The Commentariat -- April 7, 2015
Internal links removed.
"Surrender at Appomattox," by Thomas Lovell.... ** Brian Beutler: "... April 9 is the 150th anniversary of the Union’s victory in the Civil War.... And to mark the occasion, the federal government should make two modest changes: It should make April 9 a federal holiday; and it should commit to disavowing or renaming monuments to the Confederacy, and its leaders, that receive direct federal support." ...
... CW: I'm sure everyone will jump on this idea. Let's ask Jefferson Beauregard Sessions about it, for starters. Also, I never knew who Edmund Pettus was. So I looked him up: "He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War.... After the war he was a Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and a Democratic U.S. Senator.... [He was] an enthusiastic champion of the Confederate cause and of slavery...." ...
... Steve M.: "Yeah, that's all we need: another reason for right-wingers to feel put upon.... In the real America, Southern whites have persuaded themselves that the flag of the Confederacy is about 'heritage' rather than slavery or treason, and the defense of 'heritage' in the modern world is part of a noble resistance to anti-white racism, which manifests itself in affirmative action and excessive social spending on Those People."
Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "President Obama teased his critics in his Easter remarks as religious leaders gathered at the White House for a prayer breakfast Tuesday. Obama noted the biblical call that Christians are called to love each other. But he said he sometimes hears 'less-than-loving expressions by Christians.' He added, 'but that's a topic for another day,' to applause and some jeering and laughter, 'I was about to veer off. I'm pulling it back.'"
When Crazy No Longer Pays. Dana Milbank: "Climate-change deniers are in retreat.... They're resorting to more defensible arguments that don't make them sound like flat-earthers.... For politicians and climate-denial groups, the elixir of life is money. Now that corporations are becoming reluctant to bankroll crazy theories, the surrender of climate-change deniers will follow."
Timothy Cama of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday sent to the White House its controversial regulation to redefine the extent of its authority over water pollution control."
Trevor Potter & Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center, in Politico Magazine: "Before [Aaron] Schock [R-Illinois] becomes a footnote in history, it's worth reflecting on how he represents everything wrong with the way Congress raises money.... The rise and fall of Schock embodies the reality of the current campaign finance system. Members are now valued by the Leadership and fellow Members because of their fundraising prowess, not their legislating abilities.... The true scandal is that he was doing what all 'successful' Members of Congress now do -- ignoring Congressional grunt work and instead raising money." Potter & McGehee suggests some at-least partial solutions -- which aren't going to happen. Because $$$.
Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden avoided saying whether he had read every NSA document he handed over to journalists in an interview with comedian John Oliver on Sunday, as the HBO host posed uncomfortable questions to the NSA whistleblower in Moscow." ...
... Alan Yuhas: "The New York parks department on Monday removed a large bust of Edward Snowden that was installed in a Brooklyn park, shortly after covering it up with a tarp and thwarting the artists' stated intent 'to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies'. The Snowden bust still stood at Fort Greene Park's Prison Ship Martyrs monument, atop a single Doric column."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer ... is strongly endorsing passage of a law opposed by President Barack Obama that would give Congress an avenue to reject the White House-brokered framework [on Iranian nuclear capabilities] unveiled last week." ...
... Eyder Peralta of NPR: "On Friday, Netanyahu insisted that any final agreement with Iran had to include 'clear and unambiguous Iranian commitment of Israel's right to exist.' In his interview with [NPR's] Steve [Inskeep], Obama dismissed Netanyahu's demand. 'The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms,' Obama said. 'And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment.'" With audio. ...
... Peter Beinart of the Atlantic on what's wrong with Netanyahu's arguments. "... if America follows Netanyahu's advice, Iran's isolation will ease and America's will grow. Perhaps it's no surprise that a leader whose policies have so isolated his own country from the world is urging the United States down a similar path." ...
... Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Whereas Israel's public diplomacy has so far focused on what many have said was an unrealistic demand for the complete dismantlement of Iran's potentially military nuclear infrastructure, Yuval Steinitz, Israel's minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, presented a list of desired modifications for the final agreement due to be concluded by June 30, that he said would make it 'more reasonable.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Amanda Holpuch & Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "The University of Virginia fraternity chapter at the center of Rolling Stone magazine's retracted article A Rape on Campus said on Monday that it planned to sue the magazine for what it called 'reckless' reporting that hurt its reputation." ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: "No one at Rolling Stone magazine is going to be fired: How can that be?"
I don't trust the press. I think I trust Iran more than I trust the American press. I don't want the American press interpreting this for me. -- Bill O'Reilly, one of the nation's few honest journos
Presidential Race
NEW. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky declared himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for president on Tuesday, aiming to upset the political order in Washington and disprove those in his own party who doubt that a fiercely libertarian conservative can be a serious contender." ...
... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will become the second major GOP presidential candidate to officially launch a White House bid on Tuesday.... He intends to focus heavily on young voters and minority outreach, and will make the pitch to Republican primary voters that his efforts to expand the party make him the candidate with the best chance to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election." ...
... Jeremy Peters: "On Tuesday, when Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination at a rally here, his father, Ron, the former Texas congressman, will have a silent role. The elder Mr. Paul, who is known for eagerly commenting on the crisis of the moment, has been much quieter lately. Last week, he was declining all interview requests." ...
... Josh Rogin of Bloomberg: "In the first salvo of the 2016 Republican ad wars, a conservative group is about to unleash a seven-figure ad campaign targeting Senator Rand Paul for being out of step with the party on Iran, just as he launches his presidential campaign. The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, a 501(c)(4) group led by veteran Republican operative Rick Reed, will go live with its campaign against Paul on Tuesday, while the senator is in Louisville, Kentucky, announcing his presidential candidacy.... Reed ... was the architect of the 2004 'Swiftboat Veterans for Truth' campaign that attacked John Kerry's national-security record and credentials."
Robert Samuels of the Washington Post: "... Jeb Bush boasts that an executive order he signed that ended race-based college admissions in Florida upheld conservative principles while helping minorities.... But[, as predicted,] at Florida's two premier universities, black enrollment is shrinking.... Bush ... is the only governor who has signed an order ending affirmative action.... The growth in minority enrollment that Bush now points to is primarily a result of the state's booming Hispanic population.... As the number of black students dwindles, a sense of isolation has grown among them, particularly during episodes of perceived prejudice." ...
... Juanito! Ed Kilgore: "... when Poppy caused a brief flurry of controversy by referring to Jeb's kids as 'the little brown ones,' it probably didn't occur to him that Jeb might come to think of himself as a 'little brown one' by association -- or perhaps by the projection of a pol hungry for votes. Any way you slice the cantaloupe, though, you have to wonder how this news went over with Steve King." ...
... As Unwashed remarked in yesterdays Comments, "Just to be safe, we might want to get out the tape measure to check the circumference of [Jeb's] calves to make sure he didn't sneak across the border carrying a couple bales of contraband." ...
... A Family Rejects It's Northeastern WASPy Heritage. David Frum of the Atlantic: "Just as George H.W. Bush turned his back on the Northeastern Republicanism of Prescott Bush by traveling to Texas and throwing his lot in with Goldwater conservatism; just as New Haven-born George W. Bush defined himself as the Texas-most of the Texans; so Jeb says he is not a WASP, but a bicultural man, raising a bicultural family. He emancipated himself from one identity by adopting another."
Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Expressing reverence for [Ronald] Reagan has been almost a requirement for Republican presidential candidates since 1988, but [Scott] Walker has taken to it like an apostle to his creed. As he prepares a White House run, and envisions competing against candidates named Bush and Clinton, Mr. Walker is going to great lengths to claim the Reagan legacy all for himself."
Obama to Walker: "You're an Ignoramus." Domenicao Montanaro of NPR: President "Obama scoffed at Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's suggestion that he would, on Day 1, revoke any nuclear agreement with Iran if he is elected president. 'It would be a foolish approach to take,' Obama said in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, 'and perhaps Mr. Walker -- after he's taken some time to bone up on foreign policy -- will feel the same way.'" ...
... Greg Sargent: "Walker’s attack [on the Iran deal] is a reminder that Republicans continue to frame their opposition to any Iran deal in narrow terms -- I pledge to stick it to Obama and undo his capitulation to Iran on Day One!!! -- when in fact the talks also involve major allies, meaning all sorts of consequences could result from blowing up an international deal to which they are parties. Obama's response did hint at the general idea that recklessly undermining our agreements with other countries would 'embolden our enemies.'"
Josh Rogin of Bloomberg: "Texas Governor Rick Perry hasn't yet said whether he's running for president, yet he will announce Monday that if he wins the White House he intends to trash President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran as one of his first official acts." ...
... As digby asked the other day, "Am I the only one who finds it just a little bit odd that the American officials loudly claiming Iran cannot be trusted to fulfill any deal are simultaneously pledging that they will not fulfill any deal? Is it possible they have such little self-awareness?" ...
... CW: Sorry, digby, but "Rick Perry" and "self-awareness" only appear in the same sentence when someone is pointing out he has none. ...
In hope we entrust to the merciful Lord the framework recently agreed to in Lausanne, that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.... From the risen Lord we ask the grace not to succumb to the pride which fuels violence and war, but to have the humble courage of pardon and peace. -- Pope Francis, in his Easter Message ...
... An Easter Message from Pope Francis to Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, et. al.: David Knowles of Bloomberg: "Pope Francis wants to give peace with Iran a chance. Delivering his Easter message from St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Sunday, the pope gave his backing to the nuclear deal reached between Iran, the United States, China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. 'In hope we entrust to the merciful Lord the framework recently agreed to in Lausanne, that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world,' the pope told the throngs of followers gathered in the rain." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Every day, you figure the odds go up that some conservative politician like Rick Santorum or Bobby Jindal is going to come right out and claim to be more Catholic than the Pope."
The Gospel According to Ted -- Does Not Run Thru the Supreme Court. Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News: "On his first Iowa stop as a presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz warned Wednesday that a Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage nationwide would be 'fundamentally illegitimate.'... 'Because of their partisan desire to mandate gay marriage everywhere in this country, they also want to persecute anyone who has a good faith religious belief that marriage is a holy sacrament, the union of one man and one woman and ordained as a covenant by God,' he said.... He reiterated his vow to press for a constitutional amendment that would clarify the power of state legislatures to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. If the high court does legalize gay marriage nationwide, he added, he would prod Congress to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the issue, a rarely invoked legislative tool." Via Charles Pierce. ...
Andy Borowitz: "The Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz's constant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong interest in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report."
... If you are trying to think up some sly, disingenuous ways to justify bigotry, among the fellows who are glad to oblige are Rick Santorum, who thinks he should be POTUS, & Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who thinks he should be pope. Charles Pierce reports. CW: For starters, all these old boys should take a look at the Good News in the Good Book (see my Sunday post), & quit making up shit. Next, they really need to get over their weird obsession with other people's sex lives & wedding plans. (See also "Daily Show" clip below.)
AND 90-percent-presidential-candidate Carly Fiorina blames liberals for the California drought.
Senate Race
Dan Nowicki of the Arizona Republic: "Veteran U.S. Sen. John McCain will announce Tuesday that he will seek a sixth term in 2016. McCain, R-Ariz., plans to officially declare his bid for re-election during a speech before the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Arizona Biltmore resort in central Phoenix." McCain will turn 80 in 2016.
Gubernatorial Race
Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: Gavin Newsom, California's leutenant governor, who is running for governor, Newsom, a Democrat, is the highest-ranking state official to support legalization [of recreational marijuana]. If an expected 2016 ballot measure to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana includes safeguards that he views as crucial, Newsom will endorse it and effectively be the public face of the effort."
Beyond the Beltway
Nik DeCosta-Klipa of the Boston Globe: "On the same day closing arguments were heard in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial for the Boston Marathon bombings, Massachusetts Catholic leaders reaffirmed their opposition to the death penalty. The Massachusetts Catholic Conference released a statement Monday afternoon, signed by local bishops, including Cardinal Seán O'Malley."
Republican Men Should Not Be Allowed out at Night
The Man in the Orange Jumpsuit was once the head of the South Carolina GOP.WIS TV, Columbia, South Carolina: "The former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party was arrested Monday on a criminal domestic violence charge. James John Todd Kincannon, 33, was booked into the Lexington County Detention Center Monday evening....
Just Another GOP Mugshot.... Michael Brindley of New Hampshire Public Radio: "Senator Kelly Ayotte says she has accepted the resignation of her state director, after he was arrested Friday, charged with solicitation of prostitution. Nashua police say David Wihby was one of 10 men arrested as part of a special sting operation last week at two city hotels." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Mike Weisser in the Huffington Post: "This past week Kansas became the sixth state to align itself with something called the Constitutional Carry Movement which interprets the 2nd Amendment to mean that anyone can carry a concealed weapon without having to undergo any kind of licensing requirement at all.... The [Supreme Court's] 2008 Heller decision ... explicitly defined the 2nd Amendment as granting Americans the right to keep a gun in their homes.
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Reader Comments (14)
Word has it there is a movement a- foot for renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I can well imagine the nasty fight that will ensue.
@Marie: Sent your Sunday message to a few who have replied––"Who knew?" and were mighty grateful for the information. A little nudge, here and there, sometimes gets the old bean to let some new ideas enter in. Ain't easy when you have a guy like Cruz railing on about Jesus' messages about the proper get-togethers. It's first century versus the 21st––––and the crowds lap it up.
Re: the Constitutional Carry Movement. The jury is no longer out. Those on the right have a fundamentally different standard cognitive process and default perspective on the world than do those on the left. There is no real center any more. As the environment deteriorates, there is likely to be either a popular revolt (led by a demagogue like Carly Fiorina who apparently is convinced that the rubes will believe any sound that emanates from a photogenic cavern near a flag pin) or a coup that will be backed by corporate thugs and money. Guess who will have all the guns.
Stupid Pet Tricks: DC Edition
AIPAC: Chuck, sit! Chuck, roll over! Chuck, beg. Okay, Chuck, Speak!
Schumer: No deal with Iran.
AIPAC: Good boy, Chuck. Here's your treat.
Next day, Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
Aide: Senator, there's a call for you from something called America's Best Interests.
Schumer: Tell them I'm not in. And let me know the second Bibi returns my call.
Steve M, in his No More Mister Nice Blog piece vastly underestimates the level of victimization felt by Confederates.
The Stars and Bars, symbols of racism, support for slavery, and secession, fly high over every state in the south, but some like to really do it up. Confederates in a number of locations have been vying, over the last 10 years or so, probably dating back to when Reagan made racism okay again in America, to fly the largest Confederate battle flags in the world. Gigantic flags fly over highways and conspicuous public areas in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
These demonstrations of fealty to southern slavery and secession have been funded in large part by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the same group that brought a suit to the Supreme Court a few weeks ago demanding the state of Texas do their bidding and put Confederate battle flags on their license plates, because, freedom, I guess. And racism, or is that heritage? Maybe that is their heritage.
Anyway, these guys are nuts. I mean fucking nuts. As you've all read, they claim it's all about history and heritage. But it's a lot scarier than that. When the Alabama flag was put up, it was met with some (not much) resistance from the few who see it as something other than a nice historical touch. But opposing points of view are not tolerated by the Confederates who, on a site called "Southern Nationalist Network" (does that sound vaguely, I dunno, secessionist? Oh wait, look, their twitter feed is #secede. Nice.) anyone who doesn't like the Alabama battle flag is an "advocate of southern genocide". I kid you not. They take any opposite opinion as demonstration that you want to kill them.
Comments on the SSN site say things like "we should be flying battle flags stained with blood so they'll know we mean business!" And interestingly, Confederates, with each new raising of gigantic battle flags, whine about being victims, yet I haven't been able to find a single case where they were denied permission to let hatred fly high. Even when they win they're still victims.
These people are not interested in history and heritage, they are dangerous fanatics.
And there are plenty of them sitting in congress right now. And they think of themselves as victims as well, even when they're running the show.
So why, Carly, if those nasty libruls can control snowpack, rain, population growth, water policy that allows water hungry crops like rice and alfalfa growing in a desert and far, far more have they not yet managed to create the socialist paradise in which every citizen has an equal voice?
If only we privatized all water resources and let the "market" (I'm thinking here of Enron and its heartless market manipulations that caused the CA brownout you've apparently already forgotten), think that would bring the snow and rain back to the West, like the old saying "rain follows the plow," another forgotten capitalist fantasy?
Just wondering...
@Akhileus: I am deeply offended by Schumer's disrespect of POTUS, and slarmed at the potential of Congress to scuttle negotiations. I called both my Senators to weigh in this morning well before breakfast here on West coast. Both phones were answered immediately and both staff members very courteous.
Okay, another editorial decision.
Yesterday I decided, after consulting with our host, that from here on out I'd refer to Shrub III as Juanito Arbuto.
Today I've decided to stop referring to "gay" marriage, "lesbian" marriage, "same sex" or any other kind of marriage. (Polygamous marriages however, deserve identification. That shit really IS illegal).
It's just marriage. There's no difference. Confederates aren't for marriage for everyone, then they're against marriage pure and simple, a condition for which there is plenty of evidence anyway, given the skyrocketing divorce rates in red states.
So Enough of this shit. Marriage. That's it.
Victoria,
It troubles me mightily that this guy will be taking over as Minority Leader. You're either for the United States, or you're not. You want to suck up to a group that is more concerned with a foreign nation, you want to do what's best for them even if it's not best for your own country? Do it on your own time. Even better, don't do it at all. Used to be, you advocate for what's best for a foreign government at the expense of your own, it was called treason. I don't know what the hell it's called now.
"Keeping the Faucet Open?"
Sen. Rand Paul announces he's running for POTUS. "We have come
to take our country back." In my view, that's only half a sentence.
Surely he meant "we have come to take our country back about
200 years."
Oh boy! It's official.
Ted Cruz is no longer by his lonesome in the GOP clown car. Move those floppy shoes over, Tailgunner!
Sen. Aqua Buddha has thrown his wig into the race. At a hotel in Louisville this afternoon, Bad Toupée announced that he was going to blah, blah, blah, blah, and not only that, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So there.
He also brought up his bereft childhood during which his family was so poor he had to actually get a job. So sad. Also, because his father was only a lowly doctor, they were poor, natch, and blah, blah, blah.
But Wig Boy is ready to tear it up in Washington, upset the apple cart, throw the baby out with the bath water, pour sand in the gas tank, burn the midnight oil, cry over spilled milk, let sleeping dogs lie, pick your own tired idiomatic expression. He's ready to dissect that town, baby.
What he won't do, however, is let the cat out of the bag. Or anywhere else, apparently:
Young Randal gets a head start on his political career. As the caption says, "This was in the era before we learned to watch out for such warning signs".
I don't know about you, but my wig's off to the guy.
Let the faux Libertarianizationing begin!
Marie writes, about Bible beaters like Rick (Dark Ages) Santorum and Timothy Dolan, that..."they really need to get over their weird obsession with other people's sex lives..."
Sorry, Marie. Ain't gonna happen. Obsession with sex is one of their favorite things.
The other day I was scanning through all the transgressions listed just in Leviticus that you should avoid on pain of death and/or other terrible, horrible, no good punishments. Out of 76 items on the list, 20--or more than a quarter--are obsessed with punishments connected to lady parts or whom you can and can't have sex with. The not-having-sex-with list is a hummer, some of which are downright weird.
No sex with your mother, your sister, half sister, father's wife, biological aunt, uncle's wife, daughter in law, sister in law, a woman, her daughter, AND her granddaughter--not clear if that's at the same time (Christ, what were these people eating? They must have been living in King Solomon's Playboy mansion.), cousin's best friend's sister on her mother's side twice removed.
Oh, and no sex with animals either. Thought I forgot about that one, didn't you? Leave us not even contemplate the reason for that one.
You get the idea. This shit is enough inspiration for decades' worth of Penthouse Letters.
And if Leviticus is any indication, wingers like Santorum and Dolan harbor some pretty fucking salacious imagery (or is that pretty salacious fucking imagery?). No wonder they don't want to give it up. Their pee-pees must constantly be in such a state! Is it any surprise then that it's hard to keep things like domestic and foreign policies front and center?
Bibles aren't the only things these guys beat.
Re: Carry on Campus. Way back in 1959-61, I was a student at a college in Montana. I had at various times, a Smith & Wesson .38-.44, or a Colt .45 automatic. Several others had weapons in the dormitory, too. You could walk off campus a short distance on weekends to find a place to shoot cans and bottles. It was a different time with different attitudes.
I sold the .45 ca 1962 and just recently gave the .38-.44 to a friend. My wife sold her gun, too.
Nowadays, I wouldn't dream of keeping a gun in a dormitory or in my house. Too many people who can't be trusted with a gun or the knowledge where one is. In those days, the population was much smaller and the NRA confined itself to target shooting and gun safety. We had radio, b&w tv and no internet.
TEACHING EVOLUTION IN KETUCKY:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/07/1376110/-Hard-Duty-Teaching-Evolution-in-Kentucky?detail=email
@Barbarossa: Your statement that college kids and others shouldn't be trusted with guns rings sadly true here. Last week the son of a city councilman in my town of Bellingham was killed by a friend, unintentionally. The circumstances were a group of young men of approximately college age fooling around in a house rented by some of them. An unloaded gun was passed around and they took turns pretending to shoot it. At some point someone slipped a bullet in and another man, not realizing it was now loaded, put the gun to his friend's head and pulled the trigger. The perpetrator looked distraught at his bail hearing and is now being charged with first degree manslaughter.