The Commentariat -- Dec. 29, 2014

Internal links removed.

David Cohen of Politico: "President Barack Obama on Sunday praised the official end of the 13-year U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, offering his remarks to coincide with a handover ceremony there. 'On this day,' Obama said in a statement, 'we give thanks to our troops and intelligence personnel who have been relentless against the terrorists responsible for 9/11 -- devastating the core Al Qaeda leadership, delivering justice to Osama bin Laden, disrupting terrorist plots and saving countless American lives. We are safer, and our nation is more secure, because of their service.'" ...

... Tim Craig & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "After pledging for years to crack down on violent Islamists, Pakistani authorities are now taking exceptional steps to do so, with a major military operation against the militants and a vow to rein in radical propaganda. The government's campaign has intensified in the wake of a massacre at an elite army-run school in Peshawar this month, reflecting a striking change in public opinion about the danger posed by the extremist groups." ...

... CW Note: Yes, I think these stories are related. The only hope for the region is for the general public to reject extremism & for governments to control extremists. (Of course we need the same kind of movement in the U.S., even if our powerful extremists are not quite as extreme as the Taliban & similar groups.)

Josh Lederman of the AP: "Warning from President Barack Obama to congressional Republicans: I have a veto pen and, come January, I won't be afraid to use it.... 'I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office,' Obama said in an NPR interview airing Monday. 'Now, I suspect, there are going to be some times where I've got to pull that pen out.' He added: 'I'm going to defend gains that we've made in health care. I'm going to defend gains that we've made on environment and clean air and clean water.'" The audio of the interview & a story by Steve Inskeep is here. The transcript is here.

I certainly don't support that action yesterday; I think it was very inappropriate at that event. To bring politics or to bring issues into that event was very inappropriate and I do not support it. He is the mayor of New York. He is there representing the citizens of New York to express their remorse and their regret at that death. It was very inappropriate. -- New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton

... David Goodman of the New York Times: "William J. Bratton, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday [on CBS's 'Face the Nation'] that a silent protest by scores of his officers who turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke during a funeral service for a fellow officer killed in the line of duty was 'very inappropriate.'" ...

... Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called frustration in New York and across the country surrounding policing the 'tip of the iceberg' during an appearance Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'This is about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor,' he said. 'It's about unemployment issues. There are so many national issues that have to be addressed that it isn't just policing, as I think we all well know.'... 'The issues go far beyond race relations in this city,' he said. 'They involve labor contracts. They involve a lot of history in the city that's really different from some of what's going on in the country as a whole.'" ...

... David McCabe of the Hill: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) should apologize to the city's police officers for comments he had made about how the police treat minorities, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said on Sunday. 'He should have apologized for the remarks he made that gave the police the impression that he's on the other side,' he said on the CBS program 'Face the Nation.'" ...

... David McCabe: "Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Sunday criticized President Obama's association with the Rev. Al Sharpton, arguing it sends a signal of hostility to police. Giuliani, who has battled with Sharpton throughout his career, said Obama couldn't expect to be seen as supportive of police as long as he associates with Sharpton, an MSNBC talk-show host and longtime activist. 'If he would like to have a poster boy for hating the police, it's Al Sharpton,' he said while appearing on CBS' Face the Nation. 'You make Al Sharpton a close advisor, you're going to turn the police in America against you.' 'To have that man sitting next to you speaks volumes,' he said." ...

... Hunter Schwartz: "A Ferguson Police Department public relations officer has been put on administrative leave over his response to the destruction of a memorial to Michael Brown, the teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer.... 'I don't know that a crime has occurred,' Officer Timothy Zoll said Friday in an interview with The Washington Post. 'But a pile of trash in the middle of the street? The Washington Post is making a call over this?' The department said in a statement Saturday that Zoll misled his superiors about the contents of the interview, that he had been placed on unpaid leave, effective immediately, and that there would be disciplinary proceedings."

Not All Police Discrimination Is Racist. Dan Seufert of the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union Leader: The police chief of New London, New Hampshire, offered to drop underage alcohol-possession charges if she posed nude for him in the basement of the police station. The town awarded her a $70,000 settlement, & the chief "will never be allowed to serve as a police officer again.... State prosecutors, while calling Seastrand's actions 'abhorrent behavior and unacceptable behavior for anyone in that type of a position,' did not file criminal charges against him. They later explained that the only law applicable to the case was the abuse of power statute, under which a public official is guilty of a misdemeanor...."

Tammany Hall on the Hudson, Ctd. Jesse McKinley & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "A day after the governors of New York and New Jersey rejected legislation aimed at upending a culture of political interference at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bill's bistate sponsors said they ... that prospects for overriding the veto seemed slim at best. Neither Legislature has accomplished that feat with Mr. Cuomo, who was elected to a second term in November, or during Mr. Christie's nearly five years in office." ...

... CW: If the bill was so good it received unanimous approval in both state legislatures, I'm having a little trouble understanding why some legislators -- like New Jersey senate leader Tom Kean, Jr., -- are suddenly against it. Are they really that tight with their governors? Neither Christie nor Cuomo is particularly popular, & this stunt isn't going to raise their favorables.

Paul Krugman on austerity in hard times -- a self-inflicted wound.

John Vidal of the Guardian: "In 2015, [Pope Francis] will issue a lengthy message on the subject [of climate change] to the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world's main religions. The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope's wish to directly influence next year's crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions." ...

... CW: When it comes to climate change, Roman Catholic altar boys like John Boehner, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio & Bobby Jindal all have voiced some version of the "I am not a scientist" disclaimer. Will they follow with, "The Pope is not a scientist, man"?

** "Chickenhawk Nation." Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: Americans' "reverent but disengaged attitude toward the military ... has become so familiar that we assume it is the American norm. But it is not.... [During World War II & in the decades after it,] American culture was sufficiently at ease with the military to make fun of it, a stance now hard to imagine outside the military itself.... The distance between today's stateside America and its always-at-war expeditionary troops is extraordinary.... America's distance from the military makes the country too willing to go to war, and too callous about the damage warfare inflicts."

Koch for the Defense. Roy Wenzl of the Wichita Eagle: As the result of a federal criminal case against him, Charles Koch realized that the nation's criminal justice system was askew. "The Corpus Christi case led Charles Koch and his company to give money, starting about 10 years ago, to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers." Koch also believes too many Americans are in jail for nonviolent crimes. "The nation's criminal justice system needs reform, 'especially for the disadvantaged,' Koch said, 'making it fair and making (criminal) sentences more appropriate to the crime that has been committed.' [Koch's chief counsel Michael] Holden said legislators in recent decades drifted into a habit of adding more laws every year and taking stands to show themselves as 'getting tough on crime.' ... The weight has fallen most heavily on minorities, Holden said." ...

     ... CW: If this leads you to a Remembrance of Things Rand Paul, yeah, there just might be a connection. Madeleines unnecessary.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Sunday called on supporters to reject one of President Obama's nominees to the Treasury Department. Franken criticized nominee Antonio Weiss in no uncertain terms, arguing Obama had nominated the wrong person for the job of Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance. He argued Weiss would not put the middle class first, and that he was too close to Wall Street. 'Join me in asking the President to withdraw Antonio Weiss's nomination,' Franken wrote in an email to supporters..., with a link to the petition." CW: I signed.

CW: Amy Davidson of the New Yorker seems to think gay marriage will become acceptable in the South. She might be right, but I expect the usual Southern suspects see court decisions striking down gay-marriage bans in the same "acceptable" light they saw the anti-slavery movement & federal civil rights legislation, court decisions & executive actions: "Northern aggressors" forcing their ways upon their genteel society.

Stephen Sherrill of GQ picks the U.S.'s "20 Craziest Politicians." All but three are Republicans. The 20th, Joe Biden, is kind of a throwaway. Sherrill cites Biden for being "crazy enough to run again for president." No match for most of the Republican picks. ...

... Sherrill's piece was very upsetting to Kyle Smith of the New York Post, who chose 16 crazy Democrats, among them Michelle Obama & Bernie Sanders. ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: The New York Post's "attempt at false equivalence shows just what's wrong with the Republican Party -- and with those in the supposedly objective press who play the false equivalence game. Politics is full of exaggeration and hyperbole ... but that's what constitutes most of the examples in the New York Post's list of 'crazy' -- and why their list includes well-respected Democratic politicians, while the GQ list targets the GOP's fringe.... The GQ list, by contrast, is about mostly conservative politicians saying, believing and doing truly scary and unpopular stuff.... hese things are not in the same ballpark, no matter how much conservatives and many journalists would like to pretend that they are. The modern conservative movement really is full of crazy that is unmatched on the other side."

Presidential Election

** Mark Jacobson profiles Bernie Sanders for New York. ...

... Jacobson mentions that Sanders recorded a folk album in 1987. "Asked why he did such a thing, Sanders says, 'It appealed to my ego.'" It's fair to say, Bernie didn't exactly sing:

     ... Here's a bit more from the site Seven Days. Kind of a hoot, if not a hootenanny. Ah, even more here.

Alexandra Jaffe of CNN: "Jeb Bush is the clear Republican presidential frontrunner, surging to the front of the potential GOP pack following his announcement that he's 'actively exploring' a bid, a new CNN/ORC poll found. He takes nearly one-quarter --23% -- of Republicans surveyed in the new nationwide poll, putting him 10 points ahead of his closest competitor, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie...." ...

... As Greg Sargent points out, "The new CNN poll also finds that Hillary Clinton is far ahead of Elizabeth Warren in the evolving Dem primary: Clinton leads Warren among Democrats by 66-9.... The CNN poll also finds Clinton leading Jeb Bush among Americans overall by 54-41; she leads Chris Christie by 56-39; she leads Rand Paul by 58-38; and she leads Ted Cruz by 60-35." ...

... CW: That's kinda interesting, because Bush, Christie, Paul & Cruz hardly lack for name recognition.

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles police are investigating whether gunfire in South Los Angeles on Sunday night was aimed at two officers responding to a call, officials said Monday."

Guardian: "A Scottish nurse is being treated in an isolation unit in Glasgow after being diagnosed with the Ebola virus hours after arriving home from west Africa via a British Airways flight from Heathrow."

Guardian: "An Indonesian official said that missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 was likely to be 'at the bottom of the sea' on Monday morning, as hopes that an elaborate international search and rescue effort would find survivors began to fade. The jet vanished from radar screens on Sunday morning with 162 people on board, as it approached violent weather over the Java Sea about 40 minutes into a two-hour flight between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore. The plane, an Airbus A320-200 operated by an Indonesian subsidiary of the Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, reportedly requested to deviate from its flight path to avoid a cloud. Moments later, it lost contact with Jakarta air traffic controllers. It did not send a distress signal."

Reuters: "Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Monday that four more bodies had been recovered from the car ferry that caught fire off the coast of Greece, bringing the death toll to five. Renzi said during an end-year press conference that about 60 passengers remained on board more than 24 hours after the fire started and they would be brought to safety within 'a few hours'."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 28, 2014

Internal links removed.

Politics as Usual. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Acting in concert with [New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie], Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Saturday evening that he would veto a bill that would have brought a sweeping round of reforms to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, despite unanimous support from the legislatures of both states. The legislation, known as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Transparency and Accountability Act of 2014, needed approval of both Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican...." ...

     ... This story has been updated. New Lede: "The governors of New York and New Jersey, defying the unanimous votes of both their Legislatures, on Saturday rejected a bill aimed at curbing political interference and patronage at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, more than a year after lane closings at the George Washington Bridge set off a scandal that looms over the agency to this day." ...

... CW: If you want to know why the governors vetoed the bill, the answer is buried in McKinley's report: "... commissioners and top staff members are appointed by the two governors.... its reputation for rewarding connected officials with patronage jobs and allies with lucrative contracts.... the authority has a budget of $7.8 billion for 2015." ...

It's shameful. They ripped the heart out of real reform in order to maintain their control and power.... It's really just an awful thing for them to do. Neither of them can ever stand up and say they're for effective reform. In a competition between effective reform and power, power won. Reform ends on Christmas, but scandals go on forever. -- Former NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D)

... Here's more from David Klepper & Michael Catalini of the AP.

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service began struggling to carry out its most basic duties after Congress and the George W. Bush administration expanded the elite law enforcement agency's mission in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to government documents and interviews with dozens of current and former officials, the recent string of security lapses at the White House resulted from a combination of tight budgets, bureaucratic battles and rapidly growing demands on the agency that have persisted through the Bush and Obama administrations in the 13 years since the attacks. At the same time, the Secret Service was hit by a wave of early retirements that eliminated a generation of experienced staff members and left the agency in a weakened state just as its duties were growing."

It Was All Mom's Fault. Justin Jouvenal & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky[, a daughter of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell & Maureen McDonnell,] wrote in a blunt letter to a federal judge that it was former first lady Maureen McDonnell's materialism and mental-health issues that derailed the rising political career of her husband. The letter of support for Robert McDonnell was part of a trove of 440 submitted by his attorneys, who are seeking leniency at his Jan. 6 sentencing in Richmond.... In letters to the judge, McDonnell Zubowsky and another daughter, Cailin Young, also echoed themes that emerged at Robert McDonnell's trial.... Robert McDonnell's sister also took aim at Maureen McDonnell...." The letters from the daughters are here.

Joseph Califano, a top assistant to President Johnson, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The makers of the new movie 'Selma' apparently just couldn't resist taking dramatic, trumped-up license with a true story that didn't need any embellishment to work as a big-screen historical drama. As a result, the film falsely portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson as being at odds with Martin Luther King Jr...." ...

... Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post: Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who has seen the film "Selma" twice & watched part of the filming, discusses the movie & some of his real-life experiences. ...

... The New Yorker publishes rarely-seen photos of the Selma march, with commentary by David Remnick.

Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "Blacks and whites live in different worlds when it comes to perceptions of the criminal justice system and the role that police play in society. But divisions within the white community are almost as stark, with opinions heavily shaped by partisan identification and ideology, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.... While 2 in 3 white Republicans say minorities and whites are treated equally in the criminal justice system, only 3 in 10 white Democrats agree with that view." ...

... Gary Langer of ABC News: "Large majorities across racial and political groups agree on two proposals to address police-community relations in the United States: The use of an outside prosecutor when police kill an unarmed civilian, and requiring all patrol officers to wear body cameras when on duty." ...

... Lisa Leff of the AP: "A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing protests over police killings of unarmed black men after a school was disinvited because of concerns its players would wear T-shirts printed with the words 'I Can't Breathe' during warmups." ...

... Darryl Pinckney, in a New York Review of Books essay on Ferguson: "America has always felt the necessity of keeping its black male population under control. Behind every failure to make the police accountable in such killings is an almost gloating confidence that the majority of white Americans support the idea that the police are the thin blue line between them and social chaos."

Kimberly Yonkers in a Washington Post op-ed: "This obsession with mental health as the root cause of gun violence is not only silly; it's dangerous.... According to one distinguished study, we would see only a 4 percent reduction in gun violence if mental illnesses were eliminated.... Gun violence is 20 times more prevalent in the United States than in other highly developed countries. But our mental health system is not substantially worse."

Tim Wu of the New Yorker: Flying is a miserable experience today, & the airlines are constantly colluding to make it worse. Why? Because they want passengers to spend on "extras" -- a lucrative source of revenue. "In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points."

Joan Lowy of the AP: "The Obama administration is on the verge of proposing long-awaited rules for commercial drone operations in U.S. skies, but key decisions on how much access to grant drones are likely to come from Congress next year."

God News

December 25 Is Nobody's Birthday But Jesus's. Hemant Mehta in Patheos: "On Christmas Day, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted this gem: 'On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton, b. Dec. 25, 1642.' It quickly became his most retweeted message ever, and many accused him of 'riling up Christians.'"

Bob Churchill in Religion News Service: "Atheists, humanists and liberals are now the targets of hate campaigns, according to a new Freedom of Thought Report, which found that some countries find the idea of atheism as a popular movement a threat to the prevailing order.... For example: ... in January, Saudi Arabia enacted a new law equating 'atheism' in itself with 'terrorism.'" ...

... Presidential Race

Steve Benen: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is launching his presidential bid with a totally non-political rally of far-right evangelicals. In preparation for his totally non-political event, he wrote to church leaders, "The time has come for pastors to lead the way and reset the course of American governance." Benen: "... given that the separation of church and state is a bedrock principle in the American system of government, it's rather alarming that a governor and likely presidential hopeful is looking to pastors -- presumably, ministers who share his beliefs and agenda -- to establish the course for public policy. Given that so many of Jindal's allies on the extreme fringe, this is all the more problematic."

News Ledes

AP: "Italian and Greek military and coast guard rescue crews battled gale-force winds and massive waves Sunday as they struggled to rescue hundreds of people trapped on a burning ferry adrift between Italy and Albania. At least one person died and two were injured."

New York Times: "The Indonesian authorities were searching on Sunday afternoon for an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board that lost contact with air traffic controllers hours earlier, the airline and government officials said. The plane, Flight QZ8501, left the Indonesian city of Surabaya around 5:30 a.m. for the short hop to Singapore, a flight that usually takes about two hours, the airline said. Air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 at 6:17 a.m., about 40 minutes later, Indonesian officials said." ...

     ... Guardian Update: "Hopes were fading on Sunday night for the safe return of 162 people aboard the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 after the first day of the search was called off in Indonesia owing to failing light. The government in Jakarta said it did not 'dare to presume what [had] happened' to the aircraft."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 27, 2014

Another Slow Gnus Day.

Getting Away with Murder. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "... the scathing report the Senate Intelligence Committee delivered this month is unlikely to significantly change the role the C.I.A. now plays in running America's secret wars. A number of factors -- from steadfast backing by Congress and the White House to strong public support for clandestine operations -- ensure that an agency that has been ascendant since President Obama came into office is not likely to see its mission diminished...."

Just When We Don't Need Bipartisanship. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives. It also will test his willingness to buck his own party in pursuit of a legacy-burnishing achievement. Already, fellow Democrats are accusing him of abandoning past promises on trade and potentially undermining his domestic priority of reducing income inequality.

German Lopez of Vox: "Given the wave of protests and attention they received, it seems 2014 may end up a crucial turning point in discussions about race and the criminal justice system." ...

... Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Pat Lynch, the president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association..., and Co. might try just respecting basic democratic legitimacy. It turns out that people have a First Amendment right to protest. And elected political leadership ought to have control over the exercise of state violence." ...

... Factoid via Cooper: "Being a cop is not even in the top ten most dangerous professions.... A fisherman is over six times more likely [than is a cop] to die on the job -- and a logger 7.5 times more likely."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. Politico notices -- again -- that President Obama doesn't often attend church services. Somehow they never notice that the same was true of Dubya, & according to Steve, Reaganus Maximus never went to church (and he's been sainted!). But we do want to know in this season of Christian joy that the current POTUS is a heathen. ...

... Charles Pierce remarks on the same Politico article, but you'll have to cursor down to it because the link to the post doesn't work.

The Yahoo! News team picks the weirdest political stories of 2014.

CSI, Dog Shit. Karen Heller of the Washington Post: "Among the great unresolved conflicts between neighbors is determining the provenance of unwanted, unseemly and often unwittingly trampled dog detritus.... PooPrints, a self-described 'dog poop DNA matching service,' is the most successful product of BioPet Vet Lab in Knoxville, which specializes in canine genetic testing. Launched in late 2010, the company has on record the DNA of more than 30,000 dogs from Canada and 45 states, including Maryland and Virginia, and recently signed a deal to launch in Great Britain.... Currently, PooPrints is used only in multi-unit properties, although municipalities including Dallas; Hoboken, N.J.; and Gaithersburg, Md., have expressed interest." CW: I told you it was a slow news day.

Presidential Election

"The Smart Brother." Jason Millman of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush was against implementing the Medicaid expansion in Florida even though he had no idea how greatly it would have benefitted he state. He now has made a bundle of dough on it, but he's running away from that deal as fast as he can to burnish his nutball creds. CW: I guess he thinks from his gut just as his brother does. Great.

News Ledes

AP: "A protester who advocated for peaceful demonstrations in Ferguson was charged Saturday with setting fire to a convenience store in a neighboring suburb. A St. Louis County jail official said Joshua Williams, 19, of St. Louis, was being held on $30,000 bond. He is charged with arson, second-degree burglary and stealing less than $500.... Court records said Williams confessed in a videotaped interview, and that his actions were captured by surveillance video and by news media."

New York Times: "The turnout [for the funeral today of NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos] was extraordinary. Though no reliable count was made, it appeared that more than 20,000 police officers came to Queens, from as far away as Wisconsin and California and England, some driving through the night to make it.... Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., dispatched by President Obama, spoke movingly of the courage of policing." Many officers turned their backs when NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke. ...

... ABC News: "Hundreds of police officers turned their backs on a screen showing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at the funeral of one of two officers killed last week in what has been called an 'assassination.'" ...

... New York: "In the week since the murders of Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, people from New York and across the United States hav[e] been working to make sure that the NYPD officers' families are taken of financially."

NBC News: "North Korea's Internet and 3G mobile networks were paralyzed again on Saturday evening, China's official Xinhua news agency reported, with the North Korean government blaming the United States for systemic instability in the country's networks."

AP: "A leader with the Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab who had a $3m bounty on his head has surrendered in Somalia, a Somali intelligence official said on Saturday. Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi surrendered to Somali police in the Gedo region, said the intelligence officer, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.