;)
The Commentariat -- Jan, 11, 2014
Internal links removed.
The President's Weekly Address:
... Annie Lowrey & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: " The surprisingly weak December jobs report might have strengthened Democrats' hand in the current fight over emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed even as it weakened the party in the larger midterm election battle.... With a Senate showdown set for Monday night on legislation to revive expired benefits for 1.3 million out-of-work Americans, those numbers handed Democrats a cudgel to break Republican resistance. The number of Americans out of work for more than six months and actively job-hunting stands at 3.9 million. In addition, about 347,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force in December." ...
... Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge: The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, but only because so many dropped out of the labor market altogether. Durden has the numbers. ...
... ** New York Times Editors: "No jobs, no benefits and lousy pay." A few ways Congressional Republicans are actively fighting against working Americans & those willing to work.
David Firestone of the New York Times: Tea Party Congressmembers are still holding up the omnibus appropriations bill that funds the government with attempts to defund ObamaCare & other nonsense, like "forbidding the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing its rule on the safe removal of lead paint."CW: This last is clearly racist -- there's lead paint in old houses everywhere, but it is a particular problem in substandard housing. especially in poor urban areas.
Juliet Eilperin & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration has decided to jettison CGI Federal, the main IT contractor that was responsible for building the defect-ridden online health insurance marketplace and has been immersed in the work of repairing it. Federal health officials are preparing to sign a 12-month contract worth roughly $90 million, probably early next week, with a different company, Accenture, after concluding that CGI has not been effective enough in fixing the intricate computer system underpinning the federal Web site, HealthCare.gov, according to a person familiar with the matter." ...
Nancy Pelosi at a press conference Thursday.... Donna Cassata of the AP: " The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to impose new security requirements on President Barack Obama's health care law as Republicans maintained an election-year focus on the contentious program and its troubled rollout. The vote Friday was 291-122 for the measure that Republicans said would address potential data breaches, though they offered no examples in which personal data had been compromised through the government website."
From the Department of Unintended Irony. I was put off by the way the president closed the meeting. To his very closest advisers, he said, "For the record, and for those of you writing your memoirs, I am not making any decisions about Israel or Iran. Joe, you be my witness." I was offended by his suspicion that any of us would ever write about such sensitive matters. -- Robert Gates, in his memoir, after recounting the discussion of said sensitive matters
To a Louse
... O wad some Power the gift gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us! -- Robert Burns
Local News
Michael Linhorst & John Reitmeyer of the Bergen Record: "Port Authority officials did collect traffic data during the George Washington Bridge local lane closures in September, according to newly released documents. But even before the closures began, the authority's top engineers warned that the changes could lead to 'potential disaster.' The thousands of subpoenaed documents, released by Assembly Democrats on Friday afternoon, contain no documents connecting Governor Christie directly to the decision to close two local access lanes...." ...
... Mark Santora & Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "Officials loyal to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey went to elaborate means to make it appear that the September closing of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., was part of a traffic study, even though their private communications suggest the move was purely political, documents released on Friday show. The documents also show a concerted effort to keep their true motivation hidden, including the insistence by one official of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in an email that communications about the matter should not be conducted by email or discussed publicly.... The documents make it clear that the [purported traffic] study was rushed and ordered only after Ms. Kelly apparently directed Mr. Wildstein to cause a traffic problem. The study was ... four pages long and found that, in essence, closing toll lanes creates traffic backups." ...
... the documents submitted by David Wildstein and his attorney are documents they deemed specifically related to the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge as per our subpoena request. Included in these documents is a reference to what appears to be a meeting between Port Authority Chairman David Samson and the governor one week before Bridget Kelly issued the order to cause 'traffic problems' in Fort Lee. By submitting these documents, Mr. Wildstein is telling us they are related to the lane closures in some way. The question that demands answering is how? -- John Wisniewski (D), Chair of the New Jersey Assembly's Transportation Committee
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "New documents related to a traffic jam planned by a member of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) staff show for the first time how furiously Christie’s lieutenants inside the Port Authority worked to orchestrate a coverup after traffic mayhem engulfed Fort Lee last year. Inside the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Christie's top appointees neglected furious complaints from Fort Lee's police chief as well as from angry rush-hour commuters.... The Republican governor's appointees instructed subordinates to stonewall reporters who were asking questions." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Even in disgrace, the New Jersey governor ... managed to turn his nationally televised news conference into a forum on the virtues of his favorite subject: himself. Use of the word 'I': 692 times. I'm: 119. I've: 67. Me: 83. My/myself: 134.... Christie's greatest obstacles are his own self-regard and his blindness to the possibility that he might have erred.... This certainty of his own infallibility will be more of an impediment to Christie than any lane closures in Fort Lee." ...
... The Democratic National Committee collects some of the teevee reporting on the revelation that Christie's staff ordered the lane closings:
... Gail Collins demonstrates that Chris Christie is really presidential! ...
... Ezra Klein: "Chris Christie is actually a bully.... What makes Christie unusual is that he's a bully with power. That can be a dangerous combination.... Chris Christie rose because he's a bully. It might be why he falls, too."
** Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday said that it would recognize as lawful the marriages of 1,300 same-sex couples in Utah, even though the state government is refusing to do so":
Right Wing World
Chris Christie is a heroic guy who took responsibility for the GWB scandalette & fired those responsible right away, unlike President Obama who has never taken responsibility or fired anybody for the Benghaaaazi! & IRS scandals. And ObamaCare. ...
... As Jed Lewison of Daily Kos writes, "It's not a joke from the Onion." It's what they're pushing over there at Fox "News." ...
... Tyler Hansen & Olivia Marshall of Media Matters have much more along the same vein. ...
... Tom Kludt of TPM: Also, Mika Brzezinski, the "liberal" on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC show, adopts the right-wing meme. As Kludt writes, "The comparison to the IRS ordeal makes little sense. Both liberal and conservative groups were improperly flagged by the agency and, as some have pointed out, the comparison would be more appropriate had Christie officials also ordered lane closures near cities led by mayors who supported him. Not to mention that one of Christie's closest aides is at the center of the bridge scandal. There's no evidence that Obama was that close to the IRS targeting." ...
... David Edwards of the Raw Story: Also, the 'bridge thing' is ruining coverage of Bob Gates' supposed Obama-bashing book -- the one that hasn't been published yet so none of the Fox "News" critics have read. ...
... Hannity & friends agree. Also, the media are complicit. CW: Yes, they are. Ferinstance, if none of the media had asked questions, Christie's press conference would have run for 15 minutes instead of two hours. The media were simply prolonging the sensational story.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Egypt's top military officer on Saturday offered the clearest indication yet that he sees this week's referendum on a revised constitution as a prelude to a bid for the presidency, moving to consolidate his power after his ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.The officer, General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, swiftly emerged as Egypt's paramount decision maker after the military takeover in July...."
New York Times: "Ariel Sharon, one of the most influential figures in Israel's history, a military commander and political leader who at the height of his power redrew the country's electoral map only to suffer a severe stroke from which he never recovered, died on Saturday in a hospital near Tel Aviv. He was 85."
Washington Post: 'About 300,000 people in West Virginia remained without water for drinking, cooking or bathing Friday as a chemical spill into the Elk River near Charleston closed schools, sharply curtailed commerce and prompted residents to strip grocery shelves of bottled water.... The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia opened an investigation into how as much as 5,000 gallons of a chemical used to process coal leaked into the river Thursday and found its way into the treatment plant that supplies water to much of the greater Charleston area."
Share Article
Reader Comments (9)
The NJ 'Big Chicken' saga promises lots more to come. Especially interesting that Wildstein showed up on the GWB that first morning to observe. Huh? A simple little traffic study required the presence of a Port Authority board member? Wondered how he got there. Drove? Was he delayed in departing? Was he on the New York side of the bottleneck and then later headed into the city for a celebratory lunch? Thought hearing chair, Wisniewski, handled the meeting well despite dealing with Wildstein stonewalled responses ...and made many sharp observations for the record.
Am anticipating a forthcoming denouement!
About the Morning Joe liberal, I'm often reminded of this (2007) Guardian article (as well as many others that ran similar reports): "Working for US cable news channel MSNBC, Brzezinski decided last week to refuse to read a news story about Paris Hilton."
Article included such praise as: "...America cheered as Mika Brzezinski shredded her script...To nearly all, she is a heroine.."
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jul/01/broadcasting.tvnews
Whenever I see that Vanity Fair picture of Mika & Joe (you know the one where she saucily kicks her leg up in the air) it gives me thoughts of 'life imitating PopArt" as in who's Paris Hilton now, baby?
And now this from The Daily Kos. If Andrew Cuomo decides to kiss and tell, I wonder how Christie will exact revenge--push him off the George Washington Bridge?
..."Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September. The lane closures occurred without notice to local authorities, officials have said, and snarled traffic for a week in the small borough on the Hudson River bluffs."
Thanks Kate for adding this because I think this information is crucial in disputing Christi's feigning ignorance. It was that intrepid reporter from the WSJ who aired this story back in early December and has been reporting on it ever since (his name escapes me). The phone call between Christi and Cuomo took place on December 12. Since we have ways of retrieving phone calls Cuomo doesn't have to get involved at all. And was this even brought up during the Q&A session with Christi and reporters?
The mention of Hannity the half-wit and his guests- of–reduced– thought– processes, not only were overly gleeful at Gates' "terrible put down of Obama and Biden," but had a grand old time making fun of scientists who are instructing us re: Climate Change only Hannity called it Global Warming over and over laughing, "It's freezing outside, coldest winter ever and they want us to believe we have global warming–––ha,ha,ha––I tell you folks, you can't make this stuff up." You just did, you jerk!
C.W.'s insert re: Gates' on sensitive matters is just delicious––and love the Burns!
@Kate Madison & PD Pepe: While I see Christie's big fat fingers all over this, I have serious doubts about the veracity of the substance of the WSJ story, which I tracked down (despite the exceedingly scant info Madison provided!). According to the report by Ted Mann, et al.,
"... a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person."
Both Cuomo & Christie look in the mirror and see a president. The anonymous "person familiar with the matter" is almost certainly a Cuomo aide; i.e., someone with skin in the game.
Christie has said he has regular conversations with Cuomo about the PA., so it's quite plausible that the two had some conversation about the lane closings. However, it stretches credulity to claim Christie said, "Yo, Andy, your Port Authority guys are 'pressing too hard to get to the bottom of' this." He most likely said something like, "Yo, Andy, your PA guys are giving my PA guys a lot of grief. Can you get them to lay off a little? They all need to get along, let bygones be bygones, kumbaya."
That's substantially different from what the Cuomo camp claims, even if the end -- getting Foye, et al., to fageddaboudit -- is the same.
Christie's story all along was that there was no there there; he sure as hell isn't going to imply to Cuomo that there's something to "get to the bottom of" & implore his rival for the presidency to cut him a break by covering up a scandalette.
Sorry, I'd say there's no there there to the WSJ story.
Marie
@Marie: you may be right about this. Maybe the reason this phone call hasn't been front and center IS because there is no there there as you pointed out. I found it strange that Ted Mann who was on Rachel's show never mentioned this phone call.
"It's not an accident that Christie emerged in a period when the Republican Party is out of power. His videos make them feel powerful at a moment when they're weak." said Ezra Klein. This sentence stopped me short. I hadn't made that connection, but it makes perfect sense. So if Christi goes down with the ship will all the rats desert it? And yet I understand that in certain Republican circles Christi is not that big a deal and is actually seen as a detriment. Oh, don't you just love politics?
Humor break: Matt Flegenheimer writes a NYT front-page piece (dead tree edition) about the real Mr. Richard Feder of Fort Lee, NJ, a brother-in-law of one of the creators of the SNL Roseanne Roseannadanna sketches. To keep it on topic, the real Mr. Feder was stuck in the GWB traffic in September and finally cancelled his meeting that day, interrupting interstate commerce.
My humor break-up! Reading CW's connecting Robert Gates's taking offense at Obama's words with Robert Burn's classic 'to a louse..." Poifect!
Ezra Klein publishes a poll. In 2006 1/3 of Democrats approved of the NSA. In 2013 2/3 of Democrats approve of the NSA. Amazing how a change of ownership turns a conservative junk-yard guard dog into the family pet. Which was the point of the article.
I'll be glad when the hullabaloo over a bridge closure dies down so we can get back to where's the money. Or have the checks to the survivors of Sandy been mailed? Last I read tens of millions had disappeared.