The Commentariat -- June 5, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "White House officials failed Wednesday night to quell rising anger and frustration in both parties on Capitol Hill after a senators-only classified briefing about President Obama's decision to free five Taliban prisoners in return for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who military officials say walked off his base in Afghanistan five years ago. Senior defense, diplomatic and intelligence officials showed lawmakers a 90-second, classified video of Mr. Bergdahl in January that officials said raised alarms about his health and spurred action, according to several members who attended. The video showed Mr. Bergdahl distraught, incoherent and in overall very poor shape, according to the descriptions of several senators." ...

... Guardian: The town of Hailey, Idaho, has cancelled its planned June 28 celebration of Bergdahl's release "amid allegations that Sgt Bowe Bergdahl had deserted his post and fears about the security implications of protesters and supporters who had promised to turn up." ...

... Bergdahl as Metaphor. Alex Berenson in a New York Times op-ed: "The White House clearly erred by pretending that Sergeant Bergdahl was an ordinary prisoner of war and that his return would be cause for unalloyed celebration. It should have brought him home as quietly as possible, with no fanfare. Now I don't see how the Pentagon can avoid re-examining what happened on June 30, 2009.... But the anger and confusion that his release has generated seems somehow fitting, a messy and inconclusive end to a war that went on far too long without a clear purpose after the rout of Al Qaeda." ...

... A Daily Kos contributor checks out the Way Back Machine & finds a boatload of winger commentary calling for the retrieval of Bowe Bergdahl & criticizing President Obama & Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not bringing him back "using all means available." Now the usual suspects are of course calling for Obama's head. It works like this: if Obama doesn't do X, it's a travesty & he's a weakling; if he does something -- IMPEACHMENT! Thanks to reader Bonita for this essential link. ...

The mission to bring our missing Soldiers home is one that will never end. It's important that we make every effort to bring this captured Soldier home to his family. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe, June 2013

Releasing dangerous terrorists from Guantanamo is all part of the President's focus as he looks to solidify his legacy in these last two years of office.... He is willing to compromise our national security and our military members in harms way to get one step closer to closing Guantanamo. -- Sen. Jim Inhofe, Time column, June 5, 2014

... Adam Weinstein of Gawker reproduces the "reassessmennts" of a parade of tweetin' hypocrites. Weinstein got his stuff from Matt Binder. ...

... Dana Milbank: Right Wing World's Office of Scandals & Conspiracies is working overtime to find the multitude of links between the Bergdahl & Benghazi "scandals." "Bergdahl and Benghazi both begin with the letter 'B,' and although Afghanistan is in Asia and Libya is in Africa, both continents begin with the letter 'A.'" ...

... IMPEACHMENT! Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Wednesday that Republican lawmakers would call for President Obama's impeachment if he released more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay without congressional approval. Republicans worry Obama may try to shut down the prison camp unilaterally after congressional opposition has repeatedly stymied efforts to pass legislation to close it." ...

... Emily Bazelon of Slate: "Obama promised to close Guantánamo. Why is he releasing dangerous detainees and ignoring the rest?"...

... CW: Don't know what all the fuss is about. Gitmo is like a resort. Especially compared to Illinois.

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post recounts the incredible Senate confirmation hearings testimony of Michael Boggs, one of President Obama's nominees to the federal bench. Read the whole column, including the last two grafs. CW: I don't think you'd buy a used car from this guy, much less expect him to conduct a fair trial.

Juergen Baetz & John-Thor Dahlburg of the AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin was kept out of Wednesday's summit of world leaders but dominated the meeting as President Barack Obama and his counterparts from the G-7 group of major economies sought the Kremlin chief's renewed cooperation to end the Ukraine crisis."

"A Scandal in Search of a Victim." Michael Cohen, former Guardian columnist, in Yahoo! News: In his NBC interview last week, Edward Snowden "asked: If the U.S. government 'can't show a single individual who's been harmed in any way by this reporting, is it really so grave?' This was one of the interview's most unintentionally revealing moments because, while the agency's domestic data gathering raises serious privacy concerns, Snowden's question can be turned back on him. Can he point to a single American who's been harmed by the NSA's actions? One of the more striking takeaways from a year of stories about the NSA is that they have turned up no evidence to suggest that Americans' privacy rights are being systematically violated or that NSA-collected metadata is being used to target political enemies. None."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

** "Iraq Everlasting." Frank Rich on a novel by Michael Hastings titled The Last Magazine, to be published posthumously. Hastings -- and Rich -- skewer the so-called liberal journalist whose Iraq War boosterism included deriding the few prominent writers who opposed the war. Thanks to MAG for the link.

Michael Hastings has never served his country the way [Gen. Stanley] McChrystal has. -- Lara Logan of CBS "News"

We now know that Hastings served both his country and profession with more honor than Logan, who later maimed her own career and '60 Minutes' by perpetrating a Benghazi hoax. -- Frank Rich ...

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Lara Logan is officially back to work at '60 Minutes' after a seven-month leave of absence, CBS News spokesperson Sonya McNair confirmed." ...

... Update: Charles Pierce reckons what with the Bergdahl & Benghazi "scandals" warming up, this is a mighty good time to put Logan back to work making up stuff. ...

... Driftglass sez "I Told You So."

Katie McDonough of Salon: "For all of his talk of giving feminists credit for their work, [New York Times abstinence columnist Ross] Douthat is not interested in having a serious conversation about misogyny or male sexual entitlement. The norms he clings to rest too heavily on both. He just dresses this position up with lots of appeals to good faith and the search for common ground. Because maybe if you say feminists are sometimes right about some things enough, no one will notice that you've spent the rest of your column making the exact opposite point."

More Fake Journalism. Joe Coscarelli of New York: MoDo's mojo tour guide warned her about edible weed. "'She got the warning,' Matt Brown told the Denver Post's Cannabist blog. 'She did what all the reporters did. She listened. She bought some samples -- I don't remember what exactly. Me and the owner of the dispensary we were at and the assistant manager and the budtender talked with her for 45 minutes at the shop.'"

A Little Bit of Americana. "Openly Racist" in New York -- and proud of it. With video.

Senate Races

If Mississippi did what the tea party claims they want ... we would become a Third World country, quickly. We depend on the federal government to help us build our highways. We depend on the federal government to fund our hospitals, our health-care system. We depend on the federal government to help us educate our students on every level.... [I was born in a hospital that] wasn't built by the taxpayers of Mississippi, it was built with federal money that was collected from taxpayers in New York and Chicago and L.A. and San Francisco. -- Rickey Cole, Mississippi Democratic party chair ...

... Gail Collins: "Voters dealt a stunning rebuke to their courtly Republican senator, Thad Cochran, who is famous for his ability to direct federal cash in Mississippi's direction.... Now he's headed for a messy runoff with a fiery state legislator who opened his campaign by announcing: 'For too long we've been addicted to federal monies.' ... Federal spending accounts for 46 percent of all the state's revenue: defense contracts, Social Security, farm aid, highway building, you name it.... One thing the Mississippi Republican establishment and the Tea Party seem to agree on is that you're not supposed to remind people that their state is way more dependent on Washington than the average food stamp recipient."

Joni Ernst, the Dirty Water Candidate. David Firestone of the New York Times: "Joni Ernst, the winner of the Iowa Senate Republican primary on Tuesday, has a briefcase full of the usual shopworn, hard-right policies.... But one of her positions ... demonstrates a particularly pernicious and little-known crusade of the modern Republican Party: she opposes the Clean Water Act. She called it one of the most damaging laws for business.... Iowa's waterways are notoriously dirty, the result of runoffs from vast livestock operations and crop fertilizer."

Presidential Race 2016

I know I have a decision to make. But part of what I've been thinking about, is everything I'm interested in and everything I enjoy doing -- and with the extra added joy of 'I'm about to become a grandmother,' I want to live in the moment. At the same time I am concerned about what I see happening in the country and in the world. -- Hillary Clinton, to People magazine ...

... AFP: Renowned feminist "Vladimir Putin waded into US politics Wednesday describing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and possible 2016 presidential candidate -- as 'weak' in some sarcastic comments about women. 'But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman,'" he said.

The Sporting News

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "On Wednesday [Donald Sterling], the racist Los Angeles Clippers owner, agreed to drop his lawsuit against the NBA and allow the team to be sold to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, said he 'has made an agreement with the NBA to resolve all their differences,' so it appears that Sterling will not be sued or fined $2.5 million by the league (though he's still banned for life).

News Ledes

New York Times: "The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low on Thursday and, in an unprecedented attempt to stimulate the euro zone economy, said it would begin charging interest on deposits held by the bank. The so-called negative deposit rate has never been tried on such a large scale and is a bid to push down the value of the euro and encourage banks to invest excess cash rather than hoarding it in central bank vaults."

Washington Post: Chester "Nez, the last of 29 Navajo 'code talkers,' died Wednesday. He was 93."

New York Times: "The government [of Ireland] and the police are coming under increasing pressure to open an investigation into allegations that a Roman Catholic religious order secretly buried up to 796 babies and toddlers born to unmarried mothers in a septic tank over several decades. Speaking in the Irish Parliament on Wednesday, the minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, called the discovery of what is described as an unmarked grave as 'deeply disturbing and a shocking reminder of a darker past in Ireland when our children were not cherished as they should have been.'"

Comments

[Jack Mahoney]

For anyone who's unemployed: Make a stencil that says "Some Of" and then post an ad offering to update all those "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers.

Offer to do the letters in red, white, or blue.

[MAG]

"Iraq Everlasting: We are still stuck in 2003, and it isn’t (only) George W. Bush’s fault"—by Frank Rich.

http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/iraq-war-2014-6/index2.html

A few liberal hawks have also conceded (the late Michael) Hastings’s point—that they went along with the pack for reasons that may not have been entirely based on an independent, empirical weighing of the case for war. “The first thing I hope I’ve learned from this experience of being wrong about Iraq,” Weisberg wrote in 2008, “is to be less trusting of expert opinion and received wisdom.”

Interesting guide to those (liberal hawks & some conservatives with a change of "hard," as in line) who now regret promoting the war—and those who still don't get it and continue their righteous rants to actively engage in Iraq and elsewhere, refusing to acknowledge their role that first and continuing disaster.

[PD Pepe]

This is a fascinating video of a Salafi woman turned atheist who gets thrown off an Egyptian T.V. show. And we think we have problems, at least we haven't resorted to chopping off limbs and stoning adulterers–––yet. But you never know––there's a peculiar stench in the air –-been hovering over us like a black cloud warning us of a deluge that many tend to ignore.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117998/salafi-woman-turned-atheist-booted-egyptian-tv-show

[Citizen625]

The number one thing I get from this episode with Bergdahl is how little innocent until proven guilty means to so many people. Americans, Jeez! But then I read the thing PD recommended and says to myself, "innocent until proven guilty" is like a Darwinian evolutionary trait dying a slow death. I guess when we all work two jobs, are exhausted all the time all the while under-servicing our families' needs then the exercise of Democracy is a vestigial tail we are too tired and disinclined to wag.

[Patrick]

The Frank Rich piece "Iraq Everlasting" isn't really about Michael Hastings, but about the sellout leadership of the liberal media/thinktanks who drank the Iraq war kool aid.

Rich's piece is the best jeremiad I have read in a long time. The people of whom Rich writes should spend their remaining years doing penance and good works, to atone. The initial, continuing, minimal good work they could do is to STFU now.

[Akhilleus]

Regarding the designations of liberal and conservative for reporters who went along with the Bush Hayride to Hell are not very useful.

Nearly all the conservatives went along with it, because Republican president, and because WAR.

You might have expected most of the "liberals" to want more evidence in a run up to people killing and being killed, but it was clearly not the case. Were some railroaded, perhaps by their own misguided sense of....whatever, patriotism, trust in the administration, trust in the "experts"? Certainly.

I think what mattered most, and still matters on a daily basis is what all journalists worthy of the name should take to heart and how they should practice their profession. An investigation of facts, a consideration of sources, motives, and context, and an ability to sense the difference between truth, truthiness, and outright falsehoods.

Saying that Saddam was a bad guy and yada, yada, yada, should not have been nearly enough to trigger Cheney and Rumsfeld's ridiculous Shock and Awe. The simple and painfully obvious fact that the Bushies were changing their story on a weekly basis should have given everyone pause to wonder just wtf was going on before making with the "Rah-rah-rah, go get 'em boys". Just because Dubya was a cheerleader in school didn't mean everyone else had to pick up pom-poms and a megaphone.

And just because all the conservatives were going along and bullying those who didn't was no reason to knuckle under. "Liberal" has nothing to do with it. Perhaps that's what most of those considered in the Rich piece could be called (I disagree with some), but the larger point is, conservative or liberal, if you're a journalist, facts (should) matter. It's pretty clear that for the new breed of conservatives, making shit up is their bread and butter.

But for anyone who calls her or himself a journalist, shame on them for going along in the face of what was clearly a shady proposition with exactly zero hard evidence for war from the get go. In the end, the designation "liberal" has very little to do with whether they fulfilled their obligation as columnists, reporters, broadcast or print journalists.

In a situation--the prosecution of a war based on non-existent evidence--that demanded the highest level of professional journalistic behavior and the adherence to the strictest code of reportorial ethics, there was a dreadful lack of both.

If we can't count on these people when we really need them, what the hell good are they? It's like the fire department showing up at a housefire with a spray bottle.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Not yet is right.

I don't think we'll ever get to that, but I'm sure there are plenty of junior Torquemadas running around out there with their noses to the ground just praying for a chance to burn them some sinners.

Sometimes it's hard to notice how much things change when you're going about your business, day after day, year after year. Just imagine if someone told you 10 years ago that at some point in the near future restaurant owners would have to walk up, gingerly, hat in hand, to patrons strolling around the tables arrogantly brandishing automatic weapons and ask them to please, pretty please, not shoot anyone. You'd think they were mad. But that's where we are. Just imagine if someone told you 10 years ago that people who believed that women couldn't get pregnant from rape and were sure that Adam and Eve kept pet dinosaurs would be making the laws in this country. But here we are batting back crazy talk about "legitimate" rape and trying to point out to others the difference between science and fantasy.

Recently I started reading "Berlin Noir" by a Scots writer, Philip Kerr, a collection of the first three Bernie Gunther novels, dark detective fiction set in Germany in the years just before WWII. I've often wondered how an entire population could be lured into the shadows by crazy people. In these books, almost as an aside, Kerr sketches out how your average German citizen slowly went along with the insanity, some because of belief, some to stay out of trouble, but some because of intellectual and moral sloth. Next thing you know, it's fucking Armageddon.

I'm not drawing any National Socialist parallels here, only pointing out that things can change dramatically, almost surreptitiously, if we don't watch out. The dangerous civic apostasy of the "guilty until proven innocent" clatch buzzing around Bowe Bergdahl, as Citizen points out, is just one example.

There are people out there who would gladly burn (most of) the Bill of Rights for a chance to unleash their inner Savonarola.

[Akhilleus]

"But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman."

Vladimir Putin.

Another reason wingnuts love the Kalashnikov Kid.

[safari]

I did a quick Google search of "Post Truth Politics". It records 38,000 results, and filtering through the pages they overwhelmingly come from 2011/2012 to today. The he said/she said "objective" journalism has always existed as a sort of rule that should be followed, but the bigger story in my own opinion is the increasingly shameless and brazen willingness of elected officials to just spout out lies and falsehoods. Given the he said/she said practice, it appears the army of average journalists seemingly became overwhelmed and just settled into the new normal.

Maybe my lack of experience clouds my judgement and perhaps it's always been this way, but the Google search is an important indicator to show that indeed we're living in a new paradigm where Truth is increasingly more elusive and precious.

And Marie, take a brownie and chilllll out if need be. We all appreciate your work but we all want a healthy Weader too.

[Akhilleus]

Gather round all you wingnuts. After all this time of spouting off on the horrors of election fraud, and not findin' any, we finally got us some real, documented election fraud! Those demycraps, they think they can get away with this, but we foxed 'em.

So bring out the culprit, this hater of 'merican democracy. I hear she's in handcuffs, been arrested by the po-lice.

And here she is.....

Oh wait, this ain't right. This is a Republican. From South Dakota...

Annette Bosworth? One of ours?

Okay, break it up...nothin' to see here. No real election fraud, must be a mistake. G'won home now, everyone. Git!

...six counts of perjury and six counts of filing false documents related to election campaign law. Good thing she's a god-fearing Christian.

[James Singer]

For those who still remember Modo's asinine column on dope, I offer Driftglass:

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/06/measuring-journalisms-rate-of-decay.html

Grumpy