;)
The Commentariat -- March 25, 2014
Internal links removed.
** Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency's once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that -- if approved by Congress -- would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to senior administration officials. Under the proposal, they said, the N.S.A. would end its systematic collection of data about Americans' calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order." ...
... CW: Why, this does sound like an election-year issue to me. By contrast, a proposed House bill would strengthen rather than weaken the NSA's data collection program: it "would have the court issue an overarching order authorizing the program, but allow the N.S.A. to issue subpoenas for specific phone records without prior judicial approval."
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama and the leaders of the biggest Western economies agreed on Monday to exclude President Vladimir V. Putin from the Group of 8, suspending his government's 15-year participation in the diplomatic forum and further isolating his country. In a joint statement after a two-hour, closed-door meeting of the four largest economies in Europe, along with Japan and Canada, the leaders of the seven nations announced that a summit meeting planned for Sochi, Russia, in June will now be held in Brussels -- without Russia's participation." ...
... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan proposal to provide more than $1 billion in aid to the new Ukrainian government survived a procedural vote in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for final passage later this week. But the vote came after Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) suggested that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Crimea by delaying the vote." ...
... Here are the full remarks delivered yesterday by President Obama & Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:
Gene Robinson: "Blaming poverty on the mysterious influence of 'culture' is a convenient excuse for doing nothing to address the problem. That's the real issue with what Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said about distressed inner-city communities. Critics who accuse him of racism are missing the point. What he's really guilty of is providing a reason for government to throw up its hands in mock helplessness." ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The long-term unemployed are not lazy. Nor are they coddled, hammocked or enjoying a coordinated, taxpayer-funded vacation. They are, however, extremely unlucky -- and getting unluckier by the day."
Simon Maloy of Salon makes a point different from, but vaguely related to, one I made yesterday. Maloy sees the day coming when the Koch brothers & the GOP agendas diverge: "As extreme as they often are and as infuriatingly obstructionist as Republicans can be, they are still vulnerable to prevailing public sentiment and beholden to the realities of governing. The Kochs answer only to themselves. They act according to self-interest and the interests of their tax bracket." There are cracks emerging, at the state level, between the Koch agenda & that of local elected Republicans.
Charles Pierce: "Bravo to Stephanie Simon of Tiger Beat On The Potomac for her deep reporting on how taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the teaching of creationist nonsense in direct conflict with the Constitution, several decisions in the federal courts, over 200 years of scientific achievement, and basic common sense.... This week, the 'religious liberty' scam in the Hobby Lobby case is going before the Supreme Court. I am sure that there will be a 'religious liberty' argument made in defense of making American students dumber when they get out of school than they were when they went in. Dear Mother of Jesus, we are a heavily armed nation of fkwits." ...
... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog has a long, informative post on the so-called "religious liberty" cases the Court will hear today. ...
... Update: Here's Denniston's take on this morning's oral arguments. CW: Please don't tell me the right cares about "family values" when the winger justices appear to be ready to let strangers decide what medical treatment -- and specifically treatment that determines who actually is in a family -- a woman can have. (BTW, Hobby Lobby pays its workers more than do its competitors -- well above minimum wage, even for part-timers.)
... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "There's something that makes the current Supreme Court different from some of its recent predecessors. The justices got religion." ...
... CW: Worth noting, as Barnes does not: this puts the Court even more out of touch with the American public, which is becoming less, not more, religious. (The liberals on the Court, as Barnes details, are not strict adherents to their faiths.) ...
... The most righteous president of my lifetime:
Not. Our. Fault. (But We'll Ruin You if You Say It Is.) Hilary Stout, et al., of the New York Times: "It was nearly five years ago that any doubts were laid to rest among engineers at General Motors about a dangerous and faulty ignition switch. At a meeting on May 15, 2009, they learned that data in the black boxes of Chevrolet Cobalts confirmed a potentially fatal defect existed in hundreds of thousands of cars. But in the months and years that followed, as a trove of internal documents and studies mounted, G.M. told the families of accident victims and other customers that it did not have enough evidence of any defect in their cars...."
Gossip Report. Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: "Reid Cherlin, a former White House press aide, has written a critical look at the first lady's office in the current issue of the New Republic. Entitled, 'The Worst Wing: How the East Wing Shrunk Michelle Obama,' the piece consists primarily of unnamed former aides complaining about her 'leadership style' and their inability to cultivate a good relationship with her.... Cherlin worked in the 2008 Obama campaign and was an assistant press secretary in the White House until March 2011." ...
... CW: Cherlin's piece, which I haven't gotten around to scanning, is here. Nice that the New Republic published it when the First Lady & her top staff are on the other side of the world.
Beware, people. Some crooks look like this.... Eric Lipton of the New York Times: " Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, the highest-ranking woman in the House leadership and a rising star in the party, may have improperly used her House office staff and financial resources to help bolster her political career, the Office of Congressional Ethics has concluded." CW: Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. I'm shocked, shocked that Mrs. American Pie would cheat the taxpayers & compromise her staff in this way. Why, she seemed evah so sweet & wholesome. As Pepe suggests, the successful thief does not "disgruntle" the help. ...
... Kyung Song of the Seattle Times: " The House Ethics Committee on Monday declined to open a formal investigation into allegations that U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers misused her campaign and congressional funds -- a decision that rules out potential ethics charges or sanctions against the Spokane Republican for now. However, two lawmakers on the bipartisan panel will continue reviewing the complaints, which were filed in 2013 by Todd Winer, McMorris Rodgers' former spokesman."
The Washington Post debunks every premise of a Koch brothers anti-ObamaCare ad targeting Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado:
... And yet. And yet. The Post gives this lying piece of crap only two Pinocchios.
Beyond the Beltway
Harvey Rice, et al., of the Houston Chronicle: "The Houston Ship Channel, where up to 168,000 gallons of oil were spilled after a barge and a tanker collided last weekend, will remain closed until Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said late Monday.... Oil washed up on tourist beaches in Galveston Monday, two days after the collision, an official said. Government records show the Miss Susan has been involved in a string of 20 accidents and incidents reported to the Coast Guard in the past dozen years, including two other accidents that occurred when the boat was pushing barges containing oil or asphalt."
AP: "The lawyer hired to represent North Carolina's environmental agency during a federal investigation into its regulation of Duke Energy's coal ash dumps once represented the utility company in a different criminal probe. The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources has hired Mark Calloway of Charlotte to help respond to 20 grand jury subpoenas the agency and its employees have received after the Feb. 2 spill at Duke's Eden plant, which coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.... A former federal prosecutor who now specializes in white-collar defense, Calloway represented Duke during a 2004 federal investigation into the company's accounting practices."
David Schwartz of Reuters: "A federal judge admonished Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and a chief deputy on Monday for critical remarks directed at a sweeping court ruling that found their deputies racially profiled Latino drivers.... 'I intend to have my order followed,' said U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who required Arpaio and [Chief Deputy Jerry] Sheridan to attend the court hearing. Snow ordered Arpaio last year to stop using race as a factor when making law enforcement decisions...."
Michael Van Sickler of the Tampa Bay Times: "Changes adopted Wednesday to a House bill expanding the scope of Florida's controversial 'stand your ground' law would severely limit access to court records in the self-defense cases.... A 2012 Tampa Bay Times investigation reviewed 200 cases, including ones that wouldn't be available if lawmakers approve the new language, and found that the law was used inconsistently and led to disparate results.... [Rep. Matt] Gaetz,] who filed the amendment] has been a forceful advocate for the 'stand your ground' law. He famously vowed last year that he wasn't going to change 'one damn comma' in the law after hearings were announced in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
John Reitmeyer & Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "A story published in The New York Times quoting the New York attorney leading the probe [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie launched in January is the first hint there is evidence to back Christie's claims that he played no role in the lane closure plot carried out by a top aide and his appointees at the Port Authority.... Critics have faulted Christie's internal review, saying it was being headed by an attorney with deep ties to the governor's mentor, Rudy Giuliani, and to the Port Authority itself. And one of the lawyers who, according to a source, is interviewing Christie's staff for this review earned a contract from Christie when he was U.S. attorney and her daughter served as an intern in the governor's office." See also yesterday's Commentariat.
Anthony York & Mark Barabak of the Los Angeles Times: "Late in life, at age 75 and apparently done seeking higher office, [California Gov. Jerry] Brown has reinvented himself again, this time as the anti-politician politician. He shuns most trappings of the office. There's no motorcade, no entourage. The governor showed up at the elections department with a lone campaign advisor and his wife, who snapped a photo using her smart phone. Brown fashions many of his own speeches, veto messages and even press releases. His staff in the governor's office is about half that of his Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who employed as many as 230."
Presidential Election 2016
Matea Gold & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who along with his wife plowed more than $92 million into efforts to help mostly losing candidates in the 2012 elections, is undertaking a new strategy for 2016 -- to tap his fortune on behalf of a more mainstream Republican with a clear shot to win the White House, according to people familiar with his thinking."
News Lede
Washington Post: "Oleksandr Muzychko, an ultra-nationalist member of Ukraine's recent protests who was wanted in Russia for alleged war crimes, was shot dead late Monday in the western Ukrainian city of Rivne, according to reports by Russian news outlets, RT and Interfax. There were conflicting accounts of what happened to the man also known as Sashko Biliy."
Share Article
Reader Comments (9)
It will be a while before we hear the decision on the whether Hobby Lobby owners get to inflict their religious beliefs on their employees and still maintain the legal protection incorporation laws confer upon them, or whether the avowedly Christian members of the court can set aside religious sentiment and recognize a scam when they see one.
The guy I will be watching most closely is Fr. Nino Scalia who will rap your knuckles if you don't believe that Satan is working his evil in the world (that's how Obama got elected isn't it?).
Yesterday I suggested that the entire stinking pile of Hobby Lobby dung would have been laughed out of court if the owners were Muslim and were demanding that they be let out of following federal laws because of their beliefs.
I forgot that we don't even have to wonder what Fr. Nino would say in such a situation. He's already said it. And the answer was ix-nay on eligious-ray reedom-fay.
In 1993, Scalia told a Native American church founded in Oklahoma to take a hike with their religious freedom claims. The church used peyote in their ceremonies, something many Native Americans had done for centuries, long before Scalia's family got here to tell them what to do. He sniffed that there was no exemption on religious grounds for them to be using a substance unauthorized by federal law, and that was that.
Interestingly, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed after that ruling to protect such religious rites. But guess who has co-opted the RFRA? Those victims of religious hatred and persecution, CHRISTIANS! Because they are far and away the most oppressed religious group in the world.
So Scalia ruled against a religious group from Oklahoma who happen to practice Native American rites. Now he'll be ruling on another group based in Oklahoma (Hobby Lobby), who want him to rule in favor of their religious practices.
But they're Christian.
Will Fr. Scalia be consistent or will he find a way to weasel around his own convictions?
We shall see what we shall see.
The spirits of Truth and Justice are still on life support in the ICU wing of the Republican Party (where they've been lingering on for decades).
They're tough to kill, apparently, but over the last couple of days we've seen a line-up of questionable GOP characters appear at their bedside with pillows to smother them.
First Chris Christie. Lawyers he hired have found him guilty of no wrongdoing in the GWB clusterfuck of hubris, revenge, illegality, fiscal funny business, and moral turpitude. Not guilty, Chris! Way to go, baby. Here's your pillow. Go to work.
And yesterday the entire GOP led House Ethics Committee (man, if that isn't an oxymoron, kinda like the Cosa Nostra chapter of the Better Business Bureau) declined to go along with the recommendation of the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate the shit out of Republican rep and recent SOTU star, Cathy McMorris Rodgers for multiple ethics and campaign law violations.
Why?
Because she's a fucking Republican, that's why.
You may recall that over the last few decades Republicans have had a particularly stormy relationship with anything that smacks of ethics. It's an oil and water thing, really.
But here's a thought. Since this investigation has been going for months, and the OCE forwarded its recommendations that she be investigated back around Christmas, don't you think someone in the Party of Stupid would have suggested that it's maybe not a good idea to have the subject of a 400 plus page ethics probe be the face of the party after the State of the Union? I mean, I know it's supposed to be hush-hush and all, but everybody knows when someone is being investigated.
Naahhh....Fuckin' ethics. Who cares about that shit? Ethics, truth, justice; liberal shakedown rackets, that's all.
Hand me that pillow, willya?
I'll give Gene Robinson the thumbs-up for his piece about Ryan's recent tear on race not just about his being a racist piece of shit pigdog, but allowing the GOP to wash its greasy hands from doing anything about hunger, poverty, inequality, and lack of opportunity for many communities that aren't rich, white, and Christian.
BUT (you knew there was a "but" coming, right?)...
As much as it's true that the right doesn't want to see, hear, or speak about poverty, inequality, and race, it's equally true that many of them actually ARE stone cold racist pigs or give a pretty damn good impersonation of them.
So here's one of the primary organs of the right (and, mind you, I'm talking about the established right, not even the out and out creeps and droolers) declaring, and I kid you not, read it yourself, that black pre-schoolers are suspended at much higher rates than those nice, well-behaved white children, because they come from a culture of crime and violence and are being raised to be murderers.
That's why.
They equate discipline issues in pre-school (we're talking 4 and 5 year olds here--babies nowhere near routine impulse control phase) with the murder rate in New York City. Black pre-schooler under suspension equals murderer in a couple of years.
And don't worry, they take pains to make sure everyone knows that there's no racism involved here, just the facts, ma'am. No mention of poor schools, bad housing, few jobs, lack of opportunity, terrible nutrition (and getting worse since National Review readers have all voted to cut food stamps even more), and the host of problems that go along with poverty.
Who's to blame? Why, liberals, natch. And, of course, blah people themselves. It's just more of the same kind of knee-jerk assumptions and beliefs that Paul Ryan tried to walk back a couple of weeks ago. These people really believe this shit and they get their phony academics to vouch for their prejudices.
Just incredible.
Officer, arrest that black pre-schooler! He's a murderer. Well, not right now, but just you wait.
P.S. The person I blame most for this kind of bullshit is Reagan, that piece of shit asshole. He made out and out racism not just acceptable and even cool (as cool as racist wingers could be), but a requirement for the right. Scumbag.
@Akhilleus: And lead paint.
Marie
I think a number of SCOTUS justices must have spent time as kids eating lead paint chips.
According to smoke signals from the court's hearing this morning, it appears the right-wingers are setting the groundwork to find in favor of forcing employees, perhaps millions of them, to abide by and be controlled by the religious beliefs of their corporate masters. Like they don't have enough fucking power already.
It occurs to me that if they decide, as they did in Citizens United (a case that will live in infamy--the Dred Scot ruling of our time--until it's repealed some years after we're all dead), that "corporations are people too, my friend", and that, like individuals, their religious beliefs are not only sacrosanct but trump everyone else's beliefs (such as the belief that other peoples' religion should not be rammed down our throats), we will all be in for a world of shit.
It won't be just Hobby Lobby and Conestoga. Chick Fil-A will decide it doesn't have to hire or serve gays. Religiously controlled Hospitals and businesses will be able to effectively control their employees' lives, firing them or simply not hiring them if they don't abide by the owning entity's religious rules.
That crazy Arizona law that was meant to legalize discrimination will be turned into the law of the land.
All you have to do is play the religion card and you get out of having to follow any number of federal laws on hiring, firing, and even who you let into your place of business (Bad Toupée must be approaching escape velocity thinking about being able to keep blah people out of places of business by claiming some religious exemption). Just think of all the cuckoo shit in the Bible. That craziness can now be called up as a rationale for fucking with people and ignoring the law.
The other day Marie was asking about whether or not real-world, pragmatic outcomes should be considered by the Court. It may seem like they don't care about the real-world consequences of leaning in favor of Hobby Lobby's religious exemption claims, but I think, if they go this way, they will have those consequences very much in mind.
Corporatist/theocracies are people too my friend.
I'm not sure of the objective in the Cherlin piece. Overall, the piece seems kind of labored. You would expect the intial stateument to define the purpose and set the tone but it doesn't, "Perhaps no first lady in recent memory has entered the stately recesses of the East Wing under a higher burden of expectation than Michelle Obama." The piece goes on to describe a Michelle Obama, who is laser focused on being a "value-added" First Lady, making sure f-ups are kept to a minimum and not wasting time she would rather spend with her family. Cherlin can't quite decide if that's a bad thing or not, but she channels some resentment through former aides. Cherlin quoted a former employee who summed up what looked like the issue, “They don’t want to work for her; they want to be friends with her.” Frankly, I think being BFFs with the First Lady is pretty presumptious.
After reading the piece, I wish Michelle Obama had handled the ACA roll out instead of Sebelius.
About Cathy McMorris Rodgers...I think she is primarily window dressing that fits the image of the proper Republican female. Her record doesn't support a "leadership" position with much actual activity. Check out the record on Government Track; https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/cathy_mcmorris_rodgers/400659/report-card/2013
Initially, it looks good, until you get to her standing among the whole Congress, the fact that she holds no leadership positions on committees, has a low rating on getting powerful co sponsors for bills and has a poor record on showing up for votes. Its worth a look. She is being used as a pleasant face, produces children and mutely hums back-up for Boehner in every damn photo op. Fits in nicely with the superficial role relegated to women by the GOP.
Akhilleus, if the SC does rule that bosses' religion can affect their treatment of employees, it is just another step back to the arrangements that made royalty, aristocracy, and yeomanry work so well. Cuius regio, eius religio, as worked out at the Peace of Augsburg in the 16th century. Makes sense if you're a petit prince.
And the pre-enlightenment mood would fit well with that scholar's cap that Justice Scalia likes to wear.
Patrick,
Hey, and if we're returning to the time of Augsburg, we've got lots of fun stuff to look forward to. The Peace of Augsburg didn't put an end to the religious craziness even though, as you say, the decision to allow kings to force their subjects to convert to the royal religion of choice made things a bit less bloody. For a bit.
Not long after, a couple of uppity Catholic emissaries to a Protestant court in Bohemia were tossed out a window (defenestration seemed to have been the favored technique for making known one's displeasure with unwelcome news in Prague. Not sure what that was about.) and next thing you know, Whamo! The Thirty Years War.
Fun? Like you read about.
Europe in bloody tatters and everyone having a grand old time warring and killing and torturing and warring some more, and all kinds of great stuff that gets visited on countries that mix religion and politics.
The founders weren't all that far removed from this kind of nonsense to forget how bad it could be so they wrote that establishment clause thingy, you know, the one fundies claim doesn't exist. Or shouldn't. Or something.
Anyway, I'm sure the great and royal minds on the Court know better than poor illiterate slugs like us.
So Religious Wars, here we come, baby. We'll all get in the Way Back Machine and break out the maces and racks and cannons.
What fun.
To anyone whose attention span still includes the babble over the effects of culture, I recommend this New Yorker piece on the Branch Dividians.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/03/31/140331fa_fact_gladwell?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_Daily%20(141)