The Commentariat -- August 23, 2014
Internal links removed.
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser ... to President Obama, vowed Friday that the United States would 'do what is necessary' in Syria to protect American interests and said that direct military action was possible against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS." ...
... Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "The extremist militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have attacked Syrian troops with new ferocity in recent weeks, taking over three northeastern military bases, beheading scores of soldiers and seizing new territory. The jihadist offensive has prompted some panicked supporters of the Syrian government to sharply criticize the leadership, questioning why it appeared to allow ISIS to build a base in the northern Syria province of Raqqa over the last year while claiming the Syrian Army was fighting terrorism."
Adam Taylor of the Washington Post on the logic of not paying ransoms.
Natalia Zinets and Dmitry Madorsky of Reuters: "The United States demanded Moscow remove an aid convoy it sent into rebel-held eastern Ukraine without permission on Friday, accusing Russia of a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of its former Soviet neighbor and threatening more sanctions.... NATO's top military commander said the movement of trucks looked like a disguised attempt to reinforce separatist forces. The Western defense alliance said Russian troops had been firing artillery across the border and within Ukraine in a major escalation of military support for pro-Moscow rebels since mid-August, a defacto charge that Russia was already waging war."
Sahil Kapur of TPM: "The Obama administration rolled out a plan on Friday to protect access to copay-free birth control for women in response to the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling. A new 'proposed rule' by the Department of Health and Human Services lets female employees of for-profit businesses, like Hobby Lobby, obtain birth control directly from their insurer, at no extra cost, if their boss opts out of covering the service in the company's insurance plan for religious reasons. The move extends an accommodation that already exists for non-profit organizations, which are allowed to refuse to cover for birth control.... The religious owners can pass the cost on to the insurer so that they're no longer complicit in what they view as sin.... In the same announcement, HHS also unveiled an interim rule tweaking the nonprofit accommodation, in an effort to put an end to a separate lawsuit against it. Instead of informing the insurer or third-party administrator directly, the new rule says, an objecting employer will have to notify the government, which will inform the insurer." ...
... digby: "I wonder how they're going to react now. Because we know that this isn't really about them violating their conscience don't we? It's about preventing women from getting birth control. I'm sure they have something else up their sleeves." ...
... Irin Carmon of NBC News: "... it's far from clear that the new accommodations will mollify all of the plaintiffs now that it's clear the end result will be women getting no-cost contraception.... Marty Lederman, a professor at Georgetown Law School who has written extensively about the contraceptive cases, wrote in July of the letter option, 'I think it is likely that most of those organizations will not be satisfied: They will argue that such a "fix," too, violates their rights under RFRA, because their act of opting out will continue to establish the legal authority for the government to require another party to provide coverage.'" CW: Exactly. The plaintiff's case, in a nutshell: If sinful, libidinous sluts insist on sleeping around, God has the right to make them have babies.
Jim Finkle & Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "A cyber attack at a firm that performs background checks for U.S. government employees compromised data of at least 25,000 workers, including some undercover investigators, and that number could rise, agency officials said on Friday. The breach at Falls Church, Virginia-based US Investigations Services (USIS) exposed highly personal information of workers at the Department of Homeland Security's headquarters as well as its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection units...."
Nate Raymond & Jonathan Stempel of Reuters: "Goldman Sachs Group Inc has agreed to a settlement worth $1.2 billion to resolve a U.S. regulator's claims the bank sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faulty mortgage bonds, the regulator announced Friday. Under the settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for the two government-controlled mortgage finance companies, Goldman Sachs said it agreed to pay $3.15 billion to repurchase mortgage-backed securities from Fannie and Freddie.
Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday issued an apology for cracking two Asian-themed jokes during a speech Thursday night at the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce. 'My comments were in extremely poor taste and I apologize. Sometimes I say the wrong thing,' Reid said in a statement to The Hill." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Reid has also made a career out of saying such odd things -- so much so that few tend to notice stuff like this. He's like Joe Biden; he's almost built up a gaffe immunity by committing so many small-ish gaffes." Blake has a short list of Harry's Greatest Gaffes.
Washington Post Editors: We will no longer use the term "Redskins" to describe the D.C. football team. ...
... Annys Shin of the Washington Post: "The editorial board is separate from the news-gathering side of the organization, which Executive Editor Martin Baron said will continue to use the team's moniker."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M. makes a good point: Rand Paul gets good press because the press corps is always "desperate for a Republican to love." (CW: Think of former "maverick" John McCain.) ...
... CW: I'd add this: The press's desperation to find lovable Republicans may be a product of its need to continue writing those formulaic he-said/she-said stories. It's hard, for instance, to write a story about climate change policy when the "she-said" side consists of climate change deniers like Sen. Marco I'm-Not-a-Scientist Rubio (R-Fla.). He-said/she-said stories are the practical applications of a theoretical journalistic standard of objectivity. In adhering to this model, the reporter is prohibited from writing, "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said blah-blah. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) retorted blah-blah, which is a laughably ignorant crock."
Beyond the Beltway
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "On a night of sultry heat, about 150 protesters gathered enough steam for one brief but lively march down West Florissant Avenue late Friday. They turned back when police cars blocked the road. No arrests were reported. Until that only march of the night after 10 p.m., protesting had been sporadic, with crowds small all evening. Friday's gathering, nearly two weeks after Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown, 18, was peaceful. Through the night, the numbers of marchers, police and news reporters was down significantly from the assemblies of the previous nights."
I personally believe in Jesus Christ as my lord savior, but I'm also a killer. I've killed a lot. And if I need to, I'll kill a whole bunch more. If you don't want to get killed, don't show up in front of me, it's that simple. I have no problem with it. God did not raise me to be a coward. -- St. Louis County Police Officer Dan Page, in a video of a speech delivered at a 2012 Oath Keepers meeting
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A police officer involved in the protests over Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, has been relieved of his duty after video surfaced of him describing black people as 'little perverts' and Barack Obama as an illegal immigrant. Dan Page -- who was seen live on CNN earlier this week threatening to arrest the network's anchor Don Lemon -- was recorded in April giving a speech in which he railed against Muslims and gay people, saying: 'I'm into diversity -- I kill everybody.'" ...
... St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Also Friday, Glendale Police Officer Matthew Pappert was suspended after posting on Facebook that the Ferguson protesters were 'a burden on society and a blight on the community,' according to posts preserved by news and opinion website 'The Daily Caller.' Another post that appears to come from Pappert says the 'protestors should have been put down like rabid dogs the first night.'" The story has more on St. Louis County police officer Dan Page, including comments from Chief Jon Belmar. ...
... CW: With the attitude apparently common among the St. Louis area police cohort, it is hardly any wonder that white policemen shoot & abuse black men & others for specious "reasons." ...
... Tim Bross of Bloomberg News: "The Missouri grand jury that will decide whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown includes nine whites and three blacks, a state court judge said.... The prosecuting attorney has no role in the selection of the jurors, according to Paul Fox, the judicial administrator for St. Louis County, which doesn't include the city of the same name. [Judge Carolyn] Whittington today ordered the release of the current grand jury's makeup. Fox said that the racial breakdown of the grand jury roughly reflects the makeup of the county." ...
... Michael Wines & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "Much remains in dispute about Officer [Darren] Wilson's fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old whom he stopped as Mr. Brown was walking home about noon on Aug. 9. But the question of whether Officer Wilson's actions were objectively reasonable will likely be at the crux of that debate." ...
... A Report that Isn't. Jason Sickles of Yahoo! News: "A police report on the death of Michael Brown is missing key information and violates Missouri open records laws, an ACLU attorney told Yahoo News on Friday. The two-page document, which the Ferguson Police Department released only after pressure from journalists and civil liberties advocates, is largely redacted or left blank. The most egregious omissions are the victim's name and a description of the offense -- the fatal shooting of Brown."
From earlier this week:
Matt Zapotsky, et al., of the Washington Post: "A day after portraying his wife, Maureen McDonnell, as the troubled instigator of his entanglements with wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell on Friday said that Williams, too, had led him astray. 'I misjudged Jonnie Williams,' McDonnell (R) testified at his public corruption trial. 'I thought he was a true friend. I had no idea that he would come into federal court and make false statements against me to save himself.' ... In each case, after blaming his wife for initiating such [financial] arrangements [with Williams], McDonnell spent even more time detailing his role in finalizing them." CW: What a weasel. ...
... Gail Collins: "Bob McDonnell has told the jury a lot about his firmness in rejecting some of the goodies that Maureen wanted -- like a designer dress for the inaugural. However, he seems to have been far less resolute when Jonnie Williams was doling out things he liked: a luxury vacation, or the use of a private jet. McDonnell told his sons to give back expensive golf clubs (the sons ignored him), but then he accepted a custom golf bag for himself." CW: And the Rolex!
... BUT maybe Bob's defense should be that all Republican governors are crooks. ...
Illustration by Donkey Hotey.Adam Nagourney & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin played a greater role than previously known in arranging for wealthy contributors to donate to a powerful conservative organization in his home state as it battled a two-year campaign to recall Mr. Walker and Republican lawmakers, according to court documents released Friday.... The investigation has pulled back the curtain on the ways politicians and their aides seek to get around the welter of state and national campaign finance restrictions to accommodate donors, and it has clouded the White House prospects of Mr. Walker." ...
... Patrick Marley, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott Walker prodded outside groups and individuals to funnel millions of dollars into Wisconsin Club for Growth -- a pro-Walker group directed by his campaign adviser -- during the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, according to court documents unsealed for a short time Friday afternoon. The documents form much of the basis for prosecutors' theory that Walker's campaign and conservative groups illegally cooperated to help him and other Republicans. Walker and the groups deny they broke any laws, noting two judges have sided with them. Among the funds that flowed into the Wisconsin Club for Growth was $700,000 from a company trying to build a massive open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. Soon after the 2012 recall and general elections, Walker and Republicans eased environmental regulations, helping the firm." ...
... The documents are here.
Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times: "California lawmakers Friday passed a bill to get police officers who check on troubled individuals to find out whether they own guns, a response to the rampage near UC Santa Barbara last spring that left seven people dead and 13 wounded."
Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "The state of Oregon filed a lawsuit Friday against Oracle America Inc. and several of its executives over the technology company's role in creating the troubled website for the state's online health insurance exchange. The lawsuit ... alleges that Oracle officials lied, breached contracts and engaged in 'a pattern of racketeering activity.' Oracle was the largest technology contractor working on Oregon's health insurance enrollment website, known as Cover Oregon. The public website was never launched, forcing the state to hire hundreds of workers to process paper applications by hand. The website's failure became a political problem to Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is running for re-election."
News Ledes
AFP: "Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli's battered international airport after many days of clashes with nationalist militiamen."
New York Times: "The huge scale of the fraud [in the Afghan elections] -- involving perhaps more than two million ballots out of roughly eight million reported cast, according to independent international estimates -- has stymied efforts to achieve a democratic transition. Secretary of State John Kerry has intervened twice to keep the campaigns in agreement on a unity government and a complete audit of the vote, but the process has repeatedly broken down in disputes."
Washington Post: "White-tarped trucks from the controversial Russian convoy that provoked a dramatic escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began returning to Russian territory Saturday after delivering supplies to the war-torn city of Luhansk, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in the capital Kiev for a symbolic show of support and behind-the-scenes efforts to ease rising tensions. Russia had sent the aid convoy of over 200 trucks into rebel-held Ukrainian territory Friday without permission.... The maneuver came amid reports from NATO that Ukrainian troops were coming under Russian artillery fire from inside their borders. A top Lithuanian diplomat was also killed in ongoing violence." ...
... ** UPDATE: Ukrainian officials said "that Russians had loaded sophisticated military equipment onto the vehicles before they left. Col. Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine's military spokesman, said that trucks that had driven into the territory 'under the guise of humanitarian convoys' had crossed back into Russia on Saturday morning after being packed with Ukrainian-made equipment used to produce an advanced aircraft-tracking system, as well as ammunition for small arms."
Reuters: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for an urgent resumption of peace talks on Saturday as violence continued unabated in the Gaza Strip with Israel carrying out air strikes and militants firing rockets. Gaza health officials said five people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza. Three more Palestinians were killed in other strikes." ...
... AFP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday vowed harsh retribution against Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, after a mortar round fired from the Palestinian territory killed an Israeli child." ...
... Democracy Now!: "More than 467 Palestinian children have died since July.... According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,000 children have been injured, of which an estimated 1,000 will suffer from a lifelong disability."
... CW: Res ipsa loquitur.
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Reader Comments (6)
August 22 - RC Groundhog Day. Only 10 weeks let until elections.
Apropos of the discussion yesterday re: how police seem ill trained in dealing with the mentally ill, here is an article that addresses this issue: "Cops do exactly the wrong thing when responding to the mentally ill." It appears that only 2,700 of the nation's 25,000 police departments have a crime intervention team in place.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119174/kajieme-powell-shooting-called-suicide-cop
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/capt-johnson-endures-ferguson-s-storm/article_f4ff6f45-6816-50d2-b220-a6e93521285b.html. I predict that this Capt. Johnson will have a long, distinguished career. I further predict that Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson has gone as far as he will ever go. And he is none too happy about the public event the demise of his career has become. Now, Jackson is a dangerous man because the only respect he will command is because he has a gun. If I were Eric Holder and proper law enforcement official, I'd keep an eye on him.
Marie's comment above that maybe Bob's defense should be that all Republican governors are crooks prompted me to find a listing of all those Republican governors (see below) and their quirks–-nice word for crooked. I had forgotten how many of our states are being governed by republicans. I think of Achilleus' puzzlement yesterday in how Scott is closing in on someone like Jean Shaheen in N.H.––I reckon we have a populace that have been duped, are ignorant of the facts, or are genuinely on the side of the Republican mindset. The latter being the most scary.
http://www.democratichub.com/republican-governors.aspx?o=pv&gclid=CO-SpLa4qcACFVQV7Aodmw0A_A
"How Ferguson could be America's future" http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/23/us/ferguson-blake/?sr=google_news&google_editors_picks=true. It's not a bad article about the changing complexion (read color) in America. But because it is CNN nowhere do they mention that one way to ease the peaceful transition to a truly multi-ethnic America is to enshrine in law that the full employment be the goal of economic policies. As long as the sword of Damocles of unemployment and economic ruin hangs over the heads of most everyone and especially non-whites, government isn't doing it's job. A truly balanced society scares the shit out of Republicans.
Okay, I confess. I definitely have too much time on my hands. I watched the entire one hour tape of St. Louis county cop, Dan Page, 'Oathkeeper's' talk (they disavow him). The quote Marie provides is the least of it. He is not your usual run-of-the-mill racist authoritarian cop. This guy is clearly certifiable. Until two years ago he was (at least according to him) a very high ranking officer in the Rangers having served in the Middle East and Africa. Nothing that he says in his very disorganized 'talk' isn't something that you haven't heard before but the fact that it is coming from a very recently retired Sgt Major who appears to have been a well respected high ranking military officer and Leader of Men ought to scare the bjeejus out of you. It ranges from "they are going to take your children away from you and send all the rest of us to Siberian camps" to there are all kinds of New World Order armies being assembled Right Now at your local military base who will kill you.
My day would improve if Barbarossa is able to give us some feedback regarding this guy and how many more of men like him are serving in our armed forces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0jFtXG4fC5A
It starts with the usual reading and 'analysis' of the Dec of Independence but stay with it. My bet is with all her years of practice, Kate Madison hasn't seen many this crazy.