;)
The Commentariat -- Jan. 22, 2013
There is some excellent commentary on the President's inaugural speech on the Inauguration -- Part 2 page below. I especially admired Jim Fallows' close reading (the second of two of his posts I linked.) Fallows, a former presidential speechwriter, knows how to parse a president's prose.
Ray Bolger, Gloria Borger.Vice President Biden speaks with CNN's Gloria Bolger Borger about his relationship with President Obama.
... CW Update: I think you can see why I keep getting those two mixed up.
Richard Stevenson & John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama made addressing climate change the most prominent policy vow of his second Inaugural Address, setting in motion what Democrats say will be a deliberately paced but aggressive campaign built around the use of his executive powers to sidestep Congressional opposition."
Inauguration Day DocuDump. Jamie Dupree of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A new plan unveiled on Inauguration Day by House Republicans would postpone any showdown on a debt limit increase until mid-May, a big change for GOP lawmakers who wanted to use the debt limit as a major battle over budget cuts." Via Greg Sargent.
New York Times Editors: "The best way to end the Senate's sorry history of inaction is to end the silent filibuster, forcing lawmakers to explain themselves if they want to block legislation supported by the majority." ...
... BUT Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will present colleagues with options for reforming the Senate's filibuster rules in a Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday. Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are close to reaching a deal to speed the pace of work in the Senate, but some of the details remain unresolved. The agreement between Reid and McConnell is not expected to include the talking filibuster...."
Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "As the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision turns 40 years old on Tuesday, the debate over abortion rages on in state capitols from Richmond to Phoenix." ...
... Mark Murray of NBC News: "As the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision takes place on Tuesday, a majority of Americans -- for the first time -- believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. What's more, seven in 10 respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is the highest percentage on this question since 1989." CW: we have crazy right-wing misogynists to thank for this change in popular opinion.
How Low Can They Go? Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "The [Virginia] state Senate is split 20-20 between Republicans and Democrats. On Monday, while state Sen. Henry Marsh (D) -- a 79-year-old civil rights veteran -- was reportedly in Washington to attend President Obama's second inaugural, GOP senators forced through a mid-term redistricting plan that Democrats say will make it easier for Republicans to gain a majority.... The new redistricting map revises the districts created under the 2011 map and would take effect before the next state Senate elections in Virginia and would redraw district lines to maximize the number of safe GOP seats.... After using the absence of civil rights leader Marsh to push through the legislative changes, the Senate adjourned in honor of a well-known Confederate general." Thanks to contributor Lisa for the link.
Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough admitted on Sunday that Republicans only kept their majority in the House of Representatives as a result of gerrymandering, noting that the GOP received less votes than Democrats in the 2012 election." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.
Mitch McConnell Campaign Puts Lies in Writing. Alexandra Jaffe of The Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is calling for supporters to back his opposition to expanded gun controls, warning in a new email that 'they're coming for your guns.... You and I are literally surrounded. The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights. On your freedom,' the email opens. It goes on to warn that 'our freedom is under direct assault ... from those who want to shred our Constitution.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.
Aargh! Campaign 2016
Calling Dr. Freud. Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "On Saturday, [Vice President] Biden attended the State Society of Iowa 'First in the National Celebration' where he slipped up and referred to himself as the president instead of as the V.P. I'm proud to be president of the United States, but I am prouder to be....' Biden said as the crowd started to laugh and cheer. 'I'm proud to be vice president of the United States but I am prouder to be Barack Obama, President Barack Obama's vice president.' It wasn't just the state of Iowa that he seemed to be courting. For his official swearing in at the Naval Observatory on Sunday, Biden invited members of two other early primary states -- New Hampshire and South Carolina."
Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government. The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die. -- Taro Aso, Japan's Finance Minister
News Ledes
AP: "The New Mexico teenager accused of gunning down five family members over the weekend ambushed his father as he returned home from an overnight shift at a rescue mission, then reloaded his rifles and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people, authorities said Tuesday." Read on.
AP: "A shooting on a Texas community college campus wounded three people Tuesday and sent students fleeing for safety as officials placed the campus on lockdown, officials said."
Reuters: "The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch and expanded existing U.N. sanctions thanks to a deal secured by the United States and Pyongyang's ally China."
AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election on Tuesday, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister, according to exit polls. But a lackluster performance by Likud, along with surprising gains by a centrist newcomer, raised the strong possibility that he will be forced to form a broad coalition."
New York Times: "A Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday that Prince Harry must have 'mental problems,' following the broadcast of remarks by the royal in which he said that killing militants from an Apache helicopter was similar to playing video games." See the interview of Harry, posted earlier, under Infotainment.
AP: "Russia began evacuating its citizens from Syria on Tuesday, the strongest indication yet that Moscow sees President Bashar Assad's grip on power slipping nearly two years into the conflict. Four buses carrying about 80 people, mostly women and children, crossed into Lebanon in the early afternoon at the Masnaa border crossing, where an official from the Russian Embassy in Beirut was waiting for them."
AP: "Algerian forces are scouring the Sahara desert for five foreigners missing since Islamist militants attacked a remote natural gas plant, an official said Tuesday."
Reuters: "The United States has started transporting French soldiers and equipment to Mali as part of its logistical aid to French forces fighting Islamist militants in the north of the country, a U.S. official said on Tuesday."
New York Times: "The Israeli public went to the polls on Tuesday after a sprawling election campaign that almost certainly ensured another term for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative, but left open the larger questions of what kind of government he might lead or what course the country might take." ...
... Reuters: "Britain said on Tuesday prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are almost dead because of expanding Jewish settlement in occupied territory, and warned Israel it was losing international support. Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke as Israelis voted in an election likely to yield a hardline rightist government keener to thicken settlement on land where Palestinians want to establish statehood than seek peace."
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Reader Comments (10)
My Oregon senator, Jeff Merkley, is the author of the bill (along with Mark Udall) to change the filibuster BACK to the original intention of our lovely founding fathers. As in--MAKE THEM TALK. The present iteration is foul and dishonest, and is one of the reasons the American people think the Congress is hopeless. I attended a Town Hall last week in which Merkley talked about how he constructed his bill. Sane, very sane.
Seems, however, that HARRY REID, is not interested in Jeff Merkley's bill, instead preferring a compromise by Carl Levin and John McCain, which would basically do nothing. SHAME ON YOU, Harry Reid. No wonder our Congress is a mess. Listen up to a smart, not rich, informed and committed senator like Jeff Merkley, who truly wants to bring change to this terminally dysfunctional institution.
We need this reform now!
This is an interesting look into the details of the Citadel. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/the_citadel_project_iii_arms.php?ref=fpa
Yes, Fallows got it but in the still don't or don't want to get it category are all those who still worship at the twin shrines of unfettered capitalism and rugged individualism, both, as (even recent) history makes abundantly clear, sure paths to anarchy and chaos.
And then the Times hires folks like Brooks to cast a patina of reasonableness over beliefs so fundamentally wrong. Crazed by the heady rush of Inauguration fever, broke my own rule and read him last night. On Obama's speech, Brooks' misreading claims that all the President's talk of togetherness left out acknowledgment of individual enterprise and genius. He doesn't get history, Brooks says.
Brooks seems educated, so the question is why he knows or notices so little? As I said in a reply to his column,
"And I think you, Mr. Brooks, are misreading history in at least two important ways.
First, the magic of the American market, which you make so much of, has always been joined at the hip (if not having its hand in the pocket of) government. From the Erie Canal to the War of 1812, which surely had distinct economic component, to the development of (some would say the giveaway to) the railroads to the federal DARPA investments that were instrumental to the development of Silicon Valley, American business has never been independent of government. In fact, it is easy to make the case that business and government are far too close for the nation's health and its citizens' comfort.
Second, the collective impulse is not just a soft-headed recognition of the reality rejected by those who fantasize about a life of solitary, rugged individualism. It is also a response to the way we live, interconnected, mutually dependent and increasingly in one another's back pockets.
Obviously, our numbers and our physical proximity push us toward a collective consciousness that parallels and reflects the reality of an increasingly crowded and interdependent world. Thee are so many of us, interacting, the problems we create together must be dealt with (as the President said) together. Like it or not there is no other way.
Despite a personal sympathy for the myth of the heroic individual or our own hermetic tendencies, we should not confuse personal feelings with the way of the world."
Yes, despite Mr. Brooks and those he apologizes for, a good start to the next four years, and if Kate gets her wish about filibuster reform, it will be even better. I spend too much time with fingers crossed.
The Virginia debacle is one more incident in which the hen house was left unguarded. I respond to every survey that is sent to me by the reconstituted Obama machine by LOUDLY expressing my fear that successful gerrymandering and dirty tricks at the state level must be a key focus going forward. The national contest will be irrelevant otherwise.
Today, Pierce had an optimistic, well reasoned piece on Obama's 1st term and the promise of his 2nd. This quote resonated with me; "The politics that elected him are the politics of the people outside the Beltway, the ones who waited in line for five hours in places like Cleveland and Fort Lauderdale in order to endorse with their votes the ideas on which he was running." Those people who wait in those lines in 2016 may well see their votes count as 3/5th of a person if the twisted program of state Republicans prevails. And no, I don't think state level Republicans generally exhibit even a minimum capacity for critical thinking , so the usual monied suspects are pulling the strings. Folks like the Koch brothers will successfully use ignorance and fear to add to their power.
President of the Whole Country - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/barack-obama-president-whole-country-0213#ixzz2IiY9A6MF
Kate,
Clearly, talk from conservatives about the desires of the sainted, preserved-forever-in-amber Founders is just that. Talk. They pick and choose which intentions and words they revere, at least as they divine them, and which they spit on.
The idea of a supermajority was discussed by the authors of the Federalist Papers but was considered for inclusion in the Constitution only for very special cases (treaty ratification, constitutional amendments, overruling presidential vetoes, and the like). Federalist 75 offers some insight into Hamilton's thinking about supermajorities:
“All provisions which require more than a majority of any body to its resolutions have a direct tendency to embarrass the operations of the government and an indirect one to subject the sense of the majority to that of the minority.”
But this is, in fact, what we have now. In some cases, as we have seen, 41 senators from states that constitute 10% of the population force their views on the other 90%. This is expressly not what the founders wished, but Republicans, who routinely drop to their knees when mentioning these sacred elders, suddenly seem unable to decipher their intentions regarding such a chicken shit tactic.
But it's all of a piece with conservatives' cherry picked observance of the Constitution. Second Amendment? Holy shit! All hands on deck our FREEEDOOOMMS are being stolen. They're coming for our GUUUUNNNNSSS.
Eighth, fourteenth? Illegal! Commerce clause? Illegal! Not what the founders meant...
How 'bout the Establishment clause? Oh that's an interesting one. If you take a peek back in time, you'll see that the separation of church and state was not only supported but demanded by Baptists who feared that a state religion would impinge on their right to worship as they saw fit. The Founders agreed. They knew firsthand the devastating affects of government policy and public and private life controlled by religion and wanted no part of it. But today, the descendants of those Baptists are the ones demanding that the Establishment clause be written out or interpreted to allow their religious views to be granted the force of law. In other words, to have done to us what their ancestors feared might be done to them.
So not only do conservatives cherry pick which parts of the Constitution they'll abide by, they toss the very history of the writing of that document down the memory hole.
No wonder Mitch McConnell feels free to blather on like a clown.
He is one.
And if Democrats don't take the opportunity to fix this problem, so are they.
Anyone hear from the Mittster yesterday? I bet he was glued to his TV, popcorn in hand, having hisself a good ol' time. Or maybe he was watching re-runs of NASCAR races. He knows some of those owners, ya know.
If he watched the speech, I wonder if he got that bit about social security not making us weaker?
That was aimed at you, you fucking 1% Rat, you.
Don't worry. Heritage, or AEI or another one of those phony baloney stink tanks, has a nice warm sinecure for you, or some board of directors or right wing corporation will take pity on you for being such an egocentric, out of touch, Richie Rich dickhead loser.
Hope you're loving life in well deserved obscurity.
Tell Lady Ann and the Taggster we said "Hey".
Whoops! I think Harry Reid may have had a change of heart after talking with the "chinless wonder," Mitch McConnell today. In which case I forgive him--IF he means what he says:
...."I hope that within the next 24 to 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we're going to move forward on what I think needs to be done," Reid told reporters. "The caucus will support me on that," he added."
Fingers crossed!
Juan Cole has some interesting observations about Obama's speech, especially as it relates to the Middle East. His observations about Iran are sobering.
http://www.juancole.com/
I'm pooped after all that glorious gala––you would think I was the one marching for hours on the streets of D.C. My buddies above have pretty much said what needed to be said, but I do have a few additions:
First, THE DRESS: My husband thought it lovely, even used the words elegant to describe our first lady. I counteracted with "not the word to describe her at all, but self assured would be much better" and although I wasn't taken with the dress the fact that Marie sees it as a comfortable nightgown I can see the connection although the color I would think would frighten off even the most randy of men.
THE SPEECH: I read it instead of actually listening to the whole delivery–-the soaring MLK tones at times were a little too much for me. I thought it the best!!! He covered a great deal and when he brought in climate change I got shivers and shouted "YES!!!!"
The invocation at the luncheon by some pastor left me stunned. First off he addressed the whole sermon/speech to God––"Dear God" he started off with. Then he ended with saying "in Jesus Christ our savior, amen." "Jesus Christ!" I shouted––are you kidding me? you think you've got a room full of Christians here? and there they all were, heads bent in prayer, awaiting their sumptuous feast and three wines while I'm sitting watching this–– whining about the insensitivity of that pastor who somehow believes we are one under the sun, god wise.
Barbarossa thank-you for the link to Juan Cole's analysis, it was very interesting and richly informative. I had to read it twice to absorb it completely. I focused on Iran, although his other observations on Obama's foreign policy were equally important. He suggested that Iran could feel so squeezed by sanctions and the potential outcomes of Syria / Assad and Iraq / Moliki situations that "lashing out" may be what Iran may see as their only response, unwise at it may seem.
Ironically, Richard Engel just spoke on HardBall about Iran. IMHO, Engel understands the Middle East better than any other American journalist and I value his observations. Obviously, he had to work to get much in between Matthews' idiot ramblings. However, he had cautions in the same vein as Cole. Engel maintained that we don't know what Khamenei will do going forward. He also gave a good explanation of "winning" as seen by Middle Eastern actors (it's long ball) and how America defines winning (single definitive outcome).