The Commentariat -- Jan. 23, 2013
My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on a column -- that irked me -- by NYT business columnist Eduardo Porter.
** Read Harold Meyerson on "The Obama Majority." If you helped make it happen in one way or another, be proud of yourself.
Dwight David Obama. Rich Miller of Bloomberg News: "Federal outlays over the past three years grew at their slowest pace since 1953-56, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Expenditures as a share of the economy sank last year to 22.8 percent, their lowest level since 2008, according to Congressional Budget Office data." ...
... Paul Krugman: "... the idea that we've had some kind of spending surge, and that current deficits reflect that surge, is just wrong, and distorts public discussion." ...
... CW: this is terrible news for the deficit hawks a/k/a "entitlement" slashers, who tout the deficit as a dandy excuse to cut little old ladies' benefits AND get themselves speaking engagements.
Todd Ruger of the BLT: "Senate Democrats announced on Tuesday that they are still pushing filibuster reform, but are opting to negotiate with Republicans rather than act alone." ...
... Git 'er Done, Mitch. Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option. 'I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we're going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,' Reid told reporters."
Thomas Ferraro of Reuters: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, signaled on Tuesday that despite earlier indications to the contrary, he may allow a vote on a possible ban on assault weapons. Reid, a longtime gun-rights advocate from Nevada, recently indicated he would not permit a vote because the Republican-led House of Representatives was unlikely to go along with such a prohibition. But after a weekly meeting with fellow Senate Democrats, Reid told reporters he expects 'to have a free amendment process' on gun legislation." ...
... Paranoia as Marketing Tool, Ctd. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of the National Rifle Association, angrily accused President Obama on Tuesday of demonizing law-abiding gun owners and of wanting to put 'every private personal firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government.' ... Speaking on the same day that a gunfight on a Texas college campus left four people hospitalized, Mr. LaPierre ... said there were only two reasons government would want to expand the background check system..: 'Either to tax them, or to take them.'"
Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "The House plans to vote Wednesday on a measure that would leave the $16.4 trillion borrowing limit [i.e., the debt ceiling] intact but suspend it from the time the bill passes until mid-May. The declaration that the debt ceiling 'shall not apply' means that the government could continue borrowing to cover its obligations to creditors until May 18. This approach -- novel in modern times -- would let Republicans avoid a potentially disastrous fight over the debt limit without actually voting to let the Treasury borrow more money.... White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that ... President Obama 'wouldn't stand in the way' if the bill passes the House." ...
... ** UPDATE. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Avoiding an economic showdown with President Obama, the House on Wednesday passed legislation to suspend the nation's statutory borrowing limit for three months, without including the dollar-for-dollar spending cuts that Republicans once insisted would have to be part of any debt limit bill."
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "From the stimulus to the health care law to showdowns over taxes and spending, Republicans have often found that their uncompromising stands simply left them on the sidelines, unable to have an impact on legislation and unable to alter it much once it passed.... Now, some in the party say, it is time to take a different tack." ...
... Really? Jonathan Chait of New York: "... as part of his concessions to the looniest wing of the Republican party, [Speaker Boehner] has also committed himself to passing a budget that would reach full balance within a decade.... "The inescapable fact is that Boehner has committed now to voting on something that would require even more draconian cuts to social spending than the Ryan budget [of 2011]." ...
... Steve Benen: "Ryan intends to unveil a plan to balance the budget in one decade instead of three.... Ryan will either present a budget plan so absurd that it will be literally laughable, filled with outrageous magic asterisks, or it will be the most brutal and regressive plan ever seriously considered by a major American political party."
Mark Murray of NBC News: "... what is being mostly overlooked [about President Obama's "liberal" inaugural speech] is how many of the policies and viewpoints Obama articulated in his inaugural address are supported by majorities of Americans."
Sarah Stillman, in the New Yorker, on how she -- as a young woman -- learned from an older woman why abortion rights matter. Stillman doesn't exactly say it, but I will: fuck Paul Ryan. (See Comments re: fucking Paul Ryan.) ...
... AND, speaking of fucking Paul Ryan, Tuesday he tried to weasel around his "makers & takers" rhetoric. Ed Kilgore is not letting Ryan get away with it. ...
... PLUS, Charles Pierce thinks Ryan, admittedly the First-Runner-Up in the Vice Presidential Pageant, is a phony.
Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Ron Kirk, the United States trade representative, will step down in late February, his office said Tuesday."
Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Yair Lapid, "a prominent [Israeli] journalist and the host of a popular television show," was a surprise winner in the Israeli elections. "His party placed second, when polls said it would come in fourth." ...
... Amy Teibel of the AP: "A badly weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by extending his hand to a new centrist party that advocates a more earnest push on peacemaking with the Palestinians after Israel's parliamentary election produced a stunning deadlock.... A surprising strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, [which Lapid leads,] in Tuesday's vote turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt a setback to Netanyahu."
Here's Juan Cole's depressing assessment of Obama's policy plans vis-a-vis the Middle East & Iran in particular. Cole is right about the drones being a tad unpopular with the locals, but with that exception, he doesn't mention a better plan for dealing with Iran. Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link.
Tom Shanker of the New York Times: "A Defense Department inquiry into potentially inappropriate e-mails between Gen. John R. Allen, the American commander in Afghanistan, and a socialite in Tampa, Fla., has cleared him of wrongdoing, senior Pentagon officials disclosed Tuesday." ...
... UPDATE. Jim Kuhnhenn & Darlene Superville of the AP: "The White House said Wednesday it will go ahead with Gen. John Allen's nomination to become commander of NATO forces in Europe, following his exoneration in a Pentagon investigation of questionable email exchanges with a Florida woman linked to the sex scandal that led David Petraeus to resign as CIA director." ...
... Jill Kelley & Scott Kelley write an op-ed in the Washington Post, which I didn't read. Actually, Dee Dee Myers is whoring employed as their PR person, so I suppose Myers or her staff wrote the op-ed. Howie Kurtz of Newsweek also interviewed Jill Kelley; I did read that to see if there was one iota worth linking; there wasn't, but you can find the interview on the Daily Beast site if you can't get enough of Kelley whining about how unfair the press is.
"It Is the Dignity." Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books on what ails the South. I was struck that Wills' Southern grandmother was probably very much like Barack Obama's white grandmother. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Wills & Obama each had to hold two opposing ideas of one significant person in their mind at the same time. It ain't easy -- although we all have to do it to one degree or another. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Right Wing World
Whenever I talk about religious liberty, you know they turn it around. All they talk about -- they don't talk about denying religious liberty. They talk about contraception. And I'm not talking about contraception. Government doesn't have a role in contraception. Government does have a role in protecting your civil rights especially today on MLK Day. The man who really came up with the American non-violent protest theory of civil disobedience. It's pretty egregious that they can't get any higher than contraception when we're talking about protecting people’s religious liberty. -- Kenny Cuccinelli, Virginia Attorney General & former ward of Kate Madison, talking about "them" ...
... Sorry, Kenny, I'm going to have to leave this one to Larry Wilmore:
Catherine Candisky of the Columbus Dispatch: "State Board of Education President Debe Terhar said she was not comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler when she posted a photograph of the Nazi leader on her Facebook page with a message critical of the administration's new gun-control efforts."
Local News
Bobby Jindal Determined to Make Louisiana Worst State to Live & Die In. Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect. Fresh from turning a slightly progressive state tax system into a highly regressive one, Louisiana Gov. & presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal (R) "has authorized elimination of the state's hospice program for Medicaid recipients.... "When coupled with existing cuts to education and a large tax increase on the bottom 80 percent of Louisiana residents, it's a catastrophe. Indeed, Jindal seems devoted to engineering a Louisiana that works little for its most vulnerable citizens, and does as much as possible to satisfy the wants of wealthy, entrenched interests." ...
... CW: about 45 percent of Louisianans who are eligible for Medicaid are people of color. Jindal is no doubt counting on his constituents figuring that percentage is even higher. Pardon me for practicing political psychology without a license, but Jindal is trying to prove his neck is as red as the typical Republican primary voter's. If people have to die alone & in pain to advance his presidential ambitions, so be it.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military's ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said on Wednesday."
... New York Times: "In long-awaited testimony, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday asserted that she had moved quickly to improve the security of American diplomats after the September attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans and prompted a scathing review of State Department procedures." ...
... Washington Post: "In one of her last duties as America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will appear before both houses of Congress on Wednesday to answer questions about a terror attack that killed four Americans in Libya and exposed lapses in judgment and security at the State Department."
AP: "The Upper Midwest remains locked in the deep freeze, with bitter temperatures stretching into a fourth day across several states. The cold snap arrived Saturday night as waves of Arctic air swept south from Canada, pushing temperatures to dangerous lows...."
Gunfight at Lone Star College. AP: "A volley of gunshots about noon Tuesday at Lone Star College prompted a lockdown and eventual evacuation of the campus in north Houston. In the end, three people were hospitalized, including a maintenance worker caught in the crossfire and two others who authorities believe were involved in the gunfire. Late Tuesday, Harris County sheriff's officials said Carlton Berry, 22, had been charged with aggravated assault in the shooting. Berry remained hospitalized, the officials said."
New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron promised Britons a far-reaching referendum within five years on membership in the European Union -- provided he wins the next election -- in a long-awaited speech on Wednesday whose implications have alarmed the Obama administration and are likely to set the markers for a divisive debate within Britain and across Europe." ...
... Reuters: "Leading British business figures warned Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday that his plan for an in-out referendum on the European Union membership was a risky gamble that could damage the economy and throttle foreign investment."
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Reader Comments (18)
CW: "fuck Paul Ryan". Oh Jeez, I'd rather eat moose turd pie on a hot summer day.
@Diane: were I as articulate as John Boehner, I'd have written, "Paul Ryan can go fuck himself." But, yes, moose turd pie sounds like a tasty alternative to a roll in the hay with that sap.
Marie
@P.D. Pepe: actually, come to think of it, I have a nightie a lot like that. It's navy blue, not red, & it does not have a belt, but I could belt it & you'd think I was wearing Jason Wu.
(Once, when I was poor & had to go to a fancy dress ball, I did indeed buy a chic nightie; I tarted it up a bit with a taffeta underskirt, & I was -- if I do say so myself -- the belle of the ball. If anyone was the wiser, they were kind enough not to say so. Apparently, I was ahead of my time.)
Marie
All this talk about fucking Paul Ryan. Charlie Pierce does a pretty good job of it: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/An_Afternoon_In_The_Rules_Committee
The U.N. jobs watchdog estimates unemployment will rise by 5.1 million this year to more than 202 million, and by another 3 million in 2014, following a rise of 4.2 million in 2012
A pre-Charles Pierce early morning post by one of his colleagues, Tom Junod. Skewering Ailes, the Fox leader and his team of intrepid news people with brilliant observations on their inaugural 'coverage.'
' Indeed, if the Fox News inauguration crew were a local six o’clock news team, you could cue up their nightmare three-attribute lead-in: “They’re touchy! They’re thin-skinned! And they don’t have a clue.” ' —Tom Junod
Read more: Fox News Obama Second Term -- Ailes Fox News Trouble - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/fox-news-obama-inuaguration-15010420#ixzz2InzrbZSw
...Junod also includes an amusing take on Brit Hume and Chris Wallace, each trying to one-up the other. Years ago, Brit Hume struck me as the handsome, perfect sort of looking newscaster. However, today, when I hear his voice, —it's as though the old, pompous, full-of-himself 'Ted Baxter' has come life!
P.S. to CW: a minor correction re yesterday's video, the CNN reporter is Gloria BORGER not Bolger. I know you know!!
An excellent article on Israel and its politics can be found in the Jan.21, 2013 issue: "Letter from Jerusalem: the Party Faithful––the rise of Israel's new radical right by David Remnick.
"Theodore Herzl, the founding visionary of the Jewish state would not have anticipated the co-option of Zionism by a right-wing religious movement. Herzl was reared in a secular German-speaking home. He marked his thirteenth birthday not with a bar mitzvah but with a "confirmation." According to his biographer Amos Elon, Herzl "dismissed ALL religion."
@Marie: I bet you dollars to doughnuts, you were indeed ahead of your time right from the start––the "chic nightie" just one in a jillion and being the belle of the ball goes a long way in getting your own way––makes the mess of living so much easier.
Fuck Paul Ryan!
P.S. I neglected to cite The New Yorker as the source for the aforementioned article.
To all of you fans of Michelle Obama's inaugural nighties: see the updated page Inauguration -- Part 2.
@MAG. Thanks for the correction. As you'll note, I fixed it.
Marie
Very funny! Ray and Gloria—obviously, separated at birth!
Nice recovery, Marie!
Clearly longing for his roots and the romantic pull of Calcutta ghettos, perhaps hoping for a vision of Mother Teresa, Piyush Jindal has decided that eliminating hospice care is another cost cutting measure he can't resist. Coupled with his latest brilliant idea of sales tax instead of income tax. Seems Alan Grayson was spot on with his assessment of the Republican view of health care, which Jindal has expanded to include his view on most of Louisiana residents - "die quickly".
https://prospect.org/article/bobby-jindal-poor-louisianans-drop-dead
Since Diane has brought up the state of medical care in Louisiana, I'm prompted to ask whether stupid can be taught. Is it a special gift that comes when you register as a Republican, you know, a like a shot in the ass that inoculates the new registrant against facts and knowledge, or is it, rather, that stupid people tend to drift, or gallop, as the case may be, towards the GOP?
Hmmmmm....I'm thinking the latter.
So here we have a state senator from LA asking, in a hearing about a wonderful new bill, apparently illegal and unconstitutional, that Bobby Jindal has signed into law directing creationism be taught in science classes, for some kind of proof or example that might demonstrate that evolution even exists. In response, a science teacher lays out a very interesting experiment involving e coli bacteria which, over time, develops a new capability, a very clear example of evolution.
But the senator is confused. He wants to know---wait for it---when the e coli would turn into a human being, because isn't that, like, how evolution is supposed to work?
I fucking kid you not.
We're all M O R O N S down here
And these people run the state.
With regards to both education and healthcare, the best that can be said is go somewhere else.
Quickly.
Southerners just won't let go of "Hitler took away the guns" will they? I read somewhere that victorious Allies were amazed by how many guns were in private hands when THEY confiscated the guns in 1945.
Re; Remember the Ark; Ak, This is Noah; yea, that Noah. Sure building the big boat was a chore but the carpentry was cake next to the Collection. True, the unicorns got away, but if you ever have tried to wrangle E. coli up a loading ramp you know what I had to deal with. Harder still was getting the little suckers to spread their legs so I could tell gender. I finally did it by checking the amount of luggage each little "E" was carrying. That's creationism. your friend in the packing and shipping industry; Noah.
Ray and Gloria may, or may not, have been separated at birth, but the real difference between them is Ray was and is worth watching.
Noah (JJG),
You are a funny bastard.
Just thinking of you checking the gender of bacteria makes me realize why you lived to be over 900 years old.
Barbarossa,
It's all of a piece with the reason Hitler hired (according to modern day conservative homophobic, demented wingnuts) so many evil, vicious, violent homosexuals for whom torture and infliction of pain was second nature because, don't you know, Hitler himself, one of the worst examples of humanity, was gay, and had an innate appreciation of the love of gay sadism.
Those Republicans; they work hard to let the rest of America know how evil gay-type people are.
I'm sure Wayne-O and his NRA apparatchiks are already on the warpath about how gays are trying to take his guns away so that they can use them to shoot and torture conservative Americans who listen to Fox.
Shit, yeah.
@ Akhilleus: I can't thank you enough for that Slate piece--sent it on to my Biology/Environmental studies teacher son who will hang his head in disbelief. Morons? Oh, so much more dangerous I would think because they masquerade as people with brains and have the ability to make the teaching of science into religious mincemeat.
And the image of Noah spreading the legs of those little suckers to check the gender will carry me aloft for the rest of the evening.