Thursday
May022013
The Commentariat -- May 3, 2013
Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "Whatever the data ultimately show for April, economists ... say the economy would be showing much more momentum if it were not for the combination of higher payroll taxes that went into effect in January, as well as the process of automatic spending cuts known as sequestration that began to bite last month." ...
... Jared Bernstein on today's jobs report: "Those looking for losses in sequester-sensitive industries could see some evidence in the report, as construction (down 6,000), government (down 11,000), and manufacturing (zero jobs added) all came in weak. Thus, all of the job gains last month came from private, service producing industries. Also, in signs that labor demand is still not strong enough, wage growth remains subdued, up 1.9% over the past year, and average weekly hours ticked down last month." ...
... Paul Krugman: Oh, noes. Inflation is too low!
Julie Pace of the AP: "Acknowledging uncertainty ahead, President Barack Obama said Thursday the U.S. will cooperate with Mexico in fighting drug-trafficking and organized crime in any way Mexico's government deems appropriate. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto emphasized that the security relationship must be expanded to focus on trade and commerce." ...
Gene Robinson: "Rather than use the veto pen that must be gathering dust in some Oval Office drawer, Obama signed legislation that cushions air travelers from the effects of the crude, cruel budget cuts known as the 'sequester.' The ... FAA is now allowed to shuffle funds around to avoid furloughing air-traffic controllers -- thus avoiding flight delays. At his news conference Tuesday, Obama said he agreed to sign the measure because the alternative was to 'impose a whole bunch of delays on passengers.' That's true -- and it's precisely why the president should have vetoed this quick-fix bill." ...
... CW: I'm totally with Gene on this. The FAA bill was an instance where Obama could have "showed some leadership" but utterly failed to do so. After all, Democrats voted for the FAA deal en masse, right along with Republicans. Signing that bill was an unconscionable act of weakness. The whole idea of the sequester, as Robiinson says, was to set up conditions so untenable that even the Tea Party brats would have to "come to the table." Obama brought their tea & crumpets right to their desks so they didn't have to doff their tricorns & act minimally responsible.
Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday, becoming the first top U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment."
New York Times Editors: "Appearing before Planned Parenthood's annual convention last Friday, President Obama pledged his continuing support for women's reproductive rights. In a speech before the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, Mr. Obama promised to keep science a sphere 'not subject to politics' or 'skewed by an agenda.' On Wednesday, his administration betrayed both reproductive rights and science. The Justice Department announced that it would appeal a federal court ruling that would make morning-after pills available without a prescription for girls and women of all ages." ...
... Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama on Thursday said he is 'very comfortable' with a new rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would allow women ages 15 and older to buy the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B without a prescription.... Obama said he understood that there was 'solid scientific evidence' that the contraception was safe for girls of that age.... The president also defended the Justice Department's decision, announced late Wednesday, to appeal a federal court ruling that made the pill available to girls of all ages without a prescription. Obama maintained that both the appeal and the FDA rule were decisions made without the involvement of the White House. The president also left open the possibility that the FDA could revisit the Plan B rule and create over-the-counter access for girls under 15."
** Michael Tomasky of Newsweek offers the passage of the controversial Panama Canal Treaty in 1978 -- wherein the U.S. gave up the canal it had built -- as proof that today's GOP, by contrast, "is simply not a mainstream political party in the traditional American sense. It is a radical oppositionalist faction, way beyond the normal American parameters both in terms of ideology and tactics.... [Jimmy] Carter, a weakened and already not-very-popular president, got 16 Republican votes.... What was different then was ... the nature of the GOP. Imagine Obama presenting a similar treaty to the US Senate today.... It wouldn't have a prayer of getting a single Republican vote. This would not be because Obama doesn't scare people or, conversely, because he fails to drink bourbon with McConnell.... This is a unique and bleak historical situation." ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "A major new study on Medicaid just became public.... This study is already getting a lot of attention: Conservatives and libertarians are citing it as evidence that expanding Medicaid is wrong. That has me wondering: Did they read read the same study that I did? ... The big news is that Medicaid virtually wiped out crippling medical expenses among the poor.... In addition, the people on Medicaid were about half as likely to experience other forms of financial strain.... The other big finding was that people on Medicaid ended up with significantly better mental health.... One place improvement did not appear was physical health. And this was something of a surprise." ...
... CW: I don't find this especially surprising, especially in light of Ezra Klein's excellent piece (which I linked a few days ago) on the very effective visiting nurse program, which the government is thinking of shutting down. I expect that, on average, poor people are less able than wealthier people to understand & follow "doctors' orders." They are probably less educated, more intimidated by doctors, less able to comprehend medical jargon, less willing to ask questions of doctors & other medical personnel, less organized in their daily habits (so have more difficulty in following routine daily medical regimens), less willing to take personal responsibility for their health & dietary needs, more skeptical about cause-and-effect, etc. To that add that doctors themselves may be partially to blame as I don't doubt that many treat Medicaid patients with less respect than they do their "paying" -- i.e., privately-insured -- patients. For Medicaid to be effective, patients must be educated -- and coaxed -- to follow through on prescribed regimens. P.S. Please save your outrage over my "stereotyping" Medicaid patients. I know that plenty of them are sharp, responsible people. I'm talking about averages, not individuals. And I might be wrong. But I doubt it. ...
... Update. Wait, wait, conservatives' glee at the study results gets even more hilarious. It turns out they could not have, um, read the study. Kevin Drum discovered that the only reason the study results showed "no improvement" in the health conditions they tested for is that the sample was too small to be statistically conclusive. In fact, in the small sample, "it turns out there were improvements" in health conditions.
This is stunning. In an ad, the Republican National Committee blames President Obama for Republicans obstructionism. In addition, they used news footage of the President consoling a grieving Newtown mother in support of their "point." So if I punch you in the mouth, it's your fault you're bleeding. The whole damned GOP is a sociopathic cancer on the nation.
Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest round of polling finds that Kay Hagan and Mary Landrieu helped their cause for reelection with their recent votes in support of background checks for gun sales. More than 70% of voters in each of their [red] states support such checks, and their constituents say they're more likely to vote for them next year because of their votes.... Polling we released earlier in the week showed what a backlash there was against Senators on both sides of the aisle who voted against the background checks bill. But what this polling shows is that voters aren't just mad at politicians who voted against Manchin/Toomey - they're also ready to reward Senators who supported it- even in states that voted for Mitt Romney last year like North Carolina and Louisiana."
This segment isn't particularly funny, but it speaks to an egregious government SNAFU that Stewart has highlighted before:
Jamie on the Hot Seat. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Government investigators have found that JPMorganChase devised 'manipulative schemes' that transformed 'money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers,' and that one of its most senior executives gave 'false and misleading statements' under oath." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warned the bank it would crack down on the schemes. "The possible action comes amid showdowns with other agencies. One of the bank's chief regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is weighing new enforcement actions against JPMorgan over the way the bank collected credit card debt and its possible failure to alert authorities to suspicions about Bernard L. Madoff.... The comptroller's office delivered an unusually stark message to Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman: the nation's biggest bank was quickly losing credibility in Washington....Dimon, who is not suspected of any wrongdoing, met this week with prosecutors and the F.B.I. to discuss the [Madoff] case."
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "A day after the Walt Disney Company disclosed that it was ending apparel production in Bangladesh, that country’s garment manufacturers expressed alarm that other Western corporations might follow Disney's lead. They feared that could bring about a potential mass exodus that would devastate Bangladesh's economy and threaten the livelihoods of millions of people." CW: maybe you corrupt bastards should have thought of that before you threatened the lives of tens of thousands of workers.
Adam Serwer of Mother Jones criticizes Charles Pierce for claims that black homophobia is "the most virulent and stubborn of all."
Local News
Michael Dresser of the Baltimore Sun: "Surrounded by religious leaders, civil rights activists and others who have fought for years to stop executions in Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation Thursday repealing the state's death penalty. Unless the law is overturned in a referendum, Maryland will become the 18th state to end capital punishment, leaving life without parole as the maximum penalty for any crime." ...
... New York Times Editors: "But, in too many states, support for capital punishment continues to overwhelm good sense. The Florida Legislature this week passed a bill that requires the governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme Court, and the state to execute the defendant within 180 days of the warrant. This rush-to-execute bill irresponsibly ignores the fact that since 1973, when the state reinstituted the death penalty, one death row inmate has been exonerated for every three executed."
Randal Edgar of the Providence Journal: "With hundreds looking on, Governor Chafee signed two bills Thursday that make Rhode Island the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriage.... Chafee added his signature to the bills shortly after the House passed them on 56 to 15 votes. The bills allow same-sex weddings as of August 1 and also allow couples who joined in civil unions to change their status to married."
Congressional Races
Scott Keyes & Adam Peck of Think Progress: "South Carolina has a reputation for dirty tricks, and next week's special election between former Gov. Mark Sanford (R) and businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D) is no exception. One of the most popular tactics is known as 'push polling,' whereby a group calls up voters under the guise of conducting a poll, only to ask questions that leave the voter with a highly-misleading impression about a certain candidate." Here are some of the questions the push-pollers asked, the hypotheses of which have no basis in fact:
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you she had had an abortion?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you a judge held her in contempt of court at her divorce proceedings?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if she had done jail time?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you she was caught running up a charge account bill?
... CW: BTW, I checked the Charleston paper, the Post & Courier News, & South Carolina's biggest paper, The State, and neither of them carried a story on the push-polling as far as I could tell, so unless some of the local TV stations reported on it, potential voters -- especially unsophisticated ones -- would have no idea they were being fed lies.
Frank Phillips of the Boston Globe: "In the first sign that Democrats are preparing to pull out the party's big financial guns for US Senate nominee Edward J. Markey, Michelle Obama is scheduled to appear at a Boston fund-raiser for the Malden congressman later this month.... The First Lady, who is making her first fund-raising appearance since the November presidential election, will headline the party at the Taj Boston on May 29...."
The Louie Gohmert Daily News
Government by Old White Boys. Tim Egan noticed Louie! -- the "un-representative" of the people. "... look at how different this Republican House is from the country they are supposed to represent. It's almost like a parallel government, sitting in for some fantasy nation created in talk-radio land...."
AND Glenn Kessler noticed Louie, too!
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Federal law enforcement officials are sharpening their focus on the widow of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings after finding al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine and other radical Islamist material on her computer, according to law enforcement officials."
Bloomberg News: "Employment picked up more than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, showing the early stages of government budget cuts failed to destabilize the U.S. labor market. Payrolls expanded by 165,000 workers last month following a revised 138,000 increase in March that was larger than first estimated...."
New York Times: "The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings told F.B.I. interrogators that he and his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July as they plotted their deadly assault, according to two law enforcement officials." Story includes other updates on the case, including developments in the investigation of Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow.
New York Times: "Gunmen on Friday fatally shot a Pakistani prosecutor who had been investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, carrying out an assassination that threw into turmoil Pakistan's most politically charged cases. Assailants opened fire on the prosecutor, Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, as he drove to work from his home in a suburb of the capital, Islamabad, for a court hearing in which the former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, faces charges in relation to Ms. Bhutto's death in 2007."
Atlantic: "For the second time this week an American cargo plane has crashed overseas, after a military jet has gone missing in Kyrgyzstan. The C-135 fuel transporter disappeared from radar on Friday, shortly after taking off from a U.S. air base near the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. Kyrgyz emergency services say the plane has crashed, but there is no word yet on casualties."
Ratburgers. Reuters: "Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton ... in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures."
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Reader Comments (12)
Ohhh...goodie! I am so freakin' glad that Howard Kurtz has resigned from The Daily Beast because of his stoopid, hurtful story about Jason Collins! I have thought for a long time that Kurtz is a shallow, thoughtless asshat. Now I know for sure. I guess, instead of being pissed off, I should be pleased that we have one less sociopathic, going-for-the-glory creep in the MSM! I'm workin' on it, but I am not there yet. I just despise and disdain Howie Kurtz! YUK! Maybe I will get there in the next life--if, indeed, there is one!
http://www.alternet.org/media/false-attack-jason-collins-coward-howard-kurtz?akid=10392.220009.YRdvOX&
@Marie re: Medicaid patients not always following up on instructions
A few years ago I read Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains. It's about the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to eradicate infectious diseases in some of the poorest nations. He took it upon himself , and felt it his responsibility, to make sure his patients followed his orders as he knew they often would not. This meant that he would personally visit patients in their homes, sometimes walking miles. The word impossible is not part of his vocabulary.
Re: yesterday's talk about racism, I see I had a major hyperlink fail for the website I proposed, thus:
21 Maps of Highly Segregated Cities in America
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-segregated-cities-census-maps-2013-4?op=1
@ Kate: Kurtz and his attractive blond sidekick who sits up straighter than the oak in my backyard––appear on a regular basis on the PBS News program yapping about their "daily download." There was always something about these two and their format that irritated me. I kept yelling at the TV––"Who cares!" So much of their stuff seemed to me to be just plain silly and irrelevant. So when I heard about Kurtz yesterday I felt justified in my feelings. You evidently know a lot more about this guy.
By the way: Besides Wisconsin and conservative brothers we share the name of David for our sons. Ain't that funny.
Re: flocking birds; The FAA reboot by our elected and well-traveled leaders is a fine example of how there's a left and a right and a "those that got a seat on the plane." Birds of a feather. Asswipes for ever.
Dear Marie,
re: yesterdays comment
I see racism and classism as step-brothers.
I salute Patrick's sons for not being afflicted with racism indoctrination. However, Patrick goes to some length to tell us about how his family is different from the rest of us. They have been "privileged". His sons, as he relates have grown up among the 'elites' of the societies in which they have lived.
My one word question, which could understandably be regarded as a snide remark, is this, has the circumstances of your sons youth engendered a class distinction in their minds that sets them apart rather than a racial distinction?
I apologize for the crudeness of my brevity.
Patrick is and certainly should be proud of his sons triumph over racist mentality. With that hurdle behind them they are better equipped for a productive and positive adulthood.
However, if they are not equipped to see, empathize with and support the struggles of the common, non-privileged man and woman in the societies in which they will be participating, what they have to offer will be diminished.
More SC push poll questions:
What would you say if I told you that Elizabeth Colbert Busch had sold bomb making manuals to the Tsarnaev brothers? At half price.
Would your opinion of Elizabeth Colbert Busch change if I told you she worships satan by cutting off the heads of kidnapped first graders?
What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if you knew about her secret African-American lesbian, welfare collecting, freedom hating lover?
Hey, this is easy. I could go to work for the SC Republican party too. Just make up the most outrageous shit you can think of!
Roger, Marie: One of the things I really like about Marie's enterprise is that her readers/commenters don't engage in the stupid back and forth arguments one sees in so many blog comment sections.
But, just to answer Roger's Q:
Roger, being in the "elite" in a third world country, as an expatriate living there, is situational and temporary. Back here in the US of A we return to our hoi polloi reality. My sons don't think of themselves as elites, and are not "classist." Quite the opposite. I appreciate your taking the time to explain your point.
Marie, I have a mental image of you holding a wooden yardstick in crossed arms, tapping your foot and scowling over half-moon glasses. Thanks for keeping the class in line. Keep it classy!
Yes Patrick, Marie performs well as Sister Mary Elephant. If I have in any way insulted you or your family I sincerely apologize. I am not as devastatingly brilliant with words as Akhilleus.
Re: What if I told You...Ms. Busch often times comments on the blog "Realitychex" under the pseudonym "Akhilleus"?
OUTED!
What a pleasure to read the exchanges between Roger and Patrick. Civil discourse seems to be in short supply these days, but on this site, thanks to Marie and its sane contributors, it remains free of the usual mud- slinging effluvia that is rampant nowadays. I feel privileged to be a part of this and want to thank all of you.
As for our main man who is really the Busch mistress, I say WHO KNEW? On second thought, I think he's really the illegitimate son of Charles Pierce in festive disguise and has been touched by some Greek god who has given him the skills of the written word. Yowsa!