;)
Tuesday
Apr022013
The Commentariat -- April 3, 2013
** New York Times Editors: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets it wrong on the political climate at the time the Court decided Roe v. Wade. Her misunderstanding could negatively affect how she helps decide the gay marriage cases before the Court now. ...
... AND, as Maureen Dowd points out, it's the Supremes who are behind the times now, not the public. So Ginsburg is doubly wrong.
Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: President "Obama was traveling to the Denver suburbs Wednesday, stepping up his call for universal background checks for gun buyers as well as his demands for Congress to at least vote on an assault weapons ban and limits on large-capacity ammunition magazines." ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "With Senate Democrats still struggling to line up support, the success or failure of President Obama's four-month campaign to overhaul gun laws will most likely revolve around a single provision: a proposal to expand federal background checks for gun purchases.... Even though around 90 percent of those polled in public surveys support background checks, the fight for it and the rest of the first major piece of gun control legislation since 1993 faces a difficult test in the coming weeks." ...
... Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "A 225-page study commissioned by the National Rifle Association has endorsed and amplified the gun rights group's immediate response to the mass killing in Newtown, Conn.: that all schools in the United States should have police or armed staff members trained to confront a shooter. Although ostensibly independent of the NRA, the examination of school safety issues, released Tuesday, provides the organization with an alternative narrative to the various gun control measures on Capitol Hill that it is opposing or seeking to dilute." CW: a study! I'll bet it's really scientific & all. ...
... Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas who led the task force, unveiled the report at a packed news conference with unusually heavy security, including a bomb-sniffing yellow Labrador retriever. A dozen officers in plain clothes and uniforms stood watch as he spoke; one warned photographers to 'remain stationary' during the event." ...
... ** Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "In a spectacle that officials at the National Press Club said they had never seen before, the NRA gunmen directed some photographers not to take pictures, ordered reporters out of the lobby when NRA officials passed and inspected reporters' briefcases before granting them access to the news conference. The antics gave new meaning to the notion of disarming your critics." If the NRA prevails, "American schoolchildren may grow accustomed to the sort of scene Hutchinson caused Tuesday, protected by more armed guards than a Third World dictator." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Well, the NRA has managed to come up with its 'Guns For Everybody School Safety Plan' and it contains pretty much what you'd expect it to contain, including whole new markets and increased profits for the guns-and-ammo manufacturers that represent the NRA's primary constituency.
Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place. President Obama's economic advisers and outside experts say the nation's much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession."
Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "Media Matters has noticed something important: Climate was almost completely absent on the national broadcast network news last year. Only twelve stories, combined, on the CBS, ABC, and NBC news shows, were devoted to the topic -- which certainly has a legitimate claim as the single most important policy problem facing the United States right now." Bernstein says to get climate change in the news, politicians need to talk about it more often. ...
... Media Matters has a "Take Action" petition here. ...
... Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency's latest proposed tightening of limits on sulfur in gasoline, and its previous rules, will most likely have the perverse consequence of retarding the development of cars running on batteries, advanced biofuels or hydrogen -- all promising but expensive technologies that have not become mass-market products. At the least, domestically produced gasoline and rapid advances in technology to make the internal combustion engine more efficient are likely to help the conventional automobile survive against competition from vehicles powered by electricity, natural gas and other cleaner alternatives." CW: this is a "perverse consequence" we're lucky to have.
Dion Nissenbaum of the Wall Street Journal: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to voluntarily give up part of his $200,000 annual salary in solidarity with about 700,000 of his civilian workers facing mandatory furloughs this summer ... even though his paycheck is immune from the mandatory cuts."
Words Matter. Paul Colford of the AP: "The AP Stylebook today is making some changes in how we describe people living in a country illegally. Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explains...: 'The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term "illegal immigrant" or the use of "illegal" to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that "illegal" should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.'" CW: to Rep. Don Young's (R-Alaska) dismay, the AP Stylebook has also dropped "wetback" from its list of acceptable descriptors. ...
... Margaret Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Times, for the past couple of months, has also been considering changes to its stylebook entry on this term and will probably announce them to staff members this week....From what I can gather, The Times's changes will not be nearly as sweeping as The A.P.’s." CW: For instance, the Times will continue to permit the use of terms like "beaner," where appropriate. ...
Washington Post Editors: Sen. Marco Slo-Mo "Rubio [R-Fla.] appears paralyzed -- or to be trying to have it both ways. At first he led the charge, trying to brand an overhaul of the immigration system as his signature achievement. Then, when progress was made last weekend, he backed away, warning that talk of a breakthrough was premature.... [But] it's one or the other; Mr. Rubio needs to decide."
... SO, expect reactions like this one from the person who writes the Right Scoop: "I refuse to call illegals by any other name, no matter how insensitive people are going to claim it is. Because that is next, papers and news orgs will fall in line and minorities here illegally will begin claiming discrimination in a louder voice and pretty soon saying 'illegal' when referring to someone will be akin to hate-speech." CW: mind you, there's not an iota of hate in her/his big heart. ...
... Weasel Zippers calls the change a "major victory for the lib PC enforcers." ...
... AND Allahpundit at Hot Air sees an insidious liberal plot: "The timing here suggests that this is the AP's dumb little way of cheerleading for immigration reform in Congress...."
John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: "Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois became the second GOP Senator to endorse gay marriage today...." ...
... Justin Sink of the Hill: "Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said Tuesday he now supports same-sex marriage, now leaving just seven Senate Democrats who have not publicly voiced support for allowing gays to marry. 'As our society has changed and evolved, so too has the public's opinion on gay marriage -- and so has mine,' Carper said in a post to his Facebook page." ...
... Rep. John Carney, also a Delaware Democrat and the only Delaware representative in the House, announced his support for same-sex marriage today, too. ...
... Josh Israel of Think Progress notes that "With Vice President Joe Biden the tie-breaker, this marks the first time that a majority in the U.S. Senate has endorsed same-sex marriage." CW: yet another reason the filibuster matters. ...
... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs provides some examples of how wingers are responding to the senators' announcements. I won't reproduce any of the remarks here.
Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "... the Atlanta school cheating scandal, the largest in recent history..., is fueling critics who say that standardized testing as a way to measure student achievement should be scaled back."
Jim Williams of the Pew Public Policy Center: "On our national poll this week we took the opportunity to poll 20 widespread and/or infamous conspiracy theories. Many of these theories are well known to the public, others perhaps to just the darker corners of the internet. Here's what we found: 37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax, 51% do not. Republicans say global warming is a hoax by a 58-25 margin, Democrats disagree 11-77, and Independents are more split at 41-51. 61% of Romney voters believe global warming is a hoax." CW: this one is scary, but the rest of the results are more fun.
Congressional Races
Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will launch a fund-raising drive for the 2014 U.S. mid-term elections on Wednesday with addresses to deep-pocketed donors in California, hoping the Democratic Party can defy the odds and gain congressional seats in the polls."
Bruce Smith of the AP: Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford won the Republican primary race to fill a vacant Congressional seat in South Carolina. Sanford "faces Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, in a May 7 special election." ...
... Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal: Colbert Busch could beat Sanford. ...
... Even Politico is wary of Sanford's chances. Alex Isenstadt: "Fellow GOP pols don't like him. Neither do female voters. His campaign is largely an exercise in seeking forgiveness for his transgressions four years ago -- a defensive crouch that makes it tricky to take the fight to Colbert Busch...."
Local News
Michael Wilson & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: according to a criminal complaint which federal prosecutors unsealed Tuesday, influential state Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat turned Republican, & Queens City Councilman Daniel Halloran, a Republican, conspired with others to buy Smith the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City. "Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan whose office is prosecuting the case, said the arrests demonstrated 'that a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government.'" ...
... Jim Dwyer of the Times has more. ...
... Thomas Kaplan of the Times: "The charges against Mr. Smith were particularly disruptive [to state government] because he was part of an unusual and fragile two-party coalition controlling the Senate and because he was the only nonwhite member of that coalition, criticized for a lack of diversity."
Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "On his radio show last night, Mark Levin had on newfound conservative 'hero' Dr. Ben Carson to discuss all the lashings he's received from the 'left-wing media' over his views on gay marriage and religion. While discussing his being a black conservative, Carson told Levin that, in his experience, white liberals are the 'most racist people there are. They need to shut me up, they need to delegitimize me,' Carson told the radio host while explaining why he believes the media has [sic.] scorned him for lumping homosexuality in with unsavory sexual acts like bestiality and pedophilia." CW: right you are. Because liberals would not have even noticed if a white person had made the bigoted remarks Carson did. ...
... Fer instance, Tim Rohan of the New York Times: "In a video shown Tuesday on ESPN, the Rutgers men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice, is seen yelling homophobic slurs at his players, kicking them, grabbing them and shoving them. He also throws basketballs at their legs, their heads and their bodies from point-blank range -- as if he were playing dodge ball." Rutgers fired the person who shot the video & reported it to higher-ups. CW: Now, Coach Rice looks like a white guy to me, so I'm guessing white liberals will see those homophobic slurs & all as A-okay, especially because it appears most of the players Rice abused were black....
... CW: Here's the portion of the video ESPN aired. Rutgers' athletic director Tim Pernetti gave Rice only a three-game suspension & $50K fine for repeated criminal assault & battery on the players. As far as I can tell, it was Pernetti who fired videographer Eric Murdock, who is black. Rice should be in jail, & both he & Pernetti -- an accessory after the fact -- should be banned from working in school sports programs:
... Update: Tom Canavan of the AP: "Now that the video has gone viral, many -- including the governor of New Jersey -- are wondering why Rutgers let Rice keep his job at all. Athletic director Tim Pernetti said Tuesday that the school was reconsidering its decision to retain the fiery 44-year-old coach. The videotape, broadcast Tuesday on ESPN, prompted scores of outraged social media comments as well as sharp criticism from Gov. Chris Christie and Miami Heat star LeBron James. The head of the New Jersey Assembly called for Rice to be fired." ...
... Steve Politi of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Mike Rice has to go. That's the easy part. If Pernetti doesn't reach that decision soon, and doesn't lead the healing process for his broken basketball program, he'll be the next one out the door."
The Gohmert Daily News
Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch: "During the course of [a conference call with a notorious anti-gay activist, Rep. Louis] Gohmert [RTP-Texas] was asked about his opposition to any gun control legislation, which he explained by bizarrely linking the topic to gay marriage and bestiality.... Earlier in the discussion, Gohmert called on Christians to take a more active role in politics ... because otherwise their churches are going to be forced to hire cross-dressing Satan-worshipers."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Jane Henson, the widow of and original collaborator with Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, died on Tuesday at her home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 78."
New York Times: "Milo O'Shea, an Irish character actor -- recognizable by his black bushy eyebrows, tumble of white hair and impish smile -- whose films included 'Ulysses,' 'Barbarella' and 'The Verdict,' died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 86."
New York Times: "The United States announced Wednesday that it was speeding the deployment of an advanced missile defense system to Guam in the next few weeks, two years ahead of schedule in what the Pentagon said was 'a precautionary move' to protect American naval and air forces from the threat of a North Korean missile attack."
New York Times: "In one of the deadliest insurgent attacks in the decade-long war in Afghanistan, nine Taliban fighters dressed as Afghan soldiers stormed a government compound in the western part of the country on Wednesday morning, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 100 in a hostage standoff."
AP: "A sheriff known for cracking down on the drug trade in southern West Virginia's coalfields was fatally shot Wednesday in the spot where he usually parked his car for lunch, a state official said, and a suspect was in custody."
Reuters: "African heads of state on Wednesday refused to recognize rebel leader Michel Djotodia's self-appointment as president of Central African Republic, calling instead for the creation of a new transitional body to guide the country to elections."
Washington Post: "The United States and Jordan have stepped up training of Syrian opposition forces that may be used to establish a buffer zone along Syria's southern border, according to U.S. and Jordanian officials. Training begun last year has been expanded and accelerated after rebel gains in the south, including capture of a stretch of the Jordanian-Syrian border near the Golan Heights, two military outposts and the country's main border crossing with Jordan."
Reuters: "A Syrian jet flew 20 km (12 miles) into Lebanon and fired a missile into a field on the outskirts of the border town of Arsal on Wednesday but caused no casualties, witnesses said. Lebanon has maintained a policy of 'dissociation' from Syria's two-year-old conflict. But many Lebanese officials feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into the civil war, which the United Nations says has killed 70,000 people."
Washington Post: "North Korea on Wednesday banned South Korean workers from entering a joint industrial complex near the demilitarized zone, officials in Seoul said, jeopardizing a project that provides the only daily contact between the two Koreas amid an escalating threat of conflict on the peninsula."
Reuters: "Uganda has suspended the hunt for fugitive warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army fighters, blaming hostility towards foreign troops by Central African Republic rebels who seized power last month. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He and his commanders are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline." ...
... Update: "The United States on Wednesday offered a reward of up to $5 million each for fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and some of his top aides in the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group."
ABC News: "The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist prison gang, has become one of the top focuses of authorities investigating the murders of two Texas prosecutors, sources told ABC News. Prosecutors from Kaufman County,Texas, had helped imprison dozens of Aryan Brotherhood of Texas members late last year...."
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Reader Comments (5)
George Mason University is out with a new poll indicating that majority of republican voters support clean energy. Good to know that the Koch's haven't yet thoroughlyacquired the university.
In a related development, every member of Mark Kirk's extended family has been contacted by the press, with this question: "So, how are you enjoying the gay lifestyle?" And this follow-up: "How about Brooks's column, eh?"
A Local Story:
Yesterday Connecticut passed strict gun control legislation. On the Teevee New's stations the Democratic Speaker of the House, Brendan Sharky, gave a little speech about how important it was to strike while the iron was hot, that dilly dallying would have pushed the matter on the back burner and nothing would have been accomplished. Something, of course, the NRA keeps hoping will happen.
We first met Brendan decades ago when we were selling our house and moving just two houses down the road. Along came this charismatic, Jack Kennedy type young man and his wife who purchased it on the spot. So we were neighbors and became fast friends. Brendan had a law practice then and represented us in a land dispute that ended in our favor. When he decided to run for State Representative we worked on his campaign and continued to do so throughout his runnings. He became Majority Whip about four years ago and last year became the Speaker of the House. I'm high– lighting this man because he is one of the good guys, the kind of person whose scruples are firmly cemented. He has fought hard for women's rights, the environment, early education funding in our state, etc. And now gun control. A man worthy of our salute.
Unlike this little butter ball, Kim Jung Un, whose tirades remind me of children going through the terrible two's.
"A big man knows he don't have to fight, but whin a man is little an' knows
he's, little an' is thinkin' all th' time he's little an' feels that
ivrybody else is thinkin' he's little, look out f'r him."
-- Finley Peter Dunne, 1899.
And just a word about the cheating test scandal: Have we learned nothing about human nature? When merit pay is on the line as well as keeping one's job depends on cheating or not cheating then...Yep–no child left behind–-race to the top––what a disgrace–-what a terrible disservice to those children!!!
"That woman, Maria Belen Chapur, and Sanford are now engaged. She appeared at Sanford's side during his victory speech, smiling and applauding the former governor, who thanked her for being long-suffering while he was campaigning. She did not address the crowd."
http://news.yahoo.com/scs-ex-gov-sanford-clears-hurdle-comeback-bid-023619843--election.html
Simply breathtaking. Long suffering? There's some more yada yada God stuff too, which indicates that Sandford was personally contacted by God and presented the divinity award for "lead actor in an especially bad Harlequin romance." (I know bad Harlequin romance is redundant)
I get private vs public behavior. The disappearance while Governor of SC was a violation of public trust. Specifically hiking around on Chapur's lady parts is of no interest to me. Clearly, he felt his great lust story was of interest to others what with the disgusting presser. Sandford's behavior then and since is indicative of someone who has a character disorder - narcissism. His sense of his own importance and his goals without regard for others, craving constant attention, having unrealistic fantasies of success, power, romance, you get the picture. No wonder this slug is a GOP poster child. That describes the entire party.
Chris Hayes had Michelle Goldberg (Daily Beast) and others on last night. Goldberg put her paperback bodice ripper down long enough to opine that Sandford scored points with female voters via his "tragic love story" that was in a different category from Vitter's "torrid rrrrr um um tawdry" situation. Chris, come on, you're better than that kind of drivel.
@Diane: I, too, watched Chris last night. I agree with you as to the "drivel" aspect, but his point was to explore how the public views these indiscretions from our political people-––whom do we forgive, whom do we dismiss outright and which ones could make a comeback. Spitzer was not mentioned who later showed up on Rachel's program. It could have been a more interesting discussion if there had been more time and perhaps different guests. Goldberg's "romantic vision" thing, as much as I hate it, has credence, I think. It just can't compare to Weiner's Ick dick factor, so say I suppose the majority. I, myself, find it all humorous and sad.