The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Wednesday
Aug142013

The Commentariat -- Aug. 15, 2013

Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post: "... the United States spends much less on the education and well-being of poor people, especially poor children, than any other rich country -- and that retards their chances of escaping poverty.... Countries -- and most parts of the United States -- that invest heavily in all their children's health care, nutrition and education end up with a much stronger ladder of opportunity and access. And that's something we can change. So if we want to restore the American dream, we now have the beginnings of a path forward." ...

... CW: yeah, but what if -- after obtaining a good education -- there are no good jobs. A friend told me that where she lives there are job openings for positions that require a college degree & pay $12.50 an hour.

The Party of Racists. Tom Edsall in the New York Times: "There is a growing body of evidence that those intent on moderating the [Republican] party's ideological rigidity ... face opposition from Republican primary voters, the most powerful force in the party." ...

... Racism by Any Other Name.... CW: Edsall calls the voters' anti-immigration hysteria "conservatism," but he does quote Sean Trende, who has argued that the near-future GOP can do better mining non-college-educated whites than appealing to Hispanics: "Whites are sliding toward minority status, and becoming more internally homogenous at the same time." Call it "conservative" or "internally homogenous," it's still racism. ...

... Nonetheless, "Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, and former Govs. Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell [who] co-chair the Bipartisan Policy Center's Immigration Task Force, take a stab at building consensus on immigration reform in this Politico essay.

The interesting thing about voting patterns now is in this last election African-Americans voted at a higher percentage than whites in almost every one of the states that were under the special provisions of the federal government. So really, I don't think there is objective evidence that we're precluding African-Americans from voting any longer. I don't see a problem with showing your driver's license to vote. I also think that some people are a little bit stuck in the past when they want to compare this. There was a time in the south when African-Americans were absolutely prohibited from voting by selective applications of bizarre and absurd literacy tests. And that was an abomination, that's why we needed the Voting Rights Act, but that's not showing your ID. -- Sen. Rand Paul

... CW: I suspect Paul is so ignorant he believes his own propaganda. I sent him a copy of Jamelle Bouie's post that explains some provisions of North Carolina's voter suppression law. ...

... Charles Pierce has more on Paul's idea of the meaning of FREEEDOM.

Prof. Devon Carbado, et al., in a New York Times op-ed: "The historic ruling by Judge Shira A. Scheindlin that the stop-and-frisk practices of the New York Police Department violate the Constitution is being applauded as a major victory against unreasonable policing.... The ruling ... does nothing to disrupt the authority the Supreme Court has given police officers to target African-Americans and Latinos with little or no basis. Despite the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Supreme Court's interpretation of that provision gives the police frighteningly wide discretion to follow, stop, question, frisk and employ excessive force against African-Americans and Latinos who have shown virtually no indication of wrongdoing."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, an Army Ranger and paratrooper, stands accused of forcible sodomy, adultery and other charges that could land him in prison. Prosecutors say he abused his command authority by sleeping with a subordinate officer, a taboo in the armed forces and a violation of military law. They charge that the relationship turned violent on two occasions, when he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex. In addition, Sinclair faces charges that he had inappropriate communications with three other female officers. Sinclair has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Besides the rare spectacle of a general in the dock, however, the case poses a critical test of how the U.S. military handles allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, crimes that have long bedeviled the armed forces." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In an effort to stop military lawyers from using comments by President Obama to prevent sexual assault prosecutions, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has sent out a directive ordering the military to exercise independent judgment in the cases and effectively ignore the president's remarks. 'There are no expected or required dispositions, outcomes or sentences in any military justice case, other than what result from the individual facts and merits of a case and the application to the case of the fundamentals of due process of law,' Mr. Hagel wrote in a memorandum dated Aug. 6 that is to be disseminated throughout the military."

Jim Miklaszewski, et al., of NBC News: "The Department of Defense announced a plan Wednesday to extend a range of federal benefits to same-sex spouses of military service members starting Sept. 3. The Pentagon will extend to legally married same-sex couples the same privileges and programs that are provided to legally married heterosexual couples, including benefits tied to health care, housing, and family separation allowance, compensation paid to military members when their dependents can't live with them at their permanent duty station."

This Is Amusing. Greg Sargent: "Various reports are telling us that House Republicans are mulling a new anti-Obamacare strategy: Rather than push for a government shutdown to force the defunding of Obamacare, they will use the coming debt limit fight to force the administration to delay implementation of the law.... This latest move from a shutdown-based strategy against Obamacare to a debt limit-based one (presuming it's even real) is part of a larger pattern, in which GOP leaders try to talk conservatives out of the favored insane and dangerous strategy of the moment by promising another confrontation around some other leverage point later." ...

... This Is Amusing, Too. Peter Hamby of CNN: "Former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich reprimanded his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms Wednesday, blaming GOP members of Congress for developing 'zero' alternatives to President Obama's health care reform law." "When I was in Congress, blah, blah, blah...." ...

... More Amusement. Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "right wing push-poll accidentally finds Obamacare is popular." ...

... Jonathan Cohn: when the anti-ObamaCare crowd gloats over the "sticker shock" Americans will experience when they purchase insurance under the plan, they're really only talking about their well-off friends. "... the number of people receiving discounts is a lot larger than even many analysts seem to realize. It turns out that about half the people who buy their own insurance today will be eligible for subsidies. For them, the subsidies will be worth an average of $5,548 per household, effectively discounting the price by two-thirds." CW: so it looks like the real objection to ObamaCare is in service of the relatively wealthy; i.e., a substantial chunk of the GOP base. Those students that the Koch brothers' FreedomWorks are trying to talk into "burning their ObamaCare cards"? Most of them are likely eligible for subsidies.

New York Times Editors: "President Obama must make clear his unequivocal opposition to the Egyptian military's conduct. He can do so by immediately suspending military aid and canceling joint military exercises scheduled for September." ...

Washington Post Editors: "Before the July 3 coup in Egypt, the Obama administration privately warned the armed forces against ousting the government of Mohamed Morsi, pointing to U.S. legislation that requires the cutoff of aid to any country where the army plays a 'decisive role' in removing an elected government. Yet when the generals ignored the U.S. warnings, the White House responded by electing to disregard the law itself. After a prolonged and embarrassing delay, the State Department announced that it had chosen not to determine whether a coup had taken place, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry declared that Egypt's military was 'restoring democracy.' Because of those decisions, the Obama administration is complicit in the new and horrifyingly bloody crackdown launched Wednesday by the de facto regime...." ...

... Julian Pecquet of the Hill: "'As we predicted and feared, chaos in Cairo,' [Sen. John] McCain tweeted after dozens of pro-Morsi protesters were killed when their sit-in camps were raided. 'Sec Kerry praising the military takeover didn't help.'" ...

... Egypt's Crackdown on Journalists. Abigail Hoslohner of the Washington Post: "'If I see you again, I'll shoot you in the leg,' a police officer told my colleagues, Sharaf al-Hourani and Mansour Mohamed, and me. Security forces on the roof of a nearby building watched us through binoculars. Two helicopters circled overhead." See yesterday's News Ledes.

Meteor Blades of Daily Kos: Democratic "pressure being exerted on the White House over the {[Fed] chairman's post have, according to The Wall Street Journal, made the president cross.... Sources informed the Journal's reporters, there have been behind-the-scenes efforts telling the dissenters to keep their traps shut.... [Larry Summers] would be a rotten choice. And the [20] senators who seemed also to think so when they signed the letter of support for [Janet] Yellen should ignore the White House staff's calls for them to cease their criticism. That criticism is a favor to the president even if he doesn't see it that way." ...

... Scott Lemieux, in Lawyers, Guns & Money: " One suspects that the annoyance is based partly on the fact that the people firing at the Summers trial balloon are clearly right on the merits. Yellen is more qualified for this job. Breaking glass ceilings is an important consideration. Letting pre-existing personal relationships excessively influence the choice for Fed Chair (as opposed to a political adviser) is inappropriate." ...

... "L'état, c'est moi." Digby: "Democracy is so icky sometimes, isn't it, what with people expressing their opinions all over the place and telling the president what they think he should do and all? Why a president can hardly do anything anymore without a bunch of citizens and lawmakers weighing in on his decisions.... There is no tradition, law or rule that says the public, the party and members of congress cannot make their wishes known ahead of time and try to lobby the White House to make whatever choices they prefer. In fact, it's downright undemocratic for the executive to imply that they shouldn't."

J. K. Trotter of Gawker is not impressed with the New York Times' long piece on the Clinton Foundation (linked here yesterday): "Of course the Clinton Foundation is a disorganized shitshow stuffed with creepy hacks and starfuckers; of course it bends to the whims of Clinton disciples (and donors).... That the Clinton family has surrounded itself with rich idiots and ethically bankrupt grifters is repellent and a little sad. It's not, however, new or exciting." ...

... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Hillary Clinton is fielding offers from colleges and universities -- including Harvard and her law school alma mater, Yale -- to give her a formal academic role, a move that would give her a platform outside her family's foundation."

Local News

Howard Mintz of the San Jose Mercury News: "Barring an unforeseen legal bombshell, gay marriage is here to stay in California. In a one-line order, the California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to halt same-sex marriages throughout the state, rejecting the latest legal bid to revive Proposition 8's ban on gay nuptials. The justices, meeting in their weekly closed-door conference, declined to hear a case brought last month by backers of Proposition 8 who argue that the law should remain in effect in at least 56 of the state's 58 counties." ...

... Brooke Adams & Ray Parker of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Utah has a 'sovereign right' to define and regulate marriage and a constitutional amendment that bars recognition of same-sex marriage enshrines that right, state attorneys say in a brief filed in U.S. District Court. The state disputes assertions by three couples who filed a challenge to Amendment 3 in March, including the claim that the amendment was aimed at furthering privately-held views that same-sex couples are immoral and inferior to heterosexual couples." ...

... Robert Parry in Consortium News, March 2013: "... there is no language [in the U.S. Constitution] referring to states as 'independent' or 'sovereign.' That wording comes from the Articles of Confederation (which governed the country from 1777 to 1787), but was expunged by the Constitution, which transferred national sovereignty from the 13 original states to 'We the People of the United States.' ... The Constitution also contains a long list of prohibited activities by the states.... The Constitution further dictates the structure of state governments, requiring them to operate as republics (Article IV, Section 4). Most significantly, the Constitution makes federal law 'supreme,' giving federal courts the power to strike down state statutes deemed unconstitutional.'"

San Diego Union-Tribune: "Momentum is building toward the recall of beleaguered Mayor Bob Filner with four local businesswomen organizing an anti-Filner march around City Hall on Sunday to coincide with the first day that signatures can be collected to oust him from office. Meanwhile recall proponents say they've raised more than $100,000 for the petition drive and created a new website -- recallbobfilner.com -- for donations and volunteers. They are also planning to kick off their signature-gathering efforts in multiple locations Sunday...." ...

... Gail Collins: Filner seems to have disappeared, having ending his two-week "rehab" program early. "Also, the mayor is trying to get the city to pay his mounting legal fees by arguing that San Diego is responsible for everything because Filner never received the sensitivity course required for city employees." ...

... Garance Franke-Ruta of the Atlantic has an excellent piece on what the chairman on San Diego's Democratic Party heard about Bob Filner's history of preying on women. She suggests the chairman should have consulted its lawyers, who should have known how to do due diligence in vetting Filner. For the women, who were not Filner's employees, the bottom line is that when some creep makes an inappropriate pass at you (and, yes, I think there are "appropriate passes" & a lot of men know how to make them), you have little recourse unless the pass involves touching "private parts."

Send in the Clowns. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) press release: "Congressman Steve Stockman Wednesday invited the rodeo clowns who performed at the Missouri State Fair, and were banned or ordered into 'sensitivity training' when one clown mocked President Barack Obama, to perform at a rodeo in Texas' 36th District. Fair officials did not reveal the clown's identity.... 'Liberals want to bronco bust dissent. But Texans value speech, even if its speech they don’t agree with,' said Stockman, 'From Molly Ivins to Louie Gohmert and every opinion between Texans value free and open political speech. I'm sure any rodeo in Texas would be proud to have performers.'" ...

     ... CW: Somebody should tell Steve the First Amendment does not guarantee a right to employment. You have a First Amendment right to tell callers your boss is a jerk, to tell customers the food is terrible at this restaurant, to tell your company's clients to go fuck themselves. You do not, however, have a right to keep your job after you express such opinions. ...

     ... Somebody should tell Peggy Noonan, too. But as contributor Diane suggested yesterday, Noonan is probably too daft or drunk to comprehend such subtleties. Diane wonders what Noonan's response would be "if a rodeo clown had appeared dressed in a diaper and a Reagan mask with a sign around his neck 'I knew my name this morning' shouting 'Nancy, where are my pills.' I wager she would have downed a 5th of vodka and with a halting but classy stumble, made it to her bed to pass out."

News Ledes

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Bert Lance, the former state highway director who helped Jimmy Carter climb to the presidency and then joined his White House administration, died Thursday evening. He was 82."

New York Times: "The death toll from Egypt's bloody crackdown on supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, soared beyond 500 across the land on Thursday with over 3,700 people injured, the Health Ministry said, in a further sign of the extent and the ferocity of Wednesday's scorched-earth assault by security forces to raze two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Oh me, oh my! I cannot bear it--the possibility that Barry will appoint Larry as his Fed Chief! This has me so tied in knots that the only way to free myself is to write a nightly lettah to our Prezident at his White Old House. I did this before he agreed to the "surge" in Iraq--to no avail. I had signed every petition available, and a few that are questionable, but what-the-shit? Maybe I should think about going through Michelle, and write her about Larry's unhealthy eating habits and his on-going disgusting misogyny. Maybe even compare him to Bob Filner. After all, I am sure he has not ever had any "sensitivity" training. Even worse if he has. He flunked.

Please give me a shred of hope. I am counting on my fellow commenters, the bright lights of the Internets!

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Poor Lil' Randy. He seems confused as to what constitutes objective evidence. Either that or he has decided that the only evidence he'll admit in the very tiny courtroom inside his head is what he makes up, which, by the way, isn't objective, so, I'm guessing he has no idea what the words "objective" and/or "evidence" mean.

So, Randy, how about some examples?

First, there is no objective evidence that you (Lil' Randy) are not an idiot. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that you are, in fact, an idiot. Objective evidence.

There is also no objective evidence that you are a certified doctor (self-certification doesn't count--there's that problem with objectivity again).

Also, there is no objective evidence you don't have a problem with race since you have stated categorically that you would have voted against the Civil Rights Act and would support any racist who decided not to admit black people (or anyone else they didn't care for) into their place of business.

Since these are pretty scary abstract concepts for you (racial equality not being high on the teabagger wish list) I'll give you a simpler example: there is no objective evidence that your toupee looks like anything other than a dead animal glued to your little head. How's that?

You see, little guy, the word "objective" refers to something that can be perceived by any and all viewers, not something that exists apart from the real world, in your own mind, for instance. That is called SUB-jective. Understand?

No?

I didn't think so.

Unfortunately, too many people, especially self-regarding, intellectually challenged politicians, love to toss around phrases like "objective evidence" which they simply don't understand. Makes them feel important and smart. Like your pals on the right who mix up the concepts of deficit and debt. They are not synonyms.

But idiot and imbecile are.

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Diane's quote about the winner of the Stoli's Lifetime Achievement Award, Dame Peggita Noonansky, is a roar. Great visuals.

So I'll add some audio. This from Wonkette from a few years and several thousand martinis ago:

Noonan caught on mic after three highball breakfast

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I've been chewing on this General Sinclair story and I have a sour taste in my mouth. It seems like the case was handpicked for national attention on behalf of all those who believe there is no such thing as sexual assault and/or harassment in the military. "They" meaning the wimin ask for it. It reads like an especially seedy movie-of-the-week. From his nickname "Poppa Panda Sexy Pants" to the patch of hair perched on top of his head like a teacup on a watermelon, he's expendable.

To many eyes, the Captain who brought the charges is a walking, talking cabal of mitigation. Only when PPSP cheated on her after 3 years, did she complain. She still thinks she luvs him. No one witnessed the acts and no witnesses to the affair have surfaced. Fits nicely into the she-asked-for-it meme.

The issue, which is more to the point, is falling victim to the more salacious aspects. There are reasons the military forbids boinking subordinates. For instance, it sets up a situation in which trust, power and authority dictate the relationship which always puts the subordinate in the victim position.

The words of the Captain, quoted in the WAPO article, could be substituted for almost every domestic violence victim I ever interviewed for a pre-sentence report, including the one who had 74 stitches in her neck from a box cutter. She fell off a curb at the end of their driveway and his hand slipped - for his clumsiness I recommended many many years in prison.

I think Sinclair will be court martialed, but not for sexual assault, for violation of the military code. I suspect she's gone too and the good ol' boys can feel vindicated in their belief that wimin don't belong in the military. Again with the dangerous vaginas.

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

YO! Fluffy is in trubs! His ratings are dropping fast as moderrrrator of Press the Meat, but (of course) NBC is "standing by" him as one of their finest journalists. Ick. Maybe he and Larry Slumbers can get a reality show going about "How to Be an Offensive Asswipe by Just Being You!"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/david-gregory-meet-the-press-ratings-nbc-defense_n_3760582.html?igoogle=1

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

So here's the future of Silicon Valley start up gold.
Booz Allen? Child's play.
NSA? They pay us.
Privacy? For what price?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/agent-of-intelligence-how-a-deviant-philosopher-built-palantir-a-cia-funded-data-mining-juggernaut/

August 15, 2013 | Unregistered Commentersafari
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.