The Commentariat -- Jan. 17, 2015
Internal links removed.
White House: "In this week's address, the President recounted the stories of letter writers from around the country who will be joining him when he delivers his annual State of the Union Address this Tuesday":
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The court's announcement made it likely that it would resolve one of the great civil rights questions of the age before its current term ends in June. The justices ducked the issue in October, refusing to hear appeals from rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. That surprise action delivered a tacit victory for gay rights, immediately expanding the number of states with same-sex marriage to 24 from 19, along with the District of Columbia." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Robert Barnes, is here. ...
... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "The Obama administration will formally ask the Supreme Court to 'make marriage equality a reality for all Americans' in a landmark case. In a statement issued on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will file a friend-of-the-court brief calling for gay and lesbian Americans across the country to be able to marry." Here's Holder's statement. ...
... An analysis by Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog is here. ...
... Steve Sanders in ScotusBlog: "Let's be clear -- the marriage bans are about animus.... Spend a few minutes browsing news databases for coverage of the mini-DOMA campaigns and it confirms what you knew but may have forgotten: the campaigns were substantially characterized by negative code words, moral judgment, and disparagement (often implicit, sometimes explicit) of gays' dignity.... The question of animus will be prominent -- perhaps pivotal -- in this final phase of marriage litigation."
Robert O'Harrow, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without proving that a crime occurred. Holder's action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs.... Holder's decision follows a Washington Post investigation published in September that found that police have made cash seizures worth almost $2.5 billion from motorists and others without search warrants or indictments since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.... Last Friday, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), along with Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), signed a letter calling on Holder to end Equitable Sharing." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. ...
... CW: I doubt Holder would have taken this step if not for the WashPo series. Journalism matters. ...
... Not to mention John Oliver, who took up the issue in October:
... The Justice Department's press release is here. ...
... Andy Cash of Gawker: "Holder's decision won't end civil forfeiture entirely, however: many states have their own forfeiture laws, and the DOJ will still allow for the seizure of things like weapons and child porn, and in other situations when 'public safety is at risk' or there is clear evidence of criminal activity, the Post notes. But many of those state laws don't direct property back to police departments, as the federal policy does, but deposit it in the state's general fund instead -- hopefully narrowing the possibility that cops will take some guys Hummer just because it would look bitchin' with the PD logo on it." ...
... Katie Zavadski of New York: "Unsurprisingly, states that don't funnel seized cash back into law enforcement tend to have fewer forfeiture-related scandals."
Nicholas Watt of the Guardian: "Barack Obama and David Cameron struck different notes on surveillance powers after the president conceded that there is an important balance to be struck between monitoring terror suspects and protecting civil liberties. As Cameron warned the internet giants that they must do more to ensure they do not become platforms for terrorist communications, the US president said he welcomed the way in which civil liberties groups hold them to account by tapping them on the shoulder." ...
... Jerome Cartillier of AFP: "US President Barack Obama on Friday urged European governments to try to better assimilate their Muslim minority populations as they respond to extremist attacks like last week's shootings in Paris." ...
... The press conference was pretty interesting. You might want to listen to it while you're washing your socks:
... Matt Apuzzo & Steve Erlanger of the New York Times: In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, there is a great deal of opposition in France to the government's adopting a version of the U.S. Patriot Act. CW: From the report, something that went over my head in the President's remarks during the joint presser:
Mr. Obama said Friday that while violent extremism had 'metastasized' and was 'widespread,' he added, 'I do not consider it an existential threat.' That is a marked contrast from the language used after the attacks in 2001, when Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser at the time, said, 'There is no longer any doubt that today America faces an existential threat to our security.'
The Poor Get Poorer. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "Just over half of all students attending public schools in the United States are now eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, according to a new analysis of federal data. In a report released Friday by the Southern Education Foundation, researchers found that 51 percent of children in public schools qualified for the lunches in 2013, which means that most of them come from low-income families. By comparison, 38 percent of public school students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in 2000."
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "The planet is changing, and we are close to the time when trying to check climate change will be like trying to redirect El Niño with canoe paddles.... The new numbers are so striking that they surprised even climate scientists."
Theda Skocpol of Harvard University on the premise of the King v. Burwell plaintiffs that subsidies are not apply to states which use the federal exchange: "Throughout hard-fought debates about health reform, lawmakers in both parties looked for ways to save taxpayer money. Partial subsidies would have greatly reduced costs, so the total absence of this kind of analysis among the 68 prepared by CBO for the 111th Congress (and its continuing absence in reports done for the next Congress) is the best objective evidence we have that no one in Congress considered premium subsidies restricted to certain states to be either possible or desirable. If Congress intended to threaten states with withheld subsidies, nobody said so." CW: The intent of Congress -- if it can be established -- is supposed to govern the courts' interpretation of laws. We'll see if it matters to the Supremes. Via Paul Waldman.
A Short History of the Crazy. Jonathan Chait: "The 'reformocons,' the small coterie of pundit-adviser-activists trying to coax the Republican Party back toward sanity, may be doing the most politically significant work of any faction in America today. But the task of talking sense to the senseless is tricky business.... Peter Wehner, the former Karl Rove aide..., denounces Republicans who have taken 'an apocalyptic view of American life during the Obama era.'... Actually, an apocalyptic view of American life is the very thing that propelled conservatism to power in the first place." ...
... The Party of NObama. Sahil Kapur: "Newly invigorated congressional Republicans ended their joint House-Senate retreat ... divided on how to handle pressing problems like immigration, homeland security funding and a contingency on health care.... The only thing uniting them was their opposition to President Barack Obama." ...
... Things might have worked out better if Speaker Boehner had not been so busy with more important things. Rebecca Nelson of the National Journal: "As soon as President Obama walked into a school in Knoxville, Tenn., last week and announced his ambitious community-college program, John Boehner knew it was trouble. So he did what any conservative, 65-year-old lawmaker would do: He compiled a series of Taylor Swift GIFs to spell out the problems of the plan.... The 12 GIFs, published on the speaker's website and emailed to reporters Friday morning, explain the GOP's case against Obama's proposal to make community college tuition-free." ...
... CW: Swift hasn't addressed the Boehner GIFs. She's been performing since she was about nine, so Swift herself hasn't gone to college. But she has supported schools & education through philanthropy & by, among other efforts, co-chairing the NEA's Read Across America Campaign. She might not be all that pleased to be used as a cudgel against helping millions of young Americans get a college education.
Inexcusable. Lori Aritani, et al., of the Washington Post: "It took Metro seven minutes to call 911 after a train stopped because of heavy smoke, and even then, officials did not report to emergency responders that passengers were trapped in a tunnel, according to federal safety investigators and reports from city officials and firefighters. When the first rescuers reached the platform at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, they had no idea that hundreds of Yellow Line passengers were gasping for breath, according to internal District documents."
No Prejudice Here. AP: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week appointed Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana[, a Muslim,] to the panel, which oversees the government's intelligence departments and activities. Much of the business that comes before the committee is classified. Anti-Muslim protests erupted on Twitter and other social media with complaints that exposing American secrets to Carson could be dangerous."
No Racism Here. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Florida police department uses black men&'s mugshots for target practice." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...
... Oliver Laughland of the Guardian expands on the story. Really, the cops think shooting at mugshots of real people who really live in the area is a swell practice. And don't worry -- sometimes they shoot at real white men, real Hispanics & real women. See, not racism.
Presidential Race
Dave Weigel: The GOP will sanction only nine presidential primary debates, and none of them will be on MSNBC. "Apart from bringing joy to every conservative, it was as [RNC Chair Reince] Priebus said -- he did not want debates to be steered by people who wanted to make Republicans look stupid." ...
... CW: Please, none of the GOP candidates needs MSNBC to make him (or her -- Carly Demon-Sheep Fiorina!) look stoopid.
Katie Zavadski: "Earlier this week, Mitt Romney launched a trial balloon for a third run at the presidency. In the days since, political commentators, GOP megadonors, and influential moguls have done more than just deflate it -- they've popped it loudly and watched the pieces fly all over the room. Romney will address GOP leaders at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting Friday night, but many influencers seem to have already made up their minds." ...
... Ditto Paul Waldman: "... within just a few days, the entire Republican world, from conservatives to moderates, from office-holders to pundits, from strategists to hangers-on, has turned on Romney with a spectacular fury.... Even Peggy Noonan, relentless chronicler of Americans' gut feelings and secret longings -- who on the eve of the 2012 election assured readers that Romney would win despite what the polls said because 'All the vibrations are right' -- has today [Friday] turned rather viciously on the man she used to hold in such high esteem."
... "The Tyranny of Celebrity." Dana Milbank: "The conservative editorialists were right to dread another election about Romneycare and the 47 percent. But why pick on Romney? Overall, 2016 is shaping up to be the year of the retreads: the reduce, reuse and recycle election."
Gail Collins assesses Rick Perry's presidential bona fides. Hilarity ensues. She also gets in a classic-Collins mention of the Mittster: "The man who drove to Canada with the family dog strapped to the car roof and the man who claims he shot a coyote while jogging." ...
... CW BTW: Unlike the dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car, there is good reason to believe that the coyote legend is a man-made myth.
** One Scary Dude Who Could Become President. Ian Millhiser lays out Rand Paul's alarming 19th-century plans for an "activist" Supreme Court -- one that would have "the Court to return to its self-appointed role as the vanguard against democracy." ...
... OR, as Charles Pierce puts it, Rand Paul "... would take us altogether back to the days of slave wages, child labor, unbridled carnage in the workplace, and legally enforced serfdom within the American corporation.... The current Supreme Court, John Roberts presiding, already is halfway there to meeting with Aqua Buddha on most of these issues." ...
... CW: While it's fair to suppose that neither the Fake Coyote Hunter nor the I-Am-Not-a-Scientist Man has sussed out the full-blown judicial philosophy that swirls beneath Aqua Buddha's wild toop, I believe that Perry & Rubio, as well as every one of the other likely GOP candidates, would comb the vast American wasteland for Sam Alito clones to fill the Court. It would take a Democratic-majority Senate with incredible resolve -- one we haven't seen since the Borking Era; ergo, Clarence Thomas -- to defend the Constitution. And even if such a Senate should return in 2016, it cannot reject all of a president's nominees; ergo, Anthony Kennedy & Nino Scalia. We're having our fun with Li'l Randy now, but how many soccer moms & factory workers do you suppose will pore over Ian Millhiser's writings before heading to the polls?
News Ledes
Orlando Sentinel: "Armed with a handgun and pockets full of ammunition, Jose Garcia Rodriguez walked into the Melbourne Square mall Saturday morning and shot his wife, another man, then himself, police say. The shooting left gunman Garcia Rodriguez, 57, of Palm Bay, and the other unidentified man dead, said Cmdr. Vince Pryce of Melbourne Police Department. Garcia Rodriguez's wife, 33-year-old Ida Garcia, survived and remains in good condition at a local hospital, Pryce said."
AP: "Greek police have detained four suspected terrorists, including one who could be the man wanted by Belgian authorities as an alleged ringleader of a jihadi cell, a police official told the Associated Press Saturday." ...
... AP: "Belgian authorities said Saturday that information sent to them from Athens so far has not indicated the people detained by police in Greece were involved in a Belgian jihadi cell."
AFP: "Pope Francis was forced Saturday to flee a fierce storm in the Philippines that killed a papal volunteer, cutting short a mercy mission to weeping survivors of a catastrophic super typhoon. Wearing a yellow plastic poncho to protect him from intense rain, Francis delivered an emotional mass to about 200,000 people in the typhoon-ravaged central Philippine city of Tacloban. However, plans to spend the entire day in Tacloban and nearby areas that were devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan 14 months ago were ruined by another storm, forcing him to fly back to Manila at lunchtime."
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The whole story is about the human mind. It sucks. It evolved to handle the fear of an attack by a saber-tooth tiger. So Ebola! One dead. Terrorism! 17 dead. Go to the hospital 1/25 chance of getting infected by sloppy care. Total deaths in US annually about 75,000 (http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/surveillance/). Does that make a serious headline? No. In other words while you are far more likely to be killed by your doctor or nurse than by a terrorist we do nothing.
Yes we certainly must deal with the terrorism. But we only focus on immediate violence. Flu vaccine, hospital infection and gun issues combined do a far better job than ISIS and yet we do literally nothing.
To bad that global warming is going to kill people slowly.
Many links this morning highlight a huge problem we here at RC have been following for some years now, a problem that some Republicans finally seem to have agreed actually is a problem. Their party is overrun with crazy people. The big brains themselves are partially responsible. They were the ones who threw open the door and sent a great big "Y'all come on in, now, hear?" to the droolers, the fanatics, the nutbags, and the insane. The Big Brains assumed that when they decided the crazies had served their purpose, they could send them to bed. Instead, the loonies locked them in a closet and preceded to demolish the place.
Is it any wonder then that influential--and seemingly ubiquituous--right wing leaders and spokespersons are wild eyed conspiracy theorists, unreconstructed Birchers, racists, drunks, gun nuts, and haters.
What connects them all is their inability to deal with facts and to act rationally.
While scanning the link on Lady Noonan's about face on The Rat--perhaps she was visited by the Spirit of Reagan Yet to Come ( the absinthe no doubt helps)--I spotted an article touting the problems recent college grads have with critical thinking. Four out of ten seem unable to parse basic problems or spot logical fallacies. This, the Journal suggests, does not bode well for country. Gee, ya think?
And yet the WSJ unquestioningly and without hesitation supports a party in which fewer than seven out ten LEADERS rely on logical fallacies to support their uncritical thinking and irrational actions.
The other three understand all that but are too afraid to say so.
So we are all forced to deal with people for whom up is sideways and the only logical thinking of which they are capable is which hate radio screamer to follow.
Where did Pegs leave that absinthe?
Strange thing about John Oliver's clip about civil forfeiture. He talks about a guy from Michigan getting his cash confiscated under the suspicion of his going to California to use it to buy drugs. Oliver suggested that he should have just stopped in at UW-Madison to get what he was after. I don't argue that that might not be true, but I would bet anyone a Thai stick that the guy could have saved even more time and effort by staying home to do his shopping at the U of M in Ann Arbor.
Speaking of Michigan, I was pleased to read yesterday that the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, appears to be one Republican who hasn't gone off the rails and joined the ranks of the terminally insane like his fellow party members have. He actually pushed back against the NRA and its firearm fondlers by vetoing a state bill that would have enabled people accused of domestic abuse to acquire concealed pistol licenses. Here's the article and op-ed from the NYT.
There may be hope yet.
I followed Marie's link over to SCOTUS blog and ran across a great interview with Dahlia Lithwick. It is rather informal but I thought terribly interesting and fun and made me realize I've missed a lot of stuff that goes on in the Court. I can't wait until this woman writes a book and she is a walking ad for the book that we want from Ginsberg. Here's the link - it is an hour - but an hour well spent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qyMNdTaDsVk
Fox News doubles down on the crazy and I hang my head in embarrassment. You have to watch the Young Turks video to see the awesome power of their stupidity among their extensive 'No Go Zone' bullshit in France.
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/fox-news-insulted-france-france-hit-back-with-spectacular-takedown--gkwOC2tljg?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100