The Commentariat -- July 26, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In a rare and fiery weekend session, the Senate voted on Sunday to resurrect the federal Export-Import Bank, handing the Republican Party's most conservative wing a major defeat and setting up a showdown this week with House leaders divided over the moribund export credit agency. The bipartisan vote -- 67 to 26 -- broke a filibuster and allowed supporters to attach a measure to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank to a three-year highway and infrastructure bill, which is expected to pass the Senate early this week. The agency's authorization expired June 30, halting all new loan guarantees and other assistance to foreign customers seeking to purchase American companies' products. A clear majority in the House also supports resurrecting the agency, but it will be up to House leaders to decide whether the body will get a vote...."
Steve M. points to & elaborates on a post by David Futrelle titled "Angry misogynist murders women at showing of film by feminist comedian; police worry 'we may not find a motive.'" CW: Steve & Futrelle seem to be on the right -- or at least a plausible -- track. In addition, I think it's easy to connect the dots between Houser's motives & columns like the one Ross Douthat wrote for today's Times, linked below. I don't mean to suggest that Douthat is directly responsible for the multiple murders of women, but his point that Planned Parenthood medical personnel -- a large percentage of whom are women, & whose clientele are mostly women -- "have spent their careers crushing, evacuating, and carving up for parts ... dead human beings," can lead some crazy men to "reason" that it's okay to kill young women who might have abortions & allow "dead human beings" to be carved up like meat. Houser may have figured that by killing young women, he was saving lives, i.e., the lives of Douthat's "dead human beings." Some readers will think I'm exaggerating. Probably I'm not. ...
... Amanda Marcotte in Slate: "We don't know exactly why yet Houser shot up a theater that was showing a movie written by an unapologetic feminist, but this moment should still be a wake-up call about the problem of misogynist violence in our culture. If we're not going to talk about gun control, then let's talk about how to get fewer men to see guns as the solution to their inchoate rage at women."
Adam Sneed of Politico: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump charged on Sunday that Hillary Clinton's private email practices as secretary of state were 'criminal.' 'What she did is far worse than what Gen. [David] Petraeus did, and he's gone down in disgrace,' Trump said on in a telephone interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'What she did is criminal.'... Trump refused to elaborate when pressed by CNN host Jake Tapper, who noted that federal inspectors general had cited security rather than criminal concerns."
Worst Argumentum ad Hilterum Ever. This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven. Mike Huckabee, in a Breitbart interview. MAG contributed the link
I may run with links to some reactions to Huckabee's remark. Other than that, from now on, Huck gets the Sarah Palin treatment here: no coverage unless highly newsworthy. -- Constant Weader
*****
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama challenged the land of his father on Sunday to break the cycle of corruption, strengthen its shaky democracy, overcome ethnic divisions and end discrimination against women and girls as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Kenya full of potent symbolism. Delivering a tough-love message, Mr. Obama hailed the economic and political advances of recent years and forecast a bright future for the country, but he said that further progress would require it to confront 'the dark corners' of its past and tackle problems that have plagued it for generations."
Erica Werner of the AP: "It's a rare Sunday session for senators, and on the agenda are efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law and reviving the federal Export-Import Bank. Both are amendments to a must-pass highway bill that the Senate is trying to complete ahead of a July 31 deadline. If Congress doesn't act by then, states will lose money for highway and transit projects in the middle of summer construction season."
Juliet Eilperin & Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Saturday committed the United States to an intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa, announcing here that his administration would expand support for counterterrorism operations in Kenya and Somalia, including increased training and funding for Kenya's security forces. 'We have to keep that pressure going even as we're strengthening the Somali government,' he said at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta."
... David Smith of the Guardian: "The US president, Barack Obama, has launched an unprecedented defence of gay rights in Africa, telling Kenya's president that the state has no right to punish people because of 'who they love'.... Obama personalised the issue by comparing homophobia to racial discrimination that he had encountered in the United States. Never before has such a powerful foreign leader challenged Africans so directly on their own soil."
... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "President Barack Obama and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sparred over support for gay rights here Saturday, with Obama urging fast changes and Kenyatta saying it was not something Kenyan culture or society would 'accept.'... Standing by Obama's side at a joint press conference here in front of the Kenyan state house, Kenyatta repeated what he has said before about gay rights: it's 'a 'non-issue.' Kenyatta's remarks were the ones that drew applause among the Kenyan audience":
Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "The banking industry is scrambling to kill a provision in the Senate highway-funding bill that would reap billions of dollars in revenue by cutting a century-old system that has reaped annual awards for banks. Industry lobbyists say they were blindsided by the inclusion of the provision, which would help policymakers cover the bill's cost by cutting the regular dividend the Federal Reserve pays to its member banks [from 6% to 1.5%].... In a Congress where lawmakers are always hunting for politically palatable ways to raise revenue or cut costs to cover the expenses of additional legislation, the Fed provision was a novel, and rich, one. The proposal is estimated to raise $17 billion over the next decade, and is by far the richest 'pay for' included in the bill." CW: Hard to imagine this was Mitch's idea.
George Joseph of the Intercept: "The Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, according to hundreds of documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request.... The documents ... indicate that the department frequently collects information, including location data, on Black Lives Matter activities from public social media accounts, including on Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, even for events expected to be peaceful.... The tracking of domestic protest groups and peaceful gatherings raises questions over whether DHS is chilling the exercise of First Amendment rights, and over whether the department, created in large part to combat terrorism, has allowed its mission to creep beyond the bounds of useful security activities as its annual budget has grown beyond $60 billion." ...
... Maya Park & Daniel Strauss of Politico: Their disruption last weekend of Netroots Nation forums featuring Martin O'Malley & Bernie Sanders has energized the Black Lives Matter movement. "Seizing the moment, the Black Lives Matter group -- a movement organizing action on topics important to the black community and racial injustice -- decided to quickly put together a summit in Cleveland, Ohio. The summit describes itself as 'hundreds of Black freedom fighters from around the country' coming together to coordinate and build a new coalition for action in the black community. The conference offers panels on, for instance, self defense and organizing for black activists." CW: Don't be scared, white people. DHS is on this.
** Dear Smug Bastards.... Emily Badger & Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "By the time they're 60 years old, [a comprehensive study] has found, nearly four in five people experience some kind of economic hardship: They've gone through a spell of unemployment, or spent time relying on a government program for the poor like food stamps, or lived at least one year in poverty or very close to it.... If you don't like food stamps because you think you'll never need them, maybe these probabilities would change your mind.... the poverty figures may well be a conservative estimate for what someone who's 25 today could expect in the coming decades as incomes continue to stagnate and job security worsens."
The venerable New York Times continues to give one fucking, lying shmuck in the person of Ross Douthat a platform for his disgusting, self-righteous lies: "... these are dead human beings being discussed on video today: Human beings that the nice, idealistic medical personnel at Planned Parenthood have spent their careers crushing, evacuating, and carving up for parts." CW: No, Ross, they are not human beings; they are clusters of underdeveloped tissues, sort of like the flabby muscles that occupy that place between your ears where many of us have brains.
Frontline obtained photos, thru an FOIA requiest, of Bush administration officials to the 9/11 attacks.
Presidential Race
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Hillary "Clinton's aides announced Saturday morning that she had accepted an invitation to testify on Oct. 22. But a spokesman for the Republican-led committee said hours later that no agreement had been reached." ...
... CW: Schmidt, BTW, leads by boasting, "Amid renewed controversy surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of private email for government work...." I'm still waiting for the Times' public editor to comment. I sent her a link to the analysis of the Times' "reporting" by Kurt Eichenwald, which I linked yesterday (it's here), so she wouldn't have any excuse to whitewash her opinion. If you haven't read Eichenwald's piece, I highly recommend it. ...
... AP: "... Hillary Rodham Clinton, said on Saturday she never knowingly sent or received classified information using her private email server and did not know what messages were being cited by intelligence investigators as examples of emails containing classified information." ...
... Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Two government inspectors general involved in the Hillary Clinton email referral flap released a joint statement [Friday] afternoon to try and explain exactly what happened.... the two ... IGs released a joint statement later explaining that the referral was not criminal in nature, 'it was a security referral made for counterintelligence purposes.'" The post includes the IGs' statement. CW: Funny, but it would seem Schmidt & Apuzzo didn't bother to interview the IGs or ask for comment before they splashed their inaccurate story across the front page of the Times. ...
... Dylan Byers: "The New York Times report claiming that inspectors general had sought a criminal investigation relating to Hillary Clinton's personal email account was finally changed early Saturday morning, one day after all parties involved in the story -- the two inspectors general, the Justice Department, and the Clinton campaign -- issued public statements disputing the language in the Times report.... The Times also updated its headline, removing the word 'criminal' from 'Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton's Use of Email.'... Journalists, political operatives and even Times staffers expressed surprise at how long it took the Times to correct the report." ...
... CW: Gee, Dylan, maybe now you can get your colleague Annie Karni to remove the word "criminal" from her report on another matter, which -- amazingly -- Politico published after Karni had already worked with you to debunk the Times story. ...
... Here's more from Ben Dimiero of Media Matters. ...
... Not surprisingly, over there in Right Wing World, they're treating the story that blew up in the Gray Lady's face as a Clinton-NYT conspiracy to hide the troof. This is a meme that won't die.
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "To the list of Republican rivals he has insulted, Donald J. Trump on Saturday added a new name: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whom he accused of mismanaging his state's budget and creating a disaster for its roads, schools and hospitals. Mr. Walker, who has been restrained in criticizing Mr. Trump's provocative remarks compared with other Republican presidential candidates, is leading in the polls in Iowa...." ...
... Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Several people listed as part of the 'Veterans for Trump coalition' formed by Donald Trump following his incendiary comments about John McCain's war record have denied they are part of the group.... When the Guardian contacted several claimed Veterans for Trump members on Friday, three said they had never heard of the organisation and had not signed up as members.... On Saturday, the Trump campaign disputed the accounts of those interviewed by the Guardian."
Beyond the Beltway
Julia O'Donoghue of the Times-Picayune: "Gov. Bobby Jindal has issued an executive order aimed at keeping the Westboro Baptist Church protestors away from the funerals of the Lafayette shooting victims. Jindal said the Louisiana State Police plan to strictly enforce existing state law that prevents protesters from interfering with funerals, burials, wakes and other memorials. The protestors must stay 300 to 500 feet away from funeral proceedings for two hours prior to the event until two hours after it concludes. They are also not allowed to block or interfere a funeral route.... Before killing himself Thursday night, the Lafayette theater shooter, John Russell Houser, had praised the Westboro Baptist Church in online posts." ...
... CW: Every once in awhile, I agree with Bobby Jindal. As far as I can tell, Jindal is not violating the Supreme Court decision which ruled 8-1 for the Westboro church's First Amendment rights.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, the only child of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown died at a Georgia hospice facility on Sunday. She was 22.
Washington Post: "A [female sex worker] in Charleston, W.Va., may have saved her own life and the lives of many other women, as well, when she shot and killed an alleged attacker in her home last week." Police suspect that Neal Falls, whom the woman shot, may have been a serial killer.
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Reader Comments (12)
When the Intelligence Community (IC - 16 agencies plus the Director of National Intelligence) Inspector General says that a document contains classified material, what does that mean?
In the case of the Clinton e-mails, here is what it probably means:
Secretary Clinton received information on her e-mail account, from a non-government sender.
That information was based on, or contemporaneous with, similar information that was reported in intelligence channels. Even if the information itself presented no threat to the US if improperly disclosed, IC communications would have marked the documents classified to protect sources and methods and the metadata associated with each IC message.
So when the State Department Freedom of Information staff sought IC concurrence on the release of the Clinton e-mails, someone in the IC spotted information that had been also contained in IC reporting, and drew that to the attention of State.
State/FOIA probably rebutted that the HRC e-mail information was not classified because it had not been generated by IC sources. At which point the IC folks would have punted the problem to their Inspector General, and it ended up with the bureaucratic CYA activity we now see in the press.
Example:
HRC's friend volunteers in an e-mail that "Qaddafi has a wart on his nose." It is in an e-mail sent to her commercial account.
About the same time, an IC source reports that "Qaddafi has a wart on his nose." That message is contained in an official document and is classified "SECRET" because of the source ... not because improper disclosure of the fact of Qaddafi's wart is a threat to US national security.
When the State FOIA folks refer the wart e-mail in HRC's folder to the IC for concurrence in release, the "wart" reference matches up with a classified communication, IC reviewers advise State that the information in HRC's e-mail (the wart) is classified.
Bureaucratic ass-covering by IC and two IG's ensues.
Maybe HuffPost needs to move one more GOP candidate stories over to the Entertainment (not especially entertaining) section:
Let's see, looks like we've got one more trying to out-Trump Trump with outrageous statements: "Mike *uckabee : Obama Marching Israelis 'To The Door Of The Oven' "
@Patrick: Thanks for the clarification. What you write makes sense re: the interests of all the parties. (Except for Gaddafi, whose wart since has been surgically excised.)
Now, if only it were not in the interest of the NYT to rush thru an underreported story based mostly on interested-party leaks, just to dominate the news cycle, Whitewatergate-style, as it has done before.
Marie
Marie
@MAG: Maybe just move the fucker off any page. I seriously considered not running the quote, it's so horrible. Huckabee has out-Trumped Trump & in the worst of ways, by diminishing the horrors of the Holocaust. It's one disgusting thing to denigrate the people of an entire nation (Trump). Huckabee, instead. has mocked the real suffering of millions of victims of a massive atrocity.
I'm just sickened.
Marie
@Marie: you draw an interesting parallel between Douthat's column and other right wing sensationalist propaganda (in your example that connected with the slaying of two young women in Louisiana).
Caught by the headline, I read Douthat's column this morning, early.
For those who haven't the pleasure, here is how this tripe began:
"IN an essay in his 1976 collection, “Mortal Lessons,” the physician Richard Selzer describes a strange suburban scene. People go outside in the morning in his neighborhood, after the garbage trucks have passed, and find “a foreignness upon the pavement,” a softness underfoot.
Looking down, Selzer first thinks he sees oversize baby birds, then rubber baby dolls, until the realization comes that the street is littered with the tiny, naked, all-too-human bodies of aborted fetuses."
One can easily imagine these images causing a borderline personality to become unhinged. Never mind that the incident was completely made up by the author as a rhetorical gesture.
And I also fault the Times for publishing this garbage. Op-Ed writers deserve a fair amount of leeway, but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. And I think Douthat - and the Times - crossed it.
The last few days have not been among the finest for the Grey Lady.
If Olbermann were back on MSNBC, we'd have a first place tie today for "Worst Person in the World": Huckabee and Douthat.
Huckabee went way over the line, Douthat is always out of line. What is it with these holy rolling-er than thou asses?
On second thought, Huckabee gets first place.
When Marie first posted the lousy journalism of the "criminal" investigation re Clinton, and she wondered what was up at the NYT, several thoughts went through my mind, like:
The managing editor of the NYT is sleeping with Rupert Murdoch and wants to give the NYT to Murdoch (because Luv). So the 2 of them- in bed one night - decided to start seeing what they could get away with first. Would anybody notice if the NYT just started publishing trash?
I didn't say anything, because I had way too much faith in the NYT.
Now I'm not so sure.
Marie and MAG,
I'm not sure I intend this question seriously. We'll see where it leads.
What is it about fetal tissue that elicits so much delicacy and fine feeling from the Right? These are the same people, after all, who have no issue with war, poverty, environmental degradation, not to mention arming every lunatic with as many assault weapons as he can store in his bedroom, closet or garage. So it would seem their love affair with and their squeamishness over the fate of blastocysts has little to do with protecting human life.
I know that has been said many times, but a reasonable explanation for it still escapes me. Where does that feeling come from?
To me fetal love affairs seem the height of easy virtue. I believe that to be true, but it still lacks an explanation. Why this route to virtue? The Left is not immune to the impulse; it is also often given to easy virtue. Dietary fads come to mind, and at times, as in the anti-vaccination crowd, the Left and Right join hands and happily walk the same stupid path to moral superiority together.
But while it has its own squeamish moments--I'm thinking of things I've heard from some vegetarians about the slaughter of animals--as a general rule, the Left supports abortion rights, while today's Right does not. The puzzle remains.
Whatever the motivation is, it is deep-seated. Yesterday I shared with an anti-abortion friend the link to the real story behind the edited Planned Parenthood tape that aroused so much reaction. She agreed it was a hit job, but later in the day let me know that she tried to watch the first of two unedited tapes but had to quit because the discussion was so "ghastly." She said she didn't know how someone who originally wanted to be a pediatrician (good) could do that kind of work (bad.) All her feeling were for the fetus, none for the potential mothers and their circumstances.
I didn't respond to that email. What could I say?
I guess I did mean the question seriously after all.
Ken and all,
I have always been baffled by cultural practices in disposing of human remains. In our good christian society, we take dead bodies, pump them full of chemical preservatives, paint their faces, dress them in their finest, put them in a box that is often more luxurious than any piece of furniture they ever owned, bury it in some valuable real estate, and pay visits to it. What in the name of sanity is all that supposed to be in aid of? Do we imagine that we are somehow bestowing immortality? Cheating death? Could supposed believers in any divinity conceive of anything more egregiously blasphemous?
Such universal insanities must have roots in evolutionary psychology. I suppose it developed as an exaptation: a side effect of a useful evolutionary trait. The will to live, expressed as fear of one's own death, and the will to preserve the lives of one's kinship group, or gene pool, expressed as fear of loss.
Whatever the hell it is, it's just goddam creepy.
Then there are the periodic episodes of outrage over any failure to recover, and ceremoniously dispose of, the remains of combat casualties. If a soldier is blown to bits, all the bits must be collected, identified, reassembled in a box, and honorably interred. But if that soldier is wounded, and bits need later to be amputated, those bits are disposed of as medical waste. And no one gives it a second thought.
Go figure.
BTW. One of my all-time favorite movies is 'The Loved One'. Think I'll watch it again tonight. "There has got to be a way to get those stiffs off my property!" ~ The Blessed Reverend
@D.C. Clark: Thank you. There are several scenes in Spiegberg's "Lincoln" where Lincoln or Lee or Grant rides around on a horse past the carnage of dead soldiers, sometimes lying in piles. The dead are somewhat mangled, of course, but they are all dressed in their uniforms. My reaction was, "Oh, this is to remind us of the price of war."
Then, Lincoln is trying to discourage his son Robert from leaving Yale & joining the Union army. While Robert is home on break, he goes with Pops to an army hospital & Lincoln has the boy wait outside. Robert notices a couple of orderlies struggling with a large wooden cart, its contents covered. Curious, he follows the men. The men reveal the contents of their cart as they dump it into a huge pit -- the cart & the pit are full of naked human limbs. Like Robert, I sort of thought, "Eeew."
The way we view "dead" bodies, or parts thereof, seems to be a reflection of what we're accustomed to. We've seen hundreds of movies depicting the dead but not many showing loose, severed body parts. Obviously, the loss of life is worse than the loss of a limb; yet probably most of us -- as I assume Spielberg intended -- are more shocked by the limbs lost than by the lives lost.
We paint & dress up corpses partly for show-off, partly because some funeral employee embarrasses us into it, & partly because we want to remember gramps at his finest (and with his mouth permanently silenced, he has finally provided us a moment in which we can do that); we want to accord him the same honors an Egyptian pharaoh or Dante (death mask) or Lenin(!) received. Until recently, those of us who don't go in for the hoohah were considered odd or disrespectful.
@Ken Winkes: I don't think the anti-abortion crowd, now suddenly so squeamish about fetal tissue, is as concerned about the tissue as much as about the act that bore the fetus. These are people who are not comfortable with sex, & they are less comfortable with -- or angry about -- other people's having sex, most especially if the sex didn't have a godly purpose; i.e., procreation. They see abortion as the byproduct of sinful, irresponsible behavior. As you point out, their concern cannot be for human life, because the same people also think wars are grand & the fetuses who become children are not "deserving" of public support. I don't know that you can respond honestly to your friend's letter, because you can't very well suggest to a friend that she has an unhealthy view of natural sexuality, & that is probably the truest answer.
Marie
Marie,
My ex sister in law, after a long career as an RN, is training to be a mortician. The pay is about as good, the work much easier, the hours a damn site better, and the stiffs don't complain. Medical professionals are long enured to squeamishness, and a (to me) hilarious sense of morbid humor often follows. She has some stories... funnier than anything on film. The loved ones would be horrified.
It is said that 'familiarity breeds contempt.' I have been told that the Gurkha ideal of bravery is to view death with contempt. When the Grim Reaper shows up -- laugh in his face. It seems to me that this attitude is more noble, and courageous, than one of fear and denial.
We all gonna go. Exit laughing.
@Ken Winkes-
..."But while it has its own squeamish moments--I'm thinking of things I've heard from some vegetarians about the slaughter of animals--as a general rule, the Left supports abortion rights, while today's Right does not. The puzzle remains."
You have hit my "hot button," Ken. Slaughtering innocent living animals, as do factory farms, after they have been lived in horrendous, and inhumane conditions for their entire lives, so we can eat "cheap meat" can in no way can be compared to abortion. The fetus is not a living being, and has not lived a life of suffering and cruelty, though, if born, he/she might. You may think nothing of the cruel slaughtering of animals, but I do. Animals raised for food in good, clean environments--with opportunities to spend time outside-- is quite another story. Even so, I do not eat meat and wish nobody would--for environmental as well as humane reasons.
I wish people would not compare abortion to the murder of living beings--be they human or animal! It is a completely false comparison. There really is no puzzle!