The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Tuesday
Aug202013
The Commentariat -- Aug. 21, 2013
** Steve Freiss, in BuzzFeed: "The National Rifle Association has rallied gun-owners -- and raised tens of millions of dollars -- campaigning against the threat of a national database of firearms or their owners. But in fact, the sort of vast, secret database the NRA often warns of already exists, despite having been assembled largely without the knowledge or consent of gun owners. It is housed in the Virginia offices of the NRA itself. The country's largest privately held database of current, former, and prospective gun owners is one of the powerful lobby's secret weapons, expanding its influence well beyond its estimated 3 million members and bolstering its political supremacy." Thanks to contributor safari for the link.
Siobhan Gorman & Jennifer Valentino-Devries of the Wall Street Journal: "The National Security Agency -- which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens -- has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say. The system has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic in the hunt for foreign intelligence, including a wide array of communications by foreigners and Americans. In some cases, it retains the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S. and also filters domestic phone calls made with Internet technology, these people say." CW: Firewalled. To access, copy & paste part of text into Google search. ...
... Michael Isikoff, et al., of NBC News: "More than two months after documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden first began appearing in the news media, the National Security Agency still doesn't know the full extent of what he took, according to intelligence community sources, and is' overwhelmed' trying to assess the damage." ...
... Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "... for all the excitement generated by Snowden's disclosures, there is no proof of any systemic, deliberate violations of law.... But, because of Snowden's disclosures, the government will almost certainly have to spend billions of dollars, and thousands of people will have to spend thousands of hours, reworking our procedures." Toobin goes on to rip Snowden as a malevolent lamebrain, tho those aren't the words he uses. ...
... Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "Having gone global and remained free to readers on the Web, with a newsroom in New York as well as in London, The Guardian is a much harder news organization than most to intimidate or censor, as the British government, with no written Constitution or Bill of Rights to enshrine protections of free speech, has discovered. But the tale of the last two months, as [editor Alan] Rusbridger tells it, at least, is an extraordinary one of attempted political interference." ...
... Julian Borger of the Guardian provides details on why the Guardian decided to destroy the laptops & how the whole "bizarre" incident went down. ...
... MEANWHILE, Lisa O'Carroll of the Guardian: "Lawyers for the partner [David Miranda] of the Guardian journalist [Glenn Greenwald] who exposed mass email surveillance have written to home secretary Theresa May and the head of the Metropolitan police warning them that they are set to take legal action over what they , say amounted to his "unlawful" detention at Heathrow airport under anti-terror laws. ...
... Dana Milbank on the President's nonsense claim that Edward Snowden would have come out fine if he had gone through "channels" to voice his concern. Milbank has followed the tribulations of Gina Gray, "the Defense Department whistleblower [who] ... exposed much of the wrongdoing at Arlington National Cemetery — misplaced graves, mishandled remains and financial mismanagement -- and she attempted to do it through the proper internal channels.... Sadly, Gray's case is emblematic of the way this administration has handled whistleblowers.... Snowden's case is quite a bit different, and murkier; his dalliances with China and now Russia raise questions about his motives. But Gray's case shows that Snowden was correct about one thing: Trying to pursue the proper internal channels doesn't work." ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: " Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has filled a secret court that oversees surveillance almost entirely with Republican-appointed judges, has named Judge José A. Cabranes, a Democratic appointee, to the panel.... Although Judge Cabranes was appointed to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton, he is considered among the more conservative-leaning Democratic appointees on crime and security issues. In 2005, some supporters -- including Michael Mukasey, who later became President George W. Bush's attorney general -- floated his name as a potential Supreme Court nominee.... Judge Cabranes ... is not a liberal counterweight to conservatives on privacy rights, legal experts said."
Kyle Cheney & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Gov. Rick Perry wants to kill Obamacare dead, but Texas health officials are in talks with the Obama administration about accepting an estimated $100 million available through the health law to care for the elderly and disabled.... Perry health aides are negotiating with the Obama administration on the terms of an optional Obamacare program that would allow Texas to claim stepped-up Medicaid funding for the care of people with disabilities. The so-called Community First Choice program aims to enhance the quality of services available to the disabled and elderly in their homes or communities. Similar approaches have had bipartisan support around the country. About 12,000 Texans are expected to benefit in the first year of the program."
Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "As [former Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner has helped [Lawrence] Summers navigate the uproar [over the President's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve] this summer, he also has been consulted by the president on whom the next Fed chair should be, according to a person familiar with the matter. Longtime campaign advisers to Obama such as Jim Messina and Stephanie Cutter, now in the private sector and more skilled in the world of politics and media than Summers, offered to lend a hand to their former colleague. Meanwhile, allies of [Janet] Yellen publicized her attributes in the media while privately lobbying on her behalf -- often without much success." ...
... Neil Irwin of the Washington Post outlines the reasons the White House prefers Summers to Yellin: (a) Yellin isn't known for being a team player (yeah, & Summers is!); (b) she is "methodical" & "always meticulously prepared," unlike some of the "manic" people on the White House econ team; & (c) President Obama thinks Summers will be more responsive to popping future economic bubbles (because, um, because). CW: Obviously, Irwin's sources are on the White House economic team. So let me reinterpret their reservations: Yellin is a woman. ...
Art via Digby.... Oh, Digby read Irwin's report, too: "So Janet Yellen's a great gal, smart and thoughtful and what not. But she's just not one of the boys." ...
... Max Nisen of Business Insider: "The Obama Administration Has The Stupidest Possible Reasons For Not Liking Janet Yellen.... So basically: Yellen is too methodological, independent, and is too interested in fixing the current employment problem, rather than pricking bubbles which haven't even formed yet. Depressing."
Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz, after two days of bedevilment over his birthplace and eligibility for the presidency, returned to form on Tuesday night with a rally [in Dallas, Texas] before the conservative faithful aimed at ginning up support to defund President Obama's health care overhaul." ...
... O Canada! David Ljunggren of Reuters: "U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who says he recently discovered he is likely a Canadian, must win security clearance from Canada's spy agency, fill out a four-page form and then wait up to eight months to sever his ties to America's northern neighbor.... As part of the process, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency must issue a security clearance to anyone who wants to give up their citizenship. Once officials have examined a file and cleared an applicant, it goes to a citizenship judge for a final decision." ...
... CW: it seems to me the best thing to do in this grievous situation is for the U.S. to begin deportation proceedings immediately. ...
... Tom Bevan, the co-founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics, is right upset that the liberal media are picking on Ted Cruz, just the way they picked on Mitt Romney, dredging up stories from the gentlemen's youths to place them in an unfavorable light. "The Daily Beast's piece on Cruz represents a new low for the genre and for modern political journalism...." CW: I guess we should assume conservative & mainstream media never once published an unflattering portrait of a Democratric candidate & his youthful adventures.
Kathie Obradovich of the Des Moines Register: "The co-chairman of the Polk County, [Iowa,] Republican Party has resigned and changed his party registration to independent, saying the GOP has become too conservative and is condoning 'hateful' rhetoric. Chad Brown, 34, of Ankeny ..., said in a phone interview that he became disgusted by a party he believes is being run by the Christian right and the National Rifle Association. He cited Congressman Steve King's recent, controversial comments on illegal immigrants as an example of his philosophical conflict with the party."
Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "Officials at the Internal Revenue Service were encouraged to flag groups with the word 'emerge' in their names as well as potential successors to the anti-poverty organization ACORN, according to documents released by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. The documents add another complicated layer to the ongoing (albeit diminished) controversy surrounding the IRS screening of Tea Party groups in 2010 and 2011. They also take additional steam out of the Republican Party's insistence that the tax agency was politically motivated against conservative groups when it considered whether or not to grant tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) status."
Corky Siemaszko of the New York Daily News: "A spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) ... told the Daily Beast that the Obama Administration is 'temporarily suspending most forms of military aid' [to Egypt,] but a White House rep said 'No specific decisions have been made' at this point." ...
Peter Schwartzstein of the Atlantic: "There Are No More Good Guys in Egypt. One thing that makes this crisis so vexing: Each of the country's major groups have done something totally horrible in the past few weeks." (See also Tuesday's News Ledes.)
Gubernatorial Race
Quinnipiac University: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe has a 48 - 42 percent lead over Republican State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the race to become Virginia's next governor, according to today's Quinnipiac University poll, the first survey in this race among voters likely to vote in the November election."
Local News
Katharine Seelye & Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "The Portland Press Herald reported Monday night that two anonymous lawmakers said they had heard [Maine Gov. Paul LePage] say at a private fund-raiser this month that 'hates white people.' ... On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. LePage, 64, a Republican elected with Tea Party support who avoids talking to the news media as much as possible, stepped forward and denied having said any such thing.... The problem for Mr. LePage, as even some of his allies acknowledge, is that whether or not he made this particular comment, he has made so many other startlingly blunt assertions that while one more may not matter, the accumulation of such comments could." LePage has a good chance of winning re-election, however, because independent candidate Eliot Cutler, who won 36.5 % of the vote in 2010, intends to run again, perhaps allowing LePage to squeak through as he did in then.
Gee, it seems some of the vigilante border patrol/Arizona Minutemen are taking aim at real law enforcement officials, & Sheriff Joe Arpaio is threatening to shoot the self-described militia. If only we could somehow get a "well-regulated militia."
News Ledes
NPR: "Marian McPartland, who gave the world an intimate, insider's perspective on one of the most elusive topics in music -- jazz improvisation -- died of natural causes Tuesday night at her home in Long Island, N.Y. She was 95. For more than 40 years, she hosted an NPR program pairing conversation and duet performances that reached an audience of millions, connecting with jazz fans and the curious alike. She interviewed practically every major jazz musician of the post-WWII era." Includes related links. The New York Times obituary is here.
Al Jazeera: "Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a gas attack that reportedly killed hundreds Wednesday. If confirmed, the attack would be the worst reported use of chemical arms in the two-year-old civil war, and would cross what President Barack Obama has called a 'red line.' ... The White House said it was 'deeply concerned' over the reports.... It also said it had no 'independent verification' about the use of chemical weapons in Syria."
Washington Post: "Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak could leave prison as early as Wednesday night, government officials and legal experts said, after a Cairo court ordered the release of the deposed autocrat who ruled Egypt for three decades." ...
... Al Jazeera: "The European Union decided Wednesday to suspend exports of weapons and some goods to Egypt. The move was meant to block the transfer of materials that could be used for internal repression amid a military crackdown on supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi."
AP: "In the hours after President Richard Nixon delivered a public Watergate address as scandal exploded, two future presidents called him to express their private support, according to audio recordings released Wednesday. The April 30, 1973, calls with Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. were captured on a secret recording system that Nixon used.... The final chronological installment of those tapes -- 340 hours -- were made public by the National Archives and Records Administration, along with more than 140,000 pages of text documents. Seven hundred hours remain sealed for national security and privacy reasons." You can listen to the tapes here.
AP: "The soldier on trial for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood rested his case Wednesday without calling any witnesses or testifying in his own defense. Maj. Nidal Hasan is acting as his own attorney but told the judge that he wouldn't be putting up a defense. About five minutes after proceedings began, the judge asked Hasan how he wanted to proceed. He answered: 'The defense rests.'"
USA Today: "Army Col. Denise Lind said she will announce the sentence [of Bradley Manning] at 10 a.m." today. ...
... Update: Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison. Will get credit for 3-1/2 years he's already served. Is eligible for parole. Also received a dishonorable discharge, reduced in rank by one rank & forfeits pay. Could end up serving a minimum of 10 years. All per NBC News. No link. ...
... Washington Post Update: "A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison...." ...
... Guardian Update: "Bradley Manning will send a personal plea to Barack Obama next week for a presidential pardon after he was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks."
New York Times: Afghan villagers are "the first witnesses to testify at a sentencing hearing for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who has pleaded guilty to killing 16 Afghan civilians -- most of them women and children -- as he stalked through their mud-walled compounds in Kandahar Province in March 2012."
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Reader Comments (9)
In rather unsurprising news, it appears that it's indeed the NRA that has been amassing a nationwide gun owner database, so feared by them twitchy triggers. But since it's not the guvmint and rather our friendly neighborhood arms industry, it's OK.
Whenever Conservative groups open their mouths these days, I just assume some level of doublespeak is involved....My theory holds true on this one.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/stevefriess/how-the-nra-built-a-massive-secret-database-of-gun-owners
If I understand correctly, Senator Cruz is acknowledged to be super-smart and educated in the finest of our higher edumacation institutions, and in his early employment worked as a clerk for a Supreme Court justice, and held other responsible offices subsequently. And, although he knew he was born in Canada, he says this week that he did not know that he was a Canadian citizen? Once again, we have to decide whether a purportedly smart guy is really incurious and stupid, or whether he is just a liar who doesn't understand (or care) that, once you start acting like you might want to be president, every fact in your life becomes interesting to everyone who knows how to do a fact search. Which, I guess narrows it down to (a) he IS stupid or (b) he doesn't care. He may think he doesn't have to care because he believes that his fans will always ignore or repackage such problems (not his Canuckicity -- his self-proclaimed ignorance), because the important thing is that he rises to crush the enemies of (... what?)
@Patrick: re: Citizen Ted. Generally speaking, there are numerous advantages to having dual citizenship. My guess is that young Ted recognized that in the future, he might wish to avail himself of some of the benefits of Canadian citizenship -- say, if the U.S. re-instituted the draft or if he got real sick & needed some of that free health care. I think it's perfectly reasonable for a person to keep his options open. And if you have delusions of becoming POTUS, it's better to lie & pretend you're ignorant than to admit you know the words to "O Canada!" So I'd add option (c): cunning.
Marie
What Ken said yesterday about Hitchens: I recall reading something by someone who said that perhaps a tendency toward adulation and loathing comes naturally with the weakness for great causes. And this reminded me of the discussion we had some weeks back about character and Marie pointing out how many just don't get that few (she may have said all) people are all good or all bad. For Hitchens and many others this suggests that politics is essentially a matter of character. Politicians do bad things because they are bad human beings. The idea that good people can do terrible things (even for good reasons) and bad people good things, does not enter into their particular universe.
Steven Friess article about data-mining by the NRA is exactly what good journalism should do. Is anyone surprised by the grand and omnipresent militarization of US society when our leading legislative lobby is guns?
RIP Marion McPartland. Loved "Piano Jazz" on NPR. Amazing woman.
Good news, Al Jazeera America is being broadcast on Comcast here in Sacramento. I stand chastised and hopeful. Now we'll see if American journalists can mess it up. So far there's lots of rhetoric about news and investigation as opposed to celebrity sightings and tabloid style breaking news (i.e terminal flatulence in the beltway).
So sorry to hear about Marian McPartland.
I've probably learned more from her about jazz piano than I've learned about music from any other source. Her range was encyclopaedic and her technique immaculate. You never heard her sweat the craziest passages. She did ballads, stomps, blues, cool jazz, impeccable accompaniment; you could tell when she was waxing be-bop either from the Thelonious Monk or Bud Powell sides. Her left hand could pound out Dr. John-style boogie bass or comp with the smoothest of chord blocking (but her comps were never rote or predictable or "nightclubby") and her right hand alternated between sweet caressing glissandi and staccato machine gun runs that punched those 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths in the gut.
Her interviews were revelatory and unlike many interviewers (how many times have you thought to yourself "Has this guy even read that book?") she was intimately familiar with the catalogue and style of each guest: "I've always loved how you were able to call up the intro to those Richard Rodgers songs for two or three bars in the bridge then glide back in time for the coda..."
A great lady. I had the privilege of seeing her open for Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall in 1979.
A three-fer. Yowza!
I think part of the problem with Obamacare is that it’s complicated and explanations of it are boring with no exciting climax, sexual or otherwise. Imagine trying to explain to a group of Kentucky educated citizens how the Federal budget or Social Security works—without No-Doz or a chase scene or both. Another part of the problem, I think, is that as a nation, we seem to dote on an Alexander-Gordian Knot idea of solutions, which partly explains why we continually elect imbeciles to “fix” government… not unlike the way we select vets to fix Fido.
But I also think that if and when Obamacare is in place and working, it will be more popular than Medicare, right up there with the local post office.
Re: Citizen Ted: (If he were elected President, would he call himself the "First Citizen?" Just askin') When I read that he hasn't changed his worldview much since he was a college freshman, Emerson's aphorism came to mind: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."