The Commentariat -- October 8, 2015

Internal links, defunct video & graphics removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has abandoned his bid for House speaker Thursday afternoon, just minutes before the election was about to begin. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who resigned the post last month, announced in the meeting that elections were being postponed." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy on Thursday abruptly took himself out of the race to succeed John A. Boehner as House speaker, apparently undone by the same forces that drove Mr. Boehner to resign.... As shocked members left the room there was a sense of total disarray, with no clear path forward and no set date for a new vote." ...

     ... Hey, maybe this is really why. Mike Allen of Politico: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney is stepping into the suddenly feverish House speaker's race to endorse the leading candidate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as 'a good man and a strong leader.'" CW: I'd give up & seek counseling if Dick Cheney endorsed me for something.

Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "The president of Volkswagen's American unit came under withering criticism on Thursday at a congressional hearing looking into the automaker's admission that for years it knowingly skirted federal emissions standards. Michael Horn, the automaker's top official in the United States, repeatedly expressed remorse over the company's deception, but lawmakers were looking for more than an apology for its use of a so-called defeat device that fooled regulators during emissions testing."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "... Ben Carson, under fire for his advice about what to do when facing a gunman, late Wednesday recounted the time when a gun was pointed at him. 'I have had a gun held on me when I was in a Popeyes,' Carson told host Karen Hunter on SiriusXM radio, referencing an incident at a Baltimore fast-food restaurant. '[A] guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs,' he added. 'And I just said, "I believe that you want the guy behind the counter."'" CW: So our hero Dr. Ben says, "Don't shoot me, bro. Shoot him." Say what?

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Top House Democrats are accusing the chairman of the House Oversight Committee of refusing to share the unedited footage from the recent undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood. 'Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has in his possession right now, a computer hard drive that contains videos produced by David Daleiden, the head of the group that tried to entrap Planned Parenthood,' Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) declared from the House floor, interrupting the chamber's debate on legislation expanding the investigation into Planned Parenthood."

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "As a video circulated online Wednesday showing what appeared to be a sexual hazing ritual at an Indiana University fraternity, some who saw it shrugged. Others thought it was funny, tweeting 'LOL' and 'LMAO.' Some, however, thought it was rape. On Wednesday night, the university weighed in, announcing via Twitter that it was suspending Alpha Tau Omega 'immediately, pending investigation into hazing allegations.' On Thursday morning, the fraternity's national leadership issued a harshly worded statement calling the video 'highly offensive' and promising 'swift disciplinary action.'" ...

... Sam Biddle of Gawker has more on the video.

*****

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama called the chief of Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday to apologize for the bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan that killed doctors and patients, a White House spokesman said Wednesday. 'When the United States makes a mistake, we own up to it, we apologize,' Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, told reporters. Mr. Earnest had declined on Tuesday to apologize to the doctors group despite calling the strike in Kunduz a terrible tragedy, saying the administration was not prepared to make further comments while three separate investigations were continuing. But on Wednesday, Mr. Earnest said the president had decided to issue the formal apology in the wake of testimony from the top general in Afghanistan before a congressional committee." ...

... Spencer Ackerman, et al., of the Guardian: "The US military never gave Doctors Without Borders prior notification of a deadly airstrike on its field hospital in Kunduz, the aid group said on Wednesday, in an apparent violation of the Pentagon's own instructions on the rules of war. 'We had not received any warning of the strike,' said Jason Cone, US executive director of the charity -- also known as Médecins sans Frontières -- five days after the Saturday morning US strike that killed 22 staff and patients and injured 37 more."

"House Republicans Create Special Committee To Harass Planned Parenthood." Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "House Republicans created a special committee on Wednesday to investigate abortions, fetal tissue procurement and the use of federal funds at Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers voted 242-184 on a resolution establishing the committee, which ... will have the power to subpoena documents and testimony. Its stated mission, among other things, is to examine 'medical procedures and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement' and 'federal funding and support for abortion providers.'... During Wednesday's debate, Republicans couldn't say that Planned Parenthood broke any laws. Instead, they railed against abortion in general and described how disgusting it was to see videos of fetal tissue being removed from aborted fetuses."

Whenever I think of what's the worse-case scenario that can happen with this Congress, it's not altogether wrong all the time. Just try us. -- Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "In a move that threatens to upend the Republican race to succeed outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, a group of hard-line conservatives said Wednesday it will throw its support behind a little known Florida member to become the next speaker. The House Freedom Caucus announced its support for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) after emerging from an afternoon meeting in the Capitol complex.... Caucus members said Wednesday that the endorsement is binding on members only for Thursday's internal party vote and would not necessarily apply to the Oct. 29 floor vote." ...

... Boehner Forever! Russell Berman of the Atlantic: If House Republicans can't settle on a new speaker, Speaker John Boehner will stay on till they do: "When he announced his resignation last month, Boehner said it would become effective on October 30. On Monday, he set the floor vote for the day before, allowing for a last-minute change if the House failed to replace him." ...

... ** Hedrik Smith, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: Republicans, led by Karl Rove, launched in 2010 an exceptionally successful effort to win control of state legislatures, one of the main purposes of which was to gerrymander congressional districts. "They used sophisticated software to determine not only which town and which neighborhood should be allotted to which district but which street and which home. In the 2012 election, they saw the fruit of their labor. Republicans came out with a 33-seat majority in the U.S. House, even though they lost the popular vote. But there was a hitch. The very strategy that cemented the party's House majority also entrenched the rump faction of anti-government extremists who toppled Boehner and will menace his successor.... With protected political monopolies back home, the rebels take little or no political risk and pay no political price for opposing their speaker and adopting extremist positions that bring Congress to a halt.... It is going to take fundamental change to dislodge the gridlock now baked into the system...."

New York Times Editors: "Lawmakers have long abused their investigative authority for political purposes. But the effort to find [Hillary] Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the Libya attacks, was personally responsible for the deaths has lost any semblance of credibility. It's become an insult to the memory of four slain Americans.... Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Oct. 22. The hearing will give Republicans another chance to attack the credibility and trustworthiness of the leading Democratic presidential candidate.... The hearing should be the last salvo for a committee that has accomplished nothing. If the Republicans insist on keeping the process alive, the Democrats should stop participating in this charade."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "President Obama has signed into law a bipartisan change to ObamaCare, marking a rare instance that he and Congress have agreed on a tweak to his signatore legislative accomplishment.... The legislation, called the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act, deals with an obscure provision in ObamaCare that changed the definition of a small employer from one with 50 employees or fewer to one with 100 employees or fewer, beginning in 2016."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard two hours of arguments in its first capital cases since two justices [Breyer & Ginsburg] announced in June that they had grave doubts about the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issues were technical, concerning sentencing procedures, and the crimes were terrible, even by the standards of capital cases. By the end of the arguments, there was little reason to think that the cases would make a significant contribution to the court's larger debate about whether the death penalty can be reconciled with the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment."

Rob Krilly of the (UK) Telegraph: "The gunman who shot dead nine people at a college in Oregon last week was discharged from the army after attempting suicide, according to officials quoted by The Wall Street Journ[al]. Chris Harper-Mercer was discharged after one month of basic training at Fort Jackson, in South Carolina, in 2008.The revelation adds to evidence of his troubled state of mind long before he opened fire at Um[p]qua Community Collage and raises fresh questions about how he was able to buy an assortment of firearms."

Education Beat. How to Save the High Cost of Ivy League Tuition -- Commit a Violent Crime & Go to Jail. Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Months after winning a national title, Harvard's debate team has fallen to a group of New York prison inmates. The showdown took place at the Eastern correctional facility in New York, a maximum-security prison where convicts can take courses taught by faculty from nearby Bard College, and where inmates have formed a popular debate club. Last month they invited the Ivy League undergraduates and this year's national debate champions over for a friendly competition.... The inmates were asked to argue that public schools should be allowed to deny enrollment to undocumented students, a position the team opposed." ...

... Here's the underlying story, by Leslie Brody of the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 18). "Inmates can't use the Internet for research. The prison administration must approve requests for books and articles, which can take weeks."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Danielle Ivory & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The head of Volkswagen's American business knew about a potential emissions problem with the company's vehicles in spring 2014, earlier than previously acknowledged by top management in the United States. Michael Horn, the chief executive of the Volkswagen Group of America, said he was informed at the time of 'a possible emissions noncompliance' but was told that the company's engineers would work with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve the issue, according to testimony prepared for a congressional hearing set for Thursday. Later that year, he said, he was told that Volkswagen's technical teams had a specific plan for bringing the vehicles into compliance."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Russia's military moves in Syria are fundamentally changing the face of the country's civil war, putting President Bashar al-Assad back on his feet, and may complicate the Obama administration's plans to expand its air operations against the Islamic State." ...

... James Kanter of the New York Times: "Alarmed by the speed and scale of Russia's intervention in Syria, Western military officials said on Thursday that they were stepping up military exercises and deploying a small number of logistics personnel in Eastern and Central Europe. Britain announced that it would send soldiers to the Baltic countries after the show of force by Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin. Germany condemned Russia's operations in Syria in unusually pointed terms. NATO expressed alarm about Russia’s incursions into Turkish airspace and the widening of the field of conflict to include the firing of cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea." ...

... AFP: "A large majority of Russia's military strikes in Syria have not been aimed at the Islamic State group or jihadists tied to al-Qaida, and have instead targeted the moderate Syrian opposition, the US State Department said on Wednesday. 'Greater than 90% of the strikes that we've seen them take to date have not been against Isil or al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists,' said spokesman John Kirby." ...

     ... Juan Cole: Not really. Russia is targeting al Qaeda & al Qaeda-allied groups. They are not moderates; they're radical Islamicists. "Ultimately Syria can only be healed by democracy and the separation of religion and state. Neither the [Assad] regime nor the rebels get this, and there is no guarantee they ever will." ...

... Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "Russia and Syria unleashed a coordinated assault by land, air and sea on Wednesday, seeking to reverse recent gains by rebel groups that were beginning to encroach on President Bashar al-Assad's last bastion of power.... The ground assault, and airstrikes, seemed to focus on an area of northern Hama Province and southern Idlib Province, around three villages that insurgents consider the first line of defense of the strategic Jebel al-Zawiyah area."

... Anne Barnard & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The Russian military, sharply escalating its military intervention in Syria, launched 26 medium-range cruise missiles on Wednesday from four warships in the Caspian Sea, while providing air support for a ground offensive by pro-government forces. Russian officials said the missiles -- which traveled more than 900 miles, through Iranian and Iraqi airspace -- struck 11 targets in Syria, but they did not specify which groups were hit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pascale Bonnefoy of the New York Times: "... Pope Francis call[ed] people in Osorno, a city in southern Chile, 'dumb' for protesting against a bishop accused of being complicit in clerical sexual abuse. 'The Osorno community is suffering because it's dumb,' Pope Francis told a group of tourists on St. Peter's Square, because it 'has let its head be filled with what politicians say, judging a bishop without any proof.' 'Don't be led by the nose by the leftists who orchestrated all of this,' the pope said.... Pope Francis asserted that the accusations against Bishop [Juan] Barros were unfounded and that a Chilean court had dismissed such claims. However, a judicial investigation into the presumed negligence and cover-up of church officials regarding Father [Fernando] Karadima's abuses is still in progress." A civil suit was dismissed "because the statute of limitations had expired."

History Beat. Charles Pierce: "We may never know the truth about the mechanics of the murder [of President Kennedy]. But we do know there was a cover-up, and that we never were told the whole truth about the events surrounding the murder of a president. That is a crime against history that remains unsolved." ...

... Philip Shenon in Politico Magazine: Kennedy/Johnson-era CIA Director "John McCone was long suspected of withholding information from the Warren Commission. Now even the CIA says he did.... According to the report by CIA historian David Robarge, McCone, who died in 1991, was at the heart of a 'benign cover-up' at the spy agency, intended to keep the commission focused on 'what the Agency believed at the time was the "best truth" -- that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy.' The most important information that McCone withheld from the commission in its 1964 investigation, the report found, was the existence, for years, of CIA plots to assassinate Castro, some of which put the CIA in cahoots with the Mafia. Without this information, the commission never even knew to ask the question of whether Oswald had accomplices in Cuba or elsewhere who wanted Kennedy dead in retaliation for the Castro plots."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. has a delightful piece on the media's slowly falling for Donald Trump. Steve employs as Exhibit A the WashPo piece I linked yesterday but didn't read. "If [Trump] acts like a normal candidate, with TV ads made by the usual slicksters and focus-grouped outreach efforts targeted to areas of weakness, not to mention policy documents that can be chewed over by pundits, eventually they'll start writing think pieces asking whether we've all misjudged Trump and whether his policy ignorance masks a Gladwellian 'Blink' style of decision-making genius.... It's clear [Robert] Costa[, the lead WashPo writer] is slowly being won over, like a rom-com heroine who initially hated the guy she's eventually going to fall for."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Rupert Murdoch on Thursday apologized for a message on twitter that implied President Obama wasn't a 'real black president.'"

From the Public Speakers' Bureau:

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that she did not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade pact that President Obama has championed and liberals in the Democratic Party have vehemently opposed. After a prolonged period in which Mrs. Clinton avoided weighing in on the controversial trade agreement, she told PBS that she opposed the deal. 'As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it, she said on a stop in Mount Vernon, Iowa. 'I don't believe it is going to meet the high bar I have set.' Mrs. Clinton, who had been involved in the early stages of the agreement as secretary of state, expressed particular concerns about 'currency manipulation not being part of the agreement,' something she has said she would be monitoring the final deal for." ...

... Don't Get Too Excited, People. Jonathan Chait: "There is a long tradition of Democratic presidential candidates posturing against free trade on the stump only to reverse themselves in office. Hillary Clinton's announcement today that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership would seem to fit snugly within that tradition.... [Clinton has] praised the agreement over and over and over.... Now Clinton has repudiated a treaty with which she has closely associated herself. She has framed her opposition in carefully hedged terms that leave her multiple escape avenues." ...

... Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... technology subcontractor [Datto] that has worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mail setup expressed concerns over the summer that the system was inadequately protected and vulnerable to hackers, a company official said Wednesday. But the concerns were rebuffed by the company managing the Clinton account, Platte River Networks, which said it had been instructed by the FBI not to make changes. The FBI has been reviewing the security of the e-mail system." ...

... Frank Rich: "What's working best for Clinton is the Republicans."

Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is set to endorse ... [Sen. Bernie Sanders] later this week, a person familiar with the congressman's plans confirmed to Politico on Wednesday morning. The move -- which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times -- is mostly significant because it's Sanders' first endorsement from a sitting member of Congress despite his insurgent candidacy that has seen him take the lead over in New Hampshire.">

Jim Acosta of CNN: "An emotional Vice President Joe Biden accused the Republican presidential candidates of 'beating' Hispanics with their rhetoric on immigration during a surprise appearance at a fundraiser hosted by the Latino Victory Project political action committee Tuesday night." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... it's time for the vice president to publicly say 'Yes,' 'No' or 'Maybe' to a presidential run instead of letting this bizarre speculation continue perpetually.... I'd personally be fine with him admitting he's offering himself as a fallback option if something terrible happens to the field. But sorta kinda running for president via media hints that are turned into attacks on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and the Democratic Party itself should no longer be an option. I have no direct evidence on the question of whether or not Biden is personally fanning the speculation, but have no doubt he's the one person who can resolve it."

Nick Gass of Politico cites a Q&A between Ben Carson & Kai Ryssdal of the American Public Radio program 'Marketplace.' wherein we learn that Carson doesn't understand the difference between the debt ceiling an an annual budget & also too he would go back to the gold standard. ...

... Jonathan Chait is appalled. ...

Yeah, It Sounds Crazy, BUT. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "In this week's installment [of "He Said What???"], Ben Carson is in the hot seat for comments he made about the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. But the real question is, why is everyone so upset with Carson? What he said is nothing more than the logical outgrowth of what nearly every Republican candidate and officeholder believes about guns.... Unlike their position on terrorism, the position that the entire Republican Party now adopts -- not necessarily all its voters, but virtually all its elected representatives -- is that a toll that size is simply not meaningful enough to justify any action to not even restrict, but merely to inconvenience Americans' ability to own as many guns as they want and to get them as easily as they want." ...

... A Hero in His Own Mind. digby: Ben "Carson is literally advising people not to use common sense in a situation like this, not to adhere to a gunman's demands in the hope they will be spared, not to play dead or otherwise try to survive. He's encouraging people to rush into live fire as the best way to save lives. It's as close to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism as it gets. They are becoming what they despise. I'm beginning to think he's more dangerous than Trump. It's certainly scary that nearly 50% of Republican primary voters are supporting one of the two of them." ...

... CW: I've always thought Carson was crazier -- and therefore scarier -- than any of his primary opponents, all of whom have some grounding in -- admittedly, a skewed, misinformed -- reality. (And just because they say stupid, craven things -- see, e.g., Bobby Jindal rant linked yesterday -- doesn't mean they actually believe some of the crap they scatter.) Carson is fantasy-directed. He relies on an imaginary god -- of his own invention -- for guidance. It is hardly surprising that the imaginary god-guy would tell Carson he would be heroic in the face of near-certain death. Or that others should follow his imaginary, courageous, god-blessed lead. As digby implies, Carson's belief system is a form of jihadism. An absence of drooling is not a sure sign of sanity. ...

... Washington Post Editors: "INCREASINGLY UNHINGED commentary by Republican presidential candidates about the massacre last week at a community college in Oregon ... are worthy of attention, if only for what they say about the poverty of the argument against regulation of gun ownership." ...

     ... Thanks to P.D.Pepe for the link.

... Charles Blow: "What Carson wants to plant in people's minds flows counter to what the Department of Homeland Security wants to plant in their minds as 'good practices.' The agency prioritizes personal protection and fleeing over engagement." ...

As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking -- but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away. -- Ben Carson, Facebook entry, October 5

That thought wants unpacking. Psychiatrists & other medical professionals could do a better job than I, but to me it shows that the extreme level of depersonalization Carson employs in his work spills over into his worldview. He uses those "gifted hands" to "pull bullets out of bodies," but the "bodies" themselves are just that: bodies. He -- the man upon whom god bestowed a unique gift -- may have a special soul, but the bodies do not. As Carson sees it, their right to life is less important, the loss of their lives less "devastating," than his right to own a gun. Or -- as long as I get my way, to hell with the rest of you. Now think about what a president with that mindset might do. Are you frightened yet? -- Constant Weader

... digby in Salon: "On the stump last week-end, Donald Trump entertained his followers in the wake of the massacre in Oregon with colorful fantasies of him walking down the street, pulling a gun on a would-be assailant and taking him out right there on the sidewalk. He said, 'I have a license to carry in New York, can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, they're gonna be shocked,' at which point he mimes a quick draw.... While Trump and Carson may have personalities that are polar opposites in terms of temperament, they do have a couple of important things in common (besides crackpot politics). They are both outrageously arrogant and they both see themselves as Hollywood-style heroes. This notion they are personally so tough that if anyone threatened them with a gun, they'd either out-draw them or inspire everyone to run straight into a hail of bullets, is ludicrous. Neither of these men are trained military veterans or have any professional experience with firearms -- except in their own Walter Mitty fantasies."

Ashley Parker & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Though [Donald Trump] ... still leads the Republican field in national polls, Mr. Trump's ability to command both voter and news media attention simply by being his outlandish, bombastic self is starting to wane." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Now I hear we want to take in 200,000. We don't know where they're coming from. We don't know who they are. They could be ISIS. It could be the great Trojan Horse.... And I'm saying we're going to take in 200,000 people that we have no idea where they come from? -- Donald Trump, repeating a claim he'd made numerous times before, in an interview on ABC's 'This Week,' Oct. 4

... for Syria, Obama has only directed the United States to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year. That's an increase of six times from 2015, but it's hardly the flood that Trump worries about. In fact, in the interview with MSNBC, Trump indicated he would be fine with just 10,000. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

... The Washington Post's Reliable Source: Celebrity chef Jose Andres is countersuing Donald Trump. Andres backed out of his deal to open a restaurant in Trump's Old Post Office Pavilion redo after Trump made disparaging statements about Mexicans. Trump sued for breach of contract. Andres claims that in his countersuit that Trump's remarks constituted the initial breach: "The perception that Mr. Trump's statements were anti-Hispanic made it very difficult to recruit appropriate staff for a Hispanic restaurant, to attract the requisite number of Hispanic food patrons for a profitable enterprise, and to raise capital for what was now an extraordinarily risky Spanish restaurant."

Not into Macho? You May Like Scary Stickers. Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: "Falsely suggesting that the recent mass shooting at an Oregon community college took place in a gun-free zone, Sen. Rand Paul said [Tuesday] that as president he would encourage every school in America to place stickers on its windows warning potential criminals that teachers are armed and 'you will be shot.' The Kentucky Republican told Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson that the Oregon shooting was 'an incredible tragedy, but it's even made worse by the president politicizing it and jumping in.' The president 'doesn't understand,' he said, that 'the problem is mental illness and not necessarily gun registration or gun ownership.'" CW: I guess scary stickers are not "political."

Family Man. Gail Collins: Jeb! is no longer his "own man"; now he's turned to Barb & the boys to help out his flagging campaign. "The longer the race goes on, the closer Jeb seems to snuggle up to his older brother." Eventually came "the fabled moment" when Jeb! said, "'... As it relates to my brother, there's one thing I know for sure. He kept us safe.'" He then went on to mention the hugging of the firefighter at ground zero. The World Trade Center was such a terrible, terrible tragedy that it seems unseemly to use it for political leverage in any way. However, if you're going to bring it up, the accurate way to describe George W. Bush in relation to 9/11 would be something like, 'The man who, despite the best intentions in the world, failed to keep us safe.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. Daniel Bethencourt of the Detroit Free Press: "Police confirmed on Wednesday that a concealed pistol license (CPL) holder was not being threatened by a fleeing shoplifter when she decided to fire multiple shots at him in a Home Depot parking lot. And experts interviewed Wednesday doubted the shooting could have been justified.... To use a concealed weapon in Michigan, a CPL holder needs to think that there is an imminent danger of death, great bodily harm or sexual assault, or think there is a similar danger to someone else, said Rick Ector, a firearms trainer...." ...

... CW: If you think stealing a jigsaw is a capital offense, then you're a bigger asshole than the thief. And he is one gaping chasm.

How to Piss Away Taxpayer Dollars Pissing on Poor People. Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Tennessee's first year of drug testing welfare recipients uncovered drug use by less than 0.2 percent of all applicants for the state's public assistance system.... There's a moralizing strain to the idea that people seeking the public's help should first have their choices and behavior audited. Requiring the poor to jump through such hoops is persistently popular with voters. But the conceit underlying the tests ignores the realities of poverty. Low-income families spend a far greater percentage of their meager incomes on necessities, and less on luxuries of all kinds, than do wealthier families." [Note to the innumerate: That's not two percent; that's two 100ths tenths of one percent. (See correction in Comments section.)]

AND a note from Charles Pierce which I missed during my unintended stay in the Palmetto State: "... South Carolina's performance on dam safety [is] as leaky and unsafe as the dams themselves. I mean, 4.3 fulltime employees to monitor and inspect 550 dams, 162 of which were classified as 'high-hazard.'... Every single member of the South Carolina congressional delegation save one voted against a relief package for the victims [of Hurricane Sandy]. This list includes presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, lop-headed Benghazi gumshoe Trey Gowdy, and Joe (You Lie!) Wilson. And it's not difficult at all to summon up the fact that the entire Republican party denies that an increasingly deranged climate is causing increasingly deranged weather." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Paul Prudhomme, the chef who put the cooking of Louisiana -- especially the Cajun gumbos, jambalayas and dirty rice he grew up with -- on the American culinary map, died on Thursday in New Orleans. He was 75.

Air Force Times: "Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who helped take down a gunman on a train in Belgium, was stabbed four times in the chest in Sacramento early Thursday morning, Air Force Times has learned.... Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns said in an email in Air Force Times, "... He is currently in stable condition." Sacramento police tweeted: 'The assault incident is not related to a terrorist act. Assault occurred near a bar, alcohol is believed to be a factor.'"

Motherboard: "On Wednesday, a jury in Sacramento, California, found Matthew Keys, former social media editor at Reuters and an ex-employee of KTXL Fox 40, guilty of computer hacking under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act. In 2010, Keys posted login credentials to the Tribune Company content management system (CMS) to a chatroom run by Anonymous, resulting in the defacement of an LA Times article online. The defacement was reversed in 40 minutes, but the government argued the attack caused nearly a million dollars in damage."

New York Times: "The leadership of world soccer's governing body plunged into chaos on Thursday, as three of the game's most powerful figures, including Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of FIFA, were suspended amid an investigation by the Swiss authorities into suspected corruption. In addition to Mr. Blatter, Michel Platini, who is a FIFA vice president and the head of European soccer's governing body, and Jérôme Valcke, FIFA's secretary general who was already on disciplinary leave, were 'provisionally banned' from the sport. The suspensions took effect immediately."

Reuters: "The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell more than expected to near a 42-year low last week, pointing to ongoing tightening in the labor market despite the recent slowdown in hiring."

New York Times: "Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and prose writer, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday 'for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time,' the Swedish Academy announced."

Washington Post: "The United Auto Workers union narrowly avoided a strike against Fiat Chrysler of America early Thursday morning, announcing an agreement less than two days after threatening to pull as many as 40,000 workers off the job while contract negotiations soured."

The Week: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his wife, Landra Gould, filed a product liability lawsuit Tuesday in Clark County, Nevada, against the makers of a resistance exercise band that Reid said was behind an accident in January that injured his eye."

Comments

[Maxwell's Demon]

Sorry to be the math police but 0.2 percent is 2 Tenths of 1 percent not 2 hundreds, Still a ridiculously small number that does nor deny your point, just trying to be accurate.

[Diane]

I sincerely wish the Democrats would embrace the fact that winning the WH is critical. See the Supremes. I like Biden, but his function should be clearly articulated as a ready and willing back-up should Hilary crash and burn. I love good old Bernie. When he talks, I trust he believes what he says because it's right, not because it's politically expedient. He will make Hilary lean to the left. Best case scenario is VP.

Sadly, we must hold our noses and vote for Hilary. Because the Supremes. The other scenario is unthinkable and frankly, paralizes me with fear.

[Kate Madison]

..."CW: I've always thought Carson was crazier -- and therefore scarier -- than any of his primary opponents, all of whom have some grounding in -- admittedly, a skewed, misinformed -- reality."

You and I agree, Marie. I have increasingly thought Ben Carson is "crazier than a shit house rat." Truly. He is delusional in many of his statements (i.e., continues to believe something in spite of all evidence to the contrary) and grandiosely paranoid. Plus.....I suspect him of taking some kind of opioids, which many MDs do. He has that hazy, lazy look and posture, and is often slurry. No doubt he has a superior IQ, but that is immaterial. He is a sick dude and probably addicted to pills. (I have no evidence for the latter, except past clinical experience.) Strangely enough, I believe he was an exceptional surgeon, but that does not a sane person make!

[Marie Burns]

@Maxwell's Demon: You're right. I read 0.2 as .02. In fact, that's why I made the note: I thought the .02 (which I imagined!) might confuse people since that's how the part of a whole (1) is often indicated. Transpositions matter! Thanks very much for the correction.

Marie

[D.C.Clark]

He kept us safe?

How about a poster of the Captain of the Titanic: "He kept us safe, only hit one iceberg".

Or some Doofus who fell asleep at the switch posing at the ensuing train wreck: "Keeping us safe, he's awake now".

If Comedy Central produced a poster of Duh-Bya posing at the WTC with that caption, I'd think it a sick joke and in really bad taste. But that pretty well describes each of the GOP candidates.

[Victoria]

I once attended a lecture given by an ex-Mossad agent who discussed the fact that only about 20% of ANY population is able to act effectively when confronted with immediately life threatening stressors. This is very interesting: it is NORMAL to pause, go still, have the mind go blank, and to delay action even when faced with immediate peril. There are definite physiological reactions, common to this 80%, that accompany this "freeze". In "The Unthinkable (partial title)", Amy Riley discusses some of the common bodily reactions people had while they were descending the staircases in the twin towers: "My vision narrowed," "I literally only saw a pinpoint of light and had to be guided by others," etc.
This is why one has to have training, repeated drills, rehearsals, etc. in order to survive the unthinkable. Almost everyone "shuts down" in an emergency.
So, no, Dr. Carson, your god is a True Equalizer: you only have a 20% chance of acting effectively. It's not a mistake that the only one who went forward to confront the shooter had had military training.

[PD Pepe]

Hillary certainly did leave some leeway into her stance on PPT. Clever gal, her "As of today"––(so tomorrow I may think differently); "From what I have learned" ( So when I learn more I could very well change my mind).

So here we have Pope Francis calling the people in Osorno, Chile, "Dumb" because they don't have the facts re: the issue of a certain Bishop. We have the Republican candidates calling each other all sorts of names (especially Trump) but obviously Joan Walsh (former editor at Salon, now at The Nation) can't voice her opinion on how she views Trump's followers without getting skewered by, of all people, Michael Steele. Ever since I witnessed this I have been bothered by it. Video below.

Interesting posit from Kate re: Carson's possible drug taking. Looks like most of us here find this man not only way off base, but actually frightening. Reminds me of the handsome guy in a thriller who puts everyone under his spell while killing them slowly.

The money that has been spent on the bogus Benghazi hearings is something like four million and these are the same people who cut everything in sight because––fiscal responsibility! Such rubbish! What should be investigated thoroughly is the disastrous bombing of the hospital. How the hell did THIS happen?

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/michael-steele-to-joan-walsh-your-condescending-attitude-is-why-trumps-popular/

[D.C.Clark]

Victoria,

During my combat training, long ago, we were given a similar statistic: that a large majority even of trained soldiers may react badly when coming under fire for the first time. This was said to be the case in wars throughout history.

My own experiences in Vietnam taught me that nobody really knows how they will react under extreme stress on any given day. I have seen 'battle hardened' veterans hesitate under fire. And military history gives innumerable accounts of entire armies fleeing in panic when the tide of battle began to turn.

You, Marie, and Kate have got Carson pegged. He's either delusional, drugged, demented, of some combination thereof. The really scary part is how many presumptively sane people share this condition. The myth of the invincible hero is very powerful -- it's a national secular religion.

[PD Pepe]

Here's Trevor Noah on Ben Carson's genius plan to deal with mass shootings:

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_trevor_noah_ben_carsons_genius_plans_deal_mass_shooting_20151008

[D.C.Clark]

More on Militant Mythology and Popular Delusions:

It is a persistent and impenetrable belief among the gun-nuttery that if every European Jew had owned firearms and defended themselves, the Holocaust would never have happened. And that the NRA membership would have turned back the Soviet Army come the 'Red Dawn'.

These sorts of delusions are so widespread, they must have a source in evolutionary sociobiology. They call up images of primitives dancing around the bonfires, brandishing their weapons, working up the collective courage to kill a woolly mammoth. Or, just as likely, raid the neighboring tribe to slaughter the men, rape the women, and enslave the children.

A recent PBS documentary on E.O. Wilson highlighted his trenchant and perceptive comment on the Human Condition. We have: "paleolithic minds, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." Cut to footage of atomic bomb exploding.

Myths beat reality every time. In the film 'The Longest Day' John Wayne portrayed Col. Benjamin Vandevoort, who at the time lived in my Alexandria Virginia neighborhood. Just prior to filming, Wayne visited Vandevoort at his home, and the Colonel was nice enough to invite a few of us kids over to meet 'The Duke'. I was 11 years old, and we were all very excited to meet our hero -- the actor. It was some years later that I had grown up enough to be struck by that irony. After all, Vandevoort was just another old guy down the street. Wayne was a real hero -- we knew because we watched the movies.

Some people never do grow up. Or maybe its just that I'm growing old. But for some years now, whenever I contemplate American popular and political culture, the word that most frequently comes to mind is childish.

[MAG]

Every time I read a headline that includes "...the President apologized to DWB' I can't read any further.

Apologize?

Apologize!

How'd we get into this position? Suspect(s) No. 1 (in my book) include the backers of countless wars who thrive on "...never having to say you are sorry." and the circumstances beyond control are controlled by those in a nefarious, monied, war-mongering behind-the-scenes cabal.

Then, my particular bone to gnaw is is the light coverage by the NYTimes. How interesting, that 'No comments' were available for the first three or four articles. It was only after the Editorial Board wrote an Op-Ed piece that comments were open to readers. At least, the Op-Ed piece decried the bombing. No excuses. But, still...I agree with Greenwald:

"Glenn Greenwald Criticizes New York Times For 'Shameful' Reporting On Afghanistan Hospital Bombing"

"They just write their headlines to obscure rather than to illuminate"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glenn-greenwald-new-york-times-afghanistan_561532ade4b0fad1591a3193

Then the other day a feature from the Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, on the Times drive to increase & relate to its readership was more bulls**t, errrr, perplexing. and, of course, it came days later.

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/readers-will-rule-says-the-times-so-dont-be-shy/

But, the word 'SHY' is not something I'd used in regard to the paper of record.

"I heard from them a genuine desire to know the answers. I told them about concerns I hear about improving commenting, about intrusive or confusing advertising, about the importance of journalistic fairness, accuracy and straightforward truth-seeking above all, and about the public-service mission to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. (And not necessarily in that order; in fact, probably the opposite.)"
—Margaret Sullivan.

@PD Agree. MUCH needs to be investigated re the bombing.

[Marie Burns]

For those of you wondering how anyone could consider Ben Carson to be presidential material, Mark Halperin & John Heilemann are on the case. By the way, I am NOT the Marie from New Hampshire who said, "I really think he could create a much more peaceful world, just by sitting down with diplomacy and talking to people."

Another Marie from New Hampshire

[D.C.Clark]

Marie,

Thanks for the breaks.

I wonder if anyone has a mind capable simultaneously of believing that 'The Martian' and 'War of the Worlds' are factual and the Moon landings were faked. Nothing surprises me anymore.

My all time favorite 'Wonderful World' was Eva Cassidy's. see:

http://evacassidy.org/what-a-wonderful-world/

If I can have the courage that she did, to face my death thinking it a wonderful world, I won't ask much more of life.

[D.C.Clark]

Speaking of spacey stuff:

Just before sunrise tomorrow morning, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and a thin crescent Moon will be very close together in the eastern sky, with Mercury close behind rising ahead of the Sun.

If skies are clear in your area this will be well worth getting up for.

[Diane]

Boehner to McCarthy, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."