The Commentariat -- March 27

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The ailing economy and the Tea Party’s demand for smaller government have dominated Republican politics for two years, but a resurgent social conservative movement is shaping the first stage of the presidential nominating contest, complicating the strategy for candidates who prefer to focus on fiscal issues over faith." ...

... Red Meat. Maggie Haberman of Politico: Michele Bachmann "gave the best-received speech of the potential 2012 hopefuls appearance at [crazy-evil] Rep. Steve King's conference and the crowd wildly applauded her brand of populism." ...

... Andy Barr of Politico: "In the latest Gallup poll released Friday, [Mike Huckabee is] the Republican leader, ahead of 16 other presidential prospects. Regardless of what’s being polled, who’s doing the polling or how the question is asked, among Republicans Huckabee typically finishes on top. ...

... BUT Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy -- a/k/a Fake Koch -- announces his candidacy for the Upstate New York Congressional seat vacated by CraigsList contributor, barechested Rep. Chris Lee in a better campaign announcement video than any Republicans could devise:

Prof. Juan Cole, an unabashed lefty, writes "an open letter to the left on Libya: ... I am unabashedly cheering the liberation movement on, and glad that the UNSC-authorized intervention has saved them from being crushed." He outlines why the coaltion action against Gaddafi forces is warranted & why leftists' arguments against the action are wanting. CW: if, like me, you've been conflicted about the military action, reading Cole is essential.

Nicholas Kristof: "Mubarak is gone, but an Egyptian woman’s story of torture depicts a revolution far from over.... The lesson may be that revolution is not a moment but a process, a gritty contest of wills that unfolds painstakingly long after the celebrations have died and the television lights have dimmed."

Local News

These changes to Medicaid are basically nothing but a business plan for Rick Scott's Solantic. -- Eric Jotkoff, Florida Democratic Party spokesman ...

... Suzy Khimm of Mother Jones: "Republican governor Rick Scott's push to privatize Medicaid in Florida is highly controversial — not least because the health care business Scott handed over to his wife when he took office could reap a major profit if the legislation becomes law. Scott and Florida Republicans are currently trying to enact a sweeping Medicaid reform bill that would give HMOs and other private health care companies unprecedented control over the government health care program for the poor. Among the companies that stand to benefit from the bill is Solantic, a chain of urgent-care clinics.... The Florida governor founded Solantic in 2001, only a few years after he resigned as the CEO of hospital giant Columbia/HCA amid a massive Medicare fraud scandal. In January, he transferred his $62 million stake in Solantic to his wife, Ann Scott, a homemaker involved in various charitable organizations. ...

... In the 1990s, [Scott] made his money off single-payer health-care programs by cheating them. Today, he's making his money off single-payer health-care programs by running them. No matter how you look at it, it's a step up. -- Ezra Klein ...

... "The Moral of the Story: Don't Elect a Criminal to Be Governor." Steve Benen: "This happens to coincide with a new Scott initiative: mandatory drug testing for state employees, state job applicants, and welfare recipients. Care to guess what Florida company would stand to make a lot of money administering these wildly unnecessary drug tests? If you guessed, 'Solantic,' you're right." ...

... Florida! Where Bestiality Is Legal! The dysfunctional Florida legislature is trying for a third time to pass a law making bestiality a crime. So far, they have not been able to pass what should be an uncontroversial law even though proponents of the bill -- inspired by the sexual abuse & asphyxiation of a goat -- have come up with great motivational slogans like "Baaa Means No." ...

... CW: you may ask me why I'm still living in a state like this. I'm beginning to wonder myself.

Right Wing World

Politico: "Pressed on 'Fox News Sunday' about his adulterous past, Newt Gingrich said it was not hypocritical for him to impeach Bill Clinton while he cheated on his own wife because he never lied under oath." Update: here's the videotape:

Mormons, Sí; Muslims, No. Freedom of Religion for You and Me. Steve Benen: after describing an anti-Muslim rant by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, Benen reminds us that "In the fall of 2007, [Mitt] Romney said he would not consider Muslim Americans for his cabinet. Indeed, he said this more than once, in front of plenty of witnesses." Romney, unlike Cain, is a front-runner. ...

... Based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.
-- Herman Cain ...

... Scott Keyes of Think Progress has more, including a video, of Cain's views & misunderstanding of the First Amendment.

News Ledes

AP: "A magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook eastern Japan off the quake-ravaged coast on Monday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, prompting Japan to issue a tsunami alert. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but the Japan Meteorological Agency announced that a tsunami of up to 1.6 feet (a half meter) may wash into Miyagi Prefecture." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "Puddles with 10 million times more radioactivity than would be found in water in a normally functioning nuclear reactor have been discovered at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi facility, Japanese officials said Sunday, raising new questions about the extent of damage to reactor No. 2 and the threat to workers there." ...

... AP: "Nevada has joined several western states in reporting that minuscule amounts of radiation from Japan's damaged nuclear plant are showing up. But as with the other states, scientists say there is no health risk."

WISC: Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette (yes, of that La Follette family) said the state's budget repair bill has not been published & therefore cannot go into effect, despite Republican plans to implement it anyway.

New York Times: "The United States military intervention in Libya has saved perhaps tens of thousands of lives, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday, as she and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates defended a mission they acknowledged is drawing increasing skepticism from both liberals and conservatives."

Reuters: "NATO agreed on Sunday to take full responsibility for coalition military operations in Libya, ending a week of heated negotiations over the command structure."

The Hill: "The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said on Sunday that Col. Moammar Gadhafi is 'on his heels' and Libyan people need to take advantage of the situation and remove their dictator. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) heralded the ongoing U.S., British, and French air strikes, and bucked criticism of President Obama’s communication with the Congress, saying that he has clearly laid out the U.S.’s end game in the North African country."

Los Angeles Times: "Libyan rebels took back a key oil town on Sunday in their westward push toward the capital,seizing momentum from the international airstrikes that tipped the balance away from Moammar Kadafi's military. Brega, a main oil export terminal in eastern Libya, fell to rebels after a skirmish late Saturday, said Ahmed Jibril, a rebel commander manning a checkpoint on the westernmost edge of town." ...

... CBS News: "On 'Face the Nation' airing Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CBS News chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer that intelligence reports indicate Muammar Qaddafi's forces are planting dead bodies of civilians at sites attacked by coalition forces." CW Note: this is more or less the same "classified secret" Glenn Greenwald wrote about last week.

New York Times: "A day after he said he was ready to yield power to 'safe hands,' President Ali Abdullah Saleh asserted Saturday that his departure was not imminent, leaving unclear when and under what terms he would agree to step down."

AP: "Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments. The government is projecting a slight cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits next year, the first increase since 2009. But for most beneficiaries, rising Medicare premiums threaten to wipe out any increase in payments, leaving them without a raise for a third straight year."

Guardian: "More than 200 people are in police custody after trouble flared in central London following a peaceful march and TUC rally against the government's spending cuts. Eighty-four people, including at least 31 police officers, were reported to have been injured in the violence as a minority of anarchists attacked symbols of wealth in Piccadilly, Oxford Street and Regent Street."

The Commentariat -- March 26

The President's Weekly Address, March 26    

The President says that thanks to our men and women in uniform, the military mission in Libya is succeeding even as responsibility is transferred to our NATO allies and partners.

... Here's the transcript. AND here's an AP report.

I had been thinking of featuring an Outrage of the Day. But there are so many. -- Constant Weader ...

... ** Karen Garcia: "Honeywell International, whose CEO [David Cote] is a member of President Obama's Bipartisan Deficit Reduction ('Cat Food') Commission, has pleaded guilty to knowingly storing hazardous radioactive waste without a permit, and has been sentenced in federal court to pay a criminal fine of $11.8 million." CW: you won't find this horror story in the major media, but it should have been front-page news. ...

... But unless you're a rich criminal like David Cote or Angelo Mozilo (see below), the government will go to practically any lengths to put you in jail on the slightest excuse. ...

... Joe Nocera's last "Talking Business" column -- he's moving to the New York Times op-ed page -- will fucking infuriate you: "A few weeks ago, when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide, I wrote a column lamenting the fact that none of the big fish were likely to go to prison.... [But] there was, in fact, someone behind bars for what he’d supposedly done during the subprime bubble.... Charlie Engle wasn’t a seller of bad mortgages. He was a borrower. And the 'mortgage fraud' for which he was prosecuted was something that literally millions of Americans did during the subprime bubble. Supposedly, he lied on two liar loans." You must read Nocera's whole column to see the extraordinary effort the government made to prosecute Engle. Their "best evidence," acquired via an attractive female IRS agent wearing a wire, couldn't be more flimsy. ...

... Along similar lines, Thom Hartmann writes, "American in the 21st century is bringing back debtors’ prisons.  People who can’t pay off their credit cards can be thrown in jail in a third of the states in our nation – and since the start of 2010 – over 5,000 arrest warrants have been issued against people who owe as little as $1,000 to massively profitable corporations like Capital One." ...

... Sorry, this is not a government of, by and for the people. ...

... ** Bob Herbert writes his last column for the New York Times: "Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline.... Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim.... Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush.... The corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home." ...

... Noam Cohen of the New York Times: "... as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are ... continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts.... In a six-month period..., Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times.... In the United States, telecommunication companies do not have to report precisely what material they collect...," but Schmitt broadly impolies they're selling info about you to marketers. ...

... This is not a love song. It is, after all, a "Police" "Sting":

Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy on why the Libyan war coalition is the smallest multinational war coalition in decades. ...

... Bruce Ackerman of Foreign Policy: "In taking the country into a war with Libya, Barack Obama's administration is breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency -- an executive who increasingly acts independently of Congress at home and abroad. Obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution has legitimated U.S. bombing raids under international law. But the U.N. Charter is not a substitute for the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, the power 'to declare war.'"

... Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: U.S. Air Force Capt. Ryan Thulin tells of his raid over Libya.

Paul Krugman deplores the Wisconsin GOP's attempt to intimidate UW-Madison Prof. William Cronon for having the audacity to write a New York Times op-ed on the history of Wisconsin's Republican progressivism. See yesterday's Commentariat for the backstory. As Krugman writes of the GOP's open-records request for Cronon's personal e-mails, "Cronon has a wisconsin.edu email address — but nobody, and I mean nobody, considers such academic email addresses something specially reserved for university business." CW: my husband & I get plenty of e-mails from academics writing on dot.edu's, & many of them are of a highly personal nature. I consider this Republican witchhunt worse than an assault on academic freedom or an attempt at intimidation -- it's invasion of privacy. Do you want the world reading your e-mails? ...

... Jonathan Adler of the Volokh Conspiracy adds an interesting twist to the story: it seems the GOP was upset not by Cronon's op-ed but by an earlier blogpost he wrote in which he wrote about "the American Legislative Exchange Council, largely crediting ALEC with the push for anti-public-sector-union legislation in many states." How does Adler know? Because Cronon's blogpost appeared March 15, the GOP records request was made March 17, and the Times didn't published Cronon's op-ed till March 21. In fact, Adler contends -- absent evidence -- that Cronon wrote his op-ed in retaliation for the records search:

The open records request infuriated Prof. Cronon, and with good reason. Even if justified under Wisconsin state law, the request looks like an effort to intimidate a prominent critic by conducting a fishing expedition through private communications — an expedition aimed at producing fodder for additional attacks on his reputation. ...

... Update. BUT the editors of the New York Times say they asked Cronon to write his op-ed "earlier this month" and that Cronon wrote his blogpost as a result of the research results for the op-ed. Kinda shoots the hell out of Adler's revenge theory. The editoris say the "shabby crusade" of the Wisconsin Republicans makes them "appear vengeful and ridiculous." ...

... The Times has a story here, but it's by A. G. Sulzberger, the Times family scion, & he is known for not getting his stories too straight.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Nine years after a scandal in Boston prompted America’s Roman Catholic bishops to announce sweeping policy changes to protect children from sexual abuse by priests, the bishops are scrambling to contain the damage from a growing crisis in Philadelphia that has challenged the credibility of their own safeguards.... Church officials are ... deeply troubled by how it is possible that in the bishops’ most recent annual 'audit' — conducted by an outside agency to monitor each diocese’s compliance with the policy changes — Philadelphia passed with flying colors...."

Right Wing World *

The Many Flip-Flops of Newt:

Obviously, my analysis is going to change as the facts on the ground change." -- Newt Gingrich. Translation: If Obama does it, it's wrong.

... Here's the TPM print story by Benjy Sarlin. ...

... He just can't shut up. Until you replace this president and until you have the Congress and the new president replace large parts of our bureaucracies, we’re going to continue to be dominated by a secular, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish elite, which is seeking to impose on us rules that make zero sense. -- Newt Gingrich

... Kendra Marr of Politico: "Newt Gingrich says he could sign as many as 200 executive orders on his first day as president, accomplishing everything from abolishing a circuit court to further tightening restrictions on federal funding for abortions." CW: oh, Newt, why not just sign them now, as you're just as likely to be president now as you will be in January 2013.

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Lawrence Journal World: "A group of Hispanic advocates on Friday delivered to the Statehouse petitions signed by nearly 60,000 people, calling for state Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, to resign from office for his remarks about shooting illegal immigrants. Representatives from several Hispanic groups delivered petitions to Gov. Sam Brownback and House Speaker Mike O'Neal.... Members of the group said they feared Peck's comment could incite violence against Hispanics and said Gov. Sam Brownback and House Speaker Mike O'Neal, both Republicans, should insist Peck step down."

Fort Myers News-Press: "U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV announced today that he is not running for the Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson. He said that he would seek re-election to his fifth term in District 14 as a member of the House of Representatives." CW: bad news for me. Connie Mack, or CoMa to me, is my useless congressman. I was so hoping he would run & Nelson would dispose of him.

News Ledes

AP: "A quarter-million mostly peaceful demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday against the toughest cuts to public spending since World War II, with some small breakaway groups smashing windows at banks and shops and spray painting logos on the walls." My friend Peter S. sent me this link to the Guardian's photos of the protests.

New York Times: Canadian "Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Saturday that Canadians would vote on May 2, the shortest possible campaign period under the country’s laws."

New York Times: "Rebels in Libya seized Ajdabiya on Saturday, witnesses said, succeeding in an effort to retake a key town in the east following another night of allied air strikes against forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi." ...

... Washington Post: "The United States and its allies are considering whether to supply weapons to the Libyan opposition as coalition airstrikes fail to dislodge government forces from around key contested towns, according to U.S. and European officials. France actively supports training and arming the rebels, and the Obama administration believes the United Nations resolution that authorized international intervention in Libya has the 'flexibility' to allow such assistance...."

Washington Post: "A new sense of national identity is spreading across Yemen’s divided society as rival tribesmen and political foes unite to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who on Friday said he would step aside as long as he could deliver power to 'safe hands.'”

Washington Post: "Syrian security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas rounds at protesters Friday, killing an undetermined number of people, as unrest that had been mostly contained in a small southwestern city erupted across the country, including the capital, Damascus."

New York Times: "With time running short and budget negotiations this week having reached an angry impasse, Congressional leaders are growing increasingly pessimistic about reaching a bipartisan deal that would avert a government shutdown in early April."

Washington Post: "Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt said Friday that he will revamp air traffic control guidelines nationwide after an incident in which the lone supervisor on duty in the Reagan National Airport tower slept while two airliners landed on their own.... The National Air Traffic Controllers Association urged that staffing be doubled at other airports that have one person in the tower during overnight shifts. The controllers union said those include San Diego; Sacramento; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Tucson; Orlando; Reno, Nev.; and Burlington, Vt."

Los Angeles Times: "A hiring surge led by California's hallmark industries — high tech, movies and tourism — generated nearly 100,000 net new jobs in February and offered the strongest sign yet that the state economy is on the mend. The 96,500-job jump was the biggest monthly increase since the current record system began in 1990, state officials said. California had added a paltry 700 jobs in January."

New York Times: "A law to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers in Wisconsin was unexpectedly published by a state agency on Friday despite a temporary restraining order barring publication, sparking confusion and more animosity among legislators who have fiercely debated the issue for weeks.... Democrats argued on Friday that the law would not go into effect on Saturday because it still required official publication by the secretary of state.... But Republicans said they believed the law would take effect on Saturday."

The Commentariat -- March 25

Grassley Gaffe. Sometimes Republicans step out of Right Wing World & tell the truth. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, offered a blunt, no-nonsense assessment of the potential Republican field of candidates for president. He said only two or three of them would be qualified to hold the highest office in the land. And then he refused to say which ones they were." CW: whadda ya bet newbie Sen. & self-certified opthamologist Rand Paul is not on Chuck's shortlist? Now, Sen. Grassley, time to get back to those "death panel" stories.

News to Enrage You. David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.... The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.... President Obama ...has designated G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, as ... chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.... One of the most striking advantages of General Electric is its ability to lobby for, win and take advantage of tax breaks." CW: I've been boycotting GE for awhile now; I'm sure going to keep it up.

Prof. William Cronon. Via TPM.McCarthyism 2.0. CW: the Wisconsin union story will not die, & Wisconsin Republicans are doing their bit to keep it going. A few days ago, I linked a New York Times op-ed by UW-Madison history Prof. Bill Cronon, which details how Republicans in the state had veered from a long tradition of Republican progressivism. Josh Marshall of TPM reports that Cronon's op-ed riled the state GOP, which responded with an open-records request to UW for Cronon's personal e-mails. As Marshall points out, Cronon is a state employee, but he is not in any sense a public official. Cronon argues in a long blogpost that the GOP request is an attempt to intimidate him & is a direct attack on academic freedom. I agree. It's the same sort of crap Joe "No Decency" McCarthy pulled in the 1950s.

Impeachment is a process. That’s not going happen.
-- Dennis Kucinich, slightly walking back his earlier call for President Obama's impeachment

Steven Myers & David Kirkpatrick of New York Times: "... the inchoate coalition attacking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces remains divided over the ultimate goal — and exit strategy — of what officials acknowledged Thursday would be a military campaign that could last for weeks. The United States has all but called for Colonel Qaddafi’s overthrow from within — with American commanders on Thursday openly calling on the Libyan military to stop following orders — even as administration officials insist that is not the explicit objective of the bombing, and that their immediate goal is more narrowly defined. France has gone further, recognizing the Libyan rebels as the country’s legitimate representatives, but other allies, even those opposed to Colonel Qaddafi’s erratic and authoritarian rule, have balked." ...

... Speaking of the French, I missed this post by Karen Garcia on an intriguing ménage à trois: Hillary, Nick & Carla. Garcia's photo "proofs" are excellent, too. Here's Carla Bruni commenting on l'amour:

     ... (An English translation of Bruni's lyrics, which I haven't take the time to verify, is here.)

... Tim Egan of the New York Times: "... despite a largely incoherent chorus of second-guessers, [President] Obama has settled into a groove of reflective dithering before making his decisions. For the most part, it has served him well." With video. ...

... Gene Robinson: "... the goal must be to prevent the bloodbath, not just reschedule it. Even after his forces have been pummeled by U.S., French and British airstrikes, Gaddafi has his ragtag opponents outmanned and outgunned. Unless we explicitly take the side of the rebels — providing air support for their advances, for example — it is hard to imagine how they will ever be able to take much ground."

... Juan Cole lists the top ten accomplishments of the U.N. no-fly zone. ...

... Glenn Greenwald discovers the leak & publication of a "classified secret"; he doesn't think the Obama Administration will pursue & prosecute the leaker. ...

... Jamison Foser of Media Matters: CNN contributor Erick Erickson claims that President Obama "manufactured" the Libyan crisis to help his re-election bid; in addition, Erickson makes extended comments denigrating women. Foser asks, "I wonder how long someone who claimed in March of 2003 that President Bush had manufactured the Iraq war in order to win re-election would have remained employed as a CNN contributor?" and adds, "Remember: CNN hired this third-rate Limbaugh-wannabe to be a contributor, and used him as an analyst for its State of the Union coverage." Am I going to have to move CNN to Right Wing World?

** New Rules. Evan Perez of the Wall Street Journal: "New rules allow investigators to hold domestic-terror suspects longer than others without giving them a Miranda warning, significantly expanding exceptions to the instructions that have governed the handling of criminal suspects for more than four decades. The move is one of the Obama administration's most significant revisions to rules governing the investigation of terror suspects in the U.S. And it potentially opens a new political tussle over national security policy, as the administration marks another step back from pre-election criticism of unorthodox counterterror methods." Charlie Savage of the New York Times has more. AND here's the text of the memorandum. ...

     ... Marcy Wheeler weighs in: "It was bad enough for the Obama Administration, headed by the supposed and so called 'Constitutional scholar' Barack Obama, to propose inappropriate and unconstitutional legislation to restrict criminal suspects’ Constitution based Miranda rights, but it is an egregious step beyond to simply arrogate to themselves the unitary and unilateral power to do it by DOJ memorandum fiat.... Miranda is a Constitutional based rule, and confirmed by Supreme Court precedent, and it cannot be amended or overruled by act of Congress. And it sure as heck cannot be overruled or amended by administrative fiat via a FBI memorandum." ...

     ... Bill Otis of Crime & Consequences with a little history. Let's see: first AG Eric Holder was against Miranda, then he was for it, now he's against it -- none of which should matter, because it's not his prerogative to rewrite the damned law.

Paul Krugman: "These days, you’re not considered serious in Washington unless you profess allegiance to the same doctrine that’s failing so dismally in Europe."

Julian Assange Is a Bad Houseguest. Since this is a true story, I'm not relegating it to Infotainment, where I realize it belongs. The creator of the video and one of the narrators, Allison Silverman, is a former "Colbert Report" writer:

Right Wing World *

If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions. -- Carlos Lam, Indiana Deputy Prosector, in an e-mail to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ...

... Kate Golden of Wisconsin Watch: Carlos Lam, "an Indiana deputy prosecutor and Republican activist, resigned Thursday after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism uncovered an email to Gov. Scott Walker in which he suggested a fake attack on the governor to discredit union protesters." His resignation came after telling a reporter, "I am flabbergasted and would never advocate for something like this, and would like everyone to be sure that that’s just not me." Golden adds, "Lam is the second Indiana prosecutor to resign over suggestions to use violence in Wisconsin. He sent this email the same Saturday on which another Indiana law-enforcement figure, state Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Cox, tweeted that riot police should 'use live ammunition' to clear the Capitol of protesters. Cox was fired Feb. 23 after Mother Jones magazine published the suggestion from his private Twitter account."

Steve Benen on Michele Bachmann's likely plans to form a presidential exploratory committtee: "It's probably fair to say that most reasonable political observers, regardless of party or ideology, would agree that Michele Bachmann is stark raving mad.... But that doesn't mean her candidacy, if it exists, won't matter.... Bachmann could prove competitive in Iowa, where radically-conservative activists tend to dominate.... If Bachmann runs, she'll be a sad, cringe-worthy sideshow, making a circus of the entire nominating process. But much to her competitors' chagrin, that's unlikely to stop her." ...

... Adam Sorenson of Time on Bachmann 2012: "It is pure gold for the writers' room at Saturday Night Live. But for the Republican party? A headache, pure and simple." ...

... Benen cites this article by Ed Kilgore of The New Republic, who compares Bachmann to Sarah Palin. "... when you put Palin and Bachmann side by side, it is striking how much broader and deeper—in a word, more seriously committed—the Minnesotan’s involvement with right-wing causes has actually been.... Even if Bachmann doesn’t win a state outright, she could wreak havoc on the field." A good, scary read. ...

... Alex Pareene of Salon: "While [Bachmann's] every idiotic statement shoots across the Internet at lightning speed, no one has seriously examined her gradual shift from anti-gay small-town bigot evangelical Christian social-con to national Tea Partying Constitution-studying Ron Paul acolyte. And maybe someone at a debate (Newt?) will bring up the fact that Bachmann once belonged to a church that literally considers the pope to be the Antichrist. That'd be good for a laugh."

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Mitt Romney's repeated claim that the Affordable Care Act is a one-size-fits-all program is "self-serving and dead wrong.... While the ACA lays out a certain framework states have to follow..., it still provides governors with a great deal of flexibility in how they implement reform, allowing each state an opportunity to develop a somewhat unique solution."

CW: if, like me, you didn't know Bill Clinton's Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick was "tied to 9/11," it's because (a) you don't follow Fox "News" and associates, and (b) oh, because she wasn't. Media Matters has the story. NPR reports President Obama is considering Gorelick to replace Robert Mueller as FBI director.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact welcomes Tim Pawlenty to the almost-presidential candidate race with three ratings on their truth-o-meter: Pants on Fire, False & Full Flipflop. Nice work, Tim! ...

... Ed Kilgore of The New Republic on why Pawlenty is a longshot.

* The parallel world which Republicans and teabaggers reinvent daily. It bears little relation to the factual world.

News Ledes

Ottawa Citizen: "Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the Governor General on Saturday to dissolve Parliament, setting the stage for a federal election in early May. The Harper government was defeated in the House of Commons on Friday on a non-confidence motion declaring the government in contempt of Parliament. It is the first time in Canadian history that a government has been found in contempt."

Politico: "President Barack Obama told congressional leaders there are no plans to use the U.S. military to assassinate Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi — despite the administration’s policy of seeking regime change in the North African country — according to sources familiar with a Friday White House Situation Room briefing." ...

... New York Times: "President Obama plans to talk about the military operation in Libya on Monday evening in a nationally televised speech at the National Defense University, the White House said, offering his first formal explanation of the goals of this increasingly complex and dangerous mission. Mr. Obama has come under criticism from Republicans in Congress for failing to provide a coherent explanation of the operation...." ...

... AP: "France declared Libya's airspace 'under control' on Friday, after NATO agreed to take command of the no-fly zone in a compromise that appeared to set up dual command centers. Moammar Gadhafi drew a rare rebuke from the African Union, which called for a transitional government and elections. Coalition warplanes struck Gadhafi's forces outside the strategic city of Ajdabiya, the gateway to the rebel-held east, hitting an artillery battery and armored vehicles."

Washington Post: "Pressure is building, seemingly from every corner of Yemen, for [President Ali Abdullah] Saleh to step down immediately, even as the United States and its allies appear to favor a more gradual transition of power in a fragile nation beset by multiple emergencies, including a potent al-Qaeda presence."

AP: "Thousands of Syrians took to the streets [of Daraa] Friday demanding reforms and mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent, weeklong crackdown that has brought extraordinary pressure on the country's autocratic regime. There were no immediate reports of serious violence."

New York Times: "Japanese officials on Friday began quietly encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a sign that they hold little hope that the crippled facility will soon be brought under control." AP story here. Related Washington Post story here.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The fight over a new collective bargaining law now sits squarely before the state Supreme Court.... An appeals panel said Thursday that the high court should take up the case because of conflicting past decisions."