The Commentariat -- July 10, 2014
Internal links, graphic removed.
Jackie Calmes & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama vowed Wednesday after meeting with Texas officials to secure the state's border with Mexico while treating the surge of Central American children with compassion." AND, yes, Gov. Rick Perry met him at the airport....
... Katie Zezima & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Wednesday forcefully defended his decision not to visit the Texas border with Mexico to view a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, saying he's 'not interested in photo ops' and challenging Congress to give him new authority to respond to the situation":
... Dana Milbank: Ted Cruz, following Sarah Palin, accuses President Obama of lawlessness for enforcing a law passed by unanimous consent before he came into office. CW: Ted Cruz has finally quit twisting the truth; he prefers outright lies. ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "The crisis along the border is tailor made for Republicans. It makes their base hopping mad, it juices their campaign fundraising, and anytime the government is unable to address a problem it makes Obama look bad. Why on earth would Republicans want to do anything to change any of this? As long as Obama is president, chaos is good for Republicans. After all, most voters don't really know who's at fault when things go wrong, they just know there's a crisis and Obama doesn't seem to be doing anything about it." ...
... BUT. Mike Lillis & Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Republicans will take the political fall if they don't provide emergency funds to address the immigrant crisis at the southern border, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Wednesday."
Joey Bunch & Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post: "President Obama, speaking to a crowd of hand-picked guests in Denver Wednesday at Cheesman Park, touted gains made in the economy following the recession that challenged the start of his presidency":
... Joey Bunch: "President Obama heaped criticism on Republicans at a private fundraiser in Denver Wednesday for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. Obama claimed success in improving the economy but blamed Republicans for a lack of further progress." CW: He also criticized Republicans during his public speech. ...
...Mark Matthews & Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post: "President Barack Obama opened his Denver trip Tuesday evening by dining with five Colorado residents who wrote the White House and shared their stories of trying to make it in today's economy. Then he strolled Lower Downtown, shaking hands and eventually playing pool with Gov. John Hickenlooper." ...
... "Want a hit of this?":
... In his speech, President Obama wouldn't say who won the pool game, but the answer is here:
You don't bring a lawsuit to a gunfight. There's no place for lawyers on the front lines. -- Sarah Palin, on "Hannity," criticizing Speaker Boehner's impending lawsuit against President Obama & once again invoking gun violence & combat as means to end the Obama presidency ...
I disagree. -- John Boehner, responding to a query about Palin's call for Obama's impeachment
Reactions ...
... to the Glenn Greenwald/
Joint Statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice on Court-ordered Legal Surveillance of U.S. Persons: "It is entirely false that U.S. intelligence agencies conduct electronic surveillance of political, religious or activist figures solely because they disagree with public policies or criticize the government or for exercising constitutional rights." ...
... CW: (1) They don't deny they were targeting Muslim-Americans. (2) But they imply there was some good reason to target these men; ergo, they smear these guys. In fact, they explicitly suggest that each of these men "is an agent of a foreign power, a terrorist, a spy, or someone who takes orders from a foreign power." This statement is quite a piece of work.
Nihad Awad, director & co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in Time, on his reactions to learning he was a target for NSA surveilliance.
ACLU: "In response to a report in The Intercept about NSA spying on five prominent American Muslims, a coalition of 45 civil rights, human rights, privacy rights, and faith-based organizations sent a letter to President Obama asking for 'a full public accounting of these practices.' The coalition, organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, also repeated its call for the Justice Department to strengthen its official Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies." The post includes the full letter & list of signators.
Katherine Fung of the Huffington Post: "Speaking on HuffPost Live, [Glenn] Greenwald said that it was necessary to identify the five men in order to 'put a human face on what this surveillance is about and the way in which people are targeted and affected.' The government insisted that the reporters not publish the names, he said, but they chose to do so because 'it's so clearly in the public interest.' Greenwald added that the five individuals -- two of whom also spoke to HuffPost Live -- had no 'conceivable relationship' to terrorism." With video.
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The article raised questions about the basis for the domestic spying, even as it was condemned by the government as irresponsible and damaging to national security.... The government refused to confirm whether any of the five had indeed been subjected to surveillance or, if so, what the basis for it was. A group of several dozen civil liberties and rights organizations sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday expressing concerns about the potential for 'discriminatory and abusive surveillance,' but also acknowledged that 'we don't know all the facts,' and asked for an explanation."
digby: "Back in the 1960s they listened in on African Americans. Some, like Martin Luther King, they tried to blackmail. Now it's Muslim Americans. From what I'm seeing around the internet today, the NSA apologists are unmoved by their plight. If Americans don't want to be surveilled by the government they should probably not have a heritage associated with Muslim nations."
Elias Isquith of Salon: "The FBI -- which is listed as the 'responsible agency' for surveillance on the five men -- has a controversial record when it comes to the ethnic profiling of Muslim-Americans. According to FBI training materials uncovered by Wired in 2011, the bureau taught agents to treat 'mainstream' Muslims as supporters of terrorism, to view charitable donations by Muslims as 'a funding mechanism for combat,' and to view Islam itself as a 'Death Star' that must be destroyed if terrorism is to be contained."
Margaret Hartmann of New York: "In addition to igniting more debate about alleged discrimination and privacy abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies, the revelations could mark a significant turn in the legal challenge to government surveillance programs. In the past, such cases have been dismissed because the plaintiffs could not prove that they were personally targeted by the government, but now there are at least five specific examples." ...
... Marcy Wheeler says the same in her usual long-winded, convoluted, detail-dense way.
Mark Mazzetti & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "When President Obama placed a call to Chancellor Angela Merkel of last Thursday, he ... did not know was that a day earlier, a young German intelligence operative had been arrested and had admitted that he had been passing secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency. While Ms. Merkel chose not to raise the issue during the call, the fact that the president was kept in the dark about the blown spying operation at a particularly delicate moment in American relations with Germany has led frustrated White House officials to question who in the C.I.A.'s chain of command was aware of the case -- and why that information did not make it to the Oval Office before the call.... According to German news media reports, the agency may have been aware three weeks before the arrest that the German authorities were monitoring the man."
** Ezra Klein on the myth of the moderate voter: "What happens, explains David Broockman, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, is that surveys mistake people with diverse political opinions for people with moderate political opinions.... The idea of the moderate middle is bullshit: it's a rhetorical device meant to marginalize some policy positions at the expense of others.... 'When we say moderate what we really mean is what corporations want,' Broockman says.... 'Moderate' [has] become little more than a tool the establishment uses to set limits on the range of acceptable debate."
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "With an eye on the November elections, congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill that would overturn the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby contraception decision. Democrats and women's health groups believe they have a powerful campaign weapon in pushing back on the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that Hobby Lobby and other closely held for-profit companies don't have to comply with the health law's contraceptive coverage requirement if it violates the owners' religious beliefs." ...
Dahlia Lithwick: "What is missing from the Hobby Lobby decision altogether -- beyond the economic disparity and public health arguments I mention above -- is the very notion of the woman herself ... as an agent of her own ethical choices and preferences, whose decision to obtain an IUD, or a condom, or a morning-after pill is a fully autonomous moral choice that supplants the spiritual choices of her employer. Again, it's almost impossible to escape the conclusion that Hobby Lobby, McCullen, and Harris all rest on the idea that women are in effect children with (partial) paychecks, and that their choices are to be second-guessed and gently redirected." ...
... Mark Stern of Slate here, and Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast here on why LGBT are winning civil rights as women lose theirs. They're both right. CW: In 2012, when Rick Santorum said contraception was "not okay," I thought he was a crazy outlier. I had no idea the anti-abortion absolutists were also against, well, sex. But two short years later, the anti-contraception gang has come so far into the light that it has captured a clique of five of the most powerful men in the U.S. The anti-abortion movement was never about fetal rights; it was always about curbing women's rights. Now the Supremes have used other people's First Amendment rights -- both freedom of speech & of religion -- to batter women right back into the 1950s where "Father Knows Best." ...
... Frank Rich on Hobby Lobby, immigration reform & Warren Harding's letters to his mistress. Overall theme: Republicans are reprobates. " The 'religious freedom' argument of those who want to restrict access to contraception is a fig leaf -- an all too literal fig leaf, in this case -- coming from an American constituency that has had a long history of fighting women's rights whether they involve the womb or the workplace (or in this case, both). Now Hobby Lobby has opened the door for [religious freedom' to be the pretext for turning back gay civil rights." Thanks to MAG for the link. ...
... Gail Collins rants about various Republican tricks. Overall theme: Republicans are reprobates. "... if the impeachment idea caught on it would be the best possible thing for the White House. Modern history suggests there is nothing the American public hates more than Congress trying to impeach the president. Except maybe a Congress trying to sue the president. And then leaves for vacation."
Hey, Todd Akin is back, and he's sorry he said he was sorry about claiming women's bodies naturally "shut down pregnancy" in the case of rape. CW: Let's just hope his book tour lasts all campaign season to remind voters everywhere that the Republican party thinks all you pregnant ladies were "asking for it."
Beyond the Beltway
Allen Johnson & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday on federal corruption charges, ending a case that began with the rebuilding of the city after Hurricane Katrina. The sentence was less than the recommended 15 years, but Judge Ginger Berrigan of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana told the court that the evidence failed to show that Mr. Nagin had organized or had been a leader of a corruption scheme.... Prosecutors objected to the sentence, a move that could set up an appeal. Mr. Nagin, who will remain out on bond, hugged family and friends after the sentencing, and was quickly driven away from the courtroom." ...
... The Times-Picayune story, by Jenny LaRoe, is here. Andy Grimm of the Times-Picayune has more on the sentencing. The front page of the Times-Picayune is covered with related stories (as of Tuesday evening).
Jordan Steffen of the Denver Post: "An Adams County District Court judge on Wednesday declared Colorado's ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, but he immediately stayed his ruling. Judge C. Scott Crabtree pulled no punches in his 49-page ruling, saying the state's voter-approved ban 'bears no rational relationship to any conceivable government interest.'"
News Ledes
Washington Post: "The Mississippi girl born with HIV who was believed to be cured after aggressive early treatment has tested positive for the virus, a disappointing setback for HIV/AIDS research."
HazMat. Hill: "The House side of the U.S. Capitol is closed due to an industrial spill, according to U.S. Capitol Police." CW: Aw, shucks. Now they won't be able to do anything. ...
... Politico Update: "Most of the House side of the U.S. Capitol has been re-opened, after an asbestos scare. The East Grand Staircase, a major staircase in the Capitol, remains closed." CW: Whew! Just in time to sue the President.
New York Times: "Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials. They appeared to be targeting the files on tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances."
Houston Chronicle: "Six members of a Spring family, including four children and two adults, were shot to death Wednesday after an apparent domestic dispute at their Spring home and a relative was arrested hours later after a police chase and a tense standoff in the cul-de-sac of a nearby neighborhood. Authorities held a news conference about 5:30 a.m. Thursday to announce that Ron Haskell, 33, had been captured and charged after a slow-speed chase and standoff."
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Reader Comments (4)
Maureen Taylor, a Detroit activist, puts down––and does it with such vigor––a reporter re: the water shut-off to thousands. Someone should convince Ms. Taylor to bring that "don't give me that bullshit" stance to Congress. I'd love to see her tackle our esteemed senator from Texas who has stopped "twisting the truth" and is now just telling outright lies: you know the one––the guy with an eye on the prize.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/08/1312561/-Detroit-activist-slams-reporter-on-air-for-lying-about-water-shutoff-to-thousands?detail=email
@P.D. Pepe: I dunno. The report suggests that not paying the water bill is a Detroit tradition, practiced not just by homeowners & renters but also by major water users, like golf courses & sports arenas. Even the city itself doesn't pay its water bill.
So the reporter's claim that some homeowners who could afford to do so are not paying their water bills doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Human nature being what it is, it seems to me an awful lot of people would pay the cable TV bill before paying the water bill if they thought the city would let the water bill slide but the cable company would cut off service. Is that the most totally responsible thing to do? Well, no, but not everybody is totally responsible.
Taylor may be a hero for advocating for the poor, but I thought she seemed just bad-mannered in this segment.
Marie
@Marie: But the point was/is that all those other facilities (who also have not paid their bills) like the golf courses, etc. have NOT had their water turned off, yet the homeowners, many of them poor, have. I found the whole situation pretty weird––however you are probably correct in the payments going for cable instead of the water company for SOME, but not all I would think. As for Ms. Taylor–-bad mannered she may be, but I loved her pugnacity.
One thing that captured my eye as I viewed the pugnacious woman in the clip, was that in the TV studio...they had timely slides that appeared on screen at the VERY MOMENT the discussion turned to the golf courses, et al who were in arrears with major sums. Wow, that was sure some fast-thinking studio manager who had those graphics at the ready with the touch of a button.
Nope, she certainly wasn't the usual docile interviewee we see (Joan Rivers aside!) ...but could be she was fed up with not getting a fair shake and came prepared to let loose. She was ready. Fer sure.