;)
Thursday
Mar282013
The Commentariat -- March 29, 2013
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency will move ahead Friday with rules requiring cleaner gasoline and cars nationwide, despite fierce protests from the oil industry and some conservative Democrats, according to several individuals briefed on the matter. The proposed rules -- which had been stuck in regulatory limbo since December 2011 in the face of intense political opposition -- would cut the amount of sulfur in U.S. gasoline by two-thirds and impose fleetwide pollution limits on new vehicles by 2017."
Jon Chait of New York: Republicans are already forgetting they ever opposed gay marriage. ...
... E. J. Graff of the American Prospect writes movingly of her attendance at Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing of the DOMA case. ...
... David von Drehle in Time (cover story): gay marriage has already won. "The rise of same-sex marriage from joke to commonplace is a story of converging strands of history. Changes in law and politics, medicine and demographics, popular culture and ivory-tower scholarship all added momentum to produce widespread changes of heart." ...
... Matt Tunseth of the Chugiak-Eagle River Star: "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski [R-Alaska] said Wednesday that her views on gay marriage are 'evolving' and that she's reviewing her stance on the issue 'very closely.'"
Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "There is no question that it's a concerted strategy on Republicans' part to make sure that Obama leaves office having put zero judges on the [D.C. District] court." ...
... New York Times Editors: "Republicans clearly have no interest in dropping their favorite pastime [-- the filibuster --] but Democrats could put a stop to this malicious behavior by changing the Senate rules and prohibiting, at long last, all filibusters on nominations."
Paul Krugman: with the numbers refusing to back up deficit scolds, "talk of a fiscal crisis has subsided. Yet the deficit scolds haven't given up on their determination to bully the nation into slashing Social Security and Medicare. So they have a new line: We must bring down the deficit right away because it's 'generational warfare,' imposing a crippling burden on the next generation.... we're cheating our children.... by neglecting public investment and failing to provide jobs.... Our sin involves investing too little, not borrowing too much -- and the deficit scolds, for all their claims to have our children's interests at heart, are actually the bad guys in this story." ...
... Brad DeLong of UC-Berkeley: "... my conclusion is that I should stop calling the current episode the Lesser Depression. Yes, its shape is different from that of the Great Depression; but, so far at least, there is no reason to rank it any lower in the hierarchy of macroeconomic disasters." Via Greg Sargent.
Jordan Weissmann of the Atlantic: "Our food stamp rolls are eye popping, but they're not the problem. Poverty is."
President Obama spoke yesterday about saving the nation's children from gun violence:
... Jeremy Peters & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "With resistance to tougher gun laws stiffening in Congress, a visibly frustrated President Obama on Thursday implored lawmakers and the nation not to lose sight of the horrors of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn." ...
... Gene Robinson: "... it's hard for me to accept that the right to 'keep and bear arms' extends to the kind of arsenal that Adam Lanza -- and his mother, Nancy, whom he also killed -- assembled and kept in their home." See also yesterday's Ledes.
... Annie-Rose Strasser of Think Progress: "Minutes before President Obama delivered an emotional speech asking lawmakers to pass sensible gun safety measures in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, word came from Capitol Hill that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had signed onto a letter pledging to block votes on any of Obama's proposals for gun legislation."
Kevin Drum: "... conservatives sure do seem to thrive on a continuing parade of weirdly invented, personality-driven scandalettes in a way that liberals don't."
Taylor Berman of Gawker: "In an interview with local radio station KRBD, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) recalled his father's ranch and the old fashioned way things were done on it.... 'My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 or 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,' Young said in the interview.... Young apologized later, blaming the usage on his upbringing.... Looks like the GOP's effort to reach more Latino voters is going exactly as planned." ...
... Actually, Think Progress & the Alaska Daily News note that "Young stopped short of apologizing." ...
... Charles Pierce: "You know what was a term that was commonly used during my days growing up in Central Massachusetts? 'Dickhead.' But I mean no disrespect."
Local News
Tim Egan: California is back!
Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "At an emotional announcement Thursday inside Faneuil Hall, [Thomas M.] Menino slowly navigated his way up the center aisle with his wife, Angela, to the thunderous applause from official Boston as well as city workers and admirers from the neighborhoods. Over the loudspeaker, Frank Sinatra crooned his defiant anthem, 'My Way.' 'I am here with the people I love, to tell the city I love, that I will leave the job that I love,' Mr. Menino, 70, the city's longest-serving mayor, told the standing-room-only crowd of well-wishers. He said essentially that he was not up to the job, at least not the way he wanted to do it. After illnesses last year that left him hospitalized for two months, he said he could not keep up his schedule...." Boston Globe story here.
Little Kenny Is Still a Brat. Washington Post Editors: Virginia "Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) tried to take some of the credit for himself [for passage of Virginia's sweeping transportation bill].... It would be easier to credit Mr. Cuccinelli if he hadn't opposed the bill tooth-and-nail when the General Assembly considered it, condemning the legislation as a 'massive tax increase' and pushing for a right-wing alternative. It would be easier still if the attorney general didn't have a long history of opposing serious transportation policy in service to a no-tax creed.... If Mr. Cuccinelli wants to associate himself with the success of this transportation bill, he should endorse it first."
CW: In case you thought there could not be a legislator worse than Louie Gohmert or Michele Bachmann, there is -- or was -- and he's a Democrat. Laura Zuckerman of Reuters: "The Nevada State Assembly expelled Democratic Assemblyman Steven Brooks on Thursday after he was arrested twice this year, in the first time the chamber ousted a member in the history of the state legislature.... Brooks was arrested in February outside his Las Vegas home on suspicion of domestic battery and obstructing officers. Police said he had attacked a member of his family. In January, he was arrested on suspicion of leveling a death threat against the incoming Assembly speaker, Marilyn Kirkpatrick, a Democrat from North Las Vegas. Police say they found Brooks driving around with a handgun and 41 rounds of ammunition when they arrested him on January 19." ...
... Update: I guess Brooks is "disturbed." And trying to buy more guns.
News Ledes
New York Times: A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury indicted former Atlanta district school superintendent Beverly Hall on charges of "racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements."
New York Times: "A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation's fruits and vegetables.... Beekeepers and some researchers say there is growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, incorporated into the plants themselves, could be an important factor."
AP: "Prosecutors in the Colorado theater massacre case have rejected an offer from suspect James Holmes to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, saying the proposal can't be considered genuine because the defense has repeatedly refused to give them information needed to evaluate it. No plea agreement exists, prosecutors said in a scathing court document Thursday, and one 'is extremely unlikely based on the present information available to the prosecution.'"
Reuters: "The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved the creation of a unique new combat force that is to carry out 'targeted offensive operations' to neutralize armed groups in conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo."
Reuters: "Car bombs hit four Shi'ite mosques in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and another in Kirkuk just after prayers on Friday, tearing into crowds of worshippers and killing 17, police and witnesses said."
AP: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready 'to settle accounts with the U.S.,' unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea." CW: bee extinction is a much greater threat to the U.S. than is North Korea.
Reuters: "The president of Cyprus said on Friday the risk of bankruptcy had been contained and the country had no intention of leaving the euro, in a speech laden with criticism of Europe's currency union for 'experimenting' with the island's fate."
AP: "A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction -- specifically, a rocket propelled grenade launcher -- outside the U.S."
Reuters: Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at his residence in New York City early Friday morning in connection with an insider trading investigation...."
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Reader Comments (15)
@citizen625 (in response to a question posed late Thursday): lack of talent does not seem to preclude anyone from running for -- and winning -- public office. Louie Gohmert. Michele Bachmann. I rest my case. I would have won if I'd stopped at Louie.
Marie
Brooks has a particularly fatuous column today. I posted a comment around 5:30 that should show up on the site sometime after 3. At this point, I think my signature sets the red light pulsing for the poor damned souls who have to read Brooks's feedback.
A general note, though: I'm not accusing the pollutocrat class of being intelligent, but clearly through trial and error its members have grokked that a general public that's worried about next month's rent and retaining a crappy job is less likely to end up making political waves of any sort let along Occupying Wall Street.
Stop the presses! Dismiss the Supreme Court––they don't have to toil and trouble over any of this gay business anymore––because according to Franklin Graham, Billy's boy, God has spoken and this God tells him that marriage is between a man and a woman. Not only has this God been speaking to Franklin about gay rights but He says if we open our hearts wide enough and let this HIS only begotten son who died for our sins IN––why then our sins will be forgiven and we'll walk the path of righteousness. Our main man from across the pond, Piers Morgan, who has been absolutely bullish on gun control practically screaming and chewing up his guests who disagree sat across from Franklin meek and mild and listened politely to this gibberish never once asking what this God was doing on the day of the Sandy Hook massacre ––– there were pleading prayers from parents to no avail or ask how it is that this God of Franklins' cherry picks with whom a person chooses to love. How does this work exactly? We'll have to wait and see, won't we, but in the meantime Franklin wants us to know exactly what the skinny is, god wise. I suggest he argue his case before the Supremes, there's nothin like bringing a little old time religion back in the court room and won't Jesus be pleased.
PD, Clearly, that such a charlatan and his ilk can be treated with kid gloves demonstrates that doing drugs should be legal in this country because those who believe this guy don't need to smoke crack, and the rest of us shouldn't be penalized because our receptors are for serotonin rather than for the Lord.
Jack––just read Brooks and a quick glance at the comments found nary a Jack Mahoney. I'd be interested in what you had to say.
Jack,
Your observation about the usefulness, to the 1%, of joblessness and the burden of paying the bills, in the way it keeps hoi polloi from badgering them about those same things, could be amended to include the circus sideshow issues that conservatives are constantly drumming up for further distraction. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. He's busy fucking with your life. Look over here....Ed Markey claims he invented GOOGLE! WTF!!"
(More about that goofiness shortly)
Oh yeah, and I had to smile when reading your comment. It's been a while since I came across a reference to anyone "grokking".
PD,
Your Franklin Graham "strange interlude" moment proves that as hard as some in the Republican Party might try to wean the GOP off its fundamentalist crack addiction, it ain't gonna happen any time soon. It will take years to root out the crackpots. These people are dug in like ticks.
I'm pretty sure it must have been dogmatic whack-a-doodles like Graham that convinced the founders what a really, really terrible idea it would be to institute religious tests in public life. All they had to do was call to mind the influence of such religious eminences as Cotton Mather who trained his god eye on those he considered the enemies of Jesus and helped get them hung as witches. And if anyone doubts that there are more than a few nutjobs out there today who would do a jig if they thought they could hang those they considered heretical, they ain't been paying attention.
Franklin Graham and his kind can believe anything they want. But when considering the law of the land, rattling on about hallucinations as if they had legal merit is right out.
Oh and, just a sidenote about hallucinations.
I see that Kentucky has passed a law legalizing action based on hallucinations.
No kidding.
If you don't want black people or gays coming into your place of business, all you need to do is say "God told me I didn't have to serve them."
It's a get out of jail free card for bigots of all stripes. All you have to do is claim that your religious beliefs prohibit you from doing X,Y, or Z.
It's called the Religious FREEEEDDDOM Act (what else?). But say you're a woman who wants to purchase birth control. You go into your local pharmacy and they can tell you to take a hike. It doesn't matter if it's legal to purchase and use birth control, religious extremists can effect great control of the lives and actions of others just by playing the Jesus Card.
The Democratic governor vetoed it but Jesus (and Franklin Graham, no doubt) whispered in the ears of legislators and told them ix-nay on that eto-vay.
I wonder what the solons in KY will do when thousands of whackos decide that paying taxes is against their religion.
Ahhhh....freedom, ain't it grand?
God said I can tell you to fuck off
Okay, one more and then I'm done. (I think)
Kevin Drum, in a piece linked by Marie, above, notes the tenuous grasp conservatives have on self-control when it comes to attacks of the vapors brought on by the numberless “scandals” that regularly rock right-wing world, nearly all of which are delusions, lies, or fabrications whipped up out of good old Republican cloth coats, with the very chic addition of tinfoil hats with spinning propellers in constant motion (important for cooling down over-heated, tiny brain pans).
So, okay, what now? What’s the scandal du jour? Ed Markey claims he invented satellite TV and Google? Why the idea! He never did!
Exactly. He never did. And Al Gore never said he invented the internet. Please, enough already with that one.
But the scandal mill that is the right-wing blogosphere and conservative screech radio is in constant need of new things to be outraged about. The president lives like a king! His daughters are going on vacation when my kids are staying home cleaning out their closet! WTF!!!!!!!! See? And like that. Hate is a hard thing to keep up. It requires a lot of fuel.
It made no difference that George Bush, during the seven years of a war he started just for shits and grins, took more vacation days than all the kids in Florida on spring break combined, over that same period.
It also makes no difference that Republican lawmakers actually DO take credit for things they had nothing to do with.
How ‘bout some facts? You know, those things that refer to things that are demonstrably true but which never seem to accompany these hate & outrage binges.
Let’s look at a collection of conservative members of congress in 2009, rounded up by Think Progress, who voted against the stimulus bill, stumped against it relentlessly, and warned about the devil himself coming to jump into our beds at night and do some very nasty things if it passed. Within months of its passage, as the stimulus began to take effect and started helping put people back to work (after they had lost their jobs due largely to Republican economic malfeasance), no fewer than 114 of these assholes lined up to take credit for a bill they voted against!!
The buttholes in question included John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Sam Brownback, Saxby Chambliss, John Cornyn, Jim DeMint, Lindsey Graham, Hatch, Grassley, Inhofe, and the list goes on and on.
No outrage there?
No surprise here.
We voted against it but we'll take credit for it!
Sorry, one more thing.
Drum wonders why progressives don't have the same sort of taste for scandals that right-wingers value so highly.
We do.
But we tend to be outraged by real things:
income inequality, discrimination, never ending wars, education hijacked by for profit corporations and religious lunatics, voter suppression, election rigging, banking deregulation, skyrocketing prison populations, lengthy prison sentences for minor offenses while war criminals and felonious CEOs walk, continued second class treatment of women and girls.
Real things. Not fever dream fairy tales.
Okay, done.
Re: How can you evolve if you don't believe in evolution? Been real busy these last couple of days performing inter-specie marriages; barn door being opened and all; got to stay ahead of the curve.
Squeeky the kitty, AKA Kitty of the driveway, got hitched to Ziggy Zag, French poodle type with no known means of support. The two Chihuahuas; a double ceremony with Oreo and Pumpkin; the fat cats from next door; both feline brides out weighted the canine grooms by at least ten pounds but the wedding gowns hid the discrepancy. Catering that reception was over the top with a Catnip cake covered with baconbits.
Perhaps the most moving ceremony of marital bliss was Big Rusty the Pitbull finally allowed to pursue happiness with Lollie, the toothless Boston "terrorist" mix. They have been sleeping in sin for years waiting for the rest of the world to "evolve".
So, I've been busy as a one handed paperhanger and haven't the chance to post with the parties and planning.
But can't someone say; "Whoa, asswipes; you can't "E-fuckin' volve" on an issue just because you'll lose votes if you don't. You lying sacks of shit, is there a position you won't "evolve" on if it will get you elected?"
What would happen if these asswipes in office lost their cozy health plans for life? You suppose they would "evolve" on a national health plan?
"Interspecies marriage; better than marrying a Republican."
This is my Brooks comment for PD (looks like I didn't make the cut). Everyone else feel free to ignore:
One might think that a "mea culpa" to these kids from those who continue to tout recreational war and mindless capitalism might be in order, but one would probably be wrong.
As my daughter prepares to graduate as an English major from one of America's top universities in June, her near-term future is in jeopardy thanks to the spiritual descendants of Nathan Detroit who decided to turn America into "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in the woild" and the schmucks who were willing to roll the dice for an extra .25 percent on their investments. In my rogues' gallery, Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein rate slightly higher than Al Capone ... and the HSBC guys, well, I stand in awe.
As Paul Krugman points out today, now that the deficit hawks have stopped beating the fear drum for immediate financial collapse with skyrocketing interest rates rivaling those of Weimar Germany, they've started claiming as one that running deficits in a depressed economy is unfair to coming generations. Well, along with firefighters and policemen (greedy moochers all, I suppose, according to Randian economics), many thousands of schoolteachers have been laid off, and at least for those kids who have worked hard to excel at that profession, it's probably "wait until next year," or the next. Hey, cheer up empiricists! There are openings at WalMart, and those Army ads are really keen.
Oh, and one for AK: The spell check ghost in the RC machine has no problem with the word "grokked." Must be a Heinlein fan.
Jack,
Aren't we all?
Thanks Jack for your sterling post that somehow the Times didn't think fit to print. Good luck to your daughter who has gone into the same field as I did many moons ago when literacy and the ability to put sentences together was still held in high esteem. I did read somewhere that people with an English Lit. background were able to get all kinds of jobs since apparently the ability to write is in short supply.
@ Thanks also for the best damn stuff around from Ak & JJG––belly laughs so good for what ails you. The marriages of pussies and man's best friends –––such a treat!