;)
The Commentariat -- Feb. 19, 2013
Here's Gail Collins' New York Times Magazine piece on Betty Friedan & The Feminine Mystique, which MAG mentions in today's Comments. Sorry I missed the article when the Times published it in January.
Steve Holland of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will make a fresh push on Tuesday to force congressional Republicans to make concessions that will head off budget cuts that appear increasingly likely to kick in starting on March 1. Obama, just back from a three-day golf getaway in Florida, will appear at the White House at 10:45 a.m. EST (1545 GMT) with emergency responders who would lose their jobs if the cuts go into effect." ...
... Update: Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Speaking at the White House, surrounded by firefighters and other emergency personnel, Obama urged Congress to pass a short-term measure that would delay the cuts, known as the sequester, for a period of time until Congress can pass a permanent fix."
... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "More than he ever did in his first term, Obama is describing the country as he believes it should be, not the one it has been for much of the past decade.... Obama and his senior staff ... hope to harness his post-election political freedom on behalf of a domestic agenda still broadly unpopular among Republicans in a divided Congress. He is threatening executive action to confront such issues as climate change.... His vast former campaign organization also is mobilizing to fight outside the Beltway for a political agenda whose fate will be determined inside it." ...
... MEANWHILE, Molly Hooper of The Hill: "House GOP lawmakers say they do not fear political blowback if Congress fails to prevent $85 billion in automatic spending cuts from triggering in two weeks."
Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "With conditions [in Syria] continuing to deteriorate, [U.S.] officials could reopen the debate over providing weapons to select members of the resistance in an effort to break the impasse in Syria."
** Michael Lofgren, a disaffected former GOP staffer in the Huffington Post: because of gerrymandering,* "it is unlikely Republicans will lose control of the House at least until the census of 2020. Dixie and the Tornado Belt are prone to send candidates of the intellectual caliber and world view of James Inhofe to the Senate for the foreseeable future, thus assuring a veto over legislation via the filibuster. The voting base itself, endlessly stoked by talk radio and Fox News, thrives on its martyr-like self-image as a persecuted remnant of Real Americans; and all the would-be messiahs they adore are Republicans, not third party candidates. There is also just too much money to be made by hucksters, so it is doubtful that the GOP will go the way of the Whigs." Thanks to Calyban for the link. ...
... I think this piece, written in September 2011 & published in TruthOut (& perhaps elsewhere), was what put Lofgren on the map. It's a doozy.
* BUT see John Sides & Eric McGhee on gerrymandering, linked below.
Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Criticized for letting Wall Street off the hook after the financial crisis, the Justice Department is building a new model for prosecuting big banks. In a recent round of actions that shook the financial industry, the government pushed for guilty pleas, rather than just the usual fines and reforms. Prosecutors now aim to apply the approach broadly to financial fraud cases, according to officials involved in the investigations." CW: read the whole article & see what you think. This sounds to me a little more like PR than like actually sending fat cats to the clink.
** Forget "Real America." Tim Noah of The New Republic: "We think of rural-heartland dwellers as real Americans, but they currently represent less than 20 percent of the population; nearly all of us live in and around cities. We think of churchgoers as real Americans, but only 40 percent of Americans attend any kind of religious service at least once a week.... We think of people who own guns as real Americans, but they represent only 21 percent of the population.... By fetishizing a fading tradition, liberals have only made their arguments for increased gun control less likely to have much of an impact. A recognition of their -- our -- dominant position would be a better way to start the debate."
Stupid Immigration Policy. Kevin Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Much of the immigration debate in Washington has centered on the 11 million undocumented migrants in the country. But, from the halls of MIT to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, business and academic leaders are more focused on what they call an even greater threat to the U.S. economy: immigration laws that chase away highly skilled foreigners educated in U.S. universities, often with degrees funded by U.S. taxpayers. While other countries are actively recruiting foreign-born U.S. graduates, the United States has strict limits on visas for highly skilled workers that often put them on waiting lists of many years. And unlike Canada and other countries, the United States offers no specific visa for young entrepreneurs ... who want to start a business in America."
David Dayen, writing in Salon, on how to save the U.S. Postal Service: institute a postal banking service, which would be a great help to "unbanked" or "underbanked" Americans who rely on payday lenders, pawn shops, etc., for "banking." "The National Association of Letter Carriers is ready to do this; they endorsed a resolution at their annual convention in 2012 to adopt a postal banking system in the US." CW: read the whole post. It's a pretty compelling idea & not nearly as novel as I thought. Of course, as Alex Pareene notes in the piece linked below, getting Congress off its collective ass to do something that's good for Americans -- & in this case, good for the USPS -- is a mighty heavy lift.
A Party without a Policy. Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "The problem with Republicans today on public policy isn't that they're stuck in the 1980s; it's that they've given up entirely." ...
... So, in Lieu of Policy, Here's What They Have -- Benghazi!!!. Ed Kilgore: "Sen. John McCain's insistence on Meet the Press yesterday that the Obama administration was engaged in a 'massive coverup' of Benghazi! is an indication that conspiracy-shouting on the subject among Republicans won't go away any time soon, or perhaps ever."
Alex Pareene of Salon: "After [Sen. Ted] Cruz's [RTP-Texas] hostile questioning of Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, [Sen. John] McCain [R-Az.] publicly rebuked the Texas senator, something McCain only does to practically everyone who annoys him in any fashion.... But ... Ted Cruz's loudmouthed Senator Asshole routine is not what's wrong with the Senate.... Ted Cruz didn't blow up immigration reform on multiple occasions. Ted Cruz isn't why senators like McCain and [Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.] decide to stop supporting things they used to support, like cap-and-trade.... What's wrong with the Senate is just about every other senator, most of whom ... never evinc[e] any concern whatsoever for the real-life consequences of their inaction on nearly every single one of America's most urgent problems...." ...
... Steve Benen: "A strange website with a troubled reputation published an unsubstantiated rumor about something Chuck Hagel is accused of having said in 2007. There is no proof that Hagel made the comment or anything like it, but two Republican senators nevertheless demanded an explanation. In other words, for [Lindsey] Graham and Kelly Ayotte [N.H.], there's nothing odd about effectively saying, 'We heard some unsubstantiated rumor on a website we know little about, and we expect you to take it seriously and provide us with an immediate explanation.'"
Jon Chait of New York: Joe Scarborough is pretty dimwitted & it shows when he tries to write down his "thoughts." "The fiscal scolds have so successfully inculcated their moralistic urgency about debt, so thoroughly dominated the news agenda, that millions of people like Joe Scarborough think it is self-evidently insane and evil to in any way minimize the awesome scale of the crisis. Scarborough can't really explain why Krugman is wrong, because the nub of the issue is that Krugman's way of looking at the issue simply offends him."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Justice Clarence Thomas, who hasn't asked a question from the bench in seven years, says he sometimes gets Justice Stephen Breyer to ask questions for him.
John Sides & Eric McGhee in the Washington Post on gerrymandering, which these political scientists argue, based on a series of tests they applied to election results, had very little effect on the 2012 Congressional races: "... the ability of Republicans to retain the House majority may have been due to incumbency advantage, not new and more favorable districts. Why do Democrats have a somewhat chronic disadvantage in these graphs, especially in the last 20 years? Part of the reason is that Democratic votes are increasingly concentrated in urban areas where they are more likely to waste votes with large majorities.
Congressional Races
Ed Kilgore: "Life often imitates parody in South Carolina: former Gov. Mark Sanford has just put up his first ad in his campaign to get back his old congressional seat, recently vacated by now-Sen. Tim Scott. Seems he's going full-tilt into the paradox of simultaneously begging for forgiveness for his sins (which include not just adultery and public idiocy but a variety of financial irregularities that might have in some jurisdictions landed him in the hoosegow), while posing as the guy that can smite Washington with demands for strict fiscal accountability and moral rectitude." CW: meanwhile, Sally Quinn & other Washington hostesses with the mostesses are likely rooting for Sanford in hopes he & his lovely Argentinian fiancee will star at their little get-togethers.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Mike Johanns, a Nebraska Republican who is in his first term, announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election next year, the fifth lawmaker to bow out of a Senate that has become increasingly polarized and dysfunctional."
CW: Sorry, but this extended wail from Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Politico is one long unintentional knee-slapper. Apparently, President Obama is not being transparent enough currying favor with these turdwingers & their buddies in the hard-working White Press corps. "The frustrated Obama press corps neared rebellion this past holiday weekend when reporters and photographers were not even allowed onto the Floridian National Golf Club, where Obama was golfing. That breached the tradition of the pool 'holding' in the clubhouse and often covering -- and even questioning -- the president on the first and last holes." Etc., etc.
... Digby is also "relieved that the fourth estate has its priorities straight." ...
... Anne Laurie, in Balloon Juice: "You'd think Tha Meeja would at least admire the Obama administration's deftness in beating them at their own game, but ... 'The president's staff often finds Washington reporters whiny, needy and too enamored with trivial matters or their own self-importance.'...Oooo, burn" ...
... AND Reid Epstein of Politico: "... after months of buildup and a week since his State of the Union address, key aides on the Hill and at the White House acknowledge that even GOP senators who fit Obama's vision of bipartisanship -- Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma -- are all waiting to hear anything from the president.... They'd like to have a conversation. Or at least get a phone call. And with the president's whole agenda on the line, they're surprised that hasn't happened yet." ...
... CW: I'm surprised the Senate has not yet installed phones where they can call out. I guess the two-way walkie-talkies thingies are too new-fangled. Well, shucks, maybe Obama doesn't have a real phone, either:
Right Wing World
America's Worst Nightmare. It turns out people -- at least very bad people -- can return from the dead.Local News
Carly Carioli of The Phoenix: Massachusetts "State Rep. Marty Walsh and Joyce Linehan -- the legendary rock publicist turned political rainmaker -- had teamed up to file HD3506, a bill to make 'Roadrunner,' by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, the official rock song of Massachusetts." CW: I agree with Richman who said, through a spokesperson, "I don't think the song is good enough to be a Massachusetts song of any kind."
Apropos of yesterday's inconsequential discussion, contributor Julie sends along this by Marshall Ramsey:
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Afghanistan authorities have captured a senior member of the blank">Pakistan Taliban in a stretch of mountains near the frontier between the two countries, Afghan and Pakistani officials said on Tuesday. One Afghan official said the militant, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, had been arrested after American airstrikes, some carried out via drones, had flushed him out of a more remote haven."
New York Times: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal inquiry into suspicious trades placed ahead of the $23 billion acquisition of H.J. Heinz, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.The F.B.I.'s involvement adds to the scrutiny surrounding the deal and further highlights the temptation that major takeovers present to traders. Last week, a day after the deal was announced, the Securities and Exchange Commission promptly froze a Swiss account linked to possible insider trading in the Heinz takeover."
New York Times: "A growing body of digital forensic evidence -- confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of [a Chinese] army unit for years -- leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around" a building in Shanghai, which is the People's Liberation Army base for China's growing corps of cyberwarriors." ...
... Washington Post: "A U.S. security firm has tied more than a hundred cyber attacks on U.S. corporations to China's military, according to a report released Tuesday. The 60-page study by investigators at the Alexandria-based Mandiant security firm presents one of the most comprehensive and detailed analysis to date tracing corporate cyber espionage to the doorstep of Chinese military facilities. And it calls into question China's repeated denials that its military is engaged in such activities."
Reuters: "A seven-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Cuba on Monday in the latest effort to move forward political relations that have been at a standstill since U.S. government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who saw Gross and met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other high-ranking officials a year ago, is leading the group of five senators and two members of the House of Representatives on a three-day visit to communist Cuba.... Gross, 63, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks under a secretive U.S. program the Cuban government considers subversive."
New York Times: "Prosecutors accused Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star and one of the world's best-known athletes, of premeditated murder on Tuesday, saying he opened fire four times on his girlfriend through a locked bathroom door after putting on his prosthetic legs and walking more than 20 feet from a bedroom."
CBS News: "Law enforcement sources say Adam Lanza, [the Newtown, Connecticut, mass murderer,] was motivated by violent video games and a strong desire to kill more people than ... Anders Breivik, a Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011." With video report.
AP: "Now that investigators have determined the origins of the engine-room fire that paralyzed a Carnival cruise ship at sea for five days, they will try to learn more about the cause, the crew's response, and why the ship was disabled for so long. A Coast Guard official said Monday that a leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days."
AP: "Eight masked gunmen made a hole in a security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched some $50 million worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday. The gang used two black cars in their daring raid late Monday, grabbed the cache of stones and sped off into the darkness...."
Reuters: "Nestle, the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta meals from sale in Italy and Spain after finding traces of horse DNA. The discovery of horsemeat in products labeled as beef has spread across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer anger and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains."
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Reader Comments (16)
I wrote the following letter to Rachel Maddow tonight after watching her documentary, "Hubris," about our getting into the Iraq War.
Dear Rachel-
I watched your documentary, "Hubris," with great interest tonight. Overall--an excellent look at the dishonesty of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al and a disturbing reminder of the gullibility of the all-too-human Senate and House of Representatives. In hindsight, I am appalled that more did not "vote their conscience," and instead chose to "go along to get along." We have a deeply flawed authority-driven system of governance. Sad.
One criticism: Nowhere in your commentary did I hear you say one word about Israel. Nor did you mention the word, "Neo-Con," although that was in truth what this crazy war was about. You did name the "players"--but not their philosophy or their source. Almost all are Jewish and had parents who were victimized by the Holocaust. They have been acting out their PTSD and fearfulness of Israel being attacked ever since. I wonder why you said nothing about this?
Congratulations, nevertheless, for exposing Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice et al for their conscious and cynical decision to prosecute an unnecessary war. I am still waiting for Obama to man up and let the international courts decide whether to try the former President, Vice-President, Secretary of Defense, Security Advisor and influential Neo-Cons as war criminals. HA! Nevah will happen.
Thanks for sharing that news about the "new" crappy Massachusetts state song that some idiots are promoting. It is truly awful, like something you would make up while taking a shower. "Shipping Up To Boston" should be the state tune forever. Amen.
Kate,
Add The Decider to that list too. It was his war. He was too cowardly to fight in a war he claims to have supported (he did a "brave Sir Robin" and ran away), so he started another war to make himself look all big and bad and manly. But he lied to do it. Killed, maimed, and/or displaced hundreds of thousands all because of his tiny little testicles. He should be behind bars for decades. Hey, he'd have plenty of time to paint. How about "Self Portrait in Prison Shower With My Homies"
By any measure Bush and Cheney are war criminals. Instead of lolling around playing golf and showing up to sneer and jeer with the Sunday gasbags or on Fops News, they should both be shackled and collared. I hear there's room at Gitmo.
Young George Bush Goes to War
When Ronald Reagan was elected president, I thought the country was doomed. It turns out I was right; it just didn't happen overnight. But the fact is that the economic prospects for middle-class workers have been deflating ever since Reagan took office. The efforts to return to laissez-faire capitalism, to undermine labor, to chip away at women's rights and voter rights, to privatize K-12 education, to make taxes more regressive, etc., etc., have taken a huge & completely unnecessary toll. Reagan & the right represent a self-inflicted wound, one that is still festering today.
Meanwhile, just two stories I linked today show how a dysfunctional Congress purposely aids & abets the country's decline. We've known for at least 20 years that our immigration policy toward non-citizens whom we educate here is totally stupid, yet the Congress has never addressed this stupid policy. The idea of letting the USPS perform simple banking operations is a no-brainer, yet Congress will just never get it together to give the POD the go-ahead. A Congress that cannot even legislate these easy, non-ideological reforms is effectively nonfunctional.
Marie
@Kate: Could you clarify those "Jewish players" whose parents died in the Holocaust?
I thought there should have been more emphasis on the CIA–-it is that agency that writes estimates and the purpose of Cheney's eight visits to the CIA was to ensure that the estimate included what the White House needed. The CIA and the White House are in lock-step which I wasn't aware of until this Iraq War debacle. I learned that intelligence in America––on issues the president takes seriously, there is no daylight between the WH and the agency. Asking whether the CIA's WMD estimate was the result of White House pressure is like asking whether President Reagan knew about Iran-Contra or whether President Kennedy knew about the plots to kill Castro and the actual killing of Diem (although it was said at the time Kennedy was shocked). The bottom line here is to remember who the CIA is working for. Many, I suppose, would find this too cynical a view, but I would argue that it offers the most useful rule for understanding what went on then and what is going on now. In the fall of 2002 the President wanted war; the CIA did its bit to give him what he wanted.
@CW! Exactly as I had commented on the 16th, (but you found the perfect side-by-side images of McCarthy & Cruz to illustrate this uncanny look-alike relationship beautifully): "Cruz not only sounds as wacked-out as McCarthy, but facial recognition software would probably have trouble separating these two—who appear to share a similar physiognomy as well as the intellectual DNA."
Speaking of McCarthy, I recently came across a reference that indicated Bobby Kennedy named him as the godfather to one of his children! Really?
Have you ever pick up a book you've had on the bookshelf for a decade or more...start to reread and encounter all sorts of OMG (la plus ça change...) moments? Just this week, I reopened Gloria Steinem's "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions" that includes a recounting of her years as a journalist on planes/trains& buses with McGovern and McCarthy highlights the behavior of the MSM then - which today is exacerbated by many times over. Even more fascinating was the 'selling' of candidates back then...and how bright, hard-working women within the campaigns were 'endured' by the candidates' mostly male staffs. Get me coffee, hon, will ya? Gloria is scheduled to appear in my area in mid-April, think I shall go hear her again. My first time was in the early '70's when she appeared on stage at Lehigh University (then an all-male institution) - I had talked two other female friends to drive with me the twenty-five miles down and back and we were among a very, very small handful of women in attendance. We stood in the back! Overall the guys were attentive and respectful. Of course, we figured the jam-packed auditorium had something to do with the presence of the stunning Gloria! But, if that's what it took to open some minds...
This week celebrates the 50th year anniversary of Betty Freidan's "The Feminine Mystique." (a few weeks ago, Gail Collins had an excellent feature on her in the NYTimes magazine). It makes one reflect on the many women back then who became such strong forces for the rights of women : Steinem, Florence Kennedy, Germaine Greer, Bella Abzug, et al It has seemed that we've "...come along way, baby." as that old ad slogan proclaimed.
...and, shamefully, despite the awareness, achievements, and advances, chauvinism continues to thrive.
Marie,
The immigration reform necessary for keeping American trained talent on our shores for creating businesses, for R&D, for innovations needed to stay ahead of international competition has been ignored for more reasons than stasis or idiocy, at least in my opinion.
I believe that, like gun control, those in the GOP who have consistently schemed to maintain the status quo, fear the tiniest incursion into their power base. We all watch, stupefied, as NRA sycophants curl up into a fetal ball and shout "la,la,la,la,la...I can't hear you..." whenever even modest and completely rational regulations are discussed.
These people are incapable, in their backward, circumscribed world, to allow even the smallest changes. Thus even reasonable, rational, and obviously beneficial adjustments to immigration laws are off the table. No discussion, period. Same with taxes, with climate change, and a host of other problems. Their goal is to turn back the clock, to revert to an imaginary America of Ronald Reagan movies that never existed (sucky B movies they were, too).
So changes, any changes, that deviate from their world view, even if it would make the country a better place, are anathema.
We saw it even in the recent budget stand-off. They would rather threaten the country's credit rating (and they did) than lose the argument and admit that they're wrong and that their policies and ideas are proven failures.
The problem is their arguments are worse than silly.
They're idiotic. So once you're arguing based on fantasy and a hope for going back to a time that never existed, for staving off a world they may not be able to control, there's little hope of even the smallest concessions to the future.
Re: the messenger just killed himself; Ever since Pheidippides ran wire to wire with the news of the day the gathering and distribution of information has evolved along with everything else.
The press corp is whining about the lack of access to the President and the nefarious ways the White House is employing to share and shape the news.
Odd; "news" means change from "olds". You would think the purveyors of change would recognize it when it was biting them in the ass.
The self-importance that the news media bestows upon itself must be blinding to evolution. Try and find a good job as a telegraph operator these days.
I am reminded of that great day in history when the golden spike was driven home commemorating the connecting of the East and West railroads. There is a group portrait of many; workers and dignitaries, gathered around the two locomotives. The single photographer is hunched under his blackout drape behind a huge camera on tripod. "Don't move!", his assistant shouts and with a cloud of smoke history is recorded. News.
Can you imagine the same scene today? Everyone; from the Chinese coolies from the West to the Irish diggers from the East, would be taking pictures with their I-Pads, Razors, Notepads, Dingleberries, Iphones and sending the images around the world. News.
So, things change scripted ones. Get use to it. At one time you were ink-stained wretches, then you became well-dressed talking heads, who knows how you'll end up next.
Me? I like the street-wise newsboy shouting, "Paper, get your paper, headless body found in restaurant freezer, police clueless, Cubs win series! Get your paper!"
And! I got inside dope; two things Obama did NOT say to Tiger;
"Looks like you're away again, Tig" and "Here's my daughter's cellie number."
The White House press corps is even more dysfunctional than Stephen Colbert noted (when he essentially called them stenographers, at the press dinner a few years ago. )
The President was out of sight for the three-day weekend, in Florida? Yet, Marie Burns, a noted publisher and columnist, lives in Florida and does not report that she saw him there! I live in the DC environs, and did not see him around here! Clearly, he was in a third location, and the WH Communications Agency (a subsidiary of an intelligence agency!!!!!!!!!!!!) provided "photos" of him with "Tiger Woods" in "Florida?" Really, where was he?
Tehran? With Chuck Hagel? To thank the multi-'tollahs for their support for Chuck's candidacy, their continued influence in Iraq (undermining the Bush Surge Legacy, to embarass Senator McCain)? Accepting the Iran Shi'ite Order of Excellence for putting Ambassador Chris Stevens and colleagues in harm's way in Benghazi, to reinforce the perception of the inevitability of the return of the Caliphate (only this time, a Shi'a Caliphate)?
Could it be? Just asking. We won't know, because the White House controls all the photos!!
@Kate: I have commented here before that in March, 2003 I was sickened and appalled by our invasion of Iraq. I knew that it wouldn't turn out well, just like my two years' experience in Vietnam (LBJ's buildup there was also based on a lie). The media like to play up the wonderful care the wounded get, but never seem to mention that their wounds were unnecessary.
When people say "Thank you for your service", I say "You're welcome" when I want to say "For what, watching gutshot 20 year olds die for no reason?" Or getting their legs blown off or shrapnel in their brain? Or thousands of civilians dead and infrastucture destroyed? While cowards like Dick Cheney and Ted Nugent avoid serving.
It sickens me to hear that our veterans kept us free. Free from what? Free so that evil people can steal our democracy? OK, maybe World War II kept us free, but Iraq and Vietnam sure didn't
Sorry for the rant, but I had to say it.
@Patrick: actually, Obama was in Florida, as rumored, & he did play a round of golf with Woods. Also in the foursome were U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, as has been reported elsewhere.
Reality Chex can exclusively report that during the excursion of the links, the four came to an agreement to sell Texas to Crane & install Woods as Obama's puppet dictator. Kirk is arranging the sale.
Your suggestion that Obama was actually in Tehran with Chuck Hagel is a right-wing myth that has no basis in fact.
Marie
@ JJG & Patrick: re your observations on the boohoo, "we-don't-have-access" press corps protestations, here's more agreement from Charles Pierce on those very complaints in his posting today (and you MUST follow the link to Greg Mitchell's blog)!
Read more: Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze, Part The Infinity - www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/In_Which_Politico_Complains_About_Its_Work#ixzz2LMxMKOcX
@ Marie:
The problem is that today everything is ideological. The USPO offering banking services? No way. That would infringe on the God and Koch-given "right" for B of A to profit. When private profit is the universal and only acceptable motive, when money is speech, and when K street writes and moves far more legislation than Congress, increasingly powerful conservative ideology permeates and holds sway over everything. In shot, there are no "no-brainer" issues left in Congress, other perhaps than naming a few of the same post offices they are bent on closing.
Re: Par for the course; Marie; It wasn't a foursome; given the fact Kneegros are only 3/5 of a person in the south and both Tiger and the Prez are of mixed blood the correct number of players in the group is? Fuck if I know; I'm really bad at math. I do know there was only one golfer in the group.
The modern GOP is more than just dysfunctional. The Truthout article written by Republican apostate Mike Lofgren linked above is indeed a doozy, as Marie suggests. It's not much that we didn't already know but Lofgren organizes his material in a particularly chilling and memorable fashion.
Reading through it, I was struck by the idea that the GOP, as it stands today, certainly is cynical, it's amoral, it's beholden to money, war, and religion, but it's most significant feature is it's complete disregard for law, rules, or the welfare of hundreds of millions of Americans.
It bears a much closer resemblance to a criminal conspiracy than a party convened around electing dedicated public servants. It's an underworld enterprise designed to push the GOP product: ideology, religious intolerance, Wall Street hegemony, and war; always war.
This in turn reminded me of a scene from the Wire (easily the greatest show in the history of television) in which Stringer Bell, one of the major Baltimore drug lords, decides to make meetings more business-like by instituting Roberts Rules, with mixed results.
Republicans discuss among themselves
Criminals with Roberts Rules. The modern GOP.
@PD Pepe-
To answer your question about who the "Jewish players" were (are) in the neo-conservative movement, I offer the following link:
http://www.erichufschmid.net/TFC/FromOthers/list-of-neocons-for-Iraq-war.htm
Of course, it is well known by now that the neo-cons were the main movers behind the Iraq invasion--and that many them were in it primarily because of their fealty to Israel. Not so Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were into the OIL!
The three big movers who I have read had relatives affected by the Holocaust are: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. There were many more Jewish neo-cons in policy positions, publishing and journalism. Two who are not named in the link are our "favorite" NYT columnists: Tommy Freedom and David Brookstone. No surprise there.
My formula for our reasons to "sponsor" this cruel, idiotic invasion are as follows: Israel + Oil = Iraq War. Sad and so very foolish!