The Commentariat -- March 3

President Obama’s Press Availability with President Calderón & Statement on Libya:

Neil King & Scott Greenberg of the Wall Street Journal: "Less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country's mounting deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.... In the poll, Americans across all age groups and ideologies said by large margins that it was 'unacceptable'' to make significant cuts in entitlement programs in order to reduce the federal deficit. Even tea party supporters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, declared significant cuts to Social Security 'unacceptable.'... Amid the union protests in Wisconsin, the poll found that 62% of Americans oppose efforts to strip unionized government workers of their rights to collectively bargain, even as they want public employees to contribute more money to their retirement and health-care benefits."

Gail Collins: "In honor of Women’s History Month, President Obama ordered up the first report on the status of American women since the one Eleanor Roosevelt prepared for John F. Kennedy. It’s chock full of interesting bits of information." Collins notes that the report findings include the information that women "make an average 80 cents for every $1 that men take home." ...

... That's better than nothing. Karen Garcia takes a look at the Organizing for America internship program -- where interns earn zero & have to pay their own expenses -- & finds that it appears to violate the Department of Labor's "very strict rules about unpaid internships."

Glenn Greenwald. Former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) pledged last year not be become a lobbyist when he retired from the Senate. So naturally, he has just become the most influential lobbyist of them all: head of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Jack Mirkinson of the Huff Post thinks this clip is interesting because Megyn Kelly of Fox "News" gets in an argument with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) over Justice Clarence Thomas' obligation -- or not -- to recuse himself from hearing cases involved the Affordable Care Act because of his wife's lobbying efforts against the act & the financial support the couple received from anti-healthcare entities. I think it's interesting for the content:

... AND, speaking of Justice Thomas, Roger Shuler, the Legal Schnauzer, reports that, "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should be disbarred for his failure to truthfully complete financial-disclosure forms over a 20-year period, according to a complaint filed by the watchdog group Protect Our Elections (POE). In a bar complaint filed with the Missouri Supreme Court, POE attorney Kevin Zeese says Thomas committed multiple violations of the Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct." The story includes a copy of the complaint. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... What Could Possibly Be Wrong with This? Eric Lipton of the New York Times reports on another Republican husband and wife who are double-teaming to game the system: "Louisiana’s biggest corporate players, many with long agendas before the state government, are restricted in making campaign contributions to Gov. Bobby Jindal. But they can [and do!] give whatever they like to the foundation set up by his wife months after he took office.... [Mrs. Jindal's] foundation has collected nearly $1 million in previously unreported pledges from major oil companies, insurers and other corporations in Louisiana with high-stakes regulatory issues, according to a review by The New York Times.... : A photo of [Gov. Jindal] standing alongside his wife appears on a corporate solicitation page on the foundation Web site, and his chief fund-raiser is listed as the charity’s treasurer on its most recent tax return. A state employee from the governor’s office ... manages the foundation’s books."

Yesterday President Obama presented the 2010 National Medal of Arts & National Humanities Awards. Here's a list of recipients, who include Meryl Streep & Joyce Carol Oates.

Right Wing News

The "Genial" Huck Gets Seriously Racist. Steve Kornacki of Salon: after complaining about the media victimized him for "misspeaking," Huckabee said on a radio show yesterday,

Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas.

     (See Right Wing News under yesterday's Commentariat for the backstory.) ...

... In another post, Elliott reports that Huckabee actually wrote about Obama's Mau Mau "connection" in a book titled Simple Government. (Elliott notes that, "Huckabee seems to be throwing around the exotic-sounding term 'Mau Mau' every chance he gets.") After speaking with historian David Anderson about the Brits' brutal suppression of the Mau Maus, Elliott concludes that Huck really has no idea of the history & geography of the Mau Mau Revolution, & the claims in his book about Obama are, in the words of Anderson, "stir-fry crazy."

Constitutional Scholar Sarah Palin attacks the Supreme Court's 8-1 decision in the Westboro Church case. Justin Elliott of Salon parses Palin's understanding of the First Amendment: "... criticism of public figures threatens free speech, but peaceful protests she doesn't like should be banned." ...

... Maybe Palin should have had Adam Serwer of American Prospect explain the ruling to her. He sums up the pages & pages it took Chief Justice Roberts to write the Court's majority opinion:

You don't forfeit your First Amendment rights just by being an asshole. -- Adam Serwer

Local News

This Is a Classic. Brett Dykes of Yahoo News: "A proposed immigration bill in the Texas state House ... would make hiring an 'unauthorized alien' a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine, unless that is, they are hired to do household chores...."Rep. Debbie Riddle, a tea party favorite who introduced the bill with its glaring loophole, said through a spokesman "that the exemption was an attempt to avoid 'stifling the economic engine' in Texas, which today is, somewhat ironically, celebrating its declaring independence from Mexico in 1836."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States has evidence that a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who disappeared in Iran four years ago is alive and being held in the region, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement on Thursday. The former agent, Robert Levinson, who had worked as a private investigator since leaving the F.B.I., disappeared in March 2007 while on a trip to Kish Island, a Persian Gulf resort that is a smuggling hub."

DOJ Gamble Pays Off. New York Times: Roger Vinson, "a federal judge in Florida, stayed his own ruling against the Obama health care law on Thursday, allowing the act to be carried out as the case progresses through the Courts of Appeal and on to the Supreme Court. The judge, making evident his irritation with the Obama administration, sought to speed the process by conditioning the stay on the Justice Department’s pursuit of an expedited appeal, which he ordered filed within seven days."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Pressure ratcheted up on absent [Wisconsin] Senate Democrats Thursday, as they were found in contempt by GOP senators and Gov. Scott Walker said he will start sending out layoff notices to state unions and workers by the end of Friday if the standoff over his budget-repair bill isn't resolved." ...

... Politico: "The Wisconsin state Senate passed a resolution ordering the 14 Democratic senators who fled the state two weeks ago to return to the Capitol by late Thursday afternoon or face being taken into custody by police."

New York Times: "President Obama demanded Thursday that the embattled Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, 'step down and leave' immediately, and said he would consider a full range of options to stem the bloodshed there, though he did not commit the United States to any direct military action. In his most forceful response to the near-civil war in Libya, Mr. Obama said the United States would consider imposing a 'no-fly zone' over the country — a step his defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, warned a day earlier would carry major risks...." ...

... New York Times: "From the feeble cover of sand dunes, under assault from a warplane overhead and heavy artillery from a hill, rebels in this strategic oil city[of Brega]  repelled an attack by hundreds of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fighters on Wednesday, but air strikes were reported to have resumed on Thursday." ...

... New York Times: "Libyan authorities loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi have captured three crew members of a Dutch naval helicopter who were rescuing European citizens, last Sunday, the Dutch Defense Ministry said on Thursday, the first report of foreigners being by held in Libya’s bloody and unfolding uprising." ...

... AP: "The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will investigate Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his inner circle, including some of his sons, for possible crimes against humanity in the violent crackdown on anti-government protesters."

Washington Post: "A close ally of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak [-- Ahmed Shafiq --] resigned as the country's prime minister Thursday, an apparent bid to head off demonstrations planned for Friday by activists frustrated with the country's slow pace of reform."

New York Times: "A criminal court agreed on Thursday to delay pressing murder charges against the C.I.A. operative, Raymond L. Davis, ruling that that lawyers for Mr. Davis should have more time to prepare for the case."

New York Times: "Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is set to confirm his intention to explore a presidential campaign [today] — the first step toward becoming an official candidate for the Republican nomination."

AP: "Women and children fled en masse from a disputed flashpoint town between north and south Sudan after fighting this week killed more than 100 people, officials said Thursday. Abyei has long been seen as the major sticking point between the north and south, which voted to secede in January and is on course to become the world's newest country in July."

The Commentariat -- March 2

Jason Linkins has a terrific piece on the "error-ridden" reporting of young Arthur G. Sulzberger, the family scion & cub reporter at the New York Times. Although the Times had a real labor reporter -- Steven Greenhouse -- in Wisconsin, they sent young A.G. to do a story on reactions to the union protests, wherein A.G. quoted "Rich Hahan..., a union man from a union town" who said he opposed public sector unions "because of what he sees as lavish benefits and endless negotiations...." Trouble is, Hahan -- whose name is actually spelled "Hahn" (but who care about details?) has never been a member of a union. Whoops! Wisconsin Gov. Scott "I don't normally tell people to read the New York Times" Walker liked the story so much he boasted about it to Fake Koch. And, BTW, when Li'l A.G. reported on Walker's prank call, also of course, in the aforesaid NYT, he did not bother to mention that Walker was citing a phony story that he himself -- A.G., that is -- had written. The Times did print a bland correction to the original story (nothing on Sulzberger's story about the prank call, as far as I know), but of course, who the fuck reads corrections?

"Where's Obama?" Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "... Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action -- unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.... He didn't want to get mired in legislative details during the health-care debate.... He doesn't want to go first on proposing entitlement reform.... He didn't want to say anything too tough about Libya.... He didn't want to weigh in on the labor battle in Wisconsin.... Where ... is the president on the verge of a potential government shutdown...?" Marcus, BTW, describes herself as "someone who generally shares the president's ideological perspective...."

Issa Gets Results. Fast. New York Times: "Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, dismissed his chief spokesman, Kurt Bardella, on Tuesday after concluding that Mr. Bardella had secretly and regularly shared e-mail exchanges he had with journalists with a reporter for The New York Times writing a book about Washington’s political culture." See yesterday's Commentariat for the backstory. ...

... Keach Hagey of Politico: "... a debate played across the media and on Twitter between those who were shocked at Bardella’s behavior and those who saw it as business-as-usual in Washington’s backstabbing, gossip-obsessed political culture."

CW: I didn't link to David Brooks' column yesterday (a) because I never do, unless it's to post one of my Times-discarded comments, & (b) because Brooks never says anything worthwhile. BUT Driftglass gives Brooks his due, with a little help from Gemli & me. P.S. Gemli, if you read this, write to me! ...

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "There is no good case that government pay is a major cause of the budget problems now facing states.... The real problem with most union contracts for public workers is not the money — it’s almost everything else." Leonhardt blames government leaders for kicking the can down the road by way of deferred payments; i.e., pensions. He faults health insurance plans with low or no co-pay. And he blames unions for government workers' "sub-par performance"; they protect their worst workers. ...

... Bold Progressives is running this ad in support of Wisconsin's public unions. You can chip in here to help pay for air time:

Bill Keller, in a New York Times Magazine preview, writes that dictators about to be deposed could learn how to go gracefully from the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev & South Africa's F. W. de Klerk. Nonetheless, coming from Keller, who is the executive editor of the Times, a remark like this seems laughable:

The regimes that have sent their thugs against the press and tried to unplug the Internet are right to fear the media.

The U.S. "regime" has little to fear from the New York Times, which is always playing Lapdog for Access. Their hypocrisy in the WikiLeaks tapes is classic: the Times published the cables only after State Department approval. When the editors & reporters had had their way with Julian Assange, they dissed him in a long "profile," of which Keller was one of the authors. In an even more recent affront to journalism, the Times went along with the State Department charade that CIA operative & former Blackwater operative Raymond Davis, accused of shooting dead two men in Pakistan, was a U.S. diplomat entitled to diplomatic immunity. Not only did the Times knowingly misinform their readers, they trotted out their ombudsman/public editor Arthur Brisbane to "defend" them. "Fear the media"? Well, maybe the alternative media, but not the Times. -- Constant Weader

Right Wing World -- the Presidential Candidate Edition

Big Far Liar No. 2:

We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment. -- Gov. Haley Barbour,  (R-Miss.), on Medicaid recipients ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's fact-checker, gives this one Four Pinocchios, the worst rating. Kessler could find no evidence of Barbour's claim. Plus, in a House hearing Tuesday, "Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) asked Barbour about the BMW statement, but two witnesses said he did not provide an explanation.... The failure of Barbour's aides to provide any documentation for this claim is rather suspicious."

Big Fat Liar No. 1:

Mau-Mau Revolution. Eric Hananoki of Media Matters: "During a radio appearance [Monday], Mike Huckabee repeatedly falsely claimed that President Obama grew up in Kenya.... Huckabee [is] a Fox News host and potential presidential candidate.... Contrary to Huckabee's claims, Obama did not grow up in Kenya. Obama spends significant portions of his book Dreams From My Father describing his first visit to Kenya in the late 1980s." Listen to the whole tape & read the transcript at the link. CW: here's part of Huck's "analysis":

... his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British are a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.

... So then, Huckabee's spokesman Hogan Gidley tells Ben Smith:

Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in ‘Kenya.’ The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.

... So then Andrew Sullivan asks,

Well, how do you get a view of the Mau Mau revolution in Indonesia? So I don't buy the mis-spoke explanation. And Obama did not 'grow up with' a Kenyan father and grandfather. Huckabee always seems a pleasant fellow. But then you hear him on gays or on Israel/Palestine or on this kind of issue, and you realize just how extreme this affable man actually is.

... "Huckabee Knows Less than Nothing." Lawrence O'Donnell weighs in:

Not Presidential, but Foxidental. Digby digs up a Bill O'Reilly clip of the "violent Wisconsin protests." In the clip above by Bold Progressive, you'll notice the "violent Wisconsin protesters" are protesting in the snow & are dressed for the weather. But in O'Reilly's clip, the "violent Wisconsin protesters" are protesting in shirtsleeves & there are palm trees in the background. It's a Fucking Fox Miracle: 

But, hey, Fox "News" has ethics, all right! Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "The Fox News Channel said Wednesday that it had suspended the contracts of two employees, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who are considering running for president.... Three other possible Republican candidates for president — Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and John Bolton — are also employed by Fox, an arrangement that other television executives say is unprecedented." Video:

News Ledes

AP: "In an early victory for Republicans, the Democratic Senate is voting to send President Barack Obama a GOP-drafted measure that cuts $4 billion in spending as the price for keeping the government open for an additional two weeks."

AP: "The bargaining rights of public workers in Ohio would be dramatically reduced and strikes would be banned under a bill narrowly passed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday. The GOP-backed measure that would restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees squeaked through the state Senate on a 17-16 vote. Six Republicans sided with Democrats against the measure."

Wisconsin State Journal: State "Senate Republicans ... voted to impose a $100 per day fee for any senator who is absent without leave for two or more session days. Republicans remaining in the Senate approved the daily fine resolution with none of the Democrats present." ...

... Huffington Post: "The Wisconsin Democratic Party has launched a fundraising campaign to recall state Senate Republicans who have supported the budget bill by Gov. Scott Walker (R) that would strip collective bargaining rights from the state's public employee unions."

New York Times: "The First Amendment protects hateful protests at military funerals, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in an 8-1 decision." You can read Chief Justice Roberts' majority ruling, Justice Breyer's concurring opinion & Justice Alito's dissent here (pdf).

AP: "Rebel forces routed troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in a fierce battle over an oil port Wednesday, scrambling over the dunes of a Mediterranean beach through shelling and an airstrike to corner their attackers. While they thwarted the regime's first counteroffensive in eastern Libya, opposition leaders still pleaded for outside airstrikes to help them oust the longtime leader." ...

... Washington Post: "Some [Libyan] opposition leaders are calling for international military intervention to help topple Gaddafi, saying they believe that people power alone may not be enough to dislodge the dictator from his last remaining strongholds. The leaders say they do not want ground forces, but are increasingly coming round to the view that help in the form of a no fly zone, as well as supplies of weaponry and air strikes will be necessary if Gaddafi is to fall."

Washington Post: Shahbaz Bhatti, "Pakistan's federal minorities minister, a Christian, was gunned down in this capital city Wednesday in the second killing this year of a senior government official who had spoken out against the nation's stringent blasphemy laws."

Bloomberg: "Employment increased by 217,000 last month after a revised 189,000 gain in January, according to figures from ADP Employer Services. The median estimate in the Bloomberg News survey called for a 180,000 gain last month."

Technical Difficulties Solved (I Hope)

Readers appear to have found a fix for a problem some of you who were having seeing the whole width of the Reality Chex page:

Change the zoom. If you change the zoom from 100 percent to something else, then change it back to 100 percent, the page reads properly. Some of you have browsers that allow you to do this from the lower right-hand corner; others may have to go to "View" on the tool bar & click on "Zoom." Doug R. wrote, "I can click and drag the bottom right corner of any page and expand or contract it." Different readers have used different steps, but they all manipulated the zoom.

I still don't know what's causing the problem because I can't replicate it here, so I can't test for it, but I suspect there's something in my embedded content that's throwing off the zoom.

Many thanks to the readers who wrote to tell me about the problem and to all of you who told me how you fixed it. -- Constant Weader