The Commentariat -- February 6, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer critiques Thomas Edsall's New York Times column on deficit politics. Edsall may be an excellent journalist, but he's no economist. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

... BTW, today's Commentariat is open for comments. If you're not reading the comments, you're really missing something. I may be a bit biased, but I think Reality Chex contributors often make important points more cogently than the "experts" do. Yesterday was no exception.

Digby: "Barack Obama is the most conservative Democratic president of the modern era. And George W. Bush was the most conservative Republican." CW: See also Paul Krugman on this:

Paul Krugman: "... here’s what needs to be said about the latest [employment] numbers: yes, we’re doing a bit better, but no, things are not O.K. — not remotely O.K. This is still a terrible economy, and policy makers should be doing much more than they are to make it better." ...

... It's Paul Krugman Day: "... the left and right aren’t symmetric. People of all persuasions lie; but the right has a whole institutional structure of lying that has no counterpart on the left."

"Romney Takes Nevada, Obama Takes the Lead." Michael Falcone & Amy Walter of ABC News: "This was supposed to be Mitt Romney's week. Back-to-back wins in Florida and Nevada have helped to cement him as the all-but-certain Republican nominee. Instead, the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll points to President Obama as the biggest winner of the GOP primary contest. President Obama has snuck ahead of Romney among registered voters, 51 percent to 45 percent. What's more, 50 percent of voters in the new poll approve of Obama's job performance and the same percentage say he deserves re-election. Here's a related ABC News story, with video." ...

Obama Super PAC? Republican Clinton Eastwood cuts an ad for President Obama's re-election. No, wait, it's a Chrysler ad that ran during the Super Bowl half-time. Update: Chrysler took the ad down, but here's another YouTube version, which may or may not remain available:

** Elections Have Consequences. Mark Sherman of the AP on the importance of this year's presidential election in determining the future of American jurisprudence. "Despite his slow start in nominating judges and Republican delays in Senate confirmations, Obama has still managed to alter the balance of power on four of the nation's 13 circuit courts of appeals. Given a second term, Obama could have the chance to install Democratic majorities on several others."

President Obama on Iran's nuclear program, Israel, and other stuff:

... Ethan Bronner of the New York Times: "Israel believes that its threats to attack Iran have been the catalyst that has pushed much of the world to agree to harsh sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors.... But Israel’s top leaders also worry that the sanctions are too late and that, in the end, a military assault is the only way to accomplish their goal — stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. So the talk in this crisis is not made instead of action, but in addition to it — and perhaps as a prelude to it." ...

... Michael Ono of ABC News: "As United States and Israel grow increasingly concerned over Iran's nuclear program [Mike Rogers {R-Michigan}] the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is cautioning that a pre-emptive strike by Israel could spell trouble for America.... This statement comes days after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed concern that Israel would bomb Iran in an unattributed comment run in a column in the Washington Post." ...

... Activist-author Tom Hayden (D-Calif.) on how Romney, Gingrich or Santorum could push President Obama toward war with Iran during this election cycle.

Rick Hertzberg advocates for more debates. As the man most responsible for arranging the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates, Newton Minow, has written, “The debates are the only time during presidential campaigns when the major candidates appear together side by side under conditions that they do not control.”

Right Wing World

Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun: "A painstakingly slow hand count of Clark County’s [Nevada] presidential caucus vote delayed final results by more than a day, prompting accusations of fraud and conspiracy from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, doubts from national Republicans about Nevada’s ability to run a caucus and derision from national political observers, who called for Nevada’s status as an early caucus state to be summarily yanked. While no evidence of fraud was uncovered, the prolonged count capped a caucus marked by disorganization, bickering and bumbling at nearly every turn."

Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. Meet Larry McCarthy, creator of the Willie Horton ad against 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, and Mitt Romney's top attack dog. You will not find McCarthy strapped to the roof of Romney's station wagon; he works out of Washington, D.C.

Deficit Spending, Newt Style. Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Newt Gingrich’s campaign remains roughly $600,000 in debt, two months after it reported deep debts and a long list of creditors, newly released campaign spending records show." ...

At Least He's Consistent. Howard Gleckman in a Christian Science Monitor post from December 2011: "GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is proposing a massive tax cut aimed at the highest earning American households. Gingrich’s plan would add about $1 trillion to the federal deficit in a single year. And while most of the nation’s lowest income families would get no benefit from these tax cuts, the top 0.1 percent (who make an average of more than $8 million) would get about a quarter of the windfall, according to new estimates by my colleagues at the Tax Policy Center." ...

... Oh. Wait. On his Website, Newt says he would "balance the budget by growing the economy, controlling spending, implementing money saving reforms, and replacing destructive policies and regulatory agencies with new approaches."

More on This: We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places. -- Mitt Romney>

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "This is a strange one.... Romney managed to get just about everything wrong in this story, in what appears to be a misguided attempt to both promote American exceptionalism and ding President Obama."

News Ledes

New York Times: "With a deadline looming on Monday for state officials to sign onto a landmark multibillion-dollar settlement to address foreclosure abuses, the Obama administration is close to winning support from [California,] a crucial state that would significantly expand the breadth of the deal.... Another important potential backer, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York, has also signaled that he sees progress on provisions that prevented him from supporting it in the past. The potential support from California and New York comes in exchange for tightening provisions of the settlement to preserve the right to investigate past misdeeds by banks, and stepping up oversight...." Washington Post story here.

New York Times: "The leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas announced on Monday that they have broken a long political deadlock to form an interim unity government led, at least at first, by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. The announcement at a news conference in Doha, Qatar ... signaled a significant step toward reconciling the two movements as they prepare for elections...." Haaretz story here.

New York Times: "Syrian forces shelled the battered city of Homs for another day Monday, striking a makeshift clinic and killing at least 17 people in a mounting toll that has made the city the epicenter of the 11-month Syrian uprising, opposition groups said." Al Jazeera story here. ...

     ...  ** Washington Post Update: "The United States has closed its embassy in Damascus and pulled all diplomats and U.S. staff out of the country, the State Department said Monday. The decision comes two days after Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning Syria’s violent repression of anti-government demonstrators, whose opposition to the government is threatening to become an all-out civil war."

AP: "Georgia's top court on Monday struck down a state law designed to discourage assisted suicides. The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling concludes the 1994 state law 'restricts speech in violation of the free speech clauses' of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions."

New York Times: "An appeals court ruled on Monday that Alberto Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, used a performance-enhancing drug when he won the race in 2010, the latest black mark on a sport that has been tarnished by doping scandals over the past several years.... On Friday, federal investigators announced that they had ended a criminal investigation of Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour from 1999 to 2005. The United States Anti-Doping Agency, with the support of the World Anti-Doping Agency, is continuing a separate investigation of Armstrong under its rules."

AP: "The NFL and a major television network are apologizing for another Super Bowl halftime show...: an extended middle finger from British singer M.I.A. during Sunday night's performance of Madonna's new single, 'Give Me All Your Luvin.' ... She flipped the bird and appeared to sing, 'I don't give a (expletive)' at one point, though it was hard to hear her clearly." CW: shouldn't ever contract for a live performance include a penalty clause for the performer's purposefully offensive gestures and language?

ABC News: "President Barack Obama's grandmother, Sarah Obama, is home recovering from an accident that, judging by the condition of the vehicle, could have been much worse.... Police in the town of Kisumu, [Kenya] say the 87-year-old was traveling to her home Saturday night when the driver lost control, and the vehicle rolled into a ditch."

The Commentariat -- February 5, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer: "Ross Douthat, foe of women’s reproductive rights, uses his column today to complain about the 'frankly brutal coverage' in 'the media frenzy' surrounding the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to renege on contracts to fund mammograms for poor women. 'You would think,' he writes, that 'all these millions of anti-abortion Americans simply do not exist…. On the abortion issue, the press’s prejudices are often absolute, its biases blatant and its blinders impenetrable.' Oddly enough, Douthat is angry about the lack of coverage of anti-choice Americans in a matter in which, according to the Komen Foundation, abortion rights played no part." The NYTX front page is here. You can donate here.

Prof. Larry Lessig in Salon: "What Obama must do if he is to make American democracy possible again is to speak boldly, not practically, about reform.... He needs to begin the process of persuading the nation that fundamental reform is necessary and possible.... He must stop, by his silence, defending the status quo.... Outside Washington, in the grassroots of American politics,  Democrats, independents and Republicans all support a radical change in how we fund campaigns.... There is overwhelming support for the idea of limiting the role of independent expenditures in political campaigns."

Mike Konczal in Salon: "Privatizing the government is one of the most active projects of the early 21st century.... The fraud and waste that often come with outsourcing these services has been well-documented.... Rather than solving problems with government, privatization often amplifies those issues to new extremes."

Prof. Christina Romer, in a New York Times opinion piece, explains why manufacturing should not be singled out as the only business sector to get special tax breaks and other government support. Other sectors could potentially produce better results for the economy.

Colbert v. the Court. Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "... in the history of the Supreme Court, nothing has ever prepared the justices for the public opinion wrecking ball that is Stephen Colbert.... Colbert has spent the past few months making every part of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Citizen United look utterly ridiculous. And the court, which has no access to cameras (by its own choosing), no press arm, and no discernible comedic powers, has had to stand by and take it on the chin.... The institutional aloofness that allowed the Roberts court to pen such a politically naive decision is the same blind spot that precludes them from even understanding, much less responding to, the media criticism."

Katie Ryder of Salon speaks to writer Arthur Goldwag about right-wing haters & conspiracy theorists. They've always been around, but they're more visible now. An interesting read.

Emily Flitter of Reuters: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg keeps up his fight for gun control; he'll appear in a D.C. rollover ad during the Super Bowl with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Bloomberg paid for the ad.

AND cartoonist Brian McFadden has some tips on how to have a highbrow Super Bowl halftime. Personally, I'd turn down the sound on the teevee during Madonna's performance & ramp up something like the famous habanera L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Bizet's "Carmen" (Anna Caterina Antonacci performs it here):

Right Wing World

David Schwartz of the Las Vegas Sun: "Mitt Romney’s easy victory in Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses might, in the long run, be less important than the fact that a surprising number of Republicans who could have participated Saturday chose to stay home. Republicans’ disappointing turnout foreshadows difficulty energizing GOP voters in Nevada, a key swing state in November’s general election."

** New York Times Editorial Board: "... the conservative legal battles of our modern times are being waged by the most powerful, often against the weak and oppressed. They began with a carefully planned and successful effort to reshape the courts to be sympathetic to conservative causes. They are largely aimed at narrowing rights, not expanding them — except where property and guns are concerned. And beginning with the Reagan administration, conservatives ... sought to remake law into a weapon of aggressive action.... The political influences on these major cases are important by themselves, but also as a reminder that the makeup of the court for the next generation, and thus the law’s direction, are likely to be determined by the 2012 election."

Worse Than Bush. Contributor P. D. Pepe made an important point in yesterday's Commentariat, which bears repeating: Romney's tax policy is worse than the Bush tax cuts. As Ezra Klein wrote a few days ago, "Romney's tax policy, described simply, is to extend the Bush tax cuts and, then on top of that, sharply cut taxes on corporations, the wealthy, and upper-middle class investors, while letting a set of tax breaks that help the poor expire. The result, according to the Tax Policy Center, would be a $69 tax cut for the average individual in the bottom 20 percent and a $164,000 tax cut for the average individual in the top one percent. And Romney would pay for this through unspecified cuts to domestic programs." That is, "he wants to lower the tax burden on people like himself, and pay for it by cutting programs for the poor and seniors.... His tax plan ... is the most moderate plan of any candidate in the GOP primary."

Local News

Indianapolis Star: "Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R) was convicted of six felonies early [Saturday] morning, and consequently lost his job.... A jury convicted White of three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft. He could face six months to three years in prison on each of the counts.... The charges stemmed from confusion over where White lived when he campaigned for secretary of state in late 2009 and 2010. White claimed that he lived at his ex-wife's home on the east side of Fishers. But the jury convicted him based on allegations that he actually lived in a townhouse on the opposite side of town.... The townhouse was outside his Fishers Town Council district." ...

... AP: White was the state's top elections official! Gov. Mitch "Daniels (R) quickly appointed White's chief deputy, Jerry Bonnet, as interim secretary of state." But state Democratic "Chairman Dan Parker said the party will seek to have its 2010 candidate, Vop Osili, who lost to White by about 300,000 votes, certified as secretary of state this week. A civil judge in Marion County ordered the state to declare Osili the winner in December, saying White wasn't an eligible candidate because he had lied about where he lived on a voter registration form."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Egyptian authorities have referred 19 Americans and two dozen others to criminal trials, justice ministry officials said Sunday, as part of a politically charged investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt. The referral flies in the face of increasingly urgent warnings to Egypt’s military rulers from President Obama, cabinet officials and senior Congressional leaders that the investigation could jeopardize $1.55 billion in expected American aid this year, including $1.3 billion for the military.On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she personally warned the Egyptian foreign minister, Mohammed Amr, during a security conference in Munich."

New York Times: "Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive keeping Newt Gingrich’s presidential hopes alive, has relayed assurances to Mitt Romney that he will provide even more generous support to his candidacy if he becomes the Republican nominee, several associates said in interviews here."

... Washington Post: "After a likely second-place finish in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich sought to dispel the idea that he might drop out of the Republican presidential nomination any time soon, promising a hotel ballroom filled with reporters that he will fight on to the convention in the summer."

Reuters: "Western and Arab countries responded with outrage on Sunday after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said she was 'disgusted' by the vote, which came a day after activists say Syrian forces bombarded the city of Homs, killing more than people in the worst night of bloodshed of the 11-month uprising. 'Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands,' ambassador Susan Rice said...." ...

... Guardian: "US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for greater cooperation between the US and Europe to isolate tyrants such as Syrian president Bashar Assad and promote democracy in the Arab world."

... Al Jazeera: "Arab states will not stop their efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis even though their bid to secure UN backing was blocked by Russia and China, the Arab League's secretary-general has said."

Reuters: "Protesters demanding a swift presidential election and an early handover of power by the army hurled rocks at police guarding the Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday and were forced back with volleys of tear gas." Al Jazeera story here.

The Commentariat -- February 4, 2012

President Obama's Weekly Address:

    ... The transcript is here; Reuters story here.

Gail Collins writes a balanced, informative column on the Susan G. Koman/Planned Parenthood scandal. "A lot of the old Komen donors and supporters probably won’t be coming back. It would be a shame if they just retreated in disillusionment. Let’s hope they go off into the wider world of women’s health care programs and help spread the wealth. That really would be a happy ending." ...

... Simon Maloy of Media Matters: "... the same conservatives who cheered Komen's decision earlier in the week are now upset at the breast cancer awareness charity's apparent reversal of course. National Review's Daniel Foster this morning called the backlash to Komen 'disgusting' and lashed out at Planned Parenthood and 'the Left' for their 'gangsterism.' ... To see Planned Parenthood as the bad-faith actor requires an astonishing amount of willful obtuseness." Maloy outlines why. CW: Congratulations, gangsters! ...

... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, was secretly involved in the Komen Foundation’s strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of 'Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations' at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.... Fleischer’s high-level involvement with Komen further complicates its image as an apolitical cancer charity. Fleischer is a prominent partisan commentator and a longtime critic of Planned Parenthood." ...

... Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: "The crucial question remains whether or not that partnership [between Komen & Planned Parenthood] actually exists after today, or whether this is just a more amicable divorce."

Brian Beutler of TPM: "Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer.... 'Now we’re really talking skullduggery,' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters. 'They understood what the consequences [of failure of the Super Committee] were. They agreed to the consequences.... I think that an agreement was reached. It must be honored.'”

Right Wing World *

Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water, and he did not occupy the Oval Office. -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), on the Senate floor ...

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Orrin Hatch. David Edwards of the Raw Story: Orrin Hatch, "who normally favors co-mingling government and religion, was on the floor of the Senate expressing outrage at the president for using the Bible to make a point." ...

... CW: here are the President's prayer breakfast remarks. I did not intend to post them, but since they so offended Orrin Hatch, I guess I must:

Martin Klingst, Washington Bureau chief of the German newspaper Die Zeit, in a Washington Post op-ed: "When Romney, Gingrich and Santorum warn about 'socialist Europe,' they sound as though they are talking about the Soviet empire.... My problem as a European living in the United States is that it is not Joe the Plumber who is bashing Europe but three longtime politicians who want to be president — people who should know better."

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "While [Newt] Gingrich has minimized his past connections to [Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac] on the campaign trail, his Congressional record shows that his political and financial ties to the firms run deeper and farther back than he has acknowledged publicly and, in fact, set the stage for the lucrative consulting work that followed.

Steve Benen chronicles Mitt Romney's most recent, most audacious lies. He really does not care WTF he says. Then again, when your base is willing to believe the United Nations is forcing small municipalities to install bicycle paths in an international plot to deprive them of their property rights, I guess a candidate can pretty much say what s/he wants. Nothing can penetrate a tinfoil hat.

I know we're beating a dead horse here, but Charles Blow does a nice job of summing up how much Mitt Romney cares about the poor. ...

CW: This is sort of encouraging. Mark Murray of NBC News tears apart Mitt Romney's claim that President Obama's policies have made the economy "worse." The more stories like this get into the MSM, the better. Of course, stories like this will have zero effect on voters like those in the next story I've linked. ...

... These People Frighten Me. Leslie Kaufman & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.... The protests date to 1992 when the United Nations passed a sweeping, but nonbinding ... resolution called Agenda 21 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas. They have gained momentum in the past two years because of the emergence of the Tea Party movement.... In January, the Republican Party adopted its own resolution against what it called 'the destructive and insidious nature' of Agenda 21. And Newt Gingrich took aim at it during a Republican debate in November."

* Where they just get crazier. Partly because the GOP encourages this lunacy.

News Ledes

The New York Times is liveblogging the Nevada caucuses. Update: The Times has the caucus results here. ...

... Las Vegas Sun: "Mitt Romney has a large early lead in the Nevada GOP caucuses with 62 percent of the vote, according to Sun columnist Jon Ralston, who cited sources with knowledge of count." ...

... New York Times Update: "Mitt Romney handily won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, solidifying his front-runner’s status and giving him the all-important political fuel of momentum as he seeks to use the month of February to ease doubts within the party about his candidacy and ove on to the business of confronting President Obama."

Washington Post: "Dozens of U.S. Park Police descended on horseback and foot upon the Occupy D.C. camp in McPherson Square on Saturday to continue an enforcement of its no-camping rules launched earlier this week. U.S. Park Police Capt. Phil Beck told protesters they would be clearing the area around the historic statue, where protesters had erected a blue tarp dubbed the 'Tent of Dreams,' and checking to see if there was unauthorized bedding in tents." New York Times story here.

The Hill: "Republicans used their weekly address on Saturday to push a highway bill that is being opposed on the right by the [Grover Norquist] Club for Growth."

Reuters: "New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued three major U.S. banks, accusing them of fraud for using an electronic mortgage database that resulted in deceptive and illegal practices. Schneiderman filed the lawsuit against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) in New York state court in Brooklyn. The lawsuit is over the banks' use of MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System the industry created in the mid-1990s to track the ownership and servicing of residential mortgage loans."

Los Angeles Times: "Afghan civilian casualties have reached a grim new milestone, with a record 3,021 noncombatants killed in wartime violence last year, the United Nations said in a report released Saturday. The toll for 2011 represented an 8% increase from the previous year, and marked the fifth year in a row that the number of noncombatant deaths and injuries has risen. Insurgents were blamed for nearly four-fifths of the deaths."

New York Times: "Syria opposition leaders raised the death toll to 260 in a military assault Saturday on the ravaged central city of Homs, an attack that opposition leaders described as the government’s deadliest in the nearly 11-month-old uprising." Al Jazeera story here. ...

     ... New York Times story has bee updated: "A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria collapsed in acrimony with a double veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the deadliest government assault in the nearly 11-month uprising."

Nevada GOP Caucus Today. AP: "A confident Mitt Romney is looking past his GOP opponents and Nevada's caucuses the day the state votes. Chief rival Newt Gingrich is bracing for defeat in a state the former Massachusetts governor won in 2008."

New York Times: Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched on Saturday through [Moscow,] a city gripped by bitter, Arctic cold, in a third major effort by Russians opposed to Vladimir V. Putin’s return to the presidency."

New York Times: "Ben Gazzara, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 81." The Los Angeles Times obituary is here.

Los Angeles Times: "The computer hacking group Anonymous took gleeful pride Friday in announcing that it had sneaked onto a conference call between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and foreign law enforcement agencies concerning how to deal with the cyber-pirate organization."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "President Barack Obama’s name will remain on the Georgia primary ballot after a state law judge flatly rejected legal challenges that contend he can not be a candidate.... Judge Michael Malihi dismissed one challenge that contended Obama has a computer-generated Hawaiian birth certificate, a fraudulent Social Security number and invalid U.S. identification papers. He also turned back another that claimed the president is ineligible to be a candidate because his father was not a U.S. citizen at the time of Obama's birth. The findings by Malihi, a judge for the State Office of Administrative Hearings, go to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who will make the final determination."

CW: Sorry I missed this yesterday. Guardian: "A US army officer has ordered a court martial for Bradley Manning, the soldier charged in the biggest leak of classified information in American history. Military district of Washington commander Major General Michael Linnington referred all charges against Manning to a general court martial on Friday, the army said in a statement."