The Commentariat -- July 23, 2013
** CW: This essay, by Kurt Eichenwald of Vanity Fair, is perhaps the best piece I've ever read on conservatives' war on poor women & their families. It is eloquent not in its style -- Eichenwald wrote it while his wife was having surgery for breast cancer -- but for its visceral outrage. Via Charles Pierce.
Mark Landler & Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "The Pentagon has provided Congress with its first detailed list of military options to stem the bloody civil war in Syria, suggesting that a campaign to tilt the balance from President Bashar al-Assad to the opposition would be a vast undertaking, costing billions of dollars, and could backfire on the United States. The list of options -- laid out in a letter from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin of Michigan -- was the first time the military has explicitly described what it sees as the formidable challenge of intervening in the war." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The top US military officer warned senators on Monday that taking military action to stop the bloodshed in Syria was likely to escalate quickly and result in 'unintended consequences', representing the most explicit uniformed opposition to deeper involvement in another war in the Middle East. Alluding to the costly, bloody occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that once the US got involved militarily in the Syrian civil war, which the UN estimates to have killed about 93,000 people, 'deeper involvement is hard to avoid'." ...
... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The House and Senate intelligence committees have approved CIA weapons shipments to opposition fighters in Syria, allowing the Obama administration to move ahead on the stalled program, senior congressional and administration officials said Monday.... Both the House and Senate panels voted on the administration's plan last week, officials said. The agreement allows money already in the CIA's budget to be reprogrammed for the Syria operation, a covert action that President Obama approved early last month."
OMG. George Zimmerman, Action Hero. Matt Guttman & Alexis Shaw of ABC News: "George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue a family who was trapped in an overturned vehicle, police said today. Zimmerman was one of two men who came to the aid of Dana and Mark Gerstle and their two children, who were trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Fla. at approximately 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The crash occurred at the intersection of I-4 and route Route 46, police said." CW: By coincidence, I was driving on I-4 at Route 46 at about 5:45-6:00 pm Thursday. I didn't see no stinking crash. ...
... Kerry Pickett of Breitbart News embellishes the story, which is sensational enough: "The SUV later caught fire.... According to Sanford Police Zimmerman had a fire extinguisher with him."
... According to John Hawkins of Right Wing Daily, "This is God reaching down in his own way to shame the people attacking George Zimmerman & let him prove he's a good guy." CW: thank God for reminding George to bring his fire extinguisher to the scene. ...
... Erin Ryan of Jezebel: "According to Sanford police (who apparently don't care that everyone now knows where George Zimmerman is), Zimmerman was just, I don't know, moseying along the highway like normal people tend to do ... when he just happened to stumble across an overturned truck, and he pulled the person in the truck to safety like the hero he always imagined he was.... It's a good thing that the person in the cabin wasn't armed and didn't feel threatened by Zimmerman's entry into their vehicle, or, you know, Zimmerman could have gotten himself shot." ...
... Kathy, a commenter on No More Mister Nice Blog, provides a plausible explanation of how Zimmerman happened upon the accident: "I have to wonder if he was listening to the police scanner, waiting for his moment." ...
... CW: I'm pretty sure the Sanford sheriff's department is fixing to make Zimmerman their Good Citizen of the Month. ...
... Carrie Healey of the Grio: "The Buckeye Firearms Foundation started a fund to buy George Zimmermann 'a new gun and fight attacks on the Second Amendment.' ... U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Department of Justice has an open investigation into the case. Sanford Police Capt. James McAuliffe confirmed Thursday that all evidence related to the February 2012 shooting is on hold, which includes Zimmerman's gun." CW: Gosh, I hope they get him a new fire extinguisher, too. ...
... Stanley Fish: "... 'stand your ground' is more than a declaration of a right; it is an injunction -- stand your ground, be a man. Retreating in order to avoid violence is not the commendable act of a prudent man, but the act of a coward, of someone who runs away. It is this aspect of the Stand Your Ground laws -- their implicit affirmation of a code of manliness -- that links them to the novelistic and filmic representations of the old west.... As civilization advances, and the law book replaces the gun, these rationales for violence sound increasingly hollow, and more and more westerns are self-consciously elegiac...." ...
... This piece on ALEC/NRA-promoted laws by Brendan Fischer of PR Watch, republished in Truth-Out, is a week old but still a valuable read: "Justice under Stand Your Ground laws have been anything but equal. The Tampa Bay Times found that people who killed a black person walked free 73 percent of the time, while those who killed a white person went free 59 percent of the time. Other studies have shown that Stand Your Ground is more likely to be applied in cases of white-on-black crime, and in May, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights launched an investigation into racial bias and Stand Your Ground laws."
We have more people in acting positions in Washington than there are in Hollywood. -- Prof. G. Calvin Mackenzie ...
... George Condon of the National Journal on "why the confirmation process is completely broken.... It is unprecedented in history for any Cabinet department to be headless for [so] long -- things are even worse below the surface.... Vacancies are scattered broadly across the Washington landscape.... The basic problem remains -- neither branch has sufficient capacity to handle the vetting process." ...
... Sarah Binder in the Monkey Cage: Harry "Reid's strategy tells us a bit about the conditionality of the nuclear option: First, the more narrowly targeted the nuclear gambit, the more credible it seems to be.... Second, the political feasibility of the nuclear option seems conditioned on the behavior of the minority. Strident overreaching by the Republicans ... helped Democrats to paint the GOP as going a step too far in a Senate parliamentary arms race.... Third, keep in mind that the CFPB, NLRB, EPA and Labor department are critical institutions for pursuing core Democratic policy interests...." Binder wonders what will happen now with judicial nominees, particularly the three Obama nominated to the D.C. court, which the GOP claims has too many judges.
** Fernando Espuelas of Univision in the Huffington Post: "We're now almost a decade into the immigration 'debate' and the rising antagonism toward non-white Americans is hitting a fever pitch.... Perhaps emboldened by the acrid assertions of certain Tea Party members of Congress who revel in fostering racial divisions as a way to cement their shrinking power base, the temperature is rising and the rhetoric is crude.... It's time for John Boehner to decide if he is a national leader or merely a party hack raised by fate to the level beyond his true capacity, thereby staying in 'power' by appealing to the lowest-common denominator and ignoring an urgent need for America." Via Jonathan Bernstein.
Steve Benen on seven ways Republicans are trying to sabotage ObamaCare even though "for millions of Americans, very little matters more" than access to affordable health insurance. Perhaps the most shocking: "refusing to help their own constituents navigate the system." Then there's lying about the costs, repeated attempts to repeal the ACA or essential parts of it, denying funds to implement the system, & threatening groups who would help do PR for the ACA. At the state level, there's refusing to allow Medicare expansion & refusing to create health insurance exchanges. CW: I would add refusing to fix aspects of the law -- like the employer mandate, which would improve the ACA in ways that would appeal to GOP constituencies. ...
... Some stars won't be intimidated. Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "What do Oprah, Funny or Die and the Grammys have in common? All three, it turns out, have volunteered to promote Obamacare." Others stars who will participate in promoting ObamaCare: Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keyes, Jon Bon Jovi & Amy Poehler. ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall. Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act." ...
... David Rogers of Politico: "... the Republican budget strategy in Congress shows almost daily signs of coming apart. The central premise, as sold by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, was that Washington could wipe out deficits in 10 years and protect defense spending, all while embracing the lower appropriations caps dictated by sequestration. Four months later, it's proving to be a bridge too far. Only three of the 12 annual spending bills have even been debated -- by far the worst record since the GOP took over the House. Against their better judgment, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have been required to cut important investments in science, community development and foreign aid. Senate Republicans are peeling off in protest -- setting up a crucial procedural vote at noon Tuesday on the transportation and housing budget." ...
... Matt Fuller of Roll Call on House Republicans' summer constituent outreach plan: basically, it's bash Washington & President Obama because they've got nothin'. ...
... Dana Milbank interviews John McCain, who has returned to maverick status. CW: a definite plus in ensuring Sunday show bookings. ...
... Ferinstance. Greg Sargent: "McCain has now said the American people will not put up with another round of GOP debt limit and government shutdown 'shenanigans.' McCain also bluntly warned House Republicans against using the debt limit fight to gain the repeal of Obamacare, which he said 'is not going to happen.'"
Bryon Tau of Politico: "With his ambitious second term agenda stalled, President Barack Obama sought to rally his most faithful activists Monday, calling on them to push back in the face of congressional paralysis. 'I'm going to need your help,' Obama told a crowd of Organizing for Action volunteers at a Washington, D.C. hotel":
Joe Nocera on three court rulings re: treatment of Guantanamo prisoners that won't change much.
Revolving Door. Ben Protess & Peter Lattman of the New York Times: "Robert Khuzami, a former a terrorism prosecutor and recent enforcement chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission, has taken a $5MM/year job at white shoe law firm Kirkland & Ellis. "In doing so, he is following the quintessential Washington script: an influential government insider becoming a paid advocate for industries he once policed."
Your Tax Dollars, Misplaced. Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "The U.S. Marshals Service has lost track of about 2,000 encrypted two-way radios worth millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing internal records it had obtained through a public records request. The paper reported that the problems date back to at least 2011, when the Marshals were deploying new versions of the radios to communicate in the field."
I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the Presidency. -- Former President Harry Truman, who lived on an Army pension of $112.56 per month after leaving office
Last year, Bill Clinton earned seventeen million dollars giving speeches, including one before a company in Lagos that paid him seven hundred thousand dollars. -- George Packer of the New Yorker
Frank Bruni: "... some of the same dynamics that fed the crisis in Catholicism -- an aloof patriarchy, an insularity verging on superiority, a disinclination to get secular officials involved -- exist elsewhere. And the way they've played out in Orthodox Judaism illustrates anew that religion ... can ... be a self-preserving haven for wrongdoing."
New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan offers some insights into why Nate Silver left the Times for ESPN, despite the Times' reported efforts to retain him. ...
... Mike Allen of Politico has more.
Presidential Race
CW: I missed this last week, but I thought you'd want to know how the 2016 GOP race for the presidency is getting started. Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) ... were the key speakers at a meeting of 400 Iowa ministers and their spouses. The senators also attended an Iowa Republican Party fundraiser." ...
... AND this from Leonardo Blair in yesterday's Christian Post: "Hundreds of pastors in Iowa anointed U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul with a shower of prayers after they collectively promoted an agenda to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), get rid of Obamacare, champion religious freedom, defend marriage and fight abortion on Friday." ...
... MEANWHILE. Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Long before any candidates announce their presidential bids, the next race for the White House is unofficially underway. Political operatives for two independent groups -- American Bridge 21st Century on the left and America Rising on the right -- are already tracking potential contenders, aiming to build robust research files that can be used against the opposition. The organizations are part of a wave of super PACs, advocacy groups and even for-profit corporations that are poised to play their biggest role yet in national politics."
Right Wing World *
Hucksters. Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: conservative bloggers & media stars aren't selling only their phony political philosophy; they're also selling lots of worthless -- but expensive -- products to their ignorant fans. Seitz-Wald cites some egregious examples.
* Where the answer to "Have you no shame?" is always "No."
Local News
Bernie Woodall of Reuters: "Labor unions trying to stop Detroit from cutting pensions filed a new challenge to the city in bankruptcy court as the federal judge overseeing the case said he would hear arguments on Wednesday. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes agreed on Monday to a request by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to fast track a hearing on whether other courts can hear lawsuits against Detroit, while it seeks federal bankruptcy court protection."
News Ledes
William & Kate leave the hospital & show off the new baby:
Reuters: " Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons and said more than 500 inmates had been set free, in a statement posted on militant forums on Tuesday. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which was formed earlier this year through a merger between al Qaeda's affiliates in Syria and Iraq, said it had carried out the attacks on Abu Ghraib and Taji jails after months of preparation."
Washington Post: "Dennis Farina, a Chicago policeman who initially moonlighted as a movie actor for the comparatively easy money but quickly became an acclaimed staple of crime dramas and comedies, playing characters on both sides of the law, died July 22 in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 69. The cause was a blood clot in a lung, said a spokeswoman...."
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Reader Comments (6)
Margaret Sullivan, in her piece on Nate Silver's decision to jump ship from the Times to ESPN makes a cogent point about the type of paradigm shift brought to political analysis by Silver's statistical forays.
She likens it to the change brought about in professional baseball by statistical researchers like Bill James and employed by GMs like Billy Beane in Oakland and Theo Epstein in Boston.
It's an apt analogy. The rise of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) geeks like James and John Thorn and Peter Palmer (whose 1985 book the Hidden Game of Baseball turned quite a few heads regarding the use of stats in determining a player's value and the relative effectiveness of things like stolen bases--hint, they're overrated) have introduced a dazzling array of new combination statistics which have dramatically changed how both the pros and the fans look at the game, much as Nate Silver has done for political junkies, at least those with the sense to pay attention.
For instance, the measure of a pitcher's worth used to be the ERA, earned run average. Today few people talk about ERAs. The big pitching stat today is the WHIP, walks and hits divided by innings pitched. The venerable batting average has given way to OPS (on base average plus slugging percentage). There's also Ultimate Zone Ratings, Wins Above Replacement, Defensive Runs Saved, and stats to measure the impact of particular ball parks. Statistics are a natural outgrowth of the sport embraced by most baseball fans but the adoption of the sabermetrics are still looked at with suspicion by those with strong links to "how it's always been done".
Those on the professional side who have declined to use newer, more accurate measures of talent and potential have become the Romneys of baseball. Confused losers.
Sad to see Nate go but I look forward to his number crunching on ESPN. It's unclear whether or not he'll still be scanning the political scene. I'm sure the Silver haters are celebrating. His apotheosis in accurately predicting the Rat's loss was their nadir (when I think of all the idiots who predicted a Rat/Fraud victory and how they had their asses royally kicked by Silver I think of that scene in Trading Places where the old guard are outfoxed by the newcomers:
Turn those machines back on!
Heh-heh.
Kind of sad, if predictable, how the right is rushing to canonize Zimmerman for his "heroism". They simply need this guy to be a hero, to not be a cheap, cowardly, gun-toting, murdering racist. Which he is. I don't think I'm far off in opining that had he killed another white guy, the right wouldn't have given him a second look. He wouldn't have collected thousands of dollars from other racists, haters, gun lovers, and wingnuts.
But I forgot. This isn't about race. Right?
The whole Zimmerman to the rescue thing is just a bridge too far for me to believe. It looks to me like a carefully orchestrated attempt at rehabilitation that had a bunch of players pulling the strings. He is just dumb enough to be easily used. This isn't about Zimmerman anyway. Its about the Florida stand your ground laws, gun manufacturers and sellers and racism. Give it a couple days...as we all know, the first report of anything is seldom accurate.
Re: Vanity Fair essay
The essay reminds me of an unpleasant encounter I had with a "friend" a few years ago.
We were having a very pleasant dinner out with another couple in 2009. The wife at one point gently put her hand on my wrist, and said she had something very important to tell me. She said, "my doctor told me under "Obamacare" I would have died". She had a few years earlier been treated for breast cancer.
I told her that I didn't believe that to be true, and she responded, "I'm fighting Obamacare because I'm fighting for my life, and i don't care about other people". I became very angry, and excused myself to the ladies room in order to calm myself down. Mind you, I have another friend who has a full-time job that doesn't provide health care, and was at the time being treated for breast cancer. Fortunately, under Massachusetts "Romneycare" she received excellent treatment, and is doing well.
I was surprised how angry and upset I was at the restaurant. I just didn't (and still don't) understand the callous attitude of my "friend". Honestly, I don't know how to talk with these people.
At the same time her husband had been laid off, and was really pissed when Senator Scott Brown voted against extending unemployment benefits - was never going to vote for him again. Guess who both husband and wife voted for in the last election ......
Just finished reading Kurt's piece. One hopes those that need to read it, read it. The outrage Kurt expresses and that we feel is so intense, so visceral that it pains us physically. Julie had to walk away from that silly, misinformed woman at the restaurant; we simply cannot afford to walk away from those callous others who are in charge of making decisions that will cause the death of so many women. And this deleterious legislation isn't, as we are well aware of, just in Texas.
"The surgeon told me that I would be able to see Theresa in the recovery room in about 45 minutes. She left, and I closed my eyes. Then, to my everlasting shame, I thanked God that we aren’t poor. I don’t want my wife to die of breast cancer, the way so many other Texas women soon will."
Mr. Eichenwald's last paragraph moved me to tears. I, too, have been so grateful over the past year that "we aren't poor" while I've dealt with a series of costly health issues that Medicare and my husband's company-provided health care have paid for in full.
Julie's lament, "Honestly, I don't know how to talk to these people," also resonates because I, too, am all too familiar with the selfish, uncaring individuals who would deny the less fortunate among us the health care benefits they themselves enjoy.
Also, what's with all these self-serving doctors telling patients they would have died under "Obamacare?" I've heard this repeated by others who heard the same sentiments expressed by their doctors. Are doctors really so greedy that any reevaluation of their charges resulting from health care reform would enable such blatant lies to flow so freely from their mouths? An other instance of *, see below.
And it isn't just the poor with no insurance that are doing without. My daughter-in-law, employed by Utah's largest health care provider, Intermountain Health Care, has put off seeing her doctor about severe ankle problems for the last 18 months because she can't afford the $350 per-person deductible she has to pay each year--she is still paying off the emergency appendectomy she had two years ago. Her 17-year-old daughter was cleated in the shin during a softball game and ended up with a 3" gash that really needed stitches. She told her mother she was afraid of needles and didn't want stitches, so her mom butterflied the gash together, and it eventually healed with a very nice scar as a perpetual reminder. My granddaughter later confided in me that she didn't want her mom and dad to have to pay the doctor bill for the stitches--17 and already worried about how to pay the medical bills. My daughter has a torn rotator cuff and has been in a great deal of pain for the past six months. She won't go to the doctor because she has to pay $3,500 of any necessary surgery costs and she is saving up to pay for it. Small scale worries in the scheme of things, but magnified by millions--in both cost and severity of the condition--of others across the country and we have a serious problem (as if I need to beat that dead horse).
This is insanity. All the time, effort, and MILLIONS of dollars spent trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act could have been spent improving it and helping all of us enjoy the benefits it provides. Instead, people's lives and pain are being used as idealogical weapons to ensure reelection for the bastards that hate government, want to drown it in the bathtub, and will say and do anything to become part of it to ensure their own financial futures and access to quality health care.
Marie has it pegged in the her "Right Wing World*" asterisked reply, * Where the answer to "Have you no shame?" is always "No."