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Friday
Oct102014
The Commentariat -- Oct. 11, 2014
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Carol Lee & Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal: "The White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S., senior administration officials said. Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S." Firewalled. Copy part of the lede & paste into a Google search box. ...
... Steve M.: "This is where the entire heartland -- certainly the entire white heartland -- will turn into a bloc of seal-the-borders crazies. To heartlanders, it's going to feel like a border invasion...." ...
... Oh, Surely You Exaggerate, Steve. Let's Hear from the Heartland....
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) on Friday vowed to block all legislation in the Senate with a prolonged filibuster if President Obama tries to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States.... 'I stopped him once from trying to send a Gitmo terrorist to Leavenworth. I shall do it again, I shall do it again and if he tries it again I will shut down the Senate,; Roberts said, referring to the military prison located sixty miles east of his campaign headquarters in Topeka where he spoke to campaign volunteers."
Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "The U.S.-led air war in Syria has gotten off to a rocky start, with even the Syrian rebel groups closest to the United States turning against it, U.S. ally Turkey refusing to contribute and the plight of a beleaguered Kurdish town exposing the limitations of the strategy."
Eli Lake of the Daily Beast: "Congress has quietly begun reviewing every U.S. government intelligence collection program. It's got the potential to trigger the next big fight between The Hill and Obama's spies." ...
... Jane Mayer of the New Yorker will interview Ed Snowden today, beginning at 1:00 pm ET. You can watch the interview live here. The New Yorker will also livestream its virtual interview of Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, beginning at 4:00 pm ET.
Ryan Gabrielson, et al., of ProPublica: "Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts -- 21 times greater, according to a ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings. The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police."
Aaron Kessler of the New York Times: "In his second day on the witness stand, Ben S. Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman, recounted his extreme reluctance to lend money to the American International Group in the summer of 2008, even as financial markets were weakening. 'We very, very much did not want to make a loan of this sort,' Mr. Bernanke said. He added that assisting an insurance company like A.I.G. could give an incentive to other nonbank companies to look to the Fed for help instead of the private sector."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday allowed same-sex marriages to proceed in Idaho, lifting a temporary stay issued two days earlier by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.... Justice Kennedy, the member of the court responsible for hearing emergency applications from the Ninth Circuit, entered a temporary stay on Wednesday morning on very short notice after a last-minute request from officials in Idaho. He acted so quickly that he included Nevada in his order. A few hours later, Justice Kennedy issued a revised order, limiting the stay to Idaho." ...
... Brad Cooper of the Kansas City Star: "The constitutional assault on same-sex marriage bans zeroed in on Kansas on Friday with a new legal challenge that could clear the way for gay marriage in the state. Two lesbian couples -- one from Lecompton and another from Wichita -- challenged the Kansas ban in federal court Friday afternoon.... The lawsuit by the two couples comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for same-sex couples to wed in Kansas when it let stand lower court rulings that found bans on their marriages unconstitutional. While the court did not rule on the Kansas law, it kept in place an appeals court ruling [against the ban] that would be binding if a challenge were brought against the state law.... Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt [R] ... spent Friday in state court trying to stop Johnson County from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples."
Matt Volz & Matthew Brown of the AP: "The U.S. Army War College revoked Democratic Sen. John Walsh's master's degree after an investigation completed Friday concluded that he plagiarized a research paper required to graduate. The college assigned an academic review board to the probe in August after The New York Times published a story showing Walsh borrowed heavily from other sources for the paper he wrote in 2007. Walsh was pursuing a master of strategic studies degree at age 47, a year before he became Montana's adjutant general overseeing the state National Guard."
Ben Jacobs of the Daily Beast: "On Friday, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library released its last batch of previously restricted documents from the 42nd president's administration. The latest document dump included details about Monica Lewinsky's tenure as a White House intern, a personal apology from Keith Olbermann to Clinton about his role covering the scandal, as well the White House's exasperation with Jimmy Carter." Jacobs highlights "five of the biggest and most interesting revelations." A list of the documents, with links, is here.
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "In the growing crop of tell-all memoirs by former Obama administration officials including [Leon Panetta,] Robert M. Gates and Timothy F. Geithner, [Hillary] Clinton has emerged largely unscathed -- proof that in Washington, it is easier to kick a sitting second-term president than a potential future one." When Panetta headed the CIA, "he had a shouting match with ... Clinton about who had ultimate authority over drone strikes in Pakistan.... It does not appear in Mr. Panetta's just-published book, even though it seems tailor-made for a volume called 'Worthy Fights.'"
Mike McIntire & Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times: "... an examination by The New York Times of police and court records, along with interviews with crime witnesses, has found that ... [Tallahassee] police on numerous occasions have soft-pedaled allegations of wrongdoing by [F.S.U.] Seminoles football players. From criminal mischief and motor-vehicle theft to domestic violence, arrests have been avoided, investigations have stalled and players have escaped serious consequences." ...
... Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times: "In the midst of an investigation by the federal government and intense scrutiny from multiple attorneys, Florida State University sent a letter to supporters outlining its actions in the Jameis Winston sexual assault case." The letter is here. Article includes response from attorneys of the woman who accused Winston of sexual assault in late 2012.
November Elections
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "More than half of the general election advertising aired by outside groups in the battle for control of Congress has come from organizations that disclose little or nothing about their donors, a flood of secret money that is now at the center of a debate over the line between free speech and corruption. The advertising, which has overwhelmingly benefited Republican candidates, is largely paid for by nonprofit groups and trade associations, some of which are set up with the purpose of shielding from public scrutiny the wealthy individuals and corporations that contribute."
California. Chris Frates & Scott Zamost of CNN: "Charges of sexual misconduct, plagiarism and burglary have pitted a former staffer against a high-profile congressional candidate just weeks before the midterm elections. The drama is unfolding in a city that just weathered a sexual harassment scandal ending the career of its Democratic mayor. The latest accusations by a former campaign aide could derail the career of up-and-coming Republican Carl DeMaio.... This is not the first time DeMaio has been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior."
Colorado. CW: Apparently the Denver Post editorial board is comprised of insane people. The board has endorsed right-wing extremist Rep. Cory Gardner over Sen. Mark Udall, who has been an excellent senator. If your read their endorsement, it is one long fairy tale about how Gardner will be bipartisan, blah-blah. Sickening. (The Post endorsed Udall in 2008 & President Obama in 2008 & 2012. It also endorsed Democrat Michael Bennet in 2010.) ...
... If you're wondering how much of a wingnut Gardner is, Luke Brinker of Salon (Sept. 25) ran down some of items on Gardner's "scary agenda." The Post editors not only fail to reveal any of Gardner's wildassed policy prescriptions in their endorsement, one wonders if they are even aware of them. These editors not only don't report the crazy, they endorse it.
Florida. Brendan Farrington of the AP: "Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Republican-turned-Democrat former Gov. Charlie Crist agreed during a debate Friday that Ebola would be bad for Florida -- and they disagreed about nearly everything else. In a contentious debate that reflected the negative tone of the campaign, Scott and Crist took opposite sides on issues including health care, the minimum wage, Cuba policy, gay marriage and medical marijuana." There are links to video of the debate here. ...
... The Tampa Bay Times editors endorse Charlie Crist for governor.
Kentucky. CW: This is funny. I was all set to watch "40 painful seconds of Alison Lundergan Grimes refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama," as advertised in the Washington Post. The Post picked up the video from the Republican party, which "took no time at all ... to clip the non-answer and put it online." But click on the video & what do you get? A message that says, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Gannett Co., Inc." Better check those copyright laws next time, Mitch. I will say that, generally speaking, Grimes is painful to watch.
New Jersey. Michael Symons of app.com: New Jersey "Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Bell said he is behind in the polls by double digits because single mothers are 'wed' to the social benefits like food stamps that Democrats hand out.... Bell is seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Cory Booker in the November election. Booker, who won a special election last year, is seeking a full, six-year term. Bell's recent comments are 'misogynistic, despicable,' said Booker campaign spokeswoman Julie Roginsky." Real Clear Politics' average has Booker over Bell by 12.2 percent.
South Dakota. Jake Sherman of Politico: "Larry Pressler, who is running for Senate in South Dakota as an independent, has his principal residence in Washington, according to District of Columbia tax records. Pressler, who served as a Republican in Congress from 1975 to 1997, and his wife receive the homestead deduction, a generous tax break meant for people who use their D.C. home as their 'principal residence,' according to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue. The tax break reduces a property's 'assessed value by $70,200 prior to computing the yearly tax liability,' the District says." ...
... Here's the Democratic Senate candidate:
Texas. Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "... the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, who is the Republican nominee for governor, said he would ask the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn the [district] decision [to block Texas's voter ID law]. On Friday, he asked Judge Ramos to clarify whether the ruling would apply to next month's election. The Fifth Circuit court, based in New Orleans, is known as one of the country's most conservative." ...
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Wendy Davis [D] is running one of the nastiest campaign ads you will ever see.... [The] ad is the sort of highly risky gambit you only see from a long-shot campaign. And, as often as not, these sorts of 'Hail Marys' fail miserably." ...
... Mark Barabak of the Los Angeles Times: "... many political analysts called the TV spot a monumental blunder, one of several bumps that have plagued Davis' campaign since the Fort Worth lawmaker announced her gubernatorial candidacy last October." ...
... CW: Neither the WashPo nor the L.A. Times mentions that Abbott has exploited his disability in his own campaign ad:
Virginia. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator's daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate. Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care." Warner is running for re-election to the Senate against vile Republican Ed Gillespie. Warner is up by an average of 11 points.
Wisconsin. Jason Stein & Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "In their first meeting Friday, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democrat Mary Burke drew many sharp contrasts but much less blood as they debated their positions on jobs, the minimum wage and abortion. The most pointed attack of the evening came from Burke, who accused Walker of signing a mining bill last year to benefit a company that put $700,000 into an outside group that backed him in the 2012 recall." You can watch the full debate here. ...
... Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel: "Just 14 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Wisconsin's voter ID law for the Nov. 4 election, five appeals court judges Friday issued a blistering opinion calling allegations of voter impersonation fraud 'a mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters likely to vote for the political party that does not control the state government.' '"Some of the "evidence" of voter-impersonation fraud is downright goofy, if not paranoid, such as the nonexistent buses that according to the "True the Vote" movement transport foreigners and reservation Indians to polling places,' wrote appeals Judge Richard A. Posner. Posner, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was joined by four others in his dissenting opinion. The five other judges on the court did not spell out their views on the ID requirement. The latest ruling had no immediate practical effect, and the voter ID law remains blocked for the election." ...
... BUT. Erik Eckholm: "Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, who signed the bill into law and had been expected to benefit from it in his race against the Democratic candidate, Mary Burke, expressed confidence [same article as linked above re: Texas's voter ID law] that it would eventually be upheld. The state attorney general, J. B. Van Hollen, said without offering details, 'We will be exploring alternatives to address the court's concern and have voter ID on Election Day.'" CW: Yeah, nullifying the Supremes would be cool, J.B. Why not consult Mike Huckabee? I'll bet he's got some great legal advice. ...
... Presidential Race
Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch: Mike Huckabee threatened "to leave the Republican Party if the GOP does not take a stand against the Supreme Court's decision ... not to hear appeals of lower court rulings striking down gay marriage bans in several states.... Huckabee declared that 'I am utterly exasperated with Republicans and the so-called leadership of the Republicans who have abdicated on this issue,' warning that by doing so the GOP will 'guarantee they're going to lose every election in the future.' ... I'm gone,' Huckabee warned. 'I'll become an independent. I'll start finding people that have guts to stand. I'm tired of this.'" ...
... The most recent poll of Iowa Republicans, conducted by CNN about a month ago, had Huckabee ahead of all other potential presidential candidates. ...
... Steve Benen: "Huckabee's ultimatum reinforces a Republican Party with an awkward dilemma. If the GOP quietly moves towards the mainstream on social issues, it alienates a significant part of the party's base. If Republicans toe the far-right line on the culture war, the GOP will continue to shrink, pushing away younger voters and a mainstream that's increasingly respectful of diversity. To be sure, this has long been a challenge for Republicans, but with the party's demographic challenges becoming more acute, and far-right voices like Huckabee's growing louder, GOP leaders are left with no good options."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Seven New Jersey teenagers were charged on Friday in connection with a series of sexual assaults in a hazing scandal that prompted a high school to cancel the rest of its football season, the authorities said. Six of the teenagers were taken into custody on Friday evening on charges stemming from attacks on four students in four separate encounters at Sayreville War Memorial High School, in Parlin, Andrew Carey, the Middlesex County prosecutor, said in a joint statement with Chief John Zebrowski of the Sayreville Police Department. The seventh teenager was being sought by the police, the officials said." ...
... NJ.com has links to numerous stories related to the hazings here.
Washington Post: "Demanding justice for Michael Brown, more than a thousand people marched through downtown St. Louis Saturday morning as part of a 'weekend of resistance.' Chanting 'hands up don't shoot' and 'no justice, no peace,' they marched about a mile through the heart of downtown toward the famed Arch." ...
... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch story puts the number of marchers in the "thousands."
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Reader Comments (9)
Wendy Davis campaign ad nasty? I live in Texas. The ad is true and fitting.
" In New Hampshire, the Granite State with the defiant license plate, security fears are dominating the senatorial campaign. New Hampshire voters — including, it seems, New Hampshire mothers, for whom Islamist terrorism seems less of a danger than lightning at picnics, to say nothing of drunk drivers and proliferating guns — are panicked enough to think of voting for a 'security' Republican."
Quote from yesterday's Adam Copnik piece: It hit me again after reading this that the Republican's agenda has always had that hidden FEAR factor lurking through much of their messages, everything from guns to gays. I still shudder at the color codes of possible terror attacks during the Bush administration. People ran out to Home Depot, bought duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal their windows–––ALERT, alert!
Sigh~~~~~~~~~~~
I sure enough did like that there ad featuring Rick Weiland singing his own song like a good ole boy. Loved the refrain of not being bought. Yeah, so far, but maybe he's the real deal––hard to tell nowadays.
@Huckabee: Please leave the Repugs and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. One more thing: STFU! When you were governor, at least you sounded reasonable at times, but now you're just a grumpy, mysogyinistic, bigoted old man. And mean and nasty to boot.
I couldn't watch the Walker-Burke debate live due to my very sensitive nature. After being assured by my husband that Burke mopped the floor with Walker, I did view some excerpts....
Walker's three-minute summary, in which he looked into the camera sincerely and maintained that he has done everything with pure motives, was disgusting. I was surprised at how polished he was and concerned that it foreshadows a better-than-I -expected persona in a presidential race. Note that both Walker and Pollster Charles Franklin, who is a republican, have been out and about saying that "53% would be a landslide in Wisconsin" (Walker's words) inpreparation for selling a possible narrow victory as a big win, a la Christie.
Also, in analysis after the debate, ubiquitous Wisconsin political commentator Mordecai Lee, who despite being a democrat adores Walker, posited that an extraordinary legislative session will be called to pass a voter ID law identical to Indiana's, making it possible to have ID in place for the election. What part of "too close to the election" do these guys not get?
I watched both the Wendy Davis ad and the Greg Abbott ad. I find the Abbott ad nauseating -- egotistical self-congratulation completely devoid of relevance. The Davis ad strikes me as perfectly justified. Texas has terrible laws that prevent injured parties from recovering meaningful damages. The notorious neurosurgeon who killed and maimed numerous patients was, I believe, never brought to any sort of justice.
The Oct.13 New Yorker issue had a fascinating story about a neighborhood garbageman ("zabaleens) who explains modern Egypt called "Tales of the Trash." Below are quotes from the article that I found interesting in connection to the discussion we had here re: the Muslim issue.
Divorce it appears, has "little stigma for male Muslims in Egypt. One of Sayyid's [the garbageman] older brother had recently divorced for the second time and now was searching for a third wife. 'You keep one for awhile and then you change,' the brother said, 'It's like changing a tire on a car.'"
"The majority of Egyptian women have undergone the surgery, which opponents describe as genital mutilation. Since 2008, it's been illegal, but many people continue to have it performed on daughters, usually when they are between the ages of nine and twelve. In Egypt, Islamists are the biggest supporters of the procedure... This procedure is not mentioned in the Koran, and Muslims in most parts of the world don't practice it." [Hooray!]
When Sayyid was asked whether he planned to have the surgery performed on his daughter he nodded and said "Otherwise, women are crazy for dakar [a word that means male]. They'll be running around outside the house chasing men."
Pills like viagra are quite common among Egyptian males and come in all varieties. One such was found in one of the garbage bags with Chinese labeling: "2 pills at a time whenever nece necessary
Before fucking make love 20 minutes."
But when it comes to garbage Egypt does a bang up job or so they want us to believe.
I too fail to find the nasty in Davis's unparalleled attack on poor Abbott. Unless one of those cases turn out to be a flat out lie GOP-style, then where's the issue here? Is it not 'politically correct' enough for some of those talking heads out there, attacking a man who is apparently wheelchair bound and plays political points off of it? As if PC had any meaning after years of incessant Muslim Socialist Kenyan Shifty Negro talk.
I personally find our political ad 'culture' both abhorrent and cancerous to our political discourse, but it's become status quo and seemingly a necessary evil for any successful campaign these days. You can't have any legitimate political discussion in 30 seconds, so they've become nothing but shock and awe bombs thrown in between the Kardashians.
Yes the average voter is inattentive and passive regarding his/her civic duty in a Democracy, but the political discourse linking electors to the elected, framed through the t.v. ad, is a highly dubious method to promote a truly democratic electorate.
I thought the town hall setups were a step in the right direction but then the politicians actually had to meet the general public being held hostage by partisan tricks and accountability reared its ugly head. Town halls mysteriously disappeared as quickly as they began. Political operatives say t.v. ads are the best way to connect to their voters.
Yeah, right.
Safari. There's no money in town hall meetings. There's mucho dinero in teevee ads. Follow the money.
We have state and federal legislatures comprised of the lesser knave. When success depends on being the superior liar and defamer in elections, we end up with a group like our current House of Representatives and should not be surprised at the failure of these lesser beings.
Of course, we get what we deserve.