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
Thursday
May162013
The Commentariat -- May 17, 2013
Your Daily Scandal Sheet
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama, seeking to regain his footing amid persistent questions over last September's attack in Benghazi, Libya, called on Congress on Thursday to take action to bolster security at American Embassies. Mr. Obama made his appeal during a midday news conference with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. He also urged lawmakers to fully finance the State Department's budget request for diplomatic security."
Here's the presser:
** "He Is Not a Crook." Washington Post Editors: "Republicans and conservative media obsessed with what they regard as the Obama administration's scandalous coverup of the nature of the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11 have offered a shifting series of allegations [none of which has panned out]. By focusing on the phony issue of the talking points, Republicans are missing the opportunity to press for needed reforms at State and a more active U.S. policy in the Middle East. They should also be spurring a sluggish FBI investigation to determine who really organized and led the attacks in Benghazi.... Instead, with their bigger-than-Watergate rhetoric, the GOP's scandal-pushers are making themselves look small-minded, hyperpartisan and foolish." CW: read the whole editorial for a look at Chicken Little Government. ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM sees it as "pretty epic" that Major Garrett (previously of Fox "News") told Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News that Republicans had leaked doctored "quotes" from the Benghazi e-mails in order to mislead reporters as to the White House's culpability in massaging the Benghazi talking points. Garrett concluded, on-air, "There is no evidence, Scott, the White House orchestrated these changes."
... Steve Benen: "Maybe this was just an innocent mistake, rather than a deliberate attempt at deception? Nope: "On Monday, Mother Jones noted that the Republicans' interim report included the correct version of the emails, signaling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations. So, it appears there's a Benghazi scandal after all. It's not the wrongdoing Republicans alleged; it's the wrongdoing Republicans committed. The question for Darrell Issa is pretty straightforward: when does the investigation begin as to which Republicans lied to journalists and when?" ...
... Joe Strupp of Media Matters has a very good report on Jonathan Karl's sloppy reporting. It was his ABC News story that started the latest Benghazi eruption, when he "quoted" administration e-mails, "suggesting that he had personally reviewed the original documents," when in fact his reporting relied on a GOP source who gave him "summaries" of the e-mails. CW: Karl really had a responsibility -- in his original report -- to tell the public how he came by his information. All he had to do was write, "according to a Republican source, blah-blah," allowing readers to decide whether or not to believe the story. Why didn't he? Because then his "exclusive" would not have been so "explosive." It wasn't just Karl's Congressional friend who misled the public; it was Karl himself.
Asparagus. Probably not Louie's. No aspersion intended.There's just so much Louie Gohmert News I can take, so yesterday I avoided his claim that AG Holder cast aspersions on his asparagus, but if you can't believe a Congressman said that during a hearing, he does so near the end of this video, in which -- as Charles Pierce points out -- Louie takes such pride he has posted it on his Website.
NEW. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: J. Russell George, "the Treasury Department's inspector general, told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.... Steven T. Miller, the acting I.R.S. commissioner who has resigned, called the agency's actions 'obnoxious,' but told the House Ways and Means Committee they were not motivated by partisanship. And in testy exchanges, he said he had not misled Congress, even though he did not divulge the targeting efforts of a Cincinnati unit examining 70,000 applications for tax exemption." ...
... NEW. William Branigin & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: Sander "Levin [D-Mich.] asked Miller and George whether they found any evidence of political motivation by the IRS employees who reviewed the applications for tax-exempt status. 'We did not, sir,' each or them replied." ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama appointed Daniel I. Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Thursday." ...
... Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "More changes in the IRS leadership team were announced Thursday as well, with Joseph Grant, Commissioner of Tax Exempt/Government Entities Division, planning to retire on June 3, according to an IRS statement." ...
Goldfarb: "Senior lawmakers investigating what went wrong at the Internal Revenue Service are planning to focus on whether IRS officials misled Congress about a policy that targeted conservative groups for extra screening when seeking a tax exemption...." ...
... Here's David Kay Johnston talking about the IRS brouhaha. See also his CJR article linked yesterday. Thanks to James S. for the link:
** Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker on the AP subpoenas.
Steve Benen: "... in this case, the critiques [of President Obama] are especially incoherent since the so-called 'scandals' generating so much chatter about 'a White House in crisis' don't actually relate much to the White House. None of the stories -- Benghazi, the IRS, AP subpoenas -- points to a tyrannical dictator or a hapless onlooker." ...
... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal: "Republicans could find that stoking the flames of scandal may sear not only Obama's hopes but also their own." ...
These are all different agencies of government. This administration owns the failures, but not necessarily the direct blame ... we're looking at each individual case so it's very different than what you view historically as a target where it [was] always about President Clinton. This isn't about President Obama. -- Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) ...
Molly Hooper of the Hill: "House Republicans say they will not overreach on probing the Obama administration, having learned lessons from investigating the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration." ...
... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The most pressing question for Congressional Republicans is no longer how to finesse changes to immigration law or gun control, but how far they can push their cases against President Obama without inciting a backlash of the sort that has left them staggering in the past." Love the accompanying photo of MoCs looking pensive:
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker states the obvious: "The larger problem with the scandal culture in D.C. is that, because each example of government wrongdoing quickly morphs into a partisan effort to attack the White House (the same was true when a Republican was President), the actual remedies for the problems uncovered become almost beside the point. A U.S. congressman will probably go farther in his party hierarchy by roughing up Obama than he will by helping to pass legislation to ensure that all diplomatic posts have adequate security. Likewise, the I.R.S. abuses suggest the need for both major tax reform and changes to campaign-finance laws, while a future dragnet of news media phone records could be prevented if a strong federal shield law were in place. Don't hold your breath waiting for any of these policy changes." ...
Dorothy Wickenden of the New Yorker speaks with Lizza, Talbot & Steve Coll about This Week in Scandals:
Ezra Klein has a very good rundown on the scandals that weren't.
Frank Rich on the scandals: "... fully a third of House committees are now devoted to investigating the Obama administration."
Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle on -- everything. Also thanks to James S.
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Democrats say that Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, in recent days has been trying to gauge whether there is sufficient support among Democrats to force a rule change that would limit the filibuster on presidential nominees. He could conceivably try to enact a rule change with a simple majority -- a tactic known as 'the nuclear option.' Any revisions to Senate rules usually require 67 votes.... Republicans insist they are only standing in the way of nominees who merit more scrutiny and pointed to the advancement of two more Obama administration choices on Thursday: Sri Srinivassan, whose unanimous approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee sends him to the full Senate for confirmation to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Ernest J. Moniz, the president's pick for secretary of energy, who was confirmed on a 97-to-0 vote ... on Thursday afternoon." ...
... Charles Pierce: because President Obama is not nice enough to them, Senate Republicans continue to keep the National Labor Relations Board from functioning.
Thom Shanker & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "President Obama summoned the Pentagon's senior leaders to the White House on Thursday, telling them that the levels of sexual assault across the armed services were a disgrace that undermined the trust essential to carrying out the military's mission effectively.... Also on Thursday, Senator Kirsten e. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, continued to gain support for a measure that would give military prosecutors rather than commanders the ability to decide which sexual assault cases to try. The goal is to increase the number of people who report crimes without fear of retaliation...."
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... 'Peer-2-Peer' awards, which cost taxpayers $160,000 between fiscal 2009 and 2011, are among several flaws and violations of federal regulations the General Service Administration's inspector general found in a review of GSA's system of giving awards and bonuses and reviewing the performance of its top executives. The report, released late Thursday by Inspector General Brian D. Miller, found a system that lacked transparency and hid some of its practices from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal personnel agency. Executives' rights to appeal their performance reviews were not protected, many bonuses and cash awards were not properly vetted and they were made for questionable reasons, Miller found." CW: okay, could we please have some Congressional hearings on this outrageous $160K scandal? How about rolling some heads? How about jail time?
Richard Cowan & Rachel Younglai of Reuters: "Prospects for passage of a major immigration bill improved on Thursday when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives declared they had reached a tentative deal, resolving disputes that had threatened to torpedo negotiations.... The final sticking point, according to congressional sources, was over whether illegal immigrants now in the United States who gain legal status under the bill could participate in the new healthcare law..., which Republicans want to repeal. None of the negotiators would comment on how the matter was resolved. Nor would they provide other details of the deal." CW: how refreshing to know that some members of Congress have been able to take time out of their scandalmongering duties to do some actual work.
AP: "The manager of the sexual harassment and assault response program at Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested in a domestic dispute and relieved of his post, authorities said Thursday. Lt. Col. Darin Haas turned himself in to police in Clarksville, Tenn., late Wednesday on charges of violating an order of protection, and stalking, authorities said Thursday." CW: here's a question -- do the military pick out the worst Neanderthals on the base to be the top sexual harassment preventors, or do these guys just beg for the posts? Also, shouldn't female officers be in many of these jobs?
Carol Leonig & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), investigators are looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...."
News Lede
Climate Change News. Reuters: "Six people were dead and seven missing after a powerful tornado ripped through a neighborhood that included housing for the poor in the north Texas town of Granbury, marking the deadliest severe storm outbreak in the United States so far this year."
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Reader Comments (10)
" CW: here's a question -- do the military pick out the worst Neanderthals on the base to be the top sexual harassment preventors, or do these guys just beg for the posts? Also, shouldn't female officers be in many of these jobs?"
Yes, I was wondering the same thing. And when we are bombarded by questionable scandals that the Republicans have gotten their teeth into the biggest scandal of all––sexual abuse in the military––seems not to be the one they have the taste for. I am also put off by some of the military pundits that are saying much of this is caused by serial rapists that join the military to carry out their mission. I don't doubt that in some cases, very few I think, this would be true, but from all I've read about this plus listened to many of the actual victims their perpetrators were ranked high on the totem pole or regular Dick and Harrys out for some nookie. As for more females in charge a few of them that had that position featured in the film "Invisible War" denied that there was a problem––one woman seemed not to know too much about anything. And let's remember that victims of rape on men are slightly higher than the for the women.
Casting aspersions on asparagus?
Well, my opinion of Eric Holder has just gone up a few notches by virtue of his getting under the extremely thin skin of the barely sentient Congressman Goober Gohmert, that palaverous antipode of acuity.
First of all, I had no idea that Louie-Lou-eye had any idea how to pronounce, much less use, a word like "aspersions" in a sentence.
The guy seems so unmoored most of the time that I'm thinking perhaps Holder's pointed animadversion regarding what Louie-Lou-eye did or did not know about the FBI might have triggered another of Gohmert's increasingly weird bouts of verbal autism, in which case Rep. Goober may have been suggesting that the AG was casting aspersions upon his Aspberger's.
But if he did in fact mean asparagus, that explains what those things are sticking out of his ass. An ass full of aspersioned asparagus, activating an autistic Aspberger moment. Ay yi yi!
Or, even more disturbing (is that possible?), Goober may have been making an oblique reference to the fact that he heard all that top secret FBI stuff from that very same bunch of asparagus stuck up his ass. Talking asparagus. Almost as astonishing as a talking Goober.
Mirabile dickhead, as the Romans might have said.
Since my hearing seems to be losing a bit of its former acuity ( yesterday the mister said, "Trying to unravel that hose was a pain," to which I replied, "Well, you won't need to water if it's going to rain") when I heard the Mirabile dickhead mutter the "aspersions on my asparagus" I thought, surely, I heard it incorrectly. And "An ass full of aspersioned asparagus..." is a hoot! That whole exchange reminded me of Rummy's "There are things we know we don't know.." etc. rambling dissertation.
We here in sanity land have planted for the first time asparagus in our vast garden of good and plenty. I'll be thinking of Louie when we finally get to harvest it wondering how someone so off his chump gets to sit in those congressional leather seats and run his mouth off. It's not easy being green.
PD,
It might not be easy being green, but plenty of GOPers sure make being stupid seem easy. And there are plenty of red state mental defectives in congress alone to easily test that assertion. I mean, here we have a chronically malfunctioning maladroit who received over 70% of the votes in his district. 70%!
Maybe it's a century of oil mixed into the ground water. Who knows? Or maybe it's Fox poisoning. Or both.
Enjoy your asparagus when they come up. But before you harvest them, listen carefully. They may know who killed Kennedy.
P.S. I realize that there have been a goodly number of embarrassing Democrats on the Hill over the years, whose downfalls most often involved greed or hubris, but nothing like the horde of below room temperature IQs, bigots, fact-o-phobes, serial liars, and barking mad bedlamites that have been sucking up oxygen on the Republican side for the last decade or more. There really is no one on the Democratic side that corresponds to a Gohmert, Bachmann, Akins, Palin, Perry, Brownback, Sensenbrenner, Santorum, Inhofe, Ryan, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Beck, Drudge, Breitbart acolytes, and on and on...
@PD Pepe and Akhellius-
I agree with all you have said--and more. Seems to me we have never had dumber, more clueless, congressmen, senators and pundits than the current Republican crop. I think 2014 may be our most important mid-term election to date, and I truly will make escape plans if the balance remains the same--or Jeebus forbid--that the Republicans get even more seats in the House and a majority in the Senate. I have always thought American voters were kinda dumb, but I have also seen that they follow trends and can recognize stoopid when it is pushed in their face day after day. And the Tee Potty is beginning to be quite retro!
I am not talking about the hopeless Fox News addicted pea-brains. I'm thinking about the average apolitical guy who doesn't get all into conspiracy theories and has a good enough brain and gut to have some recognition that we are amidst a buncha crazies--like Gohmert, Bachmann, Perry, Ryan, Issa, Santorum, Beck, Limbaugh, Gingrich and the rest of the Far Right McCarthy acolytes.
As for the military: same old same old. They traditionally have been chauvinists and mysogynists. If not for the five sane women on the Armed Services Committee, sexual abuse and harassment in the Armed Forces would never have come to light. The "enlightenment" of the military consciousness will not be happening in our lifetime--or maybe ever. War, weapons and an excess of testosterone are enculturated in militaries worldwide. Sad.
@PD Pepe and Akhellius-
I agree with all you have said--and more. Seems to me we have never had dumber, more clueless, congressmen, senators and pundits than the current Republican crop. I think 2014 may be our most important mid-term election to date, and I truly will make escape plans if the balance remains the same--or Jeebus forbid--that the Republicans get even more seats in the House and a majority in the Senate. I have always thought American voters were kinda dumb, but I have also seen that they follow trends and can recognize stoopid when it is pushed in their face day after day. And the Tee Potty is beginning to be quite retro!
I am not talking about the hopeless Fox News addicted pea-brains. I'm thinking about the average apolitical guy who doesn't get all into conspiracy theories and has a good enough brain and gut to have some recognition that we are amidst a buncha crazies--like Gohmert, Bachmann, Perry, Ryan, Issa, Santorum, Beck, Limbaugh, Gingrich and the rest of the Far Right McCarthy acolytes.
As for the military: same old same old. They traditionally have been chauvinists and mysogynists. If not for the five sane women on the Armed Services Committee, sexual abuse and harassment in the Armed Forces would never have come to light. The "enlightenment" of the military consciousness will not be happening in our lifetime--or maybe ever. War, weapons and an excess of testosterone are enculturated in militaries worldwide. Sad.
@PD. If you are thinking logically, it would make sense to have women directing sexual harassment investigations and dealing with female victims. However, I think the military culture supersedes what should be obvious and logical. Organizations like the military and law enforcement (here I know of what I speak) value hyper stereotypical masculine behavior. Often sexual conquest is a part of that stereotypical picture. Look at Mr Straight Arrow, preaching integrity Petraeus for reference. Those who have the responsibility to promote others to lofty heights are most often men. Still, there must be some women in the military who could carry out the mission, so to speak, but I wager they're at low levels.
In my work, I made it clear that I did not embrace hyper masculinity or cowboy behavior. I was quite clear, fair, and direct with the staff. In addition, mentoring women and people of color was one of my important goals. I was known as a "bitch". In contrast, male peers who were tactless, often targeting women and people of color, and who were (sorry) dumb as a bag of rocks were "takin" care of business, heh heh". Misogyny is alive and thriving.
As we were sayin' about those righty, piggy menfolk....Just listen to what Pat Robertson, the wingnuttiest of 'em all, has to say:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/pat-robertson-says-if-your-man-cheats-its-y
Listen up womans! If yur husband is wanderin' better put something a little better than succotash on the table.
Welcome to the future of civilian gun technology. Now you really can be mentally scrambled and hit your target 100% of the time. Judging by the proclaimed waiting list it appears that hunters have lost all faith in their gun training abilities because now they're clamming for a sight with a built-in computer that does all the work for 'em.
This is surely a good step towards fighting tyranny when any dolt with zero experience can kill whatever they want as long as they have some cover and a little time to blast away. It even comes with a wifi connection so they can now instantly upload their kills to the internet and share it with all their friends.
I'm curious if they can ship these to any other countries or are we the only ones that allow this kind of insane shit to fall in the hands of any average (G.I.) Joe?
Freedom 'merica style
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/15/184223110/new-rifle-on-sale
Two important things to keep in mind. Tomorrow is Red Suspenders Day in Gridley, CA, and the Preakness will be run in Baltimore, Maryland. Nothing else of greater consequence will happen.