;)
The Commentariat -- Jan, 10, 2014
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "A year after promising to direct federal attention and support to needy areas across the country, President Obama on Thursday said the government would begin helping five economically hard-hit communities fight poverty and help children":
... Paul Krugman: "... the problem of poverty has become part of the broader problem of rising income inequality, of an economy in which all the fruits of growth seem to go to a small elite, leaving everyone else behind.... On its 50th birthday, the war on poverty no longer looks like a failure. It looks, instead, like a template for a rising, increasingly confident progressive movement."
Richard Cowan of Reuters: "Senate Democrats on Thursday offered a new plan to revive federal unemployment benefits until mid-November and pay the $18 billion price tag with new spending cuts, but hopes of a bipartisan deal dissolved into bickering by day's end."
Doug Palmer & Adam Behsudi of Politico: "Three senior lawmakers on Thursday unveiled long-awaited legislation to help President Barack Obama strike major trade deals in Asia and Europe, setting the stage for a potential election-year battle between the president and many of his fellow Democrats...." ...
... Charles Pierce: "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a million-ton dunghammer aimed at what's left of the American middle-class.... This bill is the worst kind of Beltway Potemkin transparency. It seeks to guarantee that the debate is carefully circumscribed within the parameters in which the Serious People feel most comfortable -- one in which a goody-bag for corporate interest supported by Orrin Hatch and Max Baucus is considered to be a 'bipartisan' triumph.... It is a monstrosity, negotiated in secret, and utterly heedless of labor standards and environmental protections. The president who speaks so eloquently on income inequality wants an easier time passing a trade deal that inevitably will make that inequality worse. In a week where everybody in Washington was talking about poverty, we are asked to take this gigantic job-sucker on faith."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In public, President Obama has focused this week on income inequality, touting initiatives to help the poor and unemployed. But in private, the president and his top aides have spent more time dealing with ... his review of the National Security Agency's vast surveillance program." ...
... Peter Baker & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "As he assembles a plan to overhaul the nation's surveillance programs, President Obama is trying to navigate what advisers call a middle course that will satisfy protesting national security agencies while tamping down criticism by civil liberties advocates." ...
... Denver Nicks of Time: "Two leading members of the House Intelligence Committee say a classified Pentagon report found that Edward Snowden's leaks have let terrorists discover U.S. military tactics, and put troops in danger. Republican committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers and ranking Democrat Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger said the report found that most of Edward Snowden's leaks of National Security Agency documents pertained to ongoing military operations. 'Snowden handed terrorists a copy of our country's playbook and now we are paying the price, which this report confirms,' said Ruppersberger, in a statement."
Laura Barron-Lopez of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency published its rule limiting carbon emissions from new power plants on Wednesday to the dismay of coal advocates and the GOP. The proposed rule, published nearly four months after EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced it, is a core element of President Obama's climate change agenda. Included in the new performance standards, the EPA pushes for new coal-fired power plants to be built with carbon capture technology, which Republicans argue is impossible since the technology isn't ready. McCarthy says the technology is ready and is already being used."
Ezra Klein interviews Robert Laszewski, a health policy expert/lobbyist who says, "The problem with Obamacare is it's product driven and not market driven. They didn't ask the customer what they wanted. And I think that's the fundamental problem with Obamacare. It meets the needs of very poor people because you're giving them health insurance for free. But it doesn't really meet the needs of healthy people and middle-class people."
Ryan Cooper in the New Republic: "The Republican Reaction to the Polar Vortex Explains Why So Many Scientists Are Democrats."
The All-Male Keep 'Em Barefoot & Pregnant Marching Band. Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "On Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing on HR 7, the 'No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act.' That subcommittee, which is headed up by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and comprised of 12 other male lawmakers, is deciding whether to advance sweeping restrictions on abortion coverage that would make the procedure less affordable for women across the country." CW: Among those deciding the fates of millions of American women & their families: Louie Gohmert. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.
Michael Schmidt & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Islamic extremist groups in Syria with ties to Al Qaeda are trying to identify, recruit and train Americans and other Westerners who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home, according to senior American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.These efforts, which the officials say are in the early stages, are the latest challenge that the conflict in Syria has created, not just for Europe but for the United States, as the civil war has become a magnet for Westerners seeking to fight with the rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad."
Nothing to Worry About. Olivia Nuzzi of New York: "Officers in charge of nuclear missiles were possibly on drugs. The timing of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's morale-boosting trip to a Wyoming nuclear missile base on Thursday proved a bit awkward, as it coincided with the report that two nuclear launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana are under investigation for allegations of drug possession." The AP story is here.
Frank Rich on Bill Clinton, Iraq & Liz Cheney.
Local News
Melissa Hayes of the Bergen Record: "The Assembly panel investigating into whether lane closures at the George Washington Bridge were done for political retribution and what involvement Governor Christie's staff and appointees had in the traffic flap is expected to release thousands of pages of documents today. The documents, obtained through subpoenas of Port Authority officials, include emails and text messages between the governor's staff and his appointees at the agency -- David Wildstein and Bill Baroni who have both since resigned."
I've terminated her employment because she lied to me. -- Chris Christie, on senior aide Bridget Kelly
... Marc Santora & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly apologized to the people of New Jersey on Thursday, saying he was 'embarrassed and humiliated' by revelations that a top aide and appointees ordered the closing of lanes to the George Washington Bridge to deliberately snarl traffic as an act of political vengeance." See yesterday's Commentariat. Here's the first part of yesterday's press conference, which lasted about two hours:
... The Washington Post has the full transcript. ...
... Josh Barro of Business Insider: "Here are the four big uncomfortable questions that arise from the story Chris Christie is telling today: How did Christie not know? Why would Christie's appointees have thought this was a good idea? Why didn't anybody narc on Bridget Kelly? When did Christie really learn about his staff's involvement?" Barro elaborates on the questions. CW: He picks up on one inconsistency I noticed -- an inconsistency that suggests Christie was lying through his teeth about when he learned of the e-mails (the kind of detail on which good murder mysteries hang). ...
... Alec MacGillis of the New Republic also has four questions: "If Christie only found out this week that the lane closures had been a political hit job, why did he last month accept the resignation of his two top men at the Port Authority? If Christie really didn't know about any of this, who else in his inner circle did? Will the scorned aides seek payback? What about all the Democratic mayors that did endorse Christie?" MacGillis elaborates on each. ...
... Star-Ledger Editors: "Christie's insistence that he found out about this 'for the first time at 8:50 yesterday morning' ... stretches the bounds of belief. When his appointees at the Port Authority resigned, did he really not ask why? And was he not curious enough to inquire about the content of the emails being handed over in these subpoenas? Did he really just wait to read about it all in the papers?" ...
... AND there's this. Andrew McCarthy of National Review: In a December 23 radio "town hall," "Christie explained ... he had already looked thoroughly into the matter with the help of his staff. 'I've asked my staff to give me a full briefing,' he told Scott and listeners. 'They've told me everything that we know. None of this makes sense; it's all about politics. None of it makes sense.' ... Christie was first elected governor based on the reputation he cultivated for himself as a hard-charging United States attorney -- a tireless investigator who never hesitated to take on the tough cases, ask the hard questions, and keep digging until he got convincing answers. As governor, he has portrayed himself as very hands-on in the Giuliani mold."
... The "full briefing," Jed Lewison of Daily Kos points out, was this: telling his staff an hour before a scheduled press conference that they had to confess immediately or he would deny they were involved. This isn't "about leading a serious investigation, it's about bullying them into telling you what you want to hear and giving yourself plausible deniability in the process." ...
Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story: "Rachel Maddow speculated on Thursday that the traffic closures that nearly shut down Fort Lee, New Jersey for four days at the behest of Gov. Chris Christie's (R) ex-deputy chief of staff weren't an act of revenge against the town's mayor, but against Democratic state Sen. Loretta Weinberg. 'The leader of the Senate Democrats represents Fort Lee,' Maddow explained. 'Roughly 12 hours after Governor Christie blows up at the Senate Democrats and torpedoes the career of a [state] Supreme Court justice who he likes because he says the Senate Democrats are "animals," and he is not going to let that justice lose to those animals, the leader of those "animals" sees her district get the order of destruction from Governor Christie's deputy chief of staff.'" ...
... CW: The Maddow segment, in which Maddow is almost as long-winded as Christie, is here. She makes her case. ...
... Update: Charles Pierce buys Maddow's theory & adds some more context. ...
... Benjamin Wallace-Wells in New York: "It was all about him. He barely mentioned the people who had actually suffered from the vast traffic jam his giggling aides had unleashed, and downplayed the delays it imposed upon ambulances trying to get to sick people. He refused to concede that there had been no real traffic study. The drama of the event, as Christie described it, occurred entirely within the confines of the governor's office, and it was about loyalty, friendship, trust." ...
... Charlies Pierce writes an excellent & entertaining summary of the presser -- and its possible consequences: "... the simple fact is that Big Chicken remains a bully, and now he stands exposed as a coward, as most bullies are, and an entirely self-centered cad." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... there's little chance Dems watched today's presser and emerged with any genuine confidence that Christie's long term viability is beyond repair." ...
... BUT. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... in simultaneously putting the blame on a single staffer and saying he had no involvement whatsoever, he staked his career on the belief, hope, desperate gamble -- call it what you want -- that no new information will emerge to challenge his version of events. If Kelly, or anybody else, contradicts Christie and provides evidence to back up his or her story, the governor is toast." ...
... Sally Kohn of the Daily Beast: "Conservatives have been contorting themselves all year to try and argue that President Obama should have known about the detailed goings-on of an IRS branch in Cincinnati and a gun-walking scheme run out of the Arizona field office of the ATF.... Compare this grasping-at-straws logic to Christie, now faced with a genuine scandal based on politically motivated spite that originated ... with ... the governor's own deputy chief of staff.... 'I have 65,000 people working for me every day and cannot know what each of them is doing at every minute,' Christie said in his press conference. Yes, but ... that excuse not work for President Obama -- which has over 4.4 million employees. More importantly, this involves staff who are very close to Christie -- his deputy chief of staff, his campaign director and maybe others." ...
... Jenna Portnoy of the Star-Ledger: "Citing his right to plead the Fifth Amendment, David Wildstein has declined to answer questions [Thursday] posed by a state Assembly committee investigating his role in the George Washington Bridge scandal.... The committee voted unanimously to hold Wildstein in contempt, which is a misdemeanor offense." ...
... Nate Schweber of the New York Times: "The daughter of a 91-year-old woman from Fort Lee, N.J., who died on the day of a major traffic jam precipitated by top aides to Gov. Chris Christie said on Thursday that she did not believe the inability of an ambulance to reach her mother's house was a factor in her death." ...
... Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times: "The governor's pilgrimage [to Fort Lee yesterday afternoon] caused a stir in the borough -- and, inevitably, caused another tie-up of traffic on its downtown streets. Two women trying to catch a bus home in front of the borough hall took turns cursing the governor for leaving them standing in the near-freezing cold while traffic on Main Street was diverted. 'I find it ironic that the governor chose the height of rush hour to do this,' said Sam Gronner, a Fort Lee resident, who said it had taken an extra 15 minutes to go to the nearby A.&P. supermarket...." ...
... Steve M. figures that "now the right might close ranks with Christie" because U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is launching an investigation of the lane closings. "You know how this will be spun on the right, don't you? Eric Holder's Justice Department is now investigating Christie after refusing to investigate blah blah blah blah blah.... Fishman is an Obama appointee who once (cue sinister music) worked for Holder in Washington. He was expected to get the U.S. attorney's position in 2001 if Al Gore (boo! hiss!) had become president (George W. Bush chose Christie instead). Wikipedia says he's a registered Democrat." ...
... Driftglass & contributor Barbarossa are thinking along the same lines. (Please be kind enough to click on Driftglass's site since I have purloined his artwork):
Art by Driftglass.
... AND Jed Lewison: "Mitt Romney's best decision of 2012: passing on Pufferfish Christie." ...
... CW: Yesterday I speculated that Shawn Boburg of the Record must have got the incriminating e-mails from a New Jersey Democrat. Not true. As Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reports, Boburg obtained them through leaks from & FOIA requests to the Port Authority.
Senate Race
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, has told senior members of his party that he will challenge Senator Mark R. Warner of Virginia and announce his candidacy as early as next week, giving Republicans a top-tier candidate in what has become one of the nation's most competitive swing states."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Larry Speakes, who became the public face of Ronald Reagan's presidency when a would-be assassin's bullet gravely wounded his boss, press secretary James Brady, died Friday in his native Mississippi. He was 74."
Washington Post: "The U.S. military secretly deployed a small number of trainers and advisers to Somalia in October, the first time regular troops have been stationed in the war-ravaged country since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans killed in the 'Black Hawk Down' disaster."
AFP: " The United States said Friday that it 'deeply regrets' India's expulsion of a US embassy official in New Delhi in a bitter diplomatic dispute, but is seeking to patch up relations. Ties have become increasingly frayed since December 12 when Indian consulate worker Devyani Khobragade was arrested in New York for alleged visa fraud and making false statements relating to the employment of a domestic servant."
AP: "A charity formed after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School has been unable to account for more than $70,000 it raised through marathon running, one of its co-founders said Friday. Ryan Graney, of Nashville, Tenn., said only $30,000 of the $103,000 taken in by the 26.4.26 Foundation was used for the organization's purpose. That money was presented last January by co-founder Robbie Bruce to the nonprofit NYA, a youth sports center in Newtown, where the December 2012 shooting occurred. Graney said Bruce was in charge of the organization's finances but has cut off contact with her."
AP: "An Air Force investigation into alleged drug use in the ranks has expanded to include 10 officers at six bases in the U.S. and Britain. Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth says nine lieutenants and one captain are being investigated for illegal possession of recreational drugs. He said the case began with the investigation of two officers at Edwards Air Force Base in California and expanded based on their contacts with others."
Bloomberg News: "Payrolls in December increased at the slowest pace since January 2011, indicating a pause in the recent strength of the U.S. labor market that may partly reflect the effects of bad weather. The 74,000 gain in payrolls, less than the most pessimistic projection in a Bloomberg survey, followed a revised 241,000 advance the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington."
AP: "A federal disaster declaration has been issued for a West Virginia chemical spill that may have contaminated tap water and prompted officials to order residents in nine counties not to bathe, brush their teeth or wash their clothes." The Guardian story is here.
Washington Post: "An Indian diplomat whose arrest sent U.S.-India relations into a tailspin left the U.S. late Thursday following her indictment by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of visa fraud and making false statements regarding the employment of a domestic worker."
Reuters: "China defended on Friday its new fishing restrictions in disputed waters in the South China Sea against criticism from the United States, saying the rules were in accordance with international law. The rules, approved by China's southern Hainan province, took effect on January 1 and require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval to enter the waters, which the local government says are under its jurisdiction."
AP: "While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever.... Brazil is also sizzling, with the heat index reaching 49 degrees Celsius (120 F). Zookeepers in Rio de Janeiro were giving animals ice pops to beat the heat." CW: Explain that, Fox "News."
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Reader Comments (17)
I see Christie is using the Sergeant Schultz defense: "I see nothing, I hear nothing, I knew nothing."
On the one hand we have the President highlighting and promising to do something about our rising inequality. On the other we have the same President supporting trade deals with Asia and Europe that, if the past--when previous trade deals had a demonstrably large hand in hollowing out the middle class and (see Krugman) keeping poverty levels steady since the 1970's--is prelude, will exacerbate the same stark inequality he says we must do something about.
Is this really the same smart man talking? What am I missing?
With the recent headlines about Guv. Christus Corpulentus all it does for me is bring to mind the old SNL skits with Fred Armisen portraying former NY governor David Paterson. Without fail there was always some admonition about "...New Jersey!" Just thinking about them still cracks me up after serving time working there for a few years. Despite a few good things about being, it mainly sucked big time.
Thanks AK for the heads up about the Trolley question interesting. Kant said: "Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only." That quote was worth the cost of admission.
Any legislation proposed by Sen. Bax Mucus from Montana is a sellout to the people who voted him into office. The trade legislation Pierce talks about is like the FISA court of trade legislation: its very secrecy suggests the need for a very public evaluation.
Good article in Mother Jones today entitled, Christie Says, "I Am Not a Bully." Here Are 8 Videos of Him Yelling, Name-Calling, and Belittling People.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/chris-christie-bullying-videos
Rachel Maddow, being the first to give us an in depth report on the Christi/bridge story back in December, now has come up with an alternative theory as to why this all took place. I have found this whole business of retribution because the Fort Lee mayor, a democrat, didn't endorse Christi implausible. From what I have read about Christi and his bullying tactics he has other ways of dealing with people who don't lick his boots, certainly not resorting closing for four days the busiest bridge this side of paradise and putting thousands of people in dire straits. There has got to be more of an incentive and Rachel might have unleashed it. By the by, Barbara Bono, the democrat who ran against Christi in the last election, revealed that when she would ask people in N.J. for donations many told her they would only give her $300 (over that the donor is revealed) because they didn't want their names out there for Christi to get hold of.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/rachel-maddow-chris-christie_n_4572367.html
The Onion publishes Christie's commentary:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-fellow-americans-look-at-me-do-i-look-like-a-co,34908/?
@PD Pepe: I think Maddow's supposition makes a lot more sense than the consensus view that the lane closings were retaliation against Sokolich. The fact that Kelly wrote the "Time to..." certainly suggests that something had just happened to cause the Christie minions to retaliate. Sokolich's name (or an ethnic slur substituting for his name) came into the e-mail discussion only after he complained about the lane closings. In his e-mails, Sokolich seems genuinely mystified about why this is happening, but he's been told it's retaliation for something he knows not what.
I obviously don't know anything about Bridget Kelly & whether or not she's the "Machiavellette" that Charles Pierce supposes, but my guess is that she had help coming up with this scheme. The staff probably stood around the proverbial watercooler trying to figure out ways to get back at the Senate for being mean to Christie's state supreme court nominees, & this was just one of the ways. Did Christie directly suggest any of this? I don't know, but he sure thought the story was funny till the e-mails came out fingering his staff & appointees.
Marie
Re: Christie:Time to ask people under oath "What did the governor know and when did he know it?"
Another thing that's clear from the first reported e-mail exchange between Kelly & Wildstein: they had already discussed this plan.
Kelly wrote a cryptic note to Wildstein @ 7:34 am & he wrote back "Got it" one minute later. If you were a Port Authority functionary who got a note out of the blue that said, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," you wouldn't know WTF the message meant. Whether Port Authority retaliatory shutdowns were SOP or whether this specific plan was discussed previously, Wildstein knew immediately exactly what Kelly was ordering & likely he knew why.
And another thing. People usually gravitate to one or the other reactions to arguments or differences of opinion: they either retreat or confront. Does anybody want to argue that Christie is a retreater? So it makes no sense to me that he would not want to speak to Kelly about why she "lied to him." If he can get in the faces of ordinary citizens, some of whom merely asked unpleasant questions, he sure as hell would get in a staffer's face -- unless he had a compelling reason, um, like implausible deniability -- to avoid her.
Marie
Marie's link to the New Republic piece on conservative rejection of climate change (what else is new?) and the current round of ignorant jocularity about polar vortexes and ice bound scientists prompts me to extend my recent diatribes regarding the blank stupidity of these people and to offer a handy guide, for any who might be interested, to applying critical thinking skills to science reporting.
I've been noticing the usual Cloud Cuckoo Land stories that appear with depressing regularity whenever it snows and the ignoramuses crow about it.
Now it's one thing for a blockhead like James Inhofe and a doltish tub of stupefaction like Rushbo Limbaugh to hold their bellies and guffaw like village idiots at climate change, it's quite another for "science" reporters or anyone in the media who isn't writing a straight out opinion piece (in which the bar for fact-based conclusions is dreadfully low) to file stories that intimate, even in the smallest detail, that there is plenty of room for differing conclusions on climate. There isn't. IS NOT.
Out of the thousands of climate scientists around the world, the thirty or so who are deniers (nearly all of whom are in the employ of some group or corporation who stands to gain by their oppositional "findings") do not in any way constitute a reliable, let alone substantial, second opinion. I'll bet if you worked hard enough you could find a "scientist" who claims that smoking is good for you. There were plenty of them in the 30s and 40s and even later, but I'll be that all but the most obtuse (or bought off) always suspected the dangers of smoking.
So, to post an article claiming that "more research is needed" or headlined with something like "Climate Disputes Erupt in the Wake of Icy Weather" is not just misleading but willfully so. Making it sound like climate change deniers have a point is like putting pre-schoolers on a panel with NASA scientists and declaring that both sides could be right about the nature of astrophysics. It really is that bad.
Thus, I offer a very nice little piece by Joe Hanson, a biologist who writes a science blog called "it's Okay to be Smart". Even the fact that we have to reinforce that idea these days is pretty fucking sad. Can't you just see a show called "It's Okay to be a Cretin" on Fox? Oh wait.....that describes the entire Fox line up...never mind.
So, here's Joe Hanson who draws on a series of ideas developed by Carl Sagan in his 1997 book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", specifically from a chapter with the excellent title "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection"
Enjoy:
How to read science news.
Will LaneGate kill Christie's chances to bully the whole country?
A few say no, that after a couple more news cycles, everything will be forgotten. I don't think that's the case. First NJ has always been a highly politicized state (people don' fuhget nothin') and its proximity to the New York media epicenter coupled with the outsized character Christie has fashioned for himself, along with a possible treasure trove of past nastiness, make him a target too good to pass up. Wingnuts won't save him. He shook hands with the Kenyan Usurper so he has the cooties. He's dead to them. Besides, they weren't going to vote for him anyway unless he made it to the general election and then they'd be reminded all over again about how much it sucks to have to vote for a northeastern RINO governor.
So if Christie is toast, we have a raft of 'baggers and a few other governors. Cruz, Rubio, Paul, maybe Paul Ryan, then a bag man for the Kochs, Scott Walker, another gov who may not even win his next election for that office, Kasich, a southern governor who time and again demonstrates what a loser he is, Bobby Jindal, and a guy whose brother the wingnuts are still blaming for losing the faith, Jeb Bush.
It's way too early for serious prognostications (or is it?), but it's looking like the three stooges will knock each other off (like the 'baggers did in '12), the govs will point fingers at each other but none of them seems to have national cachet at this point even though they're all well known. And none of them could, IMHO, win in the general.
Unless....
The Democrats make some big mistakes. I'm still not convinced that Clinton can take it home. She's played her cards well so far but there are still a huge number of people out there who hate her, although for the second time in row, Democrats could field an historic presidential candidate. And I don't know who else has the muscle, money, savvy, ground forces, or charisma to beat her out. A few more northern types, Deval Patrick, Andrew Cuomo, Cory Booker? Maybe Joe Biden, but he'll be three years older than Reagan when he first darkened the White House linens.
Shit. Maybe I'll run. Thanks Chris!
Here's the text of a pretty interesting interview I found on Bill Moyers' website about the "NAFTA on Steroids" trade deal Obama is trying to push through with eyes wide shut.
I second Ken's skepticism as to why he seems to be trying to cram this still obtuse idea into a pretty package and give the appearance that all the sides have been properly ironed out. Ultimately I assume it comes down to "Politics on Steriods" thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens Divided decision. The trillions to be made by furthering Corporate favoritism throughout the developed economies has to have the 1% with 7 hour boners that are usually caused by overdoses of Viagra coupled with a few martinis. I imagine they're overstuffing the stockings of any and all influential policymakers close to this trade deal, and Obama's obviously got friends in high places too who are positioning themselves for the economic windfall.
As the interviewee (Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach) points out while discussing NAFTA's consequences, overall the only winners were large corporations. Jobs of all wage levels were shipped off to be replaced abroad, and those reentering the work force after being laid off made approx. 20% less in earnings. Obviously mom and pops operations in all three countries bowed out to the Waltons of the world.
I'd like to see some solid economic research that shows the concrete benefits that these free trade deals create for the public good. Rather than general platitudes of "selling more shit to other people" and "creating millions of jobs" I'd like our economic wizards at our prestigious academic institutions to pound out some real research to back up these claims. And most of all, I'd like to be sure that these companies about to boost their profits are required, by law, to actually pay some taxes and give a little back to the systems that made all of this possible.
I fail to see how offshoring jobs and production while effectively paying little to no taxes while stashing away all of the profits in offshore tax havens resembles a sustainable economic model.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/09/fool-me-once-20-years-of-nafta-show-why-the-trans-pacific-partnership-must-be-stopped/
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/09/christies_inaccurate_claims_jersey_city_mayor_slams_governors_honesty_after_press_conference/
Poor mayor. An hour after declining to endorse Christie the cancellations pour in.
Christie is certainly one of the most me-me-me politicians I've heard in a long time. All I heard was the fact he was lied to. Nothing about the endangerment of the citizens of Fort Lee.
The delay between Kelly's message and Wildstein's reply "Got it" is probably explained by the time taken to check the play book.
Re: Who's got a shot; @Ak; you'll probably laugh but out here in SoCal Gov. Moonbeam is kicking ass and taking names. I got some problems with the Gov but all in all we are doing pretty well for a state everyone left for dead. (or Texas).
PS you've got my vote but I want a biggggg govmment job and a desk. And dog walkie rights.
JJG,
It would certainly make it interesting if Jerry were to run again.
And if elected, I promise you a cushy sinecure, corner office, and dog walking rights on K street to make sure there are plenty of nice puddles for those $1,000 Gucci loafers to jump over.
"Please be kind enough to click on Driftglass's site since I have purloined his artwork):"
I did just that and between washing and drying clothes this morning was thoroughly immersed in the whole of driftglass' pieces–-and there were many–-even read the articles he gave links to. So if any of you have periods of free time in between this or that I recommend highly a dose of this man's ramblings because this man rambles well.