The Commentariat -- Feb. 6, 2013
** Michael Kugelman, in a New York Times op-ed, on the global land grab: big corporations buying up massive tracts of land in impoverished & strife-torn countries, with no benefit & considerable devastation coming to indigenous people.
Frank Newport of Gallup: "At least two-thirds of Americans favor each of five specific measures designed to address immigration issues -- ranging from 68% who would vote for increased government spending on security measures and enforcement at U.S. borders, to 85% who would vote for a requirement that employers verify the immigration status of all new hires. More than seven in 10 would vote for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants now living in this country."
Julie Pace of the AP: "President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate business executive and former engineer Sally Jewell to lead the Interior Department, an administration official said. Jewell is the president and chief executive officer at the outdoors company Recreational Equipment, Inc., known as REI, which sells clothing and gear for outdoor adventures with more than 100 stores across the country. Prior to joining REI in 2000, Jewell worked in commercial banking and as an engineer for Mobil Oil Corporation." CW: why is it that I think a CEO & former oil company engineer might not be the best choice for secretary of the interior? ...
... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post has more on Jewell. ...
... UPDATE. John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama has selected Sally Jewell, the chief executive of Recreational Equipment Inc., to lead the Interior Department, White House officials said Wednesday."
Robert Worth, et al., of the New York Times: "... the [U.S.'s] clandestine war will receive a rare moment of public scrutiny on Thursday, when its chief architect, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, faces a Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama's nominee for C.I.A. director." ...
... Greg Miller & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Obama's plan to install his counterterrorism adviser as director of the CIA has opened the administration to new scrutiny over the targeted-killing policies it has fought to keep hidden from the public, as well as the existence of a previously secret drone base in Saudi Arabia."
... James Downie of the Washington Post: "The summary memo is a chilling document, full of twisted definitions, gaping loopholes and hints that the White House still isn't sharing its full justification for killing citizens without due process.... Fortunately, the president's nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA gives the Senate an ideal opportunity to demand that the White House be more forthcoming.... If the White House doesn't hand over the memos, then the Senate should strongly consider delaying Brennan's confirmation."
... New York Times Editors: "... the newly disclosed 'white paper' offering a legal reasoning behind the claim that President Obama has the power to order the killing of American citizens who are believed to be part of Al Qaeda ... had the air of a legal justification written after the fact for a policy decision that had already been made, and brought back unwelcome memories of memos written for President George W. Bush to justify illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, kidnapping, abuse and torture.... This dispute goes to the fundamental nature of our democracy, to the relationship among the branches of government and to their responsibility to the public."
Michael Shear & Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday called on lawmakers to quickly pass a new package of limited spending cuts and tax changes that can head off the automatic, across-the-board reductions set to begin March 1":
... Lori Montgomery & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "As Obama spoke, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office rolled out new projections showing that the spending battles of the past two years have helped shrink record budget deficits but have also hampered economic growth. The deficit — the annual gap between taxes and spending -- is projected to fall to $845 billion this year, the first time it has come in under $1 trillion since 2008." ...
... CW: yesterday the Cantor crowd accused President Obama of stepping on Cantor's speech when he (Obama) made brief remarks in the White House briefing room. However, I suspect Cantor's speech was itself an effort to cover up the CBO report to Congress. Why muzzle the CBO? How about this? -- Steve Benen: "The conversation on Capitol Hill is so ridiculous, it no longer resembles reality in any meaningful way. Congressional Republicans insist they want to improve the strength of the recovery. How? By cutting spending that undermines the strength of the recovery." Read Benen's whole post & you have to come away realizing it is not just the crop of House Tea Party Republicans who are crazy -- it's the "mainstream" leadership, too. (I originally typed that "meanstream"; shoulda left it. ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "... debt reduction just isn't a five-alarm fire kind of problem, no matter how loudly the Pete Petersons of the world claim otherwise.... If we rein in healthcare spending, we're in good shape. If we don't, we have problems." ...
... AND Brian Beutler of TPM explains one reason not to rely on the CBO report: "... this particular budget and economic forecast is highly uncertain, even in the short term. Looming fights over the sequester, government appropriations, and the debt limit could dramatically alter the fiscal outlook and thus the economic forecast, for the year and coming decade. Similarly, deficits will be higher than projected if Congress, as it routinely does, extends expiring tax credits and overrides a 25 percent cut to Medicare physician reimbursement rates before the end of the year."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to travel to Israel this spring for the first time since taking office, as he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu try to move past the friction of the last four years now that both have won re-election."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Two Democrats and two Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation that would create a dedicated federal anti-gun-trafficking law while further cracking down on people who buy firearms for someone else and lie about it on federal background check forms."
Eric Cantor's big speech. Text of remarks as prepared. ...
... Ed Kilgore has video of Cantor's "bad speech, poorly delivered." Still, Cantor had an experienced speechwriter -- Barack Obama:
... Jonathan Easley of Politics USA: "Eric Cantor wanted to attach the same stale Republican ideas to the language of Obama. A side by side comparison of the two speeches reveals the hollowness of this technique. Obama's speech in Topeka followed the language with examples and policy proposals. Eric Cantor's speech was full of attempts to relate to the common man and families, but specific ideas were mostly missing. This omission was intentional. Cantor is only interested in changing the tone of the Republican Party, not the policies." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "If Republicans are actually proud of this essay in policy minimalism..., then they are further away from any real reinvention of themselves than even hostile observers like me thought possible." ...
... Headline of the Week: "Eric Cantor Puts Old Whine in New Bottles." (Mark 2:22) Charles Pierce was not impressed with the "details." Because there weren't any. ...
... CW: one thing about this "rebranding" -- borrowing Obama's language without embracing any of Obama's policies -- is that in his borrowing, Cantor implicitly acknowledges that Obama won the election, & polls show he won because Americans like Obama's policies better than they liked the GOP's. Moreover, in this speech Cantor muttered what Republicans haven't said since Saint Ronald decreed "government is the problem": while the bulk of Cantor's speech was the usual boilerplate "get government out of the way of hardworking, self-sufficient Americans," Cantor also admitted that government does have a role to play beyond killing people in foreign lands, & even got semi-specific once; to wit: "There is an appropriate and necessary role for the federal government to ensure funding for basic medical research." One small step from a guy who last year wasn't sure he could vote for disaster aid. ...
... MEANWHILE, Dana Milbank can't help but notice the duplicity of a man who recites Emma Lazarus but claims he has no idea what Senate Republicans are doing about immigration & talks about the evils of ObamaCare without acknowledging that standard-issue Republicans like Gov. John Kasich of Ohio -- a former colleague of Cantor's -- were buying into ObamaCare. Maybe a better biblical reference would be Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." ...
... Perhaps Steve Benen best gets to the heart of Cantor's insurmountable problem: "Cantor seems to realize that another 'government is evil' speech is pointless -- for all the assumptions about the 'center-right nation,' he realizes that the American mainstream sees a role for a healthy public sector that promotes the general welfare. But the problem with this latest rebranding campaign is that Cantor wants to present a Republican agenda that will 'benefit families across the nation,' but he can't fill in the blanks. There's a reason for this, which the right generally prefers not to admit: conservatism isn't an effective governing philosophy when it comes to using government to make a positive material difference in the lives of working families."
Brian Beutler of TPM re: that recent Washington, D.C. Circuit Court decision nullifying President Obama's NLRB recess appointments: "The Congressional Research Service found a total of 329 intrasession recess appointments -- appointments that occurred when the Senate adjourned in the middle of a session -- since 1981. By the terms of Noel Canning v. NLRB, all of those appointments would have been invalid." CW: the D.C. court is so extreme, they claim every president in recent history -- including those who appointed them -- has routinely violated the Constitution while no one objected. Funny this never came up before.
Here's a news quiz from the Pew Research Center. CW: I missed the same question contributor P. D. Pepe missed. Fifty-seven percent of those who took the quiz got the right answer. So we're not so smart. Thanks to James S. for the link.
Nicole Perlroth for the New York Times: at "the Kaspersky Annual Summit in San Juan, P.R..., one of the scarier presentations was delivered by Ang Cui, a Columbia Ph.D. student, who demonstrated how to spy on calls made with Cisco's VoIP phone. Yes, that is the same phone ... President Obama [uses] aboard Air Force One." Cisco tried repeatedly to patch their system, but Cui found work-arounds every time. Cisco gave up. ...
... Perlroth: "Phil Zimmermann, the creator of the widely used Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption software, recently unveiled Silent Circle, which adds security features to phone, video and text messages sent by smartphones. The new service, which charges a monthly fee, could emerge as a more secure rival to Snapchat and Skype."
Right Wing World
Trouble in Roveland. Jed Lewison: Karl Rove's new SuperPAC to stop crazy Republicans from winning primaries boasts about have just re-elected the same crazy Republican they held up as the poster Boy of All Crazy Republicans: Rep. Steve King of Iowa. CW: if you think this makes absolutely no sense, remember that you're in Right Wing World where making sense is against the law.
Local News
Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Maryland appears likely in the next few weeks to join the growing list of states that have abolished capital punishment. Some longtime death penalty opponents say no one in the country has done more to advance that cause than [Kirk Noble] Bloodsworth. But ending executions in Maryland, the state that once was determined to kill him, would be a personal victory for him." CW: Bloodsworth, the first death-row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence, has a compelling story to tell, & Shane tells it.
America's Worst Governor Makes Plans for a Second Term. Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Rick Scott is preparing to defend his Florida governorship with the most expensive reelection campaign in state history, drawing up plans for a battleship-sized political operation aimed at overcoming the Republican's deep personal unpopularity. The anticipated price tag, according to sources familiar with Scott’s plans: $100 million." Scott's possible opponent -- Republican-turned-Democrat & former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS makes a pre-emptive strike against actor Ashley Judd, who has expressed an interest in running against Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014. Kevin Cerilli of Politico has the backstory:
News Ledes
Boy Scouts Not Prepared. AP: "... the Boy Scouts of America is retreating until May from a decision about whether to ease its policy of excluding gays. Whatever the organization eventually does, it's likely to anger major constituencies and worsen schisms within Scouting."
AP: "The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August."...
... New York Times Update: "Saying it needed to take drastic steps to stem billions of dollars in losses, the Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it would seek to stop Saturday delivery of letters, a sweeping change in the way the agency operates that immediately drew criticism from postal unions and some businesses."
Guardian: "The US Federal Reserve bank has confirmed one of its internal websites was broken into by hackers after the hacktivist group Anonymous was claimed to have stolen details of more than 4,000 bank executives."
New York Times: "A leading Tunisian opposition politician, [Chokri Belaid,] who had been critical of the Islamist-led government was fatally shot outside his home in Tunis Wednesday, the government news agency said." ...
... Reuters: "Thousands of protesters gathered in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, after a prominent secular opponent of Tunisia's moderate Islamist-led government was shot dead on Wednesday."
Reuters: "Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland will pay U.S. and British authorities $615 million and plead guilty to wire fraud in Japan to settle allegations it manipulated global benchmark interest rates."
AP: "As FBI and police negotiators sought for days to coax an Alabama man into freeing a kindergartner held hostage in an underground bunker, the captor was planning for violence.... He rigged the bunker with explosives, tried to reinforce it against any raid, and when SWAT agents stormed the shelter Monday to rescue the boy, Jimmy Lee Dykes engaged in a firefight that left the captor dead, the FBI and officials said."
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Huff Post: "Cantor's speech was part of a renewed effort to present a kinder, gentler GOP,..." headlined as: Eric Cantor: Dreamers Should Receive Pathway To Citizenship"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/eric-cantor-dreamers_n_2623305.html
However, Charles Pierce knows an aluminum siding salesman when he see one and his commentary on the speech is wicked awesome! Not to be missed!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Eric_Cantor_Puts_Old_Whine_In_New_Bottles
...and, (ahem!) old smarty pants here got all 13 answers correct in the PEW quiz.
@ MAG: I also got 13/13. My wife would say that's because I spend too much time on line.
I got 13 out of 13 correct also and I KNOW I spend way too much time online. Just ask my house, my family, and my friends (and my pets too).
On Kugelman:
And the Right gins up fear of socialism and the "collective," when in fact the collective is already here (and there and there) with more to come.
The only choice we can hope to have is what kind of collective we will allow. One that gobbles up everything that could redound to the good of the whole and channels its value into the hands of the elite few or one that shares its value if not equally, at least fairly with all.
But to make that choice we have to recognize and identify what should be obvious social and economic trends, and understand that when the likes of George Will shriek their dire warning "the collective is coming," the Wills of the World are so blinded by ideology they're looking at the wrong one.
Guarding the front door, and congratulating themselves on their vigilance, they have left the back door wide open to private greed.
Re: "There is an appropriate and necessary role for the federal government to ensure funding for basic medical research." Mr. Canter.
1. How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?
2. What does the toof fairy do with all the toofs?
3. Faith-based surgery; why does it hurt?
4. Fixing the spare-rib counterpart of males.
5. Just where do babies come from?
6. How to stop evolution from evolving?
PS. p u. I got 12 of 13; All those power babes look alike.
Finally took that test. Looking at the results it's interesting that the questions with the most correct answers were a religious symbol and a corporate logo (the other symbol, one relating to money, didn't fare as well because, I assume, it has to do with Europe).
Under the demographic headings the highest score was, again, the Star of David (96% recognition by college grads--what's with that other 4%?) and the lowest was the picture of Elizabeth Warren (33% recognition by high school grads).
I think Bararossa and Tommy are correct, heavy consumers of news content, like most of us, will do pretty well in these quizzes.
I thought it was funny how few could recognize Syria, even in a multiple choice format. Not many got the Chinese flag, and even fewer knew who Eric Holder was. I suppose that number would skyrocket for regular readers of wingnut " sites where Holder is routinely depicted as 1.) Satan's (Obama's) crook in charge of the Justice Dept. and 2.) the guy who sold weapons to terrorists and then let them use those weapons to murder American law enforcement officers. I wonder how many respondents thought he was president of the NRA?
Even funnier, I wonder how many picked Texas as a state that had just approved same sex marriages?
Don't forget. Those people get to vote!
The American Crossroads [not 501(c)(4)] ad mocking Judd's possible candidacy reminds me that the IRS is still conspicuously absent in the 501(c)(4) question. As of the 1st of this year, fresh complaints have been filed on Crossroads GPS by Democracy 21 and Campaign Legal Center. See Mother Jones (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/letter-IRS-crossroads-GPS-application).
I have not been able to find any information on the status of Rove's new Conservative Victory Project. Seems like the name would eliminate consideration of "social welfare" status. What puzzles me even more (read fries my ass) is that Crossroads GPS has not been granted exempt status (based on a 2010 app) as of 12/14/12 per Pro Publica.
I need to lose some weight, so I'm headed to my appointment for my official portrait.
Additional remarks re the PEW quiz, why is it when maps are used to ask a question they look as though they were drawn on the back of a wet napkin, instead of a properly illustrated geographic image?
At first, I thought the level of questions a bit of a set-up, just too easy...but (kind of like Jay Leno's 'man-on-the-street' interviews) where no one seemed to have paid attention to history, geography, or news in school—or since. But, unfortunately, re the results as Akhilleus points out, "these people get to vote."
Then upon watching the Beatle's Mr. Postman video with the Fab 4 wearing those narrow, slim-fitting pants...and recalling images from Woodstock (just Google'em) —one merely needs to fast forward and look at the crowds attending today's concert/game venues and observe the very striking and distinct difference in avoirdupois!
Yep, I'm guessing Sensenbrennar's 'official' portrait must have been taken sometime around Woodstock!
(...'tho FYI, I be happier with a few less stones, meself! said the medium gray kettle.)
Re: Cantor's Speech, wherein he said colleges should publish the job opportunities for various degrees. Silly me, I went to college to get an education (English major, minors in math and science and art and music) , not to learn a trade. Over the years, of all the things I learned, the ability to speak and write clearly served me best. For instance, what I learned in Chemistry and Physics was out of date almost immediately.
Garrison Keillor's hilarious routines about English majors came to mind when I heard about ranking degrees. I will admit that earning a degree cost a whole lot less than when I graduated in 1963 than it does now.
What's up with Ohio's Kasich? Has he caught a progressive bug?
http://my.firedoglake.com/ohiogringo/2013/02/05/post-election-progressive-scorecard-update-kasich-9-obama-1/
With respect to Sally Jewell. She's been CEO of REI. I don't think you can successfully run a company while being divorced from the corporate philosophy for which visit the REI website and click on stewardship or 'about REI'. To the best of my knowledge this is a Seattle based non-profit co-op with sincere environmentalist creds. Who better to know the enemy than a past employee?
Barbarossa,
It's hardly unexpected that the denizens of the modern GOP only look at higher (or any) education for its cash value. But doesn't it show? As a group they're woefully ignorant of history, art, literature, science, and suspicious and disdainful of anyone who prizes knowledge for its own sake.
Let's just say that one of the primary benefits of a good education, the ability to read, write, and think clearly and critically obviously has eluded most of their "leaders" so why would they believe anyone else would value such skills?
As that noted scholar Prof. Dubya once asked: "Is our children learning?"