The Commentariat -- January 4, 2013
Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "Under intense pressure from New York and New Jersey officials, the House on Friday adopted legislation that would provide $9.7 billion to cover insurance claims filed by individuals whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The measure is the first, and least controversial, portion of a much larger aid package sought by the affected states to help homeowners and local governments recover costs associated with the storm. The House has pledged to take up the balance of the aid package on Jan. 15."
Jonathan Martin of Politico has an interesting piece on how Republican leaders are planning to head off their crazy base at the pass. Of course that's not how Martin puts it, but that's the plan -- trying to give potential Tea Party candidates the bum's rush.
Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Most of the new class of Senate Democratic freshmen say filibuster reform should require senators to actually hold the floor and debate if they want to block legislation."
Speaker Squeaker. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "House Speaker John A. Boehner narrowly won reelection Thursday to a second term overseeing a chamber that has proved difficult for him to manage, surviving a rebellion from the most conservative wing of the Republican caucus."
Weaker Speaker. Greg Sargent: Boehner's close victory "all but ensures that the only way the House will be able to pass solutions to our remaining problems ... will be with large blocs of Democratic support. This, in turn, risks weakening Boehner further, and means governing compromises will be very hard won in the months ahead."
The Orange Man & the Turtle Plan Ahead. Steve Benen: "... according to public comments from McConnell and Boehner, Republicans seriously believe President Obama must accept $2.7 trillion in cuts -- without raising taxes at all -- within the next two months. And if not, there will be an enormous crisis. And what is it, exactly, that GOP leaders expect to cut by $2.7 trillion? Oddly enough, they haven't said...." ...
... Benen again, on the same topic: "President Obama may not want to negotiate over the debt ceiling, but as far as the GOP is concerned, the president doesn't have 'any choice.' ... One of the things I worry about at this stage is a false sense of routinization -- much of the political world has already started to look at debt-ceiling fights as routine, which is the exact opposite of reality. It's a manufactured crisis -- and a legitimate national scandal -- that was largely unthinkable before 2011, which the GOP hopes to normalize with the media's help."
Kevin Drum: "Spending isn't our big problem. The recession spike of 2008 aside, it's about the same as it was 30 years ago. But instead of paying for that spending, we've repeatedly cut taxes, which are now at their lowest level in half a century. Tax revenue will go up as the economy improves, but even five years from now it will still be lower than it was when Reagan took office.So what's our real problem? That's simple: America is getting older and healthcare costs are rising. That means we'll need to spend more money in the future on Social Security and Medicare. There's simply no way around that unless we're willing to immiserate our elderly...."
The Petulance Plan. Oddly enough, Jonathan Chait thinks Boehner's plan to never, ever negotiate with President Obama is batshit crazy.
Mention of batshit crazy is apt to bring to mind Michele Bachman. Adam Peck of Think Progress: "The 112th Congress gaveled to a close on Thursday afternoon without passing a relief package for victims of Hurricane Sandy or reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, but [at 12 noon Thursday] Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) ... introduced the very first piece of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which states are now busily implementing. House Republicans have unsuccessfully voted 33 times in the last two years to eliminate health care reform and wasted at least 88 hours and $50 million...." ...
... Speaking of La Bachmann, you might enjoy a gander at her Twitter feed. Apparently, the teeming masses are not all that impressed with her legislative chops. ...
... Nonetheless, it turns out that it is to LaKook of the North -- & a few others who switched their votes at the last minute from abstain to Boner -- that the Weeping Wallower owes his job.
Art by DonkeyHotay.What is a Speaker to do
When he barely survives a House coup
And can't take the trauma
Of seeing Obama? --
Drink up & cry boo-fuckin'-hoo.
Sorry, couldn't help myself. Thanks to Kate Madison for the punchline.
Walter Shapiro: "For all the unnecessary pyrotechnics, for all the missed opportunities over the past 18 months, rationality triumphed over ideological extremism in Washington this week. And if this precedent helps prevent America from defaulting on its debts when the government runs out of borrowing power in March, so much the better.... Mitch McConnell and John Boehner deserve muted, but sincere, applause for bringing the anti-tax Republicans back from the brink."
Ian Millhiser & Annie-Rose Strasser of Think Progress have a lovely retrospective on "Ten People We Are Grateful Are No Longer Members of Congress."
Ezra Klein bids "Good Riddance to the Rottenest Congress in History." He includes the metrics of their abysmal failures.
Paul Krugman: "... in a tactical sense the fiscal cliff ended in a modest victory for the White House. But that victory could all too easily turn into defeat in just a few weeks [if Obama doesn't hang tough on the debt limit]."
Ta Ta, Timmy. Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to leave the administration at the end of January, even if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans haven't reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the matter. After giving in to Obama's previous entreaties to stay as long as needed, Geithner has indicated to White House officials and Wall Street executives that he is unlikely to change his departure plans this time, increasing pressure on the president to name his successor at Treasury...." ...
... Rachelle Younglai of Reuters: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plans to leave near the end of January put the White House in a tricky spot...." ...
... Paul Krugman: "I hate to say this, but I find this reassuring. While I have no insider information here, I've had the sense that Geithner has consistently been a voice urging the president to cave in for fear of upsetting the markets, with no real concern for the dangers of giving in to blackmail."
Dana Milbank: Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) Thursday "morning pronounced himself placated with House Speaker John Boehner's offer to have the Hurricane Sandy relief bill passed in two pieces over the next two weeks. As for him [sic.] criticizing his fellow Republicans' 'indifference,' 'disregard' and 'cavalier attitude,' the lawmaker said, 'I stand by what I said at the time.' But he's revising and extending his remarks. 'John is really a voice of reason in our conference, despite some of the things I said yesterday,' King told [Matt] Lauer" of NBC News. ...
... CW: Yesterday I linked to a post by Alex Koppelman of the New Yorker on how our recidivist Congress won't do anything to give the nation a better future -- like prepare the East Coast to better withstand the growing incidence of hurricanes. Comes now Kevin Drum of Mother Jones with a long, fascinating piece on how children's exposure to even moderate levels of lead is a cause of violent criminal behavior later in life (I first heard about this only weeks ago, so it's still fresh info to me). But lead abatement is possible. Drum writes, "We can either attack crime at its root by getting rid of the remaining lead in our environment, or we can continue our current policy of waiting 20 years and then locking up all the lead-poisoned kids who have turned into criminals." You know, paint & gasoline no longer contain lead additives because previous Congresses said they couldn't. Now try to imagine this Congress taking Drum's advice. This is why it is so disheartening to have a Congress Full of Jerks.
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Obama administration officials unveiled rules on Wednesday that will allow many American citizens -- perhaps hundreds of thousands -- to avoid long separations from immediate family members who are illegal immigrants as they apply to become legal residents." CW: revising Draconian rules like these is the kind of thing a Romney administration would never have done. Ever. People who think the parties are equally bad just don't know what they're talking about. ...
... David Nakamura & Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration[s decision this week to ease visa requirements for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants represents its latest move to reshape immigration through executive action, even as the White House gears up for an uncertain political fight over a far-more-sweeping legislative package in the months ahead."
They're very upset about this over in Right Wing World:
... Please, Wolf, you have no right to tell our Tea Party golden boy he can't have everything his way.
One-Man Senate. CW: I meant to run this yesterday & forgot. Harry Reid on New Year's Day:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg discusses gun control on Jimmy Fallon's show:
American Injustice
** James Downie of the Washington Post: "The only reason for inaction [on the Violence Against Women Act] from [Eric] Cantor and others, frankly, is that many House Republicans simply do not truly care about women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. Women, in turn, will rightly continue to shun the Republican Party."
** Ethan Bronner of the New York Times: "... laws are needed to remove [DNA] databases from the exclusive grip of prosecutors and law enforcement to make them available to defense lawyers." CW: couldn't agree more. In a system where an accused is presumed innocent, why shouldn't a convicted criminal be given access to information that might re-establish his innocence? Again & again, prosecutors have proved to be little dictators who will do anything to save a conviction, even when there is significant exculpatory evidence. Let's put a tiny bit more justice in our so-called justice system.
Inauguration
Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Obama's inaugural planning committee will announce this morning that -- surprise! -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will deliver the oath of office to Mr. Obama when he is sworn in for a second term later this month.... The president gets to pick who will swear him in, and Mr. Obama has selected the chief justice to deliver not one, but two, oaths to him: first in a small official ceremony at the White House at noon on Sunday, Jan. 20, the constitutionally mandated date and hour for the swearing-in, and again as part of the public inaugural festivities scheduled for Monday, Jan. 21." CW: let's see if Roberts can properly recite the oath this time.
Senate Race
Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Barney Frank, one day out of Congress, said on Friday that he has asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to send him back as an interim senator when Sen. John Kerry becomes secretary of state.... Frank said he wouldn't run for Kerry's seat in a special election, which would most likely take place this summer. Other names mentioned as a possible caretaker for Kerry's seat include former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and former Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Margaret Marshall -- who crafted the historic ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the Bay State."
Regrets Analysis. Howard Schneider of the Washington Post: "Consider it a mea culpa submerged in a deep pool of calculus and regression analysis: The International Monetary Fund’s top economist [Thursday] acknowledged that the fund blew its forecasts for Greece and other European economies because it did not fully understand how government austerity efforts would undermine economic growth." CW: when are people gonna figure out Krugman is (almost) always right?
News Ledes
Bloomberg News: "Employers added workers in December at about the same pace as the prior month, and the unemployment rate matched a four-year low, showing sustained gains in the U.S. labor market even as lawmakers were struggling to reach a budget deal."
New York Times: "The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided not to file insider trading charges against David L. Sokol, a onetime top lieutenant at Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Sokol's lawyer said Thursday. Mr. Sokol came under scrutiny in 2011 after abruptly resigning as chairman of Berkshire's MidAmerican Energy Holdings, one of the many holdings of the investment conglomerate run by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett."
AP: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is being treated for 'respiratory deficiency' after complications from a severe lung infection, his government said, pointing to a deepening crisis for the ailing 58-year-old president. Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since his Dec. 11 operation in Cuba, and the latest report from his government Thursday night increased speculation that he is unlikely to be able to be sworn in for another term as scheduled in less than a week."
AP: "A 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting girls' education has been released from a Birmingham, [England,] hospital to live with her family, doctors said Friday. Photographs released by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham showed Malala Yousufzai hugging nurses, waving and smiling shyly."
ABC News: "U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo is facing a hearing Friday in a Virginia court on a drunken driving charge. The Idaho Republican has said he doesn't plan to contest the allegations." CW: Crapo, a Mormon, has said he doesn't drink.
... Washington Post Update: "Sen. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho) pleaded guilty Friday to drunk driving following a December arrest in Alexandria, and issued a sweeping apology after a judge accepted his plea. Crapo, who appeared in Alexandria District Court, was sentenced to 180 days in jail, all of which was suspended. His license was suspended for a year, but he's eligible for a restricted license. Crapo must also pay a $250 fine and complete an alcohol program over the next year."
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Reader Comments (21)
Cheer up Collectors of Mirth! Be informed that Michele Bachmann says she introduced a bill today [1/3/13] to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.
@James Singer. During the 112th Congress -- as of last week on track to be the Do-Nothingest Congress in modern history -- the House passed bills repealing ObamaCare something like 33 times. Ms. Bachmann certainly didn't have to look far to find a model bill for her latest little Obama Drama.
It's worth noting that Bachmann's tactic is standard fare. The Equal Rights Amendment is introduced in every Congress. It's been a couple of decades since anybody thought there was anything more than a symbolic point to that. Me, I'm for the symbolism.
Marie
The clock strikes noon
At the Norquist Corral
Revenge stings the air
Something's afoul.
Impurity's poison has spiked the well.
Whoever's done it, no one could tell.
Alas a rat stumbled through, smelling of brews.
Straight to the saloon stumbled the rednecked buffoon.
A tear and a sob, sniffles and Schnaps
"Straight everclear, to drown out my fears."
The Inquisition nears.
Boehner's Speakership is unfortunate for him. Herding feral cats was not a job anyone else, including the aforementioned feral cats, actually wanted. Boehner has nothing left in the tank after a lifetime of booze, tanning beds and tobacco. Canter is whooping it up with with his band of merry shitstains, cackling and pointing, proclaiming fealty while always voting no-never-ever. A smiling, soft spoken Harry Reid pokes Boehner in the eye every once in awhile just to keep things interesting. And yet...he's cursed with the elephant turd of his own caucus. Can't quite feel sorry for him.
On another note. I'm anxious to see if my area Comcast will broadcast Al Jazeera. I signed a petition last Feb and the response was basically blah blah blah - no. Time Warner dropped Current TV like a hot potato after the sale. Current TV is still broadcasting on Comcast, but I'm not encouraged that will continue. I have to watch AJ online - livestream. I haven't been compelled to acts of terrorism yet.
One would think that Comcast's dropping Current TV because of its new owner would be a sharp stick in the eye in the "land of the free" (don't even get me started on "home of the brave"). I suggest a Coke/Pepsi type of blind "taste" comparison between AJZ and Fox.
In order to make all this a bit more fun, AJZ should hire Frank Luntz and immediately begin indoctrinating us that the Saudi princes are the real Job Creators, that Muslim women are the Luckiest of Duckies, and that if the War on Christmas is good television, you ain't seen nothing until you experience the Jihad on Christmas. Oh, and the network will change its name to Al!-Jesus-is-here-a.
Can't wait.
@Jack Mahoney. Ha ha. I don't know squat about the Emir of Qatar, but since it's hard to be much worse than Rupert Murdoch, he probably ain't much worse than Rupert.
As far as I know, Comcast has not dropped Current TV. Time-Warner did, right in the middle of Eliot Spitzer's show. Correct me if I'm wrong on this; sometimes I let the news get ahead of me.
Marie
Thanks Marie. Got my cable wires crossed.
Thanks for the Mother Jone's article on lead additives adding to brain dysfunction. It seems quite a leap to come to that conclusion, but it seems as if the research on this has proven a strong causal link. It also bodes well for that thing called government regulation.
By the way, liked the "broken glass" mantra––it has been my husband's way of dealing with our children: you make big deals out of the small misdemeanors and you'll not have the big ones.
And thanks for including the video informing us how Harry Reid pushed through stuff that needed to be pushed through and doing it in the wee hours of the morning. I meant to mention this yesterday, but got caught up in the Boner business.
Current was on the air last night on my Comcast box. Haven't watched Cenk Uyger in a while, but I found it curious that all of sudden they were sourcing material from Al Jazeera. It was that quick. Don't recall them doing that before.
Well, apparently the repuglicans liked the Romney lie, lie, and lie some more playbook. Now they've decided that's a good way to deal with the debt limit. They're saying the President wants to "have a credit card" to spend money as he likes, counting on the average Americans' ignorance of the Constitution and what the debt limit really is. It's about time for the President to bring in the Secretary of Explaining Shit (Bill Clinton) to spell out things in terms the dumbest can grasp. Why we need a 1917 law is beyond me. Last time I checked, WW I is over. That female Congress Critter from Wyoming is living proof that now that Lord SB has exited there are other Lying Sacks of Shit to take his place.
@Dave S. According to his own bio, Uyger "Uygur is the former host of MSNBC Live and has appeared numerous times on CNN, CNN Headline News, E! Entertainment Channel, Al Jazeera, ABC News, Voice of America, NPR and Fox News Channel." [Emphasis added.] I've seldom watched his shows, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has previously mentioned a network on which he's appeared.
Al Jazeera has said it would scrap the current Current format. Maybe Uyger is angling for a spot within the new format.
Marie
Under the Constitution Executive Branch has the the exclusive power to mint coins and set their value. A number of prominent commentators (e.g. Jerold Adler (D-NY)) are suggesting that the President authorize Treasury to mint new trillion dollar coins in an amount sufficient to cover the debt of the United States and thus circumvent the debt ceiling "crisis." When I checked this morning, a petition to mint a trillion dollar coin for that purpose had garnered 23,838 signatures:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-united-states-mint-make-single-platinum-trillion-dollar-coin/8hvJbLl6
Jack,
I haven't watched my Al Jazeera but I don't recall seeing an Arabic Bill O'Reilly shouting "Shut up, shut up, shut up" at guests who disagree with his fabulist view of the world, so the blindfold test might end with Al Jazeera coming off as the less volatile and whacko of the two. Plus I doubt that Al Jazeera promotes as many (any?) over the edge conservative bimbos as Fox. If they do, you probably have to watch closely as the spittle foams up on the scarves over their mouths. Hey! Fox should try that! Just imagine the furious foaming spreading across Ann Coulter's face scarf.
Barbarossa,
Some post-election speculation wondered the whether Republicans would adopt a less frenzied public disposition, perhaps comporting themselves with more comity and rationality after seeing how poorly their scorched earth craziness was received by voters, suggesting that they might see the error of their ways and embrace a more politic approach to public service.
HaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaa HAAAAaaaaaa haaaa Heeee-heeee....
Sorry.
The problem is that people like Cantor and Bachmann, the Teabaggers, and the other screaming mimis who run the Republican asylum is that they're like the scorpion who asks the frog to carry him across a river. The frog, distrustful at first, is comforted when the scorpion says that he won't sting the frog because that would mean death for both of them. In the middle of the river, the scorpion, in direct contradiction of his promise, stings the frog. As they sink below the water the frog asks why, if they both were now doomed, did the scorpion kill him? The scorpion replies that he couldn't help himself. It's his nature to kill things.
So it is with the Modern GOP. They just can't help being stupid assholes.
Jack,
Meant to say "much" Al Jazeera. Not "my" Al Jazeera. I don't have that kind of money.
"Even after it is rebranded later this year, the channel will continue to be carried by DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast Corp., AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on condition of anonymity and wasn't authorized to speak publicly."
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130102/US.Current.TV.Al.Jazeera/
(picked up from AP)
Krugman Lite in a letter to the local editor:
"Let's talk about The Great Austerity Scam.
You know, the one we heard shouted during the last election and again during the fiscal cliff hysteria. And the one we'll hear again in the debt ceiling debate to come.
When they are not blaming lazy “takers,” the austerity scammers, many of whom had no problem running up massive debt during the Bush administration, blame the “structural” problem of aging Boomers and their successors for putting an unsustainable strain on earned benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare simply by getting old. Naturally, then, we need to cut them.
Aside from the fact that both Social Security and Medicare are currently self-funded and will be for years to come, a look at what has been happening to wealth distribution in this land of opportunity over the last forty years reveals the real structural problem we have.
By 2011 the top one percent of Americans had 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, took home one quarter of its income, and owned half the stocks bonds and mutual funds.
In contrast, the bottom eighty percent controlled only seven percent of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom fifty percent owned only one half a percent of its stock, bonds and mutual funds.
It was not always so. Twenty-five years ago the top one percent possessed thirty-three percent of our national wealth. Now the top one percent takes home one quarter of the nation’s income. In 1976, they took home only nine percent.
Yes, there is a structural problem, but the deficit hawks never mention the real one. When they talk about “takers,” they never mean the wealthy that do not pay taxes anywhere near in proportion to their share of the nation’s income.
They blame the sick and the poor instead."
Or as I say in a revised and according to my editor easier to understand version of yesterday's contribution to the limerick gala (BTW, I already miss it, just as I miss Isaac Asimov, who could churn them out in mere seconds),
Fiscal Cliff words from Bernanke
Made the Right Wing even more cranky
Now their "responsible" talk
Is all chopping block
For poor old sick granddad and granny.
Tim Egan's column is well worth a read.
My html didn't work.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/beginnings/?ref=global
At Barbarossa's suggestion, I hied me hence over to the op-ed pages of ye olde New Yorke Times to read Mr. Egan's disputations on the baleful influence of the intemperate and dangerously cretinous cabal de teabag.
A fine suggestion it was too.
However, deciding to test my luck, I jumped back to the main page and spied the jaw dropping spectacle of Our Mister Brooks maligning smart asses who don't suffer fools gladly, complaining about all those who believe themselves intellectually superior to the great unwashed.
I've taken, of late, to only briefly skimming Brooks' blather. He represents a kind of intellectual Gorgon. As one reads along with his typical tripe one's brain begins turning to muck and eventually calcifies, so extreme caution needs be observed.
In the event, I found his latest steaming pile of cheesecloth wrapped dung tedious in the extreme. A kind of George Will lite which means tedious AND pretentious. I'd like to see if either of these giant brains could write a column locked in a room by themselves with no recourse to research assistants (in Will's case) or access to online research assistance (in Brooks' case). This complaint du jour reeks of perpetual Lexis/Nexising on Brooks' part.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......
So I'll dispense with further unnecessary dung dissection except to ask if Brooks is at all capable of writing a column without mentioning Edmund Burke. Really David, we get it. You're smart. Wicked smart. Do you think, however, that you could leave off with name dropping when writing a column about insufferable know-it-alls?
As my friends Plato, Edith Wharton, Dostoevsky, Wittgenstein, William AND Henry James, Marie Curie, and Alfred E. Neumann once said (in concert):
Sheeeesh!
Oh, Akhilleus, give our poor Mr. Brooks a break.All he's really saying is let's give some of those republican reptiles, the ones that slither and spew some gentle polite rap on the knuckles instead of gladly calling them the fools that they are. Brooks tries so hard to be professorial, and is so damned determined to convince us that he knows what he's talking about. He wants us collectively, mind you, to ignore his party's nincompoops whose gasbaggery practically brings a halt to anything resembling congressional governing. He's embarrassed! Or should be. Have pity on him, if you can; if not then go ahead and suffer the fool gladly as you please.
Your reference to scorpions: Coincidently I have just started reading Noah Feldman's book, "Scorpions––the Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices" (Kate: take note).
"The Supreme Court is nine scorpions in a bottle."
–––Alexander Bickel, Law Clerk to Justice Felix Frankfurter