;)
The Commentariat -- April 1, 2014
Internal links removed.
Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years -- concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques.... The report describes previously undisclosed cases of abuse...."
Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "President Obama's controversial effort to bring health insurance to the millions of Americans without coverage ended its first year's enrolment phase on Monday where it began: with a broken website, and postponed deadlines." ...
... Update. Amy Goldstein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The first six-month window for Americans to gain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act closed on Monday with large numbers of consumers speeding to get coverage at the last minute. Some of them encountered obstacles as HealthCare.gov, the main enrollment Web site, faltered on and off throughout the day." ...
... Update. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Administration officials, stepping up the push for enrollment in the final hours, said they were confident that they would reach their original goal of having seven million people sign up for private health plans through federal and state exchanges."
... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "... New York officials told CNBC that 59 percent of people getting insurance through the state marketplace had no coverage before.... In Kentucky..., officials told the network that 75 percent of people selecting plans had been uninsured before. And ... officials in Washington ... believe that the overall effect of Obamacare has been to reduce the ranks of the uninsured by about 25 percent." Republicans, however, insist that only a small percentage of those getting coverage through the ACA are newly-insured. "... right now it's not the [Obama] Administration making the most preposterously definitive claims about the law's success or failure. It's [Sens. Ted] Cruz, [John] Barrasso, and all the other hard-core Obamacare opponents on the right." ...
... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "On the final day of Obamacare's open enrollment, Fox News host Jenna Lee hammered Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about why Republicans have yet to offer a comprehensive alternative to the health law -- despite repeatedly voting for its repeal.... Graham agreed that his party should introduce a unified health care proposal. But Lee persisted, pressing him for more details":
... Don't Worry, Folks. Help Is on the Way. Daniel Newhauser of Roll Call: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., reiterated on Friday that the House plans to bring up a bill to replace President Barack Obama's health care law." ...
... Waiting for O'BoehnerCare. Ed Kilgore is such a wet blanket. He invokes Kierkegaard & Beckett to mock Cantor's claim. ...
... Juan Williams, in the Hill, with a little help from Jonathan Gruber, who helped design RomneyCare/ObamaCare, puts his finger on the real reason there's no O'BoehnerCare: "The reason congressional Republicans have no alternative to the federal Affordable Care Act is that the individual mandate and exchanges at the heart of the current reform are 'conservative, Republican ideas.'"
Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: GOP to women voters: forget women's issues ... because ObamaCare.
** David Firestone of the New York Times: "It's hard to imagine a political spectacle more loathsome than the parade of Republican presidential candidates who spent the last few days bowing and scraping before the mighty bank account of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.... The ability of one man and his money to engender so much bootlicking among serious candidates, which ought to be frightening, has now become commonplace." ...
... Digby: "These politicians are all kissing the ring of this wealthy man because he will give millions to the one who agrees to do his bidding. It's called corruption." ...
... CW: Yes, it is. And it makes those petty thieves in the California Senate look like might small potatoes. Gunrunning with gangstas did not make them millionaires. Kissing the ass of an aged casino mogul, on the other hand....
... Andy Borowitz: "After hearing speeches by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and several others who were for sale, Mr. Adelson concluded that none of them are worth owning. 'I don't want to spend millions on another loser,' said Adelson, who purchased both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in 2012. The casino magnate was scathing in his assessment of the candidates he declined to buy, calling them 'a third-rate grab bag of has-beens and dimwits.'" Thanks to Kate M. for the link. ...
... T. Bogg in the Raw Story has a lovely piece on the Resurrection of the Christie: "So Chris Christie is back (providing he didn't make the most fatal-est misstep a Republican can make short of hugging a black man) and everyone who flirted with Rand Paul or Marco Rubio will now come crawling back and kissing his ass because, when you piss off Chris Christie, he has the people who now how to get back at you even though he totally knows nothing about it."
Anne Gearan & William Booth of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is considering the early release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard as part of an effort to keep U.S.-backed peace talks from collapsing, according to U.S. and Israeli officials." ...
... Update. Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "Officials involved in the fraught Israeli-Palestinian peace talks said on Tuesday that an agreement was near to extend the negotiations through 2015 in exchange for the release of Jonathan J. Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. The agreement would also include the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including citizens of Israel, and a partial freeze on construction in West Bank settlements. Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel hammered out details of the emerging deal in meetings here that began Monday night and continued early on Tuesday."
Barefoot AND Pregnant. Dana Milbank: The Heritage Foundation celebrated the final day of Women's History Month by encouraging women to quit working & get married. "This, they argued, also would have the felicitous effect of making women more Republican." Also, feminism sucks.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A sweeping new study on the effects of climate change -- which the report says is already disrupting the lives and livelihoods of the poorest people across the planet -- creates a diplomatic challenge for President Obama, who hopes to make action on both climate change and economic inequality hallmarks of his legacy.... Climate policy experts say that the United States, as the world's largest economy, would be expected to provide $20 billion to $30 billion of that annual fund.... There is no chance that a Congress focused on cutting domestic spending and jump-starting the economy will enact legislation agreeing to a huge increase in so-called climate aid." CW: ??? "So-called climate aid." Is that something like "so-called climate change"? Links to the study, also linked in yesterday's Commentariat, are here.
Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "The Federal Communications Commission approved measures on Monday that will free up more airwaves for Wi-Fi and wireless broadband. The agency also moved to help curb increasing cable rates for consumers, but in doing so cracked down hard on the ability of broadcast stations to negotiate jointly in competition with cable systems. Perhaps the most significant move by the commission was to allow a broad swath of airwaves to be used for outdoor unlicensed broadband, clearing the way for a new generation of Wi-Fi networks and other uses of freely available airwaves."
Keith Laing & Kevin Bogardus of the Hill: "General Motors CEO Mary Barra will step into the spotlight's glare Tuesday as she fields questions from lawmakers about why it took her company more than a decade to recall vehicles with a dangerous ignition switch problem. Barra, who is in her first year as GM's chief, is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee before heading to the Senate on Wednesday for another grilling." ...
... Danielle Ivory & Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "Long before the Chevrolet Cobalt became known for having a deadly ignition defect, it was already seen as a lemon. Owners complained about power steering failures, locks inexplicably opening and closing, doors jamming shut in the rain -- even windows falling out."
Dan Roberts: Caterpillar, "one of the world's biggest manufacturing companies, diverted more than $8bn in profits to Switzerland in order to avoid US taxes, according to investigators working for the Senate."
Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "President Obama's trip last week underscored one thing: He's more popular abroad than he is at home. Crowds lined the streets of Brussels, The Hague and Rome to catch a glimpse of Obama's motorcade. The crowd watching Obama's speech at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels was described as 'star-struck.'"
Tech News
CW: My Firefox browser has been acting up lately & just won't perform as well as Google Chrome, which I don't like for a number of reasons. Now I think I see why: the Firefox crew has been too busy worrying about buggery to work out bugs:
... Jeff Bercovici of Forbes: "The appointment of Proposition 8 supporter Brendan Eich as CEO of Mozilla has provoked howls of dissent within the company's ranks and on its board of directors. Now the broader tech community has begun to weigh in, starting with OK Cupid. Users of the IAC-owned dating site who access it through Mozilla's Firefox browser have started receiving a message asking them not to use software made by a company whose CEO has donated money to outlaw gay marriage in California."
Congressional Race
Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the chairman of the prestigious Ways and Means Committee, will not run for reelection in November, the veteran GOP lawmaker announced on Monday. Camp was first elected in 1990.... Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel said Monday that he viewed the district as within Democrats' reach.... Possible Republican replacements for Camp ... include state Sen. John Moolenaar of Midland and Peter Konetchy, a Roscommon businessman who announced last year that he would challenge Camp."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Alexander Stille of the New Yorker: "Sunday’s municipal elections in France offer at least three historical firsts: a historically poor result for the socialist party of President François Hollande; the best-ever results for the right-wing National Front party of Marine Le Pen; and a national record for low voter turnout. The left lost mainly because its own electorate -- discouraged by the disappointing performance of the Hollande government and a lacklustre campaign -- decided to stay home." Here's the AFP story on the elections.
News Lede
New York Times: "The fraught Mideast peace talks were thrown into confusion on Tuesday as a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority was canceled after Mr. Abbas moved to join 15 international agencies, a move vigorously opposed by Israel and the United States."
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Reader Comments (10)
Heard a lot today about potential Republican Presidential candidates kissing Adelson's ring. I'm not sure that's exactly what they had in mind. I certainly didn't.
I think this whole Sheldon Adelson shindig in Las Vegas is hysterical. So does Andy Borowiz:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/22879-sheldon-adelson-says-no-republican-candidate-worth-buying
And, clcarly, so does Sheldon Adelson!
,,,"The casino magnate was scathing in his assessment of the candidates he declined to buy, calling them “a third-rate grab bag of has-beens and dimwits.”
“I guess the Republican Party is thinking, Here comes crazy old Sheldon, he’ll blow his money on the first washed-out wingnut we throw out there,” Adelson said. “Well, guess again.”
Ah.....some days are more fun than others!
CW: I do believe "First, get a million dollars" is the solution to many of life's most vexing problems. I am so totally down with that. Then my child's education, health care, my wife's efforts to get $$$ on the other side of the planet and my wrists, my knees, my back, what's left of my mortgage would seem like dust bunnies in the grand scheme of my bank account. I get me a million dollars I'm gonna hire me a guru/yoga teacher and take care of this business proper like.
Get a million? Easy. What if Powerball held a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity opened only to those citizens of the U.S. (current population: 317-million plus or minus) who each purchased at least two tickets as part of a single national pool...and the pool is disbanded only after a win? Just imagine what the ultimate pot could be!
Also today is April Fool's Day.
I apologize for infecting your minds, but when I'd read Marie's intro. "Waiting for O'BoehnerCare" I unconsciously conjured up the Koch bros. 'Creepy Uncle Sam' ads and my imagination took hold and well you can imagine the rest.... lol
It might be April Fool's Day (I suppose that should be "Fools'", shouldn't it?) for a good portion of America, but in Right-Wing World, it's Fools' Day everyday. Everyone can play. That includes the bovine MSM who dutifully regurgitate whatever is the "hot" topic of the day. Let's see, is it Gwyneth Paltrow? Is it some lie of Paul Ryan's (Christ, there are so many!) reported with a straight face as if it's factual AND newsworthy? Perhaps it's a celebrity feud or two: the nerve of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and Anna Wintour depriving some far more worthy Hollywood snipe of Vogue cover time.
Ahhh...so many stories of great moment.
But now on to less important things like the fate of the nation. (zzzzzzzz).
Most of the mainstream press has decided that the Chris Christie problem is far less interesting than whether or not Stephen Colbert is a racist or the final episode of "How I Met Your Mother", and is, in fact, old news, allowing Chris Christie, in effect, to get back in the hunt for the White House. Those of us who have been around for a while recall when something like the GWB clusterfuck would have put a lock on a potential candidate's career and thrown the key down the nearest manhole. Not anymore. Ho-hum, so he closed a bridge. What's next?
What's next is this: Christie starts once more presenting himself to the GOP king makers as the only winnable candidate. He might be a bully and prick and a liar (like at least a third of the Republican Party) but he's not insane (the other two thirds).
But here's the rub (and I don't mean what Ryan, Christie, et al are doing to Sheldon Adelson's shriveled wee-wee): Montaigne tells us that we all live within ourselves and can see no further than the end of our nose. For most people this is a recognition of the limits of our knowledge. For people like Christie, it's a recognition (though not by him) of the limits of their ability to change.
Christie is a bully and a vindictive asshole. He's a blustering coward as well for pinning the blame for his own shortcomings on underlings. But as much as he tries to present the face of a temperate, no nonsense steward of the public trust, he is, at heart, still a bully and a braggart, and these things are sure to come out during the long slog of a presidential campaign. Romney tried to come off as a regular everyman with zero success. His personal sense of superiority and privilege oozed out of him with every gaffe.
The same will happen with a thin-skinned, humorless little toad like Rand Paul. Marco Rubio doesn't know what the fuck he even stands for, he changes every week. And the other sad sacks will all self-detonate with time (see 2012, GOP Presidential Primary Race).
But there is a chance that the real investigation of the bridge closings, financial jiggering, and subsequent paybacks and cover-ups will trump Christie's own bought and paid for "investigation".
In the meantime, the rest of the fools will be busy improving on their already world-class doltishness. All Purpose Fools.
As mentioned above, Paul Ryan's latest sack of steaming dung has the fourth estate in a tizzy. "Why, he's going to save us all! He'll cut trillions of dollars and balance the budget!"
No one mentions that we had a balanced budget before Republicans took over in 2000.
Anyway, here's the big news. The huuuuuge surprise is that the Liar is planning on balancing the budget on....the BACKS OF THE POOR! Can you believe it?
So here's the plan. No food. No medical care. No social services of any kind. But plenty of welfare for corporations, corporate taxes slashed, and more bombs for the military, because.....well, just because.
What a shock.
This is the sort of thing that only Fox should be covering. Same ol' bullshit. Same ol' lies. Same ol' Ryan.
But it's news, right? In'it?
(I just don't get this blank hatred of poor people and people who don't have everything handed to them like Paul Ryan. This is some evil shit.)
Whoa....
At first I thought this was some April Fools' article.
Hobby Lobby, you know, those holy Christians who are so attached to their religious principles that they took their case to the Supreme Court where, if successful, their suit will allow thousands of instances where corporations can jettison federal law if it suits their purposes, has no problem disregarding those principles if it means money.
You know how awful and terrible and evil and murderous and (add your own horrible descriptor), contraceptives are? Bad enough to cause Christian conniption fits from here til Rapture? Well they ain't bad enough not to invest in.
According to Mother Jones, the Hobby Lobby owners are using contraceptive manufacturers to bolster their retirement funds. Not only that, they invest in companies that manufacture the dread Abortion Pill!! Hobby Lobby Kills the Unborn! Think that will be a Fox headline?
So contraceptives and morning after pills can't be all that bad if they support their creation. I guess they just don't support letting their employees use them. Like it's okay to be gay (sort of) as long as you don't act on it.
More right-wing bullshit. They're gonna have to add some new wings to the Conservative Hypocrisy Museum.
Contraceptives are bad, bad, bad, but we like the money, money, money.
@CW, Another side of Hugh Jackman? Not to mention Winslet:
http://www.toilette-humor.com/funny_adult_videos/the_blind_date.shtml
Caution: To quote Krugman, "slightly R-rated" but okay on 1 April?
ps. Please delete if it goes too far.