The Commentariat -- May 30

Memorial Day, May 1, 1865. Art by Owen Freeman for the New York Times.Historian David Blight, in a New York Times op-ed on the first Memorial Day, which took place on May 1, 1865, and was organized by freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. It has long, and no doubt purposely, slipped from the nation's memory.

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. ...

... Krugman says it's time to come up with a jobs program, and Douthat says it's time to whack businesses who employ illegal immigrants. Write whatever moves you. ...

... In a story related to Douthat's column, Julia Preston of the New York Times writes, "Obama administration officials are sharpening their crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants by focusing increasingly tough criminal charges on employers while moving away from criminal arrests of the workers themselves.... In a break with Bush-era policies, the number of criminal cases against unauthorized immigrant workers has dropped sharply over the last two years." CW: coincidentally, this is what I advocated for in my comment on Douthat (#3). I just posted the comment on Off Times Square.

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "There are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker [and are no longer almost all male], their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening.... That change could have a profound effect on the nation’s health care debate. Indeed, after opposing almost every major health overhaul proposal for nearly a century, the American Medical Association supported President Obama’s legislation last year...."

Ariel Levy of the New Yorker writes a long article on Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister. Her story also details the status of women in Italy: "According to the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, Italy ranks seventy-fourth in women’s rights, between the Dominican Republic and Gambia." Berlusconi's remarks about women are appalling. Here's one, his answer to complaints about sexual assaults: "We don’t have enough soldiers to stop rape because our women are so beautiful."

Graham Bowley of the New York Times: "At the International Monetary Fund, there is one set of ethics guidelines for the rank-and-file staff and another for the 24 elite executive directors who oversee the powerful organization.... The fund’s board members remain largely above controls [imposed on staff]. The ethics adviser, for example, is not able to investigate any of them."

Karen Garcia is incensed by the Sheryl Gay Stolberg's New York Times article on Elizabeth Warren's "breach of Congressional etiquette," which I linked yesterday. Garcia suspects a White House set-up. Plus she has the goods on Rep. Patrick McHenry, the perp in this matter. CW: For the record, Stolberg's article didn't bother me at all. I always think it's great when somebody gives back as good as she gets, and I thought Warren came out smelling like a rose. Who the hell is horrified -- other than the blowhard -- by somebody dissing a blowhard? Just for the fun of it, in case you missed it, here's the video of the final exchange between McHenry, who accuses Warren of lying, and Warren. As Stolberg says, it was, "depending on one's point of view, delightful":

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: not everybody was thrilled to see Palin at the Rolling Thunder rally for veterans & MIAs. With video. ...

... Running for president is not 'American Idol.' -- David Brooks, on Sarah Palin ...

... BUT ... Where's Waldo David?

Sarah Palin and admirers at the Rolling Thunder rally.     ... Photo via Joshua Green of The Atlantic.

Do Not Let Sarah Palin Near a Nuclear (Nuke-U-Lar) Weapon:

Local News

Ben Thrush & Byron Tau of Politico: President "Obama’s biggest asset in [Florida,] a critical swing state he won by a mere 2.8-percentage-point margin in 2008, might be Rick Scott, the wildly unpopular Republican governor Democrats are casting as Lex Luthor to Obama’s Clark Kent.... Broward County, Fla., political blogger Brandon Thorp summed it up this way: 'If presidential and gubernatorial elections were held in Florida today, no declared Republican presidential candidate could unseat Obama, while Rick Scott would have a hard time beating [Cuban President] Raul Castro.'”

News Ledes

President Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns this morning & spoke at a Memorial Day remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery:

President Obama made an announcement about Defense Department personnel this morning. The Washington Post has a related profile of Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, whom the President will name as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Politico Update: "President Barack Obama said Monday that he is nominating Army Gen. Martin Dempsey as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The president also nominated Adm. James 'Sandy' Winnefeld, the commander of Northern Command, as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Joint Forces Command, to replace Dempsey as Army chief of staff":

New York Times: "President Obama has decided to send [Michael McFaul,] the architect of his so-called Russia reset policy, to Moscow as the next United States ambassador there, seeking to further bolster an improved relationship as both countries head into a potentially volatile election season."

AP: "Endeavour and its crew of six left the International Space Station and headed home to close out NASA’s next-to-last shuttle flight, pausing just long enough Monday to perform a victory lap and test equipment for a future interplanetary ship."

AP: "Yemeni warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday on a southern town seized by hundreds of Islamic militants over the weekend, witnesses said, as the political crisis surrounding the embattled president descended into more bloodshed."

AP: "Germany’s coalition government agreed early Monday to shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized nation in the last quarter century to announce plans to go nuclear-free.... Energy from wind, solar and hydroelectric power currently produces about 17 percent of the country’s electricity, but the government aims to boost its share to around 50 percent in the coming decades." ...

... Reuters: "Ratings agency Standard and Poor's cut its credit rating on Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T) to junk status on Monday, saying the utility's bank lenders were more likely to be forced to write off debt as part of a restructuring scheme to compensate victims of an ongoing nuclear crisis."

The Commentariat -- May 29

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

Maureen Dowd has a pretty good column on Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, whom the IMF is likely to tap as its new chief.

If you're thinking of becoming something as mundane and quintessentially American as an anti-war activist, you might want to read this story by Colin Moynihan & Scott Shane of the New York Times, which details the extraordinary F.B.I. investigation of self-described Austin, Texas anarchist Scott Crow, who has never been convicted of anything more serious than trespassing during demonstrations. As the authors write, "Other targets of bureau surveillance, which has been criticized by civil liberties groups and mildly faulted by the Justice Department’s inspector general, have included antiwar activists in Pittsburgh, animal rights advocates in Virginia and liberal Roman Catholics in Nebraska." ...

... Speaking of FBI investigations, David Willman of the Los Angeles Times profiles Bruce Ivins, whom the FBI suspected of being the anthrax killer. Ivins died several days after taking an overdose of Tylenol, and before he could be charged. Especially if you are a woman, I think you'll find this just about the creepiest profile of anyone you've ever read. The FBI's investigation by many accounts was sub-par. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), who was a target of the anthrax attacks, thinks there's more to the story, & Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), a physicist who represents the district from which the anthrax letters were mailed has called for a 9/11-style commission to conduct an independent investigation.

The most important rule [for Congressional witnesses] is the 80/20 rule: If they’re talking 80 percent of the time and you’re talking 20 percent, you’re winning. If it’s 60/40, it means you’re arguing, and if it’s 50/50, it means you’ve lost and you’d better throw in the towel. -- Tom Korologos, a Washington éminence grise, on how to get through a Congressional hearing ...

... Congressman, you are causing problems. -- Elizabeth Warren, to House Oversight Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) ...

... Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on the insult/breach of protocol heard 'round the Beltway.

I posted a link to Bob Reich's essay on the Senate spending cap bill (Corker-McCaskill) some while back, but if you didn't feel like reading it, maybe you'd like to watch the video where he says the same thing:

Nicholas Kristof's column on the economic ascendance of India is popular among Times readers.

Dog Pee Can't Stop Santorum:

We're not political. This is not a political event ... Maybe she's coming because she knows we have a half a million people in town and thinking she can start her [campaign]? -- Ted Shpak of Rolling Thunder, on Sarah Palin's surprise announcement that she would participate in a Washington, D.C. Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally intended to highlight veterans' & MIA issues

You might not get a promotion if you ... are a British immigration official who puts his wife on the terror watch list while she's in Pakistan so she can't get back into the U.K. & leave her there for three years while you live it up. 

Right Wing World *

Another Republican says he thinks he could have beat President Obama in the general election had he bothered to run -- former Bush budget director & anti-union, anti-family-planning Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

For an excellent commentary on Texas Gov. Rick Perry's coyote-shooting incident, see Gingia's comment (# 82 -- highlighted) here. Short version: didn't happen, or if it did was illegal & irresponsible.

This article by David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post slants right; that is, it contrasts the Tea Party with Democrats in the typical he-said/he-said fashion. But I'm linking it because of this assertion by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.): "They are lying. We've got facts." I'm going to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and take it he really drinks the Kool-Aid, which shows you how scary the Tea Party is. I'm thinking I'll take a liar -- McConnell, Boehner, most of 'em -- over a faith-based zealot -- Huizenga, maybe Paul Ryan. You can't reason with either group, of course, but you may be able to horse-trade with the liars.

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

More on America's Worst Governor from the St. Pete Times "The Buzz": "... the Republican Party of Florida is robo-calling voters to drum up support for Gov. Rick Scott, who might be America's most-disliked governor.... The automatic, pre-recorded calls feature Scott's voice derided the hometown projects he vetoed from the budgets as 'special interest waste.' Not the kind of message that fellow Republicans, who crafted the budget, wanted to hear. Especially when those special interests included hungry and needy seniors, homeless veterans, paralysis victims, etc." Before his speech announcing the budget vetoes of "special interest waste," Scott "was preceded by representatives of some heavy-hitting special interests:" real estate development and business lobbyists. "Not every interest was represented at the event. Scott's office and RPOF staffers used sheriff's deputies to block Democrats from the event...."

News Ledes

The President speaks at a memorial service in Joplin, a week after the tornado:

President Obama visits Joplin:

AP: "Face to face with the legions of homeless and the bereaved, President Barack Obama on Sunday toured the apocalyptic landscape left by Missouri's killer tornado, consoled the community and committed the government to helping rebuild shattered lives." New York Times story here.

The Commentariat -- May 28

Vice President Biden delivers the Presidential Weekly Address, this week on the recovery of the American auto industry:

I've added an Open Thread on Off Times Square for today. ...

... Gail Collins continues her book tour of Republican presidential candidates, this time settling on Fed Up! by Texas governor Rick Perry. Kate Madison & I have posted our comments on Collins' column -- which is good, because once again, as they so often do on weekends, the Times trolls have held back our comments. ...

... AND in case you'd really like to know more about Gov. Perry, Peter Boyer, now of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, interviews Perry and opens with the same dead coyote featured in Collins' column. Perry is getting a lot of mileage out of that one dead canine. ...

... Not to diminish the importance of shooting coyotes, but Andrew Leonard reminds us that Rick Perry's claim he produced a "Texas miracle" proved to be a big fat lie; his tax-cutting mantra, which he & the Texas legislature are just now making worse, has left Texas in a spiraling state of crisis.

Demagoguery. def.: Making use of popular prejudices & false claims & promises in order to gain power. Karen Garcia realizes "demagogue" is the right's new word to describe Democrats who point out the fallacies of Republican policies: "... it seems like these overpaid pundits and columnists and hacks are all getting their marching orders from some centralized Reactionary Word Bank." Garcia plumbs Lexis-Nexis for some recent print examples. Of course, she couldn't leave out Brooks.

Marjorie Censer of the Washington Post: The Army's Comanche helicopter "is one of 22 major Army weapons programs canceled since 1995, ringing up a price tag of more than $32 billion for equipment that was never built. A new study, commissioned by the Army and obtained by The Washington Post, condemns the service’s efforts as 'unacceptable.'”

Earlier in the week, Ezra Klein sent Paul Ryan 8 questions about his budget. Ryan, or his office, responded here. Klein answers two of Ryan's responses here. This is all kind of wonkish & in the weeds (tho Klein is a very good explainer), but even a cursory reading shows you that Ryan has to bob, weave & mischaracterize relevant facts to formulate his answers. CW: Ryan is either stupid or deceptive; he can't be both. You decide.

Bloomberg: "Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking U.S. House Democratic leader, in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s 'Political Capital with Al Hunt,' airing this weekend, predicted that negotiators will agree on a plan to cut $3 trillion to $6 trillion in U.S. spending in time to raise the debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline." During the interview, Clyburn also said -- contrary to rumors that Democrats in the Biden deficit negotiations will agree to Medicare cuts -- Democrats will not agree to reduced Medicare benefits at all. Transcript. ...

... Which is especially significant because ... David Kurtz of TPM: to save themselves from the Ryan Medicare debacle, "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ... announced he will not support raising the debt ceiling unless big Medicare cuts are part of the deal. Translation: Unless Democrats get us off the hook by agreeing to deep Medicare cuts (meaning Democrats can no longer attack Republicans for wanting to eliminate Medicare), then we're going to force the federal government into default on its debt." More from Brian Beutler of TPM here. ...

... Steve Benen: "This is no small admission. The Senate’s leading Republican is saying, publicly and on the record, that without Medicare cuts, he’ll try to create an economic calamity on purpose."

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "You hear a lot about state officials trying to fight the Affordable Care Act, whether by challenging it in the federal courts or refusing to implement its provisions. But plenty of states officials are enthusiastic about the law. And perhaps none are moving as quickly, or effectively, to follow through on the law as Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley."

Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: There are "about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska. There is only one catch: the oil ... can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rock.... The technique, also called fracking, has been widely used in the last decade to unlock vast new fields of natural gas, but drillers only recently figured out how to release large quantities of oil.... As evidence mounts that fracking poses risks to water supplies, the federal government and regulators in various states are considering tighter regulations on it."

New York Times Editors: "Pandering on Israel [by both Republicans and Democrats] in the hopes of winning Jewish support is hardly a new phenomenon in American politics, but there is something unusually dishonest about this fusillade." The editors particularly call out Mitt Romney: "It is one thing to make noise on the campaign trail. It is quite another to lead a quest for peace." ...

... Steve Benen adds, "There’s probably no point in even hoping Republicans will be responsible on this, since it’s likely many of them don’t even believe their own rhetoric. But congressional Democrats have to be more sensible — not for Obama’s sake, but for the sake of Israel’s future and that of the peace process."

Right Wing World *

Dana Milbank writes a largely positive column about Herman Cain, former Godfather's Pizza CEO, who is more popular among Republican voters than Pawlenty, Bachmann, Huntsman & Santorum. "Yet there is no escaping a sense that the Hermanator is not ready for his starring role. When he formally launched his campaign on May 21, he proclaimed, 'We need to reread the Constitution,' referring to 'a little section in there that talks about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ ” That’s from the Declaration of Independence."

* Where facts just don't matter.

News Ledes

New York Times: President Obama is expected to name Army Gen. Martin Dempsey as new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The article profiles Dempsey.

New York Times: "A Taliban suicide bomber on Saturday infiltrated a heavily guarded governor’s compound in northern Afghanistan where top NATO and Afghan officials from the region were meeting, killing several people there, including the highly regarded police commander Gen. Daoud Daoud, Afghan officials said."

New York Times: "A federal judge in Virginia has declared unconstitutional a century-old law banning political contributions from corporations, a ruling that, if upheld, could have major implications for the rules governing campaign fund-raising and spending."

Reuters: "NATO carried out a rare daytime air strike on Tripoli on Saturday after a fifth straight night of attacks, adding to military and diplomatic pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to quit after 41 years of power."

Washington Post: "Egypt opens the Gaza border crossing, easing a four-year blockade. Hundreds of Palestinians headed to this desert border crossing Saturday morning to be the first to enter Egypt under newly eased restrictions for residents of the Gaza Strip. Some described the permanent opening of the gateway after four years of strict restrictions as the first step in regaining their dignity." Al Jazeera story here.

Washington Post: "U.S. officials say Iran is dispatching increasing numbers of trainers and advisers — including members of its elite Quds Force — into Syria to help crush anti-government demonstrations that are threatening to topple Iran’s most important ally in the region."

AP: "North Korea freed an American it held for a half year for reportedly proselytizing, handing him Saturday to a U.S. envoy who said Washington had not promised to provide aid in exchange for the man's release. The envoy, Robert King, accompanied Eddie Jun on a flight from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and told reporters after arriving in Beijing that Jun would be reunited with his family in the United States 'within a day or two.'"

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The [Wisconsin] state Department of Justice asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to immediately vacate a judge's decision that voided a plan by Gov. Scott Walker to greatly limit collective bargaining for public workers. In its filing, the department said Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi made so many errors in a ruling Thursday that the Supreme Court should throw out her decision even before it hears oral arguments in the case June 6."

News You Can Use. AP: "The Kroger Co. is pumping up its fuel discount program, more than tripling the number of grocery stores where regular shoppers can get up to a $1-a-gallon discount on a tankful of gas." ...

... AND This. Reuters: "The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from 'coffee shops' and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year."