The Commentariat -- Dec. 10, 2013
Lydia Polgreen, et al., of the New York Times: "In an outpouring of praise, memory and celebration, scores of leaders from around the world, including President Obama, joined tens of thousands of South Africans in vast rainswept soccer stadium on Tuesday to pay common tribute to Nelson Mandela. Huge cheers greeted Mr. Obama as he rose to speak." ...
... ** President Obama is introduced at about 20 min. into the video:
... Here is the text of Obama's remarks, as prepared. ...
... The Washington Post has a photo gallery of those honoring Mandela today.
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "For more than 16 hours, Mr. Obama hosted former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton aboard Air Force One -- part of a global pilgrimage that is expected to bring as many as 100 world leaders to South Africa." ...
... Anthony Castellano & Mary Bruce of ABC News: "President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro today at a memorial service for the late Nelson Mandela in South Africa." CW: That deafening roar you hear is not cheers for Mandela or Obama but wingnuts winging out at the handshake. ...
... Steve M. of NMMNB: "The right is going to howl, but all that means is that the right will have temporarily substituted 'Obama Kowtows to Commie' for 'Obama Wants to Kill Us All with Socialized Medicine and Benghazi.... The problem is the middle -- not the Fox/Limbaugh audience, but the audience for Washington Post pundits and CNN bloviators. This will be discussed Very, Very Seriously for a day or two by all of these people."
Ben Protess & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Federal regulators are poised to approve a tougher-than-expected version of the so-called Volcker Rule, adopting a harder line in recent weeks against Wall Street risk-taking.... The rule, which comes to a vote on Tuesday, is a symbol of the Obama administration's post-financial-crisis crackdown on Wall Street. In particular, it bans banks from trading for their own gain, a practice known as proprietary trading. In doing so, the Volcker Rule takes aim at the sort of risk-taking responsible for a $6 billion trading blowup last year at JPMorgan Chase."
Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "House and Senate negotiators reached a final agreement Monday on a Pentagon policy bill that would strengthen protections for military victims of sexual assault and keep the prison facility at Guantánamo Bay open over President Obama's strenuous objections, as Congress rushed to wrap up work in its last full week of the year.... It was a loss for champions of a more sweeping response to sexual assault in the military, a group led by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York."
Redistribution! Socialism! Communism! Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "Republicans aren't wrong when they say Obamacare amounts to redistribution. But they seem to have a distorted view of how that redistribution works.... It's certainly fair to say that a majority of people getting money from Obamacare are in the lower half of the income scale. But that includes an awful lot of people that qualify as 'working class' or 'middle class.... The majority of funding in the law is money paid by -- or given up by -- either the wealthy or parts of the health care industry.... In the old days, before Obamacare, just about anybody could end up without health insurance, which meant just about anybody could end up ruined because of medical bills. The simplest way to describe Obamacare is as a transfer from the lucky to the unlucky. And when it comes to health, you don't have to be poor to be unlucky." ...
... Ryan Cooper of the Washington Post: Congressional Republicans "are shocked to discover the health care system sucks." CW: This is not a Borowitz report; this is wealthy members of Congress suddenly "discovering that premiums are higher than they would have expected, having previously enjoyed the protection of government benefits that essentially shielded them from reality.... Five decades of skyrocketing health price inflation didn't inspire so much as a peep when Republicans held all three branches of government. But now that Republicans have derped themselves onto the exchanges, they're shocked, shocked at how expensive things have gotten." ...
... Kelli Kennedy of the AP: Insurance agents say the ACA & Healthcare.gov are stiffing them because of both software glitches & purposely built-in barriers. CW: I'd guess the ACA is still a bonanza for agents, even with the glitches & limits the law places on commissions. Nonetheless, If the anecdotal tales are true, it seems the agents have a real beef. If they help a consumer obtain coverage, they should get a commission.
Lourdes Medrano of the Christian Science Monitor: "Facing intense pressure from immigrant advocates who want the president to do more to limit deportations, the Obama administration has quietly issued a directive [on November 15] to help undocumented immigrants who are closely related to military personnel stay in the country. The effort is called 'parole in place,' and it aims to end rampant confusion among immigration officials about how to treat the parents, spouses, and minor children of those in active duty as well as veterans and reservists. Under parole in place, these relatives no longer have to leave the country to apply for legal US status -- a situation that often resulted in the applicants being barred from reentering the US for years."
Obama 2.0 Fixer? Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama, after a rocky year that leaves him at the lowest ebb of his presidency, is bringing into his White House circle the longtime Democratic strategist John D. Podesta, a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton."
Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Senior figures behind efforts to curtail the powers of American spy agencies have seized on the decision by the world's largest tech companies to call for radical surveillance reform, saying the unexpected intervention is a potential 'game-changer'.... Tech giants usually leave public lobbying to the dozen or so industry associations in Washington. It is unprecedented for the major tech giants to put their names to a single political statement of this kind." ...
... Matthew Taylor & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "More than 500 of the world's leading authors, including five Nobel prize winners, have condemned the scale of state surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and warned that spy agencies are undermining democracy and must be curbed by a new international charter.... They have urged the United Nations to create an international bill of digital rights that would enshrine the protection of civil rights in the internet age."
CNN: "The Senate voted unanimously on Monday to renew a 10-year ban on guns that cannot be picked up by metal detectors commonly found in airports, court houses and government buildings. The law, which prohibits firearms made mostly of plastic, was set to expire at day's end.... The House acted last week, and now the measure goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. A White House official said the President is expected to sign the legislation. But the Obama administration and congressional Democrats had been pushing for an extension to also deal with potential loopholes for 3-D-printer guns, which the congressional legislation does not do."
Monica Potts of the American Progress on David Vitter's mean-spirited amendment: denying food stamps to ex-offenders. The amendment to the farm bill "applies retroactively, meaning it would kick poor senior citizens who have served their time in prison, and who may not have committed violent crimes in years, off assistance. The amendment also prohibits these ex-offenders from being counted as members of their families when benefits are determined.... If that ex-offender has a job, however, his or her income is counted and reduces his family's benefits accordingly. States can't opt out of this provision." The Senate voted for the amendment by voice vote & there's similar language in a House bill, tho the House version is not retroactive. Potts runs down the reasons this provision isn't just nasty; it's counterproductive. ...
... Because there's nothing that makes America safer than a bunch of starved ex-criminals roaming the streets. -- Jason Sattler of the National Memo in the Huffington Post
... CW: Potts is too nice to say so, but I would add that there's a sickening irony in all this. The Vitter amendment "bars anyone who has been convicted of murder, sexual assault or sexual abuse, child pornography, and similar state offenses from receiving food stamps." Vitter himself famously engaged in criminal sexual behavior -- repeatedly soliciting prostitutes -- but, as David Dayen of Salon noted parenthetically in May. when Vitter introduced the amendment, "(cannily, the crime of soliciting prostitutes is exempted from this ban)." Dayen also wrote.
The amendment was clearly created as a wedge issue, a perennial Republican effort to get Democratic senators to vote for something that can get used against them later in attack ads.... No senator would vote to 'give' violent offenders federal benefits, and in this case they didn't have to. Rather than put the amendment up for a vote, the manager of the farm bill, Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow, merely accepted the amendment into the base bill. The amendment was agreed to by unanimous consent, which is to say that nobody objected to it on the floor. In reality, it's unlikely that most senators even knew the amendment's contents.
... CW: Vitter, BTW, was never convicted for his crimes, nor was he even prosecuted, though when exposed, so to speak, he admitted to the solicitations, which he described as "a sin." Yeah, & a crime.
... Dylan Scott of TPM: "The emerging deal on food stamp spending, part of the House and Senate's ongoing negotiations over the farm bill, would include dollar savings, but would not kick anybody off the program -- a far cry from the bill passed by the House GOP this fall. The framework of the deal is a dramatic comedown for Republicans, especially in the House, which already passed $40 billion in cuts to the food stamp program in September. The total cuts in the new deal would likely come in less than $10 billion -- Roll Call reported $8 billion as a possible figure Monday. It's a slight come-up for Senate Democrats, who passed a bill with $4 billion in cuts in the summer. The bulk of the spending cuts would come from an administrative fix, according to sources familiar with the talks." CW: Really? What about Vitter's ex-felons?
Tom Krishner of the AP: "The U.S. government ended up losing $10.5 billion on the General Motors bailout, but it says the alternative would have been far worse. The Treasury Department sold its final shares of the Detroit auto giant Monday, recovering $39 billion of the $49.5 billion it spent to save the dying automaker at the height of the financial crisis five years ago.... The company now is sitting on $26.8 billion in cash and is considering restoration of a dividend." CW: Seems to me the Obama administration could have cut a better deal. ...
... Jon Perr in Daily Kos: "... the $10.5 billion loss on paper obscures the massive total return on investment for the U.S. economy overall and American taxpayers in particular. As a new analysis from the Center for Automotive Research found, had GM and Chrysler failed altogether, the result could have been 4.1 million jobs lost across the U.S. economy in 2009 and 2010, with federal transfer payments and $105 billion in lost income and payroll tax revenue for the U.S. Treasury." CW: Yeah, yeah, I get that. I'd still like my $10.5 billion back. ...
... Matt Yglesias explains why, from a macroeconomic POV, how much the government makes or loses from its loans is irrelevant. CW: But I still want GM to pay for the incompetence that almost caused the loss of a million-plus jobs.
Tal Kopan of Politico: "Rep. Sander Levin said Monday that Sen. Rand Paul's position that extending unemployment benefits does a 'disservice' to Americans looking for work is wrong, and said letting those benefits expire would be a 'disservice to humanity.'"
Alex Seitz-Wald argues in the National Journal that the Newtown massacre of last December "set in motion a cascade of events that led the White House to burn through its only real window to accomplish its goals."
Part 2 of the New York Times series by Andrea Elliott on Dasani, a preteen homeless girl.
** Stanley Fish attends three Noam Chomsky lectures.
John Bresnahan of Politico: "... House Democrat Alan Grayson lost $18 million as part of a criminal scheme run by a Virginia man that bilked more than 100 investors out of more than $35 million, according to federal court documents. William Dean Chapman, 44, of Sterling, Va.,was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Friday. Chapman pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in May, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which oversaw the case.... It appears from the court documents that Grayson's losses occurred several years ago, around 2007." CW: Kind of explains why Grayson went into a new line of work -- politics.
Senate Race
CNN: "Republican Rep. Steve Stockman is launching a primary challenge against fellow Texan Sen. John Cornyn.... Stockman, a tea party favorite, told WND that he decided to challenge Cornyn in part because he 'undermined' fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz's fight to derail Obamacare." CW: Stockman belongs to the Impeach Obama wing of the party & is generally horrible or "weird," as the Houston Chronicle once put it.
Local News
Craig Gustufson & Greg Moran of the San Diego Union-Tribune: Former San Diego Mayor Bob "Filner completed a stunning fall from grace Monday when a judge sentenced him to three months of home confinement and three years of probation, closing the criminal probe into the inappropriate sexual behavior toward women that ended his brief stint as San Diego's 35th mayor. His legal woes will continue as he and the city still face a civil lawsuit from a former aide."
Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott has staked his political future on his ability to bring jobs to Florida, but the first comprehensive review of his efforts shows few successes and hundreds of unfulfilled promises." ...
... Charles Pierce: "The Tampa paper has some terrific anecdotal evidence of how well this works. Over and over, we see one truth clearly demonstrated -- that governments should be more skeptical of business interests than they are of their citizens who happen to be on public assistance. Over and over, we decline to learn from this.
James Hohmann of Politico: "Three Democratic state lawmakers called Monday for the state chairman of Virginia's Republican Party to resign over comments he made attacking President Barack Obama and Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe.... The chairman, Pat Mullins..., at a weekend GOP retreat ... on Saturday ... he accused Obama of lying to the American people on [a number of] issues.... 'Our president was elected on a series of lies,' Mullins said. 'The American people are finally seeing the emperor without his clothes ... Obama is so close to death (emphasis added) that Terry McAuliffe is about to buy a life insurance policy on him.' The latter part of the comments, which drew laughs and scattered applause, referred to the revelation in the home stretch of the governor's race that the Democratic nominee received $113,000 from an investment in a death-benefits scheme that preyed on the terminally ill." A party spokesman said Mullins "misspoke" & meant to say "ObamaCare," not "Obama" was close to death. CW: If that's true, Mullins' remark is a classic Freudian slip. I'd like to see the Secret Service question Mullins in a most uncordial way.
Jeff Weiner & Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel: "George Zimmerman's defense lawyer has asked a judge to allow him to see his girlfriend, who has recanted the domestic violence allegations which led to his arrest last month, new court documents show. The apparent about-face by Zimmerman's girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, throws his latest criminal case into doubt, leaving prosecutors to reassess whether or not to pursue charges. 'I want to be with George,' Scheibe says in a sworn statement which accompanies a new motion.... Chris White, lead prosecutor in Seminole County, said he learned of Scheibe's change of heart Monday. He said his office would evaluate her affidavit and decide later this week whether to push forward with the case or abandon it." CW: I'm so surprised that someone idiotic enough to hook up with Zimmerman would pull such a stunt.
News Ledes
AFP: "Uruguay is to give a green light Tuesday to making marijuana legal, in a social experiment that countries plagued by drug-related crime worldwide will watch."
Washington Post: "Hundreds of heavily armored police swarmed past barricades into [Kiev's] Independence Square ... early Wednesday morning, breaking up the encampment of protesters who have defied President Viktor Yanukovych for more than two weeks."
Reuters: " Israel's parliament has moved to ensure African migrants who enter the country illegally can be held without charge, despite a Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a previous detention law. Legislation approved late on Monday set a maximum detention period of one year for new illegal migrants, a change from a term of up to three years stipulated in a previous law annulled by the court in September." CW: Guess the Knesset didn't get the "spirit of Mandela" message. ...
... Time: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled plans to attend memorial events for the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, citing travel and security costs, Israeli media reported Sunday." CW: Seems appropriate.
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