The Commentariat -- Jan. 11, 2015
Internal links, color swatch & photo removed.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Thomas Frank is here to annoy us one last time. ...
... CW: What's the Matter with Thomas Frank? For one thing, he relies on the "great man" theory -- that American politics is all about Obama, as if Max Baucus (now exiled to Siberia China) & Ted Cruz didn't exist. For another: Frank makes up stuff: "... enforcing party discipline is a job for the punditry...," as if columnists never criticized President Obama or his factotums Tim Geithner & Larry Summers. For a third, he dismisses certain inconvenient factors as immaterial or rationalizations even as he acknowledges them: "the reactionary white working class," "the incorrigible South": this is a good rhetorical trick, but it's a trick. Fourth, he generalizes what's wrong with the punditry by, ferinstance, citing as an example Lanny Davis. Lanny Davis? Puh-leze. All of this hoo-hah undermines any valid points that Frank may make: about Obama's & the Democrats' coziness with Wall Street, about their failure to propose solutions to inequality, etc.
Darlene Superville of the AP: "Continuing the break with State of the Union tradition, President Barack Obama will spend most of the coming week previewing more of the proposals he will outline in the address, including on identity theft, electronic privacy and cybersecurity, the White House announced Saturday."
Scott Lemieux has an excellent post on the history of "Republican health-care plans." Lemieux argues, case by case, that there is no such thing. CW: I think he's right, and I had not figured this out before.
Orange Squish. Charles Babington of the AP: "Die-hard House conservatives bungled a coup against House Speaker John Boehner but now look like winners, pushing Republicans farther right. Rather than punish and isolate those who opposed him as leader, Boehner surprised many on Friday by embracing an immigration plan that's tougher than lawmakers had expected." ...
... New York Times: Speaker John Boehner returned to Washington last week "showcasing a very deep winter-recess tan burnished at his new condominium in Marco Island, Fla." The Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer "found us the closest matches: 'Spicy Hue' and 'Husky Orange,' the latter of which fits nicely with Mr. Boehner's recent description of himself: 'I am not a squish.'"
In other Florida news, Gal Lotan of the Orlando Sun-Sentinel: "George Zimmerman faces charges of aggravated assault with a weapon after allegedly throwing a bottle of wine at his girlfriend earlier this week, according to his lawyer. Zimmerman, 31, was arrested Friday night in Lake Mary where he is currently living, but his attorney Don West said the fight involving his girlfriend happened four or five days ago.... Zimmerman stood before Judge John Galluzzo Saturday morning when a $5,000 bond was set. Zimmerman, who is currently unemployed, bonded out of jail at 12:25 p.m.... Galluzzo told Zimmerman that he had until Tuesday to surrender any firearms in his possession to a family member or a third party. The judge also ordered Zimmerman to stay out of Volusia County and to have no contact with the victim." Thanks to James S. for the lead. ...
... Hudson Hongo of Gawker reminds us of Zimmerman's recent brushes with the law. ...
... CW: It's worth remembering that Zimmerman, who has had numerous brushes for the law for violent offenses, long wanted to be a policeman. In 2009, he applied to be a police officer in Prince Williams County, Virginia. The county rejected him because of his bad credit history. Later, he attended a Seminole County, Florida, Sheriff's course on citizen's law enforcement. Pedro Oliveira of the New York Post: "George Zimmerman has placed at least 46 calls to 911 in the last eight years. In the last year, his calls focused on blacks in his gated community." Zimmerman never attained his career goal, but I suspect he is a "type" of police academy applicant. Some police forces probably recognize this type & cull them because of their attitudes. But many people with views similar to Zimmerman's probably have become police officers in forces throughout the country.
Brooks Hays of UPI: "On New Year's Eve, officers with the New York City Police Department failed to issue a single citation in Times Square -- one million partygoers, zero tickets.... Zero isn't just the total of minor offenses ticketed on New Years Eve, it's the total for the entirety of the holiday week, from December 28 through January 3." ...
... Nicholas Kristof: "WELCOME visitors to New York City! This has been the best time ever to urinate on a street, sneak onto the subway or run a red light, for the police force has been on a virtual strike."
General BetrayUs. David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "It wasn't quite so long ago that Congress saw the need to censure MoveOn.org's childish 'Betray Us' ad in order to 'strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus.' It turns out that the honor and integrity quotient wasn't that high after all, not just in his personal life but also as matter of national security.... [Its' a mistake] to put a human being on a pedestal and insist that anyone is above attacks on their honor and integrity. General Petraeus clearly wasn't, and it's more than a little ironic that he's now in danger of felony charges for actually betraying national security secrets." ...
... It's Obama's Fault. Michael Walsh of the right-wing PJ Tattler: "There has got to be a lot more to this story of David Petraeus.... How likely is it that the man who at one point posed a possibly potent challenge to President Obama's re-election changes had he chosen to return from the Middle East and run for the GOP nomination, and then was stashed in Langley by that same Obama administration in order to get him out of the way, and then was suddenly felled by a sex scandal, could be in such trouble? Somebody in the White House plays very. very rough."
David Sirota in Salon provides an excellent examples of how Republicans redistribute wealth from the middle class to the rich -- starring Govs. Sam Brownback & Chris Christie. "The tepid response to this kind of wealth transfer suggests that for all the angry rhetoric about redistribution you might hear on talk radio, cable TV and in the halls of Congress, the political and media class is perfectly fine with redistribution -- as long as the cash flows from the 99 percent to the 1 percent, and not the other way around."
God News
Fredrick Nzwili of Religion News Service: "International rights groups, churches and activists are escalating campaigns against female genital mutilation now that a new practice has emerged in which girls are checking into hospitals to have the procedure. In what being referred to as the medicalization of FGM, doctors, nurses and other health practitioners are secretly performing the procedures at the request of families." ...
... David Gibson of Religion News Service: "Cardinal Raymond Burke, a senior American churchman in Rome who has been one of the most outspoken critics of Pope Francis' push for reform, is ... arguing that the Catholic Church has become too 'feminized.' Burke, who was recently demoted from the Vatican's highest court to a ceremonial philanthropic post, also pointed to the introduction of altar girls for why fewer men are joining the priesthood. 'Young boys don't want to do things with girls. It's just natural,' Burke said in an interview published on Monday (Jan. 5). 'I think that this has contributed to a loss of priestly vocations.'" CW: It's unnatural for young men to do things with girls. That's what I thought.
Josephine McKenna of Religion News Service: "Archbishop Oscar Romero, the hero of the Catholic left who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass in El Salvador, is inching one step closer to sainthood after his case languished in bureaucratic limbo for decades.... Romero's cause was started nearly two decades ago when St. John Paul II gave him the title of Servant of God in 1997. But his case never advanced amid lingering Vatican suspicion of Liberation Theology, an economically progressive approach to Catholicism that flourished under Romero and was suppressed by both John Paul and Benedict XVI." ...
... ** Charles Pierce on Saint Oscar Romero.
Daniel Strauss of TPM: "The Grand Synagogue of Paris did not host Shabbat services and closed Friday for security reasons, the first time that's happened since World War II. The Synagogue, the largest place of worship for those of the Jewish faith in Paris, was closed Friday amid the ongoing efforts by French authorities to hunt down the suspects involved in terrorist attacks around the city. The attacks started with shootings of staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo." Via Steve Benen.
David Gibson: "As Florida became the latest state to legalize same-sex marriage this week, Miami [Roman Catholic] Archbishop Thomas Wenski sent a memo to all church employees reiterating that any expressions of support for gay marriage -- even if it's only a tweet or Facebook post -- could cost them their jobs." ...
... BUT. David Gibson: "A Belgian bishop [Johan Bonny of Antwerp] who has been touted as a future leader of that country's Catholic hierarchy is making waves by urging the church to find ways to recognize gay relationships in which 'exclusivity, loyalty, and care are central to each other.'"
Michelle Boorstein & Annys Shin of the Washington Post: "A top Episcopal bishop turned herself in to Baltimore police Friday after being charged in the death of a bicyclist with manslaughter, leaving the scene, driving under the influence of alcohol and texting while driving. Heather Elizabeth Cook, 58, was driving her 2001 Subaru on Roland Avenue in Baltimore on the afternoon of Dec. 27 when she veered into the bike lane where Thomas Palermo, a father of two, was riding, Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in a statement Friday." Read the whole article. This was not Cook's first DUI.
Special Congressional Election
Rachel Shapiro of Staten Island Live: "District Attorney Daniel Donovan has been selected as the Republican Party candidate on Staten Island for the empty congressional seat. Party Chairman John Antoniello selected Donovan after interviewing him, as well as Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, on Saturday morning with executive committee members. Party bylaws allow the chairman to be the sole determiner of the party candidate in this case." It's not quite a done deal, as the Congressional district covers part of Brooklyn, too, & the party chair there has a say. But Donovan will almost certainly be the nominee. ...
... CW: It appears that on Staten Island there's a big payoff for letting a killer-copy walk. ...
... Tom Wrobleski of SI Live comments on Donovan's "sotto voce announcement," which I mentioned in yesterday's Commentariat.
Congressional Race 2016
** Welfare Queens, Revived! Jud Lounsbury of Uppity Wisconsin: "U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, you know -- the guy who got rich by finding someone to support him, has a pearl of wisdom for all the working single moms out there: If she wants to 'increase her take-home pay' instead of having yet 'another child out of wedlock' to increase her welfare windfall, she should instead 'find someone to support her.' Johnson is quick to admit that he stole this incredibly sexist riff comes from his uber-misogynist pal, U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman. But some things are so awesome, that you just have to use them yourself!.... Johnson and Grothman's modern redux of the 'welfare queen' has been rated 'Mostly False' by Politifact and was given 'Two Pinocchios' by the Washington Post's fact checker." With video. Read the whole post. Via capper of Crooks & Liars, who has more to say on Johnson. CW: I would take Johnson's phony welfare-queen schtick as both sexist and racist.
Presidential Election
"Awk-ward!" Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: The battle between Jeb & Mitt (not their real names) is on. "Bush has been trying to consolidate support among establishment donors, leaders and operatives since announcing in December that he would begin laying the groundwork for a likely campaign.... But on Friday, Romney sought to slam the brakes on Bush, telling about 30 powerful donors that he, too, was seriously considering a 2016 bid. 'I want to be president,' he said, adding that his wife, Ann, was supportive. Romney has begun methodically calling donors, staff members and endorsers from his two prior campaigns to measure how deep his reservoir of support would be if he runs for a third time, his advisers said. He also has scheduled a series of public speeches...."
Dan Balz attends a focus group (of voters from across the political spectrum) in Aurora, Colorado. Jeb? Nope. Hillary? Not so much. Rand Paul? Maybe. Elizabeth Warren? Yes!
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Iowa straw poll has survived. Despite calls for the Republican Party of Iowa to abandon this quirky tradition -- which, opponents say, unfairly hurts some candidates and detracts from the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses a few months later -- the group's central committee voted 16 to 0 on Saturday to begin planning a straw poll." CW: Sure hope Michele Bachmann wins again.
News Ledes
New York Times: "More than a million people joined over 40 presidents and prime ministers on the streets of Paris on Sunday in the most striking show of solidarity in the West against the threat of Islamic extremism since the Sept. 11 attacks. Responding to terrorist strikes that killed 17 people in France and riveted worldwide attention, Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists and people of all races, ages and political stripes swarmed central Paris beneath a bright blue sky, calling for peace and an end to violent extremism." ...
... AFP: "A German tabloid that paid tribute to those killed at Charlie Hebdo by reprinting cartoons from the French satirical paper mocking the Prophet Mohammed was firebombed Sunday, police said."
AP: "Two members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen have died in Los Angeles. Relatives say Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey, both 91, died last Monday in their Los Angeles homes. Huntley and Shambrey were friends who enlisted together in 1942. They served as mechanics in Italy during World War II and kept the planes of the all-black squadron in the air."
New York Times: "Anita Ekberg, who became an international symbol of lush beauty and unbridled sensuality in the 1960 Federico Fellini film 'La Dolce Vita,' died on Sunday in Rocca di Papa, southeast of Rome. She was 83."
New York Times: "Robert Stone, who wrote ambitious award-winning novels about errant Americans in dangerous circumstances or on existential quests -- or both -- as a commentary on an unruly, wayward nation in the Vietnam era and beyond, died on Saturday at his winter home in Key West, Fla."