The Commentariat -- August 8, 2014
Internal links removed.
CW @ 10:15 am ET: There's a boatload of political news, people. Have you nothing to say about it? ...
... Update. Thank you very much, especially to P. D. Pepe, who got out of a sick bed to comment.
Today I authorized two operations in Iraq -- targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death. -- Barack Obama, last night
Julie Pace & Robert Burns of the AP: "President Barack Obama says he has authorized the U.S. military to launch targeted airstrikes if Islamic militants advance toward American personnel in northern Iraq. He also has announced that the military carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid Thursday to Iraqi religious minorities threatened by the extremists. 'Today America is coming to help,' he said in a late night statement from the White House." ...
... The New York Times story, by Helene Cooper, et al., is here. Another Times story providing more background, by Peter Baker, is here:
... The transcript is here. ...
... Michael Crowley of Time: "Why not Syria? Or for that matter the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the Central African Republic, or anywhere else that innocents are dying every day? Because, Obama would surely say, the nature of those conflicts make limited U.S. intervention with clear and achievable goals impossible.... Just because we intervene in some places doesn't mean we have to intervene everywhere." ...
... NEW. Sarah Jones of Politics USA writes an extremely partisan, but useful, roundup of Republican reactions to President Obama's announcement.
Martin Matishak of the Hill: "President Obama on Thursday signed a $16.3 billion bill to overhaul the troubled Veterans Affairs Department, saying the country had a 'sacred duty' to protect its military service members. The bill, approved by Congress last week, would allow veterans to seek private care outside VA facilities, and would also provide money for the VA to hire more doctors and nurses. The effort came after reports that some veterans had waited months to get care from the VA.... During the ceremony, Obama also made his first public comments about the killing of Major Harold Greene, who was shot in Afghanistan on Tuesday.... 'Our prayers are with the Greene family, as they are with all the gold star families and those who've sacrificed so much for our nation,' Obama said. 'Now, four months from now, our combat mission to Afghanistan will be complete'":
Bad News for IRS Scandal-Mongers. Bernie Becker of the Hill: "A federal judge on Thursday delivered an early setback to a conservative group's lawsuit against the IRS, denying a request to allow an independent expert to search for former agency official Lois Lerner's missing emails. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled that the conservative group, True the Vote, had provided no evidence that the IRS had already intentionally destroyed evidence or would do so in the future. He added that approving True the Vote's request could jeopardize the confidentiality of taxpayer information, and complicate the efforts of an inspector general currently investigating what happened to Lerner's emails. 'The public interest weighs strongly against the type of injunctive relief the plaintiff seeks,' Walton, a George W. Bush nominee, wrote in his 17-page opinion filed Thursday." CW: I didn't realize this disgusting fake "voter integrity" group had branched out into IRS fake scandal territory. What fake cause will they take up next?
Another Nixonian Summer. Frank Rich: "... it's hard not to notice similarities [between Americans' attitudes toward Washington today and] the funk of [the Watergate] era: Vast economic uncertainty; the absence of leadership and governance in a polarized Washington; continued revelations of CIA crimes, from torture to illegal surveillance; the citizenry's disillusionment with unpopular, failed wars."
Tim Egan: "More than 250,000 acres have burned in the largest fire in [Washington] state's history, the Carlton Complex. About 300 homes have been destroyed. A small army of firefighters, at a cost of $50 million so far, is trying to hold the beast in the perimeter.... With this kind of loss comes blame. It's President Obama's fault. Why? Because everything is his fault in the inland West, where ignorance rides the airwaves of talk radio. Amid the conservative cant, a great irony: People who hate government most are the loudest voices demanding government action to save their homes.... Smart foresters had been warning for years that climate change, drought and stress would lead to bigger, longer, hotter wildfires.... If [you] want to put a face on this inaction, you can look no further than the member of Congress whose district in Washington State is now choked by smoke and harassed by flames -- [Rep.] Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R-Wash.].
** Paul Krugman: "For more than three decades, almost everyone who matters in American politics has agreed that higher taxes on the rich and increased aid to the poor have hurt economic growth.... But there's now growing evidence for a new view -- namely, that the whole premise of this debate is wrong, that there isn't actually any trade-off between equity and inefficiency. Why? ... American inequality has become so extreme that it's inflicting a lot of economic damage.... If you look systematically at the international evidence on inequality, redistribution, and growth -- which is what researchers at the I.M.F. did -- you find that lower levels of inequality are associated with faster, not slower, growth."
Janelle Marte of the Washington Post: "One in five people who are near retirement age have zero money saved.... The sobering statistic was one of many released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday as part of its report on the economic well-being of U.S. households, which surveyed more than 4,100 people online last year between mid-September and early October. The study offered a stark reminder that as more Americans are made responsible for their own retirement, most are not saving nearly enough.... [According to the Fed report,] 'The lack of preparedness is not signaled by a lack of planning alone. Many respondents, particularly those with limited incomes, indicated that they simply have few or no financial resources available for retirement.' ... The biggest resource people planned to rely on, whether they had savings or not, was Social Security, which was cited by roughly 45 percent of respondents." CW: But, but Social Security is an entitlement program, it should be privatized (because freeedom! [to starve to death on the street]) & it's going broke.
CW: Today in Agitprop. I seldom read articles whose headlines ask a question. Robert Draper's New York Times Magazine cover story -- "Has the 'Libertarian Moment' Finally Arrived?" -- did not inspire me to change my policy.... Jonathan Chait says the Draper piece is a crock, largely dictated by Reason magazine & its skewed poll "findings.": "Draper's story presents the libertarians' self-conception in their preferred terms." ...
... Rand Paul, Pragmatically Anti-Gay. If you tell people from Alabama, Mississippi or Georgia, 'You know what, guys, we've been wrong, and we're gonna be the pro-gay-marriage party,' they're either gonna stay home or -- I mean, many of these people joined the Republican Party because of these social issues. So I don't think we can completely flip.... I think the party will evolve. It'll either continue to lose, or it’ll become a bigger place where there's a mixture of opinions. -- Rand Paul, to Robert Draper
Not sure suggesting people from Alabama, Mississippi & Georgia are seriously Cro Magnon will help Paul's primary chances there, but at least his assessment is accurate. I admire the way Randy suggests he has "evolved," without actually saying he's evolved. Kinda like running away from a Steve King-DREAMers confrontation, then claiming you had to rush to an interview. Has anyone seen or read that interview? -- Constant Weader
Mo Brooks, recently delivered from obscurity by his claim that Democrats are waging a War on Whites, is intent on extending his 15 minutes. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said during a radio interview on Wednesday that his party's efforts to court Hispanic voters amount to 'race-baiting.' The Huffington Post reported that the comments came in response to a passage from the Republican National Committee's Growth and Opportunity Book 2013, that was read aloud by the National Journal's Ron Fournier, who was also a guest on the show." CW: Maybe we should mention to Mo that "Hispanic" is not a race or ethnicity. ...
... Charles Pierce writes a classic Piercian response: "Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, who got in a little trouble the other day when he said that the president was waging a 'war on whites,' has apparently decided to go Full Peckerwood just for the pure hell of it. Next up, why the alleged Republican outreach to Hispanic voters is...wait for it...race-baiting! And, god help us, he did so in response to Ron Fournier, who undoubtedly chalked it up to the president's failure to 'lead' Brooks away from his previous job as a cave painter." CW: I so hope Mo is reading his press clippings. Fournier, too.
The Grand Old Deportation Party. David Nakamura & Sebastian Payne of the Washington Post: "The [immigration] crisis has empowered conservatives, whose more restrictionist views on the crisis and the broader issue of dealing with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country have taken precedence in the party. House Republicans are pushing for more deportations, and several of the party's prospective 2016 White House contenders are moving to align themselves with the GOP's pro-enforcement wing.... The strategy runs counter to the party's announcement -- after losing the presidential race two years ago -- that its future depends largely on broadening its appeal to minority groups...."
Jonathan Capehart: "Herman Cain made no sense when he ran for the 2012 Republican nomination for president.... But Cain made absolute sense when he talked about the state of the tea party on Fox News yesterday. 'The tea party movement is alive and well. Now, I never expected tea party-backed candidates ... to take Congress by storm,' he said. 'But I think the key thing is it's causing many of the incumbents to move more to the right relative to what the tea party message is.' Truer words have never been spoken, especially by Mr. 999." ...
... ** Paul Waldman: "The Tea Party wins when it wins, and it wins when it loses. Five years after it began and long after many people (myself included) thought it would fade away, it continues to hold the GOP in its grip. For a bunch of nincompoops prancing around in tricorner hats, it's quite a remarkable achievement."
Another ACA "Horror Story" Debunked. Eli Stokols of Fox 31 Denver: "A new TV ad from Crossroads GPS [Karl Rove] features a Castle Rock mom criticizing Democratic Sen. Mark Udall for voting for the Affordable Care Act.... But the woman in the ad, Richelle McKim, is actually an employee of an energy company that is among the biggest donors to Udall's opponent; and her story, which seemingly contradicts information on her publicly available LinkedIn profile, is at least more complicated than the 30-second version hitting Colorado's airwaves starting Thursday.... On the screen, text appears that reads: 'Richelle had to go back to work.' McKim's own LinkedIn profile shows that she has worked constantly since July 2008 -- four months before President Obama was elected.... Reached by phone Thursday afternoon at her office, McKim explained ... 'It wasn't the Affordable Care Act.... It was just a financial burden, having a single income for so long.'" ...
... Steve Benen: "Complicating matters, McKim's husband had been treated for high-blood pressure, a pre-existing condition that made coverage unaffordable. For a while, he apparently had to go without insurance. That is, until 'Obamacare' came along to protect those like McKim's husband, making coverage affordable for those with pre-existing conditions. At this point, everyone in McKim's family now has the benefit of health security and they're no longer one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Indeed, this sounds like a great success story...." Read the whole post. CW: McKim's real complaint is Freeeedom! to get sick, or die, &/or go bankrupt.
The New York Crank: "The Gun Nut of America, or whatever they're called," are very, very upset with anyone who manufactures or sells "smart" firearms that would help prevent accidental shootings or other misuse. CW: The next thing you know, under the GNA theory, legislators will be depriving three-year-olds of their a Constitutional right to kill people & burglars from their Constitutional right to wrest your gun from your hand & shoot you with it. ...
.... The underlying Washington Post story, by Michael Rosenwald: "In nearly 30 years at Heckler & Koch, a legendary German gunmaker, Ernst Mauch designed some of the world's most lethal weapons, including the one that reportedly killed Osama bin Laden. A state regulator once called him a 'rock star' in the industry. Now the gun world sees him a different way: as a traitor. The target of their fury is the smart gun Mauch designed at Armatix, a start-up near Munich. The very concept of the weapon has been attacked by U.S. gun rights advocates even as it has helped Mauch resolve a sense of guilt that has haunted him his entire career."
Joe Stiglitz & Martin Guzman in the Guardian: "On 30 July Argentina's creditors did not receive their semi-annual payment on the bonds that were restructured after the country's last default in 2001. Argentina had deposited $539m (£320m) in the Bank of New York Mellon a few days before. But the bank could not transfer the funds to the creditors: US federal judge Thomas Griesa had ordered that Argentina could not pay the creditors who had accepted its restructuring until it fully paid -- including past interest -- those who had rejected it. It was the first time in history that a country was willing and able to pay its creditors, but was blocked by a judge from doing so. The media called it a default by Argentina, but the Twitter hashtag #Griesafault was much more accurate.... It was clear that Griesa never really fathomed the issue's complexity. The US financial system, already practised at exploiting poor Americans, has extended its efforts globally. Sovereign borrowers will not -- and should not -- trust the fairness and competence of the US judiciary. The market for issuance of such bonds will move elsewhere." CW: Griesa is a Nixon appointee! ...
... ** Greg Palast in the Guardian: President "Obama could prevent vulture hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer from collecting a single penny from Argentina by invoking the long-established authority granted presidents by the US constitution's 'Separation of Powers' clause. Under the principle known as 'comity', Obama only need inform US federal judge Thomas Griesa that Singer's suit interferes with the president's sole authority to conduct foreign policy. Case dismissed.... President George W Bush invoked this power against the very same hedge fund now threatening Argentina. Bush blocked Singer's seizure of Congo-Brazzaville's US property, despite the fact that the hedge fund chief is one of the largest, and most influential, contributors to Republican candidates." See also Thursday's Ledes.
Katie Zavadski of New York: "The hotly debated story of who exactly was behind the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers killed in the West Bank is still developing. This week, Israeli officials announced that they have arrested the man who allegedly orchestrated the abductions -- Hussam Qawasmeh -- and that he confessed to receiving orders and financing from Hamas leadership in Gaza. Mideast correspondents Jon Donnison and Sheera Frenkel previously quoted two different Israeli officials questioning whether Hamas was directly involved in the incident, which sparked the current round of conflict in Gaza.
No More Euphemisms! (After a Decade of Using Euphemisms.) Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times: "... reporters urged that The Times recalibrate its language. I agreed. So from now on, The Times will use the word 'torture' to describe incidents in which we know for sure that [CIA] interrogators inflicted pain on a prisoner in an effort to get information."
Congressional Races, Plus
Chris Moody of Yahoo! News: "For months, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has accused his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, of engaging in a 'war on coal,' casting her as n outright enemy of one of the state's most vital industries. But McConnell's wife, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, sits on the board of directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has plunged $50 million into the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal initiative, an advocacy effort with the expressed goal of killing the coal industry.... Bloomberg Philanthropies isn't the only group Chao represents that has taken a stand against the coal industry. She also sits on the board of directors at Wells Fargo, which in 2013 announced that it would divest from surface mining of coal in Appalachia due to environmental concerns."
** Lisa Baumann & Matthew Brown of the AP: "Montana U.S. Sen. John Walsh dropped his election campaign Thursday amid allegations he plagiarized large portions of a 2007 research project, leaving fellow Democrats to scramble for a replacement with the election less than three months away." ...
... Politico's story, by Manu Raju & Maggie Haberman, is here. ...
... The report by Jonathan Martin, who broke the new of Walsh's plagiarism in the New York Times, is here. ...
... Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) won't run for Sen. John Walsh's (D-Mont.) seat. "Although I'm flattered to be on some of the lists of potential U.S. Senate candidates, I respectfully decline to seek the nomination," he announced on Facebook shortly after Walsh's decision to step aside became public."
Michael Cass of the Tennessean: "U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander won a convincing victory in Tennessee's Republican Senate primary -- though not as convincing as his pollsters predicted -- over state Rep. Joe Carr, fending off a tea party challenge in a state that continues to favor politicians who can work across the aisle." ...
... Alan Blinder & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Tennessee voters backed Senator Lamar Alexander against a Tea Party challenge and turned down an aggressive bid by conservatives and business interests to oust three members of the State Supreme Court in primaries on Thursday.... Chief Justice Gary R. Wade and Justices Cornelia A. Clark and Sharon G. Lee all survived to win new eight-year terms on the state's highest court, maintaining a margin of about 56 percent to 44 percent, The A.P. said. The justices were all appointed by the governor at the time, Phil Bredesen, a Democrat.... Their critics, including the Republican State Leadership Committee and Americans for Prosperity, affiliated with Charles G. and David H. Koch, mounted a high-profile campaign claiming the justices had been 'soft on crime' and hostile to business interests. The justices were also criticized for obliquely supporting the Affordable Care Act...."
Chas Sisk of the Tennessean: "State Sen. Jim Tracy holds a narrow lead over U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais in one of the state’s most closely watched races. Shortly before 9 p.m. Tracy, R-Shelbyville, led DesJarlais, R-South Pittsburg, 46 percent to 44 percent. Tracy appeared to benefit from strong early voting returns in Rutherford County, the district's largest county, but the latest returns showed DesJarlais' closing the gap." As of 10:15 pm ET Thursday, the AP had not called the race. ...
... AP Update: "U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who has been battered by a series of scandals, is locked in a razor-thin battle to hang onto his seat in Tennessee's Republican primary. Results from Thursday's balloting show DesJarlais with just a 33-vote margin ahead of state Sen. Jim Tracy. The race was too close to call and may ultimately be decided on a possible recount."
AP: "U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has surged to victory in the Democratic primary as he seeks a fifth consecutive term in the House seat representing Tennessee's 9th District. With about 3 percent of the 9th congressional district's precincts reporting, Cohen had more than 65 percent of the vote Thursday. His closest challenger, attorney Ricky Wilkins, had about 32 percent. Cohen, who is white, once again defeated an African-American challenger. Cohen has represented the majority-black district, which includes Memphis, since 2006." CW: Yo, Mo. Apparently black people in Memphis did not take up arms against white people. Or Jewish people.
Murkowski Pissed off that Begich, Voter Suggest She's a Good Senator. Katie Glueck of Politico: "Representatives for GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski are demanding that her fellow Alaskan, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, take down a campaign ad featuring her image -- an unusual instance of two sitting senators from the same state in a public spat. In a letter disseminated on Thursday, the law firm for Murkowski's Senate committee skewered a Begich ad in a cease-and-desist missive. The ad in question, 'Great Team,' features Murkowski and Begich appearing together, along with testimony from an individual who says he is a lifelong Republican, a Murkowski voter -- and also a Begich supporter. The letter charges that Murkowski's image was used misleadingly and without her permission, and that the individual in the ad is not a lifelong GOP supporter but is in fact undeclared.... [The letter claims] this advertisement prominently features a photograph taken in Senator Murkowski's official U.S. Senate office, an apparent violation of Federal law and Senate rules.' The photo in question, however, appears to be hosted by the Associated Press." Here's the ad:
... CW: After losing Alaska's 2010 GOP primary election to bagger Joe Miller, Murkowski won the election as an unaffiliated write-in candidate (an amazing feat, not only because her name is hard to spell). Murkowski vowed to be an independent voice for Alaska, but apparently the leaden GOP side of her brain disallows her from admitting she might work across the aisle for the benefit of citizens of Alaska & the USA.
Adam Bell of the Charlotte Observer: "The Indian Trail councilman who wrote his resignation letter in Klingon wants to beam up to Capitol Hill. David Waddell is running as a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate.... Waddell, a plumber, said Thursday he is a registered Libertarian running on the Constitution Party platform's conservative values that focus in part on property rights and a strict adherence to the Constitution." You can see the original Klingon resignation letter here.
Beyond the Beltway
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Virginia's health secretary testified Thursday that he was angry that a Richmond businessman hoping to promote his company's new dietary supplement was allowed to shape the guest list at a 2012 reception meant for state health-care leaders at the governor's mansion. The businessman, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., seemed to be able to navigate the governor's office in an atypical way, Health Secretary William A. Hazel Jr. testified. That was especially frustrating, he said, because of the dubious claims Williams was making about his product." ...
... Jim Nolan & Mark Green of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Secretary of Health Bill Hazel testified today that he met with Jonnie Williams Sr. at Gov. Bob McDonnell's request but he was deeply skeptical about Anatabloc, Star Scientific's dietary supplement." ...
... Robin Givhan of the Washington Post: "What's in Maureen McDonnell's Louis Vuitton handbag? Status, insecurity and maybe jail time.... The designer goods at the center of the government's case against former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were splayed out on tables in a most undignified way, photographed and entered into evidence.... One can't help but think Maureen McDonnell was shopping and dressing for the job she aspired to -- one that comes with an office in the East Wing of the White House -- not the position she already had." ...
... NEW. The Washington Post's liveblog of the McDonnell trial is here. ...
... Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Virginia has hired an executive director to run a new ethics board intended to implement and police reforms approved earlier this year in the wake of the gifts scandal surrounding former governor Robert F. McDonnell and his family. The news comes as the second week in the federal corruption trial of McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, comes to a close."
NEW. Kevin Boyle of the Rockaway Times: "Anthony Weiner is ... now the name being associated with a fledgling non-profit called the Rockaway Restoration Kitchen. On Idealist.org the endeavor is described as 'a social entrepreneurship that operates a healthy, sustainable restaurant in a hard luck community to provide training, on-the-job apprenticeship and placement in the culinary and food service sector for unemployed New Yorkers.' ... Weiner's aim is to launch something that can help the disadvantaged in Rockaway."
News Ledes
AP: "Authorities say the wildfire burning in Oregon's wind-swept Columbia River Gorge has destroyed a home, damaged two others and is threatening 740 more. Residents of more than 140 homes have been told to evacuate and nearly 600 households have been put on alert in the community of Rowena near The Dalles."
New York Times: "The United States on Friday afternoon launched a second round of airstrikes on Sunni militants in northern Iraq, sending four Navy fighter jets to strike eight targets around Erbil, according to Pentagon officials." ...
... New York Times: "American warplanes struck Sunni militant positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon said in a statement, confirming the first significant American military operation since ground troops left Iraq in 2011. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary, said that two F-18 fighters dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery target near Erbil."
Time: "Tropical storm Iselle made landfall on Hawaii's biggest island Thursday evening local time, cutting down trees, ripping roofs off buildings and cutting power at a biodiesel plant, leaving 18,000 people without electricity.... Over the weekend, an even more powerful hurricane, Julio, is expected to barrel just to the north."
Washington Post: "Palestinian militants began to fire rockets at Israel again Friday morning after a three-day truce ended and talks in Cairo to extend it sputtered." ...
... Guardian: "Israel launched air strikes on Gaza on Friday morning after Islamist groups there refused to extend a ceasefire and resumed rocket fire.... In Gaza, tens of thousands of people who had returned to their homes during the 72-hour ceasefire rushed back to the UN-run shelters where many have been staying since the war began more than four weeks ago." ...
... UPDATE: "Talks are continuing in Cairo in a desperate bid to end renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza."
AP: "Afghanistan's feuding presidential candidates have agreed to resolve their election dispute and say they will set the inauguration before the end of August. The breakthrough comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened a second day of talks in Afghanistan on Friday aimed at preventing the fragile country from collapsing into political chaos after disputed elections."
Guardian: "The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency, but it is not recommending general bans on travel or trade."
Guardian: "Malaysia Airlines shares have been suspended and the beleaguered company will be taken entirely into state hands after it was hit by two disasters that killed hundreds of people. Trading of shares in Malaysia Airline System Bhd (MAS) was suspended on Monday morning and the company soon afterwards announced it would be removed from the stock market."
Los Angeles Times: "A federal grand jury Thursday indicted [Keith Emerald,] a 32-year-old bow hunter suspected of starting the campfire that sparked last year's Rim fire, the third-largest blaze in recorded state history, which scorched more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park."
AP: "More than 35 years after the infamous suicide-murder of some 900 people -- many forced to drink a cyanide-laced grape punch -- in Jonestown, Guyana, the cremated remains of nine of the victims were found in a dilapidated former funeral home in Delaware, officials said Thursday."
Share Article
Reader Comments (17)
Been reading Molly Ivins wonderful collection "Who let the dogs in?" and just hit this gem:
http://tinyurl.com/nnktfo4
Okay, I'll start...
It's about something that happened earlier in the week, but I'll get back to the other stuff shortly.
There hasn't been much discussion out here about the enormous bullet train we all dodged this past week when the CEO and board of Time Warner told Rupert Murdoch to stick his takeover bid up his wrinkled Aussie ass. King Rupert, adopting an unperturbed public face, backed off, but for someone used to getting his way and forcing his desires down everyone's throats, it must have been cause for some immense caterwauling in the privacy of one of his many throne rooms.
After all, his minions in London, believed that King Rupert's muscle and disdain for rules, for ethics, and for moral behavior, meant that they could hack into anyone's phones, including the phone of a dead girl which they used to text her mother in order to obtain a juicy headline, and that his evil power would protect them. Murdoch may have been legally absolved, but does anyone doubt that it was his personal weltanschauung that colored the decisions and actions of everyone in his employ?
That same disregard for facts and ethics is a hallmark of Fox News in this country. And now think of what it would have been like for Murdoch to get the Time Warner empire within reach of his grasping clutches? In addition to control of immense portions of European and American media, he would then have been able to control CNN, Warner Communications, TNT, and a host of media outlets, making him the most powerful medial oligarch in the history of the world.
CNN staffers must have breathed sigh of relief. They ain't the best, but a memo from Rupert telling anyone who isn't a rock-ribbed, fact-free, right-winger to clear out their desks would have been issued within minutes of the takeover.
But there could have been some interesting synergies (that's insider media reporter lingo for all you greenhorns), with Fox taking over Time Warner. For one, Time Warner owns the Cartoon Network as well as DC Comics. It would have been a piece of cake to create two dimensional avatars of Fox News personalities for the Cartoon Network. First, they're already cartoon characters, and a move to animated cartoons would upgrade them from their current status as one dimensional.
And think of the synergies created by a Fox-DC Comics merger! Sha-Zam! Bill O'Reilly could star in his own superhero comic book. He already thinks of himself as a superhero, battling evil liberals, pushy feminists, uppity blacks, and the ever-present scourge of the poors. He could be LOOFAH MAN! How he'd feel about sharing the comic racks with Green Lantern, who has come out as gay, is anyone's guess.
But hats off to Jeffrey Bewkes and the Time Warner board. It's not often I can say "thanks" to CEO's of gigantic corporations, but for whatever reason, he bucked the supposed savings and additional market valuation to show King Rupert the door, informing him not to let the screen door hit his ass on the way out (if they have screen doors at the Time Warner building). Almost to a person, business writers covering this story are all whining about the money. All about gasping about how Bewkes will explain to supposedly furious stockholders that a merger with Satan wouldn't be the best thing, because, you know....money. (These people hardly ever make a big stink about "freedom"...at least they're not hypocritical in that way. It's all about the money.)
And I know it's supposed to be all about the money, but that's the short term earnings kind of thinking that gets us into so much trouble in so many other areas (environment?). What about thinking about what it would mean for one guy--a right fucking asshole at that--to control so much of what goes out into the aether? What about the idea that competition is not a bad thing? That opposing viewpoints are necessary to a functioning democracy?
Money isn't everything. Maybe for Bewkes, it's ego. But maybe they don't like the idea of having to bend over for Murdoch like everyone else. Maybe they see what unbridled ideological insanity can do to a company and its employees.
Whatever the reason, I'm happier today that King Rupert is pissed. But he's nothing if not snaky. He's already plotting to take his bullet train onto some other track to mow down someone else.
An evil prick right to the end.
@Whyte Owen. Thanks. As huge a pathogen Gingrich was/is, he is still a moderate when compared to today's House GOP.
Marie
On evolution of Li'l Randy, the gay agenda, comic books, and the War on Whites.
Nice to hear that the Little One doesn't believe (necessarily) that gays should be burned at the stake. At least that what he says, sort of.
But given his proclivity for fantasy writing, like Ayn Rand treacle, one might think that he'd be a fan of comic books. Except that in Alabama, he'll have to forgo reading Green Lantern comics.
Wouldn't want to offend any of the cave dwellers, reading about a gay superhero. They're already offended enough.
I suppose any day now, Mo Brooks will come out with an adjunct to his War on Whites. The War on Straight Whites. Then it could be the War on Straight White Baptists. After that, the War on Straight White Baptists Who Own Guns. Or is "straight white baptists who own guns" a given?
But whatever you do, remember: NO HOMOPHONES!
(Wingnuts would be so much fun if they didn't get to vote.)
August 7, 2014, an American president authorizes targeted airstrikes in Iraq, a country invaded by order of a previous American president on March 20, 2003, a war that was being prepared for by neocons in the previous century! That president and his pet snake (the VP) assured Americans, and the world, that it would all be over but the shouting in time for the Fourth of July. He didn't say that he meant July 4, 2020.
One more reason George Bush needs to be in a jail cell wearing black and white stripes, not painting pictures of his piggy toes in the bathtub.
Neocon assurances were--and are--worth less than the pissed-on ashes of confederate money. So why do news organization still give valuable air time to schlumps like Bill (Always Wrong) Kristol and either of the Cheneys?
They had no plans when they went in except to bomb the bejeezus out of Iraqis, no plans to transition, no plans to leave. So we're still there dropping bombs and paying the freight while they all write their memoirs, enjoy life, and go on TV to complain that they got it right but no one will bow down to them.
Have been "under the weather"––have a nasty virus of some kind that has taken its toll on my "get up and go" but not my ability to read and digest all the goodies put forth by R.C. and its compatriots (loved Ak's listing yesterday of Republican dickheads for once future kingship in 2016). But being in this state of feeling poorly I'm once again struck by how it consumes you and draws you inward which explains in part how people who are struggling (health wise, money wise, etc) can't really concentrate on how their government is working; they just want to feel better, they just want to have their every day living made easier and free of anxiety and stress. And these, sometimes, are the very people who may vote for those that will not do a damned thing to help them.
And re: the boatload of news––my head is full and if I was inclined to read the transcript of the McDonnell's soap opera it might just explode; enough to absorb the Iraq disaster–––a killer situation with dangerous consequences.
Two links today provide clear evidence of the dangers of conservative ideology and how those who push hardest for their implementation cry the loudest about the results of those decisions, but accept no responsibility, but in the next breath, demand more of the same.
Wildfires in the west. The worst in memory. It's possible they could have been ameliorated or even prevented had right-wing ideologues not fought tooth and nail against doing something about climate change decades ago (and their continued intransigence mean it may be decades more or perhaps never in the next few lifetimes, that anything can be done).
We're still cleaning up the mess in Iraq, dealing the with detritus of a war that never should have been, a war fought for tooth and nail by Republicans who now whine that President Obama and Democrats should be blamed for policies they supported.
We won't even bother with other areas such as the economy, education, healthcare, immigration, and a laundry list of burgeoning problems made ever more difficult by the terribly misguided application of conservative "solutions", enforced by the same people who now complain about the problems they made even worse.
Really, it's like a dumb-ass lab assistant who hates science and so removes the protections from deadly viruses, and then when his life is in danger, blames those same scientists and demands that they save him, all the while giving TV interviews loudly prattling that viruses are just a hoax and don't exist and we should all just get back to god and while we're at it, hire even more dumb-asses.
Seriously, it's not far removed from that.
Dick Nixon could go to Red China and get a listen but the a "rockstar" in the weapons industry, Ernst Mauch (see the links above), is reviled by gun zombies for trying to make sure innocent people--especially small children--aren't killed accidentally by one of his products.
One of his detractors sniffs haughtily that Mauch knows nothing about gun culture (at least the insane NRA branch) because "Germany doesn't have a second amendment". Well, guess what, asshole, neither do we. At least not the second amendment held up as holy scripture by gun fondlers and several Supreme Court justices, all of whom elide the controlling phrase in that amendment, a phrase which, if included in anyone's thinking about weapons, would return the NRA to its origins as a nice little club for people who enjoy skeet shooting or hunt deer, instead of its current incarnation as a bloodthirsty collection of uncontrolable maniacs who see any incursion on the right of someone to blow away his family or neighbors as a sin against god.
One of the most important guys inventing, manufacturing, and selling guns understands how dangerous they are and wants to make them safer. Does this sound insane? Does this sound like treason?
I guess it does if you're a brainwashed, immune to logic wingnut whose appreciation for life extends as far as the realization of how cool it is to end one and how terrible it would be if there were some chance the desire to fire a bullet into another human being were impeded for any reason.
Now that's insane.
Re: Iraq. "You break it, you've bought it!"
--Colin Powell
As the jerky commercials "Messin' with Sasquatch" show, what seems easy may be more than you bargained for.
In 2003, the Iraq invasion made me sick. I thought we'd learned our lesson in the Vietnam debacle. It still makes me sick. My wife said to me this noon, "We oughta put George Bush in Iraq, and bomb HIM,"
Why stop with just G W? Why not Cheney, Rice, Kristol, et.al."
Maybe Desert Storm was too easy and we learned the wrong lesson. Surely anyone with a brain should have noticed what happened in Yugoslavia after Tito died. Oh, wait....
Colin Powell's dire warning has been echoing in my head, as it has for Barbarossa's and I'm sure thousands of others, for the last month or so. Yesterday's and today's events have amped its deafening peal to an almost unbearable level.
Unfortunately, the break it, you bought it truism is just not true, and its nasty illogic goes to the heart of the libertarian fantasy. Since we are individuals and members of a social order simultaneously, those who break things too often experience little consequence for their misdeeds; the group they represent or to which they belong bears the brunt. Avowed libertarians prefer to ignore that minor complication. It's a comfortable but dangerous pretense, heart-breakingly ironic in that it is libertarians who tout personal responsibility louder than anyone else.
I'm thinking another truism about the sins of the fathers being visited on future generation is more apropos to Iraq and to much of of the repulsive mess we've had on our national plate in the last decade. What we do always affects others, whether it be misbehavior as personal and disgusting as child abuse or something more abstract like repealing Glass-Steagall, or recent SCOTUS decisions about campaign contributions or guns.
Our nation has experienced a decade or more of bad fathers, who have made terrible foreign policy and economic decisions, usually motivated by the kind of overweening psychological, financial or ideological interest , in all cases never community-, always personally-oriented, that wholly ignores consequence to others.
The folks that have created the succession of crises that dominate our headlines have broken a bunch, but have bought nothing.
They break it. We buy it. It is the nation that pays.
@Ken: One of the bits in George Packer's critique of Rick Perlstein's books (we here on R.C. discussed his "Nixonland" some time ago) in the New Yorker linked here a few days ago by Marie speaks to your post today. Packer is talking about Jimmy Carter during the run for a second term against Reagan.How Carter appeared humorless and angry (for good reason I thought) and no longer capable of inspiration and inspiration was what people were clamoring for; they wanted to hear a vision of a better country.
"If you listen to Carter's Oval Office address on inflation, energy, and the nation's "crisis of confidence," the level of honesty is shocking, and deflating. No President has ever spoken that way since. The lesson he taught all his successors was not to tell the American people hard truths."
And Reagan set the tone. And Jack Nickelson is screaming at Tom Cruise––"You can't handle the truth!"
And––you bet, Ken–-it's the nation that pays for our broken tea cups and all the little lies.
P.D.: Thanks.
As my younger son said, maybe quoting someone else, "Libertarianism is more in line with a sense of entitlement than a sense of responsibility." Indeed.
Marie, your superb efforts in our behalf deserve a comment. All those above say it much better than I. I only offer one other thought - is it any surprise that I am incapable of any comment when the only news worth cheering is that Lamarr Alexander won his primary and three conservative judges were not thrown out?
Re Elaine Chao sitting on two Boards that have an agenda(s) diametrically opposite from her husband positions, I figure...even if she's a NO vote against everything they are for, IT'S THE DIRECTOR'S FEE. I imagine that being on the Bloomberg Board alone brings in a tidy annual sum.
Scruples? Who said anything about scruples?
PD,
The Jimmy Carter "malaise" speech was indeed a truthful one. I would have to go back and read it again (hearing it again would be more useful), but I'm tempted to say that truth without hope for a better future is no panacea.
I'm thinking of two speeches here. First, Pericles' funeral oration, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Both acknowledge the troubles of their time but reach back to recall the basis of the birth of their respective nations.
Reagan was all about easy, storybook glory (as are all Republicans since) with nary a mention of the difficulties of maintaining the most salient elements of a country that was originally based as much on equality as it was on "Freedom".
Reagan was able to absolve Americans of all guilt in areas like discrimination, war crimes, and economic inequality while painting over any of the many social problems and issues that came to the fore in the 60's, thereby disqualifying those issues as serious topics for public debate.
Conservatives have gleefully patterned their approach after his cavalier disregard for anyone not under their tent and that disregard continues apace today creating a malaise that Jimmy Carter, in his worst nightmares, couldn't have imagined.
@ Akhilleus: Here's the "malaise" speech, & here's the transcript. If you do a search of the transcript, you'll find that Carter never used the word "malaise," as Rick Hertzberg, one of the speechwriters, pointed out someplace.
Marie
Marie,
Thanks for the links. I knew that Carter didn't use the word and that it had been applied by some snooty pundit somewhere or other ( there may be a poli sci dissertation on this somewhere; when i hit the lottery one of my first purchases will be to access Lexis-Nexis and every academic journal on the planet. I'm more than a tad embarrassed to have acceeded to that descriptor).
The fact that that particular speech is known as the Malaise Speech says a lot about the power of conservative influence on the media.