The Commentariat -- April 12, 2014
Internal links removed.
** Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in an excerpt from his new book Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, reprinted in the Washington Post, recommends a revision to the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed." Read the whole excerpt.
In his weekly address, President Obama stresses the importance of equal pay:
Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "President Barack Obama struck hard at restrictive voting rights laws Friday, calling them a Republican political tactic conceived to address a made-up problem. Pretending that there's widespread impropriety, he said, is just about keeping Democrats from winning. 'The real voter fraud is people who try to deny our rights by making bogus arguments about voter fraud,' Obama said, in a speech to Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in New York...":
... An Especially Stupid Idea. Juliet Eilperin & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "As Republicans push for new voting restrictions around the country, a handful of Democrats have coalesced around an impromptu idea: placing a photo on Social Security cards."
Michael Shear & David Joaquim of the New York Times: "President Obama said Friday that he was nominating his budget director, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, as the administration tries to move beyond its early stumbles in carrying out Mr. Obama's health law":
... Michael Shear, et al., of the Times: "The White House frustration with Ms. Sebelius crystallized by Thanksgiving, as it became clear in Washington that she would eventually have to go.... But three things put off Ms. Sebelius's departure: Mr. Obama's fear that letting people go in the middle of a crisis would delay fixing the website; his belief that ceremonial firings are public concessions to his enemies; and the admiration and personal loyalty that Mr. Obama still felt for Ms. Sebelius.... Over the next four months, Ms. Sebelius engaged in a kind of slow-motion resignation, largely staying out of the national limelight.... As the website improved and enrollment numbers neared the administration's goal of seven million people, she began plotting her exit."
Jada Smith of the New York Times: "President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, released their 2013 tax returns on Friday, showing a sharp decrease in their personal income since filing their 2012 returns. Mr. Obama became a multimillionaire shortly after his first inauguration from royalties related to his books, 'Dreams From My Father' and 'The Audacity of Hope,' which earned $5.5 million. Last year, however, most of the income generated by the Obamas came from the president's $400,000 salary." You can review the Obamas' & Bidens' returns via links on this White House page.
** Ali Watkins, et al., of McClatchy News: " A still-secret Senate Intelligence Committee report calls into question the legal foundation of the CIA's use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, a finding that challenges the key defense on which the agency and the Bush administration relied in arguing that the methods didn't constitute torture. The report also found that the spy agency failed to keep an accurate account of the number of individuals it held, and that it issued erroneous claims about how many it detained and subjected to the controversial interrogation methods." The committee's "Complete List of Findings" is here.
Michael Riley of Bloomberg News: "The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said." The NSA denies it." ...
... Charles Pierce: "... it appears that the NSA was willing to, you know, break the entire Internet in service of the messianic vision that infests the various cubicles." ...
... Digby: "If this story is true it should be the last straw." ...
... CW: Here's a question nobody seems to be asking: Since it is the NSA's charter to find & exploit communications vulnerabilities, why didn't they know about Heartbleed? Either they're incompetent or they're lying about this bug.
Sins of the Fathers.... Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) asked the Social Security Administration to halt its three-year-old practice of intercepting taxpayers' federal and state refunds to cover overpayments that the agency says it made to families more than 10 years ago. The practice, which affects about 400,000 families that once received Social Security benefits, was detailed in The Washington Post on Friday.... Dozens of new cases ... surfaced Friday, many involving survivors' benefits paid to families after a parent's death. The payments often went to a surviving parent, but the government argues that since the money was intended to help the children, they are responsible for decades-old overpayments." ...
... Hamilton Nolan of Gawker: "We are talking about the government itself mistakenly overpaying benefits to your parents decades ago, and now, all these years later, coming to you and taking that money out of your pocket, because, you know, your mom probably used it to buy you baby food."
Danny Vinik of the New Republic: The Ryan budget -- which the House passed Thursday with no Democratic support -- doesn't just abandon the poor; it ignores math, too.
Steve Benen: How to get an unemployment benefits extension through the House: "the Speaker ... told reporters yesterday that the unemployed might get relief when the White House correctly guesses what might make Boehner happy." The Senate already passed a bill that seemed to make some GOP Senators happy. CW: Boehner evidently thinks any legislation which actually benefits the public must begin in the executive branch. An interesting reading of the Constitution.
Darrell Issa Is No Joe McCarthy. Dana Milbank: Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) "... during his lamentable tenure running the [House Oversight C]ommittee, has been reckless, dishonest, vain and prone to making unsubstantiated accusations. But Issa's McCarthyism is a faint echo of the real thing, for one very important reason. McCarthy was feared; Issa isn't taken seriously. This is a rare bit of good news about modern politics: It's a bad time to be a demagogue."
Charles Pierce discovers there really was an ObamaPhone scandal. Like the original Drudge-induced ObamaPhone "scandal," it has absolutely nothing to do with Obama.
It's the weekend, so a nice time to enjoy college sports. You might think that a story on a comedy show about sports should be in the Infotainment section. You would be wrong:
Congressional Races
Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "Sen. Mitch McConnell is sticking to his repeal stance, crowing at the news of Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's resignation: 'Secretary Sebelius may be gone, but the problems with this law and the impact it's having on our constituents aren't. Obamacare has to go too.' As of today, 402,000 people in Kentucky have health insurance because of Obamacare. The state extended the deadline for enrollments until midnight tonight, and 30,000 people signed up in the last week alone.... That's 402,000 people in his home state McConnell wants thrown out of the health care market; 402,000 of his own constituents he would sacrifice in order to win his primary and try to hold onto his seat. And he says it's Obamacare that has to go." ...
... CW: Democratic candidate Alison Grimes' reaction to this should be hard-hitting ads that repeat & repeat "Mitch McConnell vows to take about your health care." Will she do it? I doubt it. ...
... As an excellent example of one tack Grimes could take, contributor Victoria D. points to this extremely subtle pro-ObamaCare ad by a PAC supporting ConservaDem Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska:
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "GOP Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin will not seek reelection this year, a Republican source confirmed to POLITICO. Petri has represented an east-central Wisconsin seat since 1979. Last week, state Sen. Glenn Grothman announced he would challenge Petri in the August Republican primary, charging that the congressman has failed to slow the growth of the federal deficit and entitlement programs."
Sex & the GOP
Katie McDonough of Salon: "A state Senate panel in South Carolina advanced legislation Thursday that states a pregnant person has a right to use deadly force to protect the 'unborn ... from conception until birth.' The measure is called the 'Pregnant Women's Protection Act,' and it is model legislation written and disseminated by Americans United for Life.... The bill does serve a serious purpose for anti-choice policymakers and activists working to endow fertilized eggs with personhood status and legal rights, a move that would suppress the rights of pregnant people and likely ban abortion and most forms of contraception. The measure tries to accomplish this -- or at least open the door to these possibilities -- by defining life as beginning at conception." Thanks to James S. for the link.
Katie McDonough: Delegate Bob Marshall, "a Virginia Republican currently running for the U.S. House of Representatives, believes that incest exceptions in abortion bans are unnecessary because sometimes incest is 'voluntary,' accord[ing] to a report from the Washington Times. Marshall also believes that children born with developmental disabilities are God's 'vengeance' on people who have had abortions." CW: Remember, people, lots of Virginians voted for this guy.
News Lede
AP: "Several dozen armed men seized a police station in a small town in eastern Ukraine on Saturday morning and hoisted the Russian flag above the building as tensions in the country's Russian-speaking regions intensify. The town of Slovyansk is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the regional center, Donetsk, where pro-Russian protesters have occupied a government building for nearly a week."
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Reader Comments (12)
About the depopulation of non-urban America that Tim Egan wrote about, is there anything wrong with current citizens re-populating the Great American Interior? Why the need to look outside of ourselves for solutions? What if I think America is already over populated considering that we crossed 200 million people in 1964 or so and now we have 330 million? Since my wife was born and raised 12 time zones from my fly-over state, I'm not sure how much of a right-wing, high-fiving white guy I am. Even though I am. She and I know exactly what it takes to become a legal US citizen. I don't think it makes someone a racist to desire that fellow new citizens follow most of the laws most of the time.
There is something about the appeals to 'new citizens' that sounds to me like giving up on the ones that are already here. Does anyone here think Jindal, Perry and a whole host of Southern officials as well perhaps ones in Michigan have long ago given up on the merits of a fair percentage of their fellow citizens? There is a myth that new citizens are just better; go to Little Odessa and ask there. How about East LA? Asshole-ness as we well know, is not a function of nationality or ethnicity.
Instead of another space program usurping the Great Society, how about we de-emphasize immigration and focus on renewal and the people here now. I think the GOP sees that no where including the Democratic party is there unity of thought regarding the solution to immigration So, they will divide and conquer as liberals try to feel good by appeasing the 'PETA' faction of the Democrats. Democrats will fuck around trying to appease the 15% of voters who vote the Sharpton/Rep. Luis Gutierrez party line and lose. When did discussing illegal, economic immigrants become the third-rail of liberal politics? And what forces have disconnected the immigration discussion from discussing the permanent American underclasses?
I'm the only Yank where I work; we celebrate diversity every single meal. I don't feel that we are a worse nation when when want to advance the people already in the United States. Just because people where not born in the US doesn't mean they are better or smarter or more capable...liberals arguing amongst themselves is exactly what I would want if my name ended with Koch.
Re: NSA; striving to be both liars AND incompetent. Yep, we can do that. "Either they're incompetent or they're lying about this bug." Marie
@Citizen625: There were many reasons for the U.S.'s economic golden era of the 50s, 60s, & 70s. But it wasn't all enlightened government policy. There were little things called Baby Boomers. The boomers created & contributed to a huge domestic market. One may scoff at "little houses on the hillside ... made of ticky-tacky .. and they all look just the same," but the construction of those little houses & all the crappy washers & dryers & "colonial" couches & whatall that went into them made for a vibrant economy.
This country is hardly overpopulated. Europe's population density is 2.7 times what ours is. Unless you want to encourage domestic overpopulation by procreation (and Republicans definitely do -- Douthat & company keep promoting tax policies that encourage large families), the U.S. needs immigrants to create the same kind of new consumers the boomers were.
Egan's prescription does not in any way "give up" on current citizens; rather, it provides a way for current citizens -- along with new citizens -- to enjoy the fruits of a thriving economy.
Your view of immigration does seem a bit xenophobic & accusatory. There is no reason that new immigrants have to be illegal immigrants. What part of the world they come from doesn't matter to me. What's more important is that we develop an immigration policy that invites a disproportionate share of well-educated, reasonably self-sufficient immigrants. As to requiring immigrants to "follow most of the laws most of the time," don't we do that anyway? Why would that be "racist"?
Before you get on your America First soapbox again, get a better handle on the economics Egan obviously understands. He's putting America first, too. The difference is that his way would work.
Marie
President Obama made a terrific speech supporting voting rights,highlighting the fact that in person voter fraud is infinitesimal in actuality. So why are Dems playing along with the baseless assumption that this is a problem in need if a solution? That Andrew Young believes this is not surprising, elderly conservaDem that he is. But for Clinton and Carter to endorse the proposal is shocking and plays right into the hands of Republicans who are seeking to suppress voting.
CW: in answer to you question re Alison Grimes, who can say whether she will be smart enough to emphasize her support of the ACA/Kynect? But she could do a lot worse that taking a page from this brilliant TV spot by a PAC supporting Alaska Senator Mark Begich:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/mark-begich-obamacare-ad_n_5128934.html
'The pro-Begich group Put Alaska First released an ad Thursday titled "Beat," in which breast cancer survivor Lisa Keller notes Obamacare enabled her to get health insurance despite the pre-existing condition.
"I was lucky I beat cancer, but the insurance companies still denied me health insurance just because of a pre-existing condition," Keller says in the ad. "I now have health insurance again because of Mark Begich. Because he fought the insurance companies, so that we no longer have to." '
Steve Benen and “The Principle,” an alleged documentary promoting geocentrism. Holy shit!
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-41214?cid=eml_mra_20140412
Politics in Wisconsinave taken another chilling lurch toward the ruthless right. In addition to a longtime moderate Republicancongressman (Petri) deciding it's not worth it to run against the Gohmert-clone Grothman, the president of the state senate (Mike Ellis) is retiring after being caught discussing illegal campaigning on videotape by the rightwing Truthout. Ellis, although a reliable and somewhat revolting Republican, has been a thorn in Scott Walker's side because he has worked to moderate some of Walker's extreme legislation, for example, on school vouchers. Meanwhile, Walker's campaign has a new defense fund whose lawyer is asking the Rightwing stacked state high court to intervene and stop a John Doe investigation into illegal campaign activities during the 2012 recall. The court's intervention to uphold the union-busting Act 10 legislation was second in egregiousness only to Bush v Gore, so I have little doubt that they would overlook any obstacles to swooping in to rescue the cabal that is running our state.
Meanwhile, Walker advocated for and signed a bill establishing a UW degree program that grants college credit for "life experience" and now says he wants to finally earn his college degree since being a college dropout could hinder his presidential ambitions. And as I mentioned a few days ago, one of his closest advisors was recently installed in a high position at the University. The new head of the UW system, who made the selection, knows that being on Walker's good side is the only way to survive in this state.
In summary: Walker has run out any moderates in his own party while letting all legislators know what's in store for them if they don't toe the line; used the court system to quash legitimate dissent and investigations into illegal activity; and frightened state institutions into bringing on board his henchmen with all that entails.
The Wisconsin press allows most of this to slide to please their corporate owners, letting stand Walker's lies about his "reforms" turning the state around while we have lagged economically along with our descent into polarization and cronyism. The new regime is all the more startling because of the contrast to our progressive traditions, and if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere the moneyed interests find a willing and crafty puppet like our governor.
Imagine how Walker would govern as president.
Just finished reading Frank Rich from yesterday's R.C. and think it an excellent and thorough take on the Clinton controversies. I still marvel at the fact that those nasty cynics of bygone days that spent most of the past decades telling citizens that failure to admit an affair was an impeachable offense while a war launched on cooked intelligence was the only patriotic course of action. It's a way of thinking that would seem absurd if it hadn't done so much damage. But now, today, absurdity is rampant and rapacious, so that if Hillary throws her shoe in the ring we can anticipate full blown dipwandian antics from those who David Brock once called "a little bit nutty..." and who Rich featured in his piece and who I wrote about some time ago. I encouraged readers here to read Brock's, "Blinded by the Right"––-in which he reveals just how the right wing of the Republican Party takes you in, destroys you if you don't play their theme song, and spits you out. Sounds like the Christi way of operating.
Along these same lines I received one of those email fabrications (can you guess from whom?) that tells me when you reach 76 Medicare will not pay for your hospital stay unless your doctor admits you along with other lies and it's all due to that horrible Obama Care disaster. It even gives you pages from the supposed ACA bill (which is bogus).I sent my brother the disclaimer saying, "you people just won't give up, will you?"
@ Citizen: I must say I was taken aback by your post. You seemed not to understand Egan's message. Am glad Marie responded.
It's planting season here in New England where seeds are sown and hopes are high for a bumper crop. So far our asparagus plants look pretty iffy––if they don't thrive I'm blaming it on Louie.
Re: Resignation of Secretary Sebelius.
This woman should be nominated for sainthood in some church, having endured with equanimity so much guff and just rotten accusations which buzzed around her like nasty Tisi flies. And now we have the great NY Times, in the persons of Michael Shears, Jackie Combs and Robert Pear (whom collectively I call the Operators of the Phantoms because invariably their analyses of the news uses quotes from “unnamed sources in the White House,” or some such BS informants) have decided that Ms. Sebelius was brought down by her disastrous performance on the interview with Jon Stewart. That’s right, at 65 her name is now “mud” after a successful career as insurance commissioner in Kansas, and as governor of that state, and a strong supporter of Mr. Obama before it was fashionable, and all because those same “unnamed White House aides” failed to adequately prepare her for that appearance on the Daily Show.
Obviously, the appearance was set up so that Ms. Sebilius could pitch to the Stewart’s young audience the benefits of signing up for health care, but Stewart was only prepared to take the easy road and emphasize the fucked up roll out as his platform for comedy. Now, ordinarily I like Jon Stewart, but when he saw that she was struggling, instead of a little compassion, continued to beat up on her mercilessly. I don’t think beating up women is funny. It’s the same old crap; men can make multiple mistakes, but women get only one chance.
I hope that soon there will be an opening on the Supreme Court (it’s the only thing I pray for now) so that for the last laugh, Mr. Obama can appoint Ms. Sebelius to that vacancy.
Dan- I agree with everything you said particularly the point about Jon Stewart and his utter lack of empathy and fairness in that interview. Thanks for your excellent post
Dan, I, too, (now) remember that interview and doing a lot of head smacking at the time. However, I don't fault Jon - Sebelius just really screwed up and to suggest that he ought to have gone easy on her because she was a woman is crazy. You have just given her high marks as an insurance commissioner and governor, but she was swamped by a Stewart interview? C'mon.
However, I do think she was uncommonly brave to hang in there and wish one of the thousand email petitions I get daily was a thank you to her for finishing the job with her head held (deservedly) high. Kudos to Obama, too, for not panicking and allowing her to finish. I think even more chaos would have resulted if he had to find a new Secretary in October. And, OH, how the Republicans would have loved it!
@Haley Simon
I would say the same had the interview been with a man. No, not because Sebelius is a woman, but because she is a human being, subject to all the infirmities we all inherit, namely, fatigue, stress, being ill prepared by her staff,etc. Similar to punching a boxer who is already down for the count.