;)
The Commentariat -- July 25, 2015
Internal links, defunct videos & graphic removed.
Peter Baker & Marc Santora of the New York Times: President "Obama emphasized his ties to Kenya shortly after his arrival when he had dinner at his hotel with about three dozen members of his extended family, including his half sister, Auma, and his step-grandmother, known as Mama Sarah. The powerful symbolism masked the daunting challenges as Mr. Obama tries to use the visit to Kenya and then Ethiopia to deepen trade ties, encourage economic development and bolster efforts to combat the Shabab, a ruthless affiliate of Al Qaeda based in Somalia, while nudging both countries away from the repression of dissent that has characterized recent years." ...
... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Declaring that 'Africa is on the move,' President Obama urged a gathering of entrepreneurs Saturday to pursue innovative projects to stimulate economic development on the continent. Speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Obama argued that these business projects could lead to a broader political opening in Africa and improve the lives of women and girls here." ...
... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: Kenya "may be the most dangerous place Barack Obama has visited as president. Kenya is arguably more treacherous for the president than Afghanistan, where there are U.S. troops on the ground and hardened military bases to shield him. By contrast, [Nairobi] is a bustling, crowded city with an active terrorist group -- in this case, Al-Shabaab, Somalia-based Islamists who've aligned themselves with Al Qaeda. Last year, they attacked a Nairobi shopping mall and killed 67 people. Just two weeks ago, they killed 14 people and wounded a dozen others in a nighttime attack in northeastern Kenya. The State Department last week issued a travel warning for Kenya that doesn't mention Obama's visit but cites the entrepreneur summit he will attend as a potential lightning rod for attacks."
White House: "In this week's address, the President speaks to the progress we have made in making our financial system stronger, safer, and more fair in the years since financial crisis":
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "A federal judge in California has ruled that the Obama administration's detention of children and their mothers who were caught crossing the border illegally is a serious violation of a longstanding court settlement, and that the families should be released as quickly as possible. In a decision late Friday roundly rejecting the administration's arguments for holding the families, Judge Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California found that two detention centers in Texas that the administration has opened since last summer fail to meet minimum legal requirements of the 1997 settlement for facilities housing children. Judge Gee also found that migrant children had been held in 'widespread deplorable conditions' in Border Patrol stations after they were first caught, and she said the authorities had 'wholly failed' to provide the 'safe and sanitary' conditions required for children even in temporary cells."
Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton will testify on Oct. 22 before the House select committee investigating her role in connection with the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said Saturday. The testimony will be public, Merrill said. It follows months of wrangling between the Republican-led committee and Clinton, whose allies accuse the panel of conducting a fishing expedition for damaging material that might be used against her as she runs for president in 2016."
Today's No-Brainer. Liam Stack of the New York Times: "The Defense Department on Friday asked armed civilians who have volunteered to guard military recruiting stations across the country in the wake of he mass shooting in Chattanooga, Tenn., to leave their posts. The Pentagon said in a statement that it took the safety of its enlisted and civilian personnel 'very seriously' and that Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was reviewing recommendations to improve security at all facilities, including recruiting stations. The presence of armed civilians, it said, might cause safety problems.... A Defense official said that Friday's statement asking volunteers to go home was prompted by an 'accidental weapons discharge' from a civilian weapon outside a recruiting station in Lancaster, Ohio, the day before." ...
... CW: Really? It took an "accidental discharge" of "an AR-15 rifle outside a recruiting center" in a shopping mall to get you people to figure out that "civilians -- often heavily armed, sometimes dressed in camouflage combat fatigues, and overwhelmingly male" -- "might cause safety problems"?
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
After being called out by several media watchers, the New York Times finally printed a correction some time Friday to its Thursday night story about two inspectors general requesting the DOJ to initiate a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of her e-mail account. Here's the correction:
An earlier version of this article and an earlier headline, using information from senior government officials, misstated the nature of the referral to the Justice Department regarding Hillary Clinton's personal email account while she was secretary of state. The referral addressed the potential compromise of classified information in connection with that personal email account. It did not specifically request an investigation into Mrs. Clinton.
... CW: Those "senior government officials" are almost certainly Republicans in the House, likely either Trey Gowdy or another GOP rep on his Select Committee to Investigate Hillary Clinton through November 8, 2016. A later Times story (see below) refers to a letter from one of the inspectors general "to Congress." So there's your reliable source.
But wait. There's more. Lots more.
The Times has a new story by the same reporters -- Michael Schmidt & Matt Apuzzo: "Government investigators have discovered four emails containing what they say is classified information on the personal email account that Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, the investigators said in a letter to Congress released on Friday. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, said Friday that ... she was concerned about 'a lot of inaccuracies' in the reporting of her personal email account.... A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton's campaign released a brief statement on Twitter, saying, 'Any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted.'...
"... On Thursday night and again Friday morning, the Justice Department referred to the matter as a 'criminal referral' but later on Friday dropped the word 'criminal.' Regardless of the terminology, the referral raises the possibility of a Justice Department criminal investigation into Mrs. Clinton's emails as she campaigns for president." ...
... CW: Right. Because the word "criminal" is just "terminology." And where do we find out the "terminology" the Times used was erroneous? Down in Paragraph 8. The original story (linked first above) still has "criminal" in the headline & in the lede. So I guess that's going to stand for the use of Republicans from here to eternity. But, WTF, it's just "terminology." Sorry, boys, you can't clean up the mess of your first story by burying a mealy-mouthed disclaimer in Graf 8 of a second story, a story that still attempts to paint Clinton as culpable of something. And then go on to Graf 9 to excuse yourselves for using said "terminology" by saying that, who knows, sometime in the future there is a "possibility" the DOJ could launch a criminal investigation. This is Breitbart-worthy "journalism." Note: According to Dylan Byers (see below), the DOJ did initially tell the Times reporters that one IG had asked for a criminal investigation. ...
... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that, contrary to media reports, it did not receive a request to open a criminal investigation into how sensitive information was handled in Hillary Clinton's private emails. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link. ...
... Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is rebutting reports that the State Department has formally requested a federal criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State. 'I spoke personally to the State Department inspector general on Thursday, and he said he never asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of Secretary Clinton's email usage,' Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said Friday in a statement. Instead, State Inspector General Steve A. Linick, 'told me the Intelligence Community IG notified the Justice Department and Congress that they identified classified information in a few emails that were part of the [Freedom of Information Act] review, and that none of those emails had been previously marked as classified.'" ...
... Dylan Byers: "The most significant error rests with the Justice Department: multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said that the DOJ told the Times on Thursday that the Intelligence Community Inspector General had sought a criminal investigation.... (On Friday, the DOJ also initially told other news organizations the referral was 'criminal.') But hours later, the DOJ reversed course: 'The Department has received a referral related to the potential compromise of classified information. It is not a criminal referral,' the Department said in a statement.... The Director of National Intelligence's office also said Friday that the Intelligence Community Inspector General's referral was not criminal....
"Meanwhile, the Times' claim that two inspectors general sought an inquiry also came into question on Friday afternoon after Jennifer Werner, a Democratic spokesperson for the Select Committee on Benghazi ... [said] that the State Inspector General 'did not ask for any kind of investigation, criminal or otherwise.' Werner said the referral 'went from the Intelligence Community IG to the FBI,' and that the Times was therefore wrong to report that two inspectors general had sought the investigation." ...
... ** Matt Gertz of Media Matters has an excellent rundown of all the normal, due-diligence reporting the Times apparently did not do before the paper ran with the story. ...
... Although it is not at all clear from the Times reporting in either story, the whole fracas is over e-mails that the State Department released, under Judge Rudolph Contreras' order, after Clinton left the State Department. Since the judge required State to release the e-mails much sooner than they had proposed -- they didn't want to release them till January 16, 2016, & Contreras ultimately ordered the department "to release emails from the former secretary of State's private account every 30 days beginning June 30[, 2015] -- it's hardly surprising that "mistakes were made." Contreras is an Obama appointee. ...
... ** UPDATE. Kurt Eichenwald, a former Times reporter, in Newsweek, completely dismantles the Times reports & demonstrates again & again how the reporters used deception, elisions & out-and-out falsehoods to craft their story in such a way as to fool readers into inferring there is some kind of scandal here. "In terms of journalism, this is terrible. That the Times article never discloses this is about an after-the-fact review of Clinton's emails conducted long after she left the State Department is simply inexcusable. That this all comes from a concern about the accidental release of classified information -- a fact that goes unmentioned -- is even worse. In other words, the Times has twisted and turned in a way that makes this story seem like something it most decidedly is not. This is no Clinton scandal. It is no scandal at all. It is about current bureaucratic processes, probably the biggest snooze-fest in all of journalism." Read it. ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "... the errors in this story seem so dramatic and so easily checkable that I feel like there's something up at the Times. Not something nefarious, I don't think. But some unexamined institutional bias, some over-haste to push out stories based on leaks from interested parties. Something. Because as it stands, it's not just that the story doesn't add up. We know that. They've admitted that. How this mistake got made doesn't add up either."
... CW: We will skip the crowing & howling on the right, but will note that "non-partisan" Ron Fournier of the National Journal asserts that however inaccurate the Times' reporting, "Clinton's Conspiracy of Secrecy [Is] Worthy of Criminal Probe.... She's blaming The New York Times, which is as pathetic as it is laughable."
Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "Jonathan Pollard, the U.S. intelligence analyst who spied for Israel and was sentenced to life in prison, could be released as early as November when he becomes eligible for mandatory parole, according to the Justice Department. His release would eliminate a long-standing wedge in U.S.-Israel relations at a time of increased tensions between the countries over a nuclear deal with Iran.... The White House rejected the suggestion that it would use Pollard's release for political gain."
The Distinguished Gentleman from Kentucky Is a Serial Liar. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "... Ted Cruz on Friday rushed across a line rarely crossed on the Senate floor: He accused the leader of his party, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of lying to his colleagues. 'What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie,' Cruz said Friday morning. 'We know now that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment, that he is willing to say things that he knows are false....'... Prompting Cruz's outburst: McConnell's move to set up amendment votes on a must-pass transportation bill. After senators voted to consider the bill, McConnell (R-Ky.) set up votes on two controversial measures -- a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- and did it in such a way that will make it difficult for other amendments to be considered. That move incensed Cruz -- who had announced his intention to offer other amendments...":
Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "The Senate will come back on Sunday for votes on these amendments. It's safe to say Cruz will take that opportunity to make some more headlines. He's got to do something to out-Trump Trump."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started a fast-track process Friday on legislation to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding in the wake of two controversial videos showing officials discussing delivery of fetal parts.... [Sen. Ted] Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both of whom are running for president in 2016, as well as Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), were hoping to use the the Senate's long-term highway bill as their vehicle to defund the agency.... The legislation McConnell is fast-tracking was introduced earlier Friday by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is running for president." ...
... Dave Levitan & Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org: "Several Republican presidential candidates have claimed that Planned Parenthood is 'profiting' from abortions. But the full, unedited video they cite as evidence shows a Planned Parenthood executive repeatedly saying its clinics want to cover their costs, not make money, when donating fetal tissue from abortions for scientific research. Four experts in the field of human tissue procurement told us the price range discussed in the video -- $30 to $100 per patient -- represents a reasonable fee. 'There's no way there's a profit at that price,' said Sherilyn J. Sawyer, the director of Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital's 'biorepository.'... It remains legal to donate tissue from a legally aborted fetus, and for that tissue to be used for research purposes." ...
... Jen Gunter in the New Republic: "The anti-choice organization Center for Medical Progress ... claims the videos demonstrate that Planned Parenthood profits from fetal tissue donation (which would be illegal) and that they are 'haggling' over the price of 'baby parts.' As an OB/GYN, I can tell you that neither of these claims are [sic.] true. Tthese are not 'baby parts.'... Calling the tissue 'baby parts' is a calculated attempt to anthropomorphize an embryo or fetus." And Planned Parenthood is not making money or "haggling over the sales price." "As the facts are inconvenient, the only option is to circumvent them by any means possible. These videos are the kind of propaganda that only reinforces those fixed, false beliefs." ...
... Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "Hillary Clinton strongly defended Planned Parenthood Thursday as the women's health organization reels from the fallout over a sting video released by anti-abortion activists earlier this month.... Before Clinton spoke Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed the controversy as a GOP invention. And White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the videos were 'selectively edited to distort not just the words of the individual speaking, but also Planned Parenthood.'" ...
... Annie Karni of Politico: "In her first big address detailing her approach to reforming Wall Street and corporate America, Hillary Clinton laid out a plan that would increase taxes on short-term investors. She also voiced support for more transparency when it comes to executive compensation and stock buyback transactions, and said she supports raising the minimum wage to $15-an-hour -- at least in expensive cities like New York and Los Angeles.... [Clinton's speech] was overshadowed by news that the Justice Department had been asked by two inspectors general to open a criminal investigation into whether classified information had potentially been sent from Clinton's personal email account during her tenure at the State Department." ...
... CW: Politico posted Karni's report at 5:45 pm ET yesterday, & updated it at 11:02 pm, approximately half-a-day after numerous news outlets, including Politico, had reported that there was no criminal investigation underway. Yet, WTF, Karni & her editors went with the "criminal investigation" line. As I said yesterday, "Hillary Clinton/criminal investigation" is a meme that's going to stick. Now we know it's going to stick because supposedly objective straight reporters will keep inserting it into their copy & their fact-checkers will let it pass.
Campbell Robertson, et al., of the New York Times: "The picture that emerged Friday of the gunman who killed two women and wounded nine other people in a theater here was one filled with instability and rage, from a history of mental illness, to vandalizing and booby-trapping a house, to venting his fury at women's rights, minorities and liberals.... On Twitter, on antigovernment discussion boards, and on other forums online, a person using the names Rusty Houser and John Russell Houser praised the Westboro Baptist Church, which has drawn ire for demonstrating against gays at military funerals; Timothy J. McVeigh, who bombed a government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168, and even Adolf Hitler. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and antigovernment groups, said the posts were all from Mr. Houser." Also, too, he liked to fly the Confederate flag. ...
... So, naturally ... Lis Power of Media Matters: "Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly responded to breaking news of a deadly shooting at a Louisiana movie theater by baselessly asking about possible connections to ISIS or radical Islam." ...
... Then there's this from Jim Hoft, the Gateway Pundit. Here's the headline: "FIGURES. Lafayette Shooter Was Obama Supporter: 'I Was For His Re-Election, I Liked His Spending.'" Now read the context as to what-all Houser "liked" about President Obama. ...
... CW: See also Kate Madison's comment in today's thread about Houser's "mental illness." I'd like to hear her diagnosis of Jim Hoft's condition. ...
... Maybe you remember this. Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "... the Department of Homeland Security's ability to monitor anti-government fanatics, who have carried out far more lethal attacks on Americans in recent years than Islamic extremists, was severely crippled during the 2009 dispute over a Department of Homeland Security report [PDF] on domestic right-wing terrorists. As we've reported, Republican politicians and conservative activists alleged that the report focused on a non-existent threat and would be used by the government to mark all conservatives, particularly Christians, gun owners and veterans, as terrorists.... Under pressure, Homeland Security retracted the report and ended up 'gutting' the very unit combating such threats.... The report ... specifically assessed 'lone wolves' that hold 'violent rightwing extremist ideology' as 'the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States' bent on 'commit[ing] violent acts.'..." ...
... Ian Millhiser: "Louisiana, the state where this occurred, has some of the weakest -- if not the weakest -- gun laws in the nation.... Louisiana does not require gun dealers to obtain a state license. It does not limit the number of guns that may be purchased at one time. It forbids local governments from regulating firearms. And it has no laws restricting assault weapons or .50 caliber rifles.... A 2013 report by the Center for American Progress examined all 50 states according to 10 factors related to gun violence. Louisiana received the worst rating of any state on several of these factors, including overall firearm deaths from 2001-2010, firearm homicides in 2010, and firearm homicides among women from 2001-2010. The report also rated Louisiana the worst state overall when all 10 factors were aggregated." ...
... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday deflected questions about whether Thursday night's movie theater shooting should prompt a reevaluation of gun policies.... 'There will be an absolute appropriate time for us to talk about policies and politics, and I'm sure that folks will want to score political points of this tragedy, as they've tried to do on previous tragedies'", he said. ...
... Martin O'Malley, in a Boston Globe op-ed: "This week, we again watched in horror as more images of gun violence flashed across our TV and computer screens.... During the first 204 days of 2015, there have been 204 mass shootings: a mass shooting for every day of the year.... We cannot let this become the new normal.... We need comprehensive gun safety laws to save lives.... While the public strongly backs common-sense gun safety reforms, Congress has refused to act on them.... Stopping the preventable deaths of American citizens should not be a partisan issue, or the purview of special interests. These members of Congress need to find the courage to do the right thing, without fear of the NRA's clout, come next election."
Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register: "Donald Trump's presidential campaign has denied The Des Moines Register press credentials to gain access to a candidate event scheduled for Saturday in Oskaloosa. The reason: an editorial published by the newspaper last Tuesday calling on Trump to quit the Republican race.... The Register's editorial board operates independently from the editors and reporters who conduct political coverage.... It is highly unusual for a political campaign to deny credentials to a media organization." CW: I wonder if President Trump would trample First Amendment free-press rights. I hope we'll never know.
Peggy Fikac of the Houston Chronicle: "An appeals court on Friday rejected one of the criminal counts against former Gov. Rick Perry but said he must face the other one in the abuse-of-power case against him. Perry was indicted by a grand jury in 2014 after being accused of abusing his veto power to try to force out the Democratic Travis County district attorney in the wake of her messy drunken-driving arrest. The former governor, who is running for the GOP nomination for president, repeatedly failed in efforts get the indictment dismissed by state Judge Bert Richardson. He took his case to the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin."
Rebecca Elliott & Mike Morris of the Houston Chronicle: "The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Houston City Council must repeal the city's equal rights ordinance or place it on the November ballot. The ruling comes three months after a state district judge ruled that opponents of Houston's contentious non-discrimination ordinance passed last year failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum."
Here are a couple of things I missed this week:
"No Class." Raquel Reichard of Latina: Marco Rubio compares Donald Trump to President Obama. "'I don't think the way he's behaved over the last few weeks is either dignified or worthy of the office that he seeks,' Rubio said about Trump. 'We already have a president now that has no class. We have a president now that does selfie stick videos, that invites YouTube stars there, people who eat cereal out of a bathtub.'" CW: Because having a sense of humor is just like calling Mexican immigrants rapists & murderers.
... Lindsey Graham decides how to deal with Donald Trump's revealing his personal cellphone number:
... Funny, but I don't know if it would pass Marco's classy test.
Marco in the Middle. Looks like back in '89 when he was a high-schooler, Marco thought this was classy:
Now that he's more mature, this is his classy presidential look:
News Ledes
CNN: "Two former detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba were arrested by Belgian police in a counterterrorism operation targeting a recruiting network for al Qaeda in Syria. They were arrested Wednesday night along with three others as they were about to break into a house to raise funds in the town of Hoboken, near Antwerp, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN. 'We have dismantled a serious recruiting network for Syria,' the official told CNN.... One of the former ... detainees was Moussa Zemmouri, 37, a Moroccan national born in Antwerp, Belgian federal prosecutors announced Friday. The other was an Algerian identified as Soufiane A., who prosecutors believe spent time in Syria." Zemmouri was released in 2005.
AP: "Two animal-rights activists have been charged with terrorizing the fur industry during cross-country road trips in which they released about 5,740 mink from farms, and vandalized the homes and businesses of industry members, the FBI said Friday. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Joseph Brian Buddenberg, 31, and Nicole Juanita Kissane, 28, both of Oakland, California, and federal prosecutors charged them with conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act."
New York Times: "Turkish fighter jets, which on Friday attacked Islamic State targets in Syria, have launched a wave of airstrikes in northern Iraq, targeting camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party for the first time in four years, the prime minister's office said Saturday. The Iraq incursion, which began late Friday and continued into Saturday, effectively ended an unstable two-year cease-fire between the Turkish government and the Kurdish militants, known by the initials P.K.K. After 30 years of conflict that claimed at least 40,000 lives, the two sides reached a fragile peace in 2013, though there have been a few minor clashes since then."
Share Article
Reader Comments (7)
@Marie: Thanks for the fine rundown of the NYT stories on the Clinton emails. My summation of their "reporting" thus far: one hot mess. Even without the inaccuracies, it was hard to understand what was going on from the reporting. Anyway, I had to laugh at your suggestion that a source of the piece was Trey Gowdy, because that is exactly what I suggested to the Public Editor in a letter of complaint:
"Schmidt and Apuzzo relied on obviously partisan and unreliable unnamed sources........
I also think it's time to name those sources so we can all judge for ourselves. Let me guess - Trey Gowdy."
It was my first letter to the public editor; I'm guessing she had a pretty full mailbox by the end of the day.
I first learned of the article through a NYT news alert late last night. An alert that informed me that a "criminal investigation" had been opened against Hilary Clinton. It took, as you say, HOURS for the Times to walk this back. Even as they changed the story they kept the damning headline. Seriously, I think a good college paper could have done a better job. They owe Hilary an apology (but I won't hold my breath).
It would also be nice if they sent out a news alert to retract their original one. Again, not holding my breath.
I would like to swear out a criminal complaint against the entire Grand Old Party-- It is really hard to read that YET AGAIN criminals have taken advantage of an always-naive (apparently)Planned Parenthood...what is wrong that it is always on the defensive when it and we know who the opponents are?? As for the New York Times, does anyone really think it is the paper of note anymore? How stupid to think the editors apparently have no idea, like Planned Parenthood (and NPR and all the other so-called liberal bodies that have no idea what they are reporting anymore--)that certain "governnment higher ups" might have nasty, criminal ideas of their own as to how to beat the other party, since they have no better ideas of governance of their own. I am so sick of outrage after outrage being reported as part of the new southern strategy to rule the country for the oligarchs that own the idiots in congress. I swear, sometimes it doesn't pay to even read my favorite blogs, as it just sends me into a rage of my own.
I must take exception to all the MSM chatter about the Christian terrorist who killed and injured people in LaFayette, LA--connecting his hateful act with being mentally ill and carrying on about the need to reform our mental health system. Of course, he was mentally ill, and of course we need to reform our mental health system--as we do so many of our dysfunctional systems!
However, this is a pet peeve of mine: all hateful people are automatically classified as mentally ill, and this is not necessarily the main case. Most mentally ill people are non-violent, except when fueled by alcohol and/or drugs. I think Rusty Houser was a late stage alcoholic--undiagnosed, it seems. His behavior over the years, particularly his domestic situation and bar room brawls, speak strongly of alcoholism. Just look at his picture! Classic alcoholic face--red face and nose in an uneven pattern, and yellowing eyeballs (liver damage). This guy should have been sentenced to AA a looong time ago! Mental health treatment would not and could not have helped him unless he had at least a year of sobriety in which to detoxify! Too many pundits and even some mental health professionals are ignorant of the "disease" of alcoholism and its relationship to violent behavior. This hate filled guy may have been beyond help, in any event, but I will bet that his rampage was fueled by alcohol--and perhaps other accompanying drugs.
Thanks Marie for the great run-down of events across the country yesterday. It seemed, as per usual these days, that it was a perverse parade of incompetence, horrible happenings, corrupt con jobs and deceitful dumbfucks. But without reading your blog I would've caught maybe half of that on a good day. And that's not for not trying.
The slippery turtle's campaign finance collusion alongside Walker's Supreme Court coup a few days away has me getting increasingly worried about the future of governability in this country. By pouncing on Precedent Theory, that once you can get one court to swing your way you flood the system with resources to push everything towards the desired new "normal", I have little faith that campaign finance laws will ever be truly effective in a post-Citizens United world. Add to that Roberts' "quid pro quo" definition and the admission of the IRS that they won't even be attempting to regulate any collusion between elected public servants and their demented money masters, and I see nothing but a big black hole filled with lots of grey noise.
There is also this WaPo article on Lafayette Killer Houser's personal history and problems:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/louisiana-gunman-suffered-from-mental-illness-court-documents-show/2015/07/24/798162f0-3220-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html
Toward the end of the article, several Georgia talk-radio hosts say that they had him on, often, because he was vocal and combative, the kind of verbal fireworks their listeners like. It seems Houser was the speaking embodiment of right-wing thought in his locality, in his day, on the radio.
And at least one radio host says, this week, that you could tell there was something wrong with Houser back then
Crazy people, talk radio, guns, misogyny -- just part of the culture, part of the media business. Random death is a small price to pay for such great entertainment -- as long as it is someone else's death.
No wonder we are at our wits end as Jeanne and safari have expressed here. You read this (see below) and then look at the date––and we see "a big black hole with lots of of grey noise."
"** From 2011: David Rothkopf of Foreign Policy: "... no society that holds itself up as
an example to the world should, as the United States does, brazenly shrug
off what are clearly deep national character flaws when it comes to our love
of guns or our celebration of hate politics. Tragedies like that which
unfolded in Arizona this weekend not only wound the victims, but also
America's ability to lead and to advance our interests and values
worldwide.... We are not talking about the aberrant behavior of a lone
gunman here. Instead we should see that what we are discussing are grossly
uncivilized aspects of American society, aspects of ourselves that we ought
to change not because we fall below international norms, but because we fall
so short of doing what is right, moral, or sensible."
@Kate: Yes! thanks for that clarification.
Now that I've read Politico's summary of the Clinton economic proposals she delivered yesterday, I see I need not have worried one of us might be channeling the other.
Seems that when she thinks long term about capital gains, she's peering all of two to six years ahead.
Better than one, maybe, but I had something much longer in mind, more like one lifetime, maybe more.
But I guess the lady whose husband repealed Glass-Steagall knows full well we don't count our profits or get elected over that timespan.