;)
The Commentariat -- Feb. 18, 2014
Internal links removed.
Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: " The White House launched a fresh effort Monday to defend the economic stimulus passed at the beginning of President Obama's tenure as Republicans sought to pillory the law enacted five years ago.... According to a report released Monday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the stimulus saved or created an average of 1.6 million jobs a year from 2009 through 2010.... Most independent economists agree that the law, combined with the aggressive efforts of the Federal Reserve, brought the economic contraction to an end in June 2009. The most common critique of the legislation from professional economists is that it was too small to offset the dramatic economic shortfall in early 2009."
... The report is here (pdf). ...
... Mike Grunwald of Time: "The White House, of course, is not an objective source ... but its estimates are in line with work by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and a variety of private-sector analysts. The real long-term danger is that the Recovery Act became so unpopular so quickly that future politicians might shy away from stimulus packages. Europe quickly embraced austerity, which is one reason the unemployment rate in the euro zone is almost twice as high as ours. Historically, recoveries in the U.S. have been much stronger and faster, and from much less damaging financial crises. This time it hasn't been as strong as it should have been, partly because of austerity fever among Republicans, stimulus discomfort among Democrats, and deep budget cuts at the state and local level. The political pendulum has swung back toward austerity, producing the 'sequester' and other anti-stimulus." ...
... CW: In other words, everything actually is the Republicans' fault. ...
... Still Stupid after All These Years. George Zornick of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "Republican animus toward the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly known as the stimulus, hasn't decreased over time. Today marks five years since President Obama signed the legislation into law, and Republicans from Marco Rubio to John Cornyn are using the anniversary to bash not only the bill but also the very idea of government spending. It's important to knock down these conservative claims about the stimulus, which haven't gotten any more factually accurate over time.... Most of the spending measures in the stimulus bill have expired, but the point is that it did what it was supposed to do. For Republicans to simply say 'the economy is still bad, so the stimulus was a failure' is a cheap misdirection."
Do-Nothing Congress Vows to Do Nothing. Russell Berman of the Hill: "House Republican leaders, having dispensed with the debt limit and put immigration reform on the back burner, will return to their political comfort zone with a legislative agenda focused on attacking the Obama administration and government excess." ...
... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "After a tumultuous week of party infighting and leadership stumbles, congressional Republicans are focused on calming their divided ranks in the months ahead, mostly by touting proposals that have wide backing within the GOP and shelving any big-ticket legislation for the rest of the year. Comprehensive immigration reform, tax reform, tweaks to the federal health-care law -- bipartisan deals on each are probably dead in the water for the rest of this Congress." ...
... Steve Benen: "Three weeks after President Obama presented a fairly ambitious agenda to Congress in a State of the Union address, the GOP House majority fully expects to get nothing done between now and November." Their "inspiring message: 'Vote GOP 2014: We only shut down the government once, not twice.'" As Benen points out, it isn't that Republicans can't govern; it's that they won't. When Houses leaders claim they can't get 218 votes on anything, what they really mean is that they can't get 218 Republican votes. There's a way, but there's no will.
Rebecca Riffkin of Gallup: "Americans have a new No. 1 problem. Nearly one in four Americans mention jobs and unemployment as the most important problem facing the country, up from 16% in January. The government and politicians had topped the list since the government shutdown in October." ...
... CW: So Democrats have succeeded in sending the message that unemployment remains a major problem; now the question is whether or not they can lay the blame on Republican obstructionism of policies to improve the jobs market & help the unemployed.
The Fruits of Inequality. Samuel Bowles & Arjun Jayadev in the New York Times: "Another dubious first for America: We now employ as many private security guards as high school teachers -- over one million of them, or nearly double their number in 1980. And that's just a small fraction of what we call 'guard labor.' In addition to private security guards, that means police officers, members of the armed forces, prison and court officials, civilian employees of the military, and those producing weapons: a total of 5.2 million workers in 2011. That is a far larger number than we have of teachers at all levels. What is happening in America today is both unprecedented in our history, and virtually unique among Western democratic nations.... It seems to go along with economic inequality."
"Travesty in Chattanooga." Ed Kilgore on Tennessee autoworkers' vote not to unionize the Chattanooga plant: "So addicted are Tennessee Republicans to the 'race to the bottom' approach to economic development that they are willing to risk the good will of an existing employer in their zeal to make sure their own people are kept in as submissive a position as possible. President Obama's reported comment during a Democratic retreat last week that the pols involved in this union-busting effort are 'more concerned about German shareholders than American workers' is one way to put it; I'd say they've internalized the ancient despicable tendency of the southern aristocracy to favor the abasement of working people as an end in itself." ...
... ** Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect: "America is where class struggle gets derailed by culture wars. It's happened throughout our history. It happened again last week in Chattanooga." An extremely informative piece which, among other things, reminds us of the history of the UAW.
ObamaCare Winners! AP: "For many older Americans who lost jobs during the recession, the quest for health care has been one obstacle after another. They're unwanted by employers, rejected by insurers, struggling to cover rising medical costs and praying to reach Medicare age before a health crisis. These luckless people, most in their 50s and 60s, have emerged this month as early winners under the nation's new health insurance system. Along with their peers who are self-employed or whose jobs do not offer insurance, they have been signing up for coverage in large numbers, submitting new-patient forms at doctor's offices and filling prescriptions at pharmacies."
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "A billionaire retired investor is forging plans to spend as much as $100 million during the 2014 election, seeking to pressure federal and state officials to enact climate change measures through a hard-edge campaign of attack ads against governors and lawmakers. The donor, Tom Steyer, a Democrat who founded one of the world's most successful hedge funds, burst onto the national political scene during last year's elections, when he spent $11 million to help elect Terry McAuliffe governor of Virginia and millions more intervening in a Democratic congressional primary in Massachusetts."
Adam Aigner-Treworgy of CNN: "The Obama administration will take the next step on Tuesday in its multi-year effort to cut emissions and reduce oil use by getting better fuel economy from trucks. President Barack Obama is set to announce the energy and environmental initiative at a Safeway distribution center in Maryland, a White House official confirmed to CNN. In action that does not require congressional approval, Obama aims to build on the first-ever fuel standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks that now cover model years 2014-18."
Palm Springs Weekend. Zeke Miller of Time: "President Barack Obama traveled to California on Friday to highlight the state's drought emergency at two events near Fresno, calling for shared sacrifice to help manage the state's worst water shortage in decades. He then spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the hospitality of some of the state's top water hogs: desert golf courses.... The 124 golf courses in the Coachella Valley consume roughly 17% of all water there, and one-quarter of the water pumped out of the region's at-risk groundwater aquifer, according to the Coachella Valley Water District.... Each of the 124 Coachella Valley courses, on average, uses nearly 1 million gallons (3.8 million L) a day because of the hot and dry climate, three to four times more water per day than the average American golf course."
I probably shouldn't say this, but I will. Had we been transparent about this from the outset right after 9/11 -- which is the genesis of the 215 program -- and said both to the American people and to their elected representatives, we need to cover this gap, we need to make sure this never happens to us again, so here is what we are going to set up, here is how it's going to work, and why we have to do it, and here are the safeguards.... We wouldn't have had the problem we had. What did us in here, what worked against us was this shocking revelation [by Edward Snowden].... I don't think it would be of any greater concern to most Americans than fingerprints. Well, people kind of accept that because they know about it. But had we been transparent about it and say here's one more thing we have to do as citizens for the common good, just like we have to go to airports two hours early and take our shoes off, all the other things we do for the common good, this is one more thing. -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on collecting & storing phone call records (more at the link)
Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "Responding to sharp criticism from Sen. Ted Cruz, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he voted to protect the country from default when he cast the decisive vote advancing the suspension of the debt limit this week."
Paul Rosenberg, writing in Salon, makes the case that because of racial bias, both explicit & implicit, "'Stand your ground' laws are inherently biased against black people, and should be ruled unconstitutional on that basis alone." CW: Seems to me Michael Dunn, the man who killed Jordan Davis for playing loud music, should be charged with a hate crime. Instead, prosecutors did not even introduce strong evidence of Dunn's racial bias.
Sophia Yan of CNN: Three thousand Americans lined "up at embassies around the world to renounce their citizenship. The numbers for 2013 represent a dramatic spike -- triple the average for the previous five years, according to a CNNMoney analysis of government data. Brad Westerfield, a tax lawyer at Butler Snow, said that renunciations have increased following the implementation of a new disclosure law -- the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act -- that targets overseas tax evasion. The measure, approved by Congress in 2010, is aimed at recouping some of the hundreds of billions the government says it loses each year in unpaid taxes.... Some Americans may be giving up their passports to protect their wealth.... It's illegal to renounce your U.S. status to avoid paying taxes, and giving up citizenship doesn't mean you're off the hook for back taxes."
At a speaking engagement in Chicago, Nino Scalia criticizes -- everything.
Re: a good discussion in today's Comments:
CW: Domani Spero, who wrote the post (in June 2013) from which I copied the above, argues that the practice of choosing fat cats is not going to change. As you can see, it really is a Both Sides Do It phenomenon. There is a way to change it, tho -- a way that would solve so many of our political ills -- campaign finance reform. If the fat cats lose their utility, presidents will have little incentive to appoint them to ambassadorial posts.
New Jersey News
The Lonely Guv. Steve Strunsky of the Star-Ledger: "Gov. Chris Christie's office says he never spoke about September's George Washington Bridge lane closures with a Port Authority Police lieutenant he knows personally, and whose conduct during the closures is now the subject of an internal review." CW: Either these kinds of dirty tricks were so routine that the GWB lane closings didn't rate a mention, or nobody ever speaks to Chris Christie -- not his so-called friends, not his campaign manager, not the employees in his office, not his appointed hacks.
Michael Linhorst of the Bergen Record: "... Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich rejected a request from the [governor's] attorney, Randy Mastro, to provide documents and sit down for an interview, according to a letter dated Feb. 17.... But Sokolich 'fully intends to cooperate' with those other investigations -- by the U.S. Attorney's office and the joint legislative committee.... Mastro made similar requests for interviews and documents from Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who accused members of the Christie administration of withholding money slated for Superstorm Sandy recovery because she did not fast-track a billion-dollar real estate development project. Last week, Zimmer said she would not cooperate with Mastro."
... The Forgotten Christie Scandal. Rob Richie & Devin McCarthy in Salon: "There is a strong case to be made that last year's New Jersey special election was the most unnecessary statewide election in American history." It's purpose, like Christie's courting & punishing of Democratic mayors, was to increase the percentage of Christie's win in November, demonstrating own fucking popular he was in a Democratic-majority state, a percentage that most likely would have been lower if he shared a ballot with Democrat Corey Booker, who won the special Senate election.
Congressional Races 2014
NRCC Gets a Teeny Bit Less Devious. Denver Nicks of Time: "The campaign arm for House Republicans has made a small but significant change to a line of spoof political websites that raised questions about whether they misled donors in a way that could run afoul of campaign finance rules. The cookie-cutter websites had been made to look at first glance like sites set up for Democratic candidates, complete with campaign banners and web addresses like NancyPelosi2014.com, but they actually directed donor dollars to the National Republic Congressional Committee. The sites led at least two people to accidentally donate to the NRCC (both got their money back). But while the main pages -- which include pictures of smiling Democrats — remain the same, the donation button now directs to a landing page that is more clearly one raising money for the NRCC. When first asked about the websites by Time, the NRCC stood by the tactic."
News Ledes
Think Progress: "In newly released audio of phone calls made by Michael Dunn while in jail, the man who shot 17-year-old Jordan Davis after a loud music dispute claiming self-defense said he was both the 'victor' and the 'victim,' compared himself to a rape victim, and made racially charged comments about his fellow inmates.... Prosecutors plan to seek a retrial on the first degree murder charge." The trial ended in a mistrial on this charge, but a jury found Dunn guilty of several counts of attempted murder.
New York Times: "Mayhem gripped the center of the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday evening as riot police officers moved on protesters massed behind barriers raised throughout Independence Square, the focal point of more than two months of protests against President Viktor F. Yanukovych."
New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians have fled rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo in recent weeks under heavy aerial bombardment by the Syrian government, emptying whole neighborhoods and creating what aid workers say is one of the largest refugee flows of the entire civil war. The displaced, as many as 500,000 to date, the United Nations says, have flooded the countryside, swelling populations in war-battered communities that are already short on space and food and pushing a new wave of refugees into Turkey...."
New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday sharpened the Obama administration's mounting criticism of Russia's role in the escalating violence in Syria, asserting that the Kremlin was undermining the prospects of a negotiated solution by 'contributing so many more weapons' and political support to President Bashar al-Assad."
New York Times: "Two members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot, recently released from prison under an amnesty program initiated by President Vladimir V.Putin, said they were arrested [in Sochi] on Tuesday. Posting on Twitter, one member of the group, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said that she and her band mate, Maria Alyokhina, were detained in central Sochi, about 30 minutes from the Olympic Park where the Winter Games are taking place. She said they had been accused as suspects in an unspecified crime."
Reuters: "An elderly nun and two peace activists are scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Tuesday for breaking into a Tennessee defense facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored. Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg Boertje-Obed have admitted to cutting fences and making their way across the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in July 2012, embarrassing U.S. officials and prompting security changes."
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Reader Comments (13)
Funny that Nino deigned to speak at a place with the word union in its name. Maybe he was attracted by the word league, as in Hanseatic League, given his medieval predilections.
I thought his reference to Noah Websters advice to "love the laws" was interesting considering that Scalia's favorite hobby is to fuck with the laws. Either that or his admonishment to law students should be something much closer to his approach to jurisprudence, "Love only the laws you like. Screw with the rest and use your position to abuse and degrade any who don't agree".
It also strikes me that Nino must be one of those people who think they're pretty fucking funny when they want to be. Mostly, those guys tend to be more smartass jerk than standup comic. I'll leave the decision to you.
Such a party I'll throw when this insufferable demagogue leaves the court, whether he be vertical, horizontal, or some angle in between, very likely a right angle.
One of the interesting things about Justice Scalia is that he mixes unassailable truth with arrant bullshit. This, from the Chicago Union League speech:
"He lamented that most students in elite law school classes he speaks at have never read the Federalist Papers. “It is truly appalling that they should have reached graduate school without having been exposed to that important element of their national patrimony, the work that best explains the reasons and objectives of the constitution.”
I do not doubt that MANY students at elite law schools never read the Federalist Papers, but I have to doubt that MOST have not been exposed to them. But, at bottom, he may be correct that many law school graduates don't have much grounding in U.S., or any, history, and don't seem to feel the lack. My son got his JD almost ten years ago, and has only recently had the time and interest to start studying U.S. history. His profession doesn't "require" it, but he realizes that he needs it to be a rounded person and to participate in conversations at the capital courthouse and legislature. Law school seems to assume that you get the history exposure you need somewhere else, and doesn't test for it for entry. Maybe it would present problems in the LSAT to have an essay question like "Explain Henry Clay."
I notice how someone as sour as Scalia has to glom on to someone as popular as George Washington to gain an iota of reflected beauty. Notice that Darth Vadar Cheney doesn't even try. Scalia is what Ted Cruz would look like if he had the unchecked power of a lifetime sinecure and half an ounce of intellectual curiosity. And the half an ounce of intellectual curiosity is being generous to both these two and their arrogant, agenda filled lives of telling others what to do.
I have never been a fan of John McCain but his dismissal of the three nominees for ambassadorships at a congressional hearing, although reeking of sarcasm, "I have no more questions for this incredibly, highly qualified group of nominees," I applauded. I wonder who in the Obama administration makes these decisions and the fact that all three were big donors leaves a rotten taste in the mix. Below is a good exchange featuring Nicholas Burns (love this guy), and Walter Russell Mead. According to Burns, the majority of our ambassadors ought to be career Foreign Service officers. These are people that prepare for this kind of service–-know languages, history, culture etc. of foreign countries.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/questioning-wisdom-politically-appointed-ambassadors/
Patrick,
I think most graduate programs assume (or used to assume) at least a ground level knowledge base.
I don't want to be too glib about it, but my sense is that most schools laboring under the wrongheaded Bush era No Child Left Educated scheme (which is essentially an anti-teacher program) don't have time to do much more than gloss the Federalist Papers. They're too busy teaching to the test. Kids seem not to learn basic problem solving and critical thinking skills. Instead it seems like it's more rote memorization.
As I say, I could be wrong about this, but having some college teaching under my belt, I was regularly appalled (at first) by the startling lack of basic knowledge and writing skills of many students. My office hours expanded dramatically to help them grasp the basics of writing. And we're not talking stylistics here, simile vs metaphor, apostrophe, rhetorical devices, etc., we're talking, in some cases, subject-verb agreement. The connection between sloppy thinking and sloppy writing is forged early on.
It's not that things like writing and math skills and exposure to basic science and history aren't taught at all. Perhaps it's the way teachers are forced to address the test mad world they inhabit. As for an understanding of American history (never mind world history), I can only say that while talking about the film version of "All the President's Men" (in a class somewhat related to journalism), half of the class of college juniors thought the story was fictional. They had no idea that any of those events actually took place.
That was a gun to the temple moment.
If Tricky Dick's Constitutional Crisis escaped their attention, I'm pretty sure Hamilton, Madison, and Jay fared no better.
And let's not even think about what kids coming out of red-state controlled school environments learn. Christ on a wingnut textbook!
Your son is quite right about the necessity of historical knowledge for anyone, especially those participating in the creation and interpretation of law. Doing so in an ahistorical manner creates an unstable foundation on which to argue one's case. But that being said, it's a constant source of personal amusement (more like black comedy), that Republican lawmakers so diligently supported by Scalia, have little understanding or appreciation of history, American or otherwise.
History is just another ingredient in the Wingnut Sausage Factory. Dig in, 'baggers!
PD,
Thanks for the link. A very illuminating interview.
It's not just sad, it's stupid to appoint fundraisers and other unqualified candidates as ambassadors to foreign countries. (Would you appoint a career member of the Foreign Service to the role of your chief fundraiser?) The fact that other presidents have done it is no reason to continue this farce, and McCain was, frankly, right to stick it to these people (although I don't recall him complaining when Bush appointed fund raisers, flunkies, and prayer group dweebs just out of Christian colleges to vital positions in Iraq at the start of that debacle).
Plus, what does it say to the government and the people of Argentina or Hungary when the president sends a crony to represent the US? "Well, we really don't give two shits about you guys, but, hey, meet my good buddy."
As Mead and Burns point out, there have been some decent, and some great political nominees, but appointing a guy like Edwin O. Reischauer, someone who had spent decades studying the far east and working on problems of post WWII Japan, to an ambassadorship in that country is a far cry from appointing a fund raiser who couldn't, at gunpoint, name three cities in the land to which they're being sent.
It's not unlike buying a baseball club then installing the son of one of your chief investors as the starting shortstop, despite the fact that the kid couldn't catch a wiffle ball with a net.
Fans would not be happy. So why should foreign governments, whose goodwill and cooperation we're trying to encourage, feel any different?
A stupid tradition.
Can I just say, Akhilleus, I really like reading your posts. I'm getting so I can tell if it is you speaking, although the remarks on this site are usually the product of educated thinking, so there is great competition amongst you as to who knows more about particular subjects. My day generally starts with this site, and then I dip into Crooks and Liars on and off all day, and end up knowing everything before it hits MSNBC evenings. I did have to look up your name, tho-- Achilles-- Much "cooler" spelled this way--
Jeanne,
Thank you for your kind words. There are a panoply of excellent writers out here, a smorgasbord of great ideas to chose from on a daily basis.
Regarding the name, I couldn't very easily use Αχιλλεύς, so I opted for a close English approximation, either that or stole it from Fitzgerald's translation of The Iliad, I forget which. I thought about Odysseus at one point, but he's a bit of schemer, and besides, the Roman version of his name, Ulysses, reminded me too much of Saturday morning sword and sandal movies of my youth ("Hercules, Samson, and Ulysses Kick the Living Crap out of Everyone").
Akhilleus, although he could be a petulant twit early in the story, seems closer to my temperament and I always admired his passionate personal idiom (although that dragging Hector's body around the walls of Troy thing was a bit much). Plus, "Akhilleus", as opposed to "Achilles", gives you an extra syllable and a slightly bouncier pronunciation, not to mention the fact that Homer often refers to him as "Akhilleus, Breaker of Men".
And who wouldn't want that?
Yesterday, at the end of the comments section, Khe Sanh Vet asked a good question about how Neocon Godfather Irving Kristol, who was something of a Trotskyite in his college days, escaped the clutches of The Mucker, Joe McCarthy.
It's worth remembering that Kristol and his wife Gertrude Himmelfarb, dabbled in socialism for just a few years before beginning their turn to the right. And they were never bombs and bullets commies in any event. By the time Tailgunner Joe was lining up citizens in his crosshairs, Irving was publishing dire warnings to Americans that McCarthy, while a boorish bully you wouldn't want getting drunk on cheap wine at your barbecue, was right about going after anyone who ever attended a communist meeting.
Except for him and Gertrude, of course.
Kristol, already somewhat of a liberal apostate by that time, stated that civil rights would have to take a back seat while Joe gunned down the pinkos and HUAC fugitives.
Soon thereafter, Irving went to Chicago and came under the spell of Leo Strauss, the guy who taught the Neocons who trumped up the Iraq war, preaching that because they were superior beings, it was fine and dandy to lie to the unwashed masses in order to gain and maintain power.
Even a boozy thug like McCarthy could dig that.
Apropos an earlier comment about the sad state of historical knowledge among average Americans, watch this and get ready to shoot yourself.
Jimmy Kimmel sends a "reporter" (actually a more adept reporter, it seems, than most Fox bots) on the street to ask random persons what they thought about the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died YESTERDAY!
My fave is the lady who decided that Roosevelt (who died YESTERDAY!) will be remembered, predominantly, for the Louisiana Purchase. The fucking Louisiana Purchase!!
Can't people just say "I don't know?" Why up the stupid ante? And these people VOTE!
Ye gods and little fishes!
Good thing they didn't ask about Henry Clay!
Over on New York Magazine's site...an excerpt adapted
from Kevin Roose’s book "Young Money," published today by Grand Central Publishing.
The 1%ers at play: the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi. If you thought the Marie-Antionette-like statements coming from such as Tom Perkins and others recently were a few guys of heedless hedonistic, self-importance, this article will blow your mind. "(Wilbur) Ross, the leader (or “Grand Swipe”) of the fraternity, was preparing to invite 21 new members ..."
Grand Swipe? Hmmmm, sounds like another call-out I've heard here on RC. Grand Swipes? rhymes with A**wipes, huh!
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html
Joe the plumber or Joe the autoworker seems a perfect incarnation of a contemporary Everyman. Too many of these people.....There is no longer any shame in ignorance, bellicose stupidity, lack of basic thinking skills, no moral compass, etc. Attention seeking rather than accomplishment is the goal. Joe couldn't capitialize on the spotlight and he outlived his usefulness to the monied right. Guys like Joe embrace magical thinking that they are somehow special and that the obvious consequences do not apply.
The lowest common denominator continues to plunge downward.
Joe the Plumber reminds me of all those wall of photographs in the second-class restaurants of Washington, DC. Pictures of the owners with has-been pols. God, Joe, you've aged! and do you hear from Ryan anymore? No? That's too bad, and the food's not any better either.