;)
Monday
Apr152013
The Commentariat -- April 16, 2013
President Obama, this morning, on the Boston Marathon explosions:
... Stephen Marche, in Esquire: "Whoever it turns out to be will incur a blame for entire groups of people -- whether Muslims or American gun nuts -- which are entirely accidental to their being. Let us pause, right now, and agree not to make that mistake." ...
... Aristotle comments on the Boston Marathon bombings, via Charles Pierce. ...
... Charles Pierce, a Bostonian, reacts to the Boston Marathon bombings. Pierce was in Boston for the marathon & reports. ...
... Josh Gerstein (one of two Politico analysts worth reading): "Obama's decision to step before cameras despite sketchy information about what happened in Boston just over three hours earlier, clearly reflected lessons learned from the series of terrorist attacks early in his administration: the potential cost of keeping a low profile and waiting is greater than the risk of speaking too soon." ...
... Steve M. of No More Mr. Nice Blog: "In the wake of the Boston bombings, we have Alex Jones claiming it's a 'false flag' designed to drum up support for infringements on civil liberties. In response to an unconfirmed New York Post report claiming that a Saudi suspect is in custody, we have Fox's Erik Rush tweeting that we should kill all Muslims. And we have Pamela Geller declaring the bombers 'Slaughterers in the cause of jihad,' part of nonstop Twitter torrent of anti-Muslim outrage on her part. So, when Dylan Byers of Politico harrumphed a while ago about 'The Boston explosions, politicized,' what struck him as so outrageous? Answer: a tweet from Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times -- since deleted -- that read as follows:
explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-01/wor...
From Harry Reid's office, on the 6th anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, via Greg Sargent:
... Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "As a crucial series of gun-control votes approaches in the Senate, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are suddenly preoccupied with one question in particular: when is Frank Lautenberg coming back?" ...
... Dan Friedman of the New York Daily News: "Senate Republican leaders will not push their members to vote against a background check compromise, GOP senators said, in a sign party leaders will duck a public fight against the popular plan and the high-profile gun violence victims supporting it. Republicans senators should 'vote their conscience,' Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) the second ranking GOP senator, said Monday in explaining that he does not plan to 'whip' against the vote to amend a broader gun control measure to add the background check deal.... The decision by top Republicans not to twist arms to block the measure shows that with public pressure on their side, supporters of the deal have momentum. While far from assured, their victory on the amendment vote looks likely." Also via Sargent. ...
... Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times: From an NRA blog: "'Studies indicate that firearms are used over 2 million times a year for personal protection, and that the presence of a firearm, without a shot being fired, prevents crime in many instances.' In other words, as Wayne LaPierre put it after Newtown, 'the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.' ... The 2 million figure -- often inflated to 2.5 million in N.R.A. literature -- is bogus. Defensive gun use is actually quite rare. A new paper from the Violence Policy Center states that 'for the five-year period 2007 through 2011, the total number of self-protective behaviors involving a firearm by victims of attempted or completed violent crimes or property crimes totaled only 338,700.' That comes to an annual average of 67,740 -- not nothing, but nowhere near the N.R.A.'s 2 million or 2.5 million."
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A bipartisan group of eight senators plans to unveil legislation [today], drafted largely in secret, that would provide a 13-year path to American citizenship for illegal immigrants who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, but would demand that tougher border controls be in place first. The legislation is certain to unleash a torrent of attacks from Republican opponents on the immigration overhaul, similar to the kind of criticism that killed an effort supported by President George W. Bush in 2007." ...
... AP Update by Erica Werner: "... Senators had planned to formally introduce the bill Tuesday, but after Monday's bombing at the Boston Marathon a planned press event was delayed until later in the week."
** Glenn Greenwald on the New York Times op-ed, linked here yesterday, by Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, a Yemeni imprisoned in Guantanamo for 11 years without charges. He is among the 87 "detainees - roughly half - [who] have been cleared for release, of which 58 are Yemeni. Not even the US government at this point claims they are guilty or pose a threat to anyone." ...
... Jim White of Empty Wheel has more. ...
... Also, read Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake on "the cruelty of Obama's Gulag." ...
... Geoff Earle of the New York Post: "Guantanamo Bay detainee Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel penned an anguished op-ed for The New York Times yesterday about his suffering behind bars for 11 years -- but there was no mention that he was allegedly picked up at Tora Bora in Afghanistan and is believed by US intelligence to have been among a group of hardened fighters protecting Osama bin Laden." CW: consider the source here; since I don't know who's right, Earle's POV shouldn't be dismissed out-of-hand.
... Scott Shane of the New York Times: "A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that 'it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture' and that the nation's highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it. The sweeping, 577-page report says that while brutality has occurred in every American war, there never before had been 'the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.' The study, by an 11-member panel convened by the Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group, is to be released on Tuesday morning."
Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute writes an indictment of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve in a Washington Post column on mortgage servicers. This is the issue Sen. Elizabeth Warren so effectively addressed in a Senate hearing last week. She & Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) are still at it, still demanding answers as to why the OCC & Fed are covering up rampant illegal behavior by the servicers -- at the expense of individual mortgagors, and more broadly, of the U.S. economy.
Robert Reich: "Our political leaders in Washington have for now chosen supply-side austerity economics over Keynesian economics. That's bad enough. Their inability or unwillingness to do much of anything about widening inequality will prove a larger problem."
** Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches on another right-wing conspiracy theory: "Kermit Gosnell is on trial in Philadelphia, charged with eight counts of murder at his grisly abortion clinic. The Associated Press covered the opening proceedings of a trial expected to last eight weeks. A New York Times reporter was also present when the trial opened. His story appeared on page A17, which apparently wasn't prominent enough for conservatives who are complaining that the media is under-covering the story because, as Charles Krauthammer put it, it places the issue of late-term abortion 'starkly into relief.' Gosnell is charged with illegally performing third trimester abortions, and slitting the spines of the babies, acts that were loudly condemned by pro-choice advocates. It doesn't bring the issue of late-term abortion 'starkly into relief'; it's the story of a monster completely flouting the law and medical standards." ...
... Digby: "This nonsense about there being some pro-abortion media conspiracy to black-out this trial is idiotic, to say the least. It has all the hallmarks of a right wing hissy fit designed to make this macabre psycho the face of Planned Parenthood."
Evan McMorris-Santoro & Andrew Kaczinski of BuzzFeed: "Howard Dean has had it with President Obama's budget proposal, saying the plan put forward by the White House might just drive him from the Democratic Party he once led as DNC chair." ...
... Brett Zongker of the AP: "Budget cuts from Congress will soon reduce the number of free exhibitions on view each day at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. According to written testimony, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough plans to tell Congress on Tuesday that the museum complex must reduce its security contract for gallery attendants because of the budget cuts. As a result, the Smithsonian plans to begin rolling gallery closures after May 1. Clough says the Smithsonian also will likely have to postpone or cancel exhibits for 2014 and 2015." ...
... Screw Seniors. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "President Obama's offer to trim Social Security benefits has perplexed and angered Democrats, but GOP leaders are embracing the proposal and rushing to jump-start a debate that will delve even more deeply into the touchy topic of federal spending on the elderly. This week, two House subcommittees plan to hold hearings on 'reforms to protect and preserve' programs for retirees, starting with Obama's proposal to apply a less generous measure of inflation to annual increases in Social Security benefits. Also on the table are higher Medicare premiums and reduced benefits for better-off seniors, and a higher Medicare eligibility age."
Obama 2.0. Sam Hananel of the AP: "In a blistering report, Republican lawmakers [Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, California Rep. Darrell Issa and Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte] on Sunday sharply criticized Labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez over what they said was a questionable deal he brokered while serving as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The 63-page report, issued after months of investigation, is certain to provide fodder for Republicans seeking to challenge Perez at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday."
Nicole Winfield of the Huffington Post: "Pope Francis named eight cardinals from around the globe Saturday to advise him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, marking his first month as pope with a major initiative to reflect the universal nature of the church in key governing decisions. The advisory panel includes only one current Vatican official. The rest are cardinals from North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. Many have been outspoken in calling for a shake-up of the Vatican bureaucracy, which was last reformed 25 years ago, while others have tried to clean up the church from sexually abusive priests." ...
... BUT. Tom Kington of the Los Angeles Times: "Pope Francis has backed the Vatican's doctrinal crackdown on a major group of American nuns, reasserting the Roman Catholic Church's conservative approach to various social issues in a move that could cool the warm reception he has received from some liberal Catholics since taking office last month.... The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents most U.S. female Catholic orders, of promoting 'radical feminist themes' and ignoring the Vatican's hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion."
"David Brooks on Stilts." Driftglass reveals a quirk of Brooks' prose style. Funny.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, confirmed that an envelope addressed to Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, a Republican, had been tested twice for ricin in a mail facility away from the Capitol with positive results both times.... Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, told reporters ... that the letter had come from someone who frequently writes lawmakers. She said the person had been identified, but she declined to divulge the name."
New York Times: "American Airlines was forced to ground all of its flights for several hours on Tuesday after a nationwide problem with its computer systems. By late afternoon, its computers were back up and its operation were slowly coming back to life."
Dallas Morning News: "Pat Summerall died Tuesday. He was 82. That's exactly how [NFL sportscaster] Summerall once told a writer he would craft the first sentences of his own obituary -- short and to the point."
New York Times: "The explosives that killed three people and injured more than 170 during the Boston Marathon on Monday were most likely rudimentary devices made from ordinary kitchen pressure cookers, except they were rigged to shoot sharp bits of shrapnel into anyone within reach of their blast and maim them severely, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The pressure cookers were filled with nails, ball bearings and black powder, and the devices were triggered by 'kitchen-type' egg timers, one official said." ...
... Washington Post: "The devices' design was immediately recognized by counterterrorism experts as a type touted by al-Qaeda for use by its operatives around the world. Similar devices have been used by terrorists in mass-casualty bombings in numerous countries, from the Middle East to South Asia to North Africa.Yet the bomb's simplicity and garden-variety ingredients complicate the task of determining whether the maker was an international terrorist, a homegrown extremist or a local citizen with a grudge."...
... The New York Times' "The Lede" has updates here. ...
... Boston Globe: one of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombing was Krystle Campbell, aged 29, of Arlington, Massachusetts. She had attended Boston Marathons since she was a child. ...
... Boston Globe/B.U.: "The Chinese Consulate in New York said this evening that the latest fatality of the Boston Marathon explosion was a Chinese national. The consulate's statement came a few hours after Boston University said that the victim was a BU graduate student." ...
... The front page of boston.com has numerous links to stories about the Boston Marathon explosions. BostonGlobe.com, a subscriber-firewalled site, also has numerous stories on its front page (some of which are republished in boston.com), and the paper seems to have lifted its paywall for today. The main story is here. "... 8-year-old Martin Richard ... was killed in the attack, and his mother and sister ... suffered grievous injuries. Martin's father, Bill, is a community leader in the Ashmont section of Dorchester. A third child was reportedly uninjured.... Authorities were talking to at least one person at Brigham and Women's Hospital.... The person questioned ... was a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by a bystander after he was seen running from near the scene of the explosion.... The Saudi man, believed to be a university student in Boston, is cooperating with the FBI and told agents that he was not involved in the explosions, and that he ran only because he was frightened. Investigators did not characterize the man as a suspect. No one had been arrested or charged as of late Monday night." CW: hundreds of people were "seen running from near the scene." I wonder why the "bystander ... tackled and held" the Saudi man? ...
... Dorchester Reporter on the Richard family. Martin's sister & mother were severely injured in the blast. ...
... New York Daily News: "The explosions that rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 140, opened fresh wounds for the town of Newtown, Conn., which was represented by a team of marathoners and attendees, some reportedly sitting in a VIP section near the first blast. None of the Newtown runners or supporters was injured in Monday's horrific bombing, according to the running team's Facebook page." ...
... AP: "The FBI took charge of the investigation into the bombings, serving a warrant late Monday on a home in suburban Boston and appealing for any video, audio and still images taken by marathon spectators." ...
... Time: "The hunt for the killer behind Monday's Boston Marathon bombings began within minutes of the attacks."
Reuters: "North Korea issued new threats against South Korea on Tuesday, vowing 'sledge-hammer blows' of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader. But despite the new ultimatum, the North Korean leadership was looking for a way to cool down its rhetoric after weeks of warnings of war, a senior U.S. military official in South Korea said."
AP: "Texas authorities investigating the killing of a district attorney and his wife are working to build a case against a former justice of the peace prosecuted last year by the slain official's office, a law enforcement official said Monday. Eric Lyle Williams, 46, was arrested over the weekend and remains jailed on a charge of making a terroristic threat. He is being held on $3 million bond."
AP: "An Alaska-based military policeman will serve 16 years in prison and will be dishonorably discharged for selling secrets to an FBI undercover agent who he believed was a Russian spy, a panel of eight military members decided Monday. Spec. William Colton Millay of Owensboro, Ky., pleaded guilty last month to attempted espionage and other counts. Military prosecutors painted him as a white supremacist who was fed up with the Army and the United States, and was willing to sell secrets to an enemy agent, even if that would cost fellow soldiers their lives."
AP: "Israel is celebrating 65 years of independence with barbeques, air force flyovers, and an international bible quiz."
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Reader Comments (7)
Wonder if the main result of Patriots' Day bombing will be that the loons will run out and stock up on ammonium nitrate before the black helicopters arrive.
According to the FBI, it doesn't appear that the bombs set off in Boston originated abroad (could mean IRA, Hamas, Al Qaeada, but very likely they mean from somewhere in the Middle East).
There are a number of odd things about them. Certainly they caused horrific damage and death but had they used plastique, C4, for instance, it could have been much worse. The bombs, however they were exploded (cell phones?), had they been set off between noon and 12:30, when the elite men and women runners were crossing the finish line, there would have been a much larger crowd and far more casualties.
The date bears some examination for motive, being both Patriots' Day in Boston and tax day everywhere. Also, if we're talking about a possible far-right extremist a la Timothy McVeigh, Boston is a perfect target since it is considered a center of liberal thinking and walking, talking liberals, and of course a comfortable home for Satan.
But all of this is speculation.
What's not speculation, especially if this is the work of homegrown terrorists, is that more than a few inhabitants of right-wing world have been promoting exactly this sort of thing. When popular and famous wingers (Palin, eg) put targets on those they consider enemies of conservative Americans, when they not only promote, but actively support the right of Americans to show up--armed--carrying assault weapons and brandishing firearms at Obama rallies, when they attack the parents of children slaughtered by assault weapons as being haters of the constitution, when they choose war first, last and always as the only way to settle international disputes (can you hear me Mittens, you rat fuck?), when they scream about how people who don't agree with them should be murdered (talkin' to you Coulter, you vicious piece of shit), when talk radio loonies go on and on about "watering the tree of LIBERTY", they condone, encourage, and support this sort of lunatic action.
Rest assured, however, should this turn out to be a McVeigh redux, wingers and Republican media shills will howl en masse that this is a one-time, singular event with no relation to right-wing ideology or Republican politics.
Another one.
Oh, and I'm about to do some self editing.
I hereby renounce the use of the phrase "far-right extremists or extremism".
They're ALL far-right. They're ALL extremists. They are ALL to blame for this craziness. There aren't any moderates or non far-right wingers left anymore. Even those who don't spray microphones with diseased spittle are to blame for not speaking up and telling these people to stick it up their asses and STFU.
From now on, just the terms "right-wing" and "conservative" will suffice to refer to the most extreme, most unadulterated loony-tune motherfuckers, period.
'nuff said.
@Akhilleus. Assuming that the bombs detonated at the times planned, it would seem that the terrorists -- like McVeigh & the 9/11 attackers -- wanted to kill & maim ordinary citizens as much as authority figures. According to news reports, the bombs exploded at a time when the greatest number of runners were reaching the finish line. Thus the victims would not be elite runners & VIPs but regular people, their families & friends. The second explosion followed so quickly on the first that it doesn't seem it was aimed at hitting first responders, so again the idea must have been to harm amateur runners & their supporters.
I suppose the idea is to strike fear in all Americans.
Marie
Marie,
True, but I've been to Boston Marathon and there are a load of regular people at the finish line waiting to see the winners. Three hours later there are still people there waiting for moms and dads, sisters, brothers, and friends to cross but the crowd has thinned considerably by then. At noon you can't even move.
That being said, whether through poor planning or incompetence or technical problems, the later detonation time likely prevented many more deaths.
I also wanted to clarify an earlier point. I realize there is a lot of pre-emptive striking going on out in right-wing world, attacking anyone who even suggests the possibility of wingnut involvement in the bombings, as I have done.
But even if it turns out that these bombs were set by Greenpeace or a local B'nai B'rith chapter or the Boylston Street Girl Scouts of America, or garden variety misanthropes, my contention that the atmosphere of fear and violence conjured up and supported daily by right-wing characters and Republican "lawmakers" has contributed mightily to making this a less safe and more savage society is still entirely valid.
There is no way wingers can escape the charge that they, more than any other group of Americans, have made this country ripe for growing nutjobs who cheer people like Rick Perry for waving guns around, Wayne La Pierre for demanding that weapons be passed out to everyone, and Sarah Palin for putting targets across the faces of "enemies". What do you do with that? Where does all of this go? It doesn't just fly off into space or dissipate into a martini glass at the country club. This is the kind of atmosphere that simply breeds contempt not just for government, but for civilized society and the rule of law. How many right-wingers out there deny that secular laws have no hold on them?
And to put a further exclamation point to this contention, today we have the release of the report, which you link above, that concludes definitively that the US is a nation that has used, and supported the use of, torture.
Torture, gun violence, bombings, murder.
Very cosmopolitan.
@Ahkilleus. How correct you are. We have been so battered by the ignorant, fear based BS and verbal masturbation on the right for so long that "reasonable" is now defined as one bic flick before hair-on-fire crazy. The media is akin to an army of manure spreaders funded by people who can never be rich enough. The apathetic public can't get enough of the scent of turd pies. Its one of the few things that can repeatedly capture their gnat like attention.
In re: the Boston bombings. Far be it from me to get ahead of the facts, however I suspect the Southern Poverty Law Center might lend a hand in determining the culprit(s). I don't believe in that many coincidences - Patriot Day, people running for many causes identified as "liberal", same week of the Oklahoma City massacre, chicken shit move.
Lastly, the LCWR headed by Sister Janet Mock, is a great organization. Last August there was something of a showdown in which the LCWR stated they would likely split and establish their own organization, not under the control of the Holy See. LCWR has repeatedly refused to alter their mission, which is one of social justice, especially in support of the poor and homeless. In my view the redemption of the Catholic Church will come when women take a leadership role. In most cultures, women are the moral compass. Clearly the case here.
My first thought was the poor people caught in the sights of some crazy person/s. My next thought was what if this is as unorganized as the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics?
Some crazy person does this then all the 'security theatre' people whose business is profiting from fear step in.
I'm heartened by the brave nobodies who do the right thing when a bomb goes off; I feel for the people and families who have so much changed in their lives in an instant.
Well, the whining has begun in earnest.
Right-wingers and the dominant conservative media have, in less than 24 hours, made the Boston Marathon bombing all about them. Specifically, their eternal suffering as victims at the hands of evil, godless liberals and the so-called liberal media.
Pay no attention to those bodies on Boylston Street, we're being PERSECUTED!
But it appears that wingnuts have been at this sort of thing for a looooong time.
This may be a bit tangential to what's going on in Boston today but it's an interesting dissection of the conservative mindset which insists that they suffer and die for the sins of the unbelievers and the unworthy. You know, just like the ancient martyrs. Their chronic victimization, which comes out as the War on Christmas, the War on Christians, the War on.....fill in the wingnut blank, seems to have roots in what classical scholars call the Age of Martyrs.
I'm sure you've all heard what a terrible (brief and painful) life it was for Christians in the first 300, 400, 800, 2,000 years of Christianity, what with all the feeding of the lions and the current persecutions (see Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Breitbart clones). Well, it seems that if you try to verify the flood of martyrdoms at the hands of Romans and other assorted mean-ass, Christian hating pagan types, there is no historical record. Not, at least of the thousands and thousands of torture murders inflicted on the faithful according to Christian stories.
And of course, this same sort of mythmaking goes on today in right-wing circles. As the author of this piece, Candida Moss, suggests, to Christian (and most winger minds "...disagreement is equal to persecution...It makes collaboration, and even compassion, impossible".
Sound familiar?
An interesting and balanced article. And not a bit inflammatory (at least by non-wingnut lights):
We've always been persecuted, wah, wah, wah!