The Commentariat -- June 25, 2014
Internal links removed.
Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Republican lawmakers tasked with finalizing legislation to reform the Veterans Affairs Department slammed an independent cost estimate of the revamp on Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill, passed earlier this month, would cost $35 billion, and up to $50 billion if the measure was fully implemented after two years. The budget office said a similar measure adopted by the House would cost $44 billion.... Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, has said the bill would cost $2 billion and would be paid for through emergency funds. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who hammered out the Senate version of the legislation with Sanders, called the estimate 'wildly inaccurate' if looked at from a 'rational viewpoint.'" CW: Okay, so somewhere between $2BB & $50BB, give or take.
... Daniel Neuhauser of Roll Call: "Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans Tuesday he could have an announcement within days on whether the House will file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, challenging the executive actions that have become the keystone of the administration. The lawsuit could set up a significant test of constitutional checks and balances, with the legislative branch suing the executive branch for ignoring its mandates, and the judiciary branch deciding the outcome."
Cruel Nation. Charles Pierce: "... there is something different abroad in the politics now, perhaps because we are in the middle of an era of scarcity and because we have invested ourselves in a timid culture of austerity and doubt. The system seems too full now of opportunities to grind and to bully. We have politicians, most of whom will never have to work another day in their lives, making the argument seriously that there is no role in self-government for the protection and welfare of the political commonwealth as that term applies to the poorest among us."
Zeke Miller of Time: Dick Cheney keeps talking, has no regrets about Iraq. Also, fond of Egypt's President al-Sisi, who unceremoniously deposed the last elected president.
Today in Officially Encouraging Assassination. David Catanese of U.S. News: "Asked how [Hillary] Clinton would fare in Arkansas if she pursued the presidency in 2016, 2nd Congressional District chairman Johnny Rhoda [R] told U.S. News, 'She'd probably get shot at the state line.'" ...
... Update. Ha Ha, Just Kidding about the Assassination Thing. Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "'That comment was taken way out of context.... It certainly was not meant in a threatening or hostile way at all. It was just a comment. Perhaps I used the wrong word,' Second Congressional District Chairman Johnny Rhoda told Business Insider on Tuesday. 'It was completely blown out of proportion.' Rhoda, who has been described as a prominent member of his state's Republican Party, did not dispute the accuracy of the quote.... [U.S. News Reporter David] Catanese disputed the notion that the quote was taken out of context. 'Oh, yes, "taken out of context,'" Catanese wrote to Business Insider, dryly. 'As in -- taken out of our on-the-record conversation and into print.'" ...
... CW Note to Yahoos on the Meaning of "Out of Context." If I say, "How will Hillary fare in Arkansas?" and you say, "She'll be shot," the remark is in context. Asked & answered. If you make a long, rambling reply, & somewhere in there you say, "It's shocking, I know, but I've heard people say she'll be shot," then isolating "she'll be shot" as a stand-alone remark would be taking it out of context & would misrepresent your meaning & intent. You weren't saying "she'll be shot"; you've heard other people say that, & you're not condoning the sentiment nor suggesting it is your own. Catanese did not misrepresent Rhoda's remark; he did not take it out of context. ...
... Context is also circumstance. You could find hundreds of instances of Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert's making horribly antisocial remarks. But when you find out they're making those remarks on satirical TV shows, you realize they mean something entirely different. Of course context is usually more subtle than that. If I were a Hillary supporter, for instance, & I said, "She'll be shot," I'd be saying it as a warning of the hostile, dangerous environment which Rhoda & his ilk have created. The context here is my general point-of-view & is not limited to a particular Q&A. ...
... Ann Friedman in New York on how men -- and the NRA -- compare & contrast guns and women. It's all about control. CW: I connected this to the "She'll be shot" story for a reason.
Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: "Analysts are starting to warn about the possibility of the second government shutdown in two years, due to the looming fight over the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.... The dispute over the bank has made some unusual allies -- the White House and the Republican establishment-friendly Chamber of Commerce both pressed the case for the bank's renewal on Monday.... Four top House Republicans are opposed to reauthorizing the bank -- [Kevin] McCarthy, incoming House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). But their Republican counterparts in the Senate -- as well as Republican governors -- have been more supportive in public statements about the bank. Moreover, GOP senators wouldn't want to risk a shutdown with a Senate majority on the line."
Drones! Not so Much. Sam Frizell of Time: "The Federal Aviation Administration is upholding a ban on using drones for commercial purposes, including delivering packages, according to a memo released this week. The FAA has long said that commercial drone use is illegal, but a federal judge ruled in March that the FAA must accept public comment before adopting the rules, according to Ars Technica. The recent memo is a call for public input on its rules."
Congressional Races
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "With an unusual assist from African-American voters and other Democrats who feared his opponent, Senator Thad Cochran on Tuesday beat back a spirited challenge from State Senator Chris McDaniel, triumphing in a Republican runoff and defeating the Tea Party in the state where the movement's hopes were bright." ...
... Geoff Pender, et al., of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger: "But McDaniel didn't concede Tuesday night and in a speech to supporters referenced 'dozens of irregularities' in voting Tuesday and indicated he would challenge the results over Democrats voting in the Republican primary." CW: Because sometimes what's both legal & common practice is unfair. Ya know, Chris, that's what the South is all about. It's just that you're not usually on the short end of the unfair stick.
Nikita Stewart of the New York Times: "Representative Charles B. Rangel, seeking a 23rd term, held a slim lead in a fierce battle early Wednesday with State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat in their primary election contest, a rematch that was largely fought along ethnic and generational lines. With 100 percent of precincts reporting after 1 a.m., Mr. Rangel led by just over 1,800 votes, or 47.4 percent to 43.6 percent."
Gubernatorial Race
John Wagner & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown cruised past his two rivals in Maryland's bitter Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, setting up a November contest with GOP nominee Larry Hogan, a Cabinet secretary under the state's last Republican chief executive. Brown, who would be Maryland's first African American governor and only the third elected in the nation, received about half the Democratic vote in an election marked by lackluster voter interest."
As much as it hurts my feelings, I am embedding the video -- mentioned in today's Comments -- of John Oliver's segment exposing the sale of unregulated dietary supplements. I take umbrage at Oliver's position because, as some readers have learned, I am inadvertently hawking this shit myself (see yesterday's Commentariat; also James S.'s comment on same). -- Marie of Armenia
... P.S. If you're still getting ads purportedly from me, let me know.
News Ledes
AP: "Sanctions aimed at key economic sectors in Russia because of its threatening moves in Ukraine might be delayed because of positive signals from Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Obama administration officials."
Hill: "The U.S. economy felt the worst aftershock of the recession yet in the first quarter of the year, shrinking 2.9 percent. The third and final revision of Commerce Department data shows the quarter, weighed down by a brutal winter, was even worse economically than previously thought. The government had estimated the economy shrank by 1 percent in the first three months of the year. The last time the economy shrank by so much was in 2009, when the nation was still in the midst of a recession."
AFP: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday ruled out forming a national emergency government to confront a Sunni militant offensive that has overrun large parts of the country." ...
... The Hill: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday rejected calls to create a new national unity government that the Obama administration has been pushing.... Al-Maliki, however, said he is still committed to launching the process that would form a new government.... Secretary of State John Kerry received a commitment from al-Maliki at a meeting in Baghdad on Monday that he would initiate the process by July 1 that would pave the way for a new government."
New York Times: "Eli Wallach, who was one of his generation's most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday. He was 98."
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Reader Comments (15)
Also from the David Catanese US News article:
"When a reporter noted that Clinton undoubtedly enjoys a measurable amount of support in a state where her husband served as governor, Rhoda replied, 'Nobody has any affection for her. The majority don't.' "
Rhoda's statement cuts to the very heart of Republican worldview. Everyone must believe the way we do. Anyone who doesn't is a nobody.
The threat of assassination is toxic, to be sure, but this absolute disenfranchisement of anyone who believes differently will be the death of the country. FREEEEDOM! [as long as it's the Right kind of freedom!]
John Oliver takes on the "dangerously misleading" pronouncements of Dr. Oz along with the Nutritional Supplement Industry. This is worth watching.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/john_oliver_on_misleading_dr_oz_nutritional_supplement_industry_20140624
I listened to the Cheney interview last night on Charlie Rose, who I must say was more engaged than usual and although pressed Cheney on certain issues was mindful of the black heart beneath that crisp white shirt––wouldn't want to rile the man too much, might just meet his maker on the Rose round table. Cheney was unabashedly unrepentant about his role in the orchestration of the Iraq debacle–––he will not relent, he will not give up, he will always be right about EVERYTHING; it's quite an amazing display of arrogance and delusional thinking. When he isn't talking, is in repose, he resembles a kindly grandfather who'll read the kiddies a story before bedtime. Maybe some of the Grimm tales.
Dear Marie, news outlets, bloggers, wannabe journalists, corporate hacks and anyone else with an Internet connection and basic writing skills, please stop mentioning, referring to, quoting (in or out of context), commenting on, being surprised, offended or aghast at things Dick Cheney says. Whatever 'ol Wheezy has to say is insignificant, irrelevant, or a lie. This vile, amoral, disgusting pile of worhthless detritus has no worth, no value, no right to live and prosper and should be relegated to being used for animal testing and vivisection before we finally throw his heaving, steaming carcass in a cage where he curls up in a ball and gasps for his last putrid breath. Every time you link to him or write, “Cheney says,” you give him reason to keep on living. I'd rather hear words of wisdom from a serial killer or a member of congress than Dick Cheney. Please stop.
@Nancy: Good point. I've long used this approach of not clicking on; e.g., That woman from Alaska whose initials are S.P. The fewer the clicks, the less we can hope to hear from the media on her. I'm in full accord with same restraint for Darth Varder and his spawn.
@PD: Yes, I watched the John Oliver bit on Dr. Oz yesterday as well. Deft skewing of the dietary doc! (and who knew Steve Buscemi could tap dance!)
A Cavalier reference to the murder of a former first lady, senator, Secretary of State, former and possibly future presidential candidate may seem like just a stupid, thuggish remark, but these days, even the most offhand expressions of hatred and threats of violence extend their sell by dates to years, not days or weeks or months.
Not long ago, we used to complain about the voracious maw of the 24 hour news cycle. Events that happened one day would be nearly forgotten by the time you had your next morning's coffee. Not anymore, because nothing dies or is forgotten on the internet.
The right wing has been amassing a stockpile of hatred, racism, misogyny, suspicion, violence, and paranoia that has reached a critical mass. Like hot spots and buried magma chambers along underground fault lines, there are frequent small eruptions which often prefigure much more violent activity.
And like energy and momentum, the elemental forces that power the right-wing engines of hate and paranoia are also conserved. Nothing is lost in a closed system. So remarks like "She'll be shot at the state line" are collected and saved by all the various wingnut online groups and spread around. They don't just disappear with a new news cycle.
This is why irresponsible statements like this one, like child molester Ted Nugent suggesting that he would murder the president were he to be re-elected in 2012 matter a great deal. Wingnut rhetoric becomes more extreme by the week. Statements that once would have been considered far beyond the pale, now trigger week long diatribes by the dementia patients on Fox. Incendiary remarks are repeated and bounced off the walls of the right-wing booby hatches. And every now and then, a hot spot erupts.
Go to the Southern Poverty Law center website and read the list of right-wing murders. In almost every case the murderers have been binging on far-right radio hate talk and white supremacist, racist, anti-Semitic sites. There's no question that there have always been disturbed individuals. But when people in positions of responsibility--a fucking congressional district chairman, fer crissakes!--casually talk about people being murdered, like it was a given that someone should kill Hillary Clinton, just because, then we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
Not that Kansas is a safe destination either.
The Republican Party has a lot to answer for. Teabaggers have a lot to answer for. The Kochs and all the other right-wing oligarchs who sponsor people who tolerate and apologize for right-wing terror, and who support it by their refusal to repudiate such obscene talk and behavior, have a lot to answer for.
But they won't.
The world isn't fair, but it doesn't have to be this crazy. Smartass statements about murdering someone you don't like don't go away. They go into the wingnut databases and achieve totemic status.
Here's a small example. And as you read down this very abbreviated list, remember that Johnny Rhoda (R-MurderTown) complained about being taken out of context.
A man in California, in the wake of the Cliven Bundy stupidity, given full voice and support by Fox idiots like Sean Hannity, shot a Bureau of Land Management officer and a California State Trooper. Why? FREEDOM...of course, and fear that conspiracies cooked up by the White House would deprive him of his weapons.
This guy, Brent Douglas Cole (posing on his Facebook page wearing a t-shirt that says "Jesus Loves You"--I guess he meant some other "you") subscribed to a who's who of right-wing crazy groups, the subject matter of which ran the wingnut hate gamut from white supremacy to gun fondling, to UN paranoia, suspicion of vaccines, paranoia about fluoridation ("You know when fluoridation began?...1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh?"), impeachment sites, birther sites, Ron Paul, The Southern Avenger (operated by a Rand Paul friend, co-author, and former staffer), Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, a site that lists "traitors in government" who need to be forced out or killed, and on and on.
How's that for context? This stuff used to be so fringe you needed a Geiger counter to find most of it.
Not anymore.
Now the people who spew this sort of idiocy are invited to share their delusions on Fox News and congressional district chairmen quote them chapter and verse. And then complain about being taken out of context.
@Nancy & @MAG: Apparently you didn't read this story, which I linked a few days ago. There's a good reason to keep Cheney & other unrepentant architects of the Iraq War in the news: to remind voters why they shouldn't vote for the Party of War. The majority of Americans -- including the majority of Democrats -- allowed themselves to be snookered by Cheney, et al., into thinking that war was a necessary war. It doesn't hurt to remind voters again & again that although they may have seen the light, the Party of War has not.
So when Cheney speaks, I'll link. I'm sure you can find sites where the management doesn't see it that way. (And if you do find "boycott Cheney & neocons" new aggregation sites, let me know & I'll link 'em. I have no inherent belief that I'm right & they're wrong & no problem with readers switching to sites that are more consistent with their own views.)
Marie
PD,
I watched the beginning of the Charlie Rose interview last night but I nixed it almost immediately largely because of a reaction similar to Nancy and MAG's.
Why Charlie feels the need to create an additional opportunity for this despicable creep to lie is beyond me, but it further diminishes my respect for a guy who, despite his teeth grinding habit of asking and answering questions, was at one time, or so I thought, a half decent journalist.
He still offers time to people you don't see on many other shows, but giving further support to thoroughly debunked and disgracefully mendacious ideas is an insult to intelligent viewers.
I'd rather he asked a three year old about Iraq. If the kid answered "I dunno" then at least you'd be getting an honest answer, not more obdurate prevarication.
Oh, and I'm not entirely sure Grampa Darth would be reading even the darker Grimm tales to the kiddies. Not enough blood or shock and awe. He'd be more at home snarling his way through true crime stories.
I forgot to add that it would be different if Charlie Rose or some other enterprising journalist wanted to beard the monster, rather than toss out more softballs for him to gobble up and spit back. Now that I'd like to see.
Can you picture Maddow going at Cheney with the sharpened spear of facts?
@CW If only (media) exposure would truly expose! And IF that hard-core vocal/noisy tunnel-visioned public* element could perceive or slightly comprehend that they'd been had by such charlatans such as Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, Feith, (one could add many names here) et al, maybe the realization would make things change. Yet, despite the vast archived & digital video evidence that refutes—these jerks continue to rewrite the script, place blame elsewhere, appear on the talk shows, get paid huge sums to continue to spread their disinformation .
(to repeat myself) If only (media) exposure would truly expose and this ilk actually paid the consequences! I'd happily click away!
Speaking of which, I have some (TP) cousins I'd like you to meet. Nah, we won't do that. Even I can't stand the thought of meeting/conversing with my cousins!
Kids, I gotta say, hearing that racist confederate flag fetishist, teabagger, and purveyor of hate speech and dirty election tricks, Chris McDaniel, lost his bid to turn Mississippi into an even more backward state, made my day. And still does.
Had he won it would have sent the message to 'baggers and wingnut money groups that elections could be fixed the easy way, by scaring voters from the polls. But that didn't work. That doesn't mean that they won't still try those tactics, but at least in this instance, the well paid forces of anti-democracy did not prosper.
Heh-heh.
And does it surprise anyone that McDaniel has not conceded the race? Course not. He's been braying about how Democrats (blah Democrats...the worst kind!) helped the GOP old guard "steal" the election. McDaniel whined that “there is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats.” Yeah, numbskull, it's called state law. But 'baggers have little use for the law anyway, so the race must have been stolen from them. They're poor winners and poor losers. Children to the end.
Reminds me of a scene from "Citizen Kane". Charles Foster Kane (a kind of William Randolph Hearst character), runs for office and loses. At his newspaper, two headlines have been prepared. One touts his victory. The other screams "Fraud at the Polls".
@Marie of Armenia: YEP! still getting e-mails from you. Evidently, you've expanded your entrepreneurial empire to include finance!
Hi Marie,
I got another weird email at about 12:30 so the spam is continuing.
We’ve all heard of Limbaugh and Beck, not to mention the other blowhards on Fox. The other day I stumbled across a talk radio show while changing the dial from NPR to the local university student-radio indie station. Smack dab between the two I heard stuff that I couldn’t believe I was hearing – Obama this, Obama that, homage to St. Ronnie with his “Government is the problem”, yada, yada, yada. I just couldn’t help myself so I sat in the car after parking at the hotel until they announced where they were broadcasting from. OK, here we go, Columbus, Mississippi.
Getting on the Google machine I found it – WCSO AFR Talk. AFR? What’s that? American Family Radio, part of the American Family Association.
Who are they? According to their statement of Who We Are: “American Family Association (AFA) a non-profit 501(c3) organization was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was pastoring First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of America’s culture war. The original name of the ministry was National Federation for Decency but was changed to American Family Association (AFA) in 1988.
Today, AFA is led by AFA President Tim Wildmon and one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country with hundreds of thousands of online supporters.”
American Family Radio is “ A division of AFA, the American Family Radio Network is approximately 200 radio stations strong reaching into 39 states with the Gospel along with news and information equipping families to stand firm for Christ in a post-Christian culture.”
Of course, they promote “faith, Family, and FREEDOM”!
According to Wiki, “AFA has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as of November 2010 for the "propagation of known falsehoods" and the use of "demonizing propaganda" against LGBT people.”
Today’s subject: “Why Did Sen. Thad Cochran Play So Dirty?”
If you’re interested, you gotta check out their website just to read the descriptions of some of their video and audio clips. If you actually listen to them you’ll be saying “OMG, OMG, OMG” over and over again yourself.
http://www.afa.net/
It’s too bad they’re able to claim and maintain their tax-exempt status given the extent of the political nature of their commentary. Thanks to SCOTUS I'm sure this group will be around for awhile longer.
Unwashed,
What right-wing hate radio is selling is a narcotic. Listeners get hooked on being told that their worst fears are true. Everyone is out to get them because they love Jesus and America. They truly are martyrs. They are soldiers for Jesus and George Washington (not Lincoln, though, you know, Emancipation Proclamation, and all that) and Ronald Reagan.
Not only is everyone out to get them, but they hate them and have a plan to make their children atheist gay commies.
Thus, anything that can be done to stave off the godless lesbian heathens, who hate them for their love of Jesus and Freedom, is fine.
Once you've got that paranoid population all charged up, they need their regular fix, their daily outrages that feed the paranoia, convince them that not only are they right but that they are the only true Americans, the only ones standing firm against the destruction of the United States of Christian America.
The other day I was reading a report about the very real necessity of involving Iran in trying to solve the ISIS problem. No one in Iraq can do it. Syria is like a bad night in Vietnam. But Iran actually does have some rational actors. ISIS does not. They are unbending, uncaring of the consequences, unable and completely unwilling to negotiate with anyone they consider the enemy.
Does this sound like teabagger Christian fundamentalists?
Paranoia is their addiction. Hatred is the fix. The Donald Wildmons of the world are their pushers.