The Commentariat -- May 30, 2015
Internal links removed.
NEW. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley launched his long-shot bid for the presidency on Saturday, offering himself to Democrats as a younger and more progressive alternative to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. O'Malley was poised to fly to Iowa, the nation's first presidential nominating state, after announcing his candidacy with a populist address that took jabs at Clinton, big banking and federal immigration policy. He will visit New Hampshire on Sunday."
Fearmongering Alert. White House: "In this week's address, the President addressed critical pieces of national security business that remained unfinished when the Senate left town. This Sunday at midnight, key tools used to protect against terrorist threats are set to expire":
... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama suggested ominously on Friday that allowing domestic surveillance programs to expire at a Sunday deadline could lead to a terrorist attack on the United States.... Mr. Obama has kept up pressure on the Senate to pass the legislation by arguing that the surveillance it authorizes is vital to thwarting a terrorist attack, despite a lack of evidence that it has ever done so." CW: See also Charlie Savage's NYT report, linked yesterday, which indicates bulk data collection hasn't prevented a single terrorist act. To be fair, however useless & invasive the program may be, the USA Freedom Act (love the name!) does contain enough in the way of reforms that Human Rights Watch supports it. ...
Richard Serrano & Timothy Phelps of the Los Angeles Times: "Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying a former student from Yorkville, Ill., to conceal his alleged sexual abuse of the youth that took place while Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach at a high school there, federal law enforcement officials said Friday. A top official, who would not be identified speaking about the federal charges in Chicago, said investigators also spoke with a second person who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the student said." ...
... BuzzFeed: "A source familiar with the investigation told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon considered but did not pursue additional charges against former Speaker Dennis Hastert, which would have included a reference to an Individual B, one of potentially several alleged victims of 'prior misdeeds.'" ...
... Pete Williams, et al., of NBC News: "Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid a man to conceal sexual misconduct while the man was a student at the high school where Hastert taught, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Assuming this report is accurate, the term 'abuse' would appear to exclude any consensual adult relationship -- you know, of the type increasingly accepted by most people, if not by all of Hastert's political allies." ...
... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "The unassailable moral greatness of the people who wanted Bill Clinton impeached over a blowjob remains striking." ...
... David Corn of Mother Jones cites a 2003 profile of Hastert by Jonathan Franzen for the New Yorker: "He became a born-again Christian in high school, and much of his time at Wheaton College, an evangelical institution, was devoted to religious study... [H]e comes from a religious college that provided instruction in service and submission, rather than in partying and doubt." CW: It would seem people often turn to fundamentalist religions as a means to exorcise or suppress some part of themselves they don't like. ...
... Wheaton College: "Wheaton College has received and accepted the resignation of Wheaton alumnus and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert from the Board of Advisors of its J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy."
... Monique Garcia of the Chicago Tribune: "The Illinois House has put on hold a proposal to spend $500,000 to put a statue in the state Capitol honoring Republican Dennis Hastert after the former U.S. House speaker declined the offer. Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan filed a bill May 5 to set aside the money, and the measure got out of a committee two weeks ago.... '(Hastert) called a month or so ago and said he appreciated the recognition and honor, but asked us to defer given the state's financial condition,' Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. Brown would not say whether the effort is now scuttled following Hastert's indictment...." ...
... CW: Why a Democrat would introduce a bill honoring Hastert is beyond me ...
... Tarini Parti of Politico: "Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert ... embarked on what appeared to be a lucrative post-congressional career that involved multiple sources of income.... When he left office in 2007, he was worth between $4 million and $17 million, according to financial disclosure filings. Although most of his wealth was tied to real estate holdings, he had a steady flow of cash from different sources as well. In addition to establishing his own consultancy, Hastert & Associates, Hastert began lobbying on behalf of various major clients for Washington-based lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro in 2009." His clients included the tobacco company Lorillard & numerous oil companies. He has resigned from Dickstein Shapiro. "The former speaker supplemented his lobbying income with a position on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Hastert, who has been a director since 2008, earned more than $205,000 in total compensation from the CME in 2014 alone, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Hastert has resigned from that position as well." ...
... CW: Sadly, Jesus could not save Denny from abusing high-school boys & working for big tobacco & big oil. Hard to say which is worse. ...
... Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), in a Washington Post op-ed: "Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution.... The parallels between what the tobacco industry did [-- (which were) ... ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise -- ...] and what the fossil fuel industry is doing now are striking." ...
... CW: Sheldon WhiteHouse is the guy who ousted then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) in 2006. (See Presidential Race below.) Whitehouse is also among my preferred choices for POTUS. If Clinton wins the nomination, Whitehouse would make an outstanding VEEP choice. Among other qualities, he is a terrific orator, which would help mitigate the fact that Clinton is not.
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a crucial step in normalizing ties between Washington and Havana and the latest progress in President Obama's push to thaw relations between the United States and the island nation. Secretary of State John F. Kerry rescinded Cuba's designation as a terrorism sponsor at the end of a 45-day congressional notification period that began on April 14, when Mr. Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Steven Shepard of Politico: "The Federal Communications Commission says it receives more complaints about unwanted phone calls than any other issue. As a response, the FCC is asking phone companies to offer services to their customers that block calls placed by an automatic dialer. Pollsters are asking to be exempted from the new guidelines, arguing that legitimate researchers shouldn't be grouped with telemarketers and debt-collectors. But, for now, the FCC has no plans to establish a carve-out for telephone surveys."
Lydia Saad of Gallup: "Half of Americans consider themselves 'pro-choice' on abortion, surpassing the 44% who identify as 'pro-life.' This is the first time since 2008 that the pro-choice position has had a statistically significant lead in Americans' abortion views.... On a longer-term basis, a higher percentage of women today than in 2001 call themselves pro-choice, while men's identification is about the same." CW: Apparently the wingers' hyperactive efforts to keep the little ladies barefoot & pregnant is finally influencing American women. Keep up the good work, Scotty! Eventually, the only GOP woman left standing will be the ghost of Phyllis Schlafly. ...
... More Bad News for Scotty, et al. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit struck down an Idaho law banning abortions 20 weeks into pregnancy Friday on the basis that the law unconstitutionally prohibits abortions before the point of fetal viability outside of the womb. It also declared unconstitutional Idaho's requirement that women undergo second trimester abortions in hospitals, calling it 'an undue burden' on women seeking abortions.... Friday's decision comes as momentum behind anti-abortion legislation, particularly 20-week abortion bans, grows. Similar prohibitions have been passed in 14 states in the past five years. Supporters of the measures say 20 weeks is when fetuses begin to feel pain, a claim most of the medical community considers to be without scientific basis." ...
... Washington Post Editorial Board: "Enacted in 1973, the Helms amendment stipulates that foreign assistance may not be used 'to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.' It is clear that abortions to end pregnancies caused by rape are not barred by that language. But successive administrations, Democratic and Republican, have treated the amendment as an absolute ban on funding any abortions.... We hope Mr. Obama ... takes the steps needed to ease the suffering of war rape victims by giving them access to the medical care that is their right." CW: What about it, Hillary?
Yesterday Akhilleus linked this excellent NPR report by Wade Goodwyn, who -- as Akhilleus noted -- accidentally forgot to follow NPR's both-sides-do-it rule of "journalism":
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The FBI has notified crime labs across the country that it has discovered errors in data used by forensic scientists in thousands of cases to calculate the chances that DNA found at a crime scene matches a particular person, several people familiar with the issue said. The bureau has said it believes the errors, which extend to 1999, are unlikely to result in dramatic changes that would affect cases. It has submitted the research findings to support that conclusion for publication in the July issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the officials said."
Matt Apuzzo & Sam Borden of the New York Times: Loretta "Lynch, only one month into her job as attorney general, captured the world's attention this week when she vowed to rid FIFA, soccer's global governing body, of corruption. Her news conference on Wednesday was watched around the world and made her the face of the United States government's crackdown on some of the world's most influential soccer officials. The Argentine newspaper La Nación introduced Ms. Lynch as 'the relentless attorney.' In Paris, Le Figaro called her 'the woman who is rocking FIFA.' In Germany, she was simply called FIFA-Jägerin -- the FIFA hunter.The FIFA indictment capped a month in which Ms. Lynch set in motion a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore Police Department and slapped Wall Street banks with billions of dollars in fines for manipulating currency markets. ...
... Owen Gibson of the Guardian: "Despite the chaos and controversy engulfing world football's governing body, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has secured a fifth term in charge. The 79-year-old defeated his rival, the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein, to whoops and cheers from his supporters. Blatter polled 133 votes to Prince Ali's 73, which would have been enough to take the contest to a potential second round but his 39-year-old challenger withdrew." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Ben Schreckinger & Jonathan Topaz of Politico: "Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee will officially enter the presidential race on June 3...."
Congratulations, Scotty-Boy! Gail Collins: "The 2016 Todd ('Legitimate Rape') Akin Award for Sexual Sensitivity goes to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.... Last week, Walker was on a radio talk show, praising a law he signed requiring women who want an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. Which they're supposed to watch, while the physician points out the features of the fetus. An ultrasound, he said, was 'just a cool thing.'... His larger point was apparently that the sight of a fetus in an ultrasound is so moving that a woman undergoing an abortion would almost certainly change her mind. This is wrong. There's no evidence these ultrasound laws discourage women who have already decided they want an abortion. And it's incredibly insulting because it presumes that they're making this choice on a kind of whim.... The ability to speak carefully is an attribute we look for when we're trying to decide who we should elect as the most powerful and closely scrutinized human being in the world." ...
... AND, as Victoria D. noted in yesterday's commentary, "The average cost of a fetal ultrasound is $263. Governor Wanker has just mandated that women seeking abortions receive one because they're 'cool.'... So much for limited, small government." See also reports by Lydia Saad of Gallup & Tierney Sneed of TPM, linked above.
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is blasting the Obama administration's decision to formally remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism."
Tim Egan: "What bothers [Jeb Bush] is not the threat of megastorms, life-killing droughts, city-burying sea rises -- but experts in the scientific community who are sounding such alarms.... In addressing and assessing the great issues of the day, Jeb Bush has disqualified himself to lead. On top of that, he's politically inept. All he has going for him is a certain arrogance, to use his word, that the name Bush entitles him to be president." Turns out the Smart One is more backward than the Dumb one: when he was President, Dubya said, "that the unsustainable increase in greenhouse gas 'is due in large part to human activity.'"
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: Li'l Randy can't find a billionaire sugar daddy.
Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday that universities that boycott Israel should lose their federal funding. Cruz's remarks were aimed at the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is gaining traction on college campuses. It calls for U.S. companies and universities to divest from Israel. Cruz has spoken against BDS but sharpened his tone Thursday.... 'BDS is premised on a lie and it is antisemitism plain and simple.'" Sheldon & Miriam Adelson were in the house.
Dana Milbank: "... why do mainstream conservatives give the [Duggar] family such a full frontal embrace?... The Duggars' picks in statewide races have fared poorly.... And their views of wifely submission won't help Republicans nationally with their gender gap. The overwhelming majority of Christian conservatives are ... neither racist nor believers in exotic notions of patriarchy and fertility. Surely there is a way for Republican office-seekers to appeal to them without wooing the most extreme."
Gubernatorial Race
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A day after a recanvass of the ballot boxes left him still trailing by 83 votes, James R. Comer, the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, conceded the Republican primary race for governor on Friday to Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman and Tea Party favorite." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Zack Ford of Think Progress: "North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has vetoed a bill that would have allowed state officials to refuse to officiate marriages. The legislation (SB 2), which passed in the House on Thursday having previously passed in the Senate back in February, would have allowed state magistrates to opt out of conducting marriage ceremonies based on a sincerely held religious objection. Though the bill does not specifically reference same-sex marriage, its purpose was to allow officials to retain their jobs without officiating for same-sex couples.... The legislation did not pass with enough support to override McCrory's veto."
Evan Wyloge of the Washington Post: "About 250 mostly armed anti-Muslim demonstrators -- many wearing T-shirts bearing a profanity-laced message denouncing Islam -- faced-off against a roughly equally sized crowd defending the faith in front of a Phoenix mosque Friday night. Violence never broke out, but the clash was often heated, as demonstrators yelled and taunted one another across a line of police separating the two sides.... Jon Ritzheimer, the organizer of the protest..., first began publicly demonstrating after two Phoenix residents carrying assault rifles were killed by police outside at a Muhammed cartoon-drawing contest in suburban Dallas earlier this month."
News Lede
Washington Post: "The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans' release have faltered."
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Reader Comments (8)
The Castro government is doomed. Thousands of prosperous, happy and free American cousins, nieces and nephews and grandchildren bearing gifts and tales of success will be disaster for the police state. If we had encouraged access years ago we would have had a free, prosperous Cube years ago. East Germany built a wall to keep the prosperous West Germans out and hold citizens in. We did Castro's dirty work for him.
@carlyle: Not sure you've thought this one through.
"If we had encouraged access years ago," there would be many fewer Cubans immigrating -- out of desperation -- to the U.S., so many fewer "tales of success." Although -- usually for economic reasons -- middle-class & poor Cubans had been moving to the U.S. in increasing numbers during the Batista regime, the first Cubans immigrating to the U.S. in response to the Castro-led revolution were wealthy or upper-middle-class Cubans who had gained or maintained their riches through cooperation with the Batista government, some of them leaving even before Fidel Castro gained control. These immigrants were already successful before they left Cuba, & many were true political refugees. It was not until some time later that middle-income & poor Cubans began leaving the island in significant numbers (or were kicked or invited out by the Castro government).
Early on, both the U.S. & Castro governments did encourage Cuba-to-U.S. migration. Tho U.S. policy (& treaty agreements with Cuba) have become more restrictive over the years, Cuban immigrants to the U.S. still enjoy a special status.
Moreover, Cuban ex-pats have been able to send aid & to visit Cuba for decades, though for a long time they had to travel to Cuba via a country other than the U.S. According to CNN, in 2013 (i.e., before the Obama administration further liberalized the policy), Americans sent $2BB a year to Cuba.
I do think improving diplomatic relations with Cuba will (or at least could) eventually be of benefit to ordinary Cubans, but the Castro government has been moving away from doctrinaire communist polices for a long time. The Castro government is doomed mostly because the Castro brothers are aged. Ergo, a regime change of sorts is inevitable. It's impossible to know in what direction a new government will go any more than we know what way our government will go.
Marie
Here's an interesting interview: Amy Davidson from the New Yorker interviewing Franzen on his piece on Hastert.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/06/speaking-with-the-speaker
One of my favorite films, "Havana." directed by Sidney Pollock, gives a realistic slice of life of Cuba back in the days of the revolution. I highly recommend it. Marie's last paragraph in response to carlyle I heartedly agree with.
THE MAN WHO LOVES WOMEN
–––––––Homage to Sidney Pollack
It is 1959—the Rebels have won—Batista has flown—the place is in turmoil–– Libre Cuba signs are everywhere
And he sits at a table having one last drink before he, too, flies out
And in she walks, slowly, so beautiful—
“Were you waiting for me?” she asks
“All my life.” he answers—
But we know he will never have her and will spend the rest of his life Waiting for her to walk in some door at sometime somewhere.
It’s Casablanca in Havana
It’s all about nobility, courage, honor, and sacrifice and, of course, Love—Here, however, the heroine makes the choice.
In all his films the women are strong, passionate, smart and— Lovely to look at.
(We even fell in love with Tootsie)
Kisses for you, Sidney, surely you must be one of the lucky men In this world—
Loving women — the elixir in life
And we thank you.
2003
The Cuba discussion puts me in mind of The Professor, the resident Spanish teacher I encountered in 1971 when I began teaching in a small Whidbey Island high school. An early refugee from Cuba, he was a well educated functionary in the Batista government. I never discussed politics with him because I sensed in him a reticence to talk about the life he had been forced to leave behind and I was reluctant to knock on that perhaps imaginary wall. There was a sadness to him I felt, which translated to a quiet kindness and and gentility, unfortunately qualities the barbarians we were in charge of were quick to take advantage of.
In the few years I taught down the hall from him before he died of cancer, I never really got to know him, but I did learn firsthand that not all those on the losing side of a regime change are bad people. The Professor was certainly one of the good ones, caught up like so many millions of others in the power struggles initiated and prosecuted by others.
People like The Professor are the real tragedies, tragic not because they are superior people brought low by a fatal flaw, but because they are unnoticed and unremarked, their lives blotted out by headlines that miss entirely the millions of individual stories we will never know.
@ Ken. Thank you. Your comment is not unlike one of Jonathan Franzen's responses to Amy Davidson in the interview linked above.
Marie
@Ken Winkes: Your post is very beautiful, and sad.
It did make me think of all the turmoil and hardship foisted on inhabitants of the Middle East, many of whom are just trying to live their lives. And Americans often perceive their respective countries as mere obstacles to our peace and quiet, as well as money pits.
Ken
A lovely piece of writing.