The Commentariat -- Jan. 27, 2015
Internal links removed.
Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Barack Obama is travelling with a 27-strong delegation to cement ties with the new king of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as concerns over Yemen and the Islamic State take centre stage in the increasingly volatile region. Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan, Republican hawk senator John McCain and General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command forces in the region, are among the surprise additions to a hastily organised trip that has drawn critical comparisons with the US failure to send any senior figures to Paris following recent terrorist attacks."
Christi Parsons & Shashank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama urged support for religious tolerance and human rights in a speech Tuesday in New Delhi, India, drawing on the American experience and his own personal ones to soften a message with the potential to give offense to his Indian hosts, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
Peter Baker & Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "President Obama pressed India on Tuesday to do more to curb the pollution that is choking its capital and contributing to global climate change, as he wrapped up a visit that yielded no meaningful breakthrough on the issue."
Elana Schor of Politico: "Republicans' Keystone XL pipeline push was stopped short by the first Senate filibuster of 2015 as Democrats blocked Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's bid to end debate on the bill. The new Senate majority will now extend its debate on approving Keystone -- a measure that was seen as an easy GOP win just weeks ago -- as Democrats pressed McConnell to hold more amendment votes as proof of his commitment to a more open process in the chamber than their own party used while it was in power." ...
... Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "It was a small victory for Democrats, now the minority in the Senate, but it was a procedural vote that is highly unlikely to stop Republicans from eventually approving the pipeline.... President Obama is expected to veto the measure should it reach his desk."
Coral Davenport: "The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce a proposal to open up coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia for oil and gas drilling, according to a person briefed on the plan. At the same time, in Alaska, the administration will ban drilling in some portions of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.... Opening the Eastern Seaboard to oil companies is a prize the industry has sought for decades and is a blow to environmental groups." ...
... "Obama's Arctic Power Grab." (Yep, that the Politico headline). Andrew Restuccia: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the powerful Energy and Natural Resources Committee, rarely starts political fights on Capitol Hill, but she came out swinging on Monday, saying that the Obama administration has 'effectively declared war on Alaska.' And she doubled down on her previous statement that the administration is 'willing to negotiate with Iran, but they won't negotiate with Alaska.'" ...
... Andrew Restuccia: "The White House struck back at Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Monday, calling her reaction to the administration's proposal to protect millions of acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge overblown. 'So we hope that we can find cooperation so that that wilderness designation ultimately can go through in the Congress. But we don't think that the reaction that particularly Senator Murkowski had to this announcement was warranted,' White House counselor John Podesta told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama." CW: They might have struck back at Politico, too.
Michael Shear & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The small drone that crashed into a tree on the South Lawn of the White House early Monday morning was operated by a government employee who has told the Secret Service that he did not mean to fly it over the White House fence or near the president's residence, according to law enforcement officials. The employee -- who does not work for the White House -- has told the Secret Service that he was flying the drone for recreational use at about 3 a.m. in the area around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when he lost control of it. So far, the Secret Service said it believed the man's account. In a second statement about the incident Monday afternoon, the Secret Service said an individual had called them at about 9:30 Monday morning to report that he had been the one controlling the drone when it crashed on the White House grounds." ...
... New Lede: "A White House radar system designed to detect flying objects like planes, missiles and large drones failed to pick up a small drone that crashed into a tree on the South Lawn early Monday morning, according to law enforcement officials. The crash raised questions about whether the Secret Service could bring down a similar object if it endangered President Obama."
... CW: Please don't tell me drones are not a threat to the President & to countless others: Shear & Schmidt: "The Secret Service also released a photo of the partially broken drone on the ground. It appears to be a version of the DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone Quadcopter that is sold on Amazon.com starting at $448. Models equipped with HD cameras sell for as much as $1,258 on the website." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Carol Leonnig & others is here.
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A former CIA officer involved in a highly secretive operation to give faulty nuclear plans to Iran was convicted Monday of giving classified information about his work to a New York Times reporter and author. Jeffrey Sterling, 47, of O'Fallon, Mo., was convicted of nine counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and other related charges for leaking materials that prosecutors said put lives at risk and compromised one of the U.S. government's few mechanisms to deter Iran's nuclear aspirations." ...
... Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of espionage charges Monday, for telling a journalist for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. The conviction is a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has led an unprecedented crackdown on officials who speak to journalists about security matters without the administration's approval. Prosecutors prevailed after a yearslong fight in which the journalist, James Risen, refused to identify his sources."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge ruled in 2007 that the U.S.A. Patriot Act empowered the National Security Agency to collect foreigners' emails and phone calls from domestic networks without prior judicial approval, newly declassified documents show. The documents -- two rulings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- fill in a chapter in the history of the N.S.A.'s warrantless surveillance program. They show the agency's secret moves in the months before Congress authorized the spying by enacting the Protect America Act in August 2007."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a chemical company may be able to cut the health benefits of its retired workers, unanimously reversing an appeals court ruling that said the benefits had vested for life. 'Courts should not construe ambiguous writings to create lifetime promises,' Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court."... The Supreme Court returned the case to the appeals court, telling it to use ordinary principles of contract interpretation.... In a concurrence, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the case that the retirees could prevail under the new, stricter standard. 'No rule requires "clear and express" language in order to show that parties intended health care benefits to vest,' she wrote.... Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Ginsburg's concurrence."
Timothy Williams of the New York Times: "Oklahoma officials asked the United States Supreme Court on Monday to stay the execution of three inmates on death row until the court rules on the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection process. The court agreed on Friday to decide a case on the constitutionality of the new combinations of drugs that some states are using to execute prisoners, which critics say cause intense suffering."
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "More US prisoners were exonerated of crimes that they did not commit in 2014 than in any year since records began in 1989, indicating new resolve on the part of prosecutors and law enforcement to tackle the scourge of wrongful convictions across America. Some 125 inmates were exonerated and released last year, marking the first time that the number has risen above 100 in a single 12-month period. In 2013, the total number of exonerations was 91."
AFP: "An intellectually disabled death row inmate in the US state of Georgia is scheduled to die Tuesday, as lawyers and advocates petition for his life to be spared. On Thursday, lawyers for Warren Hill, 54, filed an appeal with the US Supreme court to stop the execution based on his intellectual disability. Hill's intellectual disability has been certified by numerous psychiatric experts and his execution has been postponed several times previously."
Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Loretta Lynch will set off the first major confirmation battle of the new GOP-led Senate when she goes before the Judiciary Committee this week. But the attorney general nominee also presents Republicans with a challenge -- finding a way to express their ire at the Obama administration without going too far.... Top Republicans concede she's likely to be confirmed -- unless she messes up." ...
... Bring on the Reactionaries. Julian Hattem of the Hill: Sharyl Attkisson, "a A former CBS investigative reporter who has filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Obama administration for hacking. will be among the witnesses at a hearing on President Obama's attorney general nominee.... Also testifying will be Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder of the Tea Party-aligned True the Vote, which she has said was unfairly targeted by the IRS when it attempted to seek tax-exempt status.... Both Attkisson and Engelbrecht have sued the Obama administration over the actions. A federal judge tossed out the case brought by Engelbrecht and other groups last October. Attkisson filed her lawsuit just this month...." CW: AG nominee Loretta Lynch had nothing to do with either of these women. So stupid AND irrelevant. Excellent.
Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "The annual budget deficit will fall to $468 billion in fiscal 2015, the lowest level of President Obama's tenure, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Monday. Lower government spending and the improving economy are driving down the annual deficit, the CBO reported, with the shortfall for the year projected to be 2.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the lowest level since 2007.... The nation's debt load is steadily increasing. By the end of September, the CBO estimates U.S. debt will be 74 percent of GDP -- more than twice the level at the end of 2007 and higher than in any year since 1950." ...
... Sarah Farris of the Hill: "The total price tag for ObamaCare's insurance programs will be 20 percent less than expected, the government's budget office said Monday. The law's insurance provisions are now expected to cost $571 billion through 2019 -- a drop of about $139 billion from the government's earliest estimates five years ago, according to new estimates by the ... CBO." (See also, "It's okay if people die" below. ...
... Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Monday announced an ambitious new effort to reward quality medical care and phase out payments based solely on the volume of services provided in the Medicare program. For the first time, the agency is setting an explicit timetable for transitioning Medicare away from its dominant fee-for-service model." ...
... Sarah Kliff of Vox explains how the HHS plan is intended to work -- and revolutionize health care delivery.
Yes, There Are More Pressing Deficits. Rebecca Shabad: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is flipping the script on the GOP with a seven-step plan to address national 'deficits' through increases in spending. Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said lawmakers must address deficits in jobs, income equality, infrastructure, trade, retirement security and education in their next budget blueprint. 'These deficits must be immediately address by the Budget Committee,' he said in an eight-page report."
Andrew Kaczynski & Ilan Ben-Meir of BuzzFeed: "Rep. John Yarmuth says Republican House Speaker John Boehner inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to the House of Representatives is 'close to subversion.' Speaking with the Stephanie Miller Show on Friday, the Kentucky Democrat added some Congress members' strong support for Israel 'had to do with fundraising.' Yarmuth noted that he was Jewish & a "strong supporter of Israel." ...
... Joel Greenberg of McClatchy News: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing criticism in Israel for a planned speech to the U.S. Congress about Iran, accused by his political rivals of damaging ties with Washington to promote his election campaign." ...
... Sins of the Leader: Brian Tashman of Right Wing News: "Rep. Louie Gohmert warned President Obama last week that his 'disdain' for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may cause God to punish America, insisting that the president 'would have that same disdain for anyone who was a strong leader for the nation of Israel and especially if they didn't bow down and worship at the altar of the White House.'"
Non-Profitism is Awesome, Too! Scott Higham & Steven Rich of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Agency for International Development announced Monday that it has suspended one of its largest nonprofit contractors [-- International Relief and Development --] from federal work after investigators found 'serious misconduct' in the nonprofit's performance and management of taxpayer money.... The suspension comes after months of internal USAID reviews of IRD's performance in the field and reports from the agency's inspector general that the nonprofit allegedly mischarged millions of dollars in overhead costs. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the FBI are also investigating the organization.... Many of the allegations were contained in a Washington Post investigation published last May." (Because Actual Journalism Is Awesome." ...
This sweet little old lady looks so happy because she has no idea she just got robbed. The guy to the right? He's a little savvier.Also Awesome: "Scam PACS." Ken Vogel: "Since the tea party burst onto the political landscape in 2009, the conservative movement has been plagued by an explosion of PACs that critics say exist mostly to pad the pockets of the consultants who run them.... A Politico analysis of reports filed with the Federal Election Commission covering the 2014 cycle found that 33 PACs that court small donors with tea party-oriented email and direct-mail appeals raised $43 million -- 74 percent of which came from small donors. The PACs spent only $3 million on ads and contributions to boost the long-shot candidates often touted in the appeals, compared to $39.5 million on operating expenses, including $6 million to firms owned or managed by the operatives who run the PACs."
Steve M.: No, Sarah Palin did not "wing" the latter half of her 2008 vice-presidential acceptance speech. The teleprompter was working the whole time. ...
... Conservative columnist Byron York of the Washington Examiner is all worried about Palin's continued participation in the campaign. CW: A sensible person would be worried about most of the other candidates, who are capable of reading their prepared speeches, but whose ideas & ideology are as wacko as Palin's.
Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Rarely do conservative opponents of the Affordable Care Act acknowledge the real human consequences of their campaign to overturn the healthcare reform law. But an astonishing op-ed published Friday by the Washington Post does just that. [See Sunday's Commentariat.]... You can see [author Michael] Strain placing his thumb on the scale.... The U.S. may be a land of 'finite resources,' but there's no indication that the ACA breaches the resource ceiling. On the contrary, the signs are that the ACA is lowering healthcare's demand on resources.... The most important factor Strain ignores is that a key role of government is to moderate the impact of pure market economics.... Trying to dress up the argument for repeal as a cost-benefit balancing in which the cost can be counted in lost lives ... is crass, crude and spectacularly immoral." ...
... Erik Loomis of LG&M: "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that 'kill the poor' is now something you can say in the op-ed section of the Washington Post. I look forward to this argument becoming a central tenet of the 2016 Republican primaries." ...
... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "Strain's whole argument boils down to 'screw the little people,' though he works hard to erect enough straw men and redirections to pretend that what he's really talking about is a viable replacement that would bring FREEDOM and not direct so many scarce resources to useless crap like health care."
... Jonathan Chait explains in detail to confused ideologues (who also happen to have good health insurance coverage) -- like maybe to Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt -- why killing the poor is not a morally-correct option. ...
... CW: Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Personally, I'd like to thank the WashPo headline writer who came up with: "End Obamacare, and people could die. That's okay." S/he really exposed Strain's disgusting argument.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. AND/OR Capitalism Isn't So Awesome, After All. Tom LoBianco of the Indianapolis Star: "Gov. Mike Pence [R-Ind.] is starting a state-run taxpayer-funded news service that will provide pre-written news stories to Indiana news outlets, as well as sometimes break news about his administration, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star. Pence is planning to launch 'Just IN' in late February, a website and news service that will feature stories written by state press secretaries and is being overseen by a former Indianapolis Star reporter, Bill McCleery.... The news agency is being overseen by a governance board, made of communications directors, and an editorial board made of McCleery and the governor's communications staff.... The starting of Pence's news agency comes as he considers a run for the White House." CW: Gee, Mike, whatever happened to the free-enterprise system & independent journalism & pro-America Constitutional stuff? A government-run news agency sounds suspiciously like, um, TASS. ...
... Media critic Jim Romenesko (and others) are alarmed.
The Purchase of the Government 2016
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalelled effort by outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history. The goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs' annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would effectively allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican parties. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party's two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million. The network's $889 million budget includes spending on both the presidential campaign and congressional races, and would be financed by donors as well as the Koch brothers themselves." ...
... Ken Vogel of Politico: "... while the leaked details seemed in part a show of defiance to Democrats, who had targeted the brothers as bogeymen, the spending goal also appeared to be a show of dominance to rival factions on the right, including the RNC.... Some Republicans, however, quietly grumbled about the continued migration of power and money from the political parties and their candidates to super-rich donors emboldened by recent court decisions loosening campaign finance restrictions." ...
... Hamilton Nolan's lede graf in Gawker sums up the news for the kidz: "Cartoonish evil billionaires The Koch Brothers have told their allies that the groups they support plan to spend $900 million to influence the 2016 elections. That's a lot!" ...
... digby: "They are willing to spend whatever it takes to fulfill their vision. Yes, that will undoubtedly end up making them more money. But that's no longer their prime motivation. They are so rich that they've become Bond villains. They want to run the world." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Engorged with profits, and unencumbered by any real limits on what they can spend, they are determined to shut down progressive politics for the foreseeable future. And it's yet another reason a lot of Republicans don't think they need to moderate their policies. Money covereth a multitude of sins, and the people providing it don't want moderation." ...
... Steve M.: "According to USA Today, a new political hero shot to stardom over the weekend because he [he, being Scott Walker] bargain-shops [at Kohl's].... The Kochs, who've given a hell of a lot of money to Ms. Bread Bag and (especially) to Mr. Kohl's Sale Rack, were born with silver spoons in their mouths. They've never had to scrimp or make do. So even if we get a Walker/Ernst ticket in 2016, I don't want to hear about the 'Main Street values' of the post-Romney GOP. The puppets were once of modest means. The puppet masters never were."
Presidential Race
Philip Bump: "Rick Perry wins the all-important Iowa Twitter primary," at least by Bump's calculation. And, as he quite fairly points out, his "methodology is at least as scientifically sound as the Iowa Straw Poll."
Harry Enten of 538: Chris "Christie's net favorable rating is more than two standard deviations below what we'd expect from a candidate like him.... Christie's relatively low popularity is one of the main reasons my colleagues at FiveThirtyEight and I aren't very high on his chances of capturing the Republican nomination."
Beyond the Beltway
Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "Alabama's only openly gay legislator is putting her anti-gay colleagues on notice: If they keep espousing family values rhetoric as a reason to oppose marriage equality, she'll start making their marital infidelities public. 'I will not stand by and allow legislators to talk about 'family values' when they have affairs, and I know of many who are and have,' wrote state Rep. Patricia Todd (D) on Facebook over the weekend, as reported by the TimesDaily in Alabama. 'I will call our elected officials who want to hide in the closet out.' Todd's post came after a federal judge ruled Friday that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. She told The Huffington Post that she decided to issue her threat after reading some of the anti-gay rhetoric coming from certain elected officials in the state."
Judd Legum of Think Progress: "On Thursday, 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard was shot dead by three police officers in the lobby of the Longview[, Texas,] Police Department. Coignard arrived at the station around 6:30 p.m. and asked to talk to an officer. Police say the girl was 'brandishing a weapon' before she was shot four times.... The incident, at this point, is shrouded in mystery. Officials could not 'confirm the type of weapon Coignard brandished at the officers.' Beyond the alleged, unspecified weapon, virtually no details about the events that immediately preceded Coignard's death have been released." According to relatives, Coignard suffered from mental illness. "Coignard's death also raises questions about use of force protocols in the United States. British citizens, for example, 'are about 100 times less likely to be shot by police,' according to the Economist." ...
... Elizabeth Brown of Reason: "Longview Mayor Jay Dean said he was told that Coignard was carrying a knife. A knife is certainly not nothing. But it is also not a gun. And one can't help but wonder why three cops, in the middle of their own lobby, were unable to subdue a knife-wielding teen girl without the use of lethal force.... In 2014, we saw a bevy of tragedies involving mentally troubled teens killed by police officers. Last January, for instance, a 90-pound schizophrenic teen with no weapon whatsoever was fatally shot less than two minutes after North Carolina police entered his home; his parents had called the cops for help subduing the agitated boy. Last August, a 19-year-old with bipolar disorder was fatally shot in Florida after police mistook a cordless drill she was holding for an Uzi and a suicidal Kansas teen was shot by police more than a dozen times."
News Ledes
Reuters: "The U.S. Army on Tuesday denied that a decision had been made to bring desertion charges against Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was released last year in a controversial prisoner swap after disappearing from his base in Afghanistan in 2009.NBC News said earlier on Tuesday that Bergdahl would be charged with desertion, citing senior defense officials. Major General Ronald Lewis, the Army's head of public affairs, said that report, and another from Fox News, were 'patently false.'"
Guardian: "Greece's prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has lined up a formidable coterie of academics, human rights advocates, mavericks and visionaries to participate in Europe's first anti-austerity government. Displaying few signs of backing down from pledges to dismantle punitive belt-tightening measures at the heart of the debt-choked country's international rescue programme, the leftwing radical put together a 40-strong cabinet clearly aimed at challenging Athens's creditors."
Guardian: "Moscow has condemned the arrest of a Russian man in New York on espionage charges as yet another instance of unfair persecution by the US. Yevgeny Buryakov, an employee of state-owned VEB bank, was href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/26/us-charges-alleged-russian-spies-new-york">arrested on Monday and charged with gathering 'economic intelligence' along with two other Russian men who had already left the United States."
New York Times: "The first major storm of the winter blasted across eastern New England on Tuesday, unleashing whiteout conditions driven by gale-force winds that left the island of Nantucket without power. The storm may not have lived up to its billing in New York City, but it more than delivered in New England. It cut off Nantucket, where almost all 12,000 year-round residents lost power and telephone service, and it flooded the Atlantic coastal town of Scituate, where a car floated downtown." ...
... Portland Press Herald: "Harsh winds and heavy snow marched into Maine overnight, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency early Tuesday morning. The slow-moving storm is dropping 2 to 4 inches of snow an hour, with north winds of 25 to 35 mph, gusting to 55." ...
... Boston Globe mid-morning report: "The persistent heavy band of snow continues over the Route 495 belt where the heaviest accumulations will likely end up once the storm is over. Snowfall rates of 2 inches per hour or more continue." ...
... Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Juno was pounding New England with moderate to heavy snow, high winds and coastal flooding Tuesday morning. Parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts have seen more than a foot of snow. Snow amounts in the New York City metro area have ranged from a half foot in Central Park to more than 18 inches on central Long Island near Islip. Wind gusts have topped 70 mph in parts of eastern Massachusetts. Coastal flooding has also closed some roads in eastern Massachusetts. Thundersnow was reported in coastal portions of Rhode Island and Massachusetts late Monday night and early Tuesday." ...
... Yahoo! News has area-wide live updates here.
AP: "Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Libya's capital Tuesday, killing at least five foreigners and three guards, authorities said. The attack, which included a car bombing, struck the Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea." ...
... Washington Post UPDATE: "Among the victims in the attack was an American contractor, said two U.S. officials...."
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Reader Comments (28)
I think that Rep. Patricia Todd is just playing a game. She doesn't know any cases of infidelity. She does know Repulican politicians 'family values'. So she expects every Republican to suddenly shut up.
@Marvin Schwalb-Maybe you are right about Patricia Todd. However, I would not bet on it. The Southern family value Republicans can be pretty lewd and without boundaries in their private lives--since they feel so invincible and self-righteous, I guess. (Also, they are protected by Jesus.) There are, I imagine, a number of in-the-closet Republican Southern gays--more so than on the East or West coasts. Hope she will threaten them too. It is time to pull out the big guns--even if they are not "for sure." Democrats have a nasty habit of being too passive and too nice. Glad to see a bitchy lesbian speaking out!
RE: Koch bros.
Digby: "But that's no longer their prime motivation. They are so rich that they've become Bond villains. They want to run the world."
These two cynical bastards bask under the limelight of being called out for being "unpatriotic" or "plutocrats." Given their advanced ages (according to Forbes, Ol' Charlie is 79 and Davy is 74) and their obscene wealth estimated around $40 billion each, there is no logical possibility that they're running this entire political machine, spanning towns and counties across the entire country, just to make their pocketbooks a little fatter. They couldn't possibly spend all of their remaining fortunes unless they go up buying entire islands across the globe in their last gasp power grab before they inevitably die and get buried in the sands of time.
Knowing their fate, I wholly agree with Digby's analysis that they've become so bloated and disconnected to any normal reality, they're determined to write their own legacy by winning the future. A futile task indeed, but they've got about $80 billion to blow, and their time on this earth is running out.
On another point, Digby has another good article on Salon about the new GOP non 'oversight' committee determined to stick their heads in the sand at any given notice. If we thought the CIA needed reforms after the whole torture debate, that possibility seems to be shrinking to near zero. Can't be surprised, I suppose, as those radicals couldn't find any faults with rectal hydration and waterboarding.
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/27/meet_the_cias_secret_protector_why_sen_richard_burr_is_its_favorite_overseer/
So let's see a little rundown list of recent secret service escapades:
The secret service can't stop a man from jumping the fence in broad daylight, running across the White House lawn, and then running free within the White House until being tackled by someone who wasn't even on shift.
They can't stop their own employees from getting hammered and sleeping with Colombian prostitutes before the arrival of the President of the United States. Funny me, I had always thought their menacing scowls were indicative of their fierce concentration and attentiveness to detail. Now I know they were actually just thinking they should have popped some ibuprofen in the morning and not eaten that cheese and bean burrito the night before.
It took them 4 days to figure out that some maniac had shot at the White House with a semiautomic rifle while some of the Obama family was inside.
They let Obama share the elevator with an armed man and didn't even know about it!
So thus, do I think the Secret Service is competent enough to react against a drone attack on the President? Not a fucking chance. I doubt they even thought about writing up protocols until this unfortunate event. I'm amazed at the incompetence, and fearful for the President with so many loonies being spawned in our society these days.
@Marie, I agree that "The Reactionaries" seems to lack the oomph that you'd like to express while still trying to be polite. My thoughts lean more toward the "Recidivist Regressive Rejectionists." It's a bit of a mouthful that could be abbreviated to R³ (or R-cubed.)
If it was up to me I'd probably just call them the PPs, not just because they're a bunch of dicks but also pinche pendejos.
Is it a matter of time before the drone enthusiasts organize into the NDA and demand their Second Amendment rights? Or better yet, maybe the NRA could include them in their umbrella.
Unwashed: Methinks that should be grande pendejos!
Safari stops short of a conspiracy, but what are we to conclude from the sheer volume of "missteps" by the SS? I too have been fearful since 2008 for the president's safety. Something is dreadfully wrong here.
A new name for the new face of old party, one that conveys its current essence without a pejorative flavor? It's a tough one, but a worthy challenge. Where I stumble is in trying to come up with a simple, neutral descriptor for something that has become so negative.
But, this morning's thoughts.
"Conservative" in itself is a perfectly good word; depends on what one is attempting to keep. Nothing wrong with clean water and air, and I kinda like abstractions like freedom and liberty, responsibility, and an economy that provides a decent living wage for all.
But my thoughts lead me to a list of contrasts that I believe define the difference between the meanings of "conservative" and "liberal" as they play out in American politics today.
Here, in random order as they occur with C's on the left (!) and L's on the right:
Narrow Wide
Closed Open
Age Youth
Old New
Death Life
Pessimism Optimism
Ennui Energy
Fiction Fact
Hate Love (in milder form, Intolerance Tolerance)
Fear Courage
Greed Altruism
One could go on, and of course the list must include Regressive (I note that the NYTimes story the other day about Republican governors bucking the party's no tax current all proposed, what else? regressive taxes) and Progressive.
I've enjoyed other commenters' suggestions, and obviously I don't have The Answer myself. So for now, I'll stick with the GOP, which today best signifies Greedy and Old.
I'm still working on the "P," though some earlier anatomical suggestions sorely tempt.
Last night on the PBS Newshour Lisa Murkowski with flushed face and vitriol castigated the Obama administration for expanding their "land grab" in the ANWR region. "I've tried and tried to get them to talk to me, but to no avail...they simply don't understand Alaska.." she said and vowed to fight like hell to stop what Obama wants to do. Let's hear the other side of this, I yelled at Judy, and sure enough she heard me and produced Interior Secretary Sally Jewell who reminds me of my fourth grade teacher–-prim, proper, and no frills––who contradicts everything Lisa has just complained about. Sally claims she and Lisa have had many talks, has told Lisa that her, Sally's, door is always open, etc. And––she knows Alaska–-has been there many, many times--has hiked all over that area in question, etc. So––there you have it––sounds like a pretty intense fight. Stay tuned.
Came across this piece by Chris Hedges re: the "American Sniper" controversy and found it intriguing. Hedges describes the film in detail and also contrasts it with the book. The title for his article is "Killing Ragheads for Jesus"––it's worth the read.
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125">http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125
Thanks, PD, for the Hedges piece. Wonderful!
OFF TOPIC: About the east coast storm. Here's a link to NOAA's Northeast Sector radar:
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/northeast_lite_loop.php
Journalism students at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, VT. completely takes down Bill O'Reilly's snarky segment called "Watters World" along with Jesse Watters himself. They systemically reveal the shameless reporting, if, indeed, one can even use the word reporting. This is terrific and if you watch it click on the link where Colbert does the same thing––hilarious!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/23/1359793/-High-Schoolers-Post-Video-That-Scorches-Bill-O-Reilly-And-Fox-News-For-Lack-Of-Journalistic-Ethics?detail=email
The not so big secret about the Secret Service is how much it sucks.
As with any organization, there are good people, okay people, and toxic assholes. One would think a group such as the Secret Service, at least according to its image in pop culture (it's interesting that the right should harbor so much hatred for Hollywood which time and again provides institutional hagiographies for operations that have massively failed, and or illegally overstepped their limits, in so many primary mission areas, the FBI, CIA, NSA, and....the Secret Service), would go easy on the assholes.
In one recent film, "White House Down", Channing Tatum blows up half of Washington in an effort to protect the president from a horde of evil paramilitary terrorists armed with enough high tech weapons to make Wayne Lapierre pee his worsted woolens, as a kind of job application for the Secret Service. You see, he just wasn't good enough prior to that. To be in the Secret Service, you also have to be better than Superman.
Obviously that's not the case in real life.
And this is where the toxic infiltration of the constant banging of the right-wing propaganda drums come into play. No presidential family in history has been as poorly served as the Obamas and I think a large part of has to do with the fact that many in the service hate him and couldn't care less. Part of it is that, institutionally, the organization has descended into frat boy territory. But that's only part of it. Some observers, concerned for the lives of the president and his family, have suggested that some of the snafus listed above comprise "...calculated breaches orchestrated by some unknown entity."
I wouldn't go that far, but there has been a number of previously unheard of breaches of the secrecy these people are supposed to encourage.
Just a couple of years ago, a former SS agent (oooh....never thought of it like that), Dan Bongino, while running for congress, first as a rep then as a senator (lost both times...heh-heh), wrote a tell all book about the nastiness and toxicity of the Obama family. Bongino ran as a Republican, natch. He employed his mastery of political gamesmanship to describe the ACA a catastrophic threat. The ACA. Really? Getting the picture?
But this idiot is not just that famous one bad apple. The MSM and the Right-wing media bubble routinely rip Michelle Obama for having the secret service "drive her around" spending tax money sucked out of the pockets of honest, white, conservative Americans so that she and her spoiled little blah brats can live in comfort.
Ever hear any complaints of the Bush family being ferried around by the Secret Service?
A recent book by Ron ("snake in the grass" is too good) Kessler, on the Service ran down the predictable reactions of agents to the presidents they've protected. All the Republicans, saints in heaven. All the Democrats--especially Obama--Satan spawn. Of course this is to be expected from a cheap wingnut shill, but he was given plenty of dirt, much of which turned out to be lies, by agents who seem very much aligned with the mindset of the far-right. Agents who clearly hate this president.
Whatever the reason for the recent downturn in professionalism, I think it's entirely reasonable to assume that most of these people are not the super men and women they're made out to be in pop culture. They're people like the rest of us. And they watch the news and read the papers. In this case, it appears they're watching way too much Fox and reading way to much Drudge.
If they can't, or don't want to, do their jobs professionally and without allowing personal political feelings to intrude, we should make sure they have a nice time working as security guards at Fox and the Heritage Foundation both of which most assuredly could use that kind of "protection".
The bottom line here is that we have experienced heretofore never heard of breaches of protocol, respect, and common decency directed toward this president. From "you lie" to Secret Service agents that give him less protection than mid level pop singers get, to the Netanyahu invite, the list is long and atrocious. And there is only one reason to account for it.
Guess.
But, as I've said before, even if you were an unreconstructed racist, as an agent in the Secret Service, you should be able to set your personal feelings aside.
Clearly that's not happening, the insistent firehose of right-wing media hatred coats everything with its noxious slime, and we--and the Obamas--are mighty lucky it hasn't gone beyond insults and racial slurs.
PD,
There is a bit of a logical fallacy in the initial argument of the Bennington students. First, their complaint is the violation (rape is more like it) of journalistic ethics by Bill O'Reilly and his potted plant, Jesse Watters.
First, there can be no breach of ethics if you have none.
Luckily the students recover and determine that it's not truly a problem of journalistic ethics, because O'Reilly is not even practicing journalism, he's indulging in propaganda.
Way to go, kids!
It seems that Roger Ailes' mission of chloroforming Americans as to the actual practice and use of real journalism has not been entirely successful.
Boner just never fucking stops, does he? Leadership, huh? Sounds like he's throwing carrion to the dogs againand "suing Obama" over immigration. Who replaced the entire party base with bloodhungry dogs anyway?
How fucking worthless can these people get? But, really? This is how they start the year off?
There is no way to argue that these guys (and yes, almost all guys, gilipollas really) can actually govern. And better yet, the common narrative in the press that the GOP 'can prove it can govern' is already inherently admitting that since Obama came to office, they have veered completely off the political radar and are now spinning their wheels, spraying shit everywhere, stuck in the ditch while the leadership dickers over who should take the wheel.
We're still waiting for someone to take the fucking wheel!
The press is admitting this, every fucking day and every fucking time they pull out their 'can govern' subtleties. Sure, maybe they can, but they AREN'T. Why can't this reality be also represented in the mainstream media. They'll admit to the 'can' part but neglect that it's in no way happening for last, er, 6 years. Yet their party politics is visibly degrading before our eyes, and now that their in 'power' they've proven so far that they prefer spraying mud all over Washington and saying Fuck the System entirely. Another lawsuit! Sounds like Boehner might be 'poisoning that well'...oh I need a beer.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/boehner-to-sue-obama-again-20150127
So Texas cops had to shoot a disturbed teenage girl with a knife four times? How about talking to her? How about shooting her in the leg, if absolutely necessary. How about getting other cops to come up behind her and, you know, subdue her. What is she the Hulk?
Nope. Better to whip out the guns and blast away."Fire at will, boys." "I didn't know their names so I shot at everyone."
Another great day in Right Wing World. Another tombstone for the NRA to put up on their Wall of Freedom.
Pretty soon we'll be reading that someone was shot for using harsh language. "Well", said the arresting officer, after emptying his weapon into the head of the unarmed 17 year old boy pulled over for tires not inflated to the proper level, "he was calling me names and such. I don't take that from no one."
The local DA has decided not to press charges. "It was a righteous shoot" said an assistant DA as he checked all his personal weapons, the one in the ankle holster, the ones in the side pockets and ones on his belt and the two stuck in his belt under the back of his sports jacket. "'sides, you can never be too careful these days. Harsh language is a threat to freedom!"
Whoa, Nellie....
Did you guys know this?
One of the comments on the story of the troubled girl blasted into infinity by three Texas cops points out that police departments will not hire any candidate if they're too smart.
Apparently, If you have an IQ over a certain level (above the temperature of a warm cup of coffee, that is), you will NOT be hired as a police officer.
"Hey dumbass. You wanna be a cop? Step right this way. Here's your badge...here's your gun. Serve and protect and shoot to kill. Next? What the hell are you reading? Aristotle? What the fuck is that about? Ethics, what the hell is that? What's your IQ? 130! Fuck off. Try NASA. Next..."
I've never heard of this, but it might explain a few things. BTW, check out the picture accompanying the second link. Hopefully that kitty cat didn't indulge in any harsh meowing.
On a totally different matter, the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the closing of Auschwitz I am reminded of a piece of the story. Not the million dead, not the fact that it was done by Germans. No the fact it was done by humans.
Akhilleus,
Anent the police problem with elevated IQ's:
No I am not surprised. Intelligence by itself does not always ease social interaction. Often it has the opposite effect.
In 1968 when far too many American youth--I among them--had the dubious pleasure of undergoing their draft physicals at the storied Oakland induction center, one of my close friends scored too high on the ASVAB for the comfort of the officer/official who inspected the results. The score didn't make my friend ineligible for the draft--he later managed a coveted 4F on the physical--but the official did fix the problem.
He just lowered the score.
Seems we've been wrong about the Koch Brothers according to a
report by Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/27/1360437/-Joe-and-Mika-
recive-special-invite-to-closed-Koch-event-Proceed-to-lavish-the-
Kochs-with-praise?detail=email
Seems the Koch Brothers big concern is income inequality, or so
Joe was told. Who would ever thought that would even cross their
minds.
Ken,
It's true that that very smart people could have some problems with public interaction. Can you imagine Truman Capote on a domestic disturbance call? Also true that less smart people could have problems with critical thinking.
Still and all, the revelation that you can be too smart to be a cop does hover over the recent incidents in Ferguson and Staten Island which were not what you'd place in the upper percentiles of successful police/public interaction.
And I'm betting it's very likely that the progeny of that Oakland Army Induction Center draft official are now working for Republicans doing economic "analysis" using Paul Ryan's Super Secret Special Scoring system, otherwise known as monkeying with the data to achieve the desired result.
Forrest,
I think what Morning Joke was referring to was their familial income inequality. That's what's got their gussets in a twist.
I'm guessing that David has a few billion more than Charles.
Now is that fair? I ask you!
Marvin,
Never mind about that. Ronald Reagan freed all those prisoners at Auschwitz, even though he was back in Hollywood with his feet up. That'll be the lede if Fox mentions the anniversary at all.
But there are plenty of humans still around capable of another Auschwitz, just waiting for the right sort of government, the right triggers, and just the right "leaders".
Something for us all to think about.
Akhilleus,
No argument with your thoughts on intelligence. Almost paired "dumb" and "smart" is the list I posted earlier but desisted when I thought:
Obama Smart Good
Bush II Dumb Bad
...And if I'd stopped there, things would have been easy.
But then thoughts turned to John Roberts and Antonin Scalia, smart and bad both, and was reminded of the very late Senator Hruska from Nebraska's suggestion that we appoint some less than smart Supremes so the common people would be represented. As much as I've chucked at that over the years, maybe he had something.
Fact is, there's much more to people's worth than their intelligence, as measured on tests anyway. As much as I enjoy and often admire smarties, I sometimes think dumb and kind, while it may prove dull, is a combination not to be sneezed at.
BTW, RC commenters. Smart AND good.
A miscellany:
The Economist shows a map of doctors income in the US. Essentially the states with high income doctors starts in Idaho goes east to North Dakota then south to Texas and then east to the Atlantic. Republican country? Helps explain Republican antipathy to an Act which must inevitably evolve to restrain medico incomes.
Republicans want to open everywhere to petroleum exploration. The oil companies support the Republican party and support them financially. Republicans generally deny global warming. Climatologists say that half of all proven oil reserves must remain locked in the ground to prevent unacceptable warming over 4C. So Oilco/Republicans want to make money by ensuring their descendants experience some dystopic future? I don't care that they are traitors to the US but to Gaia? Yet some Republicans claim they are opposed by 47% of eligible voters. That's way more than the number of Americans who believe in warming.
Read years ago that some police chiefs advocated limiting new police recruits to those with IQ's around 100. Their reasoning was that intelligent officers soon became bored with the job and left the service after the community had invested all that money in training. It explains the inadequate training displayed by so many officers (why waste tax-payers money?) and the level of conversation in a police bar as reported in 'The NY Police vs The Mayor' by Michael Greenberg in the NY Review of Books. Come to think of it the reported conversation itself might explain why intelligent officers leave so soon.
Wondering. Does the $900,000,000 the Kochs are spending on the '16 elections include the monies they are spending on influencing state and municipal and judgeship elections or does that round up to $1,000,000,000. Or is it yet more? The mind boggles.
Ken,
It certainly is a conundrum, of sorts.
The combination of smarts tempered with the common touch is rare. But smarts can be attuned to different frequencies. It's clear that the intellectual chops of such as Little Johnny and the Dark Lord are regularly repointed, like deficient brick walls, with snarling, mendacious and morally specious mortar, promoted as the necessary barriers against the storms of modernity, facts, and the real world.
Given the vicious opportunism of far-right "intellectualism" tempered by ideological imperatives, I would opt for a liberal-progressive position, despite its populist difficulties. That's what supportive politicians and an actual (as opposed to a fantasy) liberal media are (or should be) for.
Unfortunately for us, we have neither a liberal media (a mythological bestiary like you read about) nor very many smart, cagey, or appropriately pugilistic progressives, E. Warren being a conspicuous counter-example.
The problem, for such as us, is that avatars of reactionary recidivism, such as those who pustulate the Supreme Court, are granted the imprimatur of judicial authority and respect, whereas any justice opting for readings that put human beings before capitalist or religious or far-right imperatives are considered traitors to conservative ideology.
Basically, if you're a smart person and you don't kowtow to the right, you're a dangerous ideologue who needs to be put down with extreme prejudice.
I don't think a lot of liberals get how critical this has become. Wingers see this not just as a zero sum game (although that idea informs their every move) but as a game of life and death. And they will do whatever it takes, lie, cheat, steal, and even kill (innocent foreigners, eg or poor Americans without healthcare) to win.
Akhilleus,
Will put this one (smart, cops, politicians, et. al.) to bed, five hours before my own bedtime, with this from Mark Twain, who said he'd take Heaven for the climate, but Hell for the company. Always kinda like it. Maybe, like Hruska, he had something..