The Commentariat -- June 27

I've posted an Open Thread on Off Times Square & have added my comment on Douthat's column. Update: it came as no surprise to me the Times axed my comment. Read it & you'll see why.

Karen Garcia, who lives in New Paltz, New York, has a fine post on New York's passage of the gay marriage law. She features Republican State Sen. Steven Saland, who is likely to lose a re-election bid because he voted for the bill, and young New Paltz Mayor Jason West, who illegally performed same-sex marriages as an act of civil disobedience in 2004. ...

... Here's Republican New York State Sen. Mark Grisanti, who also changed his vote to "yea." It's a moving speech, delivered on the Senate floor before he registers his vote:

... Where's Barry? New York Times Editors: "After [Barack Obama] took office, it became evident that Republicans intended to portray him as a radical, out-of-touch leftist no matter what he did. Supporting same-sex marriage at this point is hardly going to change that drumbeat, and any voter for whom that is a make-or-break issue will probably not be an Obama supporter anyway." CW: there is a stark contrast in the courage quotient between Obama & those Republican state senators who may lose their seats.

Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker on the Afghanistan endgame: "Over time, the Pentagon’s focus shifted toward Afghanistan itself — toward helping its people rebuild their society, which has been battered by war and upheaval since the late nineteen-seventies. In strategic terms, the U.S. has swung between counter-insurgency and counterterrorism. Or, put another way, between enlightened self-interest and a more naked kind."

Mike Lofgren, a retired Republican Congressional staffer, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "The big deficit facing the U.S. is mostly Republican in origin, the Congressional Budget Office says. The Bush tax cuts alone have added $3 trillion in red ink, yet the party wants to double down on its failed policy." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Lori Montgomery & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "As President Obama prepares to meet Monday with Senate leaders to try to restart talks about the swollen national debt, some Republicans see a potential path to compromise: significant cuts in military spending."

Nick Timiraos & Maurice Tamman of the Wall Street Journal: "The percentage of mortgage applications rejected by the nation's largest lenders increased last year, spotlighting how banks' cautious lending practices are hampering the nascent housing market recovery."

The real reason House Republicans want to keep the typical worker’s pay secret is that it may embarrass some companies to reveal that they pay their CEO in the range of 400 times what they pay their typical worker. -- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) ...

... CW: Menendez added a provision of the Dodd-Frank law I didn't know about -- requiring companies to reveal how much more compensation their CEO receives than does their average employee. So Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post reports that "a group backed by 81 major companies — including McDonald’s, Lowe’s, General Dynamics, American Airlines, IBM and General Mills — is lobbying against new rules that would force disclosure of that comparison." Ever accommodating, "on Wednesday, a House committee approved a bill that would repeal the disclosure requirement.... The committee vote was largely along partisan lines: Twenty-nine Republicans and four Democrats supported repeal; 21 Democrats opposed it."

Jonathan Tilove of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "The president of the Christian conservative Family Policy Network sent Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a letter Monday calling on him to follow the lead of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and resign rather than leave Republicans and conservatives open to charges of hypocrisy." Thanks again to Jeanne B.

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post profiles Nancy Pelosi. Here's Tumulty talking about her interview with the former Speaker, who aims to get her old job back:

Ian Urbina of the New York Times: "In its annual forecasting reports, the United States Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department, has steadily increased its estimates of domestic supplies of natural gas, and investors and the oil and gas industry have repeated them widely to make their case about a prosperous future. But not everyone in the Energy Information Administration agrees. In scores of internal e-mails and documents, officials within the Energy Information Administration, or E.I.A., voice skepticism about the shale gas industry."

Oh, we haven't had a hard-to-believe TSA story in awhile. This one from the Northwest Florida Daily News should do: "Jean Weber of Destin, [Florida,] filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia. Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search."

Kate Zernike of the New York Times: The Tea Party plans to have its own debt commission, which will meet over the summer & make recommendations to lawmakers. "The commission is being organized by FreedomWorks, [which Zernike describes as] the libertarian advocacy group that helped grow the Tea Party movement." Actually, Freedom Works is Dick Armey's front group, & Dick Armey is a radical social conservative, not a libertarian.

Doctor Shopping. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of 'mystery shoppers' to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need."it.

Massimo Calabresi of Time: "As Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry gets closer to deciding whether to enter the 2012 presidential race, it’s clear his campaign would be about jobs.... Texas is a job-generating wonder.... Perry’s main claim to job-creation fame, though, comes from his high-profile raids on other states.... Beginning in 2003, Perry convinced the Texas legislature to give him control over several massive, largely unsupervised funds that provide subsidies to businesses that move to Texas." Turns out, the job creation didn't go so well, as corporate recipients of Texas taxpayers' largesse failed to produce the promised jobs. CW: as blogger Robert Nagle pointed out to me this weekend, one of the recipients of these funds was the notorious Countrywide Financial. As Nagle wrote in an August 2010 post:

Amazingly, one beneficiary of the Texas Enterprise Fund was Countrywide Financial who received $20 million from the State of Texas before going bankrupt under allegations of fraud. Not only did Perry approve of giving funds to Countrywide, he actually made a point to give a speech touting it as the fund’s 'crowning jewel.' ... Countrywide later became known for being a primary cause of the subprime loan mortgage meltdown....

News Ledes

New York Times: "The White House and Congressional Republicans remained deeply divided on Monday over whether a budget-cutting deal tied to a debt limit increase should contain new federal revenues."

For news on the guilty verdicts of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich , see Blago -- the Trials(s) under The Soaps! drop-down menu.

Politico, re" Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's alleged chokehold on Justice Ann Walsh Bradley: "State capitol police are investigating and have yet to discuss the incident publicly, though a statement on the matter is expected Monday." ...

     ... Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Update: "The Dane County,  [Wisconsin,] Sheriff's Office is investigating a claim by Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley that Justice David Prosser put her in a chokehold earlier this month. 'After consulting with members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I have turned over the investigation into an alleged incident in the court's offices on June 13, 2011 to Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney,' Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said in a statement."

AP: "The Supreme Court said Monday that California cannot ban the rental or sale of violent video games to children. The high court agreed with a federal court’s decision to throw out California’s ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Sacramento said the law violated minors’ rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments." The decision was 7-2. ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story is here. Justices Thomas & Breyer filed separate dissents. The decision & other opinions are here.

AP: "Outspoken congresswoman and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann cast herself as the 'bold choice' for the Republican presidential nomination as she formally kicked off her campaign Monday in her Iowa home town. Outside a historic mansion in Waterloo, Bachmann said she is waging her campaign 'not for vanity,' but because voters 'must make a bold choice if we are to secure the promise of the future.'"

Los Angeles Times: "The Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in a move that owner Frank McCourt said would stabilize the financial future of the team. The move also could extend the battle for ownership of the Dodgers well beyond this season."

AP: "The International Criminal Court decided Monday to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and two of his relatives. The court ruled that there was enough evidence to grant a request for the warrants by the court's chief prosecutor, who has said he has evidence that links Kadafi and two relatives to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians as part of their effort to hold on to power." New York Times story here.

The Commentariat -- June 26

Faint Praise. Maureen Dowd says of Barack Obama's slow "evolution" on gay marriage, "He’s not as bad as New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who gave another grumpy interview on Thursday ... asserting: 'You think it’s going to stop with this? You think now bigamists are going to want their rights to marry? You think somebody that wants to marry his sister is going to now say, "I have a right"? I mean, it’s the same principle, isn’t it?'” Yup, gay marriage is just like incest & bigamy. Oh, why not do the full Santorum & add bestiality? ...

... I've added a Dowd page to today's Off Times Square, but write on any topic. Karen Garcia & I have commented on Dowd. The Times has squelched my comment, but you can recommend Garcia's, which is Comment #1.

Frank Bruni, in his first Washington Post op-ed column, writes a fine one about gay rights & gay marriage.

This bears repeating. New York Times Editors: "Multinational companies say they could repatriate hundreds of billions in foreign profits and pump them into domestic investment and hiring, but only if Congress and the White House agree to cut the tax rate on those profits to 5.25 percent from 35 percent.... According to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the proposed cut would cost $79 billion over 10 years.... They call their plan 'the next stimulus.' Sounds more like extortion. In the last five years American businesses have kept abroad more than $1 trillion worth of foreign earnings.... The Obama administration should not give in to such corporate coercion.... The last time big businesses got such a 'tax holiday,' in 2005, companies spent most of the money rewarding their shareholders with stock buybacks and dividends, not in hiring."

There should start to be some real investigations as to whether Clarence Thomas can continue to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court. -- Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Darlene Superville of the AP: "On her second overseas business trip without the president, and to the black motherland, [Michelle Obama,] America's first black first lady, was warmly received everywhere she went, often with song and to the point of almost being moved to tears. She spoke passionately about her causes, tickled and danced with some of the youngest Africans, and sat with presidents and first ladies, including Nelson Mandela, South Africa's former president and a hero of the anti-apartheid movement."

The Washington Post's top story today, by Carol Leonnig, et al., asks if President Obama is too cozy with clean-energy manufacturers -- some of whom contributed heavily to his 2008 campaign -- at the expense of, you know, dirty energy producers. CW: I think the Republican party wrote this one for the Post.

Crime Blotter

Douglas Martin of the New York Times: "Randall Dale Adams, who spent 12 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of a Dallas police officer was thrown out largely on the basis of evidence uncovered by a filmmaker, died in obscurity in October in Washington Court House, Ohio. He was 61.... The film that proved so crucial to Mr. Adams was 'The Thin Blue Line,' directed by Errol Morris and released in 1988." CW: Now that we know so much about wrongful convictions, I don't know if we would be so shocked by "The Thin Blue Line" as viewers were in 1988, but if you haven't seen it, do so. Most documentaries aren't riveting; this one is. Martin's article, which outlines Adams' story is pretty riveting, too.

Life on the Lam with Whitey. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times profiles Catherine Elizabeth Greig, reputed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulgar's companion. The FBI has arrested both, and they are back in Boston where they both face trials for multiple felonies.

The trailer for the documentary film "Incendiary," on the execution of Texan Cameron Todd Willingham for a crime of arson and murder he most likely did not commit:

Right Wing World *

Melanie Mason & Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times: "Rep. Michele Bachmann has been propelled into the 2012 presidential contest in part by her insistent calls to reduce federal spending.... But the Minnesota Republican and her family have benefited personally from government aid, an examination of her record and finances shows. A counseling clinic run by her husband has received nearly $30,000 from the state of Minnesota in the last five years, money that in part came from the federal government. A family farm in Wisconsin, in which the congresswoman is a partner, received nearly $260,000 in federal farm subsidies."

* Where taxpayers should subsidize me but not you.

Local News

Crocker Stephenson, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "An argument between state Supreme Court Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley became physical earlier this month, according to sources who told the Journal Sentinel two very different stories Saturday.... According to some sources, Prosser wrapped his hands around Bradley's neck. According to others, Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck. A joint investigation by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism first reported Saturday on the incident, stating that Prosser 'grabbed' Bradley around the neck.... The confrontation occurred after 5:30 p.m. June 13, the day before high court's release of a decision upholding a bill to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees." ...

     ** ... Update: "Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month. 'The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold,' Bradley told the Journal Sentinel."

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Under Wisconsin law, '[w]hoever intentionally causes bodily harm or threatens to cause bodily harm to the person or family member of any judge ... is guilty of a Class H felony.' ... Should the allegations prove true, however, there are at least four paths to remove Justice Prosser from office.” ...

... Steve Benen: "Given Prosser’s track record and apparent hostility towards women, it’s awfully difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt. And if true, putting one’s hands around a colleague’s neck, in anger, seems like a no-brainer when it comes to removing a judge from the bench. Indeed, it sounds an awful lot like assault and battery."

Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel: "After dropping nearly $9 million from his own pocket to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson didn't have to feel the pain for very long. Johnson's plastics company paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly before he was sworn in as Wisconsin's junior senator, according to his latest financial disclosure report.... 'It looks like a scheme to get around a century-old law' barring corporate donations to candidates, said Mike McCabe, head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident whose activism on behalf of the environment and AIDS suffers [sic.] landed him in prison for the last three and a half years, was released in the pre-dawn hours Sunday and returned to his home in Beijing, his wife said in a Twitter posting."

AP: Lulz Security, "a publicity-seeking hacker group that has blazed a path of mayhem on the Internet over the last two months, including attacks on law enforcement sites, said unexpectedly on Saturday it is dissolving itself. Lulz Security made its announcement through its Twitter account. It gave no reason for the disbandment, but it could be a sign of nerves in the face of law enforcement investigations. Rival hackers have also joined in the hunt, releasing information they say could point to the identities of the six-member group."

The Commentariat -- June 25

President Obama's Weekly Address:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on passage of the same-sex marriage bill:

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed. But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition. And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap." ...

... Jessica Dye of Reuters: "When New York became the sixth and by far the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage..., it immediately transformed the national debate over the issue, legal experts said. With a population over 19 million -- more than the combined population of the five states that currently allow gay marriage, plus the District of Columbia, where it is also legal -- New York is poised to provide the most complete picture yet of the legal, social and economic consequences of gay marriage."

I've added a comments page for Charles Blow's column on Off Times Square. Karen Garcia & I have posted comments.

Charles Blow: "Until more politicians understand — or remember — what it means to be poor in this country, we are destined to fail the least among us, and all of us will pay a heavy price for that failure."

Dana Milbank: "... the breadth of [President] Obama’s fights with his political base is striking. Compounding the feeling of betrayal is the progressive lawmakers’ belief that Obama was one of them – not some centrist, Clintonian character. I’m sympathetic to Obama’s instincts to keep to the political center, but the routine spurning of his political base does seem extravagant."

Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy: the Administration is putting lipstick on a pig by claiming partial victory on the Libyan votes today. The only reason the 70 members of progressive caucus voted against the funding bill proposed by Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) was that it authorized the Libyan intervention. They would have voted for a stronger bill defunding the Libyan effort. ...

I believe that this administration has handled [the Libyan campaign] so badly, that if they had come to Congress, I think they would have done more of their homework. They have not done a full assessment of their mission, its scope, or the consequences if they're successful. Congress would have required that. Now it's a little late.
-- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio)

... ALSO from Josh Rogin: Rep. Turner says that in a closed-door briefing by Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, Italy, Locklear admitted that the goal of NATO was to kill Muammar al-Qaddafi. Locklear also claimed, in conformity to President Obama public statements, that "regime change" is not a NATO goal. CW: since Qaddafi is the regime, I guess the Administration is counting on his corpse to run Libya. That should work. 

Paul Krugman: If the GOP is "so deeply, deeply concerned about the budget deficit," how come they walked out of the debt ceiling talks? "The answer, of course, is that the GOP never cared about the deficit — not a bit. It has always been nothing but a club with which to beat down opposition to an ideological goal, namely the dissolution of the welfare state. They’re not interested, at all, in a genuine deficit-reduction deal if it does not serve that goal." Krugman also points out, with a chart! that a refusal to raise taxes is ludicrous inasmuch as "federal tax receipts as a percentage of GDP are near a historic low." ...

... CW: Talk about bipartisanship -- I agree with Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama! Daniel Strauss of The Hill reports that Sessions, "the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, says President Obama needs to bring the negotiations over increasing the debt ceiling out into the open." Public hearings! Sunshine! Oh, Jefferson, darlin,' you are my sunshine! (Never mind the rest of what Sen. Jeff says.)

Bill Maher & panel assess the Obama presidency:

Former car czar Steven Rattner in a New York Times op-ed: "Thanks to Washington, 4 of every 10 ears of corn grown in America — the source of 40 percent of the world’s production — are shunted into ethanol, a gasoline substitute that imperceptibly nicks our energy problem. Larded onto that are $11 billion a year of government subsidies to the corn complex.... Reports filtering out of the budget talks currently under way suggest that agriculture subsidies sit prominently on the chopping block. The time is ripe."

What's the Matter with Kansas? Con'd. A. G. Sulzberger & Monica Davey of the New York Times: "One in a series of abortion limits approved in Kansas since Republicans took full control of the state government this year — a new license law — is raising uncertainty about the future of all abortion providers in the state.... The licenses ... newly dictate requirements for the size of rooms at abortion clinics, the stocking of emergency equipment, medications and blood supplies, and ties to nearby hospitals..." ...

These requirements range from the impossible to the absurd. They’re not designed to protect patient safety; they’re designed to shut down abortion providers. -- Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "... in [school] districts across the country, many school officials said they had little choice but to eliminate librarians, having already reduced administrative staff, frozen wages, shed extracurricular activities and trimmed spending on supplies."

Oh, hooray. The Times has hired another white male columnist. Veteran investigative reporter James Stewart examines a case of bribery at Tyson Foods. After top executives learned of the bribery of Mexican veterinarians who were certifiying Tyson poultry, the execs conspired to both continue the bribes & hide them for several years. Finally, on the advice of counsel, they came clean. The DOJ & SEC levied fines against the company, but did not press criminal charges against the executives, leaving shareholders to pay for the crimes & executives to beat the rap. But, hey, Tyson emphasizes that no one died!

Marc Lacey & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "A cache of internal documents released online on Thursday by hackers who gained access to the computer system of the Arizona Department of Public Safety revealed the array of potential outlaws on the state police’s radar screen, from international terrorists to Mexican drug smugglers to motorcycle gang members.... The Arizona police agency shut down its e-mail system on Thursday and Friday to allow computer forensics experts time to investigate the intrusion, which was orchestrated by Lulz Security, a group of hackers who have previously gained access to a number of government and private Web sites." CW: this might be fun & games, but the hackers dumped everything & revealed sensitive information, including the names & addresses of officers & undercover officers.

Joe Klein: Tim Pawlenty is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.

Right Wing World *

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker plans to sign his infamous budget bill "at a business owned by Greg DeCaster, a convicted tax evasion felon." ...

     ... BUT. Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker has called off plans to sign the 2011-'13 budget bill at a private Green Bay-area company run by an executive with eight felony convictions, a spokesman announced today. The announcement came less than an hour after the Journal Sentinel contacted the governor's office to ask about the executive's criminal history."

* Where reality occasionally sneaks up & kicks you in the ass.

News Ledes

The Hill: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), "the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is crafting a bill that would temporarily freeze the Obama administration’s power to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. The measure is in response to a memo issued by the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week that approved a broader breadth of discretion for agency officials when considering whether to deport someone through the Secure Communities program."

The Hill: "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will demand a seat in the table for the final talks on the national debt limit, putting a strong liberal voice in the room. Pelosi and House Democrats were left out of the negotiations between President Obama and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last year that extended nearly all of the Bush tax rates though 2012. Pelosi didn’t participate in the final high-level talks over fiscal 2011 spending levels either. But now she’s demanding her say at a time when many of her House Democratic colleagues are disappointed in Obama’s level of consultation with their caucus."

AP: "With a threat of still more rain looming, Minot, [North Dakota,] was bracing Saturday for the Souris River to cascade past its already unprecedented level and widen a path of destruction that had severely damaged thousands of homes and threatened many others."

AFP: "The US Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of F-22 fighters, the most sophisticated combat aircraft in the world, after problems emerged with the plane's oxygen supply, officials said Friday. The radar-evading F-22 Raptors have been barred from flying since May 3 and Air Force officials could not say when the planes would return to the air."

AP: "A suicide attacker blew up his sport utility vehicle packed with explosives outside of a small medical clinic in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, Afghan authorities said. Some reports put the death toll as high as 60."

Reuters: "The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff's victims is now demanding $19 billion in damages from JPMorgan Chase & Co, more than tripling what he hopes to recover from what had been the main bank for the now-imprisoned Ponzi schemer."

Space: "A small asteroid the size of a tour bus will make an extremely close pass by the Earth on Monday, but it poses no threat to the planet The asteroid will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica...."