The Commentariat -- May 16

I've posted a Krugman comments page on Off Times Square, but you can comment on Douthat's tear-stained adieu to Mike Huckabee -- or whatever else is bugging you. ...

... Paul Krugman urges President Obama to stand up to Republican hostage-takers who want deep spending cuts in exchange for condescending to raise the debt limit. Here's Krugman on yesterday's edition of "This Week." As From-the-Heartland said in yesterday's Off Times Square comments, Krugman is the only one at the table who makes sense:

... Digby: "It's a wonder Paul Krugman didn't just resort to banging his head on the table at the obtuseness of the discussion [above].... It has come to my attention that some Democrats* have joined the kabuki conga line. It makes no difference. They are not going to let the country default on the debt either. They are just vying to join the 'Very Serious People' caucus. And the president knows this too."

... * See this WashPo story by Peter Wallsten: "A growing number of Democrats are threatening to defy the White House over the national debt, joining Republican calls for deficit cuts as a requirement for consenting to lift the country’s borrowing limit." ...

... Damian Paletta & Carol Lee of the Wall Street Journal: "People familiar with the [debt ceiling] negotiations led by Mr. Biden say they are looking at cuts to agriculture subsidies and federal retirement programs, stepped-up antifraud efforts, increased premiums for pension plans backed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the sale of wireless spectrum and government properties."

I worked for a lot of these guys. And this is one of the most courageous calls – decisions — that I think I’ve ever seen a president make. -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican, on President Obama's decision to send Navy SEALs into Pakistan to go after Osama bin Laden



What's next for Dennis Kucinich? Erica Lovely of Politico: even Kucinich isn't sure. As a result of the 2010 Census, Ohio has lost two Congressional districts. As Republicans redraw district lines, Kucinich's Cleveland district is likely to be eliminated.

Debbie Cenziper of the Washington Post writes Part 2 of the Post's investigation of HUD's outrageous failure to do any oversight of federally-funded housing projects for the poor, a failure that has left poor families without housing & taxpayers paying millions to speculators who build nothing. Today Cenziper concentrates on a Washington, D.C. project that is a case study in how to reward crooks for ripping off taxpayers.

New York 26th Congressional District candidates Jane Corwin & Kathy Hochul are required to wear matching outfits for a televised debate. But note that Hochul, evidently a radical anti-American socialist like President Obama, refuses to wear a flag pin. Where was that woman born? AP photo.Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: New York's 26th Congressional District special election is a test of the Ryan/Republican Tea Party budget. Election day is May 24. The district is heavily Republican, but ... Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul, who has emphasized the Republican plan to gut Medicare, is currently leading in the polls. And check out Right Wing World, where the Newt accidentally gives Hochul a boost.

Right Wing World *

With allies like that, who needs the left? -- Paul Ryan, on Newt Gingrich’s repudiation of the Ryan budget  ...

... Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal: "White House hopeful Newt Gingrich called the House Republican plan for Medicare 'right-wing social engineering,' injecting a discordant GOP voice into the party's efforts to reshape both entitlements and the broader budget debate. In the same interview Sunday, on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Mr. Gingrich backed a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, complicating a Republican line of attack on President Barack Obama's health law." CW: either Newt is trying to emerge as the Sane One in a field of nutjobs, or he's planning to back Mitt Romney when he concludes his presidential pirouette. he's just blowing wind. See update below. Here's Newt slamming the Republican plan to dump Medicare, after which he promises not to raise taxes because he knows how to "rethink the federal government":

... BUT He Was For It Before He Was Against It. Jay Newton-Small of Time reports that Gingrich told her a mere two weeks ago that he would have voted for the Ryan/Republican Tea Party bill because it was "a first step" to saving the healthcare system. Newton-Small asks, "How does one go from praising a plan as 'the first step' to criticizing it as 'too big a jump' and 'radical change'?" ...

... New York Times UPDATE: AND 24 Hours Later, Newt Is For It Again. CW: can anyone think of any reason to listen to that blowhard? Ever? If he cried "Fire!" in a crowded theater, would you get caught in a stampede? Or would everyone just keep watching the show?

... Carrie Dann of NBC News has a good synopsis of all the other stuff Newt told David Gregory, but if you want to watch the full Lie-o-Rama, here's the video (sorry, I was going to just link to it, but there doesn't appear to be a link to isolate the video):

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: legal scholar Ron Paul says Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional. With video. CW: Paul needs to read Article I, Sec. 8, a/k/a the "broad powers" clause. He seems to think if a law isn't spelled out in the Constitution, it's unconstitutional. The Constitution begs to differ."

Tortured Republican Rhetoric. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "It’s a rare sight to see a Republican senator and a former Republican attorney general trading charges of dishonesty and falsehood. But this is exactly what Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Michael Mukasey have been doing in recent days regarding the use of harsh interrogations -- what McCain and other critics call torture — and their role in discovering the location of Osama bin Laden.... We do not have enough information to make a definitive judgment. But it appears that Mukasey is straining to make a connection between the killing of bin Laden and the harsh interrogation techniques that appears, at best, tangential. Otherwise, he would not have had to resort to verbal sleight of hand to make his case. McCain, by contrast, appears to clearly connect the dots from the courier to bin Laden, citing information derived from conventional techniques."

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Hairball Announcement:

I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election.... -- Donald Trump ...

... BUT tabby-toned hairball will not run for U.S. President.

AP: "The last drive to recall Wisconsin state senators over their support of or opposition to a bill curtailing collective bargaining rights fell well short of its goal today.... Scott Noble, organizer of the effort to recall Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point, said the group collected a little over 6,000 signatures by Monday's deadline. It needed 15,879 signatures to trigger a recall election. That leaves six Republican and three Democratic senators in line for recalls.... The scope and success of the recall petitions is unprecedented in U.S. history."

New York Times: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leader of the International Monetary Fund, was ordered on Monday to be held without bail over allegations that he had sexually assaulted a maid in a $3,000-a-night suite at a Midtown hotel. Prosecutors had asked the judge, Melissa C. Jackson, supervising judge of Manhattan Criminal Court, to remand Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, contending that he was a flight risk. They also indicated that a similar attack may have occurred. 'Some of this information include reports that he has in fact engaged in conduct similar to the conduct alleged in this complaint on at least one other occasion,' said John McConnell, an assistant district attorney, adding that the district attorney’s office was still investigating the other occasion, which occurred outside the United States." ...

     ... Update: "Piroska M. Nagy, a blond Hungarian-born economist...," has said Strauss-Kahn coerced her into having a brief affair with him. because he was "so forceful" in his pursuit and because he abused his position which was very senior to hers at the IMF. CW: is it really necessary to describe an economist as a blonde?

** ABC News: the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for this morning at 9 am ET. Cdr. Mark Kelly will captain the ship; his wife Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will watch the launch. With video. Update: "Endeavour blasted off on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit Monday morning as the mission commander's wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd well into the thousands." See video above.

At 11:30 am ET. President Obama will meet with families in Memphis who have been affected by the flooding of the Mississippi River. CNN story here, includes video of flooding.

New York Times: "Around 10 a.m. on Sunday, according to officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, the river broke the record elevation set [in Vicksburg, Mississippi] during the flood of 1927, rising to 56.3 feet, 13 feet above flood stage and 1.2 feet below the predicted crest on Thursday. It was flowing by at a rate of nearly 17 million gallons a second, which is the highest rate it is likely to reach in its entire race down to the Gulf of Mexico." ...

... The New Orleans Times-Picayune has flood-related news here.

Chicago Tribune: "Rahm Emanuel will be sworn in as Chicago's 46th mayor today. The inauguration is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m. [11:30 am ET] at Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, with political Chicago in attendance to witness history as the city gets its first new mayor in 22 years. Vice President Joe Biden and outgoing Mayor Richard Daley are expected to attend." ...

     ... Update: "Rahm Emanuel took the oath of office today to become Chicago's 46th mayor. The city's new mayor then laid out the challenges ahead: Improving schools, ending gun violence and downsizing a city government taxpayers can no longer afford. And he asked Chicagoans, the City Council and the business community to help him."

AP: "The head of the International Monetary Fund was examined for evidence that could incriminate him in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, charges that stunned the global financial world and upended French presidential politics. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a married father of four whose reputation with women earned him the nickname 'the great seducer,' faced arraignment Monday...."

Los Angeles Times: "The International Criminal Court prosecutor at The Hague on Monday requested arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, his son Seif Islam Kadafi and his intelligence chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity." Al Jazeera story here.

NBC News: "Assailants killed at least 29 people — decapitating most of the victims — in one of Guatemala's worst mass killings in a generation. The massacre took place early Sunday on a ranch in a part of the country plagued by drug cartels. Many of the victims were shot and beheaded, police said."

The Commentariat -- May 15

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square for Sunday, & I've added a couple of my own comments.

** Nicholas Kristof reveals what Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke, who died last December, really thought about American policy in Pakistan & Afghanistan. It's a must-read, especially for the slew of lefties who held low opinions of Holbrooke, a few of whom demanded or asked that I link to anti-Holbrooke essays while his body was still warm. (I didn't.)

Maureen Dowd: "Some of the new fall TV shows will take you back to a time when the only threat women posed was ruining your martini."

Paul Krugman has a longish article in the New York Times Magazine about the two-tiered international economy. "... The biggest danger for the United States ... is ... that we’ll get confused by all the crisscrossing signals in the global economy and end up focusing on the problems we don’t have while ignoring the problems we do... I’m worried that Ben Bernanke may end up being bullied into raising interest rates when he should do no such thing. There will eventually come a day when the Federal Reserve Board should tighten — but that day is years away.... Our economic policy should be concerned with jobs, jobs and jobs."

"For He's an Unpleasant Fellow." Andrew Goldman interviews Larry Summers for the New York Times Magazine. Here's the takeaway. Summers may have made mistakes in the Clinton years but they weren't his fault & Bush would have fucked up anyway. He's probably right about that last part.

John Hightower in the Colorado Springs Independent: Hedge fund billionaire John "Paulson could've worked one single hour in 2010 and hauled off a paycheck equal to what a typical household gets for a lifetime of work. Now guess who gets the lower tax rate.... Thanks to a loophole..., billionaire hedge fund dealers like Paulson escape the usual 35 percent tax rate, instead paying (at most) 15 percent. That's ... immoral. In Washington, Wall Street-backed Congress critters are working fervently to kill Medicare and defund everything from education to environmental protection — all on the grounds that the only way to cope with the growing federal deficit is to bulldoze programs that Americans count on. But ... if just the 25 [biggest hedge fund deals] were taxed at the 35-percent rate, Congress would have an additional $4 billion this year to use for filling the deficit hole, rather than gleefully throwing sick seniors into it."

HUD, Where Your Tax Dollars Go Directly down the Rabbit Hole. Debbie Cenziper & Jonathan Mummolo of the Washington Post: The federal government’s largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them. Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400 million have been idling for years, a Washington Post investigation found. Some have languished for a decade or longer.... The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the nation’s housing fund, has largely looked the other way: It does not track the pace of construction and often fails to spot defunct deals...." There's a slideshow & link to an interactive map here.

Karen DeYoung & Karin Brulliard of the Washington Post: "Two weeks after the death of Osama bin Laden, the Obama administration remains uncertain and divided over the future of its relationship with Pakistan, according to senior U.S. officials.... Some officials, particularly in the White House, have advocated strong reprisals [against Pakistan], especially if Pakistan continues to refuse access to materials left behind by U.S. commandos who scooped up all the paper and computer drives they could carry during their deadly 40-minute raid on bin Laden’s compound."

Mark Mazzetti & Emily Hager of the New York Times: "... a secret American-led mercenary army [is] being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the" United Arab Emirate. "The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest or were challenged by pro-democracy demonstrations in its crowded labor camps or democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year."

Edward Cody of the Washington Post: "Whatever its outcome in the courts, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest seemed likely to change the political landscape in France. The longtime Socialist Party figure and former finance minister has been cited in opinion polls for months as the strongest potential challenger to President Nicolas Sarkozy in presidential elections scheduled a year from now." ...

... This story by Colleen Long of the AP, which includes details of the alleged assault, makes the same point as Cody's story. ...

... NEW. Katrin Bennhold & Liz Alderman of the New York Times: "For months, France has been buzzing with speculation that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the popular chief of the International Monetary Fund, would quit his job in Washington to take on President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections. But on Sunday, French politicians and media met news of his arrest in New York for alleged sexual aggression with stunned disbelief and expressions of national humiliation."

David Neiwert of Crooks & Liars weighs in on Mike Obama-Is-an-Indonesian Huckabee's announcement that he won't be running for president & his chat with Donald Obama-Is-a-Kenyan Trump. Wth video I couldn't bring myself to watch. ...

... Ben Smith of Politico: "Mike Huckabee's announcement this evening that he wouldn't run for president -- along with forcing much of the nation's political class to watch his show through for the first time, a kind of mass hostage-taking -- kicks off Republican candidates' efforts to ingratiate themselves to him."

Bill Maher: "You're Not a Christian if ...."

Lawrence O'Donnell talks to Michael Isikoff about "those" bin Laden videos. My favoite bit -- Isikoff says finding pornographic videos among the effects of terrorists is not unusual, and the CIA has been "studying them to find out if the vids contained any hidden message." Yeah, I'll bet the guys (and it's the official position of this Website that they were guys) who were "investigating" the porn videos hated that job:

CW: I missed Adam Nagourney's profile of California Gov. Jerry Brown that appeared in the New York Times Magazine last week, but it's a pretty interesting, easy read.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Israel’s borders erupted in deadly clashes on Sunday as thousands of Palestinians — marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank — confronted Israeli troops to mark the anniversary of Israel’s creation. More than a dozen people were reported killed and scores injured."

Atlanta Journal Constitution: "First Lady Michelle Obama spoke about community service, helping others and overcoming obstacles when she addressed 550 Spelman College graduates Sunday in College Park." AP story here.

Times-Picayune: "In a historic action designed to minimize the risk of catastrophic flooding in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers has begun opening the Morganza Floodway to divert water from the rain-swollen Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya basin." Washington Post story here.

New York Times: "Pakistan stepped up its condemnations of the United States as Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a longtime emissary to Pakistan in times of crisis, was preparing to land in Islamabad. He was arriving with a list of actions — and some offers from Washington to ease tensions — that he finalized in meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and other top American security officials."

The Commentariat -- May 14

This whole page is turning into links to stories about the denizens of Right Wing World, where facts never intrude, although I'll admit in a number of the stories linked, outside forces have imposed facts upon the wingers' little universe; for example, that persistent Senate Ethics Committee sure blew John Ensign's cover, and they didn't do much to bolster Sen. Tom Coburn's apparent prevarications, either. -- CW

Gail Collins continues her Presidential Primary Book Club tour with a look at some family values advice from newly-minted presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. She also takes a gander at another of Newt's many tomes from his publishing empire: "The tone of 'To Save America' is a lot like that of the anti-Communist screeds of the 1950s. ('The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.') In fact, Gingrich refers to the cold war so often you begin to suspect he’s nostalgic for Stalinism." ...

... I've opened an Off Times Square page for Collins or what-have-you. Karen Garcia and I have posted our comments on Collins, and -- speaking of literature, as we are -- Garcia's is a blockbuster. Update: more great comments here, including an of Garcia, Kate Madison and me, which in the interests of objectivity and semi-free speech (half a First Amendment right is better than none), I have elected not to jettison. ...

... Justin Elliott of Salon: "Jackie Gingrich Cushman has decided to resurface the most damaging anecdote of her father's political career: that Newt Gingrich demanded his first wife hash over details of their divorce while she was stricken with cancer in a hospital bed. Cushman suggests in a new column that the story is false. But Cushman's column, titled 'Setting the Record Straight,' is directly at odds with the testimony of her mother from just a few years after the 1980 incident." ...

... Still, Newt Gingrich Is Not Cool:

... NEW. It appears that Driftglass has found the original draft of a letter from 43 Republican Tea Party Congressmen to President Obama asking Obama to get his troops to stop picking on them. Since Driftglass is a modest fellow, he buries this scoop in a paean to his favorite presidential candidate. You'll want to read the whole post, but here's the text of the draft letter:

Deer Preznit Kenyun ,
Please make the Dum-o-craps to stop saying how we voted for to gut Medicare!
The past is the past!
Yors in Christ,
the Party of God

My Money's on the Kid. Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent: "A high school sophomore from New Jersey is challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann to a debate on civics and the U.S. Constitution. In an open letter to to Bachmann, Amy Myers of Cherry Hill, N.J., said, 'I have found quite a few of your statements regarding The Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted.'”

New York Times Editors: "The Senate Ethics Committee acted responsibly in referring the sordid case of former Senator John Ensign to federal authorities for possible criminal violations. Rather than let the matter fade with the Nevada Republican’s hurried resignation before his scheduled deposition, the panel stressed that there was 'substantial credible evidence' he violated the law.... The committee has now asked Justice and the F.E.C. to investigate further. Both had previously declined to take action in their inquiries of the senator. The election commission, which is particularly dysfunctional, rebuffed its own staff’s findings that the $96,000 payment violated election law." ...

... Eric Lichtblau & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "... the Senate’s harsh report [on John Ensign] — contrasted with the Justice Department’s inaction — provided further evidence for those who complain that the agency has seemed skittish about taking on public officials following the fiasco that resulted from the 2008 corruption case against the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, which was ultimately dropped amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct." The only person Justice is prosecuting is the cuckolded husband, Doug Hampton, tho lawyers the reporters cite say the Senate committee report demonstrates that a case against Ensign would be an easy one to make. ...

... Might as well pile on:

... Ryan Reilly of TPM: "Sen. Tom ... Coburn (R-OK)'s role as an intermediary between his friend and former roommate [Sen. John] Ensign and Doug Hampton, the husband of the woman Ensign was having an affair with, has been pretty well established [in the Senate Ethics Committee report]. Coburn has denied playing the role of negotiator over the amount of money Ensign should pay the Hamptons. But other people involved told investigators ... Coburn, whose name is mentioned 46 times in the Ethics Committee's report, played a pretty crucial role. And the report indicates that Coburn might not have given investigators the whole story.... Coburn's cooperation with the investigation did not come after a grant of immunity from prosecution." ...

... Here's more from Maddow on Ensign's parents & on Sen. Coburn:

Alex Pareene of Salon: Five Signs Your Republican Governor Wants to Be President (the whole post is pretty funny, but sadly, true):

(1) Develops doubts about evolution
(2) Is suddenly agnostic on or openly hostile to climate science
(3) Suddenly has opinions about foreign policy
(4) No longer thinks the government has the right to
        collect revenue on anyone by any means
(5) No longer likes transportation projects

Steve Kornacki of Salon writes a little history lesson on how the Republican party became the party of unreality in which the underlying philosophy is that "deficits are one of the chief threats to America -- but they can never be tackled by raising taxes; in fact, taxes must be lowered." With videos.

Republican Presidential Candidate Firing Square Gazette: Condaleezza Rice wants you to have an abortion and Mitch Daniels would pick that radical leftist degenerate to be Vice President. Ben Smith of Politico: Jon Huntsman backer Rob Wasinger sends out an e-mail under the title "Mitch Daniels Would Pick Pro-Abortion Vice President."

Trump in Name Only. I've brought this story forward from yesterday's Commentariat, where I linked it fairly late in the day. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Over the last few years, according to interviews and hundreds of pages of court documents, the real estate mogul [Donald Trump] has aggressively marketed several luxury high-rises as 'Trump properties' or 'signature Trump' buildings, with names like Trump Tower and Trump International — even making appearances at the properties to woo buyers. The strong indication of his involvement as a developer generated waves of media attention and commanded premium prices. But when three of the planned buildings encountered financial trouble, it became clear that Mr. Trump had essentially rented his name to the developments and had no responsibility for their outcomes, according to buyers. In each case, he yanked his name off the projects, which were never completed."

How can we be sure Obama is serious about fighting terrorism if he's not willing to place the tarred severed heads of terrorists on pikes outside the White House? -- Adam Serwer ...

... In response to this Washington Times editorial (via Media Matters), which expresses concern about

... President Obama's knee-jerk habit of kowtowing to Islam. By constantly emphasizing how bin Laden's sea burial was in 'conformance to Islamic requirements,' Obama officials communicated that the president is more concerned about placating the feelings of Muslim extremists than securing closure for the American people.

Citizens United Gone Wild -- Stephen Colbert gets serious about Colbert-PAC:

     ... Ken Vogel of Politico has more here, plus more video here.

Oh, whoopty-do. Evan McMorris Santoro of TPM: "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ... says he's considering making a run for the U.S. Senate [seat] being vacated by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)." ...

... BUT. Eric Kleefeld of TPM: "Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate predicted that the party would have one or more strong candidates in the race to succeed Dem Sen. Herb Kohl, who announced his retirement earlier on Friday.... Chief among the names that Tate listed were former Sen. Russ Feingold, who lost re-election in the 2010 Republican wave after three terms in office, and seven-term Rep. Tammy Baldwin from Madison and the surrounding counties."

Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who is old enough to remember the civil rights movement, has forgotten all about it. He says segregation would have ended on its own, because, I guess, that's what magically happens when you ignore all-pervasive, hardcore racial discrimination:

... Although racial discrimination has been unlawful in the U.S. since the mid-1960s, if you think it's over in the hearts and minds of white Americans, listen to a few leading Republicans, like Sarah Palin with her "real America," Donald Trump with "the blacks," Peter King with the "Islamic extremism," and every single effort to delegitimize President Obama. Ron Paul's Republican party has done everything it can in wink-wink mode to foster white fear and hatred of non-white Americans. There's a reason Trump was only popular among the party faithful when he delivered his overriding message in bigot-code.

Okay, here are a few bones for our ConservaDem and Republican Light friends:

Karen Garcia on The Two Obama Campaigns, one for us little people and one for the $50K-a-plate crowd. See also Kate Madison's reply to Little People Manager Jim Messina here on Off Times Square and also on Garcia's blog. ...

... Ben Smith & Byron Tau of Politico: "President Barack Obama and his allies in two big industrial unions appear poised to make the auto bailout — begun under President George W. Bush in 2008 — a central issue of the 2012 campaign. With General Motors back on its feet — it announced $2 billion in new investments at 18 GM plants Tuesday — and losses from the government’s intervention shaping up to be minimal, Democrats hope to punish Republican presidential candidates for their early opposition.

Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: behind closed doors, ConservaDems are arguing against taxing the put-upon rich. CW: one of those ConservaDems is my own Senator, Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election next year. Within the next five minutes, he will have a letter from me telling him he won't get my vote unless he backs a huge increase in taxes on the rich. Lily-livered loon.

NEW. Finally, a dash of realism. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: Pitzer College in Southern California will inaugurate a Department of Secular Studies.

News Ledes

President Obama's Weekly Address:

Los Angeles Times: "President Obama will open Alaska's national petroleum reserve to new drilling, as part of a broad plan aimed at blunting criticism that he is not doing enough to address rising energy prices. The plan ... also would fast-track environmental assessment of petroleum exploration in some portions of the Atlantic and extend the leases of oil companies whose work in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean was interrupted by the drilling moratorium after last year's BP oil spill." AP story here.

        ... Update: the New York Times story is here.

Welcome to Obamaland, a declining empire in Right Wing World.

News Ledes

** New York Times: "The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport minutes before it was to take off for Paris on Saturday and arrested in connection with the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was widely expected to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, was apprehended by detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the first class section of the jetliner, and immediately turned over to detectives from the Midtown South Precinct...."

New York Times: "Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, said late Saturday that he would not seek the Republican nomination for president next year in an announcement that was eagerly anticipated in part because of contradictory hints he had given over the last few days."

Also, see news reports linked under today's presidential weekly address.

New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh has instructed officials to open the Morganza Floodway within the next 24 hours to reduce the flow of the Mississippi River past Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a corps spokesman said." With maps. The paper's home page currently has links to several flood-related stories. AP story here.

Politico: "Shirley Sherrod, the U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who was forced out after a videotape misleadingly showed her making racially insensitive remarks, will start working for the USDA again.... Sherrod will be a contract employee leading one of three field programs designed to bolster relations between the USDA and minority farmers and ranchers. Support for the programs is among several recommendations contained in a sweeping, two-year study released Wednesday that examined decades of discrimination claims by African Americans, Latinos, women and Native Americans. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack commissioned the study shortly after taking office in 2009 — and well before he signed off on Sherrod’s dismissal in July 2010."

New York Times: "In an unusual, and apparently heated, closed-door session of Parliament, Pakistan’s spy chief issued a rousing denunciation of the United States on Friday for its raid that killed Osama bin Laden and denied that Pakistan maintained any links with militant groups, according to lawmakers." Washington Post: "Pakistan’s spy chief offered to resign Friday amid public outrage over the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden, an incident that humiliated the nation’s army and cast doubt on the capabilities of an intelligence network long believed to be nearly mnipotent."

Al Jazeera: "More than 8,000 people are attending the funeral in Homs of one of three protesters killed by Syrian security forces in the restive city, an eyewitness told Al Jazeera. Mourners for Fouad al-Rajoub, who was killed on Friday, gathered near Bab al-Dreib and began making their way through the city chanting for an end to the siege on Homs, Baniyas and Deraa, the major flashpoints in the uprising."