The Commentariat -- April 12, 2013
Julia Preston & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A bipartisan group of senators has largely agreed on a broad immigration bill that would require tough border measures to be in place before illegal immigrants could take the first steps to become American citizens, according to several people familiar with drafts of the legislation." ...
... Erica Werner of the AP: "A bipartisan immigration bill soon to be introduced in the Senate could exclude hundreds of thousands of immigrants here illegally from ever becoming U.S. citizens, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the proposals. The bill would bar anyone who arrived in the U.S. after Dec. 31, 2011, from applying for legal status and ultimately citizenship, according to the aide, who was not authorized to discuss the proposals before they were made public and spoke on condition of anonymity." ...
... CW: as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has learned it is difficult being part of a Gang of Eight Egomaniacs. How is one to become the Top Egomaniac? First, young Marco attempted to distinguish himself by dramatically announcing that he was putting the brakes on the group's efforts. That didn't work well as the Gang of Eight-Minus-One Ecomaniacs went right along doing stuff. So now, as Manu Raju of Politico reports, Marky Marco is "offering himself up as the public face of a bill that will split the Republican Party -- but that his allies hope will propel him to the front of the GOP presidential sweepstakes." You said you want more transparency in government? Well, there you have it. No one could be more transparent than Marco.
** The People v. the Congress of the United States. Tim Egan on federal gun safety legislation and those who oppose it. ...
... New York Times Editors: "Democratic leaders are trying to prevent some of these dangerous amendments [to the gun bill] from ever reaching the floor, and many will have trouble getting the necessary 60 votes. But Thursday's brief victory of common sense has shaken the antiregulation extremists, who are quickly gearing up to make the road ahead as difficult as possible." ...
... Whither the Turtle? David Rogers of Politico: "Thursday's Senate vote to move ahead with gun control legislation marked the fifth time in just two months that Democrats have won a procedural showdown by peeling off Republicans at the expense of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)... This fits a pattern seen increasingly since mid-February: McConnell steadfast in opposition even as his rank-and-file cross the aisle, raising fragile hopes of a bipartisan revival. Without overstating, it's a record that suggests a real shift as the Kentucky Republican has seemed to turn his attention single-mindedly to protecting his right flank at home where he faces re-election next year.... The immediate beneficiary is Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but also what some see as a fledgling legislative revival in the Senate itself." ...
... CW: Maybe the Kentucky Gestapo has beat down poor Mitch: Phillip Bailey, et al., of WFPL, Louisville, Kentucky: "A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative.... Jacob Conway, who is on the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, says that day, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded and volunteered for Progress Kentucky, respectively, bragged to him about how they recorded the meeting." ...
... Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Jacob Conway, the Jefferson County Democratic Party's executive committee member who originally accused Progress Kentucky of making the recording, told NBC News he was on his way to talk to the FBI about the allegations. And the group's treasurer [who is not accused of being a party to the taping] confirmed he had quit his position after the audio was published." ...
... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "McConnell has been going completely ballistic, comparing this to the Gestapo and Watergate; turns out it was a couple of guys standing in a public hallway with a smartphone, probably not doing anything illegal (although the jury’s still out on that)."
Greg Sargent: "Yesterday, GOP Rep. Greg Walden -- the chairman of the NRCC -- attacked the Chained CPI in Obama's budget as an assault on seniors. This was curious, because GOP leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor had expressed support for the idea only hours earlier.... Today reporters pressed Boehner on Walden's claims, and he distanced himself from the NRCC chair.... [SO] the GOP Congressional leadership is demanding that Obama embrace entitlement reform, and blasting him as unserious for failing to offer sufficient entitlement cuts. Obama has offered Republicans Chained CPI -- which is a Social Security benefits cut that Republicans themselves said they wanted. But the NRCC has now signaled Republicans may use this to pillory Dems in 2014 for going after seniors, just as Republicans attacked Dems on Medicare in the last two cycles.... This is not politics as usual." ...
... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: Boehner twice deflected reporters' questions about whether or not Republicans would use Obama's budget -- with its cuts to Social Security & Medicare -- to attack Democrats in the 2014 elections." ...
... This is a Republican proposal. And cynical attempts to make it otherwise by some represent, I think, dissonance within the Republican Party, and we've seen plenty of condemnation from conservatives and Republicans of that sort of flagrantly ridiculous and cynical attempt to disown a proposal that emanated from Republican leaders. -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney ...
... Jonathan Strong of Roll Call: Nothing "change[s] the breathtaking cynicism of Walden's move.... Boehner declined to publicly urge Walden not to use chained CPI to attack Democrats, noting again that he had talked to Walden and 'we'll leave it at that.' Asked later in a Capitol hallway what he said to Walden, the speaker just laughed." Via Greg Sargent., who aptly pegs the Boehner-Walden two-step as "policy nihilism .... that helps explain why addressing the country’s problems has become all but impossible." ...
... Oh, gosh, the deficit hawks that operate the Washington Post Editorial Board are not impressed with Paul Ryan's fake "budget": Republicans' "pooh-poohing [Obama's budget] would be easier to take if the GOP had a real-world plan of its own. Instead, it pretends it can balance the budget without raising taxes -- but also without ever specifying the details of the spending that would be decimated, discretionary or otherwise. Mr. Ryan and others so far have wanted credit for fiscal prudence without political cost." They don't like Obama's budget either, of course, because it "it's not big enough.... But Mr. Obama has injected a courageous note of realism where the Republicans so far have shown none."
** Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) embarrassed government regulators during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday morning as she demanded to know why they won't reveal how frequently big banks illegally foreclosed on homeowners. In January, regulators abandoned a case-by-case review of foreclosure fraud conducted by some of the nation's largest banks in favor of a $9.3 billion settlement. Under the deal, most of the 4.4 million homeowners who were foreclosed on in 2009 or 2010 received less than $1,000 each.... Warren pressed officials from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and The Federal Reserve for answers about how frequently banks broke the law, only to discover that regulators didn't know the exact number before reaching their settlement and were now unwilling to publicize the error rate." Listen to Warren at work ...
Edward Williams, in Salon: "The first lady elevated the conversation [about gun violence] Wednesday, during a rare return to her hometown of Chicago. In a city ravaged by violence, with more than 500 gun-related homicides last year alone, she spoke eloquently -- and apolitically -- transcending the partisan politics that seem to subvert her husband's efforts for reasonable gun control legislation. But what was most unique was for whom, and to whom, Michelle spoke. Her words gave voice to an oft ignored (but disproportionately affected) victim of America's gun violence: the black mother." Video of Obama's speech is in yesterday's Commentariat.
The Goldbugs. Paul Krugman: "Conservative-minded people tend to support a gold standard -- and to buy gold -- because they're very easily persuaded that 'fiat money,' money created on a discretionary basis in an attempt to stabilize the economy, is really just part of the larger plot to take away their hard-earned wealth and give it to you-know-who.... In modern America..., everything is political; and goldbuggism, which fits so perfectly with common political prejudices, will probably continue to flourish no matter how wrong it proves." ...
... Goldbugs, Ctd. Andrew Rosenthal: "The price of gold ... has fallen 17 percent since late 2011.... The explanation for this decline is fairly simple: Despite what the Ron Pauls of the world have been insisting for years, the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy has not led to rampant inflation. The inflation rate was 1.6 percent in January and 2 percent in February."
Washington Post Editors: "President Obama is following through on the promise made at the start of his second term to stand up for the rights of the people of the District of Columbia. The inclusion in his proposed budget of a legislative provision that would give the District control over its own dollars is a significant development. With momentum building for budget autonomy -- D.C. residents are set to vote soon on a referendum on the issue -- Congress should take note and take the steps necessary to give the District its legitimate rights."
Peter Finn of the Washington Post: "The military justice system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been dogged by charges of secret monitoring of proceedings and defense communications, became embroiled in a fresh controversy Thursday when it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of defense e-mails were turned over to the prosecution. The breach prompted Col. Karen Mayberry, the chief military defense counsel, to order all attorneys for Guantanamo detainees to stop using Defense Department computer networks to transmit privileged or confidential information until the security of such communications is assured."
Robert Parry: Tom Friedman is crazy. And stupid. Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link.
Right Wing World
Come out, come out, Dave Agema.Katie McDonough of Salon: "Family Research Council president and noted homophobe Tony Perkins hosted Republican National Committeeman and noted homophobe Dave Agema on the Wednesday broadcast of Perkins' 'Washington Watch' radio series.... Agema defended his decision to share a pseudoscientific 'research' paperthat alleges gays and lesbians are gonorrhea-riddled social deviants responsible for 'half the murders in major cities.' After expressing surprise that people found the 'research' and his subsequent comments to be hateful, Agema equated being gay with being an alcoholic...."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Marie Tallchief, a daughter of an Oklahoma oil family who grew up on an Indian reservation, found her way to New York and became one of the most brilliant American ballerinas of the 20th century, died on Thursday in Chicago. She was 88."
New York Times: "Jonathan Winters, the rubber-faced comedian whose unscripted flights of fancy inspired a generation of improvisational comics, and who kept television audiences in stitches with Main Street characters like Maude Frickert, a sweet-seeming grandmother with a barbed tongue and a roving eye, died on Thursday at his home in Montecito, Calif. He was 87."
Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed as 'unacceptable by any standard' weeks of bellicose warnings of impending nuclear war by North Korea and said Washington would never accept the reclusive state becoming a nuclear power. Kerry, addressing reporters after talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and leaders of the 28,000-strong U.S. military contingent in the country, also said the United States would defend its allies in the region if necessary."
AP: "Both of the white supremacist prison gang members whose names surfaced during an investigation into the slaying of Colorado's prisons chief are now behind bars. Colorado Springs authorities arrested Thomas Guolee, 31, around 5:30 p.m. Thursday.... Last week, fellow 211 Crew member James Lohr was arrested in Colorado Springs after a short chase."
AP: "Authorities say law officers in Arizona have intercepted an explosive device that was earmarked for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said late Thursday night that the device was contained in a package addressed to the sheriff at his downtown Phoenix office."
McClatchy News: "A promising young U.S. Foreign Service officer, three American soldiers and a civilian government contractor who were killed Saturday in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan probably wouldn't have been close to the blast if they hadn't gotten lost while walking to the school where they were to participate in a book-donation ceremony, according to an Afghan television reporter who was with them and was wounded in the attack.... A U.S. government official ... confirmed Wednesday night that the party had been on foot, and said earlier reports that they were in a vehicle convoy were inaccurate."
Al Jazeera: "Greece's unemployment rate reached a new record of 27.2 percent in January, new data has showed, reflecting the depth of the country's recession after years of austerity imposed under its international bailout."
Share Article
Reader Comments (9)
Aha! At last a chance to post about the op ed pundit I most revile--Tommy Freedom. I know I have fellow commenters here at Reality Chex who thoroughly dislike him as well, and I think we owe a big "thank you" to Robert Sheer for writing this article about such a powerful journalist. To wit:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/16906-the-madness-of-nyts-tom-friedman
Sheer's comment speaks for me (and probably others):
..."Indeed, there is something profoundly nonsensical about Friedman's Olympian standing, inhabiting a plane of existence governed by the crazy rules of Washington's conventional wisdom, where - when looking down on the rest of us - Friedman feels free to cast aspersions on other people's sanity, like the Mad Hatter calling the Church Mouse nuts."
I am ready to take up a petition to get this asswipe fired. Lotsa luck, eh? Anyone wanna join me, she asked hopefully?
Elizabeth Warren kicking some government regulator ass!!! You're welcome, America.
Kate's post begs the eternal question that asks how certain idiots get treated as if they were the worldly avatars of pure wisdom and human understanding even after repeated episodes (sometimes weekly) that prove the opposite beyond the merest suggestion of a shadow of a doubt.
This morning I listened, mouth agape, as NPR gave 10 minutes or so to a smarmy, finger-wagging Paul Ryan who was allowed to ooze on and on about how amazingly awful is the president's budget. Nothing like the shining example of economic fluency and efficiency that is the Ryan budget. Ryan suggested that the president's willingness to shred the social safety net even further might be taken by his budgetary highness as a sort of fig leaf offered in fealty to Ryan's fiscal genius and sobriety, at one point declaring that his budget would save five trillion dollars while the Obama budget tacks on an additional trillion, but with his (Ryan's) help, all might not be lost.
How is it that this smug, oleaginous pretender whose ideas have so recently been so roundly rejected and reviled by millions of Americans in a national election is called upon to comment on the president's budget? It's like asking a witch doctor to review the work of a neurosurgeon, or asking a four year old boy to stop playing with his toy plane long enough to critique the flying abilities of a Navy pilot. It's the difference between one who trucks in fantasy and one who operates in the real world with real consequences.
Okay, the guy is the chair of the House Budget Committee, but that doesn't mean shit. The House has a climate change denier chairing the committee on science, and noted lamebrain Michele Bachmann once sat on the "intelligence" committee (don't even start).
If NPR wants to have a reasoned and reasonable discussion about the budget, giving free air time to a rejected loser whose policies have been spat upon and laughed at by a vast majority of the public (for good cause) is not the way to do it.
But it doesn't seem to matter. Just as the Times gives space (and a boatload of money) to Friedman, Brooks, and Doucheboy to peddle their puke, Ryan, after a very brief stint hiding behind some bushes is back being treated as an economic savant.
I'd make that idiot savant but he's nowhere near that smart.
I mean, WTF, people?
Maybe now I can get that gig I was hoping for, appraising the work of structural engineers on the World Trade Center project.
Ha....I meant to write "olive branch" and instead typed "fig leaf" in regards to the president's budget.
Some kind of Freudian slip, no doubt. But maybe a fig leaf is in order for that thing (the budget, I mean).
Julemry,
Hear, hear.
I wonder how many regulators have come and gone through the revolving door. If it's like most "regulatory" elements in the federal government, especially during the Bush years, there must have been a substantial number who traded jobs in the banking industry so they could guard the henhouse for the foxes and then return to the den of thieves with the rest of the foxes, collecting a nice bonus for leaving the henhouse door open every night.
When the hens want to know how their eggs were stolen, there must be plenty of guffaws coming out of those dens.
Hopefully Elizabeth Warren has a few traps set for the foxes. It's doubtful that congress will grab them by the tails and whump their asses, but at least she can make them squirm for a bit.
152 years ago today, a group of traitors launched the Civil War. Down here in the South, apologists argue that the North started it, and Lincoln was responsible for the resulting death and destruction. Oh? Who fired on whom? If Lincoln had only meekly acquiesced, everything would have been hunkydory, they say. Somehow, Lincoln didn't get the memo and went about doing his job as President. Don't kid yourself, the war was about slavery, period.
Barbarossa,
Wingnuts are still on about the same bullshit.
"If only Democrats and Obama do what we tell them to, everything will be fine. But if they don't go agree with our plan to fuck everyone except Donald Trump and the Koch brothers, they're all traitorous motherfuckers and are to blame for everything.
Akhilleus, I so enjoy reading your comments and your vocabulary range of such words as oleaginous to motherfuckers! You are wonderful and daily keep me lighthearted. :-)
I lived the first 9 years (mid-60's) of my childhood in a suburb of Sacramento, CA. When the neighborhood kids played hide-and-seek or other such games, the following rhyme was used to determine who was it.
"Eeny meeny miney mo
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he hollers make him pay
Fifty dollars every day
My mother told me to pick the very best one and you-are-not-it!"
I didn't think anything of it at the time, and I have no idea if our parents were aware of the rhyme. We moved to central NY in 1968, and I haven't heard it since then. Which is really quite surprising since the first black family that moved into our small town in 1975 had someone burn a cross in their front yard. Since then there have been interracial marriages in the town (including within my family - what a shock that has been among some family members). Small town big hell!