The Commentariat -- February 10, 2012
My column in the New York Times eXaminer: "This year is the 20th anniversary of what was called the 'Year of the Woman' in the U.S. So far the anniversary year is not going well." The NYTX front page is here, and highlights quite a few excellent articles today. You can contribute here.
Robert Redford: "Joe Nocera's op-ed in the New York Times ... deserves a response and a reiteration of the facts surrounding the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. President Obama rejected the pipeline's permit last month when the GOP, in a political stunt, forced his hand to approve it without even the final route evident.... The Keystone XL pipeline doesn't deliver on jobs or national security, it jeopardizes public health and safety and the president was right to reject it. And tar sands are not just 'a little dirtier' than traditional crude as Nocera notes."
Paul Krugman openly smacks down Charles Murray & implicitly raps Our Miss Brooks: "So we have become a society in which less-educated men have great difficulty finding jobs with decent wages and good benefits. Yet somehow we’re supposed to be surprised that such men have become less likely to participate in the work force or get married, and conclude that there must have been some mysterious moral collapse caused by snooty liberals." And, I might add, Krugman is completely consistent here with the crux of my column in yesterday's NYTX on Kristof's turn with Murray's excuse for income inequality. ...
Krugman, in a blogpost: "one thing oddly missing in Murray is any discussion of that traditional indicator of social breakdown, teenage pregnancy. You can see why — because it has actually been falling like a stone." And crime is way down, too. "Maybe traditional social values are eroding in the white working class — but maybe those traditional social values aren’t as essential to a good society as conservatives like to imagine." ...
... Same blogger, same subject: "So we’ve created a society in which many young people see no chance of ever achieving middle-class status; then we look at their failure to adhere to middle-class values, and declare that there must be some mysterious force corroding our morality." ...
... Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects.... The income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race. Now ... researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period."
President Obama, yesterday, on the foreclosure settlement agreement:
... Sarah Kliff, et al., of the Washington Post have a roundup of expert opinions on the foreclosure settlement agreement. Here's one:
Today’s settlement shows a significant commitment to helping struggling homeowners stay in their homes. But it needs to be the beginning, not the end, of efforts to hold the big banks accountable with meaningful penalties that demonstrate the rules and the law apply to everyone, no matter who your friends are or how many lobbyists and lawyers you can hire. -- Elizabeth Warren ...
... Massimo Calabresi of Time: "... overall, it’s a clear win for Obama and Democrats, a qualified win for the banks, and a minor, belated victory for homeowners.... The agreement releases the banks from claims tied to past servicing foreclosure, robo-signing claims and, most significantly, originating claims. The AGs argue that the originating claims — that is, claims against the banks for making massively irresponsible housing loans to begin with — are all out of date anyway."
... Prashant Gopal & John Gittelsohn of Bloomberg: "The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may result in a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely."
John Harkinson of Mother Jones reproduces "mind-blowing charts from the Senate's income inequality hearing.
Apple -- Worse Than You Knew. Arun Gupta of AlterNet: "... legions of vocational and university students, some as young as 16, are forced to take months’-long 'internships' in Foxconn’s mainland China factories assembling Apple products. The details of the internship program paint a far more disturbing picture than the Times does [in stories we linked last month] of how Foxconn, 'the Chinese hell factory,' treats its workers, relying on public humiliation, military discipline, forced labor and physical abuse as management tools to hold down costs and extract maximum profits for Apple.... Foxconn and Apple depend on tax breaks, repression of labor, subsidies and Chinese government aid ... to fatten their corporate treasuries." ...
... CW: The FBI report on Steve Jobs is here. It's 191 pages. I won't be reading it.
NEW: Greg Sargent, in response to the Obama administration's "accommodation" of objections to contraceptive coverage: "... it seems all but certain that the Conference of Bishops, which had previously insisted that the rule be scrapped altogether, will not be mollified in the slightest, and Republican officials and the 2012 GOP candidates will still continue attacking the Obama administration over this, pushing not only the 'war on religion' line but also the subtext, i.e., that Obama is forever looking to expand the reach of government. But the Obama team is betting that any further objections to this policy will unmask opponents primarily as hidebound foes of birth control at any costs, a politically difficult position to sustain, rather than as defenders of religious liberty." ...
... NEW. In a press release today, Catholics United called on Catholic bishops & women's health advocates to recognize that the Obama administration's solution values the religious liberty of Roman Catholic institutions while maintaining access to health care for all employees.
Ladies, the man in the miter is mightily irritated because you are having safe sex. His name is Timothy Dolan. Big Tim is the Archbishop of New York & president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. New York Time photo.Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "When after much internal debate the Obama administration finally announced its decision to require religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to cover birth control in their insurance plans, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops were fully prepared for battle." CW: this whole brouhaha has something to do with the child sex abuse scandal. I'm not sure quite how it works in the minds of these guys -- whether it's payback for various government prosecutors meddling with the bishops' "handling" of abusive priests or a PR initiative to show that the bishops' views on sex are totally upstanding -- but priests having sex with children and women having sex with men are intertwined in some way. What do you think? ...
... NEW. Jake Tapper of ABC News on the fierce White House internal debate on the rule. ...
... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: Vice President Biden, who is a Roman Catholic, "said Thursday that he thinks a solution can be found to the deepening controversy over birth-control coverage." ...
... Amy Sullivan, now of The Atlantic: "The question for Sister Keehan and Father Jenkins, for Senator Casey and Sister Campbell, is not whether lay Catholics disagree with the Church's teaching on birth control (a majority do) or whether nearly all Catholic women use birth control at some point in their lives (they do). It is not even whether some Catholic institutions already pay for employee health plans that include coverage for contraception (some do). The question is whether the federal government should be able to require a religious institution to use its own funds to pay for something it finds morally objectionable." CW: But, see Jonathan Cohn below. Whose funds are they? ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "... a key issue is the nature of health insurance -- in particular, whether it belongs to the employer or the employee.... The checks to your insurance plan may have the name of a religious institution on them. But, as a matter of economics and of principle, the money is (or should be) yours. The only reason employers are in the middle of health insurance is that companies started offering coverage in the 1930s and, somewhat inadvertently, became the primary source of coverage for working Americans.... The whole point of health care reform is to establish a minimum level of health insurance for every American. Basically, we’re turning health insurance into a right rather than a privilege."
Why Jonathan Chait of New York magazine is so mean: "There are just a lot of people out there exerting significant influence over the political debate who are totally unqualified. The dilemma is especially acute in the political economic field, where wealthy right-wingers have pumped so much money to subsidize the field of pro-rich people polemics that the demand for competent defenders of letting rich people keep as much of their money as possible vastly outstrips the supply. Hence the intellectual marketplace for arguments that we should tax rich people less is glutted with hackery." CW: think of me as a distaff Chait.
Right Wing World
NEW. Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times: the more the public sees of the GOP presidential candidates, the less they like 'em.
Sahil Kapur of TPM: "In his 2006 Massachusetts health care law, Mitt Romney embraced a virtually identical contraception coverage mandate as President Obama recently has, experts say, and as a result expanded access to birth control for hundreds of thousands of women. And Democrats really want you to know that. 'They are practically mirror images or each other,' John McDonough, a professor of public health at Harvard, said on a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee.... Romney has embraced the shocked, shocked tone of leading Republicans on this issue in recent days, and Democrats have acted swiftly to flag up inconsistencies in his position." ...
Rick Santorum: ObamaCare is the first step in the left's plan to guillotine Americans. CW: Yup, the guillotine was my first thought.
... It's just not working out, Rick. We've decided to go another way. ...
... With Santorum, the hits just keep on coming:
Quote of the Hour -- Proposition PMS. I do have concerns about women in frontline combat. I think that can be a very compromising situation where — where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. -- Rick Santorum ...
... Really, he said that:
Local News
Pat Garofalo of Think Progress: "... Under the terms of the [foreclosure] settlement [see above], Wisconsin is set to receive $140 million, $31.6 million of which comes directly to the state government. And [union-bustin' man of the people Gov Scott] Walker is planning to use $25.6 million of that money to help balance his state’s budget." The underlying story, by Jason Stein & Paul Gores of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is here. CW: that jerk never quits. The big question is, will he be indicted before he's recalled? I'll run this again in tomorrow's Commentariat. Thanks to reader AJT for the heads-up.
News Ledes
President Obama and Vice President Biden talk with former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords & her husband Mark Kelly after the President signed H.R. 3801, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012, in the Oval Office today. This bill is the last piece of legislation that Giffords sponsored & voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. White House photo.AP: Former Rep. "Gabrielle Giffords ... returned to Washington Friday for double honors. The Navy named a ship after her and she saw President Barack Obama sign the last piece of legislation she authored into law. In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords, a littoral combat ship. The craft is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships." ...
... New York Times: "Ron Barber, a top aide to retired Representative Gabrielle Giffords ... announced on Thursday that he would seek Ms. Giffords’s vacated Arizona House seat in a special election June 12." Giffords & her husband Mark Kelly have endorsed Barber, who also was injured in the shooting that nearly killed Giffords.
AP: "Seeking to allay the concerns of Catholic leaders, the White House is planning to announce an adjustment to its health care rule requiring religious employers to provide women access to contraception, a senior administration official said." ...
... ABC News: "The move, based on state models, will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal of women employees having their birth control fully covered by health insurance." ...
... AP Update: "Senior administration officials tell The Associated Press that President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all. He will demand instead that insurance companies will be the ones ultimately responsible for providing free contraception." ...
... Update: President Obama will speak to the press @ 12:15 pm ET. Live on Reality Chex. No link. ...
... Update @ 12:24 pm ET: President Obama just made what I thought was a masterful statement about what had better be the resolution of this brouhaha. Here's the Yahoo! News story. ...
... New York Times Update: "The administration’s move won an important endorsement from Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.... Mr. Obama called her Friday morning — along with Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood — to inform her of the compromise." ...
... Update: Absolution Deferred. "The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sees initial opportunities in preserving the principle of religious freedom after President Obama’s announcement today. But the Conference continues to express concerns. 'While there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them,' said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of USCCB."
Washington Post: "The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee over possible violations of insider-trading laws, according to individuals familiar with the case. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries."
Los Angeles Times: "A consortium of utilities in the South won government approval Thursday to construct two new atomic energy reactors [in Georgia] at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest signal yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending."
New York Times: "Explosions in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo struck two targets associated with the military and police early on Friday, Syrian state television reported, as the central city of Homs was reported under siege with sporadic tank fire ripping into contested neighborhoods, pinning down residents in their homes.... State television quoted the Health Ministry as saying 25 people were killed and 175 injured in Aleppo in what seemed to be two car bombings."
AP: "Greek riot police have fired tear gas to disperse rioters throwing petrol bombs and stones, as thousands protest in Athens against new austerity measures. No injuries or arrests have been reported. Police said the clashes came as some 7,000 people marched peacefully Friday on the first day of a 48-hour general strike by the country's two main labor unions."
ABC News: "Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will be back in court Friday morning, hoping to convince a judge to change the conditions of his house arrest so that he can see his grandchildren."
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Reader Comments (4)
The only thing I can come up with regarding a connection between priests having sex with children and women having sex with men is that the former has an arrested development stench to it while the latter could give the former feelings of inadequency therefore anything that would make the latter more difficult like making the use of contraception a sin might assuage the former's fury at all the pleasure the latter experiences having sex. Whatever it is it's clear that this whole issue smacks of Republican chicanery helped along by bishops like big Tim Dolan who sits on his fat ass and dares to mess with women's rights. Makes my passionate blood boil!
"The speed and passion behind the bishops’ response reflects their growing sense of siege, and their belief that the space the Catholic church once occupied in American society and the deference it was given are gradually being curtailed by an increasingly secular culture."
There's the money quote, and your connection. The sex abuse scandal is a nail in the coffin of the Catholic church and they know it. It pulled the curtain away and once and for all laid bare their hypocrisy. Now that they are losing influence and power they are squealing like stuck pigs.
Pundits and politicians and priests seem to have no objection to hundreds of thousands of hospital employees having less health insurance coverage than the workers of G.E.
Hospital janitors, cooks, dish washers, bed makers, technicians. nurses aids and security guards probably have greater need than most workers because of their limited income.
The priests and pundits and politicians are consistent in under serving low paid workers.
Labor Law should protect everyone.
This is an FYI on the forclosure settlement. It seems Wisconsin gov. Scott Walkser will use the settlement money that goes directly to the state to help balance the state budget NOT to help homeowners......another Walker wonder.