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The Commentariat -- May 18
Maureen Dowd: "According to the claims of the 32-year-old West African maid, what took place in the $3,000-a-day Sofitel suite had nothing to do with seduction. If the allegation is true, [Dominique] Strauss-Kahn’s behavior, boorish and primitive, is rape." ...
... I've opened a page for comments on Dowd's column on Off Times Square. I've posted my comment. ...
... Landon Thomas & Steven Erlanger of the New York Times profile Dominique Strauss-Kahn. ...
... MEANWHILE ... Liz Alderman of the New York Times: "As was left to spend another day behind bars in New York, a pack of would-be successors wasted little time Tuesday maneuvering for his job as managing director of the , one of the most powerful positions in global finance." ...
... AND. Stephen Fidler, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration strongly signaled it was time for the International Monetary Fund to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its chief, indicating that he can no longer be effective in his job. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, responding to a question in New York Tuesday night, said Mr. Strauss-Kahn — jailed since Saturday on sexual-assault charges — is 'obviously not in the position to run the IMF.'" ...
... BUT then you have the Strauss-Kahn apologists. Felix Salmon of Reuters has been on "Ben Stein Watch, DSK Edition," and posts "the top ten lines from Ben Stein’s article on Dominique Strauss-Kahn." Here's one: "This is a case about the hatred of the have-nots for the haves, and that’s what it’s all about." It's worth reading the rest.
Rachel Maddow takes on the myths, misperceptions and misrepresentations surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden, especially those by torture advocates who claim there was "a waterboarding trial to bin Laden":
... Update: here's the AP story Maddow cites.
Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said. Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights over the compound for months before the May 2 assault in an effort to capture high-resolution video that satellites could not provide." CW: if they can fly them there, they can fly them anywhere.
"Blame Woodstock." Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times: "A five-year study commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops to provide a definitive answer to what caused the church’s sexual abuse crisis has concluded that ... the abuse occurred because priests who were poorly prepared and monitored, and were under stress, landed amid the social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s. Known occurrences of sexual abuse of minors by priests rose sharply during those decades, the report found, and the problem grew worse when the church’s hierarchy responded by showing more care for the perpetrators than the victims." The study is to be released today (Wednesday).
The excellent post by Lee Fang of Think Progress that accompanies the video below really belongs in Right Wing World because Fang exposes Rep. Ben Quayle's "laughable" claim that oil company "tax deductions that corporations across all sorts of sectors take in terms of R&D, in terms of equipment deductions, the life of the equipment, those were the deductions that they were talking about and it’s not specific to the oil industry." As Fang clarifies, "Quayle and his Republican colleagues in the House ... voted in lockstep to extend billions in ... special tax breaks only available to oil and gas companies. For instance, there is the 'Intangible Drilling Costs' tax break ($7.8 billion over ten years); a deduction for 'tertiary,' or enhanced oil recovery methods ($67 million over ten years); and the percentage depletion allowance for owners of oil wells ($10 billion over ten years)." But what I want to highlight here is not Quayle but the citizens who showed up at his meeting, grilled him and laughed at his outright lie. These active citizens, who take "citizenship" seriously, are doing what is necessary to make democracy work again:
One Way to Reduce the Federal Deficit: Sell Utah! The federal government owns 70 per cent of Utah, for example. There are federal buildings. If you need cash, let's start liquidating.
-- Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Florida)
Right Wing World *
A Morality Tale:
How George W. Bush Killed Osama Bin LadenPrologue
Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. -- John McCain, in his 1973 account of his imprisonment and torture in Viet Nam
Chapter and Verse
Everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he [McCain] doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden. -- Rick Santorum, presidential candidate
Epilogue
Who? -- Brooke Buchanan, McCain's spokesperson, full e-mailed reply to a request for a response to Santorum
Paul Ryan gives his "big speech" defending his budget plan and theory of economics. ...
... SO Paul Krugman rebuts: "... he’s out there denouncing the way 'the budget debate has degenerated into a game of green-eyeshade arithmetic' — in other words, enough with all these numbers. And his answer to the deficit now is that we have to grow our way out. There’s a name for that: voodoo economics."
Callista Gingrich. Is that Tiffany's you're wearing with your pretty Republican retro suit, Mrs. Newt? Bling Ding. CW: a number of cynics have charged that Newt Gingrich is running for president largely for the purpose of promoting himself & his publishing business. Turns out, he may need the money. Jake Sherman of Politico reports that in 2006 -- the last year for which disclosure reports are available -- the "fiscally conservative" Newtster was carrying up to a half-million-dollar debt at Tiffany's. ...
... Newt Gingrich: the candidate forever cursed to be 'the smartest man in the room': ...Maybe he only felt truly comfortable when he was surrounded by diamonds, one of the few things in the universe as brilliant as Newt Gingrich. -- Alex Pareene of Salon ...
... No. -- Newt, in response to a WashPo inquiry on whether he would be willing to disclose what he bought at Tiffany's ...
... Amy Gardner & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Newt Gingrich’s first outing as a 2012 presidential candidate has confirmed and even deepened Republicans’ doubts that the former House speaker has the discipline it will take to be a credible contender. The second day of his 17-city swing through Iowa once again saw Gingrich in full damage-control mode and seeking to tamp down the backlash that he generated with inflammatory remarks Sunday on NBC’s 'Meet the Press,' in which he criticized a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare and defended a central tenet of the Democrats’ health-care reform." ...
... To demonstrate how willing I am to pile on to the Newt's troubles, here I am letting Charles Krauthammer have a say:
... Judd Lequm of Think Progress: Newt Gingrich complains the right is excoriating him for his criticisms of Paul Ryan's budget because "the gotcha press ... took dramatically out of context what I said." CW: Yeah, by running extended clips of his remarks and stuff. Unfortunately, "context" only makes his remarks looks worse, because the "context" includes his multiple flip-flops. ...
... Update. Hahahahaha. Warning to Democrats: any ad you run that accurately quotes me is a lie. -- Paraphrasing Newt:
... Benjy Sarlin of TPM: and Newt personally apologizes to Paul Ryan for calling the Ryan budget "right-wing social engineering." CW: because in Right Wing World, the truth is always a gaffe. A terrible gaffe. ...
... Dana Milbank on Dinosaur Watch: "Gingrich didn't change; his party did." And, year, Paul Ryan's plan is radical.
.... ** NEW. From-the-Heartland writes: "I listened to Morning Joe this morning and caught their session on Gingrich. What troubles me about the coverage and commentary is that it all leaves a flavor which intimates that Ryan's plan relative to Medicare/Medicaid is a decent proposal which needs to be worked with. I fear that a huge number of people will feel that to be the message of the coverage afforded to Gingrich's criticism of Ryan's plan rather than the fact that Gingrich is a two timing conniving opportunist with no real moral compass."
NEW. Are You Going to Believe Me or Your Lying Ears? Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) staff lies about his lies. No, the Mexican government did not accuse the U.S. of committing an "act of war," even if Darrell Issa says it's so -- twice, and on tape-- and his staff says that isn't what he said.
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the after explosive accusations that he had sexually attacked a housekeeper in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room."
President Obama spoke at two DNC events in Boston this evening. ...
... Update: Here's the text of the President's remarks at one of the events. Here are his remarks at the other event.
New York Times: " imposed sanctions on ’s leader, President , and six other senior Syrian officials on Wednesday, ratcheting up American pressure in the wake of a bloody crackdown on political protests in the country."
Washington Post: "Air Force One with President Barack Obama aboard made an aborted landing attempt at the Windsor Locks, Conn., airport Wednesday before trying again and landing safely, officials said. The White House and Federal Aviation Administration say it was a routine maneuver where the pilot was in the process of landing, but because of weather conditions decided to circle the runway before trying again and landing safely." ...
... Washington Post: "Confusion after Vice President Biden landed in Chicago on Monday almost resulted in a collision between two passenger planes just above the tarmac at O’Hare International Airport , according to federal officials and air traffic recordings. The near-collision involved a pair of 50-seat, twin-engine commuter jets, one inbound from Muskegon, Mich., and the other taking off for Buffalo. Biden’s plane was not involved in the incident."
President Obama delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New Longdon, Connecticut early this afternoon. ...
... Update: Here's the text of the President's commencement address.
I've brought this link forward from yesterday's Ledes. Washington Post: "Pakistani paramilitary troops shot at NATO helicopters that crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan early Tuesday, triggering a firefight that left two soldiers wounded, military officials here said. The incident, which coalition officials in Afghanistan said they were investigating, served as a new threat to U.S.-Pakistani relations...."
New York Times: "... there were suggestions that [Dominique] Strauss-Kahn, a powerful, wealthy politician who was widely regarded as a strong candidate to run against the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next year, would put forward a defense that any sex would have been consensual.... Tthe defense may acknowledge that a sexual encounter had occurred." ...
... The AP has more on the Strauss-Kahn case. ...
... New York Times Update: "The housekeeper, 32, whose name has not been publicly released by the authorities in New York, testified before the grand jury Wednesday, people briefed on the case said. The panel is expected to vote on whether to indict Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, a prominent French Socialist, by Friday, when he is due back in court."
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