The Commentariat -- August 17, 2014
Defunct video removed.
Sebastian Payne of the Washington Post: "Many social conservatives say they feel politically isolated as the country seems to be hurtling to the left, with marijuana now legal in Colorado and gay marriage gaining ground across the nation. They feel out of place in a GOP increasingly dominated by tea party activists and libertarians who prefer to focus on taxes and the role of government and often disagree with social conservatives on drugs or gay rights."
A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They don't want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation. -- James Risen, New York Times reporter, who fox six years has been under subpoena to reveal a source ...
... Maureen Dowd: Why is the Obama administration still pursuing Jim Risen?
Beyond the Beltway
Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," featuring Emerson, Lake & Palmer & the Neue Philharmonie Frankfort. Seems appropriate. Thanks to Bonita for sending along the link:
DeNeen Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "Gun violence, tear gas and armored vehicles marked the first night of a controversial curfew imposed in this St. Louis suburb where the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager has kicked over a caldron of frustration and anger. What some hoped would be an evening of calm was instead one of chaos that ended with a shooting victim, seven arrests and an early morning heavy rain that finally helped clear the streets." ...
... St. Louis Dispatch: "Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson said in a briefing just before 3 a.m. that police began using smoke bombs early this morning after learning that men were on the roof of Red's BBQ. Police were going to walk West Florissant Avenue in teams, but that plan changed with the report of men on the roof." ...
... The New York Times story, by Julie Bosman & Alan Blinder, is here. ...
... Jerry Markon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Saturday declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew on the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, marking a definitive crackdown by authorities on rioting that has erupted since an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer. Speaking at a tense press conference marked by yelling from members of the public, Nixon, a Democrat, said the curfew would take effect at midnight and run until 5 a.m." ...
... Brian Beutler: "Ferguson presents an unusually extreme and condensed example of this sort of racial-civic polarization. But you can find expressions of the same basic dynamic -- of white public officials using their power to socially weaken black constituents -- all across the country." Read the whole essay.
Manny Fernandez & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "A defiant Gov. Rick Perry vowed on Saturday to fight his indictment for abuse of power, calling it a 'farce' and a 'political' prosecution. In his first appearance since a grand jury indicted him on two felony counts on Friday for trying to pressure the district attorney here, a Democrat, to step down by threatening to veto state funding for her office, Mr. Perry said, 'I wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto.]' He added, 'We don't settle political differences with indictments in this country.'" (See yesterday's Commentariat .) ...
... Rick Perry Is a Ham Sandwich. Jonathan Chait: "I do not have a fancy law degree from Harvard or Yale or, for that matter, anywhere. I am but a humble country blogger. And yet, having read the indictment, legal training of any kind seems unnecessary to grasp its flimsiness.... The theory behind the indictment is flexible enough that almost any kind of political conflict could be defined as a 'misuse' of power or 'coercion' of one[s opponents." ...
... CW: Again, I'm not sure Chait is right. As he says, governors & presidents are always threatening vetoes of pending legislation they don't like. That's the way the system is supposed to work. But suppose President Obama threatened to veto every bill (as if there were all that many) unless John Boehner resigned his speakership because Obama claimed Boehner was incompetent (& there's ample evidence for that). That seems analogous. It also seems outrageous.
Senate Race
Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Montana's Democrats, scrambling to salvage their political fortunes after plagiarism charges forced Senator John Walsh to end his election bid, chose a high school math teacher and one-term state legislator on Saturday as their nominee for a fiercely contested Senate seat. The nominee, Amanda Curtis, 34, who grew up in a family stalked by poverty and tragedy, cast the stakes of the election in stark economic terms, saying it was about 'millionaires versus the middle class.' As the daughter of a union worker whose family sometimes relied on food stamps to buy groceries, Ms. Curtis said she knew what it meant to worry about bills and the price of gas." ...
... The Missoulian story, by Mike Dennison, is here.
News Ledes
AP: "Ukraine's government said Sunday that separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane after army troops entered deep inside a rebel-controlled city in the east in what could prove a breakthrough development in the four-month long conflict." ...
... Reuters: "Ukrainian rebels are receiving new armoured vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, with which they plan to launch a major counter-offensive against government forces, a separatist leader said in a video released on Saturday. The four-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels - an intention Moscow denies."
Reuters: "The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday." ...
... Guardian: "Kurdish forces supported by American warplanes have mounted an offensive to retake Iraq's largest dam from jihadi fighters, as reports emerged of another grisly episode of mass slaughter perpetrated by the extremists in a village in northern Iraq." ...
... UPDATE: "The US on Sunday launched two waves of air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in northern Iraq, in the most extensive American military operations in the country since the withdrawal of ground troops in 2011. The strikes supported an offensive by Kurdish peshmerga fighters which aimed to regain control of the strategically important Mosul dam. Early in the day US aircraft, for the first time including land-based bombers, carried out 14 strikes. Later, US Central Command confirmed further strikes had been carried out by 'fighter and attack aircraft'.... In [a] letter to Congress, [President] Obama said the strikes had been authorised in order to 'recapture the Mosul dam'. He added: 'These military operations will be limited in their scope and duration....'"
AP: "A Palestinian negotiator said Sunday his side is 'less optimistic' about indirect talks with Israel over the Gaza war as a deadline on a temporary cease-fire looms. The Palestinian team reassembled in Cairo on Sunday after members returned from consultations in Qatar, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Israeli team also returned Sunday to resume the Egyptian-mediated talks. A current five-day cease-fire is due to end late Monday."
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Reader Comments (6)
That "Fanfare" is a keeper. Thanks for the link.
Big government makes those governed happier. This should be obvious, but maybe not.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140815192359.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28Latest+Science+News+
Either Jonathan Chait is trying to bend over backwards to appear non-partisan or he has really lost sight of the difference between "everyday politics" and corruption.
It's one thing to use your power and connections as a governor to get your pal's kid a job in the highway department. That's everyday politics and no one expects different or much cares. It's quite another thing to try to dispatch someone or some office who has the ability of looking into your many truly abusive uses of power and threaten to end that person, their office, and anyone else's ability to closely examine your wrongdoing. (Bush would have called it "evildoing" if wasn't attached to a Texas Republican.)
If Chait doesn't appreciate the difference then he's less than the humble blogger he suggests. He's an idiot.
BUT (you knew there was a "but", right?) this is Texas. If Tom Delay, one of the biggest crooks in congressional history, can skate free and clear of much more obvious and serious charges, Perry won't have anything to worry about. Don't forget, the laissez-faire politics of Republican Texas gave George W. Bush his impermeable sense of entitlement to do whatever the hell he wanted and fuck everyone else. We're all still paying for that. Perry just continued the type of "governing" favored by the Decider, "governing" for wingnuts being more manipulation and legerdemain than an actual act of legal and appropriate governance.
Perry will walk. And when he does, he'll hold a Tom Delay-style down-home revival meeting to thank god for trouncing the evil liberals and throw his hands in the air in celebration.
And once Fox and the wingnut echo chamber spread the idea that it's nothing more than a partisan witch hunt led by Demycraps, Perry's stock in the 2016 presidential race, at least among the knuckledraggers, will trade the bear for the bull.
Righteousness and justice triumph only rarely. But in the meantime, they have Jonathan Chait to denounce their usefulness.
Plato says that those who follow the good are not tempted to abuse their power.
Ain't it the truth?
Add my thanks to James' for the Frankfort arrangement of Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland (what a lucky man he was) would approve.
Akhileus:
I had the same thought as you that Perry's stock will only go up now that he's been indicted for behavior that will be dumbed-down to "partisan witch hunt." I also think Chait is missing a few major points in his analysis, just as you say (and Marie implies). I loved your aside "this is Texas" which bears on the likely outcome of these charges.
For an interesting - if indirect - take on Texas culture, I recommend the recently released movie "Boyhood" (directed by Richard Linklater). It is excellent on many levels.
Victoria,
The Texas Mold is set, all that's needed is for the Perry indictment to be poured into it. It will pop out in the shape of a lone star and Ricky will ride it to the wingnut primaries.
So much for justice.
But thanks for the film recommendation. I've been a Linklater fan for a long time. "Waking Life" is one of my favorite films.
Not long ago I wrote a film blog to celebrate Bloomsday, recognizing James Joyce's influence on narrative structure in film which called to mind Linklater's affinity for Joyce and Ulysses.
One of his films, "Slacker" uses a Joyce-like effect (from the Wandering Rocks chapter of Ulysses), following a number of characters and listening in on their thoughts. At one point--and this is the giveaway--a character starts reading a passage from Ulysses. Another Linklater film, "Before Sunrise", recounts events that take place on a single day: June 16, Bloomsday.
I'll definitely check out "Boyhood".
P.S. There is a salient connection between "Waking Life" and the world view of right-wing Texans like Perry and Bush. At one point, one of the characters notes that it's never been the function of the media to eliminate the evils of the world, but to get us to accept those evils. Hook 'em horns, I suppose.