The Commentariat -- April 30, 2014
Internal links removed.
Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs. The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling."
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "In a major environmental victory for the Obama administration, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate the smog-causing pollution from coal-fired power plants that wafts across state lines from 27 Midwestern and Appalachian states to the East Coast. The 6-to-2 ruling upholds a centerpiece of what has become a signature of President Obama's environmental agenda: a series of new Clean Air Act regulations aimed at cutting pollution from coal-fired power plants.... In a dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, suggested that the regulation was Marxist and unwieldy." CW: Those two really are just a couple of clowns. ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "After a tangled Supreme Court argument on Monday over the First Amendment rights of public employees, it seemed likely that the justices would render a split decision. The question was whether Edward R. Lane, a former director of a youth program at a public community college in Alabama, could be fired for responding to a subpoena and giving trial testimony in what the state's attorney general told the court on Monday 'was one of the most egregious public corruption situations in Alabama's history.'"
Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "In the Roberts Court, there are no Bundys and Sterlings; the real targets of the conservative majority are those who've spent their lives fighting the Bundys and Sterlings of the world.... [In Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action...,] it was as if the Justices in the majority and those in dissent were writing about different countries." ...
... Mark A. Thompson of the American Prospect: "Beginning with the April 22 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States allowing affirmative action's fate to be decided at state ballot boxes, followed 24 hours later by rancher Cliven Bundy's comments on slavery's positive attributes, followed 48 hours later by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling's plantation master attitude on display in a recorded telephone conversation attributed to him, this past week has been hell for African Americans. So much for post-racialism." ...
... CW: It pleases me that so many opinionators are linking Roberts, et al., to Bundy & Sterling.
... Lynn Zinser of the New York Times: "Donald Sterling ... was barred from the N.B.A. for life and may be forced to sell the team for making racist remarks, the league commissioner, Adam Silver, announced Tuesday. Silver said that Sterling would be barred from any contact with his team and the league and that he would be fined $2.5 million, the maximum allowed by the league's constitution." ...
... Travis Waldron: "Racist Donald Sterling is distracting everyone's attention from sexist Donald Sterling." ...
... ** Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Race is, hands down, the most repulsive aspect of the Donald Sterling scandal. But sex is a close second."
Dylan Scott of TPM: "A Democratic congressman from Nevada said in a letter this week that his constituents have reported the armed militia supporting rancher Cliven Bundy have set up checkpoints to verify the residency of anybody passing through. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), who represents the area, sent the letter Sunday to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, asking him to investigate."
Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors are nearing criminal charges against some of the world's biggest banks, according to lawyers briefed on the matter, a development that could produce the first guilty plea from a major bank in more than two decades. In doing so, prosecutors are confronting the popular belief that Wall Street institutions have grown so important to the economy that they cannot be charged. A lack of criminal prosecutions of banks and their leaders fueled a public outcry over the perception that Wall Street giants are 'too big to jail.'... Prosecutors in Washington and New York have met with regulators about how to criminally punish banks without putting them out of business and damaging the economy...."
NEW. Anthony Man of the Orlando Sun-Sentinel: "Gov. Rick Scott visited a senior center Tuesday to warn about cuts he said Obamacare is forcing in a popular version of the Medicare health program and to collect their horror stories. What he found was a satisfied group with few complaints." Thanks to Victoria D. for the lead. ...
... Arit John of the Atlantic: "... if Scott wanted to hear how the health care law affects people's lives, he didn't need to look that hard. The left's horror story is still the woman who died uninsured because Florida refused to expand Medicaid." ...
Medical Procedure Cures Brainwashing! I didn't care for Obama. I can’t say nothing bad about him now because it was his plan that probably saved my life. -- Dean Angstadt, Fox "News" victim ...
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: A confirmed anti-ObamaCare logger & Fox "News" viewer changes his mind after a friend "performed an intervention" to get him to sign up, allowing him to get a lifesaving heart valve replacement.
Daniel Strauss of TPM: "Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA) said on Tuesday that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) had asked him to resign and, according to McAllister, the response was a very clear 'no.' Cantor had asked his fellow congressman to resign after McAllister was caught on tape kissing a staffer who is not his wife."
Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "The major umbrella organization of Jewish groups plans to vote on whether to admit a dovish lobbying organization that has been critical of some Israeli policies. The vote on whether to allow the group, J Street, to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations comes at a time when Jewish institutions have been struggling over how much debate over Israel they are willing to tolerate."
MoDo writes another column attacking President Obama. So, back to normal. ...
... AND, speaking of those suffering from obsessive-reflexive antiobamaitis syndrome..., Oren Dorell of USA Today: "Republicans say e-mails released Tuesday on the attack in Benghazi, Libya, include 'the smoking gun' that shows a White House official urged that the assault on the U.S. consulate be blamed on a protest that never happened. The e-mails, obtained by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, include one in which White House official Ben Rhodes lists 'goals' for then-U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to meet in explaining the attack and protests occurring across the Middle East that week to the American public.... The White House said it relied on the best intelligence available at the time, and when better intelligence arrived, the story was clarified."
Congressional Races
Steve M. looks at the Washington Post/ABC News poll, linked yesterday, that looked like bad news for Democrats. What Steve noticed was that Americans prefer Democratic to Republican policies; they just don't like Obama much.
Beyond the Beltway
Laura Vozzella & Pamela Constable of the Washington Post: "Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring thrust himself and his state back into the national spotlight on Tuesday by announcing that some illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children can qualify for in-state tuition under existing law.... The announcement came following a legislative session in which a Republican-dominated House of Delegates firmly rejected a 'Dream Act,' which would have accomplished through statute what Herring did Tuesday with the stroke of a pen."
Bailey McBride & Sean Murphy of the AP: "An Oklahoma inmate whose execution was halted Tuesday because the delivery of a new drug combination was botched died of a heart attack, the head of the state Department of Corrections said. Director Robert Patton said inmate Clayton Lockett died Tuesday after all three drugs were administered. Patton halted Lockett's execution about 20 minutes after the first drug was administered. He said there had been vein failure." ...
... Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "Tuesday night's botched execution in Oklahoma, which resulted in an inmate's writhing death from a heart attack 43 minutes after he received what was supposed to be a lethal injection, was just one in a series of bungled execution attempts the past few years. It's prompting calls for a moratorium on capital punishment from death penalty opponents." ...
... More horrifying details from Ben Crair of the New Republic: "In all likelihood, the executioner who inserted Lockett's IV -- and, in Oklahoma, an IV is inserted into both arms -- missed the veins or went right through them." ...
... Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "For years, there's been mounting evidence that lethal injections are being bungled in the hands of non-experts, leading an increasing number of medical professionals to condemn this method of execution as inhumane." ...
... James Downie of the Washington Post: "Disgracefully, this botched execution was entirely predictable.
Yes, Lockett and Warner's crimes were utterly heinous. But so was this state-sponsored killing, perhaps even more so in light of Oklahoma Republicans' bloodthirsty rush to execute Lockett and Warner. We have known for years that the death penalty is 'cruel and unusual punishment.' We know that the drug cocktails used in lethal injections were designed to be 'visually palatable' at the expense of more effectively preventing excruciating pain. We know that the death penalty is frequently administered in a racially biased fashion. And we know that, as reported this week, 'about one in 25 people imprisoned under a death sentence is likely innocent.' It is long past time for the United States to end this barbaric practice.
Patrick Marley, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "In a decision that could have implications nationally and in Wisconsin's November elections, a federal judge on Tuesday struck down the state's voter ID law, saying it violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. The law known as Act 23 had already been blocked by a state judge. For the law to be put back in place, supporters would have to overturn both the state and federal decisions -- a possibility that could prove difficult between now and the Nov. 4 election for governor.... [Judge Lynn] Adelman, a former Democratic state senator known for sponsoring the state's open records law, determined that in practice the law requiring voters to show one of nine types of photo IDs at the polls established an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. It also violated the federal Voting Rights Act because its effects hit Latinos and African-Americans harder than whites, he wrote."
News Lede
Time: "The deadline for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians expired without a deal on Tuesday, with the two sides blaming each other for the lack of a breakthrough in the negotiations brokered by the U.S."
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Reader Comments (10)
I'm gonna start me a fund to send Lil Johnny Roberts and his pal Sammy Alito some Clevin Bundy T-shirts.
I didn't think I needed to hear anything more about the controversy regarding the L.A. Clippers, but I'm very glad to have caught the short press conference with the Clippers' coach Doc Rivers. His statements were eloquent, original and at times, moving. I especially liked his questioning why it was incumbent on the wronged party to respond, and the advice his father would have given him on how to proceed were he still alive.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24545455/video-doc-rivers-press-conference-before-clippers-game-5
http://brambleman.com/?p=81
@Ak: Yesterday, you asked about the likely political affiliation of the jerk parading around with a gun at a children's baseball game. Forsyth County is all you need to know. The county has a dark past. In 1987, KKK members attacked a march led by Hosea Williams. The link above gives details. The link above gives details. Things have improved, but the county is still very red.
Rick Scott went to a retirement home and spoke to the seniors in scary terms that Obamacare was ruining Medicare. The seniors, probably to Scott's surprise, pushed back; as in this refreshing statement from a female resident:
"People were appalled at Social Security," Rubin said according to the Sun Sentinel. "They were appalled at Medicare when it came out. I think these major changes take some people aback. But I think we have to be careful not to just rely on the fact that we're seniors and have an entitlement to certain things."
Rubin continued that "we're all just sitting here taking it for granted that because we have Medicare we don't want to lose one part of it. That's wrong to me. I think we have to spread it around. This is the United States of America. It's not the United States of senior citizens."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rick-scott-horror-stories-obamacare-seniors-volen-center
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”
Little Johnny Roberts (R-4th grade).
What is it about simplistic--and nearly always false--nostrums that so appeals to conservatives? "With us or against us", "Government is the problem, not the solution", "If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to worry about" (the standard conservative response to George W. Bush's illegal surveillance of Americans--which changed dramatically when a black Democrat was in charge).
These statements tend to be logical fallacies of one kind or another (typically false analogies), but they sure do sound good to wingnuts who long for simplicity in what to believe and how to think. Complex thinking is to conservative ideology as a rainbow is to the color blind. They see that it's there but they have trouble appreciating the differences, so they'd just prefer it went away and not bother them anymore, thank you very much.
And Roberts' clever little boy formulation is not just false, it's dangerously ignorant of the real world and it encourages others who should be mindful of differences between the way they think the world ought to be (Anthony Kennedy) and the way it is. It further encourages those people to make and enforce policies and laws based on wishes or magical thinking (ought) rather than the way things are (is).
It's essentially an ethical problem (more correctly a problem in meta-ethics, which deals with the nature of ethical properties--what comprises ethical statements and actions, eg) first parsed at length by oulde friend David Hume. Are you surprised that conservatives on the Court might have an ethical problem?
I won't get into the nitty-gritty of Hume's argument (which in a nutshell sounds like an old Maine saying "Yuh cahn't get theah from heah." For Hume it was "You can't get to "ought" from "is", although many have tried) except to recall the essential distinction between "ought", which is prescriptive, and "is", which is descriptive.
Kennedy, in his haughty, ivory tower dismissal of the necessity of affirmative action in the real world sniffed that “In the realm of policy discussions the regular give-and-take of debate OUGHT to be a context in which rancor or discord based on race are avoided, not invited.”
Very good Anthony. Now go sit in the corner and write 100 times "Ought is not the same as is", that's a good boy. Here's a lollipop.
And while you're at it, bring little Johnny along. He suffers from the same delusion. And he can write "The way to avoid irrational thinking is to think rationally" 1,000,000 times.
(If I were a smart ass, I'd say "That oughta hold him"....but I'm not, so I won't.)
Diane,
As I read your first sentence "Rick Scott went to a retirement home..." I thought it was leading up to a joke.
But actually, it did. And, it appears, the joke was on him.
I suppose it's another example of the simplistic thinking conservatives crave that makes them treat others as simpletons as well. The idea of trying to scare old people into voting Republican is not only repugnant but counter productive (at least I hope so). People don't get stupid when they get older (good). But many do become more conservative (not so good). People like Cliven Bundy were stupid and conservative long before they were old. Unfortunately for the few remaining conservatives with working brains, those are the same things these days.
Still, Rick Scott going to a retirement home sounds like a pretty good deal for the people of Florida.
In light of the botched executions in Oklahoma yesterday, how many proponents of capital punishment, do you think, will pause to reexamine their stance?
Okay, rhetorical question. So...moving on..
But really, they should. Especially those on the right who hold themselves to the standards of Christianity. Oh, I know it's mighty white of them to bring in a preacher at the last minute to save the souls of those evil nee-groes (recipients of capital punishment in this country being black by several country miles) before killing them, and even though the man who was killed by Oklahoma yesterday in a rather gruesome display of inefficiency and Old Testament vengeance was guilty of a terrible crime, many who are treated thus are not. Therefore, would it be possible for lovers of the death penalty to hear what one or two innocent persons who had been put to death had to say about it?
Here's Socrates in Crito:
"Then one ought not return injustice for injustice or do ill to any man, no matter what one may suffer at their hands."
He continues this train of thought in Gorgias:
"Then, asked Polus, would you wish rather to suffer wrong than to do it? – I should wish neither for my own part, but if it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should prefer to suffer rather than do it, Socrates answered."
His imminent death, imposed by the state, did not dissuade Socrates from his position. Why?
Socrates believed that we have a moral as well as physical existence. He further believed that no other human being can harm us morally. They can do plenty of physical damage but only we can damage our own moral standing and this he was loathe to do. Modern conservative retributionists seem not to care about the moral component of what harm they may be doing to themselves by inflicting death on others, even those who have done great evil.
But maybe they don't give a shit about what some smelly old Greek guy has to say. After all, he's a heathen isn't he? Okay, so how about this guy?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Matthew 5-38-39
That guy's word good enough?
Obviously not. But Jesus' teachings, which so many conservatives claim to follow, seem to closely mirror Socrates' concept of the importance of the moral life of the soul. More than once Jesus instructs his disciples that the harm done by others is nothing compared to the harm we do to ourselves. None of which seems to matter to those seeking vengeance, which seems a serious abjuration of one of the central tenets of their faith.
And, as I suggested yesterday, the brutality connected to the exercise of capital punishment has more to do with the seeking of vengeance than the pursuit of justice. Add to that the fact that a substantial percentage of those killed by the state are innocent, what pro-life Christian who claims to be a follower of Jesus would abide the death penalty?
And this is not a rhetorical question. It demands a response.
Not holding my breath, though.
Re: Interstate Tolls.
Whycome, you might ask.
The answer lies in large part in simple numbers. The federal gas tax of less than 19 cents/gallon has not increased in decades, while all road construction and maintenance costs have risen dramatically. As gasoline costs have increased, considered as a percentage of the cost of gasoline, the tax has startlingly declined.
Right now we have the largest surplus of crude oil in years, but prices at the pump continue to rise, here in Washington State, now approaching $ 4 a gallon. So what reason would tell us should be paid as increased tax is instead going to increased profit, the very real and egregious tax people pay to the cartel that supplies our fuel.
If we taxed both gasoline purchase and corporate profits reasonably, the "problem" of maintaining our roads would disappear.
Did I say "reasonably?" Silly me.
The April 29 article by Rod Dreher of the American Conservative about Sarah Palin let me into "Locavore Revolution" about eating local food. Local food, slow food, what ever it is called, implies it isn't processed so its shelf life exceeds the span of time of the post-apocalyptic nuclear winter. It implies that there is no labeling mumbo jumbo designed by those slight-of-hands artists in the marketing department. It implies that "chicken pieces" actually contain something most folks would recognize as meat, as opposed to skin, sinew, bones, etc. And finally, and my point, is that food available for my family table not be solely processed, by high-barriers-to-entry food safety laws designed by Walmart in tandem with the FDA, USDA and syncophants sucking at the corporate trough. Buy local and push back against laws that scare you into buying hyper-processed food and preventing new businesses from getting shelf space and entering the market. When only right wing corporatists control the food supply, such as the 2 companies controlling 40% of the beef supply in the country, democracy loses.
Hi Y'all-
Just wanted to add a little human interest to the Wisconsin Voting Rights turn-around. Lynn Adelman, the federal judge who did the deed, was an "old" high school BF of mine--class on 1957 at Shorewood High. We called him "Ollie," because "Lynn" sounded too girly!
I wish I could say he was a lovely guy, because his politics certainly are (and have been always) in a good place. However, he was a rather arrogant and entitled character, and I was not sad to see our relationship end. I saw him again at our class reunion in 2007, and I must say it was pretty much the same story. However, I forgive him EVERYTHING, because he may just have given Scotty Walkabout the Big Boot! And a nosebleed to the Koch brothers as well. Some of the best politicians (and judges) are not particularly nice people. Guess in the big picture, politics trumps personality!
That has always bothered me, and I am sure, always will.