The Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

I've posted a comments page on Off Times Square on the Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.

A reader wrote today to ask my opinion on the Administration's legal justification for the targeting & killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen. Charlie Savage of the New York Times reported yesterday on "a secret legal memorandum" that concluded the killing of Awlaki would "be lawful if it were not feasible to take him alive." I linked the story yesterday; it's here. Here is a slightly edited version of my answer to the reader. Also, do read Glenn Greenwald, linked below.

There are several ways to look at this issue, but I think it’s essential to try to separate the moral/ethical implications from the legal “justification.”

Lawyers can justify almost any action. It’s what they’re paid to do. On this, see Glenn Greenwald, who lays out at some length why the “justification” to kill Awlaki was bogus. But in reading Greenwald, it’s also a good idea to bear in mind that Greenwald’s position is a pretty easy one to make. Greenwald -- who is a lawyer -- says you can’t kill a U.S. citizen without due process because the Constitution (and some other legal principles) says you can’t. For Greenwald, that’s the end of the story. As I said, an easy call.

Also, as Greenwald notes, months before the date of the “justification” memo, the media were reporting that there was a kill order on Awlaki. I don’t know if the media got that right, but if they did, then the “justification” followed the decision to kill him. The lawyers, just as usually happens in a trial, were making their case after the fact.

Another thing to bear in mind, & something Greenwald also points out, is that we don’t really know what the 50-page memo said. Greenwald implies Savage had only one source; I think Savage makes clear he had more than one source. But Greenwald’s point is well-taken – all we get from Savage’s report is the Administration’s gloss on the memo. Savage’s sources are telling him what they want him to hear. A 50-page memo obviously contains some nuance, and the Administration has not released the nuance. It’s secret. So we only know what officials in the Obama Administration want us to know.

Another point: Savage reports that the memo does not address the quality or quantity of evidence against Awlaki. The implication then is that the memo reads, “If you have evidence that Awlaki has done all this bad stuff & that he cannot reasonably be captured & is unwilling to turn himself over to U.S. authorities, then you can kill him for these reasons: blah blah blah.” That means to actually justify the killing of Awlaki, the Administration would have to have acquired some pretty good “slam dunk” evidence against him. Presumably, the bulk of whatever evidence the Administration had came from the CIA. And you know how slam-dunky the CIA has been.

I respect the civil libertarian POV that the U.S. just can’t go around killing American citizens if they have not received due process in accordance with the Constitution & U.S. laws.

BUT. I think there are exceptions.

First, on the legal issue, something Greenwald doesn’t mention -- and he wouldn’t because it undermines his argument -- this is a case of the Constitution being in conflict with itself. As Justice David Souter outlined in his Harvard commencement address last year, "The explicit terms of the Constitution ... can create a conflict of approved values, and the explicit terms of the Constitution do not resolve that conflict when it arises.” (The text is here & is worth reading. I've appended the video of Souter's speech below.) The President takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, & one of his duties as “Commander in Chief of the Army & the Navy” (Article II) is spelled out in the preamble: to “provide for the common defence” of the nation. I don’t think there’s any question but that providing for the common defense may occasionally put a Commander in Chief in conflict with the Bill of Rights or with other provisions of the Constitution. (Ask Abe Lincoln about suspending habeas corpus & about closing down newspapers that opposed the war!) You might argue that Obama should have marched his case over to the Supremes for their input on the constitutionality of targeting Awlaki, but I’m not sure I’d want to leave the defense of the nation to Nino Scalia.

As a moral issue -- as opposed to a legal one -- I don’t think it matters a whit what nationality Awlaki was. If I murdered my neighbor who is Brazilian, I’m just as guilty of murder as if I had murdered his wife who is American. I don’t get some moral free pass because the guy “isn’t even an American!” Murder is murder.

At the same time, there are “legal” killings that are immoral. I would argue, for instance, that the execution of Troy Davis – though entirely legal – was immoral. After his trial, enough reasonable doubt surfaced to suggest that, if we had a system that allowed a do-over (as does, say, Italy), there was clearly enough evidence to raise reasonable doubt of Davis’s guilt. I have no idea if Davis was or was not guilty of murder. I do have an idea that he could not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

As I argued in a comment in Off Times Square, not all Americans get due process. Nearly once a week, you hear of some American (on American soil) who is suspected of a heinous crime – usually but not always murder – being killed by police. Unless there is some special circumstance – like racism – usually not much of a fuss is raised about the shooting of the suspect. So quite a few Americans suspected of crimes do not get anything approaching due process. They just get shot dead.

Based on what I’ve read in the media, I think it’s pretty certain that Awlaki fomented violence against Americans. Whether he was also involved in planning & carrying out violence against Americans, I don’t know. I have only the government’s claim on that.

I also know that Awlaki did not turn himself over to U.S. authorities. Given the way the U.S. has treated enemy combatants, & given his views, this is hardly surprising. But it was an option he had, if not such a great one. He chose not to surrender.

He also put himself in a situation in which he made his capture more than a little difficult.

As I mentioned earlier, the media widely reported that there was a kill order out on Awlaki. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Awlaki knew he was a target and had time to think about how to deal with that.

So I equate Awlaki with the local murder suspect who knows the police are after him but who resists arrest & gets shot dead. The authorities may or may not have good evidence – evidence that would stand up in court – against Awlaki & the local suspect. But Awlaki & the suspect made essentially the same choice. They decided not to surrender; that is, not to have their days in court.

Therefore, I think that if the evidence against Awlaki was accurate – or even if the Administration merely believed the evidence that he was planning terrorist attacks against Americans – then his killing was morally justified. Tying a legal justification to his killing is a nicety, but it doesn’t carry a great deal of weight with me.

What I think civil libertarians like Greenwald fail to take into account is that Awlaki, too, was an actor in this drama, not just a bystander. He made decisions that put him in danger of being targeted and killed. These decisions were not just the ones he made after he was targeted – they include his decision to advocate for, and probably participate in, violence against Americans. There is no way to know whether the killing of Awlaki saved American lives or if his killing will instead only embolden anti-American sentiments. But I do think the Administration made a reasonable call, given what it knew. Time will tell. Or rather, may tell.

As I said, my position – and for that matter, the President’s -- is harder to make than Greenwald’s. Lines in the sand are easy to draw. Nuance is not so neat. And because it’s so messy, it’s easy to err or one side or the other. But sometimes it’s a mistake to be so sure of yourself. I think Greenwald makes that mistake quite often. There’s a good chance this is one of those times.

Here's Souter on the Constitution. He begins speaking at about 4:00 minutes in:

The Commentariat -- October 9

We have an Open Thread going on Off times Square.

Occupy Wall Street

Chris Bowers of Daily Kos has an interactive map & list, which appear to be updated regularly, of Occupy Wall Street events & Facebook pages for cities throughout the country. You can also get to it via the URL OccupyWallStreetEvents.com ...

... Jennifer Preston of the New York Times: "What began as a small group of protesters expressing their grievances about economic inequities last month from a park in New York City has evolved into an online conversation that is spreading across the country on social media platforms. [CW Note: the following links take you to the site pages, not to the NYT story.] Inspired by the populist message of the group known as Occupy Wall Street, more than 200 Facebook pages and Twitter accounts have sprung up in dozens of cities during the past week, seeking volunteers for local protests and fostering discussion about the group’s concerns. Some 900 events have been set up on Meetup.com, and blog posts and photographs from all over the country are popping up on the WeArethe99Percent blog on Tumblr from people who see themselves as victims of not just a sagging economy but also economic injustice."

... ** In a major repudiation of their own news departments, not to mention the "chattering classes," the Editors of the New York Times back the Occupy Wall Street protesters: "There are plenty of policy goals to address the grievances of the protesters — including lasting foreclosure relief, a financial transactions tax, greater legal protection for workers’ rights, and more progressive taxation. The country needs a shift in the emphasis of public policy from protecting the banks to fostering full employment, including public spending for job creation and development of a strong, long-term strategy to increase domestic manufacturing." ...

This is the Obama generation declaring their independence from his administration. -- Prof. Jeremy Varon, on Occupy Wall Street ...

... Prof. Todd Gitlin in a New York Times op-ed: "By allying itself with the protest, the left at large is telling the president that a campaign slogan that essentially says 'We’re better than Eric Cantor' won’t cut it in 2012. 'We are the 99 percent' would be more like it. If President Obama takes this direction, the movement’s energy may be able to power a motor of significant reform." ...

... And Now for a Few Words from the Clueless on Occupy Wall Street:

No, I feel a lot of sympathy for what you might describe as the general sense among Americans that we’ve lost a sense of possibility, that after a lost decade of income growth and fiscal irresponsibility, a devastating financial crisis and a huge loss of confidence in public institutions, people do wonder whether we have the ability to do things that can help the average person’s sense of opportunity. -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, more or less, in what Steven Pearlstein calls a "generously edited and cleaned-up version" of Geithner's actual remark

I don’t know if it’s helpful. -- White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who made a bundle on Wall Street ...

... Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "I’m sure Daley and Geithner are keenly aware that there’s a nasty political war going on out there and that they’re losing. What I suspect they don’t fully understand is that one reason they’re losing it is that people aren’t sure which side they’re on. And the way to let people know which side you’re on is to send clear signals through what you say and what you do." CW: oh, I think we know. ...

... More from the Clueless and the Derisive:

... Christiane Amanpour of ABC News interviews Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: at about 3:45 in, Amanpour asks Pelosi about Majority Leader Eric Cantor's remark about "the mob." Pelosi's answers are terrific. She goes on to discuss Scott Brown's "Thank God!" response to Elizabeth Warren:

 

... Prof. David Meyer, in a Washington Post op-ed, credits Occupy Wall Street with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to pay for the jobs bill with a millionaires' surtax. ...

... Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle profiles one of the Occupy San Francisco protesters & delves into the impetus behind the protests.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration’s secret legal memorandum that opened the door to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric hiding in Yemen, found that it would be lawful only if it were not feasible to take him alive, according to people who have read the document.... The secret document provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war.... The memo, however, was narrowly drawn to the specifics of Mr. Awlaki’s case and did not establish a broad new legal doctrine to permit the targeted killing of any Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat."

Drone Wars. Off Times Square commenter Haley S. brought up this issue last weekend. Scott Shane of the New York Times is catching up: "Eventually, the United States will face a military adversary or terrorist group armed with drones, military analysts say. But what the short-run hazard experts foresee is not an attack on the United States, which faces no enemies with significant combat drone capabilities, but the political and legal challenges posed when another country follows the American example.... The qualities that have made lethal drones so attractive to the Obama administration for counterterrorism appeal to many countries and, conceivably, to terrorist groups: a capacity for leisurely surveillance and precise strikes, modest cost, and most important, no danger to the operator, who may sit in safety thousands of miles from the target."

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "More than six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to the country’s embattled president, undermining a central U.S. policy objective and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into the orbit of an American arch rival — Iran. Iraq’s stance has dealt an embarrassing setback to the Obama administration...."

** David Leonhardt of the New York Times outlines some of the reasons this recession is worse than others, including the Great Depression, and likely to linger longer: the economy & jobs markets were weak going into the recession; no major new technologies or industries have developed; the workforce is not becoming better-educated; the country isn't welcoming foreign scientists & entrepreneurs; and "three giant industries — finance, health care and housing — now include large amounts of unproductive capacity.... It is hard to see how the jobs of the future will spring from unnecessary back surgery and garden-variety arbitrage." ...

... ** Ezra Klein on government economic policies designed to reverse the recession. Could this time have been different? Yes, if the policymakers had understood the depth, breadth and length of the recession, they could have done some things better. But overall, given the political and cultural will, they probably could not have done much more than they did. We would still be in a recession but with a slightly better jobs outlook. CW: This is a comprehensive, informative piece. Klein doesn't say so directly, but surely one of Obama's most boneheaded moves was to shrink the federal workforce in the name of deficit reduction. No one forced him to do this (& Republicans surely didn't give him any kudos for this "belt-tightening"); he devised this anti-stimulus, anti-jobs program all by himself.

Graham Bowley of the New York Times: "Regulators in the United States and overseas are cracking down on computerized high-speed trading that crowds today’s stock exchanges, worried that as it spreads around the globe it is making market swings worse. The cost of these high-frequency traders, critics say, is the confidence of ordinary investors in the markets, and ultimately their belief in the fairness of the financial system."

Patricia Zengerle & Eric Johnson of Reuters: "With their favored candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination lagging or out of the race, many U.S. Tea Party activists are shifting focus to the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate. The fizz has gone out of the presidential contest for some supporters of the fiscally conservative movement now that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is not running and Texas Governor Rick Perry and congresswoman Michele Bachmann are slipping in polls."

Right Wing World

Only on Fox "News"! We need more hungry Americans and "more ruthless capitalism!" Thanks to News Hounds -- "We watch Fox so you don't have to":

Steve Benen: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week that the White House’s 'explicit strategy' is to 'make people believe that Congress can’t get anything done.' Seriously, that’s what he said. As McConnell sees it, President Obama doesn’t want Congress to function. Yes, after years of tragic dysfunction and Republican-imposed obstructionism unseen in American history, the conservative GOP leader from Kentucky believes this is all the president’s fault."

How Scoundrels Have Taken over America. Jayne Mayer has a long piece in the New Yorker on Art Pope, a sleazy right-wing millionaire who, for relatively little cash outlay, has purchased the State of North Carolina -- a state which was once, by Southern standards, fairly progressive. CW: Mayer doesn't emphasize it or really even connect the dots, but what makes my blood boil is that Pope got rich selling cheap Chinese merchandise in a string of shabby discount stores, where he pays his workers the minimum wage. He then turns around & uses the money he made on the poor (while not creating any good jobs & essentially sending many offshore) to back candidates (in outrageous ways) who are commited to making those same poor poeple poorer. And the punidts can't figure out what Occupy Wall Street is all about? P.S. Sorry not to have linked to this sooner; I just couldn't get around to reading it.

Karen Garcia has a hilarious post on a proposed House Tea Party bill that would eliminate the life insurance benefit heirs of Members of Congress currently receive. Too bad, Honey. If "something happens to me," you & the kids should be able to get great jobs even if we do manage to meet our goal of eliminating the minimum wage. Remember, it's all about me, and I won't need the money once I'm in heaven with Jesus.

News Ledes

AP: "Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February." Al Jazeera story here, with video.

Reuters: "Donald Tusk will be the first Polish prime minister since the fall of communism in 1989 to rule for two successive terms after his center-right Civic Platform trounced its rivals in a parliamentary election. An exit poll showed Tusk's pro-business party had won nearly 40 percent of votes in Sunday's election, short of an absolute majority but far ahead of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's nationalist-conservative Law and Justice party on just over 30 percent."

Al Jazeera: "Germany and France stand ready to recapitalise banks according to common criteria, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. 'We are not going into details today, we will present a complete package' for stabilising the eurozone at the end of the month, Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin on Sunday following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The meeting came ... hours after France, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to a rescue plan for Dexia, that is expected to lead to the dismantling of the troubled bank." New York Times story here.

AP: "The Rev. Joseph Lowery was one of the first believers that a black senator from Illinois could become president, and Barack Obama was among those adding his thanks to the civil rights icon Sunday night during a tribute to the 90-year-old's legacy."

Los Angeles Times: California "Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday granted illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges, putting California once again in the center of the nation's immigration debate. But he vetoed a measure that would have allowed state universities to consider applicants' race, gender and income to ensure diversity in their student populations. Deciding the fate of 50 education-related bills, the governor also rejected an effort to make it more difficult to establish charter schools. But he accepted a move to improve college life for gays, lesbians and bisexual and transgender people and a measure to restrict the privatization of libraries."

New York Times: "Facing an unprecedented order from the Supreme Court to decrease its inmate population by 11,000 over the next three months and by 34,000 over the next two years, California prisons last week began to shift inmates to county jails and probation officers, starting what many believe will be a fundamental and far-reaching change in the nation’s largest corrections system."

Reuters: "Anti-Wall Street demonstrators said on Saturday they are growing out of their lower Manhattan encampment and are exploring options to expand to other public spaces in New York City." ...

... Seattle Times: "Hundreds of peaceful protesters rallied and marched through downtown Seattle as part of an ongoing Occupy Seattle demonstration against what they called corporate domination of America, with crowds approaching 1,000 supporters at midday.... Just before 7 p.m., the crowd cleared except for two people, who were arrested. One, a young woman, held a sign saying "No War but Class War," and she was cheered as she was led handcuffed into a police van. The other, a young man, refused to stand up and was carried off by police."

AP: "A man who left his Presbyterian ministry in California more than 20 years ago after telling his congregation that he is gay was welcomed back into the church leadership as its first openly gay ordained minister. In a quavering voice ripe with emotion, 56-year-old Scott Anderson on Saturday told the hundreds of friends and backers who packed Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin for his ordination ceremony that he never thought the day would come."

Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel will thrash out differences with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday over how to use the euro zone's financial firepower to counter a sovereign debt crisis threatening the global economy."

Reuters: "Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh suggested Saturday that within days he would step down, a promise he has made three times already this year, and analysts said it was yet another stalling tactic. A government official said Saleh was merely indicating readiness to reach a deal to end months of unrest."

The Commentariat -- October 8

President Obama's weekly address:

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

I've posted an Open Thread for the weekend on Off Times Square.

Erik Wasson of The Hill: "The Congressional Budget Office on Friday confirmed that President Obama’s jobs bill would be fully paid for over ten years and also gave its seal of approval to Senate Democrats' version that includes a surtax on millionaires. The CBO said that the original Obama stimulus bill would involve $447 billion in tax cuts and new spending — the same estimate given by the administration. It said the bill would raise $450 billion over ten years. The result is a $3 billion decrease in deficits over ten years. The Senate Democrats' bill, which replaces Obama’s taxes on the upper middle class with a 5.6 percent surtax on those with annual incomes above $1 million, raises $453 billion over ten years and reduces deficits by $6 billion. The tax kicks in in 2013."

Occupy Wall Street

CUNY Prof. Frances Fox Piven, in a Guardian op-ed, contrasts Occupy Wall Street protesters and Tea Party members. ...

... Mark Egan of Reuters: the Occupy Wall Street movement may be the start of a new protest era akin to that of the 1960s. While interim protests against foreign wars were largely ideological, the protests of the '60s against the war & against racial inequality were personal; i.e., people were protesting what was happening to them. The same is true of Occupy Wall street. ...

... Thom Hartmann talks with Andy Kroll of Mother Jones & Joshua Holland of AlterNet about the economics behind the Occupy America movement:

... David Maris in Forbes: "There has been a lot said about the lack of vision, lack of specific demands, and a disparity of beliefs and goals among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in the media in the past several weeks. A survey of the protestors shows that none of these criticisms are true. ... The protesters, knowingly or not, are fairly unified a few basic beliefs. ...

... "If white people catch a cold, we get the flu":

... David Dayen of Firedoglake: "The billionaire mayor of New York City can blame his own police department for the growth of the Occupy Wall Street protests, which surged after incidents of police brutality and illegal arrests and will only continue to grow as his police continue to use nightsticks and pepper spray. But now, he’s claiming that the protests are costing municipal workers their jobs.... [CW: see Friday's Ledes.] Bloomberg ... [is] protecting oligarchs by holding up the jobs of sanitation workers and firefighters and transit workers as a kind of human sacrifice." ...

... The "C" in CNBC must stand for "Clueless":

... It’s no real surprise that the same pundits who derided subprime lending victims as 'suckers,' vigorously defended the righteousness of bailed-out banks paying million dollar bonuses, believe tax havens prevent tyranny, and cited Glenn Beck as a new economic indicator would find the Wall Street protests offputting. But their comments merely highlight how out-of-touch they are with the common American, as they cater all day, every day to the Wall Street crowd. -- Pat Garofalo of Think Progress

Now for a word from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor:

     ... So, um, what was Cantor himself doing when he endorsed the Tea Party movement? Wasn't that "pitting Americans against Americans?" ...

... Even Jay Carney, President Obama's maddenly measured & mild-mannered press secretary, gets Cantor:

I sense a little hypocrisy unbound here -- what we're seeing on the streets of New York is a an expression of democracy. I think I remember how Mr. Cantor described protests of the Tea Party -- I can't understand how one man's mob is another man's democracy. -- Jay Carney

... I see the president's rhetoric of envy inflaming the public and saying, 'Go get yours because rich people don't deserve it.' I see [Obama's words] as inflaming this Paris mob that I hope doesn't result in a lawlessness where they say, 'Well, gosh, those nice iPads through the window should be mine and why don't I throw a brick through the window to get them because rich people don't deserve to have them when I can't have them. -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ..

... Justin Sink of The Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Friday that he believes the Occupy Wall Street protests stem from divisive rhetoric from President Obama, who has called for the richest Americans to pay increased taxes to help close the budget deficit." CW: we have a two-fer from Li'l Randy today. See also Right Wing World.

Welcome Back to Tennessee, Jim Crow. Ansley Haman of the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press: Dorothy Cooper, a 96-year-old black woman who lives in public housing, provided "a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate" to the state's drivers license bureau in order to get the picture ID that is now required at Tennessee polling places. The state worker turned down Cooper's request because Cooper didn't provide a marriage license verifying her married name. Cooper has been voting regularly for decades. "In Nashville on Tuesday afternoon, a coalition of organizations announced an effort to repeal the [Tennessee 'voter fraud'] law. Groups such as the ACLU of Tennessee, various chapters of the NAACP, the AFL-CIO and Tennessee Citizen Action announced a petition drive and get-out-the-vote effort." Via Think Progress. ...

... CW: Cooper is exactly the kind of voter these draconian state laws -- passed by Republican legislatures throughout the country -- are trying to suppress; i.e., someone who is likely to vote Democratic. But these laws aren't just anti-Democratic; they're anti-democratic. Earlier this week [in a story I linked a few days ago], President Obama said he had directed the Justice Department to take "a look at what’s being done across the country to ensure that people aren’t being denied access to the franchise." Here's hoping those DOJ lawyers are smart enough to look at not just what the laws say but also how they are being applied against people like Dorothy Cooper.

Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "Two months ago, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the bond rating of the United States government. So far, at least, the move has done wonders for investors in the very bonds that the rating agency disparaged. The rating downgrade, along with continued turmoil in European markets and fears that the United States might be entering a new recession, caused a flight to safety among investors. And, notwithstanding the agency’s opinion, money flooded into Treasuries and the demand for American dollars grew. Since then, Treasury bonds have been one of the few investments that have produced good profits."

Right Wing World *

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "At the Values Voters summit in Washington, prominent evangelical leader Robert Jeffress told reporters that Mormonism was a cult and that Romney was not a Christian.... Speaking with reporters later,Jeffress made his allusion clear. 'Mormonism is not Christianity,' he declared. 'It’s not politically correct to say, but Mormonism is a cult.'” The New York Times story is here.

Philip Rucker: "Calling for a new 'American century,' Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney laid out a muscular agenda for promoting U.S. interests abroad, saying [in Charleston, South Carolina] Friday that he would expand naval and missile defense systems and repair relationships with Israel, Mexico and other U.S. allies." ...

... Greg Sargent: Mitt Romney keeps telling lies, and news media are letting him get away with it. "... readers of these accounts could easily come away believing that Obama has apologized for America and doesn’t think it’s an exceptional nation. In short, they may very well come away deceived — with the unwitting help of the news orgs that are meant to be serving them." CW: if you read Philip Rucker's account above, you will have to conclude that among those news media letting Romney get away with lies is the Post, for which Sargent also works. ...

... Steve Benen: "If someone makes a bogus claim, he or she is merely wrong. When someone repeats the bogus claim after learning the truth, they’re lying. When someone builds a national campaign message around the obvious falsehood, they’re shamelessly lying.... The underlying point of the 'apology' attack, though, is far more insidious — Romney desperately wants Americans to question the president’s love of country. The 'apology' claim is a lie, but it’s also an ugly smear.... The fact that Romney repeats this incessantly says a great deal about his character, or in this case, the lack thereof. Romney will never apologize for America? Fine. But how about an apology to America?" ...

... ALSO from Benen: "In September, the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs overall, but the private sector added 137,000 jobs. The total was dragged down by the loss of 34,000 jobs.... As government at every level cuts spending, this necessary leads to public-sector layoffs, affecting, among others, teachers, police officers, and firefighters. For Republican policymakers, this is a feature, not a bug. In the GOP worldview, the economy will improve when hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers lose their jobs....The only thing standing in the way [of a better jobs outlook] is a major political party that’s convinced unemployment will get better after they fire a lot of teachers and cops." ...

... Okay, even more from Benen: "Leading Republican officials — including [Eric] Cantor, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry — believe Americans who don’t make enough money to be eligible for income taxes should see their tax burdens go up. It’s the kind of far-right class warfare conservatives prefer not to acknowledge.... For the Majority Leader [Cantor], activists who want millionaires and billionaires to sacrifice are guilty of 'pitting Americans against Americans.' But Republicans, including Cantor, who want the middle class to face a tax hike are just being sensible. Here’s a simple follow-up for Capitol Hill reporters: ask Cantor to explain the difference."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) put a hold on a bipartisan, paid-for Iraqi refuge aid bill because he

(a) is stupid
(b) is xenophobic
(c) is cruel
(d) can
(e) all of the above.

* Has co-opted real-world media.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators streamed across the threshold of Washington Square Park on Saturday afternoon after a spirited but conflict-free march from the financial district. As a throng of protesters filled the historic public space, at the heart of Greenwich Village, a chant rose up — from voices young, old and in-between — casting their movement as an intractable majority fed up with the nation’s financial inequities."

NBC News: "Washington's National Air and Space Museum was closed Saturday afternoon after sign-wielding demonstrators tried to storm the building on the National Mall. At least one person was pepper sprayed when the crowd pinned a guard against a wall and another guard came to his rescue, Smithsonian spokesperson Linda St. Thomas told NBC station WRC." The Washington Post has a short piece here.

San Diego Union-Tribune: "About 1,500 protesters kicked off Occupy San Diego ... Friday as they marched from Children’s Park to Civic Center Plaza downtown, chanting 'We got sold out. They got bailed out.' The demonstration, which is planned to last indefinitely, reflects similar protests that the Occupy Wall Street movement started a few weeks ago in New York and have spread to other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Seattle."

New York Times: "... new e-mails provide further evidence of high-level cheerleading on behalf of Solyndra, a maker of innovative tubular rooftop solar panels that declared bankruptcy last month and laid off 1,100 workers.... [Steven Skinner,] a senior Energy Department official, pushed hard for the government’s $535 million loan to the now-bankrupt California solar energy company Solyndra even after he had disclosed that his wife’s law firm represented the company and he had promised to recuse himself from matters related to the loan application, according to e-mails provided to Congressional investigators by the administration." ...

... Washington Post: "Energy Department officials were warned that their plan to help a failing solar company by restructuring its $535 million federal loan could violate the law and should be cleared with the Justice Department, according to newly obtained e-mails from within the Obama administration. The e-mails show that Energy Department officials moved ahead anyway with a new deal that would repay company investors before taxpayers if the company defaulted."

AP: "Federal authorities in California vowed to shut down dozens of pot growing and sales operations in a major crackdown, saying the worst offenders are using the cover of medical marijuana to act as storefront drug dealers."

Reuters: "Germany and France were split ahead of crucial talks on Sunday over how to strengthen shaky European banks and fight financial market contagion to prepare for a possible Greek default. Under strong U.S. and market pressure Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy will try to bridge differences on how to use the euro zone's financial firepower to counter a sovereign debt crisis that threatens the global economic recovery. A ratings downgrade on both Italy and Spain by Fitch Ratings on Friday underscored the grim climate."

AP: "In what could mark a turning point in U.S.-Pakistani relations, Pakistani forces have arrested a handful of al-Qaida suspects at the CIA's request and allowed the U.S. access to the detainees, U.S. and Pakistani officials said."

AP: "Activists say clashes between security forces and protesters have broken out in a city in northeastern Syria as thousands of people turn out for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader. Mashaal Tammo was killed Friday by masked gunmen who burst into an apartment in the city of Qamishli."

Reuters: "Ivy League professors dropped by anti-Wall Street protest camps in Boston and New York on Friday to school the demonstrators on theories that bolster their demands to end inequality in the American economy."

Yahoo! News: "The leader of the [Westboro Baptist] church, Margie Phelps, has declared her group intends to picket the funeral of [Steve] Jobs as way of 'condemning him for teaching sin to others.' ..."

AFP: "The US ambassador to the Philippines has apologised for his controversial remark that 40 percent of male tourists visit the country for sex, according to the foreign department. Harry Thomas sent the apology through a cell phone text message to Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario on Friday, a spokesman said." CW: this guy is a diplomat?