;)
Monday
Mar182013
The Commentariat -- March 19, 2013
Jonathan Weisman & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "With the expected Senate passage as early as Tuesday of broad legislation to finance the federal government through Sept. 30, a lucky few programs will be spared the brunt of the automatic spending cuts -- known as sequestration -- now coursing through the federal government. Managers, especially in the Defense Department, will be given more flexibility to implement $85 billion in cuts.... The worst of the cuts in federal spending to a major infant nutrition program would be reversed. Embassy security and construction could be spared in the wake of the consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. And child care subsidies, once seen as critical to the success of welfare reform, would take a haircut, not the hammer blow that President Obama once loudly warned was coming."
Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "Last week in Washington was a tale of two budgets. One of them used popular, common-sense plans to create millions of jobs. The other had a battery of discredited ideas that would kill jobs and derail the recovery. Guess which one much of the mainstream media were chattering about?"
Peter Baker & Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Mr. Obama's nomination [for labor secretary] of Thomas E. Perez, who has racked up record discrimination and housing claims as head of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, generated criticism from some Senate Republicans who called him a divisive and political choice." ...
... Brian Beutler of TPM thinks the Perez confirmation process will not go well for the GOP: "Perez is a Hispanic leader and as head of DOJ's civil rights division one of the Obama administration's most progressive officials.... Thus, on the day of its unveiling, the Growth And Opportunity Project [a/k/a the 'Outreach to Schmucks" program] faces a major challenge to its own raison d’être. [Wait till] the party's simultaneously filibustering a qualified candidate to be the only Latino in Obama's second-term cabinet [while] the conservative media lapses into another Sotomayor-like spectacle of racial panic and drags elected officials with them." Rush Limbaugh is already there, saying Perez "might as well be Hugo Chavez and is comparing him to the Grand Kleagle of Klan." ...
Hola, Amigos!... This out of David Vitter's office: "U.S. Sen. David Vitter [RHookers-La.] announced his commitment to block the nomination of Thomas Perez as Secretary of the Labor Department until the Department of Justice responds to his 2011 letter related to spotty enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act in Louisiana. Perez was closely involved in the controversial New Black Panther voter intimidation case before the Department of Justice." ...
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The decision to drop most of the allegations against the New Black Panther defendants -- the decision that many on the far right now object to -- happened on May 18, 2009. Perez did not take over the Civil Rights Division until the next October." Read the whole post. ...
... AND this from Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III [RConfederacy-Ala.]: "... illegal workers ... illegal immigration ... Casa de Maryland ... fringe advocacy group ... illegal immigrants ... illegal labor sites ... illegal immigrants ... illegal immigrants ... flawed immigration policies ... undermines legal work requirements." Beauregard got all that into two short grafs. ...
... Steve Benen has a pretty good overview of the Rush-Malkin-Vitter-Sessions Latino Outreach Program. It's going well! Hispanic voters are sure to take notice.
Joe Nocera: "... as a longtime Democratic member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations -- and as its chairman since 2007 -- [Carl] Levin [Mich.] has done more than anyone to expose the scams, the conflicts, the wrongdoing and the sheer idiocy of the financial industry from the run-up to the financial crisis to the present day. Every time Levin's subcommittee holds a hearing, it should shame Attorney General Eric 'Too Big to Jail' Holder Jr." Nocera adds,
Sometime in the next few months, the permanent subcommittee plans to call the Internal Revenue Service to task for allowing the political super PACs to be classified as tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s. 'Tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s are not supposed to be engaged in politics,' he said. 'It is against the law to do so.' Then he added, with a certain undeniable relish, 'We're going to go after them.'
Gary Langer of ABC News: "Support for gay marriage reached a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, marking a dramatic change in public attitudes on the subject across the past decade. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now say it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to wed." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "The decision of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to support same-sex marriage after learning that his son was gay has inspired hundreds of other Republican lawmakers to stop speaking to their children immediately, G.O.P. leaders confirmed today."
Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Justices Antonin Scalia and Sonia Sotomayor clashed Monday during Supreme Court oral arguments about whether states may require residents to submit proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The outcome of the case is uncertain as the justices appeared narrowly divided." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... the Arizona case is a straight-out matter of the extent to which federal election laws may trump (or more technically, 'pre-empt') state election laws." ...
... CW: I'm just waiting for Scalia to declare the entire Constitution unconstitutional because the framers went to the Constitutional Convention with the original intent to revise the Articles of Confederation, not to scrap the Articles & write a new constitution. Probably the only thing holding him back is that dumping the Constitution would put him out of his job-for-life.
Jennifer Preston of the New York Times: "... Alexandria Goddard, a crime blogger whose early and dogged research helped bring national attention to the [Steubenville rape] case, is still fending off criticism that she helped create 'an Internet lynch mob.' 'I am just the messenger here,' said Ms. Goddard, 45, who once lived in Steubenville and began following the case closely after she read what was being said online about the 16-year-old victim.... Her expertise creating social media profiles of teenagers whose parents want to know what their children are doing online gave her a distinctive window on the situation."
Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post has an excellent explanation of the Cypriot bailout crisis. Russian mobsters!
Tom Heneghan of Reuters: "With every day Pope Francis reigns, his style reveals more contrasts with his predecessor Benedict in ways that amount to an unspoken criticism of how the retired pontiff conducted his papacy. The enthusiasm former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio has ignited among Catholics by approaching the job like a parish priest rather than a papal monarch points to a yearning for a leader the Church has not seen since the charismatic Pope John PaulII." ...
... Elsewhere in religious news, the History Channel is defending its hit series "The Bible," whose producer Mark Burnett cast an Obama look-alike as Satan, a resemblance first noted by Glenn Beck. ...
... Andy Towle of Towleroad: Burnett's advisors on the project comprised an "interfaith panel included pastors Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes, Bishop Michael Sheridan, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez ... a 'Who's Who' of notorious evangelical homophobes." ...
Glenn Greenwald: yes, the Iraq War was about oil. Bush speechwriter David Frum, who was privy to talks between Darth Cheney & Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi exile whom neocons planned to install as Iraqi leader, confirms the talks were about oil. Frum's Newsweek piece is here.
Hey, it's EIGHT Pinocchios for Michele Bachmann in her outstanding CPAC performance -- four yesterday, four today. Glenn Kessler: "...there really aren't enough Pinocchios for such misleading use of statistics in a major speech."
It is one thing for the New York Times to print op-eds by ultra-conservatives, but WTF are they doing running an op-ed by Senate candidate & renowned crackpot Rep. Paul Broun (RCrazy-Ga.)?
Local News
Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Eight months [after the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting, Gov. John] Hickenlooper [D-Colo.] is poised to sign some of the toughest new gun control laws in the nation, capping a journey that has transformed a popular, data-driven Western Democrat who takes his son shooting into an unlikely frontman for bringing new gun laws into the center of the United States. The bill signing is expected on Wednesday."
Pretend President Paul News *
Erica Werner of the AP: "Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is endorsing a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants, a significant move for a favorite of tea party Republicans who are sometimes hostile to such an approach. In a speech to be delivered Tuesday morning to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the potential 2016 presidential candidate declares, 'If you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you.' ... Paul's path to citizenship would come with conditions that could make it long and difficult for illegal immigrants."
* Had I been president..., I would have relieved you of your post. -- Rand Paul to Hillary Clinton
News Ledes
AP: "Federal authorities say a civilian defense contractor who works in intelligence at Pacific Command gave his Chinese girlfriend information on existing war plans and U.S. nuclear weapons. Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, appeared in court Monday to face one count of communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it and one count of unlawfully retaining national defense documents and plans." CW: the "girlfriend" is 27. Another bummer for Bishop: his girlfriend doesn't really love him. Just a bad day all around.
AP: "Just hours ahead of an expected vote in the country's 56-member Parliament on the seizure of a percentage of deposits, officials sought to limit the impact on small savers. A new draft bill discussed in Parliament's finance committee proposed to spare all deposits below €20,000 ($25,900) from a charge. Those between €20,000 and €100,000 would still have a 6.75 percent charge imposed, and those above €100,000 would be hit for 9.9 percent, in line with the original plan.... A vote in favor of the bank account confiscation is needed if Cyprus is to get €10 billion in rescue loans from its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund. The seizure of deposits is meant to raise €5.8 billion, which is part of the country's rescue."
AP: "Syria's opposition coalition early Tuesday elected a little-known American-educated IT manager and Islamic activist to head an interim government to administer areas seized by rebel forces from President Bashar Assad's troops. Ghassan Hitto received 35 votes out of 48 ballots cast by the opposition Syrian National Coalition's 63 active members during a meeting in Istanbul."
Reuters: "Pope Francis inaugurated his papacy on Tuesday with an address calling for the defense of the weakest in society and of the environment, saying that otherwise the way was opened to death and destruction. Addressing an estimated 200,000 people and many foreign leaders gathered under bright sunshine in St. Peter's Square, the Argentine pope underlined his constant message since he was elected by a secret conclave of cardinals last Wednesday - that the Church's mission was to defend the poor and disadvantaged." CW: still, it never crosses the minds of John Boehner, Paul Ryan & other GOP Catholics that Saint Peter will condemn them to hell, fire & brimstone for their anti-Christian policies. Kinda makes one think they just might be pretend Catholics. ...
... Here are excerpts from Francis's homily, provided by the Vatican.
Reuters: "A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shi'ite districts in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have vowed to step up attacks on Shi'ite targets since the start of the year in an attempt to provoke sectarian confrontation and undermine Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government."
Chicago Tribune: "Ruth Ann Steinhagen, whose shooting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus in 1949 inspired part of the [Bernard Malamud] novel 'The Natural,' died in Chicago at 83."
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Reader Comments (18)
Paraphrasing Jean Giraudoux: "In the Vatican, the secret of success is humility. Once you can fake that you've got it made."
So what we had back when LBJ came on the Teevee announcing a peace process with North Vietnam four days before Richard Nixon was gearing up to be elected President was a subterfuge of great magnitude. Why hasn't this been front and center? I couldn't find that the NYT covered it. Rachel covered it last night. How can this be? This isn't just about Nixon's nefarious act, it's about the fact that his act and the illegal wire tapping prevented the end of the Vietnam War with its thousands and thousands of deaths and destruction. We should be outraged!
The following from Juan Cole:
"The front-burner issue that is now at the most risk of igniting hostilities is Iran and its civilian nuclear enrichment program, which Washington and Tel Aviv insist is aimed at producing a nuclear warhead. Iran’s supreme theocrat, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has forbidden the construction, stockpiling or use of nuclear weapons as incompatible with Islamic law, but his denials are discounted by Washington hawks and the Israel lobbies."
Somehow I missed this little nugget. In all the lengthy discussions re: Iran and weapons I never heard that Khamenei has put the kiss of death on this. Doesn't this change the conversation somewhat? Will Obama bring this up with Bibi this week as the two break bread together.
As I listened to Rachael's coverage of what Nixon did in '68, I had a dark thought: did Ronny boy do the same kind of thing to Carter regarding the hostages. Is it a coincidence that they were freed the day the actor was inaugurated (which is something I had also thought of at the time)?
I intended to embed Maddow's piece on Nixon's sabotage of the peace talks & Johnson's covering it up, but there's a glitch in the show's videos that won't even allow viewing of the segment, much less embedding it. I'll try later today. Anyway, I'm glad she gave the story an additional airing.
I guess Nixon didn't need the Supreme Court to fix an election. Quite capable on his own.
Two points, if I may, concerning the present assault on the ability of Americans to vote.
In a most conspicuous manner, the Supremes who are poised to gut the National Voter Registration Act with the express purpose of making voting more burdensome for many Americans, demonstrate their essential goal of turning back the hands of time. For nearly two centuries this country has moved forward, slowly, for sure, but ever forward in an effort to make voting more inclusive. Some have had to be dragged screaming into the future but over the last 150 years or so, the United States has expressly moved to expand and ease the ability of Americans to exercise the franchise, to partake of the democratic process.
1868: 14th Amendment overturns the execrable Dred Scott allowing naturalized citizens to vote.
1870: 15th Amendment gives the vote to people of color and all ex-slaves.
1920: 19th Amendment. Suffrage for women, more than doubling the number of American voters.
1961: 23rd Amendment allows District of Columbia residents to vote in presidential elections.
1964: 24th Amendment removes poll taxes in federal elections (state elections in 1966), easing voting for the poor.
1965: Voting Rights Act. 'nuff said.
1971: 26th Amendment reduces the voting age to 18 (and allowed me my first chance to vote).
1986: Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act.
Thus has the country extended the franchise to non-white men, naturalized citizens, women, native Americans, residents of DC, the poor, all Americans over 18, servicemen and women and residents overseas. Forward, always forward.
But no more.
With the rise of the new conservatism, these rights have been rather quickly eroded. And now the far-right activists on the Supreme Court are considering moving the goal posts even further. Proof positive, if any more was necessary, of their desire to limit the franchise, as much as possible, to the rich, the white, and the right(wing).
Which brings me to a second point. The Dark Lord Scalia was battling it out yesterday in oral arguments by claiming that 1.) the Arizona wingers who were trying to limit the vote didn't do it correctly, dammit. They should have been even MORE absolute about not allowing anyone to vote just because 2.) they took an oath.
Ah-ha. The oath problem.
So, speaking of oaths, it might come as a surprise (or not) that Scalia doesn't think much of oaths, because, as he maintains, it's nothing to break an oath. Anyone can swear to anything and do just the opposite.
Hmmm...I hardly ever agree with Nino but I think he has a point here. As a Supreme Court Justice, he took two oaths, a Constitutional Oath and a Judicial Oath. A gander at THE cardinal clause of these oaths will demonstrate just how right he is in belittling the value of oath taking.
"I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich..."
Must have had his fingers crossed--or up his ass--when he got to that part about treating poor and rich equally.
Either that or he just doesn't give a shit about oaths of any kind.
(For all you students or phraseology, note how that oath was constructed. It doesn't say "rich and poor" which is the typical order of those economic states. It places the poor first. Very revealing of the mindset of those who wrote and authorized it. But, as I say, no more.)
Did they or did they not? In the run-up to the 1980 election did Reagan's handlers arrange an arms for hostages deal with the Iran rebels? Two local people, former State Department employers, who were part of the group secreted in the Canadian ambassador's home and smuggled out of Iran as roughly depicted in ARGO say "no."
Their explanation? The new Iranian leaders were very unhappy with Carter because he had come into office preaching morality and support of human rights, promising those values would be front and center in his administration's foreign policy. In the Iranians' estimation, those turned out to be empty words. In addition, the Carter administration would not release the Shah, who was being treated here in the states for his terminal cancer, to be tried in Iran for his crimes. That did not much please the Iranians who wanted his scalp either.
Seems reasonable. So...no conspiracy, they say.
Have to admit, my narrative about the Age of Reagan would have preferred one, too. A conspiracy would have fit so nicely. Never trusted the Reagan guy about anything; the happy face was just to swarmy for me.
But then, it occurs to me, the hostages whose story I heard that night in the crowded theater might have been paid off, part of the larger conspiracy themselves....
And now I feel better.
@Ken Winkes: this New York Times story, published January 21, 1981, probably gets it right. But then, maybe some documents or tapes will be released in 5 or 10 years & we'll find out a Reagan guy had his finger in the pie.
@Ken: My understanding concurs with yours that Reagan, as much as we would have wished, was not complicit in the hostage situation. During the Carter administration's handling of the Shah of Iran, Kissinger, who disliked Brezinski, would say that he was the kind of man "who knows everything and knows nothing." But Brezinski happened to agree with K's belief that Carter's emphasis on human rights and liberalization was "naive" and would stir up the Iranian pot to a boil. Then there were a few like George Ball (under Sec. of State) who warned Carter not to admit the Shah into our country for his cancer treatment because of the fear of blowback. It was no coincidence that militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran and took seventy American hostages after the Shah was admitted to New York hospital in Oct. 1979. So the freeing of the hostages as soon as Reagan was elected was a clear Fuck You message to Carter and a warning for any U.S. President to watch their step. We had overstepped before during the Iranian revolution––you think we would have been reluctant to do it again. Will we do it again? Some Hawks here and in Israel are foaming at the mouth.
The Rand Paul Path to Citizenship in 10 EZ steps:
1. Return to country of origin.
2. Spend next 7 years learning to read, write, and speak perfect idiomatic English. Translate Ayn Rand novels into native tongue. Sell minimum of 100,000 copies, proceeds to be donated to Rand Paul for President.
3. Apply for citizenship. Average time to review application is 19 years. Give or take. (Government-hating Teabaggers have reduced INS to seven staff members. Bit of a backlog.)
4. Criminal history will disallow any application. This includes more than three parking tickets and crossing the street when the lights are against you.
5. Pack all belongings in rucksack. No weird smelling food products allowed.
6. Add fifty pounds of dead weight (children are considered dead weight).
7. If application is approved, don rucksack and swim across whatever body of water, ocean or river, separates native land from the United States of Teabaggery.
8. If still alive, applicant must show hide of shark, alligator, crocodile or other man-eating monster killed along the way to prove courage necessary to become US citizen and listen to Rush Limbaugh every day.
9. Agree not to intermarry with, or bother, any real Americans.
10. Welcome to America.
Here’s a push mower. Now get to work.
http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2013/03/warcosts
Today marks the 10th anniversar of the invasion of Iraq, who had done nothing to us, and had borne 12 years of toxic sanctions. The sanctions had much to do with the Iraqui army's poor showing. As retired CENTCOM cmmander General Zinni said "Ohio State 62 Slippery Rock 0" No shit Sherlock! The Bushies said "Oh no. We must invade." General Pwell sai "You break it, you've bought it" Then some genius decided to disband the Iraqui Army and turn thousanda of trauined soldiers with a grudge against the invaders loose with their weapons, not to mention failing to secure the ammo dumps. No wonder IED's became the weapon of choice with all those explosives readily available, plus blowing up truckloads of artillery shells at selected points. The reasons for that war and the way it was conducted proved Einstein' aphorism to be true "Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupiidity, and I'm not so sure about the former."
For me, March19 is a day of infamy. Was Saddam Hussein an evil dictator? No doubt. Was he the only one out there? Not by a long shot. Should we invade every country ruled by a tyrant? Give me a break! As soon as I saw the guerrilla war start, it brough back bad memories of Vietnam. I knew it wouldn' turn out well and it didn't.
The link above shows how much it has cost us. (So far.)
As to the troops who died on both sides, Wilfed Owen said it best:
"The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."
Regarding Barbarossa's eloquent remembrance of the Bush Day of Infamy, I can only say hear, hear.
Shocking lies and awesome disregard for human life. Consider all who lie now buried beneath the sands while the instigators enjoy lives of wealth and leisure.
Pro Bush et mendacii mori.
So true! so true! and, if I had the bucks, I'd embroider a pillow with this line from Charles Pierce: "The nicest thing about having fck-you money is that you get to say fk-you to people." But, I digress...
The wealthy one who Pierce salutes is Steve Steyer, who has taken a position and put it on the line re the Senate race for Kerry's old seat in Massachusetts. Mincing no words, Steyer vividly lets Steve Lynch know how "fck-you money" works when someone professes to care about climate change while simultaneously promoting the Keystone pipeline.
Read more: Keystone Pipeline And The Massachusetts Senate Race - The Pipeline Saga, Continued - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/massachusetts-senate-race-keystone-xl-031913#ixzz2O0ONTJNt
And speaking of Massachusetts, for those outside the state who think that it houses a hotbed of Leninist liberals, here's a joke, told at a GOP St. Paddy's Day breakfast, from a Plymouth County sheriff (yeah, the Mayflower Plymouth County), who thinks assassinating the president would be a funny, funny thing.
A sheriff.
Can these assholes get any stupider or more repulsive?
Laugh? I thought I'd die. Or at least shoot the president.
Still not the slightest mention in the NY Times of the BBC story (amply corroborated by LBJ tapes) of how Nixon sabotaged the 1968 Vietnam peace talks for his own political benefit. How does the Gray Lady get away with calling itself the paper of record when time after time it misses major (in this case a blockbuster) news events?
Marie: You've bloodied Brooks, Friedman and Dowd enough for a while. How about taking on the national desk this week?
It would be good for major media to pick up the Nixon story, but the "news" is that it is in the recently released tapes. The story came out back in the mid-90's, Chennault connection and all, and is already in the history books.
For funsies - I was in basic training at Fort Polk when Nixon was elected, and none of us dumb STUMPs believed in the least that Nixon had any intention of ending the war, despite every emotional inducement to fall for that, and despite his "secret plan to end the war."
MAG: Channelling Talulah, I hope you spell your embroidery correctly.
An especially fine day for you, Akhilleus. Liked the suggested path to citizenship so much, I sent it on to all four of my remaining friends.
Brilliant, I thought. Thanks. I will treasure it.
Ken