The Commentariat -- October 20
Curious & Curiouser. New York Times: Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, left a voicemail over the weekend for Prof. Anita Hill, now of Brandeis University, which Ms. Thomas characterized as an effort to "extend an olive branch" to Prof. Hill, who -- at his Senate confirmation hearings -- had accused then-Judge Thomas of acts of sexual harrassment. The weird bit:
Andrew Gully, senior vice president of the Brandeis University communications office, confirmed that Ms. Hill had received the message and that she had turned it over to the campus department of public safety. That office, in turn, passed it on to the F.B.I.
... Note: the Times story has been updated to describe the voicemail & to give more detail of Prof. Hill's decision to turn over the tape to authorities. Hill said,
I though[t] it was certainly inappropriate. It came in at 7:30 a.m. on my office phone from somebody I didn’t know, and she is asking for an apology. It was not invited. There was no background for it.
... Jane Mayer of The New Yorker listened to the voicemail, which Mayer described as "more adversarial than most peace offerings." Mayer writes,
... ABC News has the full transcript of the voicemail which was delivered Saturday, October 9, at 7:30 am ET (odd time to be drunk):
Good morning, Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.
... Update. Here's CNN's report:
David Neiwert of Crooks & Liars comments on the NAACP report on the tea party's connection to racists & militias. Here's the link to the NAACP report.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running this spot featuring Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate & state Attorney General Jack Conway. If you wonder what you can do to help progressive candidates this year, go to the PCCC site:
Rep. Tom Perriello is a first-term Democrat running in a conservative Virginia district. He is likely to lose this election. But if you want to see a real Democrat espouse real Democratic ideals, watch the video. I love this guy:
He has the authentic populist voice and anger that Obama lacks.
-- George Packer
... George Packer of The New Yorker on "Tom Perriello's lonely battle."
Your Civics Lesson for the Day, Part 1. Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post summarizes why elections turn out as they do: "Rarely ... do the election results add up to a mandate.... Most Americans don't really know what they think about the issues that so animate the political conversation in Washington, and what they think they know about them is often wrong." ...
... Exhibit A: TARP! Conservative Utah Sen. Bob Bennett lost his primary race largely because of his vote for TARP. Now Bloomberg reports, "The U.S. government’s bailout of financial firms through the Troubled Asset Relief Program provided taxpayers with higher returns than they could have made buying 30-year Treasury bonds -- enough money to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission for the next two decades. The government has earned $25.2 billion on its investment of $309 billion in banks and insurance companies, an 8.2 percent return over two years...." ...
Besides ... It wasn’t that hard for me, just so you know. I made the decision to use your money to prevent the collapse from happening. -- President George W. Bush, on TARP ...
... Your Civics Lesson, Part 2. Dana Milbank: "There is genuine populist anger out there. But the angry have been deceived and exploited by posers who belong to the same class of 'elites' and 'insiders' that the Tea Party movement supposedly deplores. Americans who want to stick it to the man are instead sending money to the man." ...
... Steve Benen concurs.
Hypocrisy 101, Course Summary. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "If there is a single message unifying Republican candidates this year, it is a call to grab hold of the federal checkbook, slam it closed and begin to slash spending.... But while polls show that the Republicans’ message is succeeding politically, Republican candidates and party leaders are offering few specifics about how they would tackle the nation’s $13.7 trillion debt, and budget analysts said the party was glossing over the difficulty of carrying out its ideas, especially when sharp spending cuts could impede an already weak economic recovery."
Dexter Filkins of the New York Times: "Talks to end the war in Afghanistan involve extensive, face-to-face discussions with commanders from the highest levels of the group’s leadership, who are secretly leaving their sanctuaries in with the help of troops...."
Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "Two years after the Fed bought billions of dollars in mortgage securities as part of the financial bailout, its New York arm is questioning the paperwork — and pressing banks to buy some of the investments back. The and several giant investment companies, including Pimco and BlackRock, have singled out , which assembled more than $2 trillion of mortgage securities from 2004 to 2008." ...
... Eliot Spitzer in Slate: "It wasn't just that the banks were wrong about their forecast of the housing market; it is that they intentionally ignored critical information given to them by the very people who were supposed to perform due diligence. And then they apparently withheld from investors that critical information about the quality of the bonds they were selling."
Here's Why I'm with the Trial Lawyers. Anahad O'Connor of the New York Times. Alan Newton, "a Bronx man who was imprisoned for more than two decades on a rape conviction before being cleared by , was awarded $18.5 million by a jury on Tuesday.... Mr. Newton was convicted of rape, robbery and assault in 1985 — based largely on eyewitness testimony — and spent years fighting to have DNA evidence from the case located and tested.... On Tuesday, a jury ruled that the city had violated his constitutional rights, and found two police officers liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress for failing to produce Mr. Newton’s evidence when requested." CW: the city plans to appeal. Assholes.
In Politics Daily, Andrew Cohen wonders if the Supreme Court "will rescue John Ashcroft again." CW: yes, it will. That's why they Court is hearing the case -- the Appellate Court took the plaintiff's side & the Big Boys want to overturn that ruling. Here's the underlying story from the Washington Post.
New York Times Editorial Board: "More than five million Americans could be barred from voting in November because of unjust and archaic state laws that disenfranchise former offenders, even when they have gone on to live crime-free lives.... It is past time for all states to restore individual voting rights automatically to ex-offenders who have served their time."
Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones exposes tea party star Mark Meckler, who in his last job "was a top distributor for Herbalife, a controversial company that peddles dubious nutritional supplements and weight loss programs," and one which industry experts classify as a pyramid scheme. Mencimer proposes that the tea party is organized in much the same way as businesses like Herbalife & Amway. ...
... And while we're on exposés, Robert Scheer of TruthDig zeroes in on new National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, then extends his criticism to President Obama & the Democratic party:
On Donilon: Fannie Mae paid Donilon, a longtime Democratic Party operative, $15 million to lobby Congress to gut the power of government regulators.... He was also a top executive at Fannie Mae during the period when cooking the books to increase executive compensation would later lead to a $400 million fine. In pursuit of those profits, Fannie Mae entered into a partnership with Angelo Mozilo’s shady Countrywide Financial....
On Obama: Behind the wonderfully engaging smile of this president there is the increasingly disturbing suggestion of a cynical power-grabbing politician whose swift rise in power reflects ... the skills of a traditional political hack.
On Democrats: The more one learns about the political roots of our economic meltdown, the more the Democratic Party stands revealed as an equal partner with the Republicans at the center of corruption.
Jeremy Holden of Media Matters on Glenn Beck's continued vilification of the tiny charitable, nonpartisan Tides Foundation, whose CEO & employees were targets of an assassination plan inspired by Beck's tirades. You can sign up here to join Media Matters' effort to stop corporations from advertising on Fox.
There is some actual news today in the "Infotainment" & "Soaps" sections near the bottom of the right column.
Share Article