The Commentariat -- Feb. 17, 2015
Internal links removed.
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Texas has ordered a halt, at least temporarily, to President Obama's executive actions on immigration, siding with Texas and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the initiatives. In an order filed on Monday, the judge, Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs was scheduled to start receiving applications on Wednesday. Judge Hanen, an outspoken critic of the administration on immigration policy,found that the states had satisfied the minimum legal requirements to bring their lawsuit.... The president's supporters have said that Texas officials, who are leading the states' lawsuit, were venue shopping when they chose to file in Brownsville.... Some legal scholars said any order by Judge Hanen to halt the president's actions would be quickly suspended by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans." Bush II appointed Hanen.
Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The United States has found a way to permanently embed surveillance and sabotage tools in computers and networks it has targeted in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and other countries closely watched by American intelligence agencies, according to a Russian cybersecurity firm. In a presentation of its findings at a conference in Mexico on Monday, Kaspersky Lab, the Russian firm, said that the implants had been placed by what it called the 'Equation Group,' which appears to be a veiled reference to the National Security Agency and its military counterpart, United States Cyber Command."
David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Mistrust between the Obama administration and Benjamin Netanyahu has widened even further in recent days because of U.S. suspicion that the Israeli prime minister has authorized leaks of details about the U.S. nuclear talks with Iran." ...
... CW: If this is true, even John Boehner should have the sense to turn his back on Bibi. ...
... Luke Baker of Reuters: "The head of Israel's election commission acted on Monday to limit any pre-election boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may get from a March 3 speech to the U.S. Congress, in which he will warn of the threat from Iran's nuclear programme.... Following complaints from opposition parties, election chief Salim Joubran decided that Netanyahu's address should be broadcast with a five-minute delay in Israel, giving news editors time to cut any statements deemed partisan."
... Paul Waldman: "... on the whole, Boehner is managing to combine legislative incompetence with PR incompetence. He's already sure to be known as one of the weakest speakers in American history, for at least some reasons that are out of his control."
Tim Devaney of the Hill: "President Obama's pick to serve as the next attorney general is having a hard time finding Republican supporters. To be confirmed by the Senate, attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch only needs four Republicans to support her nomination. But it is unclear where those votes will come from. Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) is the only Republican so far who has signaled his intention to vote for Lynch, though several others have spoken favorably about her. But many Republicans are expressing concerns about Lynch's stance on immigration and what they suggest is a lack of 'independence' from the White House." ...
... CW: "Independence" is almost as good a phony excuse as "freeeedom." It's true that on one occasion, John Ashcroft famously didn't let the Bush White House roll him, but generally speaking, it's a good idea for a Cabinet member to have a working relationship with the White House. (See Reno, Janet.) Also, I just can't help suspecting that Republicans' concern about Lynch's "independence" stems from their belief that black people constitute a vast left-wing conspiracy against Truth, Justice & the American Way. All other things being equal, they would probably find more acceptable a white nominee.
Steve M.: Major right-wing media seem to know that there's no separation issue involved in ministers' urging their parishioners to take advantage of government programs, but these news outlets are calling attention to churches who are promoting ObamaCare in hopes that winger audiences will be too ignorant to know that these churches & faith-based organizations are not violating the First Amendment separation-of-church-and-state requirement. And, sure enough, Steve finds a prominent dopey-winger (redundant) blogger who takes the bait. CW: Also, the whole church-ObamaCare outreach is part of that vast left-wing conspiracy thing, this time aimed at getting "free stuff" for "blah (a/k/a "urban") people."
Comes the Apocalypse. Graeme Wood of the Atlantic explains the ideology & methodology the Islamic State: "... their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of -- and headline player in -- the imminent end of the world." CW: I have no idea if Wood's take is accurate, but it makes sense given what we know. ...
... CW BTW: If you read Wood's piece & conclude the Koran must be the blood-lusty treatise your right-wing brother says it is, also read some of the OT Bible, say, Ezekiel, & the NT book of Revelations. Horrible stuff. ...
... Democracy Now! on the network of American billionaires who finance "experts" who promote Islamophobia. Video & transcript. Via karoli of Crooks & Liars.
Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "The decision to discharge transgender soldiers from the Army would be made by a top, senior civilian official under a plan outlined in a draft document obtained by USA Today. The move would make it more difficult to remove such troops from the service. Instead of being made by lower-level Army officers, the memorandum says, the decision to discharge transgender soldiers would be made by the assistant secretary of the Army for personnel. In all services, transgender troops can be automatically dismissed from service on medical grounds once they are identified."
Professor Quashes GOP 2016 Talking Point. David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The notion that income inequality has continued to rise over the past decade is part of the conventional wisdom.... No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective -- worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began.... The wealthy have indeed received the bulk of the gains since the recovery began, but they still haven't recovered their losses. Meanwhile, the steps that the federal government took in response to the crisis, including tax cuts and benefit increases, have mostly helped the nonwealthy." ...
... CW: Let's hope potential Democratic candidates read the Times online today. In their new pretend-interest in the middle class & the poor, the go-to line for Republicans is that income inequality has increased under President Obama. Jeb Bush is making what turns out to be falsehood a centerpiece of his campaign. Mitt Romney has had a latter-day conversion, too. So have Rand Paul & Ted Cruz. ...
... Sean McElwee of Salon: "Princeton University’s Larry Bartels has two studies on politics and income distribution, and together they encompass almost a century. His finding: under Republicans, the poor and middle class see almost no income growth, while under Democrats, they see dramatic growth (see charts). As he notes elsewhere, even after numerous controls, these partisan differences remain. 'Every Republican president in the past 60 years has presided over increasing income inequality, including Dwight Eisenhower in the midst of the "Great Compression" of the post-war decades,' Bartels writes. 'And every Democratic president except one (Jimmy Carter) has presided over decreasing or stable inequality.'" Thanks to Julie L. for the link.
David Chen of the New York Times: "... a growing number of homeowners ... suspect that their engineering reports [of property damage] were ... rewritten as part of an effort to minimize insurance payments to flood victims in New York and New Jersey after the 2012 hurricane. In November, allegations of altered reports prompted a federal judge overseeing more than 1,000 hurricane related lawsuits in the New York City area to order all drafts of the engineering reports be turned over, saying he believed such revisions could be 'widespread.'" CW: I'm shocked to learn that insurance companies are better at collecting premiums than they are at paying out claims.
YOLO! Kali Holloway of AlterNet, in Salon, picks last week's Worst Moments in Right-Wing media. ...
... Paul Krugman: "I've been behind the curve on the Vox interview with President Obama. But the reactions to that interview — not just from the right, but from centrists -- are remarkable. Jack Schafer compares it to a Scientology recruitment film; Rich Lowry compares it to Leni Riefenstahl.... Yes, the charts are generally supportive of what Obama is saying, but only because the facts he alludes to are indeed facts.... It's a generally friendly, sympathetic interview -- but that's hardly unusual, and it's nothing like the actually fawning interviews that were standard in the Bush years.... But what seems to offend the critics is the very idea of covering a politician's policies, and the facts relevant to those policies, rather than making it about personalities.
Presidential Race
Chuck Todd! "There are two big takeaways from our new NBC/Marist polls of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina that we released yesterday. First, with less than a year before the first nominating contests, the Republican presidential field is wide open -- seven different possible GOP candidates get double-digit support in at least one of the states. Second, only two potential candidates (former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker) are in double digits in ALL three states. So call Bush and Walker your very early 2016 Republican frontrunners."
Texas Comes to New Hampshire:
A Rap on the Knuckles. Margaret Hartmann of New York: Scott Walker's former teacher scolds him for not answering the evolution question: "Answer the question when they ask you!" Serpe told Time. "He could have manned up a bit.... We taught the theory of evolution, and human evolution, as a prerequisite to understanding biological classification.... I do recall that Scott was very accepting of everything in science class. He had a good sense of it," said Ann Serpe, Walker's high-school science teacher.
Julie Bosman of the New York Times notices that Gov. Scott Walker "accidentally" deleted the venerated "Wisconsin Idea" from his budget -- along with a lot of state university funding. CW: I didn't know how all those years ago I managed not to stumble on the granite boulder that enshrines a version of the Wisconsin Idea on Bascom Hill. Now I see that it is most likely because the boulder & plaque were placed there in 2012. ...
... Christine Evans, a UW-Milwaukee history professor, writes an impassioned plea in the New York Times for the legislature to ignore Scott Walker's budget & continue to fund the university system at levels that make classes affordable. She tries to explain why the liberal arts are important to teach critical thinking. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. ...
... Robert Samuels of the Washington Post: "Walker drew a direct line between his 2011 battle against his state's public-sector unions, which sparked mass protests and made him a national GOP star, and his new quest to transform higher education.... Whether or not he succeeds in transforming the universities [in to expensive trade schools], the battle itself, coming in the midst of Walker's effort to rise above a crowded field of prospective Republican presidential candidates, is likely to play well with conservative voters who see universities as elite institutions and hotbeds of left-leaning activism.
... Ed Kilgore on the anti-intellectual right: "Like an awful lot of things, educational credentials are a data point, and to that extent, conservatives touting Walker should admit not finishing college (after all, if elected Walker would be the first president born after 1884 to have no college degree) isn't some sort of positive accomplishment. If it was, then maybe Republicans should find a candidate who didn't finish high school, or who is illiterate...." ...
... Besides, a college degree or two doesn't make you smart:
Our military needs to know that they're not gonna be prosecuted when they come back, because somebody has, said 'You did something that was politically incorrect.' There is no such thing as a politically correct war. We need to grow up, we need to mature. If you're gonna have rules for war, you should just have a rule that says no war. Other than that, we have to win. Our life depends on it. -- Dr. Ben Carson, who has two college degrees, each from a major university
Senate Race?
Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "Controversial former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) is talking up a Tea Party challenge to Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)." ...
... Steve M.: "The GOP deserves to have this clown running in the general election in 2016. I feel like sending him money."
Beyond the Beltway
Julie Turkewitz & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: The police shooting-death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes in Pasco, Washington "has drawn condemnation from the president of Mexico and multiple investigations, including inquiries by a task force of local police agencies, by the county coroner and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Zambrano-Montes was unarmed but was throwing rocks at cars & police officers. "In Pasco, a city of 68,000 that is 56 percent Hispanic, the public killing has pierced the immigrant enclave, spurring protests that have attracted hundreds and highlighting a division between the city's increasingly Latino populace and its power structure -- the police, the city government -- which remains largely white."
Michelle Price of the AP (Feb. 13): "A hotly contested proposal that resurrects Utah's use of firing squads to carry out executions narrowly passed a key vote Friday in the state's Legislature after three missing lawmakers were summoned to break a tie vote. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 39-34 Friday morning to approve the measure, sending it to an uncertain fate in the state's GOP-controlled Senate. Leaders in that chamber have thus far declined to say if they'll support it, and Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert won't say if he'll sign it."
News Ledes
New York Times: "In what could be an important diplomatic breakthrough in the Syrian conflict, a senior United Nations envoy said Tuesday that he had persuaded President Bashar al-Assad to stop bombing and shelling as part of a proposed six-week truce."
New York Times: "Robert E. Herzstein, who successfully sued on behalf of historians and journalists to prevent former President Richard M. Nixon from removing and even destroying his White House papers and tapes after his resignation, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 83."
New York Times: "A battle for a railroad town in eastern Ukraine escalated sharply on Tuesday, with both the Ukrainian Army and Russian-backed militants saying that their soldiers were engaging in pitched street battles. By midday, the separatists said they had captured the town, Debaltseve, a separatist news agency reported. The Ukrainian military denied the claim, saying its soldiers were repelling the attacks."
BBC News: "Jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS) have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, the local police chief says."
Reuters: "A French prosecutor has asked a court to acquit the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a pimping charge for his role in what investigating magistrates argued was an organised sex ring using prostitutes."
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Reader Comments (8)
Chancellor Rebecca Blank has been revealed to be a welcome advocate for the University of Wisconsin in the weeks since Walker unveiled his new budget slashing both funding and mission of the UW. The system's president, Ray Cross, brought in to a warm welcome from republican legislators, has been mealy-mouthed and appeasing.
It is not possible to overstate the effects, economically and culturally, that the UW has on our state. I live down the street from the UW and throughout my life my friends and neighbors have been students, faculty, staff, and general beneficiaries of having a great
University in our city. The Wisconsin Idea is so real to us that many of us can quote it as we offer our service to the state.
Scott Walker's blatant attack on the UW will result in our losing many of our finest faculty. In the near term, tuition will rise. Soon, the quality of life in The entire state will suffer even more than would be the case with Walker's deregulation of industry and degradation of our environment. The fact that Walker's biggest personal failures occurred in the educational field lends an eery, karmic feeling to his hatchet job on public education.
Today, with deep pain and regret, I told my husband that when we retire next year, I think it will be time to escape from Wisconsin. I can no longer watch the state I love, with its good, genuine people, be trashed by a small-time politician for his own political gain. I don't remember Joe McCarthy, but Scott Walker appears to be Wisconsin's latest political pox on the nation. God forbid he should become president.
One September when I was about 22, I was walking down the street in Chicago when a first- or second-grader stopped to ask me if I was his teacher. I told him, "No," but what I thought was, "I can't be your teacher. I'm not qualified. I don't have a college degree." Like Scott Walker, I had gone to college for three years, then dropped out when I married.
That little kid shamed me into going back to college & finishing my degree, which I did the following year. As anyone who has gone to school after they're all growed-up knows, it ain't easy because of all of the other responsibilities you have. And it's not as much fun. My prime motive was not enlightenment nor economic gain nor any other sensible motive: it was embarrassment.
Scott Walker never did what I did, but I think he feels -- to this day -- the same shame I did when a cute kid mistook me for his teacher. That shame explains why his first ("big, bold move" -- his words) was to take on (primarily) teacher's unions & his next big attack was against university professors. Instead of doing something positive with his shame, he's doing really awful things -- bullying those who inherently shame him. Picking on him for not having a degree will only make him worse.
That will be 5 cents, please.*
Marie
*Like Bill Frist, I am qualified to diagnose at a distance based on my beliefs & biases.
And from an even greater distance, my morning Walker thoughts:
When I read of Walker's attack on the U. of W. yesterday, my first inclination was much the same as Marie's. I saw in Walker budget a personal reaction of envy transformed into hate toward the university, by a man who did not measure up and who chose to heighten his own relative stature by tearing down anything that made him feel small. Embarrassment maybe, but surely envy and simple meanness lurking in a budget.
But then my thoughts took me a step further. It's not just Walker and his personal shortcomings exhibited here. Attacks by the Right on the liberal arts are very deliberate, and from the Right's restricted point of view very reasonable.
The Liberal Arts stand outside of the economic and institutional models that govern the majority of our lives. Such studies invite us compare and contrast ways we humans have lived over the many centuries we have kept records, the things we have believed, the goals we have striven for, and invite us further and in the Right's eyes more insidiously and dangerously to make judgements about them. It is no wonder that those who see capitalist enterprise as sole and ideal model of human organization also see any presentation or discussion of alternatives, or any criticism thereof, as a threat. To the degree that study of the liberal arts have the power to open minds, to the very well-funded Right they are becoming Private Enemy Number One.
The attack on any frivolous--i.e., not trade school--university schooling has its equally dangerous parallel in our national obsession with standardized testing in earlier grades. Diane Ravitch and others have written extensively about the false equivalency between high test scores and economic success that we have been sold by testing and computer companies and--no coincidence--mostly Rightist politicians. The Right wants our k-12 public schools to be trade schools, too, all about preparing for a job, nothing about why or how one should live.
(Oddly, the same Rightist coalition that gripes about the lack of moral instruction in our schools is the same coalition that wishes to strip schools of any education about values at all.)
Years ago I termed our state's latest testing program, one we are still struggling with, the Test from Boeing. While I saw additional testing prompting some needed school improvement (even in my own), I was worried that expanded testing would narrow our focus, turning us and our students into drudges, drones for the 21st century.
At the time I didn't see a deliberate political agenda in all that. Maybe there was none then in the middle 90's. But now I do.
Is that paranoid enough for a beautiful Northwest morning?
Nothing new under the sun. When I was in grad school at Carolina (that's NC to the outlanders) in the late '60's, Jesse Helm's relentless vituperation of pinko professors was in nearly every newspaper and teevee news spot. The current guv and state house are at it again.
Marie,
Thanks for the info about the rock with the plaque. I, too, could not remember a boulder on Bascom Hill. I thought I was having a Brian Williams moment getting it confused with the one on the hill next to the observatory across from Liz Waters.
If Scottie had his way he would probably recommend that UW make up for lost funding by reinstalling the spiral fire-escape slide in Science Hall and charging those Richie Rich students $10 a pop for the ride down from the 3rd floor, $15 from the 4th.
One can only hope that when he's on campus visiting his son he steps through an open manhole, falling so far into the nethermost regions of the steam tunnels that even Tunnel Bob couldn't find him.
Yesterday, Marvin posited that Bohener's behavior might constitute treason.
U.S. Code› Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 115 › § 2381
18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States
IMHO based on the above, no it doesn't. Despicable and reprehensible, yes.
Article III, Section 3, Constitution of the United States
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/16/8031177/america-farenheit
Zack Beauchamp writing in "Vox" about why the US still uses Fahrenheit.
Only 2 other countries, besides the US, still use it: Burma and Liberia. Burma decided to change in 2013, which leaves us and Liberia. Since the US had a lot to do with the creation of Liberia, that makes us truly exceptional, but not in a good way.
I'm afraid we've got to give up on the 'exceptional' part. OK is on its way to outlaw AP History classes. They feel AP only teaches the kids about the 'bad' US history. Sorry, I'm too bummed to provide a link (do you really want details on this travesty?) Read it on Think Progress.