The Commentariat -- July 17

Both Maureen Dowd & Frank Bruni write fairly interesting columns, each on a matter having to do with law and order. ...

     ... Dowd laments that the prosecution in the Roger Clemens perjury case made such a boneheaded error that the judge had to declare a mistrial. ...

     ... Bruni discusses an incident in which a gun-totin' Arizona state legislator allegedly pointed her loaded gun at an Arizona Republic reporter. "... the only state that still forbids concealed weapons is Illinois, said Chad Ramsey, Federal legislation director for the Brady Campaign." Bruni notes that "... a cavalier attitude about guns persists and even flourishes." ...

     ... I've posted a "Law & Order" comments page on Off Times Square. I'll add my comments soon.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Obama administration and Congress must raise the federal debt ceiling by Aug 2. That is all there is to it.... I expect that they will find a way to increase the debt ceiling on time. If they also figure out how to even partially address our long-term fiscal problems during their negotiations over the next couple of weeks, that would be a big plus. But it is not necessary right now." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the idea that if families are tightening their belts, the government should do the same, is as deeply intuitive as it is deeply wrong. But the susceptibility of politicians — including, alas, the president — and pundits to these wrong ideas demands a deeper explanation." That explanation, Krugman suggests, is this:

     ... Mike Konczal: "... there’s been a wide refocusing of the mechanisms of our society towards the crucial obsession of oligarchs: wealth and income defense." ...

... Reid Wilson of the National Journal: John Boehner has been trying to teach Econ 101 basic arithmetic to Tea Party members of the House. He even brought an expert in. With charts! If you only have three apples but you promised Johnny four apples. ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: We're living through a tremendous consumer bust, & the nature of the proposed deficit-reduction proposals is only going to make it worse.

You've Never Heard of Mike Mondelli, but He Knows All about You. Ylan Mui of the Washington Post on the "fourth bureau" -- private companies that track your personal data, including "auto warranties, cellphone bills and magazine subscriptions..., purchases of prepaid cards and visits to payday lenders and rent-to-own furniture stores..., whether your checks have cleared and ... public records [that] mention ... your name." Sometimes the fourth bureau makes mistakes; good luck getting the errors corrected. ...

     ... PLUS, five facts about the fourth bureau. You won't like them.

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times analyzes the sources of President Obama's big campaign fund haul: "More than half a million people have donated to the president’s campaign or his joint fund with the Democratic National Committee..., and the two accounts gained a combined record-breaking $86 million for the campaign by the end of June. But Mr. Obama’s bundlers — 271 in all — accounted for at least 40 percent of the total, according to the campaign’s estimates."

"Murdoch's Watergate?" Carl Bernstein in Newsweek: "The circumstances of the alleged lawbreaking within News Corp. suggest more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon presiding over a criminal conspiracy in which he insulated himself from specific knowledge of numerous individual criminal acts while being himself responsible for and authorizing general policies that routinely resulted in lawbreaking and unconstitutional conduct. Not to mention his role in the cover-up." ...

... Don Van Natta of the New York Times: for more than four years, "senior Scotland Yard officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid." Yet they were sitting on "a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World.... At best, former Scotland Yard senior officers acknowledged in interviews, the police have been lazy, incompetent and too cozy with the people they should have regarded as suspects. At worst, they said, some officers might be guilty of crimes themselves." ...

... NEW. Max Read of Gawker notes that Rebekah Brooks' arrest today, just two days ahead of her scheduled testimony before a parliamentay committee "helps her more than hurts her," & it helps Scotland Yard, too, who could not have been looking forward to any testimony that suggested their complicity o participation in aspects of the scandal.

Right Wing World

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on the Bachmann Formula: "... he political rise has its roots in her dogged pursuit of an amendment to the State Constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage ... and her mixing of politics with her evangelical faith. The 'Bachmann marriage wars' ... offer a case study in the congresswoman’s ability to seize an issue and use it to circumvent the party establishment — the same tactic, analysts say, that made her a Tea Party star in Washington and a hot commodity on the campaign trail.

Local News

Rick Ungar of Forbes: one outcome of the "fake" Wisconsin Democratic primary forced because the state Republican party mounted "fake" Democratic challengers (they're called Republicans): the little ploy cost taxpayers $400,000, in a state which Gov. Scott Walker has claimed was "broke." Ungar writes, "Walker’s willingness to blow taxpayer money in so cynical a fashion ... speaks ... to Mr. Walker’s true character and convictions...." CW: Americans know elections cost money, and it's a cost of governance we're generally glad to pay, but this was, as even Republicans admitted, a "fake" primary, since all of the challengers came from the GOP. It was, by every account, a GOP stunt. The taxpayers should not pay for it; the Republican party should. Maybe to help pay for it, "Fake Koch" will write them a check.

News Ledes

Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post maps out what steps Congress is likely to take next in relation to raising the debt ceiling. Actually raising the debt ceiling does not seem to be one of the steps.

New York Times: "President Obama said Sunday that he would nominate Richard Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mr. Cordray came to national attention for his aggressive investigations of mortgage foreclosure practices during his one term as attorney general. He has already joined" the CFPB "as the head of its enforcement division."

Guardian: "Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations that police officers were bribed to leak sensitive information.... An arrest by appointment on a Sunday is unusual." The Telegraph has a liveblog on scandal developments. ...

     ... The New York Times reports some of the media responses to Brooks' arrest. Here's the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal report.

     ... ** UPDATE: "Britain's top police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, announced his shock resignation as he was brought down by his failure to tell senior figures, including the prime minister, that Scotland Yard had hired a former News of the World executive as an adviser while refusing to reopen inquiries into phone hacking." AND this from the Guardian on what precipitated Stephenson's resignation. ...

     ... Telegraph: "The News of the World allegedly hacked into the mobile phones of [actor] Jude Law and his personal assistant while they were in New York, opening the way for News International to be prosecuted in the United States.... The Sun said it has carried out an investigation and found there is 'no foundation' to the claim." ...

     ... Telegraph: "A senior Scotland Yard officer has told The Sunday Telegraph that News International executives – including Mr Murdoch’s son James – are being investigated for any alleged role in covering up the extent of “industrial scale” phone hacking." ...

... Telegraph: " Pressure on News Corporation to make fundamental changes to its business increased last night after it was revealed that members of the BSkyB board are to meet in special session to discuss James Murdoch’s future as chairman and leading shareholders said the company should sell off its UK newspaper business."

Haaretz: "Wishing to avoid an American veto at the Security Council, the Palestinian Authority is considering turning directly to the United Nations General Assembly in September in order to gain international recognition of Palestinian statehood."

Reuters: "Temperatures averaged up to 15 degrees above normal, with most peaks in the 90s but triple digit heat expected to strike from Montana to New Mexico, according to lead meteorologists for The Weather Channel and The National Weather Service."

** The Hill: "House Republican leaders have missed a 36-hour deadline President Obama set during a Thursday meeting for lawmakers to give him a plan to avert a national default. The deadline came and went Saturday morning without a response from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Instead, Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) plan to move the Cut, Cap and Balance Act on the floor next week, which would require passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before the debt limit is raised." ...

     ... CW: perhaps this CNN story -- that Tea Party oganizations are ramping up pressure on members of Congress -- explains the House leadership's irresponsibility. ...

... BUT Washington Post: "Even as President Obama and congressional leaders focus on a fallback plan to lift the nation’s debt ceiling, top Democrats and Republicans have begun to map a new way to craft the same sort of ambitious deficit-cutting plan they abandoned last week. As part of the deal being discussed to raise the debt ceiling, leaders on Capitol Hill are forming an especially powerful congressional committee that would be charged with drawing up a new 'grand bargain,' possibly by the end of the year."

The Commentariat -- July 16

President Obama's Weekly Address:

     ... AP story here. Transcript here.

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

Charles Blow writes a really fine essay on "honest people who do honest work — crack-the-bones work; lift-it, chop-it, empty-it, glide-it-in-smooth work; feel-the-flames-up-close work; crawl-down-in-there work — things that no one wants to do but that someone must." While President Obama talks about "winning the future" with high-tech jobs, Blow points to a more realistic assessment:

As the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out, half of the top 30 occupations expected to see the largest job growth over [a ten-year] period, and seven of the top 10, are low-wage or very low-wage jobs. Only eight even require a degree. Most simply require on-the-job training. ...

... Jake Tapper does a pretty good job of summarizing both an important take-away from the President's presser & the ramifications of a default:

... Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The rancorous debate in Washington over whether to raise the federal debt ceiling is alarming many of the nation’s governors from both parties, who fear that whatever the outcome, much-needed money will almost certainly be drained from their states."

... Karen Garcia parses President Obama's "Equal Opportunity Pain" and doesn't find it so equal. ...

... CW: Of the several weak arguments Obama made yesterday for deficit reduction, this was the weakest: if we "get our fiscal house in order," then we can start spending on programs to "win the future." Oh yeah, because Republicans will go along with that. As Joan Walsh of Salon points out, that's not the way it worked for President Clinton, even during an economic boom, which brought in enough new tax revenues to create a federal surplus. Walsh writes, "Instead, the conciliating Clinton met increasingly savage political opposition, while a prosperity-addled, value-free media at best enjoyed the spectacle, and at worst joined that opposition." I don't know if Obama's push to reduce the deficit is (a) a bluff, (b) a political ploy, (c) or evidence he's not all that smart. But it's one or more of those. ...

... Worse than Paul Ryan. Bold Progressives in DailyKos: "Today, for the first time, President Obama made clear that he's considering benefit cuts even for Americans who currently depend on Social Security and Medicare. This is something Paul Ryan didn't even embrace publicly." [emphasis added] ...

... Lisa Mascaro & Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times: "Republican leaders in the House have begun to prepare their troops for politically painful votes to raise the nation's debt limit, offering warnings and concessions to move the hard-line majority toward a compromise that would avert a federal default.... At a closed-door meeting Friday morning, GOP leaders turned to their most trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, to explain to rank-and-file members what many others have come to understand: A fiscal meltdown could occur if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling." ...

... CW: we've already established that Republicans don't care about deficits & are just using the Deficit Bogeyman to effect tax cuts -- mostly for the rich. But Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post, brings up a point worth noting: most Democrats, including progressive Democrats, do care about reducing the federal deficit.

David Dayan of Firedoglake has some thoughts on the White House Friday night so-called "leak" that President Obama will not nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (See today's Ledes.) The Bureau will transfer to the Federal Reserve July 21, where -- being headless -- it will not have authority over non-bank lending institutions. Very convenient.

James Pethokoukis of Reuters: "Last night in a new report, Democrat-friendly Goldman Sachs dropped an economic bomb on President Obama’s chances for reelection." Goldman Sachs' has cut its outlook for real GDP growth, says unemployment will remain high & doesn't rule out the economy's return to recession. CW: Millions of Americans didn't need a Goldman Sachs report to tell them the economy was in the tank. Yet Pethokoukis thinks the White House would have no idea of the economic outlook unless their friends at Goldman told them what it was. Trouble is, he might be right.

The High Cost of Honor. Whistleblower Thomas Drake, largely vindicated yesterday as a federal judge gave him a light sentence & criticized the government for its egregiously handling of his case, speaks to the press. New York Times story here. Baltimore Sun story here.

Right Wing World *

Oh, never let it be said that Fox "News" isn't covering the Rupert Murdoch empire scandal. Here are "Fox & Friends"' Steve Doocy and guest Robert Dilenschneider urging other media outlets to "move on" & cover "more important things." Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress: "... their defense of News Corp. really got embarrassing when Dilenschneider and Doocy engaged in some stunning subject/object slight of hand, comparing News Corp. to companies that have been hacked, while failing to note it was News Corp. that did the hacking in this case.":

James Oliphant of the Los Angeles Times: "Taking a page from President Obama’s political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views.... Earlier this week, the Atlantic reported that that the synod’s website contains a statement that equates the pope with the antichrist."

Sometimes it's difficult to keep a straight face when writing a straight news report. Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Republicans claimed to have struck a blow for freedom on Friday when the House of Representatives voted to strip all funding from government programmes promoting energy-saving lightbulbs.... Michele Bachmann dismissed the 2007 law as an assault on individual liberty and an affront to the memory of the lightbulb inventor, Thomas Edison.... The House also strongly rejected a proposal to ban a website designed to teach children about energy efficiency." The bill doesn't have a rat's chance of becoming law. Thanks to commenter Walt W. for the link.

You won`t see a default because we have plenty of revenue as a Federal government. The Federal government will not quit collecting taxes. They`re going to still be taking it from the American people, still have $200 billion a month in revenue that comes in and plenty of resources to cover Social Security. -- Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), in a successful attempt to prove he is totally clueless. (See, Tom, that deficit you're all worked up about means the federal government has less income than it does outgo; and no, Social Security doesn't have "plenty of resources" -- it has a shortfall this year of about $45 billion. See also, Jake Tapper's ABC News report & the L.A. Times story above. Evidently Graves doesn't even listen to Saint Paul Ryan.) PBS "Nightly Business Report" video here (interview begins about 2:30 in); transcript here. Thanks to reader Russ C. for the link.

* Where the criminals are the victims, running for office sometimes means having to make a deal with the Antichrist, Thomas Edison generates electricity by spinning in his grave, and "deficit" = "plenty of resources." Quite a world.

Local News

America's Worst Governor. A reader sends me this great article by Lisa Rab of the Miami New Times who recounts Florida Gov. "Rick Scott's dirtiest deeds" in very readable fashion. It's an impressive list, to say the least. Matthew Hendley of the New Times adds a few other recent Scott misdemeanors. in an article about Scott's unsurprisingly dismal poll numbers.

News Ledes

NPR: "President Obama is meeting with the Dalai Lama — a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate — and China isn't happy."

The Hill: "A fall-back plan to avert a national default is under negotiation by Senate leaders [Harry Reid & Mitch McConnell] and is on track to be unveiled by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.... Senate leaders estimate they will have to have the contingency plan ready to go by Thursday to have enough time to get it passed through both chambers by Aug. 2 ... because of expected filibusters." New York Times story here.

Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter. The president’s choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency.... Obama may make the nomination as soon as next week...."

AP: "The military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is back in place for the time being, with one major caveat: the government is not allowed to investigate, penalize or discharge anyone who is openly gay. A San Francisco federal appeals court ordered the military to temporarily continue the controversial policy in an order late Friday, the court's response to a request from the Obama administration."

Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the use of full-body scanners to screen air travelers, but said the Transportation Security Administration should have sought public comment before deploying them. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the machines, known as Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), were not an unconstitutional search and declined to halt their use despite TSA's failure to follow proper procedure."

CBS News: "Conservative Watchdog group Judicial Watch on Thursday released White House emails that show an Obama administration official calling Fox News anchor Bret Baier a 'lunatic' and promising to put 'some dead fish in the fox cubby.'"

Guardian: "Europe's new banking regulator [the European Banking Authority] warned that an escalation in the eurozone crisis could pose 'significant' challenges even as it announced only eight banks out of 90 had failed an annual check of their financial strength. A further 16 banks were also deemed to be in a potential danger zone.... However, the tests failed to consider what may happen to banks if a major European country – such as Greece – defaulted on its debt, promoting many analysts to argue the hurdles were set too low."

Guardian: "Scotland Yard's most senior officers tried to convince the Guardian during two private meetings [in 2009 & 2010] that its coverage of phone hacking was exaggerated and incorrect without revealing they had hired Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, as an adviser.... Wallis, 60, who was deputy to Andy Coulson, the NoW editor at the time of the phone hacking, was arrested on Thursday as part of Operation Weeting. Coulson has also been arrested and bailed." ...

... NEW. New York Times: British PM David "Cameron’s aides released a diary of his meetings with executives and editors of News International... It showed that since taking office in May 2010, Mr. Cameron has met 26 times with Murdoch executives.... His meetings with the Murdoch officials exceeded all his encounters with other British media representatives put together." AP story here.

The Commentariat -- July 15

President Obama's full press conference:

     ... Here's the Washington Post's post-presser report.

Paul Krugman seems all surprised that most media pundits are just now noticing that Republicans are crazy. ...

     ... I've posted a Krugman page on today's Off Times Square, but if you want to write about something else, go ahead. ...

     ... Driftglass is mighty pleased that Krugman has taken up the mantle that Driftglass has so long worn, as he amply demonstrates in this post.

Maybe the debt ceiling was the wrong place to pick a fight, as it related to trying to get our country's house in order. Maybe that was the wrong place to do it. -- Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) ...

... No kidding. -- Constant Weader

Nobody Wins. Nate Silver on the political ramifications of a debt payment default for Republicans, Democrats and President Obama. "This isn’t a zero-sum game, and although politicians are bad at many things, they are usually fairly perceptive about what will enable them to hold onto power." ...

... Stephen Colbert explains the whole controversy:

... The press seems to have ignored the import of what Jay Carney said in his press briefing yesterday, perhaps because it takes the breathless drama out of their cliffhangeresque prose. Carney said twice that the debt ceiling would be raised and that the negotiations were about what the final deal would be. He appeared to be saying this not as an optimistic prediction but as what the leaders had agreed to. Here's the transcript. Based on that, it seems to be the crisis has already been averted. I just don't think we're going to like the deal. -- Constant Weader

Tim Egan: anarchists like Michele Bachmann form a disturbingly large caucus within the Republican party, and it may be too late for tassel-loafered Republicans like the $350-a-bottle-sipping Paul Ryan to put the stopper on the crazies in time to avert the Great Depression II. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "Republicans are in disarray. They’re divided among those who know Boehner was right, those like McConnell who want to get out of the debt-limit mess altogether, and the troika now running Republican House strategy (Cantor, Ryan and Rep. Kevin McCarthy), which needs something to show for having brought the country to the brink. The best way out of this impasse is, unfortunately, a political nonstarter: to work with the budget crafted by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), which shows you can get a lot of deficit reduction by mixing some spending cuts with higher taxes on the very wealthy. It’s a road Obama might usefully have considered earlier."

Eric Cantor Has Always Been a Dick. The real deal, this high school yearbook photo & citation have not been photoshopped. Thanks to Jefferson Dem at Democratic Underground.... Matt Yglesias: Majority Leader Eric Cantor has "poisoned the atmosphere" of debt ceiling negotiations by repeatedly leaking what Democratic leaders have said they would consider, then encouraging his caucus of radical conservatives to enact those considerations and only those, while making no concessions on their side. "If everyone in the room knows that Cantor has no compunction about misrepresenting every discussion as an agreement, it merely makes it that much harder for people to negotiate in a serious way." ...

... Andrew Leonard of Slate: Eric Cantor has always been a whiney guttersnipe who blames others for everything, including his own failures. Leonard thinks Cantor's latest shenanigans -- in which he has put his own aspirations before the needs of the country & has done so in a dangerous, dishonest way -- will not help his career.

... Are Tax Cuts Really "Jobs Creators"? Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "In the past three decades, job growth has thrived after tax cuts and after tax increases, and it has stagnated after tax cuts. If there’s a pattern, it’s that tax policy typically isn’t the decisive factor in driving a machine as complex as the U.S. economy."

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness. I only ask ... as Congress looks at the timing and composition of its changes to the budget, that it does take into account that in the very near term the recovery is still rather fragile, and that sharp and excessive cuts in the very short term would be potentially damaging to that recovery. -- Ben Bernanke, to the Senate Banking Committee

Susan Madrak of Crooks & Liars: during a subcommittee hearing, Blue Dog Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) calls out members of Congress for their rude treatment of Elizabeth Warren & for their utter disinterest in accomplishing anything for the American people. Madrak also has the transcript of Cooper's full remarks. Thanks to Bonnie for the link:

I do not want to be part of a committee, at least at the subcommittee level, that treated Miss Warren with more rudeness and disrespect than I have ever seen a committee witness treated. That is not the American way. -- Jim Cooper

NEW. On a Similar Note... Roger Simon: "We don’t have a debt crisis, a tax crisis or a spending crisis in this country. We have a hate crisis, an extremism crisis and a lack of patriotism crisis.... I will accuse most members of Congress of a lack of patriotism because they love power more than they love their country. They love knee-jerk ideology more than they love their country. And they love getting reelected more than they love their country." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Kevin Sack of the New York Times: "The White House on Wednesday declined to challenge an account in a new book that suggests that President Obama, in his campaign to overhaul American health care, mischaracterized a central anecdote about his mother’s deathbed dispute with her insurance company."

Right Wing World *

There are departments that can be revamped and some bills that can wait. And, again, it's our president's job, as the leader of the executive branch, to prioritize and administer those dollars that Congress has allocated. And our president obviously isn't capable of doing that, because he has no plan that he can even put forward to say here are my priorities.
-- Sarah Palin, former govenor (R-Alaska)

Palin either has a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue or she purposely is being misleading. -- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post fact-checker

"The Story We're Not Talking about." This is pretty hilarious. At about 1:50 into this Webcast of a commercial break during Fox "News"' so-called media criticism show "NewsWatch" the panelists remark they are "not going to touch" by far the biggest news story of the week: the implosion of Fox "News" owner Rupert Murdoch's British media empire. Eric Hananoki of Media Matters comments:

Joshua Green of The Atlantic: "the conservative Lutheran church [Michele Bachmann] belonged to for many years [believes] ... that the Roman Catholic Pope is the Antichrist."

"Will the Last Child out Please Leave on the Lights?" Dan Berman & Darius Dixon of Politico: "A Republican congresswoman wants the Energy Department to stop promoting energy efficiency to kids. Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) has introduced an amendment to the Energy and Water spending bill that would limit funds for any DOE website 'which disseminates information regarding energy efficiency and educational programs to children or adolescents.'” Apparently Energy Secretary Steven Chu is not sufficiently cooperating with Adams' noble ignorance initiative. Thanks to reader Doug R. for the link.

* Where the Devil lurks around every corner. So you'd better leave the lights on.

News Ledes

Buh-Bye. New York Times: "Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, announced his resignation on Friday, joining Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, in the exodus of top officials from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Mr. Hinton, a long-time confidant of Mr. Murdoch, ran News International, the British publishing subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, from 1997 to 2005, during the time when the phone hacking that touched off the scandal took place." As chair of Dow Jones, Hinton was the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. ...

     ... The Wall Street Journal story, here, is good, straight reporting.

Fairly Happy Ending. New York Times: "A former spy agency official accused of leaking classified information to a newspaper walked out of court a free man on Friday, sentenced to a year’s probation and community service.... Judge Richard D. Bennett of the Federal District Court praised the former National Security Agency official, Thomas A. Drake, for his exemplary record of public service before giving him a mild scolding for improperly providing information on alleged agency mismanagement to The Baltimore Sun. But Judge Bennett reserved his strongest condemnation for the Justice Department...." ...

     ... Baltimore Sun story here. Video in July 16 Commentariat.

AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Obama administration has decided to formally recognize Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government. The move gives foes of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a major financial and credibility boost. Clinton announced Friday that Washington accepts the Transitional National Council as the legitimate governing authority of the Libyan people."

Al Jazeera: "As many as 19 protesters have been killed across Syria after security forces reportedly shot at protesters, hundreds of thousands of whom took to the streets in the biggest protests so far against Bashar al-Assad's rule." With video. Al Jazeera has a liveblog here.

Washington Post: "Obama administration officials have been privately exploring with major banks and foreign investors whether the government could devise a way to avoid a severe disruption in financial markets if the federal debt ceiling is not raised.... But the message back from the market has been discouraging: The failure to pay any significant obligations would scare away investors and undermine the financial system." ...

... Washington Post: "President Obama prepared Thursday to bring bipartisan talks over the debt to a close, as Senate leaders worked across party lines to craft an alternative strategy to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit and avert a government default.... A breakthrough in the White House talks looked unlikely, however, leaving the Senate framework as the chief option for raising the debt limit before Aug. 2...." The AP story is here. ...

... Reuters: "Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has warned there is a one-in-two chance it could cut the United States' prized AAA credit rating if a deal on raising the government's debt ceiling is not agreed soon. Putting the U.S. on negative watch, S&P warned that it could cut the rating as soon as this month...." ...

... "Worst Idea in Washington" Advances. AP: "Right in the middle of their brawl with President Barack Obama over extending the debt ceiling and hacking trillions from projected deficits, GOP leaders are forcing House and Senate debates next week over similar amendments requiring the budget to be balanced, starting no sooner than five years from now. Reflecting tea party clout, both measures would also sharply curb Congress' ability to raise taxes and spending."

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "After weeks of crippling political deadlock, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders emerged in the darkened Capitol on Thursday to announce they had brokered a budget deal to end the longest state government shutdown in U.S. history." With video. ...

     ... AP: "Minnesota's leaders made a deal that will probably end the nation's longest state government shutdown in a decade, but they didn't really solve their budget problem. Instead, they just shuffled it down the road to be faced another day."

Reuters: "Italy's parliament was set on Friday to approve a 48 billion euro austerity package aimed at averting a full scale financial crisis but there were growing questions about the government's capacity for further reforms. After what business daily Il Sole 24 Ore called an "absolute first," government and opposition parties have set aside differences to pass the austerity measures in a matter of days."

Guardian: "Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, has resigned after 11 days of mounting political pressure over the phone-hacking scandal. Brooks announced her decision to News International staff in Wapping just before 10am on Friday, saying her resignation had been accepted by Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch. She said she no longer wanted to be a 'focal point of the debate' surrounding the company's future and reputation." Here's her resignation letter. ...

... Los Angeles Times: "In a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, had cited reports that News of the World journalists 'attempted to obtain phone records of victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th through bribery and unauthorized wiretapping.' King also cited reports that the reporters had solicited a New York police officer 'to gain access to the content of private phone records' of the Sept. 11 victims."