The Commentariat -- June 19
I've posted a page titled Bush Lite on Off Times Square, in which I ask readers to suggest what progressives -- or any concerned citizens -- should do about the Obama Administration's mimicry of the worst aspects of Bush/Cheney. We can't just sit here, can we?
** New York Times Editors: "The Obama administration has long been bumbling along in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to sacrificing Americans’ basic rights and liberties under the false flag of fighting terrorism. Now the Obama team seems ready to lurch even farther down that dismal road than George W. Bush did." Besides giving "agents significant new powers to search law enforcement and private databases, go through household trash or deploy surveillance teams..., the White House cares so little about providing meaningful oversight that Mr. Obama has yet to nominate a successor for Glenn Fine, the diligent Justice Department inspector general who left in January." CW: read the whole editorial. Charlie Savage's story, to which the editors referred, is here. ...
... Jack Balkin on "George W. Obama" -- how Obama is manipulating the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. ...
... Balkin gets Digby's seal of approval.
Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Inequality in the U.S. has has grown steadily since the 1970s, following a flat period after World War II. In 2008, the wealthiest 10 percent earned almost the same amount of income as the rest of the country combined.... A mounting body of economic research indicates that the rise in pay for company executives is a critical feature in the widening income gap.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on Barack Obama's "evolving" position, or whatever it is, on gay marriage. CW: Maybe you'll want to attend his $1,250-a-plate creepily-named "Gala with the Gay Community" to find out what he says he thinks about gay marriage this week, "thinking" which is, as Stolberg makes clear, a function of election metrics. ...
... Speaking of purposely garbled messages/trial balloons/politics-as-usual, Karen Garcia has an excellent post about the AARP's "position," whatever it is, on raising the Social Security age. Here's the Betty White AARP ad Garcia mentions:
Maureen Dowd does a nice job of laying out the hypocrisy of New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan and others in the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Does hate mail sound tonier when read in a British accent?
Mike McIntire of the New York Times on the "unusual and ethically-sensitive friendship" between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas & real estate magnate Harlan Crow. "Mr. Crow’s financing of the museum, [a multimillion-dollar project in Thomas' hometown which Thomas appears to have initiated,] his largest such act of generosity, previously unreported, raises the sharpest questions yet — both about Justice Thomas’s extrajudicial activities and about the extent to which the justices should remain exempt from the code of conduct for federal judges.
Wary of "Wars of Choice." Thom Shanker & Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, as he prepared to depart the government for the second time, said in an interview on Friday that the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made him far more wary about unleashing the might of the American armed forces."
Here's Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) speaking at the Netroots Nation conference yesteday:
... More Networks Nation news & links to videos at their site. ...
... Bill Moyers on the Constitution:
... More video on the Networks Nation conference, including former Sen. Russ Feingold's remarks, & related gatherings here at The Uptake.
News Ledes
AP: "In another blow to Washington's relationship with Pakistan, U.S. officials say Pakistan failed another test to prove it could be trusted to go after American enemies on its soil by intentionally or inadvertently tipping off militants at two more bomb-building factories in its tribal areas, giving the suspected terrorists time to flee." ...
... The Hill: "House appropriators have proposed slapping new restrictions on the aid that Washington will send to Pakistan next year amid a chill in relations following the killing of Osama bin Laden."
New York Times: "Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, whose jovial onstage manner, soul-rooted style and brotherly relationship with Mr. Springsteen made him one of rock’s most beloved sidemen, died on Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 69." Here's a Rolling Stone obituary.