The Commentariat -- July 16, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Wednesday urged lawmakers to support the nuclear deal reached with Iran, saying that failure to put it in to effect would increase the likelihood of war in the Middle East and accelerate a nuclear arms race in the region that would threaten the safety of the United States. 'That's the choice that we face,' Mr. Obama said in opening comments at a news conference in the East Room of the White House. 'If we don't choose wisely, I believe future generations will judge us harshly, for letting this moment slip away.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon; story has been updated.) ...
... Squeaky Wheel Refuses Grease. Julie Davis & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "When President Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to discuss the nuclear deal with Iran, the American president offered the Israeli leader, who had just deemed the agreement a 'historic mistake,' a consolation prize: a fattening of the already generous military aid package the United States gives Israel.... Mr. Obama said he was prepared to hold 'intensive discussions' with Mr. Netanyahu on what more could be done to bolster Israel's defenses, administration officials said. But, as in previous talks with Mr. Obama, Mr. Netanyahu refused to engage in such talk 'at this juncture,' the officials said...." ...
... David Sanger & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "... as the negotiations [on the Iran nuclear deal] went into their third week..., a major dispute lingered: whether a ban on Iran's ability to purchase conventional weapons and missile technology would remain in place. The American delegation, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, insisted on extending the ban. But Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister and his country's chief negotiator, was opposed. Backing him were the Russians and Chinese, equal parties in the talks, who saw a lucrative market in selling arms to Tehran. A compromise was struck that fully satisfied neither side: a five-year ban on the sale of conventional weapons and an eight-year ban on ballistic missiles." ...
The Washington Post story, by Karen DeYoung & Carol Morello, is here. ...
... "Blame George W. Bush." Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "Iran's rise wouldn't have been possible -- and the deal wouldn't have been necessary -- had the U.S. not unleashed Iran from the regional power that did the most to contain it: Saddam Hussein's Iraq.... Had the U.S. never invaded Iraq, Hussein's Iraq would probably have continued to play its traditional role of containing Iran.... A democratic Iraq was always going to be Shiite-led, and a democratically elected Shiite government in Baghdad was always going to be relatively positive toward Iran." ...
... Paul Waldman: Now that we have a nuclear deal with Iran, Republicans are jostling each other to determine who can make the most angry and apocalyptic statements about it..... If President Walker/Bush/Rubio/Trump walked away from the deal, it wouldn't actually hurt Iran that much. But it would mean saying that America is no longer interested in keeping tabs on Iran's nuclear program.... That's a plan so stupid that it's hard to imagine even the current GOP presidential candidates carrying it out.... At the moment Republicans can't articulate their own alternative, because it sure seems like that alternative is another war. But if they're fortunate enough to win the White House next year, they're likely to find that walking away from this deal is a lot less attractive than it seemed when they were trying to win over Republican primary voters." ...
... E. J. Dionne compares President Obama's dealings with Iran to those of President Reagan's with the Soviet Union. Oh, and the critics aren't much different: "the conservative activist Howard Phillips accused Reagan of being 'a very weak man with a very strong wife and a strong staff' who had become 'a useful idiot for Kremlin propaganda.'" ...
... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, says the nuclear agreement with Iran 'condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf.' Kirk, who has consistently spoken out against the deal with Iran, told WRKO's Financial Exchange radio program on Tuesday that he believes 'tens of thousands of people in the Middle East are gonna lose their lives because of this decision by Barack Hussein Obama.'... Kirk said he believed the only reason the president supported legislation from Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, that allowed Congress to review the deal was because he 'wants...to get nukes to Iran.'"
Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Obama Heroically Prevents Reporter [Jonathan Karl] From Diverting News Conference About Iran To Donald Trump."
Michael Shear: "President Obama on Wednesday [in response to a question asked near the end of his press conference] said bluntly that the actions described in accusations that the comedian Bill Cosby drugged women for sex would constitute nothing less than rape, and he said the country should have 'no tolerance' for such actions. In his first comments on the decades-old accusations against Mr. Cosby, the president sought to carefully avoid a direct comment on civil legal actions that have been lodged against the longtime comedian and television star by several women in recent years. And he dismissed the idea that he might revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom conferred on Mr. Cosby by President George W. Bush in 2002." ...
... Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) don't think [Cosby] deserves the highest civilian honor in America anymore. In a statement to Politico, a spokeswoman for Gillibrand said Cosby's medal must be revoked 'because we need to set a clear example that sexual assault will not be tolerated in this country.' But revoking the award isn't a simple matter of presidential decree or congressional vote. In fact, we don't actually know how the medal would be revoked because it's never happened before."
Jackie Calmes & Nicholas St. Fleur of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders on Wednesday announced a congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood, a day after anti-abortion activists released a video of an unsuspecting official from the organization explaining how it provides fetal tissue to researchers." CW: This would be Benghaaazi! for girls, except Benghaaazi! is already for one particular lady (see story linked under Presidential Race). ...
... Sarah Kliff of Vox: "The video itself raises two issues. The first is whether Planned Parenthood's actions are legal; selling fetal remains for profit is against the law. But Planned Parenthood says it only charges enough to cover its own costs for preserving and transporting the fetal tissues, and that's allowed under federal law. The larger issue raised by the video is harder to resolve, and it's about the medical ethics of using fetal tissue in research.... Fetal tissue has historically played an important role in scientific research because of fetal cells' ability to rapidly divide and adapt to new environments."
Ziva Branstetter & Dylan Goforth of the Tulsa Frontier: "When President Barack Obama arrives in Durant[, Oklahoma,] today and travels to the town's high school to give a speech, he will apparently be greeted by residents waving Confederate flags." CW: Nothing racist about this demonstration of "heritage," of course. Funny, the Chocktaw Nation kicked these fine patriots off Chocktaw land. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Bill Schammert of OKCFox: "The group was moved several times throughout the day.... The rally disbanded by early afternoon, prior to the president's arrival." ...
... Update 2. Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "President Obama was greeted by protesters waving the Confederate flag during his visit to Oklahoma. About nine or 10 protesters waved the Confederate battle flag, as well as an American flag, across the street from the hotel where Obama is staying here, standing among a larger group that included Obama supporters.... Obama was also greeted by protesters waving the Confederate flag when he visited Tennessee earlier this month."
You know, there are three branches of our government. You have the Supreme Court, the legislative branch and the people, the people and their ability to vote. -- Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, explaining the Oklahoma constitution to people she had better hope are even more ignorant than she, in the context of her refusal to follow a state supreme court's order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the statehouse grounds
One has to wonder where Fallin sees her job fitting into this scheme. -- Constant Weader
Thanks to Akhilleus for the news from Oklahoma.
Eric Tucker & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "Capitol Hill lawmakers from Louisiana have intervened on behalf of a New Orleans company that has failed to stop a decade-old oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico but lobbied for a refund of money reserved for spill containment work, according to letters obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests.... Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and Reps. Cedric Richmond (D) and Steve Scalise (R) have sent letters on Taylor Energy's behalf since December 2014.... Sen. David Vitter also made a telephone call to request a meeting between company and government officials...."
Erwin Chemerinsky in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Justice Antonin Scalia is setting a terrible example for young lawyers. Ignore, for now, his jurisprudence, his famously strict originalism; it's his tone that's the problem.... Scalia has long relied on ridicule.... Scalia's opinions this term, however, were especially nasty, sarcastic and personal.... Such mockery does not amount to a legal argument...."
Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Mexican authorities released the surveillance footage of [Joaquin] Guzman's dramatic prison escape on Tuesday night. From a hole in the shower floor, one of the small blind spots for the surveillance camera, Guzman's allies had built a hatch over a shaft dropping 30 feet underground and leading to a tunnel that ran to a small cinder-block house in the corn fields south of the prison." Includes video. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sam Roberts of the New York Times: "More than six decades later, the prosecution of Ethel Rosenberg remains one of America's most controversial criminal cases: Her conviction -- and eventual execution -- for joining in her husband Julius's espionage conspiracy rested largely on trial testimony from her younger brother. But in private testimony to a grand jury seven months before the 1951 trial, Mrs. Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, never mentioned involvement by his sister in Mr. Rosenberg's delivery of atomic secrets to Soviet operatives, according to a grand jury transcript released Wednesday."
Presidential Race
Eric Lichtblau & Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Presidential contenders provided a glimpse inside their campaign war chests on Wednesday, releasing financial statements.... The reports showed, for instance, that Jeb Bush has relied largely on wealthy donors giving the maximum contribution -- attracting far less financial support from more modest donors -- and that Rick Perry, Ben Carson and Rick Santorum are burning through the money they have raised much more quickly than most of their opponents. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised the most money for the primary of any candidate, $46.7 million, while Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, running against Mrs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination, brought in $15 million, the vast majority of it from donors giving $200 or less.... The reports, filed with the Federal Election Commission..., did not include money being raised by the 'super PACs' and other outside groups that are supporting many of the candidates." ...
... Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "A small cadre of super-wealthy Americans is dominating the fundraising for the 2016 Republican presidential nominating contest, doling out huge sums to independent groups that overwhelm total contributions to the candidates. Nearly $4 out of every $5 raised so far on behalf of GOP White House contenders has gone to independent groups rather than the official campaigns." ...
... Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal: "Only 3 Percent of Jeb Bush's Campaign Cash Came From Small Donors."
Jamelle Bouie: The "dueling speeches" of Hillary Clinton & Scott Walker on Monday "are clear: There is no middle ground or overlap between Walker's America and Clinton's coalition of blacks, Latinos, women, and young people. Which means that there's no amount of 'leadership' -- of rhetorical restraint, of triangulation, of closed-door maneuvering -- that would yield a 'governing majority' that's capable of serious progress. Indeed, there's no national -- or at least, no bipartisan -- agreement on what 'progress' means."
Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Democrats serving on the House Select Committee on Benghazi say the panel's GOP chairman has 'abandoned' plans for hearings to shift the focus of the investigation to Hillary Clinton. 'At the beginning of this year, Select Committee Republicans provided Democrats with detailed information about their plans to hold 11 hearings between January and October on a wide range of topics relating to the Benghazi attacks,' the panel's five Democrats wrote Wednesday in a letter to chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). Since then, however, Republicans have completely abandoned this plan -- holding no hearings at all since January and instead focusing on former Secretary Hillary Clinton.'..." CW: No kidding.
Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "C-SPAN is partnering with a handful of regional newspapers in early-voting states for a nationally televised forum with the Republican presidential candidates just days before Fox News Channel's first scheduled debate. The network has invited all 17 of the GOP presidential hopefuls to the Aug. 3 Voters First Forum in New Hampshire. Publishers at the New Hampshire Union Leader, The Post and Courier of South Carolina, and Iowa's The Gazette say the forum was prompted in part by Fox's controversial decision to cap the number of candidates in its Aug. 6 debate at 10." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "The 64k question about this 'forum' is whether it's in danger of being deemed an 'unsanctioned debate' by the RNC, which would mean participants would be barred from sanctioned debates right on through to the end of the primary process."
Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In the year before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, booming real estate markets increased the celebrity mogul's wealth by more than $1 billion, Trump said Wednesday. Trump's 2014 gains were announced by his campaign with typical Trump flair -- spelled out in all capital letters in a press statement proclaiming that his net worth as of now 'is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.'... But Trump did not release the document.... The FEC confirmed receiving Trump's form and has up to 30 days to review it before releasing it publicly.... The eventual release of the FEC form, which carries stiff penalties for false information, would provide a rare look into Trump's finances." ...
... Julie Bykowicz of the AP: "Federal documents Trump filed Wednesday show that he has lent his high-profile campaign $1.8 million." CW: Not sure why the AP has access to the filing but the WashPo doesn't.
Molly Beck of the Wisconsin State Journal: "Clearing a potentially serious obstacle from Gov. Scott Walker's intended path to the White House, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a secret investigation into millions of dollars spent on financing of recall election victories by Walker and other Republicans." ...
... Mary Bottari & Brendan Fischer, in a Cap Times op-ed, explain how Scottie's good fortune came about. Thanks to Nadd2 for this depressing news. ...
... While the Koch-sponsored team cheers, let us note that its designated hitter's foot-in-mouth slump continues ...
... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "On Tuesday, a day after entering the 2016 race, [Scott] Walker, an Eagle Scout, was asked about the recent decision by the Boy Scouts of America to lift its longstanding ban on gay troop leaders. Walker told the Independent Journal Review he supported the ban because it 'protected children and advanced Scout values.'... The comments were met with outrage by LGBT rights groups.... But during a Wednesday press conference in South Carolina, according to the New York Times, Walker said his comments had been misunderstood. 'The protection was not a physical protection,' he said, according to the Times. Instead, it was about 'protecting them from being involved in ... the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which is about camping and citizenship and things of that nature.'" CW: Very believable walkback, Scottie.
Beyond the Beltway
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Witnesses have told Mississippi state investigators that an unarmed black man died after being kept in a chokehold by a police officer for more than 20 minutes and denied CPR, according to his family's attorneys, who said an autopsy confirmed he was fatally strangled. State medical examiners provisionally found Jonathan Sanders died through homicide by manual asphyxiation, according to attorneys Chokwe Lumumba and CJ Lawrence."
All Quiet on the Western Front. Tom Dart of the Guardian: "A small town near Austin[, Texas,] with a quaint Victorian downtown, Bastrop is supposed to be a hub of the vast US military training exercise that spans seven states and runs until 15 September. But Wednesday seemed to be a day like any other in Bastrop -- which is to say not much was happening. It was certainly not the imposition of martial law, ice cream trucks being used as portable morgues and empty Walmarts being turned into concentration camps, as some of the more extreme conspiracy theorists had predicted...."
News Ledes
New York Times: "A Colorado jury has reached a verdict in the murder case against James E. Holmes, a former neuroscience student whose shooting rampage three years ago killed 12 and wounded 70 inside a suburban Denver movie theater. The verdict will be announced shortly, court officials said Thursday." ...
... Denver Post UPDATE: "A jury on Thursday found James Holmes guilty of murder for the Aurora movie theater attack, one of the worst mass shootings in American history. The jury of nine women and three men delivered the verdict at 4:15 p.m., after deliberating for about 12 hours over two days. In doing so, they rejected Holmes' plea of insanity."
New York Times: "A gunman opened fire on a Navy and Marine reserve center in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Thursday, leaving four Marines dead, and wounding several others, including a Marine recruiter and a police officer, officials said. The gunman was also killed." ...
... Washington Post UPDATE: "The gunman who opened fire at a Naval facility in Tennessee on Thursday morning, killing four Marines, has been identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez [of Hixson, Tenn.], according to the FBI."
Guardian: "Eurozone finance ministers are to begin discussions on delivering Greece's bailout after MPs in Athens adopted the contentious package, amid angry scenes in parliament and violent clashes on the streets. The Eurogroup of finance ministers is due to hold a conference call to discuss the situation at 8.00 GMT (9.00 BST) on Thursday, as they scramble to assemble a short-term financing package -- expected to be worth about €7bn -- to keep Greece afloat until the new bailout can be finalised." ...
... New York Times Update: "The European Central Bank on Thursday expanded the emergency line of credit for Greek banks, raising it by an amount -- 900 million euros, or almost $990 million -- meant to meet the banks' needs for an additional week. That decision, announced at a news conference by Mario Draghi, the central bank's president, does not give the banks much extra breathing room. But it is likely to be welcomed by Greek banks and their depositors as a sign that the central bank intends to continue providing support while the country's bailout negotiations continue."
Reuters: "The Liberal Democrats, the former junior coalition partners of Prime Minister David Cameron, on Thursday named left-leaning Tim Farron as their new leader, two months after the party was virtually wiped out in May's British election. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who in 2010 led the Liberal Democrats to their first ever spell in government alongside Cameron's Conservatives, stood down as leader after all but seven of his 56 colleagues lost their seats in the election."
New York Times: "Former President George H. W. Bush broke a bone in his neck in a fall at his home in Kennebunkport on Wednesday, his official spokesman said. Mr. Bush, the 41st president, was in stable condition, but he will have to wear a neck brace, the spokesman, Jim McGrath, said on Twitter. The former commander-in-chief has Parkinson's disease and uses a wheelchair."
Los Angeles Times: "Uber -- plagued by problems with regulators, drivers and taxi unions around the world -- took a big blow in its home state Wednesday when an administrative judge recommended that the ride-sharing giant be fined $7.3 million and be suspended from operating in California. In her decision, chief administrative law judge Karen V. Clopton of the California Public Utilities Commission contended that Uber has not complied with state laws designed to ensure that drivers are doling out rides fairly to all passengers.... She said Uber's months-long refusal to provide such data is in violation of the 2013 law that legalized ride-hailing firms. Uber said it would appeal." Also, they're mean to MoDo.
AP: "One of the seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich as part of a corruption probe has been extradited to the United States, the Swiss Justice Ministry said Thursday. The Federal Office of Justice said the man, whom it did not identify, was extradited on Wednesday."
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