The Commentariat -- January 9, 2015
Internal links removed.
Obama Pushes Socialist Plan to Grant Hoi Polloi Two Free Years of College. Christi Parsons of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama rolled out a new plan Thursday to make two years of community college free, or nearly so, for millions of students across the country, a major investment that the White House cast as changing the face of higher education. The program, inspired by new initiatives in Tennessee and Chicago, could benefit up to 9 million students, advisors said. At its heart is dedicated federal funding to cover 75% of tuition, with the states picking up the rest of the tab":
... As contributor James S. wrote in yesterday's thread, " I think he wants to drive the repugs nuts." CW: More easily done than said. ...
... In addition, as Akhilleus suggested in the same thread (by extension), the Obama proposal, if implemented, would just lead to more college date rape since it gives more women the option to attend college. Phyllis Schlafly: "The imbalance of far more women than men at colleges has been a factor in the various sex scandals that have made news in the last couple of years." One of her solutions: quit granting college loans altogether. Seems to me that by Schlafly's standard, President Obama favors campus rape.
Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "The latest jobs numbers, released Friday,show that this basic story of a strengthening economy remains very much intact..... This is all excellent news for the people holding one of the 2.95 million jobs that did not exist at the beginning of 2014 (the strongest year of job growth since 1999)..... The big disappointment was on wages.... In Friday's revisions, November wages rose only 0.2 percent. And even worse, in December they fell 0.2 percent.... One mild curiosity in the report is that the size of the labor force actually fell.... When employers are so reluctant to raise pay, it shouldn't be shocking that more Americans choose to sit at home and remain out of the labor force."
The Party of Voodoo. Paul Krugman: "... we're looking at a political subculture in which ideological tenets are simply not to be questioned, no matter what. Supply-side economics is valid no matter what actually happens to the economy, guaranteed health insurance must be a failure even if it's working, and anyone who points out the troubling facts is ipso facto an enemy. And we're not talking about marginal figures. You sometimes hear claims that the old-fashioned Republican establishment is making a comeback, that Tea Party extremists are on the run and we can get back to bipartisan cooperation. But that is a fantasy. We can't have meaningful cooperation when we can't agree on reality, when even establishment figures in the Republican Party essentially believe that facts have a liberal bias."
Louis Jacobson of PolitiFact: "In remarks from the Senate floor, newly elevated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested that his party's takeover of Senate control 'appears to coincide' with recent good economic news.... McConnell stopped short of saying the Republican Senate takeover actually caused an economic improvement, though many observers assumed that was what he was trying to imply.... Even leaving aside the question of causation, key statistics show that the economic recovery was under way well before September, which is our best estimate for when the "expectation" of a GOP Senate solidified. We rate the statement False." ....
... Happily, James Carroll of the Louisville Courier-Journal (Mitch's homestate paper) picked up the PolitiFact analysis & even threw in the Democratic National Committee's response to Mitch's claim, which began, "Hahahahahahahahahahaha." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... the humor value of this aside, the serious point is that McConnell is actually talking about what's to come, and previewing how Republicans will justify their coming policy agenda.... The idea is that the increased confidence generated by the impending GOP takeover of Congress is responsible for the recovery -- which is exactly why we should now go forward with implementing a Republican economic agenda." ...
... ** Whenever you get confused about "dynamic scoring" or forget why the Congressional Budget Office has heretofore been important, read or re-read this piece by Jonathan Chait, published January 7.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday easily passed legislation that would redefine a full-time worker under the Affordable Care Act, brushing aside qualms from conservatives and liberals who fear the bill would prompt employers to cut worker hours to avoid being forced to offer them health insurance. The Save American Workers Act, which passed the House by 252 to 172..., would change the definition of a full-time worker under the health law from one who works 30 hours a week to one who works 40 hours. A dozen Democrats joined all Republicans in support of the bill.... The legislation now goes to the Senate, where it has some Democratic support, possibly even enough to muster 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.... An official at the White House said this week that President Obama would veto it if it reached him. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, vowed to sustain the president's veto.... This week, the Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would prompt 1 million people to be dropped from employer coverage, pushing from 500,000 to 1 million people onto government insurance and increasing the number with no insurance by hundreds of thousands. That would raise federal spending by $53.2 billion over the next decade."
Washington Post Editors: "The gas tax operates on a straightforward principle: Those who use the roads should pay for them. But over the past two decades, the value of the revenue the tax produces has dropped by about a third -- partly because of inflation and partly because cars have become more fuel-efficient.... Now, with lower oil prices, the politics of raising the gas tax should be easier...." ...
... Greg Sargent: "House Speaker John Boehner, speaking to reporters today, dumped a few gallons of cold water on the idea of a gas tax hike: 'I've never voted to raise the gas tax. Funding a highway bill is critically important, it's a priority for this year, how we'll fund it we're going to have to work our way through this. It's doubtful that the votes are here to raise the gas tax.' Asked for further clarification, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel emailed: 'The Speaker doesn't support a gas tax hike. Period.'... If we can't reach a deal to fund the HTF through higher gas taxes at this particular political moment, what possible deal can we reach that would involve new revenue for spending on infrastructure? It's hard to imagine that there is one." ...
... Steve Benen: "American investment in infrastructure has fallen to its lowest point since 1947. Making matters slightly worse, the Highway Trust Fund is on track to run out of money in May.... The United States used to be the world leader on infrastructure, and as Reagan's support for higher gas taxes makes clear, this used to be a bipartisan issue. Those days are over.... Boehner told reporters today, 'We've got to find a way to deal with America's crumbling infrastructure,' but the GOP leader simply hasn't the foggiest idea what that 'way' might be, and he's ruling out the one obvious solution that would fix the problem." ...
... CW: Likely GOP solution: cut programs for lazy poor people & use that money to repave roads & mend bridges, etc. It is only fitting for people who can't afford cars to pay for nicer roads for people who have cars. In the meantime, every time I hit a pothole, I will curse a poor person. Seems fair.
Orange Peal. Susan Cornwell of Reuters: John Boehner complains about his press & right-wing critics. Also, is comfortable in his own skin.
** Tim Egan: "The State Department has estimated that the total number of permanent new jobs created by the [Keystone XL] pipeline would be 35.... This, at a time when the world is awash in cheap oil.... The Keystone pipeline, though largely symbolic in the global scheme of things, does nothing for the American economy except set up the United States as a pass-through colony for foreign industrialists. Well, not all foreign: The Koch brothers are one of the largest outside leaseholders of acres in Canadian oil sands...."
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Gov. Scott Walker accidentally tells the Supreme Court he plans to allow the ACA to fail if the boys rule in favor of the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell. Millhiser believes some conservative Supremes (John Roberts??) may be less likely to rule for the plaintiffs if they think their ruling would have a significant effect on Americans' access to health care. CW: I'm afraid Millhiser is romanticizing the Supremes & attributing to them levels of emphathy & pragmatism that the men in black do not possess. I hope I'm wrong.
Kate Sheppard of the Huffington Post: "In a victory for proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the pipeline's proposed route through the state can go forward." ...
... Charles Pierce: "The only thing left is the State Department review, which can now resume after having been suspended pending a ruling by the Nebraska court. If the State Department recommends the project, which I think it will, the president then will have the final decision on the pipeline, one way or the other." Also "Joe Manchin (D-Bituminous)" is unaware that the POTUS has Constitutional rights & duties. AND Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's "fact"-checker, is totally dedicated to both-sides-do-it "journalism."
Bill Cosby continues to think drugging & raping women is a good topic for jokes. As I recall (and I may be wrong) some Reality Chex readers still think the original, extended joke -- Cosby's 1968 Spanish fly story -- is pretty funny anyway.
American "Justice," Ctd. Cory Shaffer of Northeast Ohio Media Group: "Cleveland police officers forced Tamir Rice's 14-year-old sister to the ground, handcuffed her and placed in the back of a Cleveland police car steps away from her wounded 12-year-old brother. The scene plays out within the first two minutes of the 30 minute video taken from the Cudell Recreation Center surveillance camera that captured the shooting. The additional video was obtained by Northeast Ohio Media Group after protracted talks with city officials, who initially refused to release it.... The video confirmed earlier claims made by Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, and her legal team at a Dec. 8 press conference that an officer cuffed her daughter as she ran to check on her brother and that officers waited several minutes before administering first aid....
Officers then stood around Tamir as he lay wounded. One officer had his hands on his hips when a man, identified by police as an FBI agent who was in the neighborhood, entered the frame and administered first aid. It was the first medical care the boy received in the four minutes that followed the shooting.
... (Emphasis added.) Report includes surveillance video. CW: The way police behave after these killings often speak more to their racial bias than do the actual killings. In some cases (but certainly not in all), the killings/murders might be attributed to "involuntary" bias -- the killers are more fearful of young black men than they are of other groups of people -- but their callous treatment of the victims of police shootings & others in the area demonstrate a deep-seated, institutional bias: leaving Michael Brown's body exposed for four hours, chatting as Eric Garner lay dying, milling about as child victim Tamir Rice was dying while brutalizing his young sister. These are not heat-of-the-moment lapses; they are in-your-face, purposeful, public shows of racist hatred. They are warnings to the black community: do anything to cross us, & we'll make you and yours very, very sorry.
L'Hotel du Grinch. Robin Brown of the Delaware New Journal: "Sparked in part by a social media frenzy, two local hotels are allowing some homeless people to stay for free during the intense cold weather. The episode began with the revelation, first reported by WDEL, that on Christmas night a group of six or seven homeless people had been refused a room at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington. The $639 room had been reserved and was to be paid for by a local couple hoping to help the less fortunate." CW: If you live sous le pont, you can't stay in the Du Pont. ...
... CW: Here's a thought. I've read numerous analyses -- like the one reported here -- that indicate it's cheaper to house the homeless (no, not in luxury hotels) than to care for them while they're in the streets. AND thanks to Victoria D. & Janice for their links to this "Daily Show" segment about housing the homeless in Salt Lake City.
Alexandrea Boguhn, et al., of Media Matters: "Right-wing media rushed to exploit the deadly terrorist attack on a French satirical newspaper in Paris, placing blame on Democrats and citing the tragedy to push for renewed surveillance of U.S. Muslims, discriminatory profiling, looser gun regulations, and stricter immigration laws." The reporters run down some of the exploitative remarks voiced. ...
... For instance, Fox "News"'s "Outnumbered hosts agreed that Americans 'are being hunted' by terrorists, and network host Kennedy added that 'I think the best thing that Americans can do is arm themselves.'" ...
... CW: I agree. I'm sure there would be less carnage in the U.S. if most "responsible gun owners" were armed at all times with "Kalashnikov assault rifles [AK-47s] and a rocket launcher." ...
... Helene Fouquet of Bloomberg News: "Semi-automatic and automatic firearms are banned, but that hasn't stopped drug dealers and terrorists from acquiring them in increasing numbers.... Semi-automatic military-style rifles, including the AK-47, are widely and legally available in the U.S. Equipped with large-capacity magazines, such rifles can fire scores of rounds in a minute or two. AK-47s have been used in American mass killings in Omaha, Nebraska, and Wakefield, Massachusetts, in recent years." ...
... CW: Read a few of the comments. Obviously, gun-lobby puppets are trolling Bloomberg. The comments re: the Newtown, Connecticut, grade-school shootings are surreal in their stupidity. Of course the really scary part is that certain gunowners are adept at tricking themselves into believing absurdities. In this country, it isn't just avowed terrorists & other criminals who are armed and dangerous. ...
... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. A British headline writer shows American journalists how to get around false both-sides-do-it journalism. Here's the headline, published in the Telegraph & highlighted by contributor safari: "'Moron' Donald Trump sparks anger with Charlie Hebdo Twitter rant on gun laws." No, the Telegraph didn't call Trump a moron; the headline writer let Trump's critics do it. But the reader gets the idea. ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "The New York Times has premised its refusal to republish the most controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons on the sensibilities of its readers:. 'Under Times standards, we do not normally publish images or other material deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities....' Echoes of the 'deliberately' offensive rationale ring out from top managers at the Associated Press and The Post.... How does the [NYT] know what's 'deliberately' offensive? Would it publish 'accidentally' offensive drawings? Yet the deliberately-offensive rationale is more defensible than the one offered this morning by CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker..., which amounts to an admission that fear of terrorism is driving CNN's editorial decisions.... Yet his capitulation to fear doesn't withstand scrutiny on any level." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M.: David Brooks doesn't seem to understand the difference between (1) refusing to provide a platform for disagreeable speakers & (2) mowing down objectionable writers & artists with AK-47s. ...
... Re: our discussion of yesterday, here the evidence that Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in French of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. (Kerry made more extended remarks about the attack in English during the same press appearance with the Polish secretary of state.) I don't have a very good ear, but if I can understand someone's speaking French, his accent probably sucks. I can pretty much understand Kerry here:
... Nonetheless, Rushbo is disgusted: "Anyway, there he is, Jean-Francois Kerry, and that is, by the way, one of his prime qualifications to be secretary of state. He can speak French and Europeans really love this bilingual stuff. That's how you really prove you're educated." CW: Rush's French-to-English translation, BTW, is excellent.
Dana Milbank on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.): "... it's worth celebrating that the overt racism tolerated by public officials just a decade ago has been banished from civilized discourse." ...
... CW: Milbank is right about that, of course; the problem, as I see it, is that it isn't racism that has been banished but "overtly racist discourse." Meanwhile, & perhaps not particularly sub rosa in some parts, wink-wink racism continues apace & maintains a huge effect on conservative policy.
Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post on "Boko Haram's 'most horrific act of terrorism yet.'" CW: I understand that the military in the countries Boko Haram is targeting are not up to the task of defeating the killing group, but Boko Haram is an international offender. It calls for an international military response.
Congressional Races 2016
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that she will not seek reelection in 2016, the first retirement announcement from a Democratic senator ahead of the 2016 political cycle that will spark a major political contest in California. Boxer made the announcement in a video co-starring her grandson, who played the role of reporter":
... Boxer's grandson there, Zach Rodman, is the son of Hillary Clinton's serially sleazy brother Tony Rodman. Tony is no longer married to Boxer's daughter Nicole. ...
... Presidential Election 2016 ...
... From a 2001 New York Daily News story: "Tony Rodham ... said he couldn't remember whether he shared a few illicit puffs with Daniel Coyne, who later caught Rodham having sex with his girlfriend. 'I might have, but I don't recall,' Rodham said." CW: For the good of the nation, I must actively encourage & abet another Relative of Hillary's to roam the White House halls schmoozing the interns.
Michael Bender & Jonathan Allen of Bloomberg Politics: "Jeb Bush's allies are setting a fundraising goal of $100 million in the first three months of this year -- including a whopping $25 million haul in Florida -- in an effort to winnow the potential Republican presidential primary field with an audacious display of financial strength."
News Ledes
AFP: "A top sharia official from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threatened France with fresh attacks following those at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Jewish supermarket, SITE monitoring group said Friday." ...
... New York Times: "French security services confronted two dangerous hostage situations on Friday, one outside Paris involving the two suspects in Wednesday's rampage at a satirical newspaper, and another that suddenly erupted Friday afternoon at a kosher supermarket on the eastern edge of the capital. Christophe Tirante, a senior police official, said that two people had been killed in the supermarket siege and that at least five hostages had been taken. The Interior Ministry denied the report of deaths." ...
... The Times' liveblog is here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...
... NYT UPDATED Lede: "French police on Friday killed the two brothers suspected of massacring 12 people at a Paris newspaper on Wednesday and freed a hostage they had been holding unharmed, the authorities said. The police launched a simultaneous raid on a kosher supermarket in Paris where an alleged associate of the brothers was holding an unnamed number of hostages. That hostage taker was also killed, according to a senior French police official, and at least five hostages were freed." ...
... The NYT has UPDATED the story again.
... The New York Daily News publishes "A dramatic video [which] captured the chaotic last stand of the cop-killing terror suspect gunned down Friday as police stormed a Paris kosher deli."
New York Times: "Capping the best year for the job market since the recession began eight years ago, employers added 252,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday, and unemployment fell to 5.6 percent. The unemployment rate was last that low in June 2008. The number of new people put on payrolls last month was above what economists had forecast, consistent with the view that recovery is finally gaining traction after years of only modest growth. In addition, the number of jobs created in November was revised upward to 353,000, from 321,000. That month, the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent."
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