The Commentariat -- January 6, 2015
Internal links, photo removed.
David Goodman & Al Baker of the New York Times: "For a second straight week, New York City police officers sharply cut back on their actions in the street, arresting less than half as many people and writing more than 90 percent fewer summonses than in the same period a year ago. The slowdown built on a drastic drop in activity that began shortly after the murder of two uniformed patrol officers in Brooklyn on Dec. 20, and continued across all 77 precincts in the city." ...
... Hunter of Daily Kos: "You can arrest only half as many people and still not sacrifice public safety? You can curtail other enforcement actions by 90 percent to no detrimental effect, save to the city's coffers? This sounds like excellent news.... Is this merely an extended period of unofficial pouting by New York City Police officers, or is there a specific something being requested? The closest we've come to an explanation of demands comes not from New York but from the Baltimore police union, which used the December murder of two New York officers to demand law enforcement receive the 'unequivocal support' of national leaders.... If members of the police departments demanding 'unambiguous' fealty ... want to explain how this required cult-like devotion to police authority squares with a national law enforcement framework that is not by definition a police state, they ought to pipe up with that." ...
... Here's One Thing. Liz Goodwin of Yahoo! News: "In the wake of the murder of two New York City police officers and a national debate about policing, the National Fraternal Order of Police is asking for the Congressional hate crimes statute to be expanded to include crimes against police officers.... Asked about the push today, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said ... the task force on policing convened by President Barack Obama would consider the hate crimes idea."
** Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: "A member of the grand jury that declined to indict Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson has filed a federal lawsuit against the prosecutor handling the case, saying the public has been misled about the grand jury's deliberations. Represented by the Missouri chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the anonymous grand juror – identified only as 'grand juror Doe' -- sued St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch on Monday for the right to speak publicly about the case.... The grand juror hints that he or she may have voted to criminally indict Wilson and wants to advocate for reform as Missouri legislators consider whether to change the state’s grand jury process." ...
... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "McCulloch has been under increasing fire since admitting that he allowed witnesses he knew were lying to testify before the grand jury." ...
... The complaint is here.
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner is all but assured of re-election to the top House leadership post when his colleagues vote on Tuesday, but the new term also could serve up the embarrassment of a potentially record number of his own Republican conference voting against him as speaker." ...
... Speaker Gohmert! David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) warned on Monday that there could be dire consequences for the entire country if Republicans in Congress did not oust John Boehner as Speaker of the House and elect him instead." With video. ...
... CW: I hope the Gohmert effort succeeds. As I said two years ago when there were similar rumblings among the nativists, Nancy Pelosi could make a co-governing deal with Boehner if he needs Democratic votes to retain his speakership. There is no way, BTW, that Gohmert (or Yoho!) would be elected speaker, but they can gum up the works. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Boehner has "more room for error this time around (as opposed to 2012 when the effort to unseat him lost by six votes), after Republicans gained double digits seats in the 2014 election. At least 29 House Republicans would have to desert Boehner in order for him to lose another term as speaker. But it's also becoming evident that he'll probably lose more votes this time around." Blake rounds up the names of Republican MoCs who have said, at one time or another, that they would vote against Boehner: "So, the likely/possible votes against Boehner currently stand at 15, with 29 being the magic number." ...
... Zeke Miller of Time: "A day before the new Congress is to be sworn in, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that [Rep. Steve] Scalise's fate lies with his Republican colleagues after he admitted to speaking to a group linked to Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Scalise maintained that he did not realize it was a hate group at the time and apologized for his mistake. 'Who they choose to serve in their leadership says a lot about who they are and what their values should be,' Earnest said Monday.... Twice repeating Scalise's quote that he is 'David Duke without the baggage,' Earnest said that President Barack Obama believes that 'it's ultimately [House Republicans' decision to make,' whether Scalise serves as whip." ...
... The "Scary" Party. Jamelle Bouie of Slate assesses the GOP Congress's chances of "govern[ing] like a sensible party." See Speaker Gohmert! above.
Justin Sink of the Hill: "The White House isn't yet threatening to veto a Republican bill to authorize construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.... But the administration is playing coy on whether the president plans to veto the package or urge Democrats to vote against the legislation. 'We'll see what the legislation actually includes before we start urging people to vote one way or the other,' White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday, adding that he wanted to 'reserve judgment' until the administration could 'actually see what language is included in that specific piece of legislation.'"
Justin Volz & Kaveh Waddell of the National Journal: "Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein is calling on President Obama to help 'prevent the use future use of torture' by the U.S. government, a move that comes on the heels of her panel's release of its investigation into the CIA's now-defunct "enhanced interrogation" program.... Along with urging a series of executive actions from the president, Feinstein said she will introduce four of her recommendations as legislation at the start of the 114th Congress. Such a bill would largely serve to codify an executive order President Obama issued upon taking office in 2009 that outlawed certain interrogation methods, including waterboarding."
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar." ...
... CW: I thought this was sort of a "meh" story & didn't link it, but it's hit a chord here on Reality Chex (and elsewhere), so here it is.
... Jonathan Chait with the Elsewhere: "The most recent grist for the machinery of [conservative] doomsaying is a New York Times report that Harvard faculty are up in arms over changes to their health insurance, loosely related to reforms in the Affordable Care Act. The schadenfreude is flowing, from the to Jonathan Adler to Red State to Hot Air.... What makes this response funny, if not unusual, is that the reforms ... show that in some ways, Obamacare has pushed the health-care system moderately in the direction conservatives favor, by encouraging employers to shift more of the cost of care onto employees.... The Harvard story demonstrates two things. First, Obamacare is implementing some versions of conservative ideas. Second, even moderate versions of this reform tend to upset consumers. But neither of these interpretations are capable of penetrating a conservative media apparatus that relentlessly turns all news stories into either non-stories or confirmation of their increasingly discredited hysteria." ...
... Paul Campos in LGM: "According to the AAUP, the average salary for Harvard full professors is currently $207,100, and their average total compensation (including the lousy health care plan) is $262,300.... The school offers some protection against high co-insurance costs to lower-paid employees...." CW: The salaries for assistant & associate professors, especially in the liberal arts, are likely to be considerably less than $200K.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Obama administration's plan to defuse a First Amendment showdown with a New York Times reporter over his confidential sources was nearly derailed at a court hearing Monday when the journalist rebuffed a series of questions concerning his reporting. But he eventually agreed to answer some of the queries, allowing the at-times tense session to get back on track and avoiding for now a major confrontation over press freedom. Times national security writer James Risen testified for about 45 minutes in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, where ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling is set to go on trial next week on charges of leaking top-secret information that Risen published in his 2006 book 'State of War.'" ...
... Here's the New York Times story, by Matt Apuzzo, who sometimes collaborates with Risen on stories. ...
... CW: I'm of the impression Risen is kind of a dick, but a dick can make a damned good reporter. Or not.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Reporter Sues Obama over Stuck Backspace Key. J. K. Trotter of Gawker: "Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter who believes the Obama administration hacked her personal computers because she reported on the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. Today she announced her family's $35 million lawsuit against the federal government for the alleged hacking.... There is zero evidence that federal agents placed Attkisson's family under illegal and retaliatory surveillance, and Attkisson's new complaint does not offer any actual proof that any state-sponsored surveillance took place."
Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Richmond will decide on Tuesday what punishment former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell deserves for trading the influence of his office to a smooth-talking businessman in exchange for sweetheart loans, lavish vacations and a variety of other loot." ...
... UPDATE: The Post is liveblogging the sentencing hearing.
Michael Specter of the New Yorker:"One of science's most famous quotes is false ." CW: I generally think it's safe to accept as true stories I read in reputable publications by reputable journalists or scientists or historians (I'm talking facts here, not opinions). Most of the time, I'm right to do so. However, a teeny red flag does go up if a story seems outlandish for some reason. The false quote Specter himself cited numerous times does seem, if not outlandish, at least surprising. Someone shoulda checked it out. And at long last, someone did.
Maybe Obama Isn't Such a Lousy President. Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "In the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, David Siegel, billionaire chief of Florida timeshare company Westgate Resorts, sent an email to all employees" warning them that "re-electing Obama would 'threaten your job' and result in 'less [sic.] benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.' Just over two years after penning that company-wide email, Siegel informed Westgate employees that instead of layoffs, he would boost their minimum wage to $10 per hour beginning in 2015."
Paul Glastris in the Washington Monthly: The current Gilded Age gives progressives a chance to reform government -- and society -- but their inattention to the big picture may cause them to blow it.
This Can't Wait for Our Regular Weekly God News. Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: Archaeologists working in Jerusalem's Old City "uncovered something extraordinary: the suspected remains of the palace where one of the more famous scenes of the New Testament may have taken place -- the trial of Jesus." ...
... CW: Just so you don't get too excited, it's quite possible the archaeologists have discovered an ancient palace or administrative building, one which certainly could have been built by & for Herod the Great. However, the trial of Jesus is almost certainly fictious -- part of a good story to explain to Diaspora Jews why the expected Jewish messiah did not come to lead the his people in victory over their Roman oppressors.
Patricia Mazzei & Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald: "Crying tears of joy and relief, men and women who had challenged the ban leaped to their feet and shrieked with joy inside downtown Miami's historic courthouse Monday morning when a judge ruled with little fanfare that the couples could marry right away. They would have otherwise had to wait until after midnight Tuesday, when another judge's ruling took effect statewide." See also Presidential Election below. ...
... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Gay couples began marrying in Miami on Monday, kicking off a pivotal week when the Supreme Court will have a chance to consider whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry or whether states may limit marriage to a man and a woman."
AP: "Two women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual offences decades ago have joined a defamation lawsuit, contending the comedian publicly branded them as liars through statements by his representatives. The amended complaint was filed on Monday in the US district court in Springfield, in western Massachusetts, where Cosby has a home in Shelburne Falls."
The Hazard of Rearing a Ne'er-Do-Well. Jessica Roy of New York: "Man kills wealthy father for reducing allowance. Seems a little extreme." (Quoted from the front-page blurb.) ...
... Taylor Berman of Gawker has more on the story.
Presidential Election
Margaret Hartmann of New York: The long & (very) short of Jeb Bush's evolution on gay marriage. ...
... Andrew Kaczynski & Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed have the full text of Jeb's 1994 "sodomy" op-ed here. Their entire post is worth reading. Here's a gem: "Bush long used the language of victimization to describe LGBT activism. In his 1995 book, Profiles in Character, Bush described the 'gay rights movement,' 'feminist movement,' and 'black empowerment movement' as part of a so-called 'modern victim movements.' These activists, he wrote, 'have attempted to get people to view themselves as part of a smaller group deserving of something from society.'" ...
... CW: Jeb wrote that book 20 years ago, but you can bet his views haven't changed. Unless you're a straight, white man, Jeb Bush doesn't think you should be a fully-recognized person. Three-fifths, maybe. This is the GOP's definition of "moderate."
Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast: "Images are important and memes matter -- which is why the viral screen capture of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hugging Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is worth noting today [Monday]. In case you missed it [CW: you can bet I did], cameras captured Christie (an admitted longtime Cowboys fan) celebrating the Cowboys come-from-behind victory over the Detroit Lions in the owner's box on Sunday night. GIFs were created. Tweets were sent. Jokes were made.... I think Bill Kristol hit the nail on the head with this Tweet: 'Next week, Scott Walker will go to the Packers' game, root for his state's team, & sit in the cheap seats & freeze with the common people.'" Read the whole post. It's entertaining & a good example of the superficiality of politics -- and of Chris Christie. CW BTW: Last time I looked Lewis was a reporter for winger Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller. ...
... Steve M.: "Yes, as we prepare to choose a new president in 22 months here in The Greatest Country on Earth, we're actually having a serious debate about this (which, shamefully, I'm participating in): 'Will Chris Christie Regret His Cowboy Hug?'" ...
... Matt Arco of New Jersey Advance Media: "Gov. Chris Christie's trips to NFL games to root for the Dallas Cowboys were paid for by the team's owner, Jerry Jones, according to the governor's office.... Christie has now attended three games at the invitation of Jones.... Jones paid for Christie and his family to attend the games, including footing the bill for the private jet that shuttled the Christies to Sunday night's game, Roberts said. As is always the case, New Jersey taxpayers paid for the governor's security detail provided by the New Jersey State Police."
Another Headache for Hillary. Smoking Gun: "Now that [Britain's] Prince Andrew has found himself ensnared in the sleazy sex slave story of wealthy degenerate Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton can't be too far behind.... According to court records, [Bill] Clinton 'frequently flew' with Epstein aboard the investor's private jet from 2002 to 2005, the year news of the police investigation of Epstein was first reported.... While Clinton was never deposed, lawyers obtained Epstein's computerized phone directory which included 'e-mail addresses for [Bill] Clinton along with 21 phone numbers for him, including those for his assistant (Doug Band),' according to a court filing." ...
... CW: Must I really vote to give this guy, with time on his hands, access to a bevy of nubile young White House interns? Isn't this a little more serious than Chris Christie's hugging a rich sports team owner? (BTW, Jones, who is from Little Rock, was a prominent Clinton foe, who once boasted that he had put private detectives on Clinton, who had discovered one of Clinton's extramarital relationships.)
Share Article
Reader Comments (51)
What's going on with cops? Earlier we all read about the Uber incident in Boston, and now this:
Ohio policeman shoots self.
"... Cop shoots self while on elevator The most inept gun handling (or fumbling) by a supposedly-trained professional.
@MAG. I usually do something stupid about once a day. I expect most people do stupid things pretty often. If you happen to be carrying or are in the vicinity of some kind of lethal or potentially lethal object, the consequences can be greater than, "Doh!"
Ergo, "Cop accidentally shoots himself in elevator."
Marie
@Unwashed: your characterization of the large portion of Harvard faculty objecting to newly imposed modest contributions to their health care costs as "fucking whiners" exactly mirrored my reaction. I guess they really do inhabit an ivory tower.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/us/health-care-fixes-backed-by-harvards-experts-now-roil-its-faculty.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
@Unwashed & Victoria D. "Fucking whiners"? I'm not sure. If the faculty got salary raises equal to or greater than the approximate loss of benefits, then they're fucking whiners. Otherwise, they got an unanticipated pay cut. That seems like a legitimate gripe.
Marie
As luck would have it, today, Terry Gross had Steven Brill on to discuss his book on the ACA. He wrote the blockbuster article for Time on the crazy costs of American healthcare. Now his focus is on the law and he is not hopeful that it will be a successful policy because it does not tackle the cost problem: hospitals, medical devices, pharma, and medical tort reform. Sadly, I think he is right. Here is the link to the podcast of today's show:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=375024427&m=375169347&live=1
Regarding the new Harvard policy on health care benefits - wouldn't it avoid the charge of a "sickness tax" if they instead increased the premium and dropped the cost sharing basis?
I thought this was a pretty good 'letter' to the 2016 president-elect regarding some basic managerial lessons learned on running the executive branch of government using some GWB and Obama failures as examples. Interestingly, the author (published in the Washington Monthly), like Stephen Brill, also names Jarrett as having a role in the ACA rollout debacle.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/januaryfebruary_2015/features/ten_secret_truths_about_govern053468.php#disqus_thread
Am I alone in questioning the fairness of insisting the trial of Tsarnaev be held in Boston?
@Haley Simon. Why not in Boston? When Whitey Bulger was finally caught, his trial took place there? As for Tsamaev, I doubt a change of venue would make much difference.
MAG
Seriously? You don't see the difference between Whitey Bulger and Tsarnaev?
Yesterday's commentariet had a blurb that police 'morale was flagging'. Cry me a river. Different city (Boston) and different cop but a comment linked to the story said the Uber beating cop makes $156K. If the job is too stressful and his morale is flagging - let him quit.
@Haley: My short answer. Nope.
Have mentally run down cities and states in my head and have yet to figure where a "FAIR(er)" trial might take place.
Where would you suggest?
@MAG & Haley Simon: As I recall, Tsarnaev's lawyers asked for a change of venue, & a judge denied it. It does seem to me that anywhere outside the Boston media market would have produced a better/"fairer" jury pool.
Anyone who lived in the Boston area at the time of the bombing had to be aware of it, & at the very least was inconvenienced by it when officials pretty much shut down the area during the hunt for Tsarnaev.
There are, however, plenty of people everywhere who are barely aware of the news (in the summer of 2009, I had a brief conversation with a store clerk who had never heard of Barack Obama), & outside the Boston area, many would have little or no recollection of the bombing.
Were I the judge, I would have granted the change of venue.
In any event, I'm sure that no matter where he was tried, Tsarnaev would have been found guilty.
Unless he were a cop.*
Marie
* Just kidding; don't write in & complain, please. I admit that was an unfair, tasteless hit.
Marie
I couldn't possibly complain since we are in agreement although I would have put the 'inconvenienced' more strongly. The town was enraged. I think a guilty verdict is inevitable most anywhere, but I think is almost impossible to find 18 people from Boston who haven't already convicted him. The denial of a change of venue seems unseemly. I can't help wondering if the judge wants his six months of fame?
As a side note - can you help me? The Times obit wrote 'veritable font' in the Meyerson obit. I think it should be 'fount' but found it both ways in online dictionarys. What do you think?
@Haley Simon: re: font v. fount, the Oxford Dictionaries folks respond.
Look up this stuff, people. Your Internets connections all have the Googles. The answer took as long to find as it took to type "font v fount" into a searchbox.
Marie
If Scott Walker freezes with the fans in the cheap seats at Lambeau Field this Sunday, it will be the first time he's faced Wisconsinites in an unchoreographed appearance in about 3 1/2 years.
Boy, Colonel Jessup's attitude has been making making many appearances recently, with Rep. Grimm's paraphrase from a while back and now the Baltimore police, as quoted in the Daily Kos article above.
I thought Ken's comment yesterday was very well put, and his words for the Mayor were far better than any "I should have said..." comment I have ever dreamed up.
Re; When fat men hug their bellies rub, Hard to dance with a tummy bigger than your pants. So Give me a kiss instead Chris, Bruce won't mind, call it cowboy bliss.
Aside from making my stomach turn early in the morning does any body else think it is very weird that a man that wants to be president of the United States acts like a high school boy cheer leader?
In the jury selection of the Tsarnaev trial the lawyers ask one question first: Are you for or against the death penalty?" If against, you are excused.
And I agree that this trial should be conducted anywhere but Boston. Marie's point of ignorance within our populace is sad, but true. I make fun of that smiling little prick named Waters on O'Reilly who scurries to and fro asking questions from various and sundry, but I am shocked at how many have no idea of the basic knowledge of current political events and/or history. I recall Rachel going into the hinterland asking folks questions about particular candidates––she got answers as to whom they liked or disliked, but when she asked them the particulars they were at a loss. So moving a trial somewhere other than where the incident occurred seems to me common sense.
PD: That question is asked of all prospective jurors in all jurisdictions where capital punishment is considered. I've been thrown out of jury pools on three occasions because I was honest about my opposition to the death penalty.
The thinking seems to be that I might not vote to convict a guilty person because I don't want to see him executed. I don't think there's much merit in that. If I were on such a jury, I'd save my argument for the penalty phase.
Conversely, though, nobody ever seems to question whether someone's support for capital punishment might make that person a little more eager to convict. Were I a social scientist I would consider the question worth exploring. Certainly it's worth at least as much consideration as the contention that an opponent of capital punishment would be more likely to vote to acquit.
But if either of these biases exists, then that's another argument in favor of getting rid of the death penalty altogether (as if we needed another such argument).
Thanks, Mouse––I thought it peculiar that such a question should be asked, but your explanation helps me understand––and I agree with your last statement.
JJG "[D]oes any body else think it is very weird that a man that wants to be president of the United States acts like a high school boy cheer leader?"
Only if he can't do the splits.
Okey dokey. Running the risk of seeming a tad pig-headed (or perplexed), where is that ideal 'anywhere but Boston' venue for the trial? Deaths and injuries affected individuals across the Commonwealth, including New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Texas are a few states I recall. This was a huge story across the country.
Currently, a hearing is underway for Pennsylvania cop killer, Eric Frein. Where? In Pike County where it took place.
Looking back many years, many wonder did Gil Garcetti make the right call to hold the OJ Simpson trial downtown instead of the district where the murder happened?
When the five crime families in NYC were brought down, where were the courtroom proceedings? Downtown Manhattan. No change of venue appeared to be required for those thugs.
I mentioned Whitey Bulger previously. He was directly responsible for over a dozen murders, plus more that prosecutors could not charge because of a lack of direct evidence or witnesses. The courtroom was filled with the families and friends of his victims. Was everyone completely happy with the result? No. Many hoped he'd get the death penalty. Overall, he received quite a fair trial.
I wonder, if some of this concern is because of the 'angelic' appearance of this defendant who many initially saw as being used/victimized by the older brother who orchestrated the bombings. The death penalty is not a given outcome in this case despite any affirmative juror response to the voir dire question.
Chris Christie hippity hopping around with Jerry Jones in the owner's luxury suite connects his jubilation with one of the more outrageous non-calls in NFL history, leading to the Cowboy's victory and all that jumping up and down.
The deal, for non sports fans, is this: a Detroit receiver was bowled over by a Dallas defender. This is cause for a penalty. And just as all 20 million people watching the game expected, a flag was thrown. This would have put Detroit within sight of winning the game. Suddenly, and weirdly, without any explanation, the flag was picked up. Dallas gets the ball and wins the game. Jerry and Christie hop up and down like demented bunny rabbits, or as JJG suggests, fat--and not very coordinated--cheerleaders. Let the partying begin!
But the partying, for some, began earlier in the week. The head of NFL officials was spotted doing his own jumping up and down in the Dallas Cowboy's Party Bus with owner Jerry Jones' son, something considered veeeerrry bad form. Although many people are connecting the dotted lines, suggesting a clear conspiracy to make sure that the Cowboys, one of the NFL's anointed teams, gets to advance, and not that upstart Lions team from the just-out-of-hock City of Detroit, in the NFL playoffs.
I'm not suggesting as many pissed off fans are, a conspiracy, although, truth be told, if it came out that that was the case, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Twenty years ago, the NBA set up a lottery draft system to make sure the worst teams got a crack at the best players coming out of college. Know how many times that's happened? Almost never. The best players almost always go to NBA royalty, ie, where the money is.
But there's more to it than a terrible call leading to a favored team's (and owner's) success.
You see, it's not just the appearance of someone like Republican pol Christie hobnobbing with the high and mighty. Bill Kristol can make jokes and suggest that Scott Walker is an everyman compared to Christie, who doesn't make the neo-cons or the 'baggers sing in the shower. But both Christie and Walker and a whole passel of GOP pols, and plenty of Democrats as well, consort all too frequently with the rich and famous. This in itself is neither illegal nor necessarily bad. But it's a clear indication of sides. Whose side are you on? Public employees, or the Kochs? The little guys, the taxpayers, who foot the bill for gigantic structures like the Cowboy's stadium, or guys like Jerry Jones who make billions off the investments made by those same taxpayers?
Oh, maybe you didn't know this. Jerry World, as the place is called, even though "He Didn't Build It", was built, largely, by the City of Arlington, Texas, by the taxpayers, most of whom couldn't afford a Coke in Jerry World, never mind a seat. Four hundred luxury boxes cost up to half a million each, and single tickets go for more than $500. Taking your kids to a Cowboys game could easily set the average Arlington taxpayer back $3,500 between tickets, parking and food and drinks. I'm pretty sure Chris Christie didn't pay for his fried chicken. Or anything else.
But this isn't the first time the citizens of Arlington, TX, have been forced to serve the wealthy. Back in the 90's they helped enrich an up and coming scam artist from a rich and connected family, a failed "businessman" who had destroyed every enterprise he touched, a sort of King Midas in reverse, as the Hollies might have put it.George W. Bush invested a relatively small amount of money into the Texas Rangers franchise, was made president of the organization and proceeded to gouge the taxpayers of Arlington by forcing the city to boot citizens out of their homes, by eminent domain (something Jerry Jones had the city do again for his, er, I mean, their new football stadium). Then he got the taxpayers to foot the bill for the new baseball stadium. A few years later, Bush and his partners sold the team and made out, as the saying goes, like bandits. Bush's initial $600K investment made him about $17M in just a few years. What is that, about a million percent return? Not bad for an inept shrub, eh?
And this gets me, finally, to my larger point. Not something earth shattering, but something to think about when you are faced with an obviously questionable situation like a flag picked up in a huge game, something never seen before, by the way, in that situation, allowing the Big Guy to Win. Something you see with your own eyes but are told by the Powers that Be, that you are, sadly, incorrect. There was no wrongdoing there, it was all on the up and up.
The Rich and Connected Win no matter what. If it looks like there was special consideration, there probably was. And this is true with pols like Bush and Christie, and plenty of others. They skate along and everyone has to shuffle their feet and say "Well, it didn't look right to me, but okay..."
Again, I'm not saying the NFL made sure Jerry Jones's team won, but they don't have to: he's already won. Taxpayers help enrich him the way they enriched George Bush. Neither of them "Built It"; the same way Christie's scams help enrich himself, his career and his cronies at taxpayer expense. And flags get thrown all the time on these guys, flags that are later picked up. Their fouls are hidden and they continue to march down the field unimpeded by their bad deeds, their lies, their cheating, and their scams, because like Christie and that NFL official, they party with power, and jump up and down with douchebags.
By the way, the City of Arlington now has built two gigantic facilities for two professional sports teams, but if you live there and want to go to a game (if you can afford it) you better own a car.
There's no public transportation in Arlington. Biggest city in America (population: 365,438) to have no real public transit. They have a bus that runs from the college to the airport. That's it.
Thank you, citizens of Arlington. And thank you, American taxpayers! Fuck you, and come again. And if Scott Walker is ever seen sitting in the freezing cold at Lambeau Field with hoi polloi, you can bet there must be a gold bar under his seat with his name on it.
"...Christie officials acknowledged that Jones paid for Christie’s travel and tickets to recent Cowboys games. They assert that the gifts are legal under a separate executive order that aims to exempt gifts from “personal friends” of the governor."
Well, that makes everything OK!
For details: http://www.ibtimes.com/chris-christie-pushed-port-authority-give-contract-jerry-jones-firm-1774154
While I'm on the subject of those "who didn't build it" benefiting mightily from the largesse and assistance, forced or otherwise, or even taken for granted, from others, then claiming to be self-made men and women who "bootstrapped" their way into riches and power, and turn around to castigate the poor as lazy moochers, I want to share a link with all of you.
I came across this last week, while scanning a list of year-end best blogs.
Mellisa McEwan, on her blog shakesville.com, wrote a piece on a homeless woman, Shanesha Taylor in, as Charlie Pierce might say, "where the fk else", Arizona, who was trying to better herself, find work and gain stability for herself and her children. Because she's homeless, she has nowhere to leave her kids while she goes in for a job interview. Some upright citizen spotted the kids in the car, which, for all intents and purposes, was their home, and reported her; she is jailed and her kids taken away. This is how she is rewarded for trying to bootstrap her way out of poverty and misery. This is what it's like to really have to do it on your own.
But, as McEwan points out, "The bootstrappers will argue that she should have found someone to watch her kids. Everyone has someone they can ask to watch their kids. No. Not everyone does. That's what really having no help from anyone looks like.
People who don't have family they can ask usually have neighbors, but Taylor is homeless. Or co-workers, but Taylor is jobless. Or someone they can pay, but Taylor has no money. With whom could she leave her children? There is no free daycare offered by the government—the same government that is trying to force women to have as many children as possible."
Read it. It's devastating. And the next asshole who tells you they did it all on their own, with no help, refer them to this link. Then punch them in the mouth. Ah...they won't read the piece anyway.
Just hit 'em.
Well, hey. I'm off for New Yawk City for a little pilfering. Who's with me?
The cops are basically on strike so it should be smooth sailing. What say we hit MOMA? There's a Frank Stella there that would look just fab on my living room wall. Then we could walk down Fifth Ave and bust out some jewlerly store windows and grab us some bling. Who'll stop us? Because for all intents and purposes, this is a strike.
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that most NY cops are much more enamored of Saint Ronald of Reagan than they are of the current president, wouldn't you say? And didn't Reagan fire hundreds of air traffic controllers for doing exactly what these guys are doing today?
A Nonny Mouse,
Just a rhetorical question, but wow....where do you live? Most people, even in big cities, don't make the jury selection even once in a capital case, but three times? Yikes. You sure you don't live in Iraq?
Re: Speakers Gohmert and Yoho.
I dunno, I for one, would welcome a Speaker Gohmert or Speaker Yoho. If you think Republican control is bad now, just think of what the House would look like with one of these imbeciles in control. Even Upchuck Todd would be pining for the bad ol' days of simple gridlock rather than psychotic brain lock.
By the way, if Ted Yoho did become speaker, I found a clip that his people have put together for his installment as Grand Leader. It would involve vaguely military looking guys marching around with weapons, chanting "Yo ee ho, Yo-Ho". Early reports are that he loved the idea.
See what you think: The marching and chanting start about 30 seconds in.
It's my understanding there is no constitutional requirement that the Speaker of the House be a member -- they can elect anyone they wish. I suggest the Republicans elect Sheldon Adelson. This might greatly improve the efficiency of legislative deliberations. If Sheldon had an office in the Capitol, members would not have to walk far to kiss his ass.
AK: Was called twice in Las Vegas and once in Tucson over the course of 30 years. Odd that each time I was interviewed for a capital case.
ANM,
Odd, certainly, but at least you didn't add to the scourge.
DC,
Great idea! And on the odd days, or weeks, when he was called to do his real business of sucking Mary and Johnny's college fund out of the pockets of their ne'er do well parents at one of his casinos, he could appoint a proxy ass for them to kiss. I seem to recall that Newt Gingrich is not doing much these days, plus he has experience.
One more and then I'll turn the podium over to someone else.
Marie provided a useful link to a New Yorker piece debunking a quote that wasn't true. Too bad, too, because it was a beaut. I used it myself once in an e-mail to a researcher friend. We had a good chuckle over it.
But, as Marie points out, if it sounds too perfect, you should probably check it out, which I usually do, but in that case, did not. I had seen it so often, and in the work of reputable people. But this highlights the dangers of relying on the internet as a fact check source. You can find a lot quickly but many sites just regurgitate what they've seen elsewhere and it may not always be factual. Dig a bit deeper. Just think of how quickly invented quotes from the Right become "true", such as their reworking of an Elena Kagan quote to make is seem as if she was suggesting that banning books would be just hunky dory. Likewise the oft repeated Al Gore "quote" about his inventing the internet.
Some quotes, however, even if they seem too good (or stupid) to be true are, in fact, true:
You remember the one about The Decider constantly thinking of ways to harm Americans? Yup. He said that.
Just makin' sure.
Of course, if I read that some wingnut pundit had said something as stupid as soccer leading to moral decay, I'd have to check that out.
"... he could appoint a proxy ass for them to kiss. I seem to recall that Newt Gingrich is not doing much these days, plus he has experience."
Not to mention quite the substantial ass.
Okay. I lied. One more.
Looks like a former GOP golden boy, once considered White House bound presidential timber has turned out to be prison-bound jello.
Bob (It's all my wife's fault, that bitch!) McDonnell, all around stand up guy, will only face 2 years in the slammer. Too bad. That means he'll probably be out before some guy who was sentenced for stealing a loaf of bread.
Interestingly, it seems the judge took some time off what could have been as much as 8 and perhaps 10 years because, according to an article on the USA Today site, "...an obstruction-of-justice enhancement shouldn't count if McDonnell gave testimony that the jury did not believe."
Say what? Isn't that whatchyacall perjury? And even if the jury didn't exactly believe him, doesn't it count that he was lying to mislead them?
I don't get it. I guess that's what's called one law for the rich, one law for the poor. Can you imagine some blah guy on the stand lying to the jury about stealing that loaf of bread? They'd hit him with 5 years for the bread and another 5 for perjury.
Oh well, one more GOP law and order misogynistic douchewad down, plenty more to go.
@Ak: Re: your link to the McEwan blog: Below quote should be printed out in large letters and distributed to police stations, social services, courts. Congress, etc. with details accompanying it.
"What if all the taxpayer money that's used arresting, processing, probably public defending, possibly trying, and maybe jailing women like Taylor and Lucious were instead used toward social programs that would have supported them in the first place?"
Boehner is going for the mixed metaphor high-falutin' phrase award. I dialed in to CSPAN this a.m. (Wed), to hear him say in conclusion of his acceptance speech, something like: "Let us hope that the fruits of our labors are a ladder that our children can use as a stair to climb to the stars."
Who says rhetoric is dead in the congress? Who?
@ Patrick,
I'll bet the ladder for "those people" is made of banana peels.
Whoa...those metaphors aren't just mixed, they're whipped and puréed. Chris Kimble might have to invite Boehner on his show sometime to demonstrate.
Boehner's a lot of things (list to follow), but adroit rhetorician is not one of them. Ladders and stairs for climbing to the stars? Sounds like an entry in a Bad Hallmark Greeting Card contest.
Speaking of which, I got my card from the GOP, did you guys? Mine says
Dear Citizen.
30% of your fellow voters put us in charge. Now, you're all fucked.
Sincerely,
Your All Wingnut Congress.
Oops. I meant Chris Kimball.
Maybe a hateful thought and certainly misplaced (on a Jan 6 blog about Jan 7 events) but am thinking this morning as the R's take charge in Congress and satirists are murdered in Paris how much better off we would be if the ability to laugh at oneself were a requirement for membership in the human race.
Or maybe that has long been a requirement, which we tragically have no ability to enforce.
Phrased another way: why is it that the penchant for taking oneself seriously seems an inverse function of whatever constitutes civilized behavior?
The morning's hateful and emotionally contradictory thought? The shameful urge to exterminate anyone who CAN"T take a joke.
I thought I'd pass this along since I know we have plenty of readers out here, and unlike the 'baggers who are still painfully poring over every word in Sarah Palin's autohagiography, don't move their lips when they read and can probably get through more than one book every three years.
We all have our favorite bookstores. Some of mine, sadly, are now gone (Wilentz's Eighth Street Bookshop, Avenue Victor Hugo) but some are still around (The Strand, The Brattle). They feel like home. But some have a much different feeling...
These bookstores are pretty amazing.
The indy bookstores I'm most used to resemble the Abbey in Paris, but check out the stores in Buenos Aires and Maastricht. Wow. I might even be stunned enough to look at a Glenn Beck "book" for more than a millisecond.
Ah.....well......no, I wouldn't.
But then again, really great bookstores probably don't stock books written in crayon.
Ak,
I remember walking past the first one, El Ateneo, in Buenos Aires when it was still a theater in the early 90's, about halfway between where I lived and worked. There were a lot of small mom & pop shops around the area too that I would stop into and browse through their new and used wares. Street vendors, as well, selling books in numerous languages.
Ak: Reminds me of record shops from my youth, mostly 33's, which
you could take into a booth and play, and play, and play. Lots of them
were scratched from playing over and over, but who cared. It was the
music, scratched or not. Bookshops. Our little city of about one
thousand inhabitants still has a real book store. You would know the
owner if I gave you her name, but she doesn't like being in the spot-
light, but a hint is that she was once married to Ted Turner, (and it
ain't Jane). And from your bookstore post, appears you are in NYC
where a neighbor 3 houses down once had a wonderful little business
"The Silver Palette". Ciao.
Gonna jump in here. In the mid-to-late 50s and most of the 60s I spent many hours writing for, editing, and publishing poetry/literary magazines of the “small” variety—Existeria, Emergent, rongWrong, HennyPenny Press, 7 Poets Press, Goosetree Press—accumulating the rewards of poverty. As a by product, I got to know the owners and/or managers of many bookstores. Most, MBA-trained I suppose, wanted to know how many sales we could guarantee. But some didn’t: The Tattered Cover (Denver). Powell’s (Portland), Politics & Prose (WDC), and City Lights (SF). I’ve been grateful to them ever since; I shop nowhere else. As for the rest? Fuck ‘em; they get what they deserve.
I turned on CNN for an update on the situation in Paris and the first thing I saw was the Chairman of the Senate intelligence committee being interviewed. Not Diane Feinstein...oh no, it was right winger Bob Burr. Elections have many consequences, in this case the control of the Senate, and all its chairmanships, being flipped.
Even tough turnout was the lowest in decades, the results are the same, as the winners take all. I am so mad at the slacker electorate I could spit.
On another front, the House has wasted no time enacting rules to institute dynamic scoring (pretending tax cuts increase revenue) and restricting allocation of funds to shore up Social Security disability benefits, should they be needed.
It's gonna be a tough two years.
Victoria,
Well, I was gonna make a snarky comment about how the Senate now has their own oxymoronic Intelligence Committee to go along with the similarly unintelligent committee in the House, once graced by the estimable intellect of Michele (Terry Schiavo had brain damage, but other than that, she was fine) Bachmann, but I decided to hold off. Maybe the new chair, Richard Burr is a pretty smart guy, and it would be unfair to assume anything different without doing a little research first.
So I did.
Hoo-boy.
So, okay, I'm looking down the list on Burr and I see he has hit all the requisite wingnut benchmarks, loves guns, hates the environment, believes consumer protection against big banks would be burdensome (he doesn't say to whom, but do we really need to ask?), gay marriage, nyet, ACA, nyet, tobacco regulation, nyet. So far standard issue wingnuttery, all ideologically correct but nothing out and out idiotic. Until I see this...
Burr signed on, in 2009, to co-sponsor a bill put up by Sam Brownback (yeah, that guy) to...now get this...ban the creation of human-animal hybrids. Get that? No minotaurs! No mermaids! No gorgons, and definitely no satyrs. With all the problems we have as a nation, most of them of conservative origin, these guys take the time to write a bill banning the pig man.
So this guy Burr is an idiot. But he's not the only one. Other co-sponsors included Lindsay Graham, John McCain, Inhofe, about 10 other wingnuts and Democrat Mary Landrieu. That pipeline wasn't her only stupid idea, obviously.
So feel free to make with the jokes about the new Senate Unintelligence Committee's chairman.
Sadly, the joke's on us.
James,
Full agreement on the necessity of independent bookstores. I've been to City Lights and Politics and Prose, never been to Powell's but I use them to help find out of print books now and then. One benchmark I have for measuring the quality of bookstores is the number of small journals they offer; quarterlies, literary magazines, arts journals, organs, small press publications like the ones you worked on. It's a sign of their commitment to supporting the less well known avenues of expression abroad in the world, the ones that can't rely on connections to multinational publishers who are themselves merely branches of an even larger conglomeration of companies under some brand that has nothing whatsoever to do with books or booksellers.
Unfortunately, where I live now, access to good indy stores is difficult. I'm forced to rely on a national chain and one small used bookstore that offers mostly Harlequin romances, Jacqueline Susann novels and Bill O'Reilly "histories". There are a couple of good ones a couple of hours away but nothing like what I was previously used to.
Oh well.
Forrest,
Ahh.....record stores. When I was a kid, I haunted record stores almost as frequently as I did bookstores. I remember waiting in line at a record store for the release of "Sergeant Pepper". I'd walk around record stores with a stack under my arm, debating which four or five my limited funds would accommodate. CD's are the just not the same. Not at all. And pretty soon they'll be a thing of the past as well. Besides, there are no sides on CD's. There's no art to arranging the A side and the B side.
There was a whole orthodoxy connected to the purchase, playing, and care of LP's. The cover designs and liner notes were art forms unto themselves. You could tell the nature of the music--and often the record company--just by the cover. Albums from Blue Note looked different from Deutsche Grammophon or Folkways records. And the liner notes, if well done, were excellent come-ons when considering a potential purchase. Reading Pete Seeger praise a new artist might be all it took to give them a listen.
I still recall the liner notes for Jeff Beck's album "Truth". For one song he mentions that the last note was the sound of his guitar being sick. "Well", he wrote, "so would you be if I smashed your guts for 2:37." I've owned three copies of "Truth" since that first one. I'm sure you recall the correct way to remove and replace albums from the covers. There was also a debate over whether it was better to remove the plastic or leave it on (remove it).
I still have thousands of records in storage. Getting them back will be like revisiting old friends, scratches, ticks, pops and all.
Unwashed,
I'm jealous. Never been to Buenos Aires. The interior of El Ateneo certainly looks pretty theatrical. Looks like an opera house, for that matter. I'm always sad to hear of the closing of any opera house, but much better to have a bookstore replace it than to raze it or turn it into condos or some other use approaching borderline blasphemy.