-term senator is stuck in 'get off my lawn' territory, lashing out at his friend-turned-foe Chuck Hagel...; incessantly tugging at what McCain is convinced is a coverup of the September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya; lambasting the president; and railing against indiscriminate defense cuts. If hard-core conservatives feel burned by McCain’s resurgent reform spirit, the media that he once called his 'base' have essentially written him off as an angry and sour loser who once went through a maverick phase but has, in the words of 'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart, gone on a 'seven-year quest to negate every good thing he'd ever done.'" CW: In his litany of knocks against McCain, Horowitz would have done well to mention McCain's incomprehensible (& noisy) objection to gays serving openly in the military.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "A week before Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is set to leave New York for Rome, where his name is being floated as a candidate for pope, he was questioned in Manhattan for three hours on Wednesday behind closed doors in a legal deposition concerning the sexual abuse of children by priests." CW: the abuse cases are a great reason for Dolan to become pope -- then he would be infallible & everything would be fine. ...

** Jane Kramer of the New Yorker writes a superb piece on Joe Ratzinger, Our Man from the Inquisition, & his mentor Karol Wojtyla, not to mention the near-certainty that moving forward, the Roman Catholic Church will continue to move backward. This is what you should read today. ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker says much the same, not so eloquently as Kramer, yet still worth a read.

Listening to Malcolm Gladwell's address at the University of Pennsylvania is not essential, but if you have time (I listened while I was doing rote work), you might be glad to hear him. I have to say he's got guts:

Local News

Lex Luthor Has Heart Transplant. Tia Mitchell of the Tampa Bay Times: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he supports expanding Medicaid and funneling billions of federal dollars to Florida, a significant policy reversal that could bring health care coverage to 1 million additional Floridians. 'While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,' Scott said at a hastily called news conference.... Tea party activists bitterly criticized Scott's declaration."

Congressional Races

Nate Silver: Republicans have a decent shot at regaining control of the Senate in 2014. "Twenty-one of the 35 seats up for election are now held by Democrats. Moreover, most the states that will be casting ballots for the Senate in 2014 are Republican leaning: 7 of the 21 Democratic-held seats are in states carried by the former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, while just one of the Republican seats is in a state won by President Obama." Silver looks at the odds, state-by-state.

Right Wing World

Ed Kilgore: while touring a Texas gun factory, Sen. Ted Cruz (RTP-Texas) played the race card, claiming Democrats are skeert of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) because he's an intelligent Latino. "Cruz probably thinks this playing of the race card could create some sympathy for Rubio in unlikely places, while of course providing chapter 3,000 in the Tea Party saga of 'there are no racists except for liberals.' Besides, if the godless liberals are afraid of Rubio, just wait til they get a load of the junior Senator from Texas, a Cuban-American conservative who will say and do just about anything!" CW: I myself am skeert of both Rubio & Cruz because they are fact-averse winger ideologues who couldn't care less about ordinary Americans, & now I'm wondering if ethnic resentment helps explain why Cruz is such a nasty piece of work.

News Ledes

AP: "... this year's flu shot is doing a startlingly dismal job of protecting older people, the most vulnerable age group. The vaccine is proving only 9 percent effective in those 65 and older against the harsh strain of the flu that is predominant this season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday."

AP: "Drew Peterson -- the swaggering Chicago-area police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 -- was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife. The sentence came moments after Peterson shocked the courtroom with a rare public outburst of anger as he proclaimed his innocence in the death of Kathleen Savio." The Chicago Tribune story is here.

AP: "Bullets were flying from a black Range Rover at a gray Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Las Vegas Strip.... The Maserati ran the red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames early Thursday, killing the two people inside. Three more cars and a utility truck collided at the crossroads..., leaving at least six more people injured as the Range Rover sped off in the predawn darkness.... Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters several hours after Thursday's attack that it was sparked by an argument in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino...."

Reuters: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday that U.S. sales weakness persisted into early February, as Americans absorbed the impact of higher payroll taxes and gasoline prices, along with slow tax refunds that put some spending on hold. The weakness came even as the world's largest retailer reported a bigger-than-expected profit increase, which was helped by a lower-than-anticipated tax rate. Wal-Mart also raised its dividend payout." CW: I'd like to know why "Wal-Mart said its effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 27.7%, down from 30.9% last year." So far, I haven't been able to find out.

AP: "Parts of the nation's heartland awoke Thursday to more than half a foot of snow, as a large storm made its way eastward out of the Rockies, snarling traffic for morning commuters and allowing an army of children to trade pen and paper for shovel and sled, at least for a day. Winter storm warnings were issued from Colorado through Illinois, and many school districts cancelled classes ahead of time, in anticipation of the more than a foot of snow expected to fall in some places."

Reuters: "More Americans than expected filed new claims for jobless aid last week and consumer prices were flat in January, supporting the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its very accommodative monetary policy stance. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday."

AP: "U.S. lawmakers confirmed on Wednesday that they visited an American man whose detention and long sentence in Cuba has hampered efforts to improve ties between the countries, but they gave no details on his condition or what was said. The seven-member delegation led by Sen. Patrick Leahy also met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other senior officials. Leahy said that the two sides 'discussed the continuing obstacles and the need to improve relations,' adding that a rapprochement 'is in the interest of both countries.'"

New York Times: "In a remarkable twist in the case of Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, the South African police said on Thursday that the officer leading the investigation against the athlete is himself facing seven criminal charges of attempted murder." ...

     ... AP Update: "South African police appointed a new chief investigator Thursday in the Oscar Pistorius murder case, replacing a veteran detective after unsettling revelations that the officer was charged with seven counts of attempted murder."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 20, 2013

John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The White House on Wednesday will flesh out the plans President Obama announced in the State of the Union address to repair the nation's ailing infrastructure, a White House official said.... The draft [summary of the plan] sounds three major themes that Mr. Obama has discussed since he was first a candidate for the presidency, but with initiatives intended to engage in work that minimizes the need for Congressional approval and which can capitalize on private investment to help start projects."

President Obama spoke about the sequester Tuesday:

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Days away from another fiscal crisis and with Congress on vacation, President Obama began marshaling the powers of the presidency on Tuesday to try to shame Republicans into a compromise that could avoid further self-inflicted job losses and damage to the fragile recovery. But so far, Republicans were declining to engage." ...

... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Obama will sit for interviews with eight local reporters on Wednesday, as he continues to ratchet up his pressure on lawmakers to take action to prevent automatic spending cuts from taking effect on March 1." CW: ah, the "puppet master" at work. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "... it's ridiculous for Republicans to claim the sequester is really Mr. Obama's idea, as if a kidnapper's relatives deserve blame for paying the ransom.... Republicans love the idea of reducing spending but prefer to remain in the shadows when the cuts actually materialize. Even now, they won't consider the Democratic alternative of balancing cuts with an equal amount of higher tax revenue from the rich and corporations...." ...

... Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "My Twitter feed these last couple of weeks has been overflowing with people going beyond the usual 'communist' and 'idiot' name-calling that I get every day and throwing the occasional 'liar' in there because I 'withhold' the information that the sequester was the Obama administration's idea.... Let's grant that this is true. But it's true only because the Republicans were holding a gun to the administration's head -- and besides, the Republicans immediately voted for it.... The Republicans are partial owners of this idea, and as the party that now wants the cuts to kick in, they deserve to -- and will -- bear more responsibility for the negative impacts." Tomasky recounts the history of the sequester. Worth noting: "... according to Bob Woodward in his new book, Jack Lew ... originally came up with the notion of sequestered cuts. Or maybe it was Gene Sperling."

... BUT WAIT, there's more. John Avlon of Newsweek: "I happened to come across an old email that throws cold water on House Republicans' attempts to call this 'Obama's Sequester.' It's a PowerPoint presentation that Boehner's office developed with the Republican Policy Committee and sent out to the Capitol Hill GOP on July 31, 2011.... It's essentially an internal sales document from the old dealmaker Boehner to his unruly and often unreasonable Tea Party cohort. But it's clear as day in the presentation that 'sequestration' was considered a cudgel to guarantee a reduction in federal spending.... The presentation lays out the deal in clear terms, describing the spending backstop as 'automatic across-the-board cuts ("sequestration"). Same mechanism used in 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement.'" CW: do ignore Avlon's deep bow to the Simpsons & Bowels.

... The Washington Monument Strategy. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... whatever the level of damage across-the-board would impose, we can expect the affected agencies will try to make the damage look as high as possible." ...

... Steve Benen parses the both-side-are-to-blame argument on the sequester (& on other issues that come before Congress). Now, try to follow: "Democrats are open to a balanced compromise, Republicans aren't, so Democrats bear some responsibility for the mess by asking far-right extremists who abhor compromise to accept a deal that requires equal sacrifices from both sides. If only Democrats would accept Republican extremism at face value, and realize GOP officials aren't interested in constructive bipartisan policymaking, they could simply give Republicans what they want and spare us all the aggravation." ...

Amazing Feat: Two Old Coots Move Goal Posts!

Greg Sargent: "Like a pair of aging crooners hoping to recapture past glory with a long-awaited reunion tour, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson released a new version of their deficit reduction plan [Tuesday]. Ezra Klein ferrets out the real news in the plan: It asks for far less in new revenues, and more in spending cuts, than the previous Simpson-Bowles plan did.... The plan roughly represents the ideological midpoint between the Obama and Boehner fiscal cliff blueprints -- which is why the plan is so heavily tilted towards cuts." ...

... Here's Ezra Klein's breakdown. Simpson-Bowles 2.0 is "meant to be an outline for a new grand bargain. To that end, Simpson and Bowles began with Obama and Boehner's final offers from the fiscal cliff deal.... While this plan doesn't include more tax increases than Obama asked for, it does include significantly more than the $1 trillion in spending cuts than Boehner asked for.... In increasing the total deficit reduction, Simpson and Bowles have put the weight on the spending side of the budget." ...

... Kevin Drum: "In SB 1.0, deficit reduction was moderately evenly divided between spending cuts and tax increases. In SB 2.0, they've suddenly decided it should be 75 percent spending cuts. That's despite the fact that spending cuts have already been 75 percent of the deficit reduction we've done so far. Why? ... I guess they figure that conservative sacred cows are a little more sacred than liberal ones. Or something. But even if you take deficit reduction seriously in the first place, this sure makes it hard to take Simpson-Bowles 2.0 seriously as a plan." ...

... Derek Thompson of the Atlantic notes that the new Simpson-Bowles back-of-the-napkin plan looks mighty Republican. ...

... Tim Noah of The New Republic: "You may have heard that Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, matinee idols of the Austerity Über Alles movement, have devised a new budget-slimming plan. That's not quite right. They've produced a very rough outline that's deliberately short on details [because they don't have time to add & subtract & all when they have to spend so much time on the teevee.]... Simpson and Bowles's ... agenda is not limited to deficit reduction. They also want to lower tax rates. Why? They just want to, is all." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The main non-drone gripe I'm going to have with the president when he leaves office is the muscle he put behind the preposterous Simpson-Bowles Commission. The basic problem was that he handed the administration's credibility over to a former bagma...er...lobbyist and to the single most unpleasant member of the Republican Undead. Having done that, he allowed them to establish the basic austerity-leaning parameters of the overall economic discussion. He gave the Republicans a baseline from which to attack any proposal to the left of something that Ike might have liked. And, worst of all, he gave the courtier press a graven image to worship.... The Village must have its cults, and Simpson-Bowles is pre-eminent among them."

Michael Hirsh of the National Journal: "... what has gone largely unnoted by the punditocracy is that, over the past decade or so..., [Chuck Hagel] has distinguished himself with subtle, well-thought-out, and accurate analyses of some of America's greatest strategic challenges of the 21st century -- especially the response to 9/11 -- while many of his harshest critics got these issues quite wrong." Happily, Hirsh uses Tom Friedman as his Exhibit A for pundits who got it wrong. CW: oh yeah? Kate Madison noticed.

Peter Waldman of the American Prospect: "When he leaves office in January of 2017 -- provided there isn't a terrible scandal or some kind of economic or foreign policy disaster between now and then -- Barack Obama will likely be hailed as the greatest Democratic hero since John F. Kennedy.... Obama -- particularly the second-term Obama -- does not apologize for liberalism. That isn't to say he's the most liberal guy around, because he isn't. But ... he does not exude the fear of his party's ideology that characterized an earlier generation, scarred as they were by the Gingrich revolution of 1994.... Some Democrats look like they're moving left, and it's for one reason: because it's good politics."

Cristina Silva of the AP: "Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [who is the former governor of Arizona] toured the state's border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix." CW: proving you never know when McCain is going to surprise you & do the right thing. ...

... THEN AGAIN, "All the Latest Rage." Charles Pierce: "To be perfectly fair to the howling mob -- and we like to be fair to howling mobs around here, especially when they inconvenience Republicans -- this may have something to do with McCain's once again seeming to have reversed himself on the issue. This is, after all, a man who ran against his own immigration bill when he was trying to get nominated in 2008 and, when feeling threatened by a primary challenge the last time he came up for re-election." Read the whole post.

... Matthew Cooper of the National Journal on the White House Press Corps' Latest Crybaby Moment: "The greater threat from the Obama administration isn't the usual playing of head games with the White House press corps; it's the aggressive prosecution of both the people who leak government information and the reporters who receive it. I have some skin in the game on this too, having been involved in the CIA leak case that began 10 years ago when I wrote about how the White House was waging a war on Joe Wilson. The aggressive prosecution of leaks and the invocation of once-dormant statutes to go after leakers and reporters threatens to shut down real and vital sources of information.... Ask reporters, such as James Risen of the New York Times, who have been in the legal crosshairs for their role in reporting on intelligence issues. Those are the things we really need to know. The president's golf score? Oh, please." ...

... A note on our intrepid journalist class. Greg Mitchell: Mike Allen of Politico "wrote [yesterday] that Obama avoids Politico reporters in part because they 'ask tough, unpredictable questions.' ... So John Cook, editor of Gawker, just performed a public service by posting on Twitter every question Allen chose to ask President Bush when he did get full access back in 2008. You may remember 2008 -- the economy was about to collapse and we were still in a full shooting war in Iraq." Mitchell picks a number of his favorite Allen-to-Bush "tough, unpredictable questions." Here are two, but do read Mitchell's list. Thanks to MAG for the link:

All right. Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?

Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol's charity show, "Idol Gives Back." And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?

... ** Our Intrepid Press Corps, Hard-Right-Wing Edition. Dan Friedman, a New York "Daily News reporter, "explains how he inadvertently created the myth that Chuck Hagel spoke to a non-existent group." "If you see a story on Hagel addressing the Junior League of Hezbollah, that's fake too." When you think they can't do anything worse than smearing Shirley Sherrod with totally deceptive tape-editing that inverted the substance of her speech, think again.

Thom Shanker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Gen. John R. Allen, the four-star Marine Corps officer who served until earlier this month as the top commander in Afghanistan, will retire from the military to focus on 'health issues within his family,' President Obama said on Tuesday. General Allen was caught up in the scandal that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But last month, the Pentagon officially cleared him of misconduct after an investigation into his exchange of e-mails with Jill Kelley, a Tampa, Fla., woman who was also a friend of Mr. Petraeus's.... There is little doubt that an unexpected obstacle to General Allen's new assignment at NATO was the inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: The Supreme Court's "hearing from the administration is especially important because the Prop 8 defenders, in their brief to the court, cite the president's comments about the 'healthy debate' occurring in the states in defense of letting the law stand. And especially given the president's words last month: 'If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.' A president who speaks so eloquently at his inaugural cannot allow his administration to remain silent before the court, where words are translated into reality."

Excellent. Supremes to Take a Shot at Making Politics Even More Corrupt. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to federal campaign contribution limits, setting the stage for what may turn out to be the most important federal campaign finance case since the court's 2010 decision in Citizens United, which struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions.... 'In Citizens United, the court resisted tinkering with the rules for contribution limits,' said Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law at the University of California, Irvine. 'This could be the start of chipping away at contribution limits.'"

Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "Unless the Justice Department and BP reach a last-minute settlement, the British oil company will return to court on Monday to face tens of billions of dollars in civil claims from the 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that could cripple the company for years to come.... The Federal District Court trial in New Orleans will bundle suits brought by the Justice Department, state governments, private business and individual claimants against BP and several of its contractors. Decisions on culpability and damages could be a year or more away, but they are likely to have profound impacts on environmental law and determine the viability of BP as a major oil company with global ambitions."

Katherine Skiba of the Chicago Tribune: "Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and his wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, are expected to plead guilty to federal charges Wednesday, when more details may emerge about an alleged crime spree in which he is accused of spending more than $750,000 in campaign cash to buy luxury items, memorabilia and other goods."

Holy Crystal Meth! Is the Roman Catholic Church just one big criminal op? N. R. Kleinfield of the New York Times: "At a time when priests from California to Delaware have been accused of loathsome deeds, the allegations against Monsignor [Kevin] Wallin, the former pastor of the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Bridgeport, [Connecticut,] are of a notably different dimension: that he was a drug dealer and addict who was buying an adult novelty shop to launder ill-gotten proceeds, a priest who was cross-dressing and having sex with men.... Colleagues said that ... he had long been sexually active with men.... The Diocese of Bridgeport had forced Monsignor Wallin from his position at St. Augustine in June 2011, after it was alerted to his dissonant behavior. His parishioners were told only of ambiguous personal and health issues.... The lurid case is only the latest scandal for the Bridgeport Diocese, already tainted by a string of clerical sexual abuse cases. Last year, the Rev. Michael R. Moynihan, the former pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Greenwich, was sent to prison for obstructing justice after being accused of spending church money on himself. In 2007, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, from St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien, was convicted of stealing $1.3 million; he died in prison."

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 45 cents in the past 31 days, according to AAA, the fastest run-up since 2005." Mufson talks to some experts about why -- um, "market tension" or something.

Local News

Matt Helm & Joe Guillen of the Detroit Free Press: "An emergency review team’s report on Detroit paints a city on the verge of collapse, too inflexible to restructure itself, unable to explain why its budget forecasts are routinely wrong and no longer capable of papering over its crisis by taking out loans.... Detroit is out of time, a six-member review team lead by state Treasurer Andy Dillon said in a report delivered Tuesday to Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder is widely expected to use the evidence to appoint an emergency financial manager to tame a yearslong runaway budget crisis."

News Ledes

New York Times: "In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that criminal defense lawyers must warn their clients if deportation could be a consequence of a guilty plea. On Wednesday, the courtlimited the reach of that ruling, saying it did not apply retroactively to people whose convictions had become final by the time the justices announced their 2010 decision, Padilla v. Kentucky."

AP: "Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more aggressive responses to the theft of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets. The Obama administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday, including possible fines and other trade actions against China or any other country guilty of cyber-espionage."

Reuters: "Groundbreaking to build new U.S. homes fell in January but new permits for construction rose to a 4 1/2-year high, reinforcing expectations the housing market will support economic growth this year."

Reuters: "Office Depot Inc said on Wednesday that it would buy smaller rival OfficeMax Inc for $1.17 billion in stock to get more clout with suppliers and better compete against Staples Inc and Amazon.com Inc."

AP: In Orange County, California, a "shooter, 20-year-old Ali Syed, killed a woman in the home he shared with his parents, killed two drivers during carjackings, injured two others and shot up cars on a busy freeway interchange before committing suicide as police closed in, authorities said."

Reuters: "Bulgaria's government resigned on Wednesday after violent nationwide protests< against high power prices, joining a long list of European administrations felled by austerity during Europe's debt crisis. Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a former bodyguard who swept to power in 2009 on pledges to root out corruption and raise living standards in the European Union's poorest member, now faces a tough task to prop up eroding support ahead of a probable early election."

Reuters: "A Syrian missile killed at least 20 people in a rebel-held district of Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said, as the army turns to longer-range weapons after losing bases in the country's second-largest city. The use of what opposition activists said was a large missile of the same type as Russian-made Scuds against an Aleppo residential district came after rebels overran army bases over the past two months from which troops had fired artillery."

AP: "Tens of thousands of anti-austerity demonstrators took to the streets of Athens on Wednesday as unions staged a general strike to protest government spending cuts and tax hikes, which some predict will push unemployment to an alarming 30 percent. Police said up to 40,000 people were participating in two separate marches in central Athens that were so far peaceful."

Chicago Tribune Wire Services: "Witnesses heard 'non-stop shouting' in the home of Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius shortly before his girlfriend was shot dead, the lead detective in the murder investigation said on Wednesday." CW: Read the whole story; sounds like Pistorius is a murderer AND a liar.