The Commentariat -- Aug. 24, 2013
The President's Weekly Address:
This is probably controversial to say, but, what the heck, I'm in my second term, so I can say it. Law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years. -- President Obama, in Binghamton, New York ...
... Ed Kilgore, a lawyer, on why this seems like a good idea to him, too.
Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "Faced with steep cuts to their budgets, federal public defenders around the country have furloughed or laid off hundreds of lawyers and other staff members, spent less on expert witnesses and cut back on case-related travel.... The result, said lawmakers, judges and public defenders, are court delays that might violate defendants' rights to speedy trials and could lead to the dismissal of criminal cases.... The federal public defenders system is buckling under the effects of the $85 billion across-the-board cuts known as the sequester, threatening the integrity of the criminal justice system, which guarantees the right to a court-appointed lawyer for those who cannot afford one." See also a brief discussion of this in yesterday's Commentariat.
Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "The New York Times ... -- which NSA leaker Edward Snowden deliberately avoided over his fear that it would cooperate with the United States government -- is now working with the Guardian on a series of stories based on documents that detail National Security Agency cooperation with its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ. 'In a climate of intense pressure from the UK government, The Guardian decided to bring in a US partner to work on the GCHQ documents provided by Edward Snowden,' Guardian spokeswoman Jennifer Lindenauer said in an email.... The Times's involvement in the story also brings into sharp relief a ... question: Whether carrying classified documents across national borders can be an act of journalism.... it appears likely that someone at one of the two papers physically carried a drive with Snowden's GCHQ leaks from London to New York or Washington -- exactly what [David] Miranda was stopped at Heathrow for doing." ...
... Both Smith & Marcy Wheeler note that the Times assigned Scott Shane to the story, rather than James Risen or Charlie Savage, both of whom have been writing NSA stories. Wheeler notes that "Shane has an increasingly consistent ability to tell grand tales that serve the interests of The Powers that Be. And somehow his stories about extremely sensitive subjects like drones don't get chased for leaks." So she figured out "how to get the government to ease up: involve Scott Shane." ...
Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian: "The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency's activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian. The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred the costs to meet new certification demands in the wake of the ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court. The October 2011 judgment, which was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration, found that the NSA's inability to separate purely domestic communications from foreign traffic violated the fourth amendment.... Material [passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden] provides the first evidence of a financial relationship between the tech companies and the NSA." Facebook denies having received any compensation. ...
... Glenn Greenwald thinks U.K. national security personnel have conspired with the British newspaper the Independent to demonstrate that Ed Snowden is harming national security. Specifically, he charges that government officials leaked damaging information to the Independent, then got the Independent to claim Snowden was the source. Snowden denies ever working with the Independent. Greenwald might be right or his beanie might be snapped on too tight(ly)....
... Chris Strohm of Bloomberg News: "The leaders of U.S. congressional intelligence committees said they want to probe the intentional abuses of surveillance authority committed by some National Security Agency analysts in the past decade.... The compilation of willful violations, while limited, contradicts repeated assertions that no deliberate abuses occurred.... President Barack Obama told CNN in an interview broadcast yesterday he is confident no one at the NSA is 'trying to abuse this program or listen in on people's e-mail.' 'There's a pattern of the administration making misleading statements about its surveillance activities,' Jameel Jaffer, a deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a phone interview. 'The government tells us one thing, and another thing is true.'" ...
... Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal: "National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency's enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said. The practice isn't frequent -- one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade -- but it's common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT.... The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse. In each instance, the employee was punished either with an administrative action or termination." ...
... Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Asked by CNN interviewer Chris Cuomo on Thursday whether he was 'confident that you know everything that's going on within that agency and that you can say to the American people, "It's all done the right way'?"', Obama insisted he was. 'Because there are no allegations, and I am very confident -- knowing the NSA and how they operate -- that purposefully somebody is out there trying to abuse this program or listen in on people's email,' he said in the interview that aired on Friday." ...
... D. S. Wright of Firedoglake: "So at least ten times, and if the way this story has been going is any indication -- drip, drip, drip -- it is probable there will be even more intentional abuses revealed. But what we know for sure now is that the Obama Administration and members of Congress have been lying to the American people about this program. Full stop."
Gail Collins remembers when she couldn't get a credit card in her own name because she was just a girl. "Monday we will celebrate Women's Equality Day, the anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote." CW: I remember when my (female) professor told me I shouldn't pursue an advanced degree -- even though I was at the top of my class (you know, ahead of all the boys) -- because I would either have to stay single or follow my husband around to the places he worked. I took her advice. It changed my life. And not for the better. BTW, Collins doesn't say so, but it wasn't Macy's fault she had to give her husband's name. In most states, the law was that a husband was responsible for his wife's debts (but a wife wasn't responsible for her husband's -- or for her own).
"Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts." Erica Goode of the New York Times: "... an anti-government ideology known as the 'sovereign citizen' movement, is being employed more frequently as a way to retaliate against perceived injustices." Their principal tactic is to file (fradulent) liens against officials who aggravate them. "Cases involving sovereign citizens are surfacing increasingly .. in Minnesota and in other states, posing a challenge to law enforcement officers and court officials, who often become aware of the movement -- a loose network of groups and individuals who do not recognize the authority of federal, state or municipal government -- only when they become targets.... The sovereign citizen movement traces its roots to white extremist groups like the Posse Comitatus of the 1970s, and the militia movement.... The ideology seems to attract con artists, the financially desperate and people who are fed up with bureaucracy...."
Local News
Craig Gustafson of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Bob Filner announced his resignation Friday as San Diego's 35th mayor following a tumultuous six weeks in which lurid allegations of repeated sexual misconduct against women crippled his ability to lead and turned him into a subject of national ridicule. Filner will to step down on Aug. 30 as part of a deal approved Friday afternoon by the City Council on a 7-0 vote in closed session that limits his legal and financial exposure stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide."
We certainly would not have advised [George Zimmerman] to go to the factory that made the gun that he used to shoot Trayvon Martin through the heart. That was not part of our public relations plan. -- Shawn Vincent, spokesman for attorney Mark O'Mara, who defended George Zimmerman in his murder trial
Alyssa Newcomb of ABC News: "George Zimmerman, who is already packing a pistol, toured a gun maker's factory this week and asked whether he could buy a shotgun. Zimmerman, acquitted a month ago of killing teenager Trayvon Martin with a Kel-Tec 9 mm pistol, toured the Kel-Tec plant on Thursday in Cocoa, Fla. The plant is about an hour's drive from Sanford, the community where Martin was killed. Zimmerman, 29, took a tour of the assembly plant and asked about the legality of buying a shotgun and smiled in a photograph with an employee, according to TMZ, which first reported the visit." ...
... CW: you can blame the right-wing, racist press for Zimmerman's bravado. Instead of condemning him, as any normal person would, they have made him a hero & a victim of racial prejudice. As a result, the bastard thinks he did no wrong. And a special thanks to the NRA & ALEC, who promoted the stand-your-ground law that makes murder legal in Florida. And a hat-tip to the Florida legislators & Gov. Jeb Bush who passed & signed the bill into law. ...
... BTW ... KTVU: "An overwhelming number of Florida legislators have rejected a call for a special session to repeal the state's 'stand your ground law.'" Video. ...
... AND Agence France-Presse: following Zimmerman's acquittal, Florida "Governor Rick Scott, who met Thursday with protesters occupying the state Capitol building, said in a statement that he opposes efforts to repeal Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law and other measures allowing residents to use lethal force to defend themselves." ...
... Brian Beautler of Salon has a good piece on the right's obsession with black-on-white crime, & how the right misstates facts & gins up false equivalences to justify their OUTRAGE that liberals don't go nuts every time a black person victimizes a white person.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Julie Harris, the unprepossessing anti-diva who, in the guises of Joan of Arc, Mary Todd Lincoln, Emily Dickinson and many other characters both fictional and real, became the most decorated performer in the history of Broadway, died on Saturday at her home in Chatham, Mass."
NBC News: "A raging California wildfire has grown to 200 square miles, threatening the San Francisco power grid, spreading into Yosemite National Park, and prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency and secure federal funding to assist in batting back the roaring flames."
Doctors without Borders: "Three hospitals in Syria's Damascus governorate that are supported by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have reported ... that they received approximately 3,600 patients displaying neurotoxic symptoms in less than three hours on the morning of Wednesday, August 21, 2013. Of those patients, 355 reportedly died."
Washington Post: "Thousands are expected to head to the Mall on Saturday to attend a rally and participate in a march to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. The rally will include speeches from Attorney General Eric Holder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the Rev. Al Sharpton, among others. At 12:30 p.m., a march will leave the Lincoln Memorial, pass the memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and travel to the Washington Monument." The page is a liveblog of events.
AP: "U.S. naval forces are moving closer to Syria as President Barack Obama considers military options for responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. The president emphasized that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike."
Share Article
Reader Comments (5)
Marie,
I can relate to your story of being dissuaded from getting more education, and of the negative impact it had on your life. I've sent Ms. Collins' article to my daughter as I often do when I read similar ones.
As I was opening your website today, I was thinking of your statement (last year?) that you may give it up, and hoping that you will continue. Whatever life course you veered from to follow that long-ago advice, you are doing immeasurable good with your intelligence and dedication to informing your readers. I would miss your insight very much.
Re Gail Collins:
Sometime in the mid-80s, my then-wife’s employer moved us back to Sacramento from Denver. My wife had a good job with a high-tech company. I’d just finished a book and was unemployed. We owned one house in the area, but she didn’t want to live in it, so she bought another. I went along just to sign the papers. About 3 years later, we separated, then divorced. I moved back to WDC. She sold the house and went to Guatemala. Maybe 10 years passed, and I received a letter from HUD. It contained an application form and explained that if I had owned such-&-such a property, I was due a refund on some government insurance. I filled out the form and returned it with a note explaining that it was actually my ex-wife’s house and I included the last address I had for her in Guatemala. Three weeks later, I received a check for $4,000. It was made payable to James Singer et uxor.
In 1971, I found myself pregnant for the fourth time in five years--my third child was only five months old. I cried. Physically, I could have had a baby a year; but mentally and financially, this was devastating news. I knew I didn't want to ever find myself in that position again, so I consulted my family physician (who delivered all my children) about a permanent birth control solution. He told me to see a gynecologist and have my tubes tied after the baby was born.
So, off to the gynecologist I went and was told that yes, he would perform the operation but that I would have to have three doctors, one of whom had to be a psychiatrist, sign that I was mentally competent to make that decision and that my husband had to sign a form giving his permission. (This would be the same husband that told me beforehand that he would not have a vasectomy because "what if my voice changed" or our marriage didn't last [it didn't]--he was not kidding.) So I saw the three doctors, got my husband's permission, and the day after my youngest son was born, had a tubal ligation.
I fumed about the injustice of it all for years. There were so many other little things adding insult to injury like receiving the tax notice on property jointly owned (and inherited from my parents) listing his name first and me as "spouse." Or having my picture taken for a newspaper story and the photographer asking what my husband's name was so I could be identified as Mrs. John Doe--like I was some sort of possession. One day I answered a knock on the door and a man asked to speak to my husband, who was not home at the time. He was there to discuss buying some farm land. I told him he could just as easily speak to me because it was my land too, but he declined saying he'd wait to speak to my husband at a later date because he was sure I couldn't answer his questions.
Young women today are living much less male-dominated existences as a direct result of the determined efforts and sacrifices made over the last 100 plus years by women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; the "Iron Jawed Angels," Alice Paul and Lucy Burns; the Pankhursts; Margaret Sanger; Betty Frieden; Gloria Steinem. Bless 'em all for what they did to bring about positive change for all of us with "lady parts."
I tell my five granddaughters to think for themselves, get educations that will prepare them for a bright future with or without a man, and to never let a man tell them what to do because he's a man and he thinks he knows better than they do because he doesn't.
Special thanks to all the men out there that respect women as equals and have stood by and supported us as we've made inroads into this white, male-dominated world we all inhabit.
Baby steps, baby steps.
Coincidentally! I may have encountered that same lady with a clipboard at Macy's in New Haven back in the 70's as did Gail Collins. Really didn't have to have a Macy card, but what the heck. So, I answered all her questions and signed the form. However, there was one detail for which I did not provide the answer. "Sorry," I said, "I believe that a SSN is not required by law to apply for a credit card."
Smilingly, she appeared to understand—as this had been played up on recent TV news shows. A few weeks later, my husband and I received a letter from Macy's, regretting that at this time they could not grant us a card because of incomplete information.
It became funny and we thrived on it as a topic of dinner conversation—because a few weeks later we had a Macy's executive from the New York office as our weekend house guest. Guess who was apologetic?!
My single self never experienced any issue what-so-ever in acquiring credit cards such Diners Club, AX, or Carte Blanche back in the mid-60's...I can remember hearing that other women encountered problems though I didn't. More importantly, no man ever signed for me!
Oh, and when Diners Club was introduced in 1958 my (many years in the future) husband was turned down (despite having a successful business)..there was a wee (evil) glint of satisfaction when I generously added him to mine!
Regarding your comment about whether Bradley/Chelsea Manning should be referred to as her or him. It reminds me a bit of my personal evolution on gay marriage rights. Not that long ago, I thought civil unions would be fine but conversations with and exposure to lesbian families finally convinced me to support gay marriage.
The same has happened to me with transgendered people. I now count myself fortunate to have two transgender friends. It is, for them, a visceral pain when someone refers to them as their physical gender rather than their psychological gender... and not every transgendered person can afford the drugs and surgery necessary to physically change.
Transgendered folks don't "choose" to be transgender anymore than gays and lesbians "choose" to be homosexual. So, I hope that you'll honor the transgendered in their desires as you respect gays' desires for marriage equality.
Trish