;)
The Commentariat -- Feb. 1, 2014
Internal links removed.
White House: "In this week’s address, the President discusses the goals he laid out in the State of the Union address to expand opportunity":
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The State Department released a report on Friday that could pave the way toward President Obama's approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the project concludes that approval or denial of the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, is unlikely to prompt oil companies to change the rate of their extraction of carbon-heavy tar sands oil, a State Department official said." The report is here. ...
... Joshua Green of Bloomberg News: "The State Department concluded that the project would create 42,100 temporary jobs during the two-year construction period. But the report says once the pipeline enters service, it will support only 50 U.S. jobs -- 35 permanent employees and 15 temporary contractors." CW: It probably already has created 42K temporary jobs -- for lobbyists.
Jake Sherman of Politico: "House Republicans are again considering tying a debt limit increase to the cancellation of a piece of Obamacare. During a closed meeting at their retreat here Friday morning, rank and file Republicans seemed to be gravitating toward trying a lift in the borrowing limit to the cancellation of the the so-called risk corridors and reinsurance fund in Obamacare." ...
... Jonathan Weisman & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "The House Republican leadership's call on Thursday to provide legal status for 11 million undocumented workers, and possible citizenship for those brought to this country as children, caused sharp division within the party even as it provided a starting point for negotiations with Democrats on overhauling the nation's immigration system."...
... Best Explanation Anywhere of GOP Strategy. Charles Pierce: "The Republican party's congressional delegations went on 'retreat' this year in order to produce plan-like products that allegedly will address the nation's problems. Now that the crayons all have been put away, and nap time is over, the party has produced a plan-like product with 'Immigration' written in big red letters across the top of the first page, one that has absolutely no chance of passage and also will get many people in the party throwing rocks at each other.... And it's going to work," thanks to the "courtier press." ...
... Steve M. elaborates: "In other words, let's make a show of support for immigration reform, but let's not try to pass an actual law that will achieve it. Oh, and let's say that our unwillingness to pass a law is the fault of President Obama and the rest of the evil Democrats.... Even Republicans who favor the reforms don't really care about immigration except as it relates to vote-getting. They're asking themselves, is it worse to risk tea party primary challenges by floating an immigration proposal, or risk alienating Hispanics by sticking to a hard line? -- and they're trying to thread the needle, by at least seeming to care. But this is the sort of thing Republicans are doing on several fronts.... Republicans care about winning. They don't care about governing or legislating, except if as a way to transfer more money from ordinary people to the rich.... Don't take it seriously, because Republicans don't." ...
... Weisman & Parker (linked above): "On the Affordable Care Act, conservatives [at the GOP retreat] pushed the party to coalesce around a single alternative to the law that would come to a House vote this year. Moderates resisted that position over concern that it would open a line of Democratic attack that would deflect from what they see as the failings of the president's health care law." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Yeah, it's those Republican 'moderates' who understand the GOP must embrace public-sector activism and stand for 'something' rather than 'No' who are the ones afraid to embrace an Obamacare replacement proposal. Perhaps they understand a side-by-side comparison of whatever Republicans can agree upon with Obamacare might not go all that well. In any event, it seems the GOP is moving crabwise towards an agenda based on the default position of 'saying no' on everything." ...
... Brian Beutler of Salon: "A lot of people have made a lot of relevant points about 'Bette' -- whose Obamacare 'horror story' figured prominently in the official GOP response to the State of the Union address delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash: Greg Sargent notes that Bette's story reflects the GOP's reluctance to help constituents navigate the law, even if it means making their lives worse; Steve Benen adds that it's a sad comment on the GOP's Obamacare 'train wreck' narrative that they have such a hard time finding horror stories that stand up to scrutiny.... I think I’d take each of them one step further....
Take Bette: The reason she didn't visit the Washington state health exchange was basically #OBUMMER. 'I wouldn't go on that Obama website at all,' she said.... This started years ago. Republicans told Bette and others ... that they'd face death panels and rationing boards. That their options would be unaffordable, and irredeemable. That the exchange sites would make their personal information vulnerable to hackers and that creepy Uncle Sam would sexually violate them. They said all this in the hope that people like Bette wouldn't give the law a fair shake, then turned around and feigned outrage on their behalf when the plan worked.
** Charles Blow: "If one of the overt Democratic lines of attack against Republicans is that Republicans are conducting a war on women, one of the low-simmering, implicit lines of attack from Republicans is that Democrats are conducting a war on men, or at least traditional views of masculinity.... They are selling the right wing as the last refuge of real men.... Portraying Republican men as manly and Democratic ones as effete has been a consistent line of attack against post-Bill Clinton Democratic presidential candidates. The problem with having your message powered by machismo is that it reveals what undergirds such a stance: misogyny and chauvinism. The masculinity for which they yearn draws its meaning and its value from juxtaposition with a lesser, vulnerable, narrowly drawn femininity." ...
... (CW: Yes, there is a connection.) Dan Friedman of the New York Daily News: "U.S. Capitol Police closed a brief probe into Rep. Michael Grimm's threat Tuesday night against NY1 reporter Michael Scotto after Scotto declined to press charges against Grimm.... Fox News on Thursday quoted an unnamed congressional source who said the U.S. Attorney for the District Columbia had looked into the incident and in theory could pursue a case against Grimm even if Scotto declined to press charges. But there is no indication such action is in the cards."
Jon Stewart's interview with Nancy Pelosi (Thursday) is pretty interesting. It's a three-parter, which you can view here.
Jake Tapper of CNN interviewed President Obama Thursday, with the interview to air Friday. The full transcript is here. There are a buncha clips here. ...
... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal explains "how Obama can go it alone." Most interesting -- to me, the Constant Weader! -- observation: "The problem is that implementation of big initiatives hasn't been exactly a strong suit for Obama, only the third sitting senator ever elected president. 'He has the policymaking instincts of a senator more than the administrative instincts of an executive,' says Donald F. Kettl, dean of the University of Maryland public-policy school.Exhibit A in Kettl's case is the disastrous rollout of the health care website...." ...
... CW: During a primary debate on January 15, 2008, the moderator asked candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards & Obama what their greatest weakness was. Both Clinton & Edwards delivered hilariously self-serving phony answers, but Obama said "that he loses papers and has asked his staff not to give him things until a few minutes before he needs them." Maybe we should have paid more attention to that. At the time, I saw that as a sign Obama could delegate, but maybe what it meant was that he couldn't manage a big operation. ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "President Barack Obama has said his director of national intelligence, James Clapper, ought to have been 'more careful' in Senate testimony about surveillance that Clapper later acknowledged was untruthful following disclosures by Edward Snowden. But Obama signaled continued confidence in Clapper...."
Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "On Friday, supporters of the president launched the Barack H. Obama Foundation, an administration-blessed organization to find the money and address for an eventual Obama library. As expected, the foundation is led by Marty Nesbitt, a Chicago investor and Obama friend, along with J. Kevin Poorman, a businessman, and Julianna Smoot, the president's go-to fund-raiser."
David Morgan of Reuters: "At least two U.S. states [-- Kentucky & Rhode Island --] running their own Obamacare health insurance exchanges expect new insurers to enter their marketplaces and bolster competition in 2015, officials said on Friday."
Stupid Spy Moves. Luke Harding of the Guardian: "New video footage has been released for the first time of the moment Guardian editors destroyed computers used to store top-secret documents leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Under the watchful gaze of two technicians from the British government spy agency GCHQ, the journalists took angle-grinders and drills to the internal components, rendering them useless and the information on them obliterated":
... The Guardian publishes an excerpt of Harding's book on Ed Snowden.
Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: Friday was Ben Bernanke's last day on the job.
Krugman v. Brooks, Ctd. Jonathan Chait on the Bowles-Simpson Catfood Commission: "In his column today, David Brooks urges President Obama to build on [what Brooks reckons is the success of BoSimps] by creating 'a group of Simpson-Bowles-type commissions -- with legislators, mayors, governors and others brought together to offer concrete proposals on mobility issues from the beginning to the end of the life span.' ... It did succeed in creating an aspirational model for centrist pundits to tout. Brooks alone has cited Bowles and Simpson in nearly two dozen columns.... What about a Bowles-Simpson commission for everyday life decisions? The husband says we should spend $5000 to repair our car, the wife says we can't afford it. Then they hire a Bowles-Simpson commission to tell them they should reject that debate and instead ride around on an invisible unicorn."
... Paul Krugman: "But it's actually much worse than that.... BoSimps completely failed to solve the problem they were supposedly addressing, but were quite effective at worsening the policy response to the real problems they chose to ignore." ...
... CW: Notably, Krugman never mentions Brooks. He uses Chait for the one-punch, & he follows on with the two-punch. Brooks himself, I suspect, went to the basement of wherever he lives now & stuck another pin in his Krugman voodoo doll.
Local News
Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "In a letter released by his lawyer, the former [Port Authority] official David Wildstein ... described the order to close the lanes as 'the Christie administration's order' and said 'evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference' three weeks ago." The letter from Wildstein's lawyer is here. ...
... Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: In a statement issued late Friday, Christie denied Wildstein's allegations. ...
... Star-Ledger Editors: "Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.... [David] Wildstein claims there is documentary proof that the governor has been lying. If this proves to be true, then the governor must resign or be impeached. Because it will show that everything he said at his famous two-hour press conference was a lie." ...
... Chris Gentilviso of the Huffington Post: "A few weeks after publicly defending New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani added a fresh thread to his thoughts on the controversy. In an interview with WABC radio's Geraldo Rivera..., Giuliani said it's 'fifty-fifty' that Christie was aware of fired aide Bridget Kelly's discussions that led to the lane closures." CW: Giuliani is still defending Christie. His "50-50" odds are a step in a version of the "your cat is on the roof" joke. ...
... OR, Maybe Not. Later Giuliani "clarified" his remarks, claiming "he '100% believes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is telling the truth and knew nothing about 'Bridgegate' until after the fact." CW: Sorry, Rudy. The cat's still dead. ...
... Update. Jose DelReal of Politico: AND Rudy weighs in again. CW: On this, he could be right. Guess he's still hoping for a Christie-Giuliani ticket.
... Matt Katz of WNYC: "The release of subpoenaed documents that exposed the Christie Administration's involvement in Bridgegate show how the Governor's Office has been keeping its decisions and expenditures quiet despite laws that require official business to be made public. Here's 18 ways Christie and his officials have blocked access to information." ...
... Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger: Christie "withholds public information he is legally required to reveal. He keeps secrets when the law says he must let the sunshine in. No New Jersey governor has ever been so secretive, and so disdainful of the need for open discussion in a democracy.... The arrogance is breathtaking." ...
... Update: Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "Governor Christie's office has agreed to pay a high-powered attorney $650 per hour to represent it in a series of investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures. That's more than a 40 percent discount off attorney Randy Mastro's normal rate, he wrote in a letter to state officials, and 20 percent less than the average amount charged by attorneys at the New York office of his firm, Gibson Dunn. The terms of Mastro's agreement were laid out in documents released by the governor's office late Thursday in response to a public records request." ...
... Gail Collins on the escalating Christie scandal: "One thing's for sure -- this comes at a really good time for those of us who know nothing about football." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Six reasons Chris Christie is probably guilty."
Presidential Election 2012
Your Loss, America! Lady Ann Romney Still Bitter. Tom Kludt of TPM: But she's decided to be "polite and nice" & not say nasty things about President Obama:
News Lede
AP: "Amid severe drought conditions, California officials announced Friday they won't send any water from the state's vast reservoir system to local agencies beginning this spring, an unprecedented move that affects drinking water supplies for 25 million people and irrigation for 1 million acres of farmland."
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Reader Comments (5)
So Republicans are on retreat to discuss governin' and leadin' and other importin' soundin' stuff like that there. And what's the upshot? The conclusion of the GO fucking moron P's best minds is that their best bet is to pretend to do something.
The Republican chair of House Ways and Means, (Ways and fucking Means, fer crissakes!) David Camp, a mental midget of the first order who has done less in his 21 year career than Archie's soporific pal Jughead does in a 21 page comic book, declared, with gravitas to burn (but precious little appreciation for ironic detachment), that Republicans should be a party that stands for something. Anything! Oh, except for actually doing anything.
How is this a legitimate political party anymore? These people are fools; evil clowns whose giant plastic boutonnières squirt hydrochloric acid.
But worry not. Greasepaint and all, they'll be welcomed by the wide-eyed children in the media to spread their persiflage unburdened by the tiniest whiff of adult skepticism.
Fucking appalling.
Test.
So according to the State Dept. report, logic says that the oil sands will be exploited whether the pipeline is built or not. So their reasoning says give the green light because, well, it's going to continue anyway so we might as well directly implicate ourselves and lend a helping hand to the push toward further global warming.
After an official investigation, they couldn't find serious "environmental impacts" from the construction of the pipelines through the heartland of the US. While the investigators were looking under rocks for potential risks, I wonder if they bothered to Google Image "Alberta Tar Sands"? It's literally Hell on Earth. But that's Canada's hell, right? It doesn't affect us. At least not until the shiny new pipeline pops a leak, spraying black gold across our country's bread basket. But hey, that'll create even more jobs than the 35 permanent ones expected. They'll need plenty of temp work to come and rope off the scene, hassle journalists and scrub away the evidence. And who's the guvmint anyway to take away these jobs from their citizens? This is what I call a jobs programs, dagummit.
Nevermind the fact that opening a direct link to Texas refineries will surely expand the black hole of death that has become the tar sands development region. And nevermind the environmental (and economic) costs that proceeding with this project entails. Because that's Canada's problem, right? Because thanks to the Treaty of Westphalia circa 1648 we've developed this ingenious system of nation-states with international borders. And whatever happens on the other side of the border doesn't affect us. It's great! Canada's shit isn't our problem. Just like America's shit isn't Mexico's problem (sorry about the Colorado River by the way)...
I love how we remain locked into this archaic, outdated mindset that facilitates short term decision-making. Global warming means we're in it together. Yet we can't be asked to see the big picture and make decisions accordingly. Our little brains can't wrap around thinking about the environment as an intricate and complex global system. That's much too difficult. And tiresome. So let's just see the small picture, make the oil barons even wealthier and worry about the consequences later. It's so much more satisfying that way anyway.
Pass the caviar.
@safari: to quote Tom Leher in his song about nuclear war: "We'll all go together when we go!"
What I said before and will say again is how sorry I am for the poor folks in New Jersey who have to foot the bill––through their taxes–– for the Christi administration's lawyer's fee. It was bad enough they had to pay for that extra election for Christi since he didn't want to share the spotlight with Cory Booker. I am immersed in this story and since there is only one person in this household who is gaga about football I will be concentrating on what I consider the story of the year––or last year or years before that when all the facts come out.
As for Rudy rooting for his old pal but inching back ever so slightly I can't wait for that sticky stuff to show up on his face. I can hear THE CLASH singing his song:
"Hear them sayin', how you get a rude and a reckless?
Don't you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast, Rudie can't fail, no, no
We reply, I know that my life make you nervous
But I tell you that I can't live in service
Like the doctor who was born for a purpose, Rudie can't fail"