The Commentariat -- April 25, 2013
** Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Guantánamo ... has become a place where no new prisoners arrive and no one can leave, and it makes little sense."
Frank Rich on Boston, guns, the Koch brothers' media aspirations, and Bush. ...
... Josh Lederman of the AP: "All the living American presidents past and present are gathering in Dallas, a rare reunion to salute one of their own at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center." ...
... If you want to see some photos of the library & its exhibits, Time's Brooks Kraft obliges. ...
... He doesn't need my counsel because he knows what it is: Run! -- Former President George W. Bush, encouraging his brother Jeb (not his real name) to run for president
There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes. -- Former First Lady Barbara Bush, discouraging her son Jeb (not his real name) from running for president
Congress's Very Special People. John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, sources in both parties said. The talks -- which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers -- are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said." CW: note of caution: this is a Politico story.
Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. Jim Abrams of the AP: "An effort by House Republicans to highlight problems with President Barack Obama's health care law by bailing out a program for people with pre-existing medical conditions appeared to backfire Wednesday. GOP leaders postponed a scheduled vote after the measure met strong opposition from two directions: from conservative groups resistant to any federal role in health care and from Democrats who objected that the Republicans planned to pay for the high-risk patient program by raiding a disease prevention provision the administration says is essential to the overhaul. The legislation, a departure from the usual GOP efforts to kill the Affordable Health Care Act outright, also faced a White House veto threat." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Paul Kane, ledes with music to our ears: "House Republican leaders suffered a humiliating legislative setback Wednesday...." ...
... Dana Milbank on how House conservatives ditched their leadership's lame attempt "to make Republicans appear to care about the little guy" & opted instead for -- another vote to repeal ObamaCare. House Majority Leader Eric "Cantor can forget warm and fuzzy for now; he has enough trouble just making his colleagues sound humane." On the menu at the conservatives' lunch meeting: Chick fil-A of Cantor.
Your Taxpayer Dollars ...
Part 1. Waste. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "This year, the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that are empty. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts with a balance of zero. They are supposed to be closed. But nobody has done the paperwork yet."
Part 2. Fraud? Ayesha Rascoe & Deepa Seetharaman of Reuters: "Taxpayer-backed funds kept flowing to electric carmaker Fisker Automotive months after the company failed to meet key production benchmarks, lawmakers said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee cited Department of Energy documents as showing Fisker got $32 million in payments, even after it failed to launch its Karma vehicle in February of 2011."
Part 3: And Abuse. Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in faulty refunds through its Earned Income Tax Credit last year, according to an inspector general's report released this week. Treasury Department Deputy Inspector General Michael Mc'Kenney found that the IRS has failed for the past two years to comply with a federal law requiring agencies to reduce payment errors to a rate of less than 10 percent. President Obama signed the statute in 2010."
Girls Just Gotta Have Guns
Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "In a new Public Policy Polling poll of very pro-gun New Hampshire, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has seen a 15-point drop in her approval rating in the state, and a full 50% of New Hampshire voters say that Ayotte's vote against background checks will make them less likely to vote for her in future elections, including 66% of self-described moderates." ...
... De Nile Runs through North Dakota. Manu Raju of Politico: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (PretendDem-N.D.) "Asked about polls showing more than 90 percent of voters supporting expanded background checks, including back home, Heitkamp doubted that was truly indicative of public opinion."
Science Daily: "... a new study shows that children are routinely killed or injured by firearms. The study, conducted by the Colorado School of Public Health, Denver Health and Children's Hospital Colorado, was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It examines trauma admissions at two emergency rooms in Denver and Aurora over nine years and found that 129 of 6,920 injured children suffered gunshot wounds." Thanks to contributor James S. for the link.
Jonathan Chait bids "a fond farewell" to Sen. Max Baucus (PretendDem-Montana), who is not running for re-election in 2014: "Baucus has an ex-wife; a new, former-staffer wife; the lowest net worth of any Senator; and a mortgage on a $900,000 home in Washington. That leaves Baucus with about a year and a half of auditioning for [lobbyist-seeking] clients while also serving as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, while his lobbyist trainees frantically cash in before their most lucrative window closes. Finally, Baucus's self-interest and the national interest are aligning behind one decision: He is leaving elected office." ...
... Nobody Likes Max. Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed: "Since Baucus announced his retirement on Tuesday, the news has been met with near jubilance among House Democrats and conservative groups alike.... The base of Baucus detractors is broad, bipartisan, and vocal, arguing that his long career has been governed not by ideology or conviction, but by self-interest and an unrelenting focus on helping out his friends and sending pork back home."
Henry Blodgett of Business Insider: "The economic argument is over -- Paul Krugman has won." CW: BTW, Stephen Colbert's explanation of the Rogoff-Reinhart errors is more accurate than Blodgett's explanation. (See yesterday's Commentariat for Colbert's take.) ...
... Paul Krugman: "... in sheer intellectual terms, this is looking like an epic rout.... The cynic in me ... says that after a brief period of regrouping, the VSPs will be right back at it -- they'll find new studies to put on pedestals, new economists to tell them what they want to hear, and those who got it right will continue to be considered unsound and unserious." ...
... "Very Sensitive People." Krugman: "What I think is happening is that austerians have put themselves in a box. They threw themselves -- and their personal reputations -- completely behind the various elements of anti-Keynesian doctrine: expansionary austerity, critical debt thresholds, and so on. And as Wolfgang Munchau says, the terrible thing was that their policy ideas were actually implemented, with disastrous results; on top of which their intellectual heroes have turned out to have feet of clay, or maybe Silly Putty." Krugman elaborates on this, with examples, in several recent posts to his blog.
Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post: "The lesson from Europe appears to be: Embrace Muslim communities. That's a conclusion U.S. law enforcement agencies would confirm. The better the relationship with local Muslim groups, the more likely they are to provide useful information about potential jihadis." ...
... Charles Pierce: "As the days go by, we learn more and more that what we were dealing with here, as deadly as their actions were, was a plot by the Wayne and Garth of terrorism.... Eevery little detail that's emerging about the brothers goes a long way toward defusing the OMIGOD MOOOOOSSSSLLIIIIIMMMMMM CALIPHATE JIHAD!!!! hysteria in certain precincts of the media.... Ennobling the actions of a couple of bloodthirsty square pegs by draping those actions with vast, geopolitical significance is a bigger disservice to their victims than laughing at the two of them is."
A couple of contributors -- Akhilleus & James S. -- have recommended this NASA video, "Three Years of the Sun in Three Minutes." "In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun's rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day. SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths." More info here.
Whoever is responsible for sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama & others -- is pretty weird. Campbell Robertson & Cynthia Howle of the New York Times look into the fraught relationship between Paul Kevin Curtis & James Everett Dutschke.
Local News
David Klepper of the AP: "Rhode Island is on a path to becoming the 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry after a landmark vote in the state's Senate on Wednesday. The Senate passed gay marriage legislation by a comfortable 26-12 margin, following a House vote of approval in January. The bill must now return to the House for a largely procedural vote, likely next week, but the celebration began Wednesday.... Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, called Wednesday's vote historic. 'I'm very much looking forward to signing this,' he told The Associated Press as he congratulated supporters."
News Ledes
AP: "Police officers and investigators on Thursday were searching the high school attended by two football players who raped a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party last summer, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. Search warrants were also executed at Vestige Ltd., a digital evidence company in northeastern Ohio, in addition to Steubenville High School and the offices of the Steubenville school board in eastern Ohio.... The search warrants are part of an attempt to learn whether other laws were broken in connection with the rape."
New York Times: "The White House said Thursday that it believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its civil war, an assessment that could test President Obama's repeated warnings that such an attack could precipitate American intervention in Syria."
Washington Post: "The Boston Marathon bombing suspects were planning to drive to Manhattan and detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square, New York City officials said Thursday. They said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect, told investigators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother hatched the New York plan on April 18, hours before their deadly encounter with law enforcement officers." ...
... Wall Street Journal: "A federal judge decided to advise Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of his Miranda rights, even though investigators apparently still wanted to question him further under a public-safety exception. The judge's move, made on Monday in the hospital where Mr. Tsarnaev was recovering, has prompted some Republican lawmakers to press the Justice Department as to why it didn't make a stronger bid to resist the judge's plans."
AP: "With deep visible in the walls, police had ordered a Bangladesh garment building evacuated the day before its deadly collapse, but the factories flouted the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, officials said Thursday. At least 194 people died when a huge section of the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete." ...
MEANWHILE, here at home ... New York Times: "A series of explosions on two fuel barges on the Mobile River in Alabama caused a fire to burn out of control into Thursday morning, leaving three people critically injured and forcing the evacuation of a Carnival Cruise Lines ship nearby."
CNN: "The mother of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing says she believes the tragedy that killed three people and injured dozens more was staged, that the bombing was fake.... There was no blood, she said. It was paint.... Zubeidat Tsarnaev [the mother] is wanted on 2012 felony charges of shoplifting and property damage in Massachusetts, according to court officials.... Anzor Tsarnaev, [the father of Tamerlan & Dzhozhar, who will return to the U.S. in a few days] ... has said he will cooperate in the investigations into the alleged crimes of his sons." ...
... UPDATE. The New York Times has more on the crazy mother. ...
... AP: "Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings went silent: he'd just been read his constitutional rights. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered his hospital room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to four officials of both political parties...."
Share Article
Reader Comments (12)
I'm bringing this comment forward from the end of yesterday's thread as a cautionary reminder. I wrote in response to an exchange between contributors in Wednesday's Comments section:
... you have made a blanket statement about a multiple murder in Illinois without providing evidence to support your thesis. According to the AP report, "Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said Smith, [the alleged gunman], of rural Morgan County, had previous convictions for reckless homicide, drugs and bad checks." (See today's Ledes for link.) I don't know how Smith got his weapons, but since Manchin-Toomey requires background checks, it seems possible, if not likely, that with his history of reckless homicide & drug use, Smith would have flunked the background check & have been denied purchase of his weapons.
Also, I don't know where you got your information about the type of gun Smith had, which you describe as a "Sigg-Sauer P229 pistol loaded with 13 9mm rounds." According to the AP report, Smith allegedly shot the victims "at close range with a shotgun.... Police said they found a rifle, shotgun and large hunting knife in Smith's car." I don't know what a Sigg-Sauer P229 pistol is, but it doesn't sound like a shotgun to me.
In addition, Akhilleus did not say or imply that Manchin-Toomey, had it been in effect way back when, would have prevented this particular -- or any particular -- murder. For the most part, as reports we've linked to here have indicated, states with stricter gun laws have fewer gun murders per capita.
So even if strict background checks would not have prevented the mass murder in Illinois -- and I submit that they might have -- they would surely prevent other murders, gun suicides & accidental shootings.
In the future, please write comments that are consistent with the facts, or at least the facts as they are known at the time of writing. Making up stuff does not advance the conversation.
Marie
Could someone please tell me what piece is being played in the sun video?
@PD Pepe: "A Lady's Errand of Love," composed & performed by Martin Lass. You can hear the entire piece here.
Marie
PD,
According to Sean Patterson of Webpronews, the piece is "A Lady's Errand of Love" by Martin Lass.
Interestingly, in addition to his work as a violinist, Mr. Lass is, according to his Wikipedia page, a "practicing professional astrologer", I suppose to differentiate him from the dilettantes.
Just wondering how much call there is for professional astrologers these days, I mean, apart from Nancy Reagan and the odd economist here and there.
In any event, it appears that someone at NASA has a sense of humor.
Thanks Marie and Akhilleus––it's a lovely piece and nice to know not only does that someone at NASA have a sense of humor, but given the sun's reflection, the moon who is a harsh mistress corresponds to that lady's errand of love–––or am I reading too much into it––yes, I hear you both say. Fun to do though.
Remembering Nancy's penchant for picking dates for her husband's out of town travels and such, it gives one pause to think how much of Ronnie's regime was controlled by that lady who read the stars.
Regarding the back and forth on my post about the Illinois shooting, I wanted to add something to what Marie has already written in response to Cowichan's comment.
I think I was careful not to suggest that the bill recently rejected by the Senate would end all gun violence. I've never thought that about any possible gun control measure. There are plenty of laws that are broken on a daily basis. People need to be properly licensed to drive a car but that doesn't mean there won't be some who flout the law. Or drive drunk and kill someone.
No law or background check is foolproof. I believe my comment said something along the lines of a hope that such a bill would "help" prevent such gun violence. I don't think anyone is so naive as to suggest that even the strictest form of gun control is a panacea. This is the tack taken by gun lobby sycophants when they say risible things like "this bill will not catch all the criminals". Okay, fine, whatever. No one ever said it would, or even hoped that it would.
But if it keeps even 30% of people who should not be allowed to own weapons from purchasing whatever they want at any time, then there's a good chance that hundreds or even thousands of lives will be spared. Hell, I'll settle for 10% if it means that fewer people are wounded or killed by gunfire.
Yes, yes, criminals, especially of the career variety, will usually find a way to get hold of weapons. But those who are just bad actors or those with emotional or mental problems, might not have easy access to underworld gun marketeers (it's not like they hang out a shingle), so a background check could have a pretty decent chance of keeping those people away from Sigg-Sauer P229s or your basic Saturday night specials.
I'm not surprised that Canadians aren't all that worked up about gun deaths. In 2010, according to the CBC, there were 170 firearm homicides in Canada. According to the RCMP, between 1970 and 1996 there were a little over 35,000 deaths related to firearms. That's about what the US experiences every year. Maybe it's the water, I don't know, but here in the states, we need all the help we can get.
And anyone who doesn't think a simple background check is worth thousands of lives is someone I never want to know.
PD,
I have to admit that I was looking for a something clever to say about referring to the sun as a lady when it is typically the moon that receives that appellation, but it turned out to be a metaphor too far. I try to avoid the sin of clunky metaphors and similes. Can't you hear it now? "Bless me father, for I have sinned. That metaphor about the moon really sucked."
Another Pew test. I'm continually amazed at how few people get these all right. This one, in collaboration with Smithsonian Magazine, is about science and technology.
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/
Interesting quiz.
I'm in the camp of the top 7%.
Not bad for a humanities major.
James,
People get these wrong because they're either science deniers, scientifically challenged, or because they don't believe in science, period.
I'll bet Jim Inhofe wouldn't beat Victoria. Wouldn't even come close.
The latest info coming from the idiot Tsarnaev brother who lived is sounding more and more like a loser cluster. According to dickhead the younger, they were kicking around a half assed plan in a carjacked SUV. Planning to maybe scoop up the remaining bomb stuff and head to New York where they could detonate them in Times Square. If the whole thing weren't so deadly and tragic, it could be a Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure-like story. I wonder if since he knows his bacon is fried, why not make yourself into a master criminal? These 2 should be lost to history in the fog from which they emerged. Charge, try, convict and move on. The focus should be only on rehabilitation and support of innocent victims. Lets not make these losers into some grandiose Jihadists extraordinaire.
@Marie: You, and Ak, believe that the senate bill S.649 would reduce significantly the purchase of fire-arms by background checks. Or perhaps by some unknown amount but still therefore worthy of passage even though that passage requires accepting the NRA version of history which required the arming of 807,000 men over 16 in 1790 to counterbalance a federal military of 800. Civilians armed with any weapons of their choice short of machine guns. You further believe the bill to be enforceable even though the preamble precludes the keeping of records which might create a trail of evidence to stop illegal sales. I suggest you investigate the tale of the ATF in Arizona, the fast and furious, to see what success the Feds had in getting any prosecution of gun pedalling. Presently 2% of gun sales are refused as a result of background checks. Why would the toothless S.649 improve on this? How does it stop or control the 7,000,000 annual private sales? In the case of this failed bill I think my view of its plausible effectiveness is as valid as yours.
I did not say "he walked". I said "he could have walked". At least in Canadianese 'could have' is an indicator of speculation. If that is not so in Americanese, then my humble apology. My obscure point, which in retrospect could not have been more poorly made, is that none of the after the fact measures proposed since Newtown are going to do anything to reduce massacres. Americans are going to have to dig a hell of a lot deeper to get ahead of the game. Certainly almost any anti-gun law passed will help break down the insane love affair you have with guns. I just don't see how S.649, a law the NRA could vote for, is that law.
@Akhilleus: Law abiding gun stores already do background checks and reject about 2% of prospective buyers. By rights, those 2% should be prosecuted. Are they? How does S.649 stop private sales, sales in gun show parking lots etc? How is a justice system, already gagging for funding, to afford to prosecute crimes which leave no trail and result in no convictions?
I'm not surprised that someone who thinks that 37,399 deaths is "a little over 35,000 deaths" might believe that "Canadians aren't all that worked up about gun deaths". Do you have any idea how fucking calloused you sound? I regret not just every life that has been cut short but also those whose lives have been affected. Meet someone who was at university on an athletic scholarship, popular, academically successful but who in a moment of black despair reached for his handgun and attempted suicide and failed and you learn to mourn also for those who are not even counted in the horrible roll of statistics. He fired a little too low, removed his lower face and blinded himself. At least plastic surgeons were able to reconstruct a mouth. He wouldn't have been saved by S.649 or any other North American law either. I'll be content when guns are found only in museums and grainy photos from yesteryear.