The Commentariat -- July 4, 2013
... ABC News: "When he was invited to sing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' before Game 3 of the NBA finals Tuesday night, he donned his mariachi outfit and wowed the crowd inside the San Antonio Spurs’ AT&T center with his rendition of the national anthem. Online, however, Sebastien was torn apart by Twitter users who erupted in outrage about the sight of a Mexican-American boy singing the national anthem dressed in a traditional Mexican outfit. 'This kid is Mexican why is he singing the national anthem #yournotamerican #gohome,' wrote on[e] user, @Gordon_Bombay24. Includes a good video report of the story.
... AND, since this is a day when revolutions are on our minds, it might be useful to reflect on what Canadian Paul Pirie, in a Washington Post op-ed, says about ours -- it was a flop. CW: what Pirie doesn't address is the obvious: most of our problems & backwardness come at the behest of the South. The U.S. would be as functional & progressive as Canada (which ain't perfect -- ask a Quebecois) if not held back by Southern politicians & their patriarchal values. The war I thought was a flop was the Civil War.
** Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "... Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States -- about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images." This program, together with a long-standing "mail cover" program, "show that snail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail."
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Two US senators on the panel overseeing the National Security Agency said intelligence officials were 'unable' to demonstrate the value of a secret surveillance program that collected and analyzed the internet habits of Americans. Senators Ron Wyden (Democrat, Oregon) and Mark Udall (Democrat, Colorado), the chief inquisitors of US intelligence officials during the current surveillance scandal, added a sharp warning late Tuesday that senior intelligence officials 'are not always accurate' in their public statements about the scope and utility of their wide-ranging surveillance efforts.... Senior intelligence officials told the Guardian that the program..., [which] that gathered and analyzed bulk internet 'metadata' records from Americans, such as the subject lines of their email communications and their internet protocol (IP) addresses..., ended in 2011." ...
... . The New York Times story, by James Risen, is here: "Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado said the Internet surveillance was discontinued only after administration officials were unable to provide evidence to them, in closed-door hearings in 2011, that the program was useful." ...
... Angelika Gruber & Emma Farge of Reuters: Bolivia accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to 'kidnap' its president, Evo Morales, after his plane was denied permission to fly over some European countries on suspicion he was taking fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to Latin America.... The White House declined to comment...."
... Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "The United States has yet to comment, but the longer it remains silent, the stronger suspicions will be that it leaned on France, Spain, Portugal and Italy to deny permission for [Bolivian President Evo] Morales's plane to fly through their airspace, in effect putting the hunt for US whistleblower Edward Snowden above international law and the rights of a president of a sovereign nation." ...
... CW: This column by Glenn Greenwald is a perfect example of what I've written about Greenwald's methodology. He makes some valid, important points, but he dilutes them with incessant, sneering invective against the clueless Paul Krugman & everyone else who isn't totally on board with -- Glenn Greenwald. I find Greenwald's perpetual snit annoying & tedious -- and ultimately counterproductive, to the extent that he excites & frightens well-meaning but unsophisticated readers & discourages reasoned discussion.
Jamelle Bouie in the Washington Post: parts of the Affordable Care Act, like the employer mandate, need fixing, but that won't happen as long as the GOP controls the House. Republican "indifference guarantees that -- when the administration hits roadblocks in implementing the Affordable Care Act -- it will have no choice but to power through them, even when legislation is a better option."
In an AlterNet piece republished in Salon, Les Leopold argues that a financial transaction tax should fund college tuitions. CW: Sounds good to me.
President Obama said Monday his government makes decisions on aid to Egypt based on that government's respect for democracy and the rule of law. The record suggests otherwise.
Josh Rogin & Eli Lake of the Daily Beast: "President Obama said Monday his government makes decisions on aid to Egypt based on that government's respect for democracy and the rule of law. The record suggests otherwise. In nearly every confrontation with Congress since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the White House has fought restrictions proposed by legislators on the nearly $1.6 billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt. Twice in two years, the White House and the State Department fought hard against the very sorts of conditions for aid that Obama claimed credit for this week."
Nitaska Tiku of Gawker: "ExaroNews a British investigative web site, has just published the full transcript of a secretly recorded meeting between media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the staff of The Sun, a U.K. tabloid owned by News Corp., in which Murdoch admitted that he was aware for decades that journalists from his newspapers had been bribing both police and public officials." ...
... The New York Times story, by Alan Cowell, is here. ...
... Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline: "British Labour Party MP Tom Watson, a vocal and enduring Rupert Murdoch critic, has called on the News Corp boss to be questioned by police following yesterday' s revelations about comments he made to Sun staffers last March."
Paul Krugman is influential!
Local News
Lynn Bonner & Craig Jarvis of the Raleigh News & Observer: "The [North Carolina state] Senate, after a long debate that invoked faith, constitutional rights and health statistics, approved a bill that would restrict abortions by stepping up requirements for clinics and doctors. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 29-12 as opponents filled the gallery above and hundreds more waited outside. The bill now goes to the House. After the vote, people in the hall began chanting, 'Shame, shame, shame.' ... The provisions [were] tacked onto an unrelated bill about Islamic law" late Tuesday." ...
... Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress has more. ...
... Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post: even "Republican Gov. Pat McCrory [expressed] concern that the Senate had unfairly rushed the amendments on Tuesday night."
News Ledes
Guardian: "Belgium's King Albert II announced his abdication from the throne on Wednesday, ending months of speculation about an early end to his 20-year reign which has been marked by political strife between northern Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking southern Wallonia."
New York Times: in Egypt, "Adli Mansour, the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in as the acting head of state in a ceremony broadcast live on state television, news reports said." ...
... New Lede: "Egyptian prosecutors escalated what appeared to be a widespread roundup of top Muslim Brotherhood members on Thursday, acting hours after the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist who became the country's first democratically elected president just a year ago." ...
... The New York Times The Lede is liveblogging developments in Egypt.
... New York Times: "... with no prior presence on Egypt's political or public scene, many experts said, Mr. Mansour could serve as little more than a figurehead." Here's Al Jazeera's brief profile.
... Al Jazeera's main story here. ...
... Guardian: "Egypt's new military rulers have issued arrest warrants for up to 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood hours after ousting the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and taking him and his aides into military custody. The morning after a momentous night in Cairo has revealed the full extent of the military overthrow, with key support bases of the Muslim Brotherhood, including television stations, closed down or raided. A focal point for Morsi's supporters in the east of the city was approached by troops who fired into the air near angry Brotherhood members on Wednesday night." ...
... The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...
... President Obama's statement on Egypt. ...
... The Hill: "President Obama late Wednesday declared himself 'very concerned' by the Egyptian military's overthrow of the country's democratically elected president and said his administration was reviewing U.S. military aid as a result. In his first statement since the Egyptian army and the opposition overthrew President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government, Obama repeated that the United States was not taking sides in the dispute and avoided using the word 'coup.' He called on the military to quickly restore power to a 'democratically elected civilian government.'"
Denver Post: "Authorities Wednesday located the body of U.S. Sen. Mark Udall's brother, Randy, who was reported missing on a solo backpack trip to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. The body of the 61-year-old Carbondale resident was found at 10,700 feet, his poles still in his hand, his sister, Dodie Udall of Boulder, said. Randy appeared to have died from a medical condition, she said."
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Reader Comments (5)
Instead of "Carthago delenda est, " I submit "The Patriot Act delenda est." --or at least heavily modified!
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."--Benjamin Franklin
I've got to say that Mencken would have appreciated the irony of attaching an anti-abortion amendment to an anti-Sharia bill. Perhaps if we survive the current insanity in the name of "faith," this and other attempts by the GOP to save us from ourselves can be gathered into a collection called "True Republican Humor."
Again, those who really don't care one way or another about religion but declare themselves to be religious for whatever reason and maybe go to church twice a year are complicit as they provide cover for those who would use fictitious desert literature to control others' lives. Imagine how much less power the professionally devout would have if Americans were honest about their increasing distaste for religion.
Happy 4th.
@Marie: I agree with you about Greenwald. After awhile, he gets to be exceedingly tedious. With Glenn, if you don't buy his story 100%, you're wrong.
I also agree with you about Snowden. He may eventually find that the only nation who will take him is the USA.
You don't have to be for or against Ed Snowden to appreciate the purpose of the Fourth Amendment.
http://www.restorethefourth.net/
The Patriot Act was a bad move, but only Russ Feingold voted against it.
Tom Harkin (D -Iowa) and Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) have been trying to get purchase with a Trading Tax proposal for a few years. It was last introduced in the House and Senate 2/13 (H.R. 880 and S.410). Both bills are stuck in Committee. It seems like a pretty easy way to raise some funds for a number of purposes. However, the big banks, of course, are in opposition.
Bloomberg article from 2011. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-02/u-s-lawmakers-to-propose-transaction-tax-for-financial-firms.html
I wonder who is paying Snowden's hotel bill?