Monday
Sep152014
The Commentariat -- Sept. 16, 2014
Internal links, photo removed.
Martin Matishak & Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "House Republicans expect to unveil legislation Monday evening that would give President Obama the authority to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, but with some limits on that authority. The House Armed Services Committee is drafting the bill in consultation with the administration. It is expected to take the form of an amendment to a stopgap-spending bill that would keep the government funded through Dec. 11, according to a senior committee aide. Votes on the spending bill and the Syrian aid could come as soon as Wednesday."
Maggie Severns of Politico: "The House passed a bill to overhaul child care for low-income families Monday, and it will likely become law before the end of the year. Lobbyists and advocates say they didn't expect the House and Senate, which passed its version of the bill earlier this year, to successfully broker the child care deal during this Congress. But with legislators on both sides of the aisle eager to score points during an election and high-profile education lawmakers retiring at the end of this Congress, legislators managed to strike a deal they announced Friday."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans rejected a measure written by Senate Democrats aimed at bridging differences in pay between men and women. The Paycheck Fairness Act fell short 52-40, failing to clear a 60-vote procedural vote hurdle on Monday evening, the third time the measure has failed since spring of 2012."
Jacob Fischler of BuzzFeed: "Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will introduce a bill Tuesday that provides direct authorization to fight ISIS while also sunsetting the two laws the administration has used to justify current efforts against the militants.... Regardless of whether a new AUMF is passed, President Obama has said he has all the authority needed to fight ISIS right now from the 2001 and 2002 AUMF laws. It's a justification that's drawn some criticism -- from those who question whether ISIS is covered under the 2001 AUMF at all, to others who note that Obama once vowed to repeal the 2001 AUMF and is now using it to justify this new campaign." Via Paul Waldman.
Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Under pressure to do more to confront the Ebola outbreak sweeping across West Africa, President Obama on Tuesday is to announce an expansion of military and medical resources to combat the spread of the deadly virus, administration officials said.... Mr. Obama will offer help to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in the construction of as many as 17 Ebola treatment centers in the region, with about 1,700 treatment beds.... Officials said the military expected to send as many as 3,000 people to Africa to take charge of responding to the Ebola outbreak."
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is preparing to introduce major steps to phase out production of a popular chemical coolant used in refrigerators and air conditioners, citing growing evidence that the substance is contributing to the warming of the planet. The White House will announce on Tuesday a series of voluntary commitments by some of the country's largest chemical firms and retailers to move rapidly away from R-134a and similar compounds used in nearly every office, home and automobile in the country...."
David Siegel in a Hill opinion piece: "The planned response to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as presented by the president on Sept. 10, places too much emphasis on military force.... There is a substantial constituency in both countries that views ISIS as preferable to its alternatives and offers the group either tacit or material support. Without this support, ISIS is a collection of terrorists with arms inferior to those of local militaries which has nowhere to hide and no promise of significant expansion. With this support it is a de facto state. The distinction between a nongovernmental actor and one that holds territory like a state is crucial." Siegel suggests a path forward, using "concrete incentives [CW: cash!] to turn [popular support] support away from" ISIS.
Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times interviews members of James Foley's family, who say the U.S. government did far too little to help them or to save their son from ISIS....
... Contributor Victoria D.: "... the article glosses over the cogent reasons why the U.S. did not do more - mainly that paying ransom incentivizes kidnapping in the Middle East. It is a disappointingly one sided analysis."
Sen. Flip-Flop Flip-Flops on His Flip-flops. Jonathan Topaz of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul on Monday pushed back against heightened criticism that he has flip-flopped on foreign policy issues, saying he has stood firmly against the Obama administration's policies in Syria. Appearing on CBS 'This Morning,' the Kentucky Republican conceded that he has shifted his views in some areas, including on what is an appropriate U.S. response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. 'As world events change, obviously you change your analysis. Five years ago, ISIS wasn't a threat,' he said, using an alternate name for the terrorist group that has mobilized across much of northern and central Iraq.... The Washington Post on Sunday documented Paul's evolution on several issues, including airstrikes against ISIL targets. The report came a month after a similar Politico report noted some of Paul's policy shifts on several issues, from immigration to Guantánamo Bay prison." CW: I guess Li'l Randy found out about videotape. Up till now his tack has been to deny having taken positions he had taken in the not-so-distant past.
Jonathan Topaz of Politico: "Former President Bill Clinton says he agrees that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 'not the guy' for a peace deal. A C-SPAN video -- first reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz -- shows the 42nd president at Sen. Tom Harkin's Iowa steak fry on Sunday speaking with an individual along a rope line. 'If we don't force him to make peace, we will not have peace,' the man told Clinton in the video. 'First of all, I agree with that,' Clinton responded, before discussing the Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts he brokered during his administration. 'But Netanyahu is not the guy,' the unnamed person told Clinton, cutting in. 'I agree with that,' Clinton responded." ...
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "After a generation of campaigns in which Republicans exploited wedge issues to win close elections, Democrats are now on the offensive in the culture wars. Democrats see social issues as potent for the same reasons Republicans once did, using them as a tool to both stoke concerns among moderate voters, especially women, and motivate their base." Relevant factoid: "When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, white voters without a college degree made up 65 percent of the electorate; by 2012, that number had dropped to 36 percent."
Jennifer Haberkorn & Burgess Everett of Politico: "There are widespread instances of Obamacare insurance plans violating the rigid rules surrounding whether customers can use federal health care subsidies on insurance policies that cover abortion procedures, according to a Government Accountability Office investigation. The report, commissioned by House Republican leadership and obtained by Politico on Monday night, found that 15 insurers in a sample of 18 are selling Obamacare plans that do not segregate funds to cover abortion (except in cases of rape, incest or the mother's life) from their Obamacare subsidies.... The report's release is likely to elicit new election-year attacks on congressional Democrats from anti-abortion groups and Republicans who warned that Obamacare would allow for taxpayer subsidized abortions." ...
... CW: Somebody might tell those shocked anti-abortion fanatics that this is capitalism at work. No doubt the insurance companies find it cheaper to pay for a few abortions than to process hundreds of thousands of duplicate payments. The cheapest way to handle this is probably for insurance companies to increase the co-pay for the abortion procedure to match what the individual's contribution would have been under the law.
Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Ohio State University has agreed to several steps to strengthen its policies on sexual assault and harassment, the federal government said, concluding a four-year civil rights investigation at one of the nation's largest public universities.... The resolution will remove Ohio State from a list of 79 colleges and universities under federal investigations related to their handling of sexual violence reports." ...
... Allie Jones of Gawker: "On his show [Monday], Rush Limbaugh decried Ohio State's new policy instructing students to get explicit, verbal consent before having sex, because 'no means yes if you know how to spot it.'"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Charles Pierce, in the context of Ken Burns' "The Roosevelts," highlights a speech from the last Gilded Age by early-20th-century progressive Sen. Bob LaFollette (Wisc.) to magazine & newspaper publishers. "Now, as we are in the second gilded age, one that camouflages effectively all it has in common with the first one, we should all be wary of that spirit as consumers of the political news brought to us mainly by even larger and more powerful -- and more heavily concentrated -- corporate enterprises. In related news: Hillary Clinton has all but wrapped up the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Everybody says so."
The New Republic decides to highlight feminist issues by pitting two feminists & TNR senior editors -- Judith Shulevitz & Rebecca Traister -- against each other. CW: Traister & Shulevitz should not have been foolish enough to fall for the "bitches bickering" format.
"We're just being a little more honest than you guys." Harvey Levin of TMZ explains to Howie Kurtz of Fox "News" how Fox "News" -- & all other major media outlets -- work. Via Driftglass, who finds Kurtz's question/assertion & Levin's putdown hilarious:
Tom Raum of the AP: "The National Labor Relations Board ruled against the CNN cable television network on Monday in an 11-year-old labor dispute, ordering the network to rehire or compensate about 300 former workers. The NLRB agreed with a November 2008 ruling by one of its administrative judges that CNN improperly replaced a unionized subcontractor, Team Video Services (TVS), with in-house non-union staffers, claiming 'anti-union' bias."
Senate Races
Nate Silver: "When we officially launched our forecast model two weeks ago, it had Republicans with a 64 percent chance of taking over the Senate after this fall's elections. Now Republican chances are about 55 percent instead.... Whatever the reason, the GOP's path to a Senate majority is less robust than before.
The Kansas Supreme Court will live-video oral arguments in the case re: the state's U.S. Senate ballot beginning at 9:45 am ET today. The case, styled Taylor v. Kobach, pits Chad Taylor, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, against Kris Kobach, the righty-right Secretary of State & a co-chair of incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts' (R) re-election campaign. Taylor asked to be removed from the ballot within the legally-specified time-frame, but did not state in his request that he was "incapable" of filling the position. Taylor's removal would help the independent candidate Greg Orman. Kobach, whose deputy of elections guided Taylor in the writing of the withdrawal request, according to Taylor, has refused to remove Taylor from the ballot. Each side will be allotted 20 minutes to present arguments, according to Rick Hasen.
Beyond the Beltway
Jason Stein & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Local clerks and state elections officials are putting their absentee ballot mailings on hold as they hustle to reinstate Wisconsin's photo ID requirement for voters in the wake of Friday's federal appeals court decision. University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are also analyzing the decision and considering whether to begin issuing ID cards that could be used for voting. While some student IDs can be used for voting, the ones issued at UW-Madison and some other schools cannot."
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Texas has proposed re-writing school text books to incorporate passages denying the existence of climate change and promoting the discredited views of an ultra-conservative think tank [CW: propaganda mill]. The proposed text books -- which come up for public hearing at the Texas state board of education on Tuesday -- were already attracting criticism when it emerged that the science section had been altered to reflect the doctrine of the Heartland Institute, which has been funded by the Koch oil billionaires."
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Reader Comments (15)
The NYT has a news piece on the handling of the James Foley hostage situation which relies exceedingly on the point of view of Foley's family, who naturally wish the administration could have done more to free their relative. But the article glosses over the cogent reasons why the U.S. did not do more - mainly that paying ransom incentivizes kidnapping in the Middle East. It is a disappointingly one sided analysis .
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/for-hostages-family-us-policy-offered-no-hope.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
Thank you for the Beyonce photo and the why-can't-people-realize-this caption. Her act is not feminism, it's commerce - the same way porn is not free speech. It's a way to make money. Unfortunately, the millions of impressionable tweens and young women who buy into the Beyonce as feminist role model are not developmentally equipped to discern the difference between exhibitionism and feminism. These young women are not ready to understand or appreciate the treacherous implications of using your body in ways that are contrived primarily to please men to define yourself as a woman and as a feminist.
@Nancy: Your "why-can't-people-realize- this caption" question is because not everyone agrees with it––many, in fact. Below is a link to an NPR piece that offers these diverse opinions and reasons why. See what you think.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/12/19/255527290/feminists-everywhere-react-to-beyonc-s-latest
Something happened to me this morning. I don't know what it is exactly, but after reading Marie's link about how the senate race is closing to even, down from "Republicans Will Win It All, Bet the House On It", I'm all of a sudden starting to like Nate Silver again!
Wonder how that happened?
Seriously, though; we bought his statistical analysis when the Rat and every other privileged white right-wing jamoke were predicting a landslide, so I wasn't about to discard the probability that he could be right in his senate calculations. I just didn't like it very much. A bit of the old shooting of the messenger? Hmmm....perhaps. But....
...it could be that the drastic drop (9 points is a pretty big swing) is more an indication that as we get closer to November, the numbers become more realistic. But it also shows the power of the media, which has been predicting a landslide for senate Republicans, with breathless pieces about whatever will the Democrats do when they're out of luck in November, and how the wonderful Republicans will fix everything once Jowly Boy is in charge in the senate.
Or it may be that people being polled are taking a closer look at the do-nothing traitors in the GOP and deciding that balance is better than nihilism.
Whatever it is, Nate is back in my good graces.
For now.
"The number of Americans who say they have been abducted by space aliens - 2.5 percent - is about the same as those who admit to committing voter fraud, UW political science professors Ken Mayer and John Ahlquist found in a voting study they conducted in 2013."
This appeared in the Fall 2014 edition of my alumni magazine. I usually just thumb through it to see what's new before recycling it. This issue actually has a few interesting articles in: "SPECIAL SECTION: Can This Democracy Be Saved?"
Here's the link for the online version: http://onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/
Children in Texas schools (aka Wingnut Warehouses) will likely be learning that, in addition to scientists having no clue what's causing climate change, they also have no answer to why the tide goes in and out? "Who can explain it?" as a famous conservative intellectual once asked.
Also in doubt is exactly what kind of cheese the moon is made of. Experts from Heartland, the Koch think tank, are leaning towards Roquefort, although there is a faction pulling for Venezuelan Beaver Cheese.
The new math textbooks will also feature a debate on whether 2+2 actually does equal 4, as this question will impact the calculations of future right-wing economists. No one can say for sure. It could be 2 1/2, but they're checking the Bible for further clues.
Because what this country really, really needs now, is for the next generation to be even stupider than the majority of the current Texas legislative delegation.
And that's stupid with a capital R!
I have to agree with Pierce as to his distain at having George Will as one of the contributors on Ken Burns's Roosevelt series. When he first popped up I was surprised, said "What the heck?" But after successive appearances I had to wonder about Burns––politically.
Robert La Follette Jr. was a good friend of my Uncle, an industrialist and his wife who was very active in the Republican party. Robert was, however, a FDR supporter and served as Senator from Wisconsin for twenty years. He was defeated by none other than Joe McCarthy.
Unwashed,
Is it possible that the 2.5% who claimed close encounters were the same 2.5% who admitted to voter fraud?
No wonder Ken Ham doesn't want us talking to aliens! It's an intergalactic conspiracy to steal our freedoms! Get Darrell Issa on the horn, stat!
@ P.D. Pepe: Different Bob LaFollettes, I think.
Re: Beyonce: She may know what she's doing, but it would seem her fans don't. There's a confusion here between physicality & sexuality, the former, IMO, being only a part, albeit an important part, of the latter. Woe be the tweener who looks to Beyonce in her spangly, skimpy pseudo-bondage outfit crotch shot & thinks, "Oh, that's what's sexy means."
Marie
PD,
I had the same reaction as Charlie Pierce to Will's appearance in the Roosevelt program. I was especially incensed when it was apparent that he was going to start intoning on problems of economic inequality, and how Teddy Roosevelt felt it was an obligation to take on trusts, etc.
After my initial dismay, I was a bit taken aback that Will actually said some reasonable things. Maybe in the outtakes he got into the real wingnut crap, but the stuff that made it to air was not all that terrible. It wasn't all that insightful either. It was like Will was trying to be on his best behavior and not sound like a complete Koch sucking asshole while the pictures onscreen depicted the horrible living conditions of the poor compared to the luxurious lives of the gilded ones.
But this is like inviting Bernie Madoff to talk about the importance of the SEC. As Charlie suggests, Burns should have found someone more appropriate for this sort of commentary. I know Will has appeared before in Burns documentaries before (I recall with a cringe his dreary, predictable schoolmarmish contributions to the Baseball series), but this might be Burns' reaction to the effect of right-wing media power, always ready to pounce if they don't get what they consider a fair shake, in other words, no mention of their own and their constituents' perfidies.
But not sure I can listen to Will talk about the New Deal. That may be a good time to walk outside and see if the world has stopped turning.
The Republican screams about boots on the ground and "War Now" may stem from interests other than irrational fear of bogeymen in the closet:
Contractors are licking their chops at the possibility of cashing in on another Mideast war.
Under Republican stewardship, during the Bush Wars, duties that used to be performed by military personnel were increasingly handed off, at much higher rates, to private businesses with the right connections. These businesses, basically run by soldiers of fortune and unethical, traitorous gougers like Halliburton (Dick Cheney's company to which he handed a no bid, no competition contract for billions at the height of the Bush Wars), make a fortune stiffing the US taxpayers and, in many instances, making things much worse on the ground.
"At the height of the Iraq war, these firms hired hundreds of thousands of people: guns-for-hire, IT geeks, logistics specialists, interrogators, and short order cooks to ladle out the slop at the military cafeteria. Over time, some of those contractors became the symbol for everything that was wrong with the Iraq war: hugely expensive, ineffective, and indifferent to Iraqi life. Contractors were at the middle of the war’s biggest scandals, from Abu Ghraib to Nissour Square. And it was the abductions and murder of Blackwater contractors that sparked one of Iraq's biggest battles."
Maybe Bedwetters like Lindsay Graham have something more going on. This is why, for Republicans, it's war now, war tomorrow, war forever.
Ain't it grand?
I'm posting this with Marie's permission, since it doesn't have much to do with politics.
I'm sure that by now, you've heard of the Walk To Defeat ALS(C) and the Ice Bucket Challenge. It's the ALS Association's annual fundraising event. You may also recall that I came to RC (again with Marie's permission) with an appeal to help me raise funds for ALS. And you responded. My goal was to raise $1,000, then $2,000, and finally $3,000. RC'ers put me past the first one, so I had to increase my goal. I'll never forget your caring and kindness. Of course, by now I know many of your real names and where you live. We should all be grateful to Marie for bringing this group of kindred spirits together, from all over the U.S.
You may wonder did I take the Ice Bucket Challenge? Yes I did, only to find out later that it's a bad idea for persons with ALS. Oh well. As for the Walk, I was able to be part of organizing a Walk team (Bob's Warriors), most of whom were women. (That's why mysogeny is such a mystery to me. It cuts you off from half of humanity.)
We did the 2.5 mile walk this past Saturday that took us through downtown Atlanta. Did I walk? Of course not. A dear friend whom I've known for 20 years pushed my wheelchair the entire 2.5 miles.
The final tally was that I raised $3,035.25, while the team raised over $4,000. Why is that important? ALS is an "orphan disease." Not enough people get it as opposed to say cancer for Big Pharma to justify voluntarily spending money on research. I guess I drew the lucky number!
Again, thank you all (or as they say here, y'all) for your kindness, caring, and generosity. Most of all, thank you Marie for RC.
Bob Hicks
Barbarossa
PALS since 2010
Burns has George (effing) Will explain the New Deal for the same reason he had Confederate apologist Shelby Foote explain the Civil War, namely to water the whole thing down to the place where Libs will snooze through it, Trogs will not lose their minds, and he can continue his quest for pap. In case you failed to notice before, he's Amurka's new Walt Disney.
@Marie: Yes, I know that the LaFollette that Pierce wrote about is the father of the LaFollette I wrote about.
Re: Beyonce: I don't follow her–-I'm not up on the new stuff music wise-–-I just think there are different perspectives as to how young girls, especially black, perceive whatever she is doing.
As far as our discussion of George Will, let's see if he shows up again in the coming segments. I agree with you, Akhilleus, that what he had to say wasn't half bad, it was just that it was George Will and we know what a prick he can be and why, when you have so many other noteworthy historians to weigh in you would choose this guy.
I watched some of the hearings today featuring Demsey and Hagel re: the military assessment of our foray into the ISIS situation. Tim Kaine (D Va) made a excellent argument for Congress to weigh in on this and what a mistake it would be if this was NOT done. Something no one brought up (at least while I was watching) was the possible advantage of us getting more involved with Iran in all of this. Israel would get their boxers in a bunch over this, but ... Such a big BUT.