The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links

Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Monday
Jul272015

The Commentariat -- July 28, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Jonathan J. Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for passing classified documents to the Israeli government, will be released on parole in November after 30 years in prison, a government panel decided on Tuesday. Mr. Pollard's lawyers announced the decision of the United States Parole Commission on Tuesday afternoon, and officials at the Department of Justice confirmed that Mr. Pollard had been granted parole."

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday defended the Iran nuclear agreement as a 'strong deal' before skeptical members of Congress who expressed concern that it will eventually give Iran the freedom to build nuclear weapons and finance mayhem in the region. Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kerry told lawmakers that it is a 'fantasy' to think that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons should it choose to do is."

Erik Wemple updates Donald Trump's media strategy in the wake of his consigliere's threats against a Daily Beast reporter.

A Marine Corps lieutenant colonel is relieved of her commend, & the Marine Corps Gazette subsequently decides not to publish her essay criticizing the Corps' treatment of female Marines. C. J. Chivers of the New York Times has the backstory, & publishes the essay.

Mika Brzezinski is often pretty silly & shallow. Not this time:

... ** Unsurprisingly, Israelis are offended, too.

*****

BBC News: "US President Barack Obama has warned that Africa could not advance if its leaders refused to step down when their terms ended. He also called for an end to the 'cancer of corruption', saying it took money away from development. Mr Obama made the comments in the first ever address by a US leader to the 54-member AU at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa." Here's a clip:

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Now, with a push from President Obama, and perhaps even more significantly a nod from Speaker John A. Boehner, Congress seems poised to revise four decades of federal policy that greatly expanded the number of Americans -- to roughly 750 per 100,000 -- now incarcerated, by far the highest of any Western nation. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has long resisted changes to federal sentencing laws, said he expected to have a bipartisan bill ready before the August recess."

Scott Wong & Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday said his chamber will not vote on the Senate's six-year highway bill. McCarthy's declaration that the House will not be 'taking up the Senate bill' means a short-term extension is the only way to prevent a lapse in federal infrastructure funding at the end of the week. It also means the Export-Import Bank, linked to the highway bill in the Senate, will not be renewed until September at the earliest." CW: One more reminder -- as if you needed one -- that Republicans in Congress are incapable of running their arm of the government. ...

... ** In Which Mitch McConnell Play the Hero. NEW. David Dayen explains why House Republicans want a five-month extension of the highway bill: "Of particular interest should be the timing. This patch would last until December 18, the last day of Congress before the Christmas break, also known as the time when Congress slips things into law while everyone is off holiday shopping and trimming the tree. And there's a plan for what to do with a long-term highway bill too: fund it through a corporate tax amnesty, allowing multinationals to bring home their foreign earnings with a minimal tax hit, well below the normal 35 percent range. Future Democratic leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer and Republican Rob Portman have already teamed up on this, using the enticement of infrastructure funds to alter the way the corporate tax system works." ...

... Another GOP Zombie Plan. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Tucked into a dusty corner of the Senate's Highway Trust Fund bill ... is a zombie proposal to hire private debt-collection agencies to hound delinquent taxpayers on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has actually tried outsourcing tax collection activities to private debt collectors before, at Congress's behest. Twice, in fact, over the last two decades. Both times, the experiment was a disaster.... Both times the program was scrapped because it actually cost taxpayers money on net.... Yet for some reason -- perhaps amnesia, a blind devotion to privatization at all costs, a desire to line the pockets of friends in the debt-collection industry, or a conspiracy to make Americans hate the IRS even more than they already do -- this policy proposal just will not die.... The solution is to just adequately fund the IRS...."

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The governing body of the Boy Scouts of America voted Monday to end its decades-long ban on gay scout leaders. The organization's national executive board, meeting in Texas, concluded that the policy of excluding gay adults 'was no longer legally defensible.' The decision was approved by 79 percent of the board." ...

... Ben Lockhart of the Salt Lake City Deseret News: "The future relationship between the Boy Scouts of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now uncertain after the Scouting body voted Monday to rescind a nationwide ban on gay Scout leaders, prompting strong words of concern from the church and a promise to re-evaluate its century-long affiliation with the organization.... Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a prepared statement. '... the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America.'" ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The Christian Science Monitor notes that as a result of its ban on gay individuals, over the years BSA's membership has grown more conservative, with about 70 percent of troops now run by religious organizations. Following the 2013 decision, some conservatives left the Boy Scouts and created the group Trail Life USA. BSA enrollment had been declining for some time.... Southern Baptist Convention spokesman Roger Oldham said that, like the Mormons, Baptists may be ready to abandon the Boy Scouts altogether instead of being forced to eventually accept gay leaders."

Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "Planned Parenthood representatives say that hackers appear to be working to gain access to the abortion providers' employee information systems. The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach, a spokesperson said on Monday, one that representatives from the organization said 'if true' could threaten the 'privacy and safety of our staff members'."

Dana Milbank: Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kansas) returns to a Washington unlike the one he left. The art of the deal used to involve friendship & compromise.

Sally Kohn in a Washington Post op-ed: When will we start holding racism and misogyny accountable for the violence they rationalize and inspire?... John Russel Houser, who killed two women & injured many more people in a Louisiana movie theater "was steeped and stewing in right-wing xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist and racist hate.... Houser was crazy and held some beliefs that were variations of more mainstream conservative beliefs. The roots of some of Houser's political views are hard to distinguish from ideas espoused by many, if not most, of the candidates running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.... When there's evidence that a mass shooting suspect who's Muslim espoused anti-American, pro-radical Islamicist views, we tie that suspect to the broader ideology.... Black Americans are presumed to bear blame as a group even when they're the victims of violence.... White privilege extends even to white mass murderers...."

Samuel Gibbs of the Guardian: "Over 1,000 high-profile artificial intelligence experts and leading researchers have signed an open letter warning of a 'military artificial intelligence arms race' and calling for a ban on 'offensive autonomous weapons'. The letter, presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was signed by Tesla's Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis and professor Stephen Hawking along with 1,000 AI and robotics researchers."

Hang your head, Ben.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

All Our Pulitzers Are Tarnished. But We Led the News Cycle! CW: The New York Times publishes an unsigned CYA "Editor's Note" explaining why Hillary Clinton is not behind bars yet despite their excellent "criminal investigation" bombshell story. For one thing, you can't trust the government: "That article was based on multiple high-level government sources." (Those sources likely being Trey Gowdy, Trey Gowdy's top staffer & the boyfriend of a DOJ clerk who once worked at Justice but now represents the RNC. And Trey Gowdy.) For another, Hillary's henchmen harassed a cub reporter the moment the story hit the Internets: "Shortly after the article was published online, however, aides to Mrs. Clinton contacted one reporter to dispute the account." BTW, we decided that before we tried to bury Clinton, we would not offer her the same courtesy we do other subjects: contacting her before publication. Yeah, I wouldn't sign this piece of crap either. But at least this excuse for a mea culpa is helpful to the folks Erik Wemple cites:

...CW: In Confederate America, there's a new meme. The New York Times changed its blockbuster story outing Hillary Clinton as a serial criminal BECAUSE HILLARY ASKED THEM TO. So that's another scandal on top of all her criminal misdeeds. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post has the details: "... the critique was leaving out something that once mattered in political dialogue: the truth." BTW, here's an unnamed Democratic spokesman to back up what I've been saying for days: "A Democratic spokesman for the House oversight committee, which is closely involved in Clinton e-mail stuff, told the Erik Wemple Blog: 'Unfortunately, the New York Times did not check with us before running its story, even though we have offered to help in the past and could have corrected these errors before they showed up on the front page. We do not know who the New York Times talked to, but we talked to the Inspectors General themselves.'" What a concept! ...

... MEANWHILE, "independent journalist" Ron Fournier of the National Journal wants to know what Hillary is hiding. Fournier never mentions his own fucked-up complaint of last week that Hillary was "blaming The New York Times, which is as pathetic as it is laughable" & that the DOJ should investigate her criminal activities. ...

... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Twice in the last few months, a hot, breaking New York Times story on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email address while secretary of state has gone from 'wow, that looks terrible for Hillary Clinton' to 'wow, that looks terrible for the New York Times' in the day or so after its initial much-hyped publication.... The Times is making it clear that it isn't prepared to change the practices that led to serious mistakes in two bombshell-turned-bomb stories about Hillary Clinton's emails...."

Political scientist Henry Farrell explains why Tom Friedman never has to say he's sorry. CW: Here's another funny bit: I came to Farrell's piece via Paul Krugman, who is forbidden to say anything bad about the bozos & bobos who people the same op-ed page he does. True to his code, after a fashion, Krugman never mentions Friedman.

Presidential Race

Command Performance -- The Koch Presidency. Ken Vogel of Politico: "Four leading GOP presidential candidates -- Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker -- are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and hundreds of other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election. The gathering -- which also will include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, but notably not Sen. Rand Paul -- is hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs' increasingly influential network of political and public policy outfits. It represents a major opportunity for the candidates at a pivotal moment in the presidential primary." ...

... Dave Weigel & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is turning down a coveted invite to a gathering of wealthy conservative donors this weekend, citing his plans to be on the campaign trail.... Paul told The Washington Post..., 'We've been invited -- it's just hard to make [these] decisions, because you can't be everywhere.'" CW: If Li'l Randy's purpose in giving up a chance to grovel at the feet of the Koch Brothers' Band of Billionaires by caucusing with the cornpones of Iowa was intended to make him seem like a man of the people, he might have announced his populist sacrifice without employing the royal "we."

Tim Mak & Brandy Zadrozny of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being 'rapists' and bringing crime into the country.... It was an unfortunate turn of phrase for Trump.... Not only does the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination have a history of controversial remarks about sexual assault, but as it turns out, his ex-wife Ivana Trump once used 'rape' to describe an incident between them in 1989. She later said she felt 'violated' by the experience.... Ivana Trump's assertion of 'rape' came in a deposition -- part of the early '90s divorce case between the Trumps, and revealed in the 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump." Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen told the Daily Beast, "You cannot rape your spouse. And there's very clear case law." ...

I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we're in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don't have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know. So I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me? You write a story that has Mr. Trump's name in it, with the word 'rape,' and I'm going to mess your life up ... for as long as you're on this frickin' planet ... you're going to have judgments against you, so much money, you'll never know how to get out from underneath it. -- Michael Cohen, special counsel to the Trump Organization to Tim Mak of the Daily Beast

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Marital rape was made illegal in all US states in 1993. It was made illegal in New York state in 1984, five years before the alleged incident. Donald and Ivana Trump settled their divorce in 1992." ...

... Arturo Garcia of the Raw Story: "ABC News reported that the Trump campaign responded to the report by calling the rape allegation 'old news and [that] it never happened.'... The campaign also downplayed Cohen's role, saying, 'Nobody speaks for Mr. Trump, but Mr. Trump.'... The response came hours after Cohen appeared on CNN billed as a spokesperson for the candidate."

... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Most of the polls [which came out this week & showed Donald Trump in the lead for the GOP nomination] were partly or entirely conducted before Mr. Trump's controversial comments [about John McCain].... For good measure, it is not at all clear that we should expect Mr. Trump to suffer discernible losses in the near future. Take Herman Cain, who faced reports that he was accused of sexual harassment in late October 2011. These reports were surely more problematic for his candidacy than Mr. Trump's comments about Mr. McCain, and yet the early polls conducted after the allegations did not show much evidence that they had any effect on his standing. One month later, Mr. Cain was out of the race." ...

... Steve M. argues there's no comparison between Cain & the Ablest. ...

... CW: Yeah, and there's this. Greg Sargent: "A big majority of Republicans believes that the government's main focus on immigration should be not just on stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, but also on deporting those already here." Do you suppose there was "a big majority of Republicans" who believed it was quite all right for (black) men to fondle (white) ladies without their consent? Possibly not. ...

... Dara Lind of Vox: "If a new CNN poll is correct, a majority of Republican voters are significantly to the right of pretty much every Republican elected official and every single Republican presidential candidate -- including Donald Trump -- on immigration."

... Stefanos Chen of the Wall Street Journal: "... Donald Trump has sold his penthouse in New York's Trump Park Avenue building for $21 million, according to real estate listing agent Michelle Griffith. With slide show. CW: All the rooms are white. He plans to purchase & extensively remodel another White House.

Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "On the campaign trail, Jeb Bush has repeatedly emphasized his record overseeing Florida's boom economy as the state's governor.... But according to interviews with economists and a review of data, Florida owed a substantial portion of its growth under Bush not to any state policies but to a massive and unsustainable housing bubble -- one that ultimately benefited rich investors at the expense of middle-class families.... In the four years after Bush left office..., the typical Florida family's net worth fell 60 percent in that time, according to the Census Bureau.... Many of those families now pay rent to Wall Street firms."

CW: If you think the next administration & future federal courts should be made up on graduates of Livingston High School, New Jersey, & Seton Hall Law, you should definitely vote for Chris Christie. It will happen. Matt Arco of NJ.com reports. Nonetheless, I suppose David Wildstein won't become Transportation Secretary. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Jeff Mulvihill of the AP: "Three public workers' pension funds are suing New Jersey for billions in damages, claiming the state government breached contracts when it contributed less than planned. The filing Friday is the latest volley in a more than yearlong dispute over pension contributions. They stem from Gov. Chris Christie's decision last year amid a budget shortfall to veer from a pension funding plan he signed into law in 2011.... Spokesmen for Christie did not respond immediately to a request for comment." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "A conference protesting police violence against African Americans ended in police violence against African Americans on Sunday, when at least one officer deployed pepper spray against men and women protesting the arrest of a 14 year-old teenager."

Way Beyond

Nicholas Watt of the Guardian: "Lord Sewel has announced he is to resign from the House of Lords with immediate effect as he apologised for the 'pain and embarrassment' he has caused after the release of a film showing him allegedly taking cocaine with sex workers.... Sewel's decision will raise questions about whether Paul Kernaghan, the House of Lords commissioner for standards, will continue with his investigation into whether the peer broke the code of conduct for the upper house.... The peer's resignation will have no impact on the police investigation that was launched on Monday...."

News Ledes

Guardian: "Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya's former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli. Saif, once seen as his father's heir apparent, was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the former dictatorship, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi's last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi."

Reuters: "FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his stewardship of soccer's governing body, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired by Swiss broadcaster RTS on Monday."

Comments Off
Sunday
Jul262015

The Commentariat -- July 27, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jeff Mulvihill of the AP: "Three public workers' pension funds are suing New Jersey for billions in damages, claiming the state government breached contracts when it contributed less than planned. The filing Friday is the latest volley in a more than yearlong dispute over pension contributions. They stem from Gov. Chris Christie's decision last year amid a budget shortfall to veer from a pension funding plan he signed into law in 2011.... Spokesmen for Christie did not respond immediately to a request for comment."

CW: If you think the next administration & future federal courts should be made up on graduates of Livingston High School, New Jersey, & Seton Hall Law, you should definitely vote for Chris Christie. It will happen. Matt Arco of NJ.com reports. Nonetheless, I suppose David Wildstein won't become Transportation Secretary.

*****

Peter Baker & Marc Santora of the New York Times: President "Obama, accompanied by [Susan] Rice, now his national security adviser, convened a meeting on Monday to try to forge a peace in South Sudan, in his most direct personal intervention since the violence broke out more than 18 months ago. During a visit [to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia]..., he sat down with regional leaders to try to build a consensus behind a peace proposal, and to come up with a backup plan, in case that fails, involving increased sanctions and possibly an arms embargo."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama sharply criticized Republican 2016 presidential candidates Monday for engaging in 'inflammatory remarks' that were cheapening the nation's political discourse.... [Mike] Huckabee responded to the president's remarks in a statement Monday morning, doubling-down on his previous comments ... that the Iran deal was so flawed it will 'take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven'":

Anne Barnard, et al., of the New York Times: "Turkey and the United States have agreed in general terms on a plan that envisions American warplanes, Syrian insurgents and Turkish forces working together to sweep Islamic State militants from a 60-mile-long strip of northern Syria along the Turkish border, American and Turkish officials say. The plan would create what officials from both countries are calling an Islamic State-free zone controlled by relatively moderate Syrian insurgents, which the Turks say could also be a 'safe zone' for displaced Syrians."

Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Barack Obama huddled with Ethiopia's leaders Monday for talks on counterterrorism, human rights and regional security issues, including the crisis in neighboring South Sudan. Obama's visit marks the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Ethiopia. He arrived at the National Palace in the capital of Addis Ababa for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, followed by a joint news conference."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In a rare and fiery weekend session, the Senate voted on Sunday to resurrect the federal Export-Import Bank, handing the Republican Party's most conservative wing a major defeat and setting up a showdown this week with House leaders divided over the moribund export credit agency. The bipartisan vote -- 67 to 26 -- broke a filibuster and allowed supporters to attach a measure to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank to a three-year highway and infrastructure bill, which is expected to pass the Senate early this week. The agency's authorization expired June 30, halting all new loan guarantees and other assistance to foreign customers seeking to purchase American companies' products. A clear majority in the House also supports resurrecting the agency, but it will be up to House leaders to decide whether the body will get a vote...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate is fast-tracking a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of two controversial videos that sparked a political firestorm. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) finished the process, known as 'Rule 14,' on Sunday, allowing the legislation to skip over the committee process and be placed directly on the Senate calendar for a floor vote." ...

... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Senate on Sunday voted down a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare, the GOP's first attempt to get rid of the president's health law since the party took control of the chamber in January. The effort fell 49-43, exactly along party lines, with eight senators not voting in the rare weekend session. Third-fifths of the Senate would have had to vote to add Obamacare repeal to a highway funding bill. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is expected to ask the Senate -- likely Monday -- to reconsider the Obamacare amendment. He would propose a procedural motion to change Senate rules in order to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act with just 51 votes." ...

... Manu Raju & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Republican leaders, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), delivered what senators described as punishment for [Ted] Cruz's brazen floor tactics -- the Texas senator first accused McConnell of lying and later sought to change Senate procedures in order to push for an Iran-related amendment. So when Cruz came to the floor looking for 16 senators to agree to hold a roll-call vote, only three raised their hands. McConnell, sitting at his desk, turned around and peered at Cruz, who looked stunned at what had just happened. The Senate dispensed with his effort by a voice vote and quickly moved on, doing the same to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a Cruz ally who sought to use arcane procedures to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood.... Cruz later] accused McConnell of scheming with Democratic leader Harry Reid." ...

... Kevin Cirilli of the Hill: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) doubled-down Sunday in his attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).... 'I would note that it is entirely consistent with decorum and with the nature of this body traditionally as the world's greatest deliberative body, to speak the truth,' Cruz said. 'Speaking the truth about actions is entirely consistent with civility.' Asked if he want to far during his Friday speech, Cruz instead blasted the press for not writing about whether or not McConnell lied about a deal."

Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times' public editor, weighs in on the paper's hasty, erroneous reporting of the supposed two inspectors generals' request for a "criminal investigation" of Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link. CW: Sullivan faults the paper for the "mess," but it appears she gets some major items wrong. (And, BTW, if she had followed my advice & read Kurt Eichenwald's takedown, she would wound not have made those mistakes.) First, Sullivan asserts that "the fact remains that [Clinton's] secret email system hamstrung possible inquiries into her conduct while secretary of state both by the news media and the public under the Freedom of Information Act and by Congress." Not according to Eichenwald. Any documents -- including notes written on napkins -- that a public official creates in the course of her duties are subject to FOIA requests. Second, Sullivan implies that Schmidt's March 2015 scoop on Clinton's private server was a paragon of investigative journalism. Not according to Eichenwald:

The Times's public editor defended that piece, linking to a lengthy series of regulations that, in fact, proved the allegations contained in the article were false.... The reality remained that, when it came to this story, there was no there there.

     ... Finally, Sullivan lets NYT executive editor Dean Baquet get away with this whopper: "You had the government confirming that it was a criminal referral. I'm not sure what they could have done differently on that." Both Sullivan & Baquet are journalists. But let me explain to them, there was something else they could have done: they could have asked the IGs, as Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) did, if in fact they had sent criminal referrals of Clinton to the DOJ. The reporters & their checkers did not ask, so the IGs said publicly Friday that they had not sent out criminal referrals. It isn't as if that was top-secret info that the Times could not possibly have wrenched out of the IGs. You don't have to be a reporter or an editor to know that if you're going to write, "A did B," you have an obligation to at least ask A if he did B. You don't necessarily have to believe A's answer, if you have other, more credible sources that refute A, but you do have to ask A. Sullivan should have pointed out this major flaw in the "reporting." Instead, she just faults the Times reporters & editors for a method of "fact-checking" that involved re-asking their original sources if they had the story right. Considering the sources (almost certainly GOP House Benghaazi! committee members or their staffs), the Times should have been super-skeptical, especially on a highly-partisan issue that could have an impact on the presidential election.

The Hard Realities of Soft Corruption. Bill Curry in Salon: "That [Barack] Obama translated this public anger [against political corruption] into a message in 2008 -- but didn't follow up with policy in 2009 -- may reveal an underlying worldview. When Justice [Anthony] Kennedy pronounced the public unconcerned with systemic corruption he spoke not for the Tea Party but for a Washington establishment of which Obama, many political reporters, most political consultants and all lobbyists are members for life.... The flaw in [Hillary] Clinton's candidacy is the flaw in our politics. It is Kennedy's 'soft corruption.'" CW: Curry highlights the New York Times' fake stories, but I think he's right about his central point -- that Democrats don't care about political corruption. Whether you like her or not, Hillary Clinton personifies the entrenched Village SOP.

Steve M. points to & elaborates on a post by David Futrelle titled "Angry misogynist murders women at showing of film by feminist comedian; police worry 'we may not find a motive.'" CW: Steve & Futrelle seem to be on the right -- or at least a plausible -- track. In addition, I think it's easy to connect the dots between Houser's motives & columns like the one Ross Douthat wrote for today's Times, linked below. I don't mean to suggest that Douthat is directly responsible for the multiple murders of women, but his point that Planned Parenthood medical personnel -- a large percentage of whom are women, & whose clientele are mostly women -- "have spent their careers crushing, evacuating, and carving up for parts ... dead human beings," can lead some crazy men to "reason" that it's okay to kill young women who might have abortions & allow "dead human beings" to be carved up like meat. Houser may have figured that by killing young women, he was saving lives, i.e., the lives of Douthat's "dead human beings." Some readers will think I'm exaggerating. Probably I'm not. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Amanda Marcotte in Slate: "We don't know exactly why yet Houser shot up a theater that was showing a movie written by an unapologetic feminist, but this moment should still be a wake-up call about the problem of misogynist violence in our culture. If we're not going to talk about gun control, then let's talk about how to get fewer men to see guns as the solution to their inchoate rage at women." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Bobby's Aposty. Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana called for tougher gun laws in other states on Sunday.... On CBS's 'Face the Nation,' Mr. Jindal called for states to adopt laws similar to Louisiana's that feed information about mental illness into a federal background check system for potential gun buyers.... Officials have said Mr. Russell [sic., John Russell Houser], of Phenix City, Ala., legally bought the murder weapon there in 2014, although he had been denied a state-issued concealed weapons permit in 2006 because he was accused of domestic violence and soliciting arson." CW: Not a hoax, & in 2013 Jindal, believe it or not, did sign into law bills to cooperate with the federal database on purchases of weaponry, um, along with other bills that would expand gun rights. ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker (July 24): "During his Presidency, [Barack Obama has] gone from a kind of rote acknowledgment of the issue [of gun violence] to a deeply felt recognition of its centrality, if only because it represents not a problem that is insoluble in its nature but something stupidly simple and easy to fix. In any sane polity, gun killings would be a horror, not a habitual event. Seeing the President's metamorphosis suggests that, as another old song had it, a change is going to come."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Rick Perry's voice softens when he talks about the joy he gets from looking at his iPad and seeing 'that 20-week picture of my first grandbaby.' Marco Rubio says ultrasounds of his sons and daughters reinforced how 'they were children -- and they were our children.' Rand Paul recalls watching fetuses suck their thumbs. And Chris Christie says the ultrasound of his first daughter changed his views on abortion. If they seem to be reading from the same script, they are. With help from a well-funded, well-researched and invigorated anti-abortion movement, Republican politicians have refined how they are talking about pregnancy and abortion rights, choosing their words in a way they hope puts Democrats on the defensive." ...

... CW: Surely this is the same script that Scott Walker flubbed last month when he "justified" Wisconsin's law requiring women seeking abortions to view ultrasound images of their fetuses by exclaiming the procedure was "just a cool thing out there."

** Noreen Malone & Amanda Demme in a New York cover story & photo essay: "There are now 46 women who have come forward publicly to accuse Cosby of rape or sexual assault; the 35 women here are the accusers who were willing to be photographed and interviewed by New York. The group, at present, ranges in age from early 20s to 80 and includes supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson alongside waitresses and Playboy bunnies and journalists and a host of women who formerly worked in show business. Many of the women say they know of others still out there who've chosen to remain silent." Story includes photos, videos & links to the full stories these women tell. ...

... David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "The New York magazine cover featuring 35 women who have accused Bill Cosby of rape featured one empty chair for any women who have not come forward because they are still too afraid to speak out. Within minutes of the cover's publication on Sunday evening, Twitter users had created a hashtag for #TheEmptyChair, dedicated to victims of rape, sexual assault and abuse who are too frightened to come forward due to shame, stigma or the possibility further abuse." ...

... Andrew Chow of the New York Times: "Spelman College has discontinued a professorship endowed by Bill Cosby, a university spokeswoman said. After suspending the professorship last year in the wake of mounting accusations of sexual assault against Mr. Cosby, the college terminated the program and returned the related funds to the Clara Elizabeth Jackson Carter Foundation, the spokeswoman, Audrey Arthur, said in a brief statement. The foundation was established by Mr. Cosby's wife, Camille. The Cosbys have had a long relationship with Spelman, a historically black women's college in Atlanta."

Louis Menand of the New Yorker: Most criminals are recidivists. "For [Richard] Matt and [David] Sweat, being on the outside essentially boiled down to coming up with ways to get back inside. Inside, they were masters of their environment.... Away from that environment, though, they were lost.... Once he was free from prison, the only place David Sweat could possibly have ended up, short of dead, was back in prison."

Presidential Race

Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton called for harnessing the power of the sun to generate enough renewable energy to run every home in the country within the next decade, as part of a climate change initiative announced Sunday." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Clinton's numbers are down in crucial states because when she's running for office, she has a high unfavorability rate among white voters.

The Rhetorical Question of the Day. Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "... if [Donald] Trump weren't around would the other Republicans behave that much more responsibly?" ...

... The Great Unknown. Tim Noah in Politico: "Over the past two decades [Donald Trump] was a Republican, then an independent, then a Democrat, then a Republican. Now, registered as an independent, he leads the Republican 2016 presidential field. But what does Donald Trump really believe on policy? It's hard to tell -- his campaign will identify no policy director, he has no 'issues' tab on his campaign website and he hasn't given any substantive policy speeches on the campaign trail." CW: Let's face it: Trump serves a special-interest constituency of one -- Donald Trump. Trump is a Republican now out of a profound belief that the GOP base is crazier than the Democratic base. ...

... Adam Sneed of Politico: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump charged on Sunday that Hillary Clinton's private email practices as secretary of state were 'criminal.' 'What she did is far worse than what Gen. [David] Petraeus did, and he's gone down in disgrace,' Trump said on in a telephone interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'What she did is criminal.'... Trump refused to elaborate when pressed by CNN host Jake Tapper, who noted that federal inspectors general had cited security rather than criminal concerns." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "In the first national telephone poll since Donald Trump earned rebukes from Republican leaders over his comments about Senator John McCain's military service, the real estate mogul has increased his support among GOP voters and now stands atop the race for the party's nomination. The new CNN/ORC Poll finds Trump at 18% support among Republicans, with ... Jeb Bush just behind at 15%, within the poll's margin of error." ...

... Steven Shepard of Politico: "Donald Trump has surged to the lead in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary and virtually erased Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's advantage in the Iowa caucuses, according to new NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday."

How stupid is the Doofus Plan to Phase Out Medicare? Paul Krugman counts the ways. "In this, as in other spheres, [Jeb!] Bush often seems like a Rip Van Winkle who slept through everything that has happened since he left the governor's office -- after all, he's still boasting about Florida’s housing-bubble boom.... Medicare at 50 still looks very good. It needs to keep working on costs, it will need some additional resources, but it looks eminently sustainable. The only real threat it faces is that of attack by right-wing zombies."

Marco Rubio, Senator No-Show. Manu Raju of Politico: "... Rubio has been absent more often than other senators seeking the White House." Lindsey Graham & Ted Cruz are other frequent absentees. Bernie "Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, missed just seven votes since mid-April, which is more in line with the average attendance rate of all senators, who cast 97 percent to 98 percent of roll calls on the floor."

Worst Argumentum ad Hilterum Ever. This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven. Mike Huckabee, in a Breitbart interview. MAG contributed the link (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

I may run with links to some reactions to Huckabee's remark. Other than that, from now on, Huck gets the Sarah Palin treatment here: no coverage unless highly newsworthy. -- Constant Weader

Daniel Politi of Slate: "The National Jewish Democratic Council ... called on other Republican presidential candidates to denounce Huckabee's remarks. 'Far, far too often, this organization has found itself forced to denounce politicians for invoking the Holocaust in inappropriate and offensive ways,' the NJDC said in a statement. 'These comments by Gov. Mike Huckabee, however, may be the most inexcusable we've encountered in recent memory.'" ...

... Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "The reference to the Holocaust -- in which Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers and their bodies cremated in ovens -- created a backlash Sunday on Twitter, with numerous users condemning Huckabee's remarks. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called on the former Arkansas governor to 'apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible statement.'... Spokesmen for the leading GOP presidential candidates -- including [Donald] Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker -- did not respond Sunday to questions about the remarks."

News Ledes

Boston Globe: "Boston's Olympic bid is dead. In a joint statement, United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun and Steve Pagliuca, chairman of bidding group Boston 2024, characterized the decision to pull the plug as a mutual one."

New York Times: "Peg Lynch, who wrote and starred in 'Ethel and Albert,' one of television's earliest situation comedies, died on Friday at her home in Becket, Mass. She was 98.... Ms. Lynch, who wrote nearly 11,000 scripts for radio and television without the benefit of a writer's room committee (or even a co-writer), was a pioneering woman in broadcast entertainment. As a creator of original characters and a performer of her own written work -- every bit of it live! -- she might be said to have created the mold that decades later produced the likes of Tina Fey and Amy Schumer."

Comments Off
Saturday
Jul252015

The Commentariat -- July 26, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In a rare and fiery weekend session, the Senate voted on Sunday to resurrect the federal Export-Import Bank, handing the Republican Party's most conservative wing a major defeat and setting up a showdown this week with House leaders divided over the moribund export credit agency. The bipartisan vote -- 67 to 26 -- broke a filibuster and allowed supporters to attach a measure to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank to a three-year highway and infrastructure bill, which is expected to pass the Senate early this week. The agency's authorization expired June 30, halting all new loan guarantees and other assistance to foreign customers seeking to purchase American companies' products. A clear majority in the House also supports resurrecting the agency, but it will be up to House leaders to decide whether the body will get a vote...."

Steve M. points to & elaborates on a post by David Futrelle titled "Angry misogynist murders women at showing of film by feminist comedian; police worry 'we may not find a motive.'" CW: Steve & Futrelle seem to be on the right -- or at least a plausible -- track. In addition, I think it's easy to connect the dots between Houser's motives & columns like the one Ross Douthat wrote for today's Times, linked below. I don't mean to suggest that Douthat is directly responsible for the multiple murders of women, but his point that Planned Parenthood medical personnel -- a large percentage of whom are women, & whose clientele are mostly women -- "have spent their careers crushing, evacuating, and carving up for parts ... dead human beings," can lead some crazy men to "reason" that it's okay to kill young women who might have abortions & allow "dead human beings" to be carved up like meat. Houser may have figured that by killing young women, he was saving lives, i.e., the lives of Douthat's "dead human beings." Some readers will think I'm exaggerating. Probably I'm not. ...

... Amanda Marcotte in Slate: "We don't know exactly why yet Houser shot up a theater that was showing a movie written by an unapologetic feminist, but this moment should still be a wake-up call about the problem of misogynist violence in our culture. If we're not going to talk about gun control, then let's talk about how to get fewer men to see guns as the solution to their inchoate rage at women."

Adam Sneed of Politico: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump charged on Sunday that Hillary Clinton's private email practices as secretary of state were 'criminal.' 'What she did is far worse than what Gen. [David] Petraeus did, and he's gone down in disgrace,' Trump said on in a telephone interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'What she did is criminal.'... Trump refused to elaborate when pressed by CNN host Jake Tapper, who noted that federal inspectors general had cited security rather than criminal concerns."

Worst Argumentum ad Hilterum Ever. This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven. Mike Huckabee, in a Breitbart interview. MAG contributed the link

I may run with links to some reactions to Huckabee's remark. Other than that, from now on, Huck gets the Sarah Palin treatment here: no coverage unless highly newsworthy. -- Constant Weader

*****

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama challenged the land of his father on Sunday to break the cycle of corruption, strengthen its shaky democracy, overcome ethnic divisions and end discrimination against women and girls as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Kenya full of potent symbolism. Delivering a tough-love message, Mr. Obama hailed the economic and political advances of recent years and forecast a bright future for the country, but he said that further progress would require it to confront 'the dark corners' of its past and tackle problems that have plagued it for generations."

Erica Werner of the AP: "It's a rare Sunday session for senators, and on the agenda are efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law and reviving the federal Export-Import Bank. Both are amendments to a must-pass highway bill that the Senate is trying to complete ahead of a July 31 deadline. If Congress doesn't act by then, states will lose money for highway and transit projects in the middle of summer construction season."

Juliet Eilperin & Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Saturday committed the United States to an intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa, announcing here that his administration would expand support for counterterrorism operations in Kenya and Somalia, including increased training and funding for Kenya's security forces. 'We have to keep that pressure going even as we're strengthening the Somali government,' he said at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta."

... David Smith of the Guardian: "The US president, Barack Obama, has launched an unprecedented defence of gay rights in Africa, telling Kenya's president that the state has no right to punish people because of 'who they love'.... Obama personalised the issue by comparing homophobia to racial discrimination that he had encountered in the United States. Never before has such a powerful foreign leader challenged Africans so directly on their own soil."

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "President Barack Obama and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sparred over support for gay rights here Saturday, with Obama urging fast changes and Kenyatta saying it was not something Kenyan culture or society would 'accept.'... Standing by Obama's side at a joint press conference here in front of the Kenyan state house, Kenyatta repeated what he has said before about gay rights: it's 'a 'non-issue.' Kenyatta's remarks were the ones that drew applause among the Kenyan audience":

Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "The banking industry is scrambling to kill a provision in the Senate highway-funding bill that would reap billions of dollars in revenue by cutting a century-old system that has reaped annual awards for banks. Industry lobbyists say they were blindsided by the inclusion of the provision, which would help policymakers cover the bill's cost by cutting the regular dividend the Federal Reserve pays to its member banks [from 6% to 1.5%].... In a Congress where lawmakers are always hunting for politically palatable ways to raise revenue or cut costs to cover the expenses of additional legislation, the Fed provision was a novel, and rich, one. The proposal is estimated to raise $17 billion over the next decade, and is by far the richest 'pay for' included in the bill." CW: Hard to imagine this was Mitch's idea.

George Joseph of the Intercept: "The Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, according to hundreds of documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request.... The documents ... indicate that the department frequently collects information, including location data, on Black Lives Matter activities from public social media accounts, including on Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, even for events expected to be peaceful.... The tracking of domestic protest groups and peaceful gatherings raises questions over whether DHS is chilling the exercise of First Amendment rights, and over whether the department, created in large part to combat terrorism, has allowed its mission to creep beyond the bounds of useful security activities as its annual budget has grown beyond $60 billion." ...

... Maya Park & Daniel Strauss of Politico: Their disruption last weekend of Netroots Nation forums featuring Martin O'Malley & Bernie Sanders has energized the Black Lives Matter movement. "Seizing the moment, the Black Lives Matter group -- a movement organizing action on topics important to the black community and racial injustice -- decided to quickly put together a summit in Cleveland, Ohio. The summit describes itself as 'hundreds of Black freedom fighters from around the country' coming together to coordinate and build a new coalition for action in the black community. The conference offers panels on, for instance, self defense and organizing for black activists." CW: Don't be scared, white people. DHS is on this.

** Dear Smug Bastards.... Emily Badger & Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "By the time they're 60 years old, [a comprehensive study] has found, nearly four in five people experience some kind of economic hardship: They've gone through a spell of unemployment, or spent time relying on a government program for the poor like food stamps, or lived at least one year in poverty or very close to it.... If you don't like food stamps because you think you'll never need them, maybe these probabilities would change your mind.... the poverty figures may well be a conservative estimate for what someone who's 25 today could expect in the coming decades as incomes continue to stagnate and job security worsens."

The venerable New York Times continues to give one fucking, lying shmuck in the person of Ross Douthat a platform for his disgusting, self-righteous lies: "... these are dead human beings being discussed on video today: Human beings that the nice, idealistic medical personnel at Planned Parenthood have spent their careers crushing, evacuating, and carving up for parts." CW: No, Ross, they are not human beings; they are clusters of underdeveloped tissues, sort of like the flabby muscles that occupy that place between your ears where many of us have brains.

Frontline obtained photos, thru an FOIA requiest, of Bush administration officials to the 9/11 attacks.

Presidential Race

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Hillary "Clinton's aides announced Saturday morning that she had accepted an invitation to testify on Oct. 22. But a spokesman for the Republican-led committee said hours later that no agreement had been reached." ...

     ... CW: Schmidt, BTW, leads by boasting, "Amid renewed controversy surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of private email for government work...." I'm still waiting for the Times' public editor to comment. I sent her a link to the analysis of the Times' "reporting" by Kurt Eichenwald, which I linked yesterday (it's here), so she wouldn't have any excuse to whitewash her opinion. If you haven't read Eichenwald's piece, I highly recommend it. ...

... AP: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton, said on Saturday she never knowingly sent or received classified information using her private email server and did not know what messages were being cited by intelligence investigators as examples of emails containing classified information." ...

... Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Two government inspectors general involved in the Hillary Clinton email referral flap released a joint statement [Friday] afternoon to try and explain exactly what happened.... the two ... IGs released a joint statement later explaining that the referral was not criminal in nature, 'it was a security referral made for counterintelligence purposes.'" The post includes the IGs' statement. CW: Funny, but it would seem Schmidt & Apuzzo didn't bother to interview the IGs or ask for comment before they splashed their inaccurate story across the front page of the Times. ...

... Dylan Byers: "The New York Times report claiming that inspectors general had sought a criminal investigation relating to Hillary Clinton's personal email account was finally changed early Saturday morning, one day after all parties involved in the story -- the two inspectors general, the Justice Department, and the Clinton campaign -- issued public statements disputing the language in the Times report.... The Times also updated its headline, removing the word 'criminal' from 'Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton's Use of Email.'... Journalists, political operatives and even Times staffers expressed surprise at how long it took the Times to correct the report." ...

... CW: Gee, Dylan, maybe now you can get your colleague Annie Karni to remove the word "criminal" from her report on another matter, which -- amazingly -- Politico published after Karni had already worked with you to debunk the Times story. ...

... Here's more from Ben Dimiero of Media Matters. ...

... Not surprisingly, over there in Right Wing World, they're treating the story that blew up in the Gray Lady's face as a Clinton-NYT conspiracy to hide the troof. This is a meme that won't die.

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "To the list of Republican rivals he has insulted, Donald J. Trump on Saturday added a new name: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whom he accused of mismanaging his state's budget and creating a disaster for its roads, schools and hospitals. Mr. Walker, who has been restrained in criticizing Mr. Trump's provocative remarks compared with other Republican presidential candidates, is leading in the polls in Iowa...." ...

... Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Several people listed as part of the 'Veterans for Trump coalition' formed by Donald Trump following his incendiary comments about John McCain's war record have denied they are part of the group.... When the Guardian contacted several claimed Veterans for Trump members on Friday, three said they had never heard of the organisation and had not signed up as members.... On Saturday, the Trump campaign disputed the accounts of those interviewed by the Guardian."

Beyond the Beltway

Julia O'Donoghue of the Times-Picayune: "Gov. Bobby Jindal has issued an executive order aimed at keeping the Westboro Baptist Church protestors away from the funerals of the Lafayette shooting victims. Jindal said the Louisiana State Police plan to strictly enforce existing state law that prevents protesters from interfering with funerals, burials, wakes and other memorials. The protestors must stay 300 to 500 feet away from funeral proceedings for two hours prior to the event until two hours after it concludes. They are also not allowed to block or interfere a funeral route.... Before killing himself Thursday night, the Lafayette theater shooter, John Russell Houser, had praised the Westboro Baptist Church in online posts." ...

... CW: Every once in awhile, I agree with Bobby Jindal. As far as I can tell, Jindal is not violating the Supreme Court decision which ruled 8-1 for the Westboro church's First Amendment rights.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, the only child of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown died at a Georgia hospice facility on Sunday. She was 22.

Washington Post: "A [female sex worker] in Charleston, W.Va., may have saved her own life and the lives of many other women, as well, when she shot and killed an alleged attacker in her home last week." Police suspect that Neal Falls, whom the woman shot, may have been a serial killer.

Comments Off
Page 1 ... 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 ... 1739 Next 3 Entries ยป