The Commentariat -- Jan. 10, 2013

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "... the statistical election-modeller Samuel Wang, of the Princeton Election Consortium, has argued that we are in an 'asymmetric' period of Republican manipulation of electoral maps. According to Wang's math, twenty-six seats out of the thirty-three-seat Republican advantage in the House can be attributed to gerrymandering in states with legislatures controlled by Republicans. He estimates that, in 2012, the number of American voters disenfranchised by this mapmaking ... was in the neighborhood of four million."

Gail Collins: "Forty years ago this month, the Supreme Court handed down the great abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade.... Every time the anti-abortion movement pushes too far, it reminds people that its cause, no matter how filled with moral fervor, is basically about imposing one particular theology on the rest of the country. Over the long run, the nervous, ambivalent, uncomfortable public won't let that happen." CW: I would argue, as did E. J. Graff is a column I linked the other day, that it is basically about a primitive purity culture, which holds that if women are going to have sex -- consensual or not -- they have to accept the consequences.

** Linda Greenhouse: Robert Bork was one crazy bastard. Or something like that. A very good read.

Kevin Freking of the AP: "The United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home in a place that is often unlocked, according to a report released Wednesday by two of the nation's leading health research institutions. Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy...." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The White House is working with its allies on a well-financed campaign in Washington and around the country to shift public opinion toward stricter gun laws and provide political cover to lawmakers who end up voting for an assault-weapons ban or other restrictions on firearms." ...

... Amie Parnes of The Hill: "President Obama will likely take executive action in an effort to tamp down the recent rash of gun violence, Vice President Biden said Wednesday. 'The president is going go act,' said Biden, who is conducting meetings all week on gun control. 'There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all.'" ...

... Linda Feldmann of the Christian Science Monitor: "The Drudge Report website responded with this display: 'White House threatens "executive order" on guns.' Pictured above were two notorious dictators from the 20th century, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin." CW: because in the mind of Drudge, curbing mass murder by homicidal maniacs is akin to genocide. This is about as upside-down as a mind can go -- which probably means Matt Drudge will be mentally disqualified from owning firearms & ammo. ...

... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "... a Republican congressman warned on Wednesday the idea sounded like 'dictatorship' to him.... 'The Founding Fathers never envisioned Executive Orders being used to restrict our Constitutional rights,' Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said in a statement Wednesday. 'We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.'" CW: Hey, Jeff, the Founding Fathers never envisioned your having a Constitutional right to carry an assault weapon loaded with 100 rounds. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "Most changes to the current system ... has to come through legislation.... But there are several significant steps the president can take on his own." Firestone lists those steps. ...

... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday he hopes former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other gun-control activists bring change to the country in the wake of the Newtown massacre, calling the proliferation of high-capacity weapons 'nuts.' 'Why does anybody need one of those things that carries 100 bullets? The guy in Colorado had one of those,' said Clinton, referring to the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., last year. 'Half of all mass killings in the U.S. occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005.'" ...

... E. J. Dionne on gun control: "A large share of ... Republicans, particularly those from the Northeast, are growing impatient with the extent to which their party's image is being shaped by the wishes and opinions of its most right-wing members, many of them from one-party districts in the South. Suburban Republicans especially need to declare their independence from viewpoints antithetical to those held by the vast majority of their constituents." Dionne thinks some of these MOCs may voice their support for gun legislation. CW: However, they -- and the public -- will have to press the House leadership to even bring up legislation for a vote.

... Wal-Mart Finds Time for Biden. Abram Brown of Forbes: "Wal-Mart has now decided that it will, after all, attend week-long talks about gun legislation at the White House. At first, Wal-Mart declined the Oval Office overtures, a direct invitation from the task force led by Vice President Joe Biden, saying no executives were available.... Wal-Mart [is] ... the nation's largest seller of munitions.... Wal-Mart says it won't make any changes to the way it sells firearms." ...

... Thomas Kaplan & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders believe they are close to an agreement on a package of gun laws that includes a restrictive ban on assault weapons, and lawmakers hope to vote on it as soon as next week."

Obama 2.0

NEW. Obama & Lew both mentioned Lew's "penmanship" during the President's nomination announcement today. Lew also mentioned Geithner's. Here's what they're talking about. Oliver Cox of NBC News: "We have ... confirmed that Jack Lew's signature is a series of looped scribbles that resembles the markings left on a notepad when you can't seem to get your pen working. As Treasury secretary, Mr. Lew's signature will be printed on all bills minted during his tenure."

Jackie Calmes & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate his chief of staff and former budget director, Jacob J. Lew, to be his next secretary of Treasury, according to officials familiar with the decision."

Mark Landler & Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced on Wednesday that she was stepping down, becoming the latest woman to leave President Obama's cabinet at a time when his personnel choices are drawing scrutiny for their lack of female candidates." CW: looks like the President could use some of those binders full of women.

Steven Mufson & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "White House aides said, however, that [Attorney General Eric] Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would remain in their current posts. People familiar with Holder's thinking said he does not expect to stay in office for Obama's entire second term, and perhaps for as little as a few months." CW: the less time, the better. ...

... CW Update. Okay, Holder can stay as long as he wants if he will realize the NRA's fears -- Jordy Yager of The Hill: "... gun-rights groups are suspicious of Holder's involvement and fear he is pushing the White House toward tougher restrictions on gun ownership and increased penalties for illegal firearms." This would at least leave Holder with a legacy of doing something besides whacking whistleblowers & fighting a few state voter suppression laws.

Here's the link to commentary by Noam Scheiber of The New Republic, which P. D. Pepe mentions in today's Comments, on Obama's nomination of Jack Lew. Scheiber, who has written on budget negotiations in which Lew was a principal, writes a balanced assessment.

Juli Weiner of Vanity Fair: "Fun fact: Lew is also a practicing Orthodox Jew, so John McCain and Lindsey Graham's go-to strategy of opposing Obama's nominees on the basis of apathy toward Israel is going to be. . . trickier. Not that John McCain and Lindsey Graham won't try."

Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: "In selecting Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Obama not only picks an insider steeped in budget matters but also a tough bargainer. Some Republicans complain that Lew has been unyielding in past fiscal negotiations.... Lew, 57, has often been described as a 'pragmatic liberal' who understands what it takes to make a deal even as he stands by his ideological views."

Alex Massie of The Spectator: "Republicans objecting to Chuck Hagel’s nomination to serve as the new US Defense Secretary have only themselves to blame. Having run Susan Rice out of the running to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, there's no way President Obama could stomach losing a second high-profile nomination before he's even formally accepted his second term.... More importantly, the objections to Hagel's nomination are a useful reminder why, at least in terms of foreign policy, this present bunch of Democrats is preferable to their Republican opponents." Via Jonathan Bernstein.

Jamelle Bouie in the Washington Post: "Barring extraordinary circumstances, cabinet nominations are almost always confirmed, as they should be -- the chamber's role is to give advice and consent, not set policy for the administration. But if the mounting opposition to Lew -- and current opposition to Hagel -- is any indication, Republicans are prepared to jettison that norm so that they can block Obama's ability to pursue his agenda.... If the GOP wants to pick cabinet members, then it should start by winning a presidential election."

Good for Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times! "In Washington's running battles over taxes and spending..., [leaders of] Fix the Debt have lent a public-spirited, elder-statesman sheen to the cause of deficit reduction.... But ... many of the campaign's members will be juggling their private interests with their public goals: they are also lobbyists, board members or executives for corporations that have worked aggressively to shape the contours of federal spending and taxes, including many of the tax breaks that would be at the heart of any broad overhaul. While Fix the Debt criticized the recent fiscal deal between Mr. Obama and lawmakers..., companies and industries linked to the organization emerged with significant victories on taxes and other policies.... Close to half of the members of Fix the Debt's board and steering committee have ties to companies that have engaged in lobbying on taxes and spending, often to preserve tax breaks and other special treatment." Some of the more high-profile miscreants: former Senators Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) & Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Erskine Bowles & Honeywell CEO David Cotes.

Thomas Edsall in the New York Times: "The slow implosion of the Republican Party -- along with the growing strength of a Democratic coalition dominated by low-to-middle-income voters -- threatens the power of the corporate establishment and will force big business to find new ways to reassert control of the policy-making process." And find it they will, as they always have.

Coin Tease. Michael Scherer of Time: "Despite repeated questioning [during yesterday's briefing, Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney] refused to rule out categorically the possibility of minting [a trillion-dollar coin]. But he also made clear that it is not a current option under consideration. 'The option here is for Congress to pay its bills,' Carney said, after flipping to a page in his briefing book that appeared to anticipate the question. 'There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan. There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States.'" ...

... Scott Lemieux of the American Prospect provides more argument about why the trillion-dollar coin is legal. Besides, "in the context of a minority party transforming what has always been a symbolic vote into a yearly threat to destroy the functioning of the American government, it's difficult to take the argument that norms should preclude a lawful but unprecedented response from the Obama administration seriously." ...

... In case I've never mentioned it, Congressional Republicans Are Incredibly Stupid. Matt Yglesias of Slate: "The biggest and weirdest myth out there about the $1 trillion platinum coin is the idea that it would require a large quantity of platinum to make one. The National Republican Campaign Committee, for example, is out there warning that 'The amount of platinum needed to mint a coin worth $1 trillion would sink the Titanic.' ... Saying that the government would need a lot of platinum is like saying a $100 bill needs to have 100 times as much cotton in it as a $1 bill. Nobody would be able to fit them into their wallets.... [Ergo,] the metallic content of a coin is entirely irrelevant to its monetary value and has been for a long time." CW: mmm, is that a $100 bill in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? If you missed it, read Joe Weisenthal's piece I linked yesterday. This idea that the trillion-dollar coin has to be as big as the Titanic comes from that same misunderstanding of what money is. It's a very short hop from this misapprehension to believing the federal deficit is "immoral." (See Jon Chait's post on that, also linked yesterday.)

Michael de la Merced & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "The American International Group will not join a lawsuit against the federal government over its $182 billion financial crisis bailout, the company said on Wednesday. The decision by A.I.G.'s board follows a public uproar that erupted after The New York Times reported on Monday night that the company was weighing whether to join a $25 billion lawsuit filed by its former chief executive, Maurice R. Greenberg, on behalf of fellow shareholders."

Happy Birthday, Richard Nixon -- RIP, Campaign Finance Law. Kathy Keily & Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation in the Huffington Post: "It was actually Nixon who, in 1971, signed into law the Federal Election Campaign Act, limiting the amount of money that could be donated to congressional and presidential campaigns and requiring that those donations be reported. And he was also responsible for the strengthening of that law: The Watergate scandal that drove the nation's 37th president to resign on Aug. 9, 1974, in the middle of his second term, also prompted Congress to pass more regulations on campaign contributions and to create the Federal Election Commission."

Inauguration

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration. In a mid-1990s sermon identified as Giglio's, available online on a Christian training Web site, he preached rabidly anti-LGBT views." Includes audio of sermon. CW: couldn't Obama get somebody to vet these yokels? Really, he has to lose Louie. ...

... ** So Long, Giglio. Update. Ali Weinberg & Andrew Mach of NBC News: "A pastor chosen by President Obama to deliver the inaugural benediction later this month has withdrawn amid controversy over anti-gay remarks he made more than a decade ago. In a mid-1990s sermon, Rev. Louie Giglio, an Atlanta minister and founder of the Passion Conferences, a group dedicated to uniting students in worship and prayer, advocated for 'ex-gay' therapy and urged listeners to prevent the 'homosexual lifestyle' from becoming accepted."

Henry Jackson of the AP: "Tickets to President Barack Obama's inauguration are supposed to be free, but they're being peddled on eBay and Craigslist for up to $2,000 apiece. Congressional offices and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which are both distributing tickets to inaugural events, are trying to clamp down on the black market. So far, their efforts haven't stopped online entrepreneurs."

Barry Svrulga of the Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, [Barry] Bonds and [Roger] Clemens were denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a sharp rebuke not only to those two stars, but an apparent condemnation of the steroids-tainted period in which they played the game.... For the first time since 1996, the baseball writers elected no one to the Hall. Among those rejected were Sammy Sosa, the slugger who sits eighth on the all-time home run list and who joined Clemens and Bonds on the ballot for the first time. Mark McGwire, who sits 10th on the all-time home run list, failed again, receiving his lowest percentage in seven years of eligibility. McGwire has admitted steroid use. Sosa was widely suspected of it. The vote was the latest emphatic, if expected, pronouncement that the vast majority of the 569 writers who cast ballots are not ready to elect even the best performers if there are fears they used drugs."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Bomb blasts in two Pakistani cities killed at least 115 people on Thursday and wounded more than 270, offering harrowing evidence of how the country's myriad internal conflicts could destabilize it as elections approach."

Boston Globe: Boston "Mayor Thomas M. Menino declared a public health emergency Wednesday morning because of the expanding flu outbreak. Health care centers across the city will be offering free vaccines to anyone who hasn't yet been immunized. The city has 700 confirmed cases of flu so and four flu-related deaths. Last year Boston had only 70 confirmed cases."

Reuters: "Afghan lawmakers said on Wednesday disaster and civil war would follow if Washington pushed ahead with a suggestion to withdraw all its troops from the country after 2014." CW: also, they feared there would be no way for them to steal any more American cash.

New York Times: "Three Kurdish women, including a founding member of a leading militant group fighting for autonomy in Turkey, were shot to death at a Kurdish institute in central Paris, police officials said on Thursday, potentially complicating fragile efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the decades-old conflict.

AP: "A community in Quebec's Far North is calling for outside help to free about a dozen killer whales trapped under a vast stretch of sea ice. Locals in Inukjuak said the mammals have gathered around a single hole in the ice -- slightly bigger than a pickup truck -- in a desperate bid to get oxygen." CW: cue climate deniers to cite this as disproof of global warming.

AP: "Junior Seau, one of the NFL's best and fiercest players for nearly two decades, had a degenerative brain disease when he committed suicide last May, the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press on Thursday. Results of an NIH study of Seau's brain revealed abnormalities consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)."

The Commentariat -- January 9, 2013

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' latest pack o'lies.

You will want this guy on your side:

... Charles Pierce prints Hagel's entire 2002 speech on the Iraq War Resolution. As far as I can tell, video of the 2002 speech is not available on the Internet. ...

... Pierce profiled Hagel in 2007. ...

... Juan Cole: "Top Ten Reasons Chuck Hagel Should Be Secretary of Defense."

Elections Matter. Norm Ornstein in The New Republic: "... the Senate has a core of assertive, brainy liberals greater than we have seen in decades.... The new liberal base has a slew of people who remind me of their predecessors in their passion, intelligence, persistence, and, for many, grasp of how the Senate works.... This group of strong-willed and ideologically determined liberals will not be pushovers for President Barack Obama and the policies of his administration. However it works, the infusion of new talent combined with seasoned veterans makes the 113th Senate a new and dynamic vessel for liberal aspirations."

M. J. Lee of Politico: "Former Rep. Barney Frank says it was the year-end standoff over the fiscal cliff that prompted him to seek an appointment to John Kerry's Senate seat and then to go public with hopes for his next career move."

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican. That re-establishes a Democratic edge in party affiliation after the two parties were essentially tied in 2010 and 2011."

Jonathan Chait of New York: Washington's "centrist deficit drones ... are merely performing the opinion journalism equivalent of wishing passersby a Merry Christmas.... If you look closely at [their writings], they uses phrases like 'solve problems' and 'reduce the deficit' almost interchangeably.... When figures like Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson are invited on to programs like Meet the Press, they are treated as disinterested wise men rather than political advocates.... David Gregory ... does not question their own ideas.... All believe unswervingly that the solution to the long-term deficit requires both parties to move to the center.... Obama's negotiating position is exactly the same as the centrists." ...

... CW: I think Chait is exactly right & Paul Krugman is full of shit when he flatters himself like so: "Does anyone doubt that the White House pays attention to what I write?" Krugman claims he is more influential as "an outside man" than he would be as Treasury Secretary. I don't see where he has had much, if any, effect on the Obama-Geithner twins.

Money is the creation of the state. -- John Maynard Keynes

Here's Krugman, BTW, again on the trillion-dollar platinum coin: "What the hysterics see is a terrible, outrageous attempt to pay the government's bills out of thin air. This is utterly wrong.... In practice minting the coin would be nothing but an accounting fiction, enabling the government to continue doing exactly what it would have done if the debt limit were raised.... So minting the coin would be undignified, but so what? At the same time, it would be economically harmless -- and would both avoid catastrophic economic developments and help head off government by blackmail." CW: Now, Paul, try to explain that to Sen. Rand Paul. The Rand Pauls are the real reason Krugman would not go to Washington, if invited. (Also, the reason he would not be invited.) ...

... ** Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider: "In order to have a 'serious' debate about fiscal policy, as so many pundits claim to want, we must first understand what money is, and how governments get it.... The answer is that they have always created it, and any notion of the government 'running out' are illogical. Remember, money is a fiction. Real wealth is capital assets, our infrastructure, our cars, our houses, and most importantly the potential human ingenuity and cooperation. Money is just something that the government creates to facilitate the trade in all of those things. The #MintTheCoin debate, more than any other fiscal debate we can remember, gets right to this matter." Read the whole post. ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Washington Monthly: Law Professor Laurence Tribe says minting a trillion-dollar-coin is clearly legal under the statute & to do so would not be exploiting a "loophole"; the statute clearly places no limit on the value of coins to be minted under its terms. ...

... Ed Kilgore on the "moral" assumptions of deficit-hawkery: "... scratch a deficit hawk, and you will often very quickly find a disdain for the 'indiscipline' of debtors, of those who insufficiently save, of those who aren't as prudent and responsible as the deficit hawk. The interesting thing about the platinum coin proposal is that it flushes all those sentiments right out into the open where they can be addressed head on." ...

... Krugman again: "The money morality people are basically adopting a pre-Enlightenment attitude toward monetary and fiscal policy -- and why not? After all, they hate the Enlightenment on all fronts. The bottom line is that we aren't really having a rational argument here. Nor can we: rationality has a well-known liberal bias." ... CW: this is a polite way of saying that conservatives are ignorant, superstitious, narrow-minded martinets forever caught in a Medieval time warp. I don't like to make sweeping generalizations, which are usually unfair, but most elite members of the conservative movement are just Louie Gohmerts with better manners & diction.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "As she begins her second Congress as leader of the opposition in the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California is confident that Democrats will get behind President Obama on the big clashes with Republicans. But she thinks the president should aggressively line up much wider support for raising the federal debt limit and enacting new gun rules."

Yo, Erskine. The Centrist, the Orange Man & the Turtle Have Already "Come Together" to Reduce the Deficit. Suzy Khimm of the Washington Post: "... the Jan. 1 fiscal cliff deal represented just one portion of the deficit reduction that's been going on since 2011. The Center for American Progress calculates that President Obama and Congress have successfully enacted $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction since the beginning of fiscal year 2011, which began in September 2010. About one-quarter of that comes from revenues (primarily the fiscal cliff deal) and almost two-thirds from spending cuts.... That doesn't count the 10 months of the sequester that are scheduled to take effect on March 1...." ...

    ... Update: here's the original Center for American Progress piece -- from which Khimm takes her figures & charts -- on deficit reduction. It's in plain English.

Jason Langes of Reuters: "The U.S. Congress should accept in the next round of deficit-reduction talks that revenue from taxes must be raised further if it expects President Barack Obama to sign off on a deal, the president's top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, said in an interview" with Reuters.

Capitalism as Dark Comedy. David Atkins of Hullabaloo on AIG's possible "Thank you, America. Now we're suing your ass": "What's most appalling ... is ... that everyone is behaving as modern capitalism demands. AIG 'innovated' financial products to meet shareholder expectations of quarterly profits as the market demanded. When those products went belly up, the government couldn't let AIG go bankrupt without destroying the entire economy. With AIG back on its feet due entirely to government largesse, the faceless, soulless corporation is once again doing its job in attempting to maximize value to its shareholders. Everything is working exactly as the system is designed to, actually. And it will keep working this way until we overthrow it in favor of a new system that doesn't prioritize short-term profit over long-term stability, corporate persons over real persons, and shareholder return over wage growth."

Dear American Taxpayers: ... Oh, and as for our ad campaign, 'Thank you, America'? We’re sticking with that, just changing the first word. See you in court. -- Your friends at A.I.G. Via Andy Borowitz ...

Some People Are Just Not Amused: Taxpayers across this country saved AIG from ruin, and it would be outrageous for this company to turn around and sue the federal government because they think the deal wasn't generous enough. Even today, the government provides an ongoing, stealth bailout, propping up AIG with special tax breaks -- tax breaks that Congress should stop. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Warren is sponsoring a citizens' petition urging Congress "to end AIG's ongoing bailout and special tax status. Enough is enough." ...

... Ben White & Anna Palmer of Politico: Washington's reaction to AIG's possible suit against the government has been fast & furious.

New York Times Editors: "In the face of widespread evidence of illegal foreclosure practices, federal regulators in 2011 told the big banks to investigate themselves.... Not surprisingly, after spending an estimated $1.5 billion on consultants, the banks have found little wrongdoing and provided no meaningful relief. Equally unsurprising, regulators will let the banks off with a wrist slap for their failure to execute credible and effective reviews.... For the new settlement to have any credibility, regulators must appoint an independent monitor with full authority to oversee, analyze and publicly report on the deal's enforcement."

Simon Dumenco of Ad Age: "Facebook doesn't just screw users with its shifty privacy practices; it also engages in shifty (if technically legal) tax-dodging practices. Just before Christmas, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported that Facebook uses a byzantine accounting technique called -- no kidding -- the 'Double Irish' to drastically minimize its tax burden. Basically, 'Facebook is structured so that companies buying advertisements ... anywhere outside of the U.S. have to pay Facebook Ireland.' Through a complicated series of maneuvers involving royalty payments and transfers to the Cayman Islands, Facebook Ireland is then able to report a huge loss, 'despite it accounting for 44% of the social network's revenues.' Per Business Insider's math, that means Facebook paid just $4.64 million on its entire non-U.S. profits of $1.34 billion for 2011 -- an effective tax rate of 0.3%." CW: I really resent major media outlets forcing me to utilize Facebook, which itself is forcing me to cover its tax obligations. Here's a truism you can "take to the bank": Billionaires are assholes. (Yeah, yeah, Warren Buffett.) Thanks to Mushiba for the link.

Julie Pace of the AP: "... Vice President Joe Biden is meeting at the White House with victims groups and gun-safety organizations. Wednesday's meeting is to be part of a series of gatherings Biden is conducting this week at the White House, aimed at building consensus around proposals to curb gun violence.... The vice president will meet Thursday with the National Rifle Association and other gun-owner groups. Meetings with representatives from the video-game and entertainment industries are also planned."

Heidi, You're Not in North Dakota Any More. Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence will run advertisements in the Washington publications Politico and Roll Call in addition to North Dakota newspapers, calling out [Sen. Heidi] Heitkamp [D-N.D.] for criticizing comprehensive gun control reform. 'No parent should have to send their children to school wondering if they will come home,' the ad reads. 'Shame on you, Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) for telling the country on Sunday that the Obama Administration's response to Newtown -- which may include universal background checks and a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines -- is "extreme."'" Includes reproduction of the ad. Also text of a mealy-mouthed response from Heitkamp's office.

Jim Acosta of CNN: "A staunch supporter of gun rights for years, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may be changing his position on the contentious issue in the aftermath of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.... 'He's in a different place than he was in 2010,' [a Reid] adviser told CNN."

Pete Yost of the AP: "A defence contractor whose subsidiary was accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to torture detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has paid $5.28 million to 71 former inmates held there and at other U.S.-run detention sites between 2003 and 2007. The settlement in the case involving Engility Holdings Inc. of Chantilly, Virginia, marks the first successful effort by lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other detention centres to collect money from a U.S. defence contractor in lawsuits alleging torture. Another contractor, CACI, is expected to go to trial over similar allegations this summer. The payments were disclosed in a document that Engility filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission two months ago but which has gone essentially unnoticed."

Inauguration

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "On Wednesday the president's inaugural planners will announce that [Cuban-American poet Richard] Blanco is to be the 2013 inaugural poet, joining the ranks of notables like Robert Frost and Maya Angelou." Stolberg profiles Blanco.

Katie McDonough of Salon: "The historic Washington National Cathedral will soon begin performing same-sex marriages. The church will be among the first Episcopal congregations to offer the marriage sacrament to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members.... Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, decided in December to implement marriage rites to reflect the new law allowing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia and Maryland, but each priest in the diocese will be allowed to decide whether or not to perform same-sex unions."

Ronen Bergman interviewed Israeli President Shimon Peres for the New York Times Magazine. For some reason, the interview took place six months ago & is just being published now.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. And these are all developing amid the normal winter highs for the many viruses that cause symptoms on the 'colds and flu' spectrum."

New York Times: "Military prosecutors preparing to try Pfc. Bradley Manning said on Wednesday that they would introduce evidence that Osama bin Laden requested and received from a Qaeda member some of the State Department cables and military reports that Private Manning is accused of passing to WikiLeaks."

ABC News: "After two days of apparent indifference, accused Aurora shooter James Holmes smiled and smirked at disturbing self-portraits and images of weapons shown in court today, according to the families of victims who watched him."

AP: "The Obama administration says it might leave no troops in Afghanistan after December 2014, an option that defies the Pentagon's view that thousands of troops may be needed to contain al-Qaida and to strengthen Afghan forces. 'We wouldn't rule out any option,' including zero troops, Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser, said Tuesday."

New York Times: "The Iranian government is behind hacking attacks on major American banks, according to government security experts."

New York Times: "For Boeing, much rides on the success of its newest and most sophisticated jet, the 787 Dreamliner. But a spate of mishaps is reviving concerns about the plane's reliability and safety."

New York Times: "An element of the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk practice was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge on Tuesday, a ruling that may have broad implications for the city's widespread use of police stops as a crime-fighting tactic. The decision, the first federal ruling to find that the practice under the Bloomberg administration violates the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure, focused on police stops conducted in front of several thousand private residential buildings in the Bronx enrolled in the Trespass Affidavit Program."

Washington Post: "A military judge refused Tuesday to toss out the case against WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning but ruled that any sentence the Army private receives should be reduced by 112 days because of his mistreatment in confinement."

New York Times: "Australia on Wednesday was grappling with an unprecedented heat wave that has sparked raging bushfires across some of the country's most populated regions -- pushing firefighters to their limits, residents to their wits' end and leaving meteorologists tracking the soaring temperatures into uncharted territory."

Reuters: "India denounced Pakistan on Wednesday over a firefight in the disputed territory of Kashmir in which two Indian soldiers were killed, but the nuclear-armed rivals both appeared determined to prevent the clash escalating into a full diplomatic crisis.

Guardian: "Drones have taken centre stage in an escalating arms race between China and Japan as they struggle to assert their dominance over disputed islands in the East China Sea. China is rapidly expanding its nascent drone programme, while Japan has begun preparations to purchase an advanced model from the US. Both sides claim the drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn the possibility of future drone skirmishes in the region's airspace is 'very high'."

AP: "Investigators picked through the wreckage Tuesday of a heavily loaded U.S.-owned cargo helicopter that crashed in the Peruvian jungle shortly after takeoff, killing its five American and two Peruvian crew members. The tandem-rotor Chinook BH-234 chopper, owned by Columbia Helicopters, Inc. of the Portland suburb of Aurora, Oregon, crashed Monday near the provincial capital of Pucallpa. It was under contract for petroleum exploration support, en route to a drilling location in northern Peru...."

AP: "Venezuela's decision to postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez as he remains in Cuba battling cancer has prompted furious accusations from the opposition that the government is violating the constitution and should tell the country how ill the socialist leader really is."

Reuters: "- The Bank of Japan will consider easing monetary policy again this month and also perhaps doubling its inflation target to 2 percent, sources said, as the economy's weakness threatens to delay its escape from two decades of deflation. Any easing will likely take the form of another increase in the BOJ's 101 trillion yen ($1.2 trillion) asset buying and lending program, mostly for purchases of government bonds and treasury discount bills...."

The Commentariat -- January 8, 2013

Obama 2.0

So here is the President, nominating Ahmadinnerjacket's right-hand-man & the Irish mafia guy to head up our national security team:

     The New York Times report, by Mark Landler, is here.

Tom Hamburger & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "The nomination of former senator Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon has set in motion a highly unusual campaign-style brawl over a Cabinet post long considered above politics. Supporters and opponents are raising money and building political organizations in anticipation of a grueling and contentious Senate confirmation process." CW: every day in every way, right-wing obstructionism is unprecedented. Continually topping one's own outlandish audacity can't be easy. Maybe this is the Trumpification of the GOP.

Dana Milbank: "For the president, who has too often shied from forceful leadership, the Hagel nomination was a welcome sign that he is willing to pick a fight in his second term. And Hagel is worth fighting for." CW: of course it wasn't the President who picked the fight.

Hagel Is Not a "Real" Republican. Fred Kaplan of Slate: "Hagel seems to be the right choice. And that's what disturbs the most outspoken Hagel-resisters. These resisters ... fear that Hagel will cut the military budget. They fear that he'll roll over if Iran builds a nuclear weapon. They fear that he's too reluctant to use military force generally. And they fear he doesn't much like Israel; the extremists on this point claim he's anti-Semitic.... What Republicans seem to fear most is that by appointing Hagel as secretary of defense, Obama can claim a false bipartisanship in his national-security team."

     CW: what Kaplan is getting at is an aspect of the Republican purity test: if you get along with Obama, you aren't a real Republican. That is the real reason, for instance, that Boehner stamped his feet & walked out on Obama, never to return again. If he could agree with Obama on anything, then the crazoids in his caucus would assume he was a secret Democrat. (Yes, of course there's some racism in there, but remember how Republicans treated pasty-white Bill Clinton.)

David Sirota, writing in Salon, zeroes in on military spending: Hagel's "critics focus on his stances on Israel and Iran. They're really afraid he'd slash budgets and weapons systems." The loudmouths see Hagel "as a threat to the lucrative business of permanent war -- a business whose profit margins, employment footprint across America, campaign contributions and think-tank underwriting make it, by far, the most powerful pillar of that power structure."

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obama's anticipated nomination of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary shows how the polarization of Obama's second term might differ from that of his first. His first term was polarizing despite Obama's efforts. His second could be polarizing because of them.... Unless opponents [of Hagel's nomination] can restrict the debate on Hagel to his views -- real or imagined -- on Israel, they risk litigating the disastrous [Bush] policies that Hagel rejected and his most vociferous critics embraced."

We Were for Him before We Were against Him. Sahil Kapur of Think Progress: "As Republicans plan their opposition strategy on Chuck Hagel's anticipated nomination as the next secretary of defense, Democrats are digging up and circulating examples of top GOP senators saying nice things about their former colleague in the past." Kapur includes some choice quotes. Were you lying then, Senator, or are you lying now? Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... Here's another flashback from Hayes Brown of Think Progress: Bill Kristol, who is now leading the neocon attack on Hagel, touted Hagel for vice president in 2000, & accused Hagel's detractors of running a smear campaign.

Hagel talks to Don Walton of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star.

I hope a few of you will read David Brooks' response to Hagel's nomination. It is unintentionally hilarious. In his column today, Brooks explains that Obama picked Hagel because -- Medicare costs are out of control. Really.

Scott Shane & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times list some issues being raised by left & right (and nonideological) about John Brennan's qualifications & his past activities & positions. CW: could Brennan skate through confirmation hearings because all the Hagel noise?

Michael Cohen of the Guardian: Mitch "McConnell is a man who appears to be very concerned about how the government spends its money – so concerned, it seems, that he wants someone else to tackle it. According to the Republican narrative, though, President Obama is exclusively responsible for this untenable situation -- and not the Congress that passed all those spending bills, or the last president 'whose name shall not be spoken'." But McConnell wants Obama to do the cutting because polls show Americans don't want most programs cut. "Obama should say that he will entertain a discussion about reducing the federal deficit via more spending cuts -- just as soon as Republicans lay out in fine detail exactly the cuts they'd like to make, with specific programs and policies they would like to enact....Once, they've laid out their cuts, then serious negotiations can occur." ...

... Here's a ferinstance: Dave Weigel of Slate: for Republicans "to criticize Democrats over the restored payroll tax is to slam them for something Republicans wanted. It's beautiful, sometimes, the lack of responsibility that comes with diminished powers."

CW: there seems to be a growing consensus among the tea-leaf readers (see Greg Sargent here) that the Republican leadership is bluffing about taking the Treasury hostage over the debt-ceiling. That might be, but what will Boehner do to get a "yea" vote through the House? Will he muscle his caucus? That takes some tea party-leaf reading. Or will he cooperate with House Democrats? If he means to get a debt limit increase, he'll have to do one or the other.

Jon Cohen & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In [a] new [Washington Post-ABC News] survey, conducted after the House followed up a Senate vote by passing the [tax-&-spending] measure, 53 percent of voters say they approve of the way Obama handled the matter, while 40 percent disapprove. The overall tally is clearly negative for Boehner's performance: 30 percent approval and 56 percent disapproval."

Bobby Cervantes of Politico: "Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has introduced a bill to specifically ban President Barack Obama from minting [trillion-dollar platinum] coins." CW: good thinking, Greg. I'm pretty sure Barack Obama will sign your bill & give you a commemorative pen, too.

David Firestone of the New York Times: "... default is very different and much worse [than just shutting down a few national parks or not cutting the grass on the Washington Mall], and only one political party is interested in making it happen."

** E. J. Graff of the American Prospect: "Sexual assault is a form of brutalization based, quite simply, on the idea that women have no place in the world except the place that a man assigns them -- and that men should be free to patrol women's lives, threatening them if they dare step into view.... 'Rape culture,' as young feminists now call this..., lives anywhere that has a 'traditional' vision of women's sexuality.... In that vision, women's bodies are for use primarily for procreation or male pleasure.... In this 'traditional' vision of sexuality, it's not rape if you've already had sex, ever -- except if you're married and another man violates his property.... I can only hope that the response to the attack in India includes outrage at congressional Republicans' astounding refusal to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act...." ...

... Novelist Sohaila Abdulali in a New York Times op-ed: "We have spent generations constructing elaborate systems of patriarchy, caste and social and sexual inequality that allow abuse to flourish.... We need to shelve all the gibberish about honor and virtue and did-she-lead-him-on and could-he-help-himself. We need to put responsibility where it lies: on men who violate women, and on all of us who let them get away with it while we point accusing fingers at their victims." ...

... Roxana Hegeman of the AP: "A federal judge has ruled that a trial is needed to determine whether a Kansas law restricting private health insurance coverage for abortions poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking to end their pregnancies. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Monday rejected a request by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri for a favorable ruling in their legal challenge of the law."

Ben Protess & Michael de la Merced of the New York Times: "Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Group Inc. has been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline 'Thank you America.' Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: thanks, but you cheated our shareholders. The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government...." CW question: -- for audacity, does this beat the guy who murders his parents, then pleads for mercy on the grounds he is an orphan?

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "The Obama administration spent nearly $18 billion on immigration enforcement last year, significantly more than its spending on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies combined."

Julie Pace of the AP: "Facing an end-of-the-month deadline, the Obama administration is calling gun owner groups, victims' organizations and representatives from the video-game industry to the White House this week for discussions on potential policy proposals for curbing gun violence." ...

... Yeah, good luck with that ...

... Obama has been anti-gun rights along, he was just waiting for his second term to push this stuff. Unfortunately, Sandy Hook timed pretty perfectly with the start of this second term. This nutball really handed this one to the Obama administration and gave the Obama administration a chance to take the gloves off. -- Dave Workman, prominent gun rights advocate, expressing concern for gun violence victims ...

... Workman holds prominent positions in sponsors of the first Gun Appreciation Day. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "A political ad agency is putting together the first ever Gun Appreciation Day" on January 19, two days before the inauguration and a little over a month after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School." CW: because of legal impediments in some sissy states, the organizations have scrapped their earlier plans for a national "Bring Your Gun to Work Day."

Photo via BuzzFeed.... Bob Christie & Brian Skoloff of the AP: "Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting that killed six people and left her critically injured. Giffords and Mark Kelly wrote in an op-ed published in USA Today that their Americans for Responsible Solutions initiative would help raise money to support greater gun control efforts." The USA Today op-ed is here. The Americans for Responsible Solutions Website is here.

Adam Estes of the Atlantic: "Alex Jones, the conservative radio talk show host who created the 'Deport Piers Morgan' petition..., straight up lost it on Monday night. Appearing on Piers Morgan's CNN show to talk about the petition and, consequentially, gun control, Jones quickly went from enthusiastic to out-of-control in the first two minutes of the interview, and he wouldn't even stop talking or pointing his finger as Morgan was closing out the segment almost 15 minutes later." ...

     ... You can watch the "debate" here. I didn't. ...

... The White House responds to all petitions that cross the threshold and we will respond to this one. In the meantime, it is worth remembering that the freedom of expression is a bedrock principle in our society. -- Jay Carney, White House press secretary

Eric Schmitt & David Sanger of the New York Times: In late November, "the combination of a public warning by Mr. Obama and more sharply worded private messages sent to the Syrian leader and his military commanders through Russia and others, including Iraq, Turkey and possibly Jordan, stopped the [Syrian government's] chemical mixing and the bomb preparation. A week later Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the worst fears were over -- for the time being. But concern remains that Mr. Assad could now use the weapons produced that week at any moment."

Inauguration

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "President Obama has picked Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation at his public swearing-in later this month. It is believed to be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than a clergy member, has been chosen to deliver what may be America's most prominent public prayer."

News Ledes

New York Times: "2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe drought in the corn belt and a massive storm that caused broad devastation in the mid-Atlantic states, turns out to have been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States."

New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pushing New York to become the first state to enact major new gun laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., plans on Wednesday to propose one of the country's most restrictive bans on assault weapons."

Politico: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will likely testify Jan. 22 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the deadly U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, the panel's top Republican said Tuesday."

Reuters: "Bank of America Corp is looking to sell collection rights on at least another $100 billion of mortgages after announcing similar deals for more than $300 billion on Monday. Any sale would be the latest example of a big bank deciding that collecting mortgage payments on some loans is too costly, and the cost of capitalizing the business was too high given new capital rules. Banks have been unloading these assets for years."

AP: "The description of [James] Holmes after the [Aurora theater] attack, given by police detective Craig Appel [during a preliminary hearing], seemed to undercut prosecutors' attempts to show Holmes as methodical, spending two months to assemble his arsenal."

New York Times: "New signs of deprivation plaguing Syria's war-ravaged civilians emerged on Tuesday, with the United Nations saying it is unable to feed a million hungry residents in combat zones and aid agencies reporting an outbreak of violence in a large refugee camp in Jordan, where a winter storm felled tents and left many frustrated inhabitants shivering in a cold rain."

Washington Post: "President Hugo Chavez, who has not been seen publicly in a month since undergoing a complex cancer surgery in Cuba, will not be back in Venezuela on Thursday to be sworn in for a fourth term, his government announced Tuesday."

AP: "Two years after a hostage video and photographs of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson raised the possibility that the missing American was being held by terrorists, U.S. officials now see the government of Iran behind the images, intelligence officials told The Associated Press. Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared in 2007 on the Iranian island of Kish. The Iranian government has repeatedly denied knowing anything about his disappearance...."