The Commentariat -- Jan. 16, 2013

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Tom Friedman's & Maureen Dowd's columns.

Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "At a White House event at noon, Mr. Obama announced plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, expanded background checks for gun purchases and new gun trafficking laws to crack down on the spread of weapons across the country. He also promised to act without Congressional approval to increase the enforcement of existing gun laws and improve the flow of information among federal agencies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn't have them":

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearms buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips." ...

... Michael Cooper, et al., of the New York Times on the range of gun laws & regulations President Obama is likely to propose today. ...

** Philip Rucker: "The National Rifle Association released a new video on its Web site Tuesday calling President Obama an 'elitist hypocrite' for having Secret Service protection of his daughters at school but saying he was 'skeptical' about installing armed guards in all schools.... 'Are the president's kids more important than yours' a deep-voiced narrator asks. 'Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.'" Includes video of the ad. CW: this ad should enrage you. The NRA drums of fear of Obama, the better to sell guns to paranoid militiamen, then complains Obama's children need protection from gun-toting paranoids. And he is the hypocrite? ...

Update: Most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight. But to go so far as to make the safety of the president's children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly. -- Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary

Frederka Schouten of USA Today: "In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre, the national debate raging over high-profile issues such as proposals to ban assault weapons also is bringing fresh attention to an array of little-known laws approved by Congress -- some at the behest of the powerful National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups -- that either ease restrictions on firearms or clamp down on the ability of the government to regulate guns."

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a sweeping package of gun-control measures on Tuesday, significantly expanding a ban on assault weapons and making New York the first state to change its laws in response to the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. Mr. Cuomo signed the bill less than an hour after the State Assembly approved it by a 104-to-43 vote on the second full day of the 2013 legislative session. The State Senate, which had in the past resisted more restrictive gun laws, approved the measure 43 to 18 on Monday night." ...

... Dan Amira of New York: "With President Obama now contemplating up to nineteen executive orders to combat gun violence, conservatives have started to flip out in characteristic form. Kentucky senator Rand Paul has accused Obama of acting 'like a king or a monarch.' South Carolina congressman Jeff Duncan declared last week, 'We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.' Mike Huckabee proclaimed that the White House has 'nothing but contempt for the Constitution' and seeks to 'trump ... the checks and balances of power in which no branch could act unilaterally.' Texas congressman Steve Stockman has already threatened impeachment.... If it's the use of executive orders in particular that's getting critics all riled up, though, then it's worth noting that Obama has used this lever of presidential power less frequently than every other president in modern times." ...

... You knew Maureen Dowd would go bananas over President strong> Obama's news conference, and she does not disappoint. Dowd implies that Stockman, et al., would never have behaved so badly if only Obama had heeded "A Greek chorus of historians and pols [who] have been urging the president to spend more time schmoozing with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as other presidents like Jefferson, Lincoln and L.B.J., did to get their way." ...

... ** Now read Dana Milbank on Stockman & the evolution of the GOP. ...

... Maybe you thought Ed Meese was dead. He isn't. Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese, now a prominent emeritus official at the Heritage Foundation, became the latest conservative to warn that President Obama could risk impeachment if he takes executive action on reducing gun violence in an interview Monday night." ...

... Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post targets Harry Reid. We'll have to do so, too:

** Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "After fierce lobbying by political leaders in states across the Northeast, the House of Representatives on Tuesday night approved a long-awaited $50.7 billion emergency bill to provide help to victims of Hurricane Sandy. The aid package passed 241 to 180, with 49 Republicans joining 192 Democrats. The Senate is expected to pass the measure, and President Obama has expressed support for it.... Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is part of the chamber's leadership, said he would urge the Senate to approve the House bill even though he believed it fell short of what the Senate approved last year." ...

     ... CW: once again, Boehner has had to rely on Democrats to get a bill through the House. If the pressure to pass this bill had not come from within his own party, I would say he was learning.

Not Your Father's GOP. Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "In a shift over a half-century, the [Republican] party base has been transplanted from the industrial Northeast and urban centers to become rooted in the South and West, in towns and rural areas. In turn, Republicans are electing more populist, antitax and antigovernment conservatives who are less supportive -- and even suspicious -- of appeals from big business.... Big business is so fearful of economic peril if Congress does not allow the government to keep borrowing ... that it is nearly united in skepticism of, or outright opposition to, House Republicans' demand that Mr. Obama first agree to equal spending cuts in benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid."

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "When Congress struck a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, it also dealt a quiet blow to President Obama's health overhaul: The new law killed a multibillion-dollar program meant to boost health insurance competition by funding nonprofit health plans. The decision to end funding for the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans has left as many as 40 start-ups vying for federal dollars in limbo.... The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, or CO-OP, program was aimed at spending as much as $6 billion to help launch nonprofit health insurance carriers.... The fiscal cliff deal cuts nearly all of the program's unobligated funds, about $1 billion, leaving only a small portion of money to administer the CO-OP loans already granted."

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) writes an op-ed in the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News defending his fiscal cliff deal. CW: Of course he's unintentionally hilarious: his argument boils down to this -- "Since most Kentuckians don't make a lot of money, very few of you will get hit with higher taxes." That's selfless Mitch, always looking out for his constituents even as he himself suffers the burdens of wealth. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: Marco Rubio's immigration plan -- which like his modified Dream Act, is still all talk -- is remarkably similar to what President Obama suggested in 2011 and what Senate Democrats are working on now.

Obama 2.0. Allison Sherry of the Denver Post: "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will step down from his cabinet position in the Obama administration and return to Colorado to spend time with his family, his office has confirmed to The Denver Post. Salazar is expected to broadly announce his departure Wednesday. He has told President Barack Obama that he intends to leave his job by the end of March."

Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times: "The tiny black particles released into the atmosphere by burning fuels are far more powerful agents of global warming than had previously been estimated, some of the world's most prominent atmospheric scientists reported in a study issued on Tuesday. These particles, which are known as black carbon and are the major component of soot, are the second most important contributor to global warming, behind only carbon dioxide...."

Charles Pierce on Aaron Swartz & an informed public & democracy & stuff. He begins, "The Boston Globe went long this morning on the death by suicide of Aaron Swartz -- most of which, ironically, is behind the newspaper's paywall...." ...

... Clive Crook of the Atlantic: "Juries have already been substantially dispensed with in this country. (By substantially, I mean in 97 percent of cases.) If prosecutors are not only going to rule on guilt unilaterally but also, in effect, pass sentence as well, one wonders why we can't also dispense with judges. In recent years, as the Wall Street Journal has documented in a disturbing series of articles, Congress has enabled prosecutorial intimidation by criminalizing ever more conduct, passing laws that provide for or require extreme sentences, and reducing the burden of proof (through expanded application of 'strict liability', where lack of criminal intent is no defense)." CW: Crook suggests that we now live in a country where it's better to be the victim of a crime than to be accused of a crime. "Is this justice system actually on my side? I'm by no means sure -- an astounding state of affairs," he writes.

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "A White House spokesman on Tuesday condemned anti-Semitic comments made by President Mohamed Morsi before he took office, calling on him to 'make clear this kind of rhetoric is not acceptable or productive in a democratic Egypt.; ... Asked about Mr. Morsi's anti-Semitic statements during a briefing at the White House, Jay Carney, the press secretary, said, 'We have raised our concerns over these remarks with the government of Egypt.'"

Emma Dumain of Roll Call: "... a campaign by the D.C. Council and local activists to get President Barack Obama to adopt the city's standard license plates with the 'Taxation Without Representation' motto has succeeded. On the heels of a WhiteHouse.gov petition, a council resolution and a White House meeting Friday, all presidential vehicles will be fitted with the new plates this coming weekend.... The slogan ... calls attention to the city's lack of voting rights in Congress. When the plates were created in 2000, President Bill Clinton adopted them..., but when President George W. Bush took over, he removed them. Obama followed Bush's example and stayed silent on the issue, until now."

Meet Your Congressman! Alex Pareene: Ted Yoho (real name) (RTP-Fla.) "is a bog-standard talk radio conservative, only instead of one of those with years of experience navigating the House of Representatives, like his predecessor, he is one who believes that he will shake things up by constantly repeating clichés about being an outsider."

The White House Is Getting Sick of Answering to You the People. Macon Phillips of the White House: "Starting today [Tuesday, Jan. 15], as we move into a second term, petitions [to the White House via the We the People Webpage] must receive 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive an official response from the Obama Administration. This new threshold applies only to petitions created from this point forward and is not retroactively applied to ones that already exist."

Local News

Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: "Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) recently rolled out a plan to replace his state's personal income and corporate taxes with an increased sales tax. Such a move would shift taxes from the rich to the poor, who are disproportionately hit by the sales tax. According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jindal's plan will raise taxes on the bottom 80 percent of Louisianians, while cutting them for the richest 1 percent."

Right Wing World

Eric Lach of TPM: "A group of self-appointed 'patriots' are moving forward with an idea for a planned community of several thousand families of 'patriotic Americans' in Idaho, a project named The Citadel, envisioned as a 'martial endeavor designed to protect Residents in times of peril (natural or man-made).'" Thanks to contributor Lisa for the link.

Dibs on one of those houses between the arms factory & the firearms museum. Art by the Citadel, via TPM.... CW: In case -- like me -- you are contemplating a move to this particular fortress, the organizers warn that "Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles." They are not entirely unrealistic. ...

... Update: I can see already we are going to have fun modifying the Citadel's working plans.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was grounding all Boeing 787s operated by United States carriers until it can determine what caused a new type of battery to catch fire on two planes in nine days."

New York Times: "The French military assault on Islamist extremists in Mali escalated into a potentially much broader North African conflict on Wednesday when, in retribution, armed attackers in unmarked trucks seized an internationally managed natural gas field in neighboring Algeria and took at least 20 foreign hostages, including Americans."

New York Times: "The American military has suspended the transfer of detainees to some Afghan prisons out of concern over continuing human rights abuses and torture, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Wednesday in response to questions about the subject."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration is considering significant military backing for France's drive against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, but its support for a major ally could test U.S. legal boundaries and stretch counterterrorism resources in a murky new conflict. The United States is already providing surveillance and other intelligence help to France and may soon offer military support such as transport or refueling planes, according to U.S. officials, who stressed that any assistance would stop short of sending American combat forces to the volatile West African nation." ...

... Al Jazeera: "French troops are heading north in Mali towards rebel-occupied territory at the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat 'within hours'. Nigeria is leading the African intervention in the country, with the deployment of about 200 soldiers as foreign governments invest heavily in the country to prevent it from falling into rebel hands. Edouard Guillaud, France's military chief of staff, said that the French ground operations began overnight."

Al Jazeera: "Two guards and five fighters have been killed in a suicide attack on the national headquarters of Afghanistan spy agency [in Kabul], officials said. 'There were five attackers involved. The first detonated a car bomb at the gate, the other four were shot dead by police and NDS guards as they approached,' [an official]... said, adding that about 30 civilians were wounded in Wednesday's attack."

AP: "A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in northern Iraq early Wednesday, the deadliest in a wave of morning attacks that killed at least 31 people across the country. The violence comes amid rising tensions among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups that threaten to plunge the country back into chaos...."

New York Times: "Japan's two largest airlines said Wednesday they would ground their fleets of Boeing's new 787 aircraft, the Dreamliner, after one operated by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing in western Japan."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 15, 2013

Erik Wasson of The Hill: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Congress on Monday that the U.S. could default on its payment obligations as early as mid-February. Geithner, who has been employing 'extraordinary measures' since the debt ceiling was reached on Dec. 31, said he was running out of maneuvers to delay a default. He urged lawmakers to raise the $16.4 trillion borrowing limit quickly. 'Treasury currently expects to exhaust these extraordinary measures between mid-February and early March of this year,' Geithner said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other top leaders. The date range matches an informal estimate made by the Bipartisan Policy Center last week." CW: sure hope the first bills Treasury decides not to pay are Congressional paychecks. ...

... Jonathan Spicer of Reuters: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday urged U.S. lawmakers to lift the country's borrowing limit to avoid a potentially disastrous debt default, warning that the economy was still at risk from political gridlock over the deficit." ...

... "The McConnell Provision." Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "... while President Obama was laying down the gauntlet against congressional Republicans on raising the debt ceiling..., he gave a shout-out to an idea that was the brainchild of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) during the last debt-ceiling drama. 'If Congress wants to put the responsibility on me to do it, as Mitch McConnell wanted last year,' Obama said.... 'I'm happy to do that.'" How the McConnell Provision works:

CLICK GRAPHIC TO GO TO LARGER IMAGE.

... The Editors of the righty-right wing National Review tell Republicans to back off: "Republicans should recognize that the prospect of default is the ... primary source of the Democrats' leverage." They suggest Republicans instead pass a bill somehow limiting future spending. CW: I don't quite understand their proposal, but then I don't care. Besides, note that the NR geniuses are such experts that they begin their editorial, "The federal government will hit the statutory limit on its debt within the next two months, and further borrowing would require congressional action." Actually, no. We hit the statutory limit at the end of last year. ...

     ... Update: it appears the experts at the National Review got their proposed law from famed macroeconomist & Constitutional lawyer Karl Rove.

... Charles Pierce comments on the President's press conference. Short version: "Fk The Deficit. People Got No Jobs. People Got No Money." ...

... CW: the best thing about the President's presser today is that he has finally learned to say "Republican." He spent 98 percent of his first term calling them "some in Washington," or "Congress" or at best, "the other side." Casual listeners had no idea he was talking about Republicans. (I once got a White House speech writer to slip the word "Republican" into an Obama speech; but it was, as they say in the teevee biz -- an OTO -- a one-time-only event. Obama went right back to calling out "some people.") He made abundantly clear today -- again & again -- who he was talking about. ...

... AND this was inevitable. The Bipartisan Beltway Boys will be complaining the President was way too mean to Repubicans. Dana Milbank gets the ball rolling. "Arguably, Obama's no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy approach is good politics. His first-term experience made clear that he gained nothing from Republicans when he took a passive approach. When it comes to getting things done in Washington, there's no substitute for forceful presidential leadership.... Yet the performance was also a reminder of why Obama isn't noted for his interpersonal warmth...." CW: so a President has to be in-your-face to get anything done, but, um, s/he can't be "adversarial." The Beltway Boy's advice is "damned if you do & damned if you don't. Either way, I'll get a column out of it. Thanks for a living, Mr. O." ...

"My offer is this: nothing." If you don't have time to watch all of President Obama's news conference (embedded in yesterday's Commentariat), watch the shorter version. Everything about the clip is remarkably apt, including the Senator's extended ethnic slur (wherein oily = nappy):

Democrats Against Gun Control. Steve Kornacki of Salon: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) provided "a valuable reminder on Monday night that the issue isn't simply driven by a partisan divide. In a new interview with a Nevada public television station..., Reid refused to endorse any of the reforms that Joe Biden is expected to present to President Obama on Tuesday.... Reid also all but pronounced the assault weapons ban ... dead on arrival.... The Senate also includes a number of Democrats like Reid from pro-gun states who would rather not go on record voting for a new ban.... In stating that he won't consider legislation that doesn't stand a chance in the House, Reid appears to be giving pro-gun Senate Democrats an opportunity to duck the question." ...

... Thomas Kaplan & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: New York "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers agreed on Monday to a broad package of changes to gun laws that would expand the state's ban on assault weapons and would include new measures to keep guns away from the mentally ill. The state Senate, controlled by a coalition of Republicans and a handful of Democrats, approved the legislative package just after 11 p.m. by a lopsided vote of 43 to 18. The Assembly, where Democrats who have been strongly supportive of gun control have an overwhelming majority, planned to vote on the measure Tuesday."

** A gun kept in the home was 43 times more likely to be involved in the death of a member of the household than to be used in self-defense. -- Dr. Art Kellerman, whose research was stymied when Congress, at the behest of the NRA, ordered the Center for Disease Control to stop funding gun use studies ...

... Stephanie Pappas of Live Science has more on Congress's stifling of gun research: "Congress members who supported the NRA first attempted to remove all funding from the NCIPC. That failed, but Congress did manage to remove $2.6 million from the CDC's overall budget, the exact amount spent on firearm injury research in the past year.... More chillingly, Congress added language to the budget appropriations bill forbidding any CDC funding that might 'advocate or promote gun control.'" CW: in other words, anything that might hint guns were, like, dangerous.

... David Nakamura & Jon Cohen of the Washington Post: "Most Americans support tough new measures to counter gun violence, including banning assault weapons and posting armed guards at every school, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.... The findings, which also show broad bipartisan support for mandatory background checks to purchase firearms at gun shows, came as President Obama said Monday that he will lay out specific White House proposals on gun-control legislation and executive actions this week." ...

Pew Research Center also found strong majorities supporting background checks, a national gun-tracking database, & bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammo clips.

CW: compare these results with the Gallup poll I linked yesterday, which showed that fewer than half of Americans favored tighter gun control. Gallup (a) loaded the question; (b) asked a wholly different demographic sample from the WashPo respondents; or (c) both. You can bet Republicans will rely on Gallup, just as they did during the presidential race, when Gallup consistently showed Not-President-Elect Whatzizname in the lead. ...

... Yet Another Poll. Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "A slim majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe that controlling gun ownership is more important than protecting the right of Americans to own firearms, according to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll. But beneath that divided topline were far more telling cleavages. The survey showed that the gun-control debate in America has split along the same fault lines -- by age group, ethnicity, gender, even region -- that marked the 2012 presidential contest between Obama and Mitt Romney." CW: ah yes, Romney; that's the name I forgot. And, please, somebody tell Harry Reid, et al., about this. ...

... Alec MacGillis of The New Republic notes that "the national conversation" on gun legislation is actually shifting toward stricter controls. Moves by Democratic Governors Andrew Cuomo (N.Y.), Martin O'Malley (Md.) & John Hickenlooper (Colo.) are paving the way. ...

... Ray Rivera of the New York Times: "The grieving mothers and other parents and family members of victims killed in the Dec. 14 [Sandy Hook] elementary school massacre gathered [in Newtown, Connecticut] at a news conference on Monday to help begin a campaign aimed at preventing the kind of bloodshed that has turned this quiet New England community into a national symbol of grief.... "Perhaps foreshadowing the difficult and contentious debates to come in Washington, group members declined to offer support for any specific measures, saying they needed time to educate themselves on the issues, and emphasizing that the debate must be broader than gun control." ...

... Tom Engelhardt: "Beyond U.S. borders, the reality is: the Pentagon, with the White House in tow, is the functional equivalent of the NRA, and like that organization, it has been working tirelessly in recent years in close alliance with major weapons-makers to ensure that there are ever less controls on the ever more powerful weaponry it wants to see sold abroad. Between them, the White House and the Pentagon - with a helping hand from the State Department ... do their best to pave the way ... for the almost unfettered sales of ever more lethal weapons."

Natasha Lennard of Salon: "Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote a letter to John Brennan -- nominee for CIA director, Obama's counterterrorism adviser, and central architect of U.S. drone warfare -- asking to see the legal opinions and rules behind the targeted killing of U.S. citizens in counterterrorism efforts and demanding a list of countries where America is conducting shadow wars.

Manu Raju of Politico: "New York Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday he'd support Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary, removing a major obstacle to his nomination and greatly increasing the chances he'll be confirmed, even as Hagel continues to face opposition from the right."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The White House says it will give states more time to comply with the new health care law after finding that many states lag in setting up markets where millions of Americans are expected to buy subsidized private health insurance.... A political benefit of this strategy is that it allows the administration to keep working with even the most recalcitrant states." ...

... Elize Viebeck of The Hill: "Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) proposed expanding Medicaid under President Obama's signature healthcare law, a surprising move from a vocal critic of the White House.... Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government covers all initial costs for states to expand their Medicaid programs up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line. Arizona's program currently covers most people below the U.S. poverty level, meaning about 300,000 would gain coverage if the state expands Medicaid."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Around 11:45 on Monday morning, Justice Clarence Thomas broke almost seven years of silence during Supreme Court arguments. But it was not entirely clear what he said."

Denise Lavoie of the AP: "Andrew Good, a Boston attorney who represented Aaron Swartz in the [alleged hacking] case last year, said he told federal prosecutors in Massachusetts that Swartz was a suicide risk. 'Their response was, put him in jail, he'll be safe there,' Good said."

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The suicide of Aaron Swartz has drawn new scrutiny to a federal law that has been widely used to prosecute a variety of people accused of being trolls, bullies and cyberthieves. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, enacted in 1986, is the basis for much of the government's case against Mr. Swartz. It makes it illegal to gain access to a computer system without 'authorization.' ... The blogosphere buzzed with arguments on Monday over the scope and application of the law. A petition went up Monday afternoon, pressing the Obama administration to reform the Fraud Act."

Photo by Dreamstime.Live Science: "The hands of the infamous 'Doomsday Clock' will remain firmly in their place at five minutes to midnight -- symbolizing humans' destruction -- for the year 2013, scientists announced today (Jan. 14). Keeping their outlook for the future of humanity quite dim, the group of scientists also wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to partner with other global leaders to act on climate change."

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Since beginning his campaign for president, [Egyptian President Mohamed] Morsi has promised to uphold Egypt's treaty with Israel and to seek peace in the region. In recent months, he has begun to forge a personal bond with President Obama around their successful efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants of the Gaza Strip. But the exposure this month of his virulent comments from early 2010, both documented on video, have revealed sharp anti-Semitic and anti-Western sentiments, raising questions about Mr. Morsi's efforts to present himself as a force for moderation and stability."

Congressional Race

I think my job as mom right now is much more important, much more rewarding and much more productive [than being a Member of Congress]. The idea of killing myself to run for a seat for the privilege of serving in a dysfunctional body under John Boehner when I have an eighth-grader at home just really doesn't make sense to me. -- Jenny Sanford, Appalachian Trail victim ...

... Catalina Camia of the USA Today: "Jenny Sanford's decision avoids a potentially messy campaign against her ex-husband [former pseudo-hiker/governor Mark Sanford, who has since married become engaged to the lady he wasn't hiking with] in the GOP primary. The Weekly Standard reported last week that sources close to the former Republican governor say he will run for Scott's seat, which Sanford held from 1995 to 2001 before being elected governor." ...

... You may not see the tragedy in this, but Charles Pierce is having trouble adjusting.

Local News

Some of the panels by Judy Taylor, commissioned for the Maine State Labor Department.Matthew Stone of the Bangor Daily News: "Nearly two years after Gov. Paul LePage had a mural depicting Maine labor history removed from the lobby of the Department of Labor building, the artwork resurfaced Monday at its new home: the Maine State Museum.... LePage ordered the mural removed from the Labor Department lobby in March 2011, saying it presented a one-sided view of history and was not in keeping with the pro-business message of his administration."

Right Wing World *

Nut ... Tree. AP: "U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's son has been charged with assaulting a flight attendant during a trip from Kentucky to North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer reported over the weekend (http://bit.ly/W1D5kg ) that 19-year-old William Paul was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female by aggressive physical force. The paper had previously reported that he also was charged with underage drinking, disorderly conduct and being intoxicated and disruptive." CW: Not to worry, Littlest Paul. There is a place for you now. ...

... Glenn's Gulch. Igor Bobic of TPM: "Conservative radio host Glenn Beck is planning to construct a self-sustaining libertarian community in Texas to the tune of $2 billion, the Dallas Observer reported on Friday. The community, which Beck dubs 'Independence Park,' does not have a specified location yet, but it will be styled after 'Galt's Gulch,' a fictional utopian commune in Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged.'" Thanks to Lisa for the link.

CW: I owe readers an apology, as there's a whole world of crazy I totally missed -- the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists. Alex Seitz-Wald, in this January 9 Salon post, provides a good overview: "Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control." And nice to know my Florida tax dollars are supporting one of these loons, a tenured professor at a state university. May Prof. Tracy too find a home in Glenn's Gulch. ...

... BUT just blowing smoke isn't enough. Now some of these nuts are harassing victims, like this Newtown psychologist who lives near the school & harbored some children who came to his door moments after the massacre.

*   Will no longer be an imaginary place. **
** The Glennbeckistan City Hall is to be erected at the junction of Delusion Drive & Paranoia Parkway.

News Ledes

AP: "Northeastern lawmakers hoping to push a $50.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package through the House face roadblocks by fiscal conservatives seeking offsetting spending cuts to pay for recovery efforts as well as funding cuts for projects they say are unrelated to the Oct. 29 storm. The amendments by budget hawks set up a faceoff Tuesday...."

New York Times: "Pakistan's supreme court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in a corruption case on Tuesday afternoon, dramatically raising the stakes in a tense standoff between the government and its opponents."

Reuters: "Royal Bank of Scotland is braced for fines of between 400 million pounds and 500 million pounds ($803 million) for its role in an interest rate rigging scandal, sources familiar with the matter said. The partly state-owned bank is expected to agree a settlement with authorities in Britain and the United States next week and will be hit with a worse punishment than rival Barclays, which was fined $450 million last June."

Reuters: "Italy suspended activity at its consulate in Benghazi and withdrew staff for security reasons on Tuesday after a gun attack on its consul at the weekend which underlined the precarious security situation in the North African state. Unidentified gunmen opened fire on Guido De Sanctis's heavily armored car in Benghazi, Libya's second city, on Saturday. The diplomat was unhurt...."

The Commentariat -- Jan. 14, 2013

Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Barack Obama on Monday repeated his call for deficit reduction but warned against the potentially catastrophic effect on the economy by tying cuts to raising the debt ceiling. 'While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficit, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress over how to pay the bills they've already racked up,' Obama said in the East Room of the White House at what aides have billed as the final news conference of his first term. 'To even entertain the idea of this happening, of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It's absurd. They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy,' Obama said. 'The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.'" The New York Times story, by Jackie Calmes & Michael Shear, is here. ...

... Here's a clip wherein Obama explains the debt limit. Pretty good:

... Update: here's the full presser, with a special babbling intro by Brian Williams, Greggers & Chuck Todd (so sorry, hadda lose the NBC video):

... Update. Boehner's Go-Fuck-Yourself Response. Andrew Taylor of the AP: "Speaker John Boehner says the GOP-controlled House will 'do its job' and pass legislation to lift the nation's borrowing cap and keep the government running, but will insist that Democrats accept new spending controls. [Emphasis added.] Boehner acknowledged Monday that failing to lift the so-called debt ceiling would have bad consequences. But he also said that 'allowing our spending problem to go unresolved' would be just as troublesome."

... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: re: the demise of the Great Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin:"... the White House doesn't think it's backing down. Administration officials believe they are standing firm -- that the coin option, if anything, was becoming a distraction.... Republican congressional leaders seem to recognize this, even if some of their members do not.... You can safely assume West Wing officials worried that a protracted debate about the coin's propriety was going to make their job more difficult, not less, by interfering with their ability to portray the debate in simple, straightforward terms."

As Josh Marshall wrote last Friday, before the Treasury Department announced it would not be minting any platinum coins, the platinum coin made it appear that the President was "the one doing something reckless and totally crazy rather than Congressional Republicans who are the ones really doing it." ...

Thanks to a friend for the cartoon.... CW: I continue to believe that the coin was a brilliant idea. If the White House had played it right, rather than making the President look crazy, it would have demonstrated how entirely trivial/unhinged the House was -- a gang of nutbags whose hostage-taking attempt could be foiled by a gimmick out of the comic books. I think it was Matt Yglesias who suggested that the coin should be rather large, but I would have made it teeny-tiny, to symbolize the teeny-tininess of the gnats it swatted back. (Krugman suggested, facetiously, I think, that Boehner should have been the face on the coin.)

CW: the best way for Obama to win this one is to demand Republicans allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling before Congressional Democrats & the Administration will sit down with Republicans to talk sequester. (Pundits keep scratching their head over how the President can possibly win with no tricks or gimmicks on the table; refusing to discuss the sequester has seemed to me like the obvious move all along.) Boehner himself could come out a big winner -- he won't because he's not that smart -- by abandoning House Teabaggers & forming an alliance with Pelosi. In that way, his footnote in history could have showed him to be a patriot first & a clever operator second, doing whatever possible to right the ship of fools; instead, the footnote will read Cap'n Boner went down with the ship. ...

      ... Update: during his presser today, President Obama suggested doing it Marie's way. I did not notice where he mentioned my name. ...

... Meanwhile, Andy Borowitz reports, "President Barack Obama was 'totally furious' he spent a week of his time posing for a trillion-dollar platinum coin that would never be minted, a White House source confirmed today."

George Packer of the New Yorker writes a cultural mini-history of the South, a region whose values -- ascendant in the late 20th-century -- now have less and less influence in the rest of the U.S. ...

... NEW. Driftglass: "The GOP cannot be saved, and our nation can no longer endure permanently half-Fox and half-free. The Republican Party must go."

Colin Powell defends Hillary Clinton, Chuck Hagel, rips GOP:

     ... Charles Pierce comments on Greggers-Powell non sequiters & denialism, then moves on to shenanigans on other riveting Sunday morning shows. Thanks to James S. for the link.

     ... Ginger Gibson of Politico: "While continuing to identify as a Republican, former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday criticized the GOP for a series of racist attacks against President Barack Obama. 'There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party,' Powell said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' "What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities."

Obama 2.0

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "The campaign now being waged against [Chuck] Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense is in some ways a relitigation of that decade-old dispute [over Iraq]. It is also a dramatic return to the public stage by the neoconservatives whose worldview remains a powerful undercurrent in the Republican Party and in the national debate about the United States' relationship with Israel and the Middle East." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In what could be a crucial moment in the Obama administration’s efforts to advance the nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, he will meet this week with Senator Charles E. Schumer [D-N.Y.], the most influential Jewish member of the Senate, who is expected to press Mr. Hagel on issues concerning Iran and Israel."

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "A poisonous unraveling of U.S. relations with Russia in recent months represents more than the failure of President Obama's first-term attempt to 'reset' badly frayed bilateral relations. It threatens pillars of Obama's second-term foreign policy agenda as well. From Syria and Iran to North Korea and Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds cards that he can use to help or hurt Obama administration objectives."

Lydia Saad of Gallup: "In the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, and as Vice President Joe Biden leads a federal task force that will recommend ways to curb gun violence in the U.S., 38% of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation's gun laws and want them strengthened. This is up from 25% who held this set of views a year ago, and is the highest since 2001. Still, more Americans are either satisfied with current gun laws, 43%, or think they should be loosened, 5%." ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: "Vice President Biden, poised to propose new gun violence legislation this week, meets Monday morning with Democratic lawmakers who will consider the administration's plans. Biden sits down with members of the House Democratic task force on gun violence, as the Obama administration is marking the week of its second inaugural with a robust debate on guns. Biden says he wants to present a gun package to President Obama by Tuesday...." ...

... Aaron Davis & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will seek to institute some of the nation's strictest gun-licensing requirements, ban assault weapons and restrict visitor access to schools in one of the most expansive government responses sought to last month's school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Perhaps most controversially, O'Malley (D) will ask the General Assembly to force prospective gun owners to provide fingerprints to state police, complete a hands-on weapon-familiarization and gun-safety course, and undergo a background check to be licensed." ...

... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Nearly 80,000 Americans were denied guns in 2010, according to Justice Department data, because they lied or provided inaccurate information about their criminal histories on background-check forms. Yet only 44 of those people were charged with a crime. The staggeringly low number of prosecutions for people who 'lie and try,' as it is called by law enforcement officials, is being studied by the Obama administration as it considers measures to curb gun violence after the Connecticut elementary school shootings in December." ...

... Will Dunham & David Brunnstrom of Reuters: "Gun rights groups on Sunday forecast that bids to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips would fail in Congress, as Vice President Joe Biden prepares this week to give President Barack Obama proposals to curb gun violence. Even some congressional Democrats indicated that a bill to revive the U.S. assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 would have a difficult time winning passage in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-led Senate." ...

... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Gun advocate Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners Of America, spoke out against expanding background checks for gun purchases during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, arguing that the proposal would provide Americans with a 'false sense of security' and waste time. Instead, Pratt encouraged lawmakers to eliminate gun-free zones in schools and self defense." With video. ...

Screenshot of NRA app via Think Progress.... Bambi Gets a Break as NRA Turns Focus to Killing People. Annie-Rose Strasser of Think Progress: "... over the weekend [the NRA] released a shooting app, called 'NRA: Practice Range.' ... It allows players practice shooting at targets -- coffin-shaped targets, with red bullseyes at head-and heart-level."

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The Center for American Progress is recommending 13 new gun policies to the White House -- some of them executive actions that would not require the approval of Congress -- in what amounts to the progressive community's wish list. CAP's proposals ... include requiring universal background checks, banning military-grade assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and modernizing data systems to track gun sales and enforce existing laws...." ...

... Rahmbo's Back. Daniel Strauss of The Hill: "Rahm Emanuel, who put the brakes on gun control in the Obama White House, is now pushing for broad changes to firearm policies in Chicago.... Emanuel wants to strengthen Chicago's gun laws to address an alarming increase in homicides. In late December, Chicago attracted national attention when law-enforcement officials confirmed the city's 500th homicide in 2012." ...

... Digby is not impressed: "Until we racked up a huge body count of innocent people, it was best to STFU and elect as many government officials of both parties who would oppose any kind of gun control. That's what people in the beltway call 'pragmatism.' I call it immoral." ...

... CW: I hope you all had a chance to read at least one of the "history of gun laws" pieces I linked over the weekend, one from the Atlantic by Adam Winkler & one by several Wash Po reporters. They are both fascinating. One thing that struck me is that a big impetus for gun control legislation in the late '60s, early '70s was fear of black men; now a big impetus for lax guns laws is fear of a particular black man. We-all of the Great Melting Pot never do seem to melt, do we? Plus read George Packer, linked today.

New York Times Editors: "Until now, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has not seen a single member of his caucus dare to buck his fierce opposition to a law requiring fuller disclosure of campaign contributions. But last month, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, broke through the partisan wall to propose a badly needed mandate for [campaign finance] transparency.... The measure, co-sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, would require any campaign organization spending $500 or more on federal political activity to disclose who its donors are, and to do so in 'real time' at every point, from 'candidacy to advocacy.'"

Noam Cohen of the New York Times: Aaron "Swartz was a flash point in the debate over whether information should be made widely available. On one side were activists like Mr. Swartz and advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Students for Free Culture. On the other were governments and corporations that argued that some information must be kept private for security or commercial reasons. After his death, Mr. Swartz has come to symbolize a different debate over how aggressively governments should pursue criminal cases against people like Mr. Swartz who believe in 'freeing' information."

Ginger Gibson of Politico: "Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Sunday continued to teeter the line about whether he will run for the U.S. Senate and potentially challenge incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg to a primary. 'That's my intention, but it's over a year away,' Booker said when asked if he's going to run. 'A lot could change between now and then.'"

Paul Krugman: Shinzo Abe, the new Prime Minister of Japan, "returned to office pledging to end Japan's long economic stagnation, and he has already taken steps orthodoxy says we mustn't take. And the early indications are that it's going pretty well.... While getting out of a prolonged slump turns out to be very difficult, that's mainly because it's hard getting policy makers to accept the need for bold action. That is, the problem is mainly political and intellectual, rather than strictly economic."

News Ledes

New York Times: "At least two deadly explosions, possibly caused by aircraft missiles or bombs, devastated the campus of Aleppo University in Syria on Tuesday as students were taking exams, a major escalation of the violent struggle for control of the country's largest city. The opposition and government blamed each other for the blasts, among the worst since the Syrian conflict began nearly two years ago."

AP: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office said Monday he was never involved in a deal to have a Utah businessman pay the senator to make a federal investigation disappear. St. George, [Utah,] businessman Jeremy Johnson, who's accused of running a $350 million software scheme, said a top official in the Utah attorney general's office orchestrated an agreement in 2010 to pay $600,000 to someone connected to Reid. Johnson told The Salt Lake Tribune over the weekend that he believed Reid would intervene in the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into his business."

NBC News: "Former President George H.W. Bush will be released Monday from a Houston hospital after nearly two months of treatment for a bronchitis-related cough and other health issues...." ...

     ... Houston Chronicle: "Former President George H.W. Bush was discharged from Methodist Hospital on Monday after being treated for bronchitis, a bacterial infection and a lingering cough during his seven-week stay."

Reuters: "U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay called on Monday for an international investigation into what she said were decades of serious violations in North Korea, including torture and executions of political prisoners held in shadowy camps."