The Commentariat -- July 9, 2013
... sex sells on Reality Chex, too, and best of all to me, it was free. -- Ken Winkes, on yesterday's Comments thread
Okay, Ken, closed for business. This bitch will not be servicing you people today. -- Constant Weader
Mark Mazzetti & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Increasingly frustrated by his dealings with President Hamid Karzai, President Obama is giving serious consideration to speeding up the withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan and to a 'zero option' that would leave no American troops there after next year, according to American and European officials." CW: this piece exemplifies the strategic leak.
David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Seeking to reassure Egyptians and the world about its intention to return to civilian democracy, the military-led interim government on Tuesday laid out a brisk timetable to overhaul Egypt's suspended Constitution, elect a new Parliament and choose a new president, all in the space of about six months." ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the Obama administration would study the events in Egypt to determine whether the military seizing of power constitutes a military coup d’état under law. But he added that the administration planned to take its time in making such a determination and ruled out any suspension of aid in the near term." ...
... Matthew Lee of the AP: "While not directly ordering a pre-cooked outcome of a legal review into Mohammed Morsi's ouster last week, [U.S.] officials said Monday that the White House has made clear in inter-agency discussions that continued aid to Egypt's military is a U.S. national security priority that would be jeopardized by a coup finding."
Ginger Gibson of Politico: "House Speaker John Boehner is sticking to his position: The House will not vote on the Senate-passed immigration bill." CW: hilariously, he also said, "It's time for Congress to act."
The Menu. Kevin Drum on the House Republicans' latest debt-ceiling hostage-taking plan: "The tea partiers have painted themselves into a corner. The economy is slowly recovering, and the deficit is falling, but they've promised ever more hostage taking anyway, and now they have to follow through. But their proposals combine arrogance and amateur-hour theatrics in a way that practically guarantees failure. They sound like a bunch of eight-year-olds who think they've come up with an oh-so-clever way to trap dad into raising their allowance or something." ...
... Alain Sherter of CBS News: "The White House on Monday revised downward its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year, citing government spending cuts, the ongoing recession in Europe, and slowing expansion in China and other emerging markets.... The federal budget deficit is shrinking faster than forecast, the budget office also said. The White House estimates the current budget gap at $759 million, or 4.7 percent of GDP, down from its April estimate of $973 million. 'That is down from a deficit of 10.1 percent four years ago -- representing the fastest period of deficit reduction since the years immediately following World War II,' wrote OMB chief Sylvia Mathews Burwell...." ...
... Katrina vanden Heuvel, in the Washington Post: "Few commentators even mention that most of the 195,000 jobs added last month, as well as the ones added in the last few years, are low-paying, temporary, part time and usually without benefits. Much of the job growth we have seen is in restaurant, retail and temporary work -- the sort of jobs that rarely offer basic security, let alone a foothold for people to climb into the middle class.... The crisis is disproportionately affecting minorities and younger Americans.... The Congressional Progressive Caucus has stitched together an array of strong proposals in its Back to Work Budget, which ought to be a starting point for a serious jobs push by Congress."
ACLU: " The Senate Judiciary Committee should thoroughly examine the record of James Comey, President Obama's choice to be the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during his first confirmation hearing tomorrow, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. As deputy attorney general during the Bush administration, Comey twice approved memos authorizing torture, including waterboarding, which President Obama outlawed when he took office in 2009."
Hayley Tsukayama of the Washington Post: "The Electronic Privacy Information Committee has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court on Monday questioning whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had the authority to order Verizon to turn over data from domestic phone records.... The privacy group joins several other organizations that have filed lawsuits objecting to the NSA's surveillance program. In addition to several cases filed by the American Civil Liberties Union at state and district levels, Google and Microsoft have both challenged gag orders that prevent them from disclosing what data they are forced to give the government under a separate surveillance program, called PRISM. The companies say that the gag order inhibits their First Amendment right to free expression." ...
... The Ed Snowden Interview, Part 2:
... The accompanying Guardian story, by Glenn Greenwald & others, is here. ...
... Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake has the full transcript of the interview.
... Tom Hamburger & Robert O'Harrow, Jr., of the Washington Post: "... if the past is a guide, the government is not likely to scale back its reliance on Booz Allen or other large contractors anytime soon.... Although intelligence agency reliance on outside firms has declined some in recent years, the latest available estimates still show that about 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget is spent on contractors. And big, well-established companies continue to have outsize influence. That is particularly true for Booz Allen.... Nearly half of the company's 24,500 workers have top-secret clearance. The company also has deep connections within the defense and intelligence communities, including James R. Clapper Jr., a former Booz Allen executive who is the current director of national intelligence, and R. James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA, who was a senior vice president at the firm until 2008. The man currently heading Booz Allen's intelligence operations, retired Vice Adm. John Michael McConnell, was the head of the National Security Agency in the mid-1990s and was appointed in 2007 by President George W. Bush to lead the government's newly established Office of the Director of National Intelligence...."
Asad Hashim of Al Jazeera: "Following the [bin Laden] operation, which [the U.S.] deliberately conducted without the knowledge of the Pakistani government or its military, a Commission was set up in Pakistan to examine 'how the US was able to execute a hostile military mission, which lasted around three hours, deep inside Pakistan', and how Pakistan's 'intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden] was residing in [Abbottabad]'.... The Commission's 336-page report is scathing, holding both the government and the military responsible for 'gross incompetence', leading to 'collective failures' that allowed Bin Laden to escape detection, and the United States to perpetrate 'an act of war'." ...
... Noah Rayman of Time summarizes the commission's major findings.
AND Driftglass summarizes whatever it was David Brooks wrote for today's NYT.
Local News
Jonathan Tilove of the Austin American Statesman: "Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday he won't seek re-election as governor." With video. ...
... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Texans will likely not go into mourning. In a poll conducted in February by the University of Texas, only 26 percent said they'd vote for Mr. Perry, a third said they would vote against him and another third said it depended on his opponent." Rosenthal highlights some of Perry's reactionary actions, remarks & policies.
Pictured below: "The Washington Monument is encased in 500 tons of scaffolding while it undergoes repairs. Starting this week, the obelisk will glow at night, with 488 lamps illuminating the 1.4 acres of blue fabric that have been draped on the metal braces that encase the structure." AP photo. What a perfect day to republish the double image of a well-lit phallic icon.
** Frank Bruni: Anthony Weiner is a delusional prick. ...
... Michael Barbaro & David Chen of the New York Times: "From corporate boardrooms to the headquarters of the city's Democratic political campaigns, phone lines lighted up and strategy sessions were organized on Monday with a single mission in mind: stopping Eliot Spitzer.... Some of the leaders expressed acute regret over their failure to swiftly undercut the mayoral campaign of former Representative Anthony D. Weiner.... They quickly zeroed in on what they claimed were Mr. Spitzer's vulnerabilities: an out-of-control ego; his lawbreaking patronization of prostitutes, which led to his resignation as governor in 2008; and his combative, go-it-alone style." ...
... Michael Barbaro, et al., of the Times: Eliot "Spitzer ... spent nearly an hour fielding questions from journalists and voters, enduring hecklers and unsolicited compliments as he made an awkward return to retail politics after a five-year hiatus." Here, Barbaro reports excerpts of a Times interview with Spitzer, conducted Sunday night. ...
... Kenneth Lovett of the New York Daily News: "In an odd twist, the ex-governor -- who resigned in 2008 amid a high-priced call girl scandal -- will be competing against Kristin Davis, the ex-madam who says she supplied him with hookers and who is running on the Libertarian line.... 'This is going to be the funnest campaign ever,' said Davis, who went to prison for three months for her role in running a high-end escort service.... 'I've been waiting for my day to face him for five years,' Davis said. 'I sat ... in Rikers Island, I came out penniless and nothing happened to him. The hypocrisy there is huge.'" CW: you can't make up this stuff. ...
... M. J. Lee of Politico: "As comptroller [Spitzer] could play the role of activist investor while managing the city's almost $140 billion in pension funds, pressure money managers to accept reforms if they want to do business with New York and audit city agencies' various dealings with financial companies and make headlines if he thinks the taxpayer is getting a raw deal." ...
... Josh Barro of Business Insider: "He'll probably win. And fortunately for those of us who live in New York City, he'll probably be good at it.... It sounds like he intends to set up a shadow mayor's office. Given the mayoral administration that we're likely to get with any of the front-running candidates -- lacking imagination and hemmed in by tight fiscal and political constraints -- a prominent shadow mayor could be very useful." ...
... Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "Eliot Spitzer is nothing like Anthony Weiner."
Greg McCune of Reuters: "... Illinois, the only one in the United States to have a law prohibiting the carrying of concealed guns, could lift the ban on Tuesday when lawmakers are expected to vote on the measure." The Chicago Tribune story is here.
Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "After a hastily called hearing, a federal judge Monday put a 10-day freeze on a new state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital-admitting privileges. In a 19-page opinion issued Monday evening, U.S. District Judge William M. Conley cited a 'troubling lack of justification' for the law and said he would stay enforcement of the admissions provision until July 18, a day after a more deliberate courtroom hearing scheduled before him next week."
Rob Christensen, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Speaking several days after his administration shut down a Durham abortion clinic for health violations, [North Carolina Gov. Pat] McCrory [R] said he would move aggressively to protect women's health. But he acknowledged a campaign promise that he would not support new restrictions on abortions.... McCrory left in doubt whether he would support the bill" passed by the Senate last week -- an anti-Sharia-law bill onto which Republicans attached anti-abortion amendments in the final hours. ...
... Marti Maguire of Reuters: "North Carolina's 'Moral Monday' protesters, now in their tenth week, objected to a bill that could limit abortion access - the latest move to counter a conservative shift by the state's first Republican-led government in more than a century. The rally at the state capitol in Raleigh on Monday night was one of the largest since the protests began this spring, drawing about 2,000 people, including 64 protesters who refused to leave the legislative chambers and were arrested." The News & Observer story, by Anne Blythe & John Frank, is here.
Anne Blythe & Lynn Bonner of the News & Observer: "North Carolina's legislative and congressional boundaries were upheld Monday by a three-judge panel, a decision lauded by state Republicans who oversaw the drafting of the maps in 2011. The unanimous ruling came as a blow to Democrats, civil rights groups and voting rights advocates who contend the districts are racial gerrymanders designed to weaken the influence of black voters across North Carolina. Though they have 30 days to decide, attorneys representing the groups say the case is likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court."
AP: "The American Civil Liberties Union said it will file the first known legal challenge today seeking to overturn a state law effectively banning same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania, the only northeastern state that doesn't allow it or civil unions. The lawsuit, to be filed in federal court in Harrisburg, also will ask a federal judge to prevent state officials from stopping gay couples from getting married."
News Ledes
Los Angeles Times: "Officials said 30,000 California inmates refused meals Monday at the start of a prison strike involving two-thirds of the state's 33 lockups, as well as four out-of-state facilities.... The protest was organized by a small group of inmates held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border. Their complaints focus on policies that put inmates in isolation indefinitely, some for decades, if they are suspected of having ties to prison gangs."
New York Times: "Egypt's military-led interim government laid out an accelerated six-month timetable on Tuesday for a return to civilian democracy, and chose a liberal economist as temporary prime minister, part of an intensified effort to assure Egyptians and the world about its intentions in the aftermath of the mass killing of more than 50 Islamist protesters."
Las Vegas Sun: "Firefighters had a 'break-even' kind of day Monday in battling the vast wildfire at Mount Charleston, getting some containment in some areas, losing ground in others, but so far managing to save every structure, according to an official in charge of the operation. However, as drier and hotter weather settled into the area on Monday, along with strong southwest winds, officials also said they don't expect to contain the fire until July 19 -- almost three weeks from when it was first sparked by lightning."
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "For the first time, we see the faces and hear the words of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight in a four-minute video in which they thank the community for its support after their escape from a decade of captivity." Includes video.
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Reader Comments (2)
Just noticed the 27 comments from yesterday (tonight's bedtime reading?), and though tearing down a goat shed I built forty years ago in a land far away (an hour by car), wouldn't have allowed me to comment had I wished, I did note reading them tonight that sex sells on Reality Chex, too, and best of all to me, it was free.
Just read a recent Jim Harrison novel, THE GREAT LEADER, A Faux Mystery, woven around a number of my favorite touchstones, which I will not list, but the novel's main thread, that it's all about money, religion and sex (I would add as shorthand, power) in various combinations is hard to argue with.
Okay, Ken, closed for business. This bitch will not be servicing you people today.