The Commentariat -- June 3, 2013
Adam Clymer of the New York Times: "Frank R. Lautenberg, who fought the alcohol and tobacco industries and promoted Amtrak as a five-term United States senator from New Jersey, died Monday morning in Manhattan. He was 89." CW: in mid-April, the ailing Lautenberg returned to Washington to vote for gun control legislation. He also returned May 16, according to the Bergen Record, and "said he was feeling better and hoped to be in Washington more regularly." A brave man, right to the end. ...
... The Star-Ledger obituary is here.
... CW: worth noting: Gov. Chris Christie (R) will name his replacement. Not sure how New Jersey law works re: Senate vacancies, but we'll find out soon. Update: according to the Bergen Record, which was the first to report Lautenberg's death, Christie's "appointee would serve until a new senator is elected to a full six-year term in 2014." ...
... Update 2. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Christie also will have broad authority to set a special election for the seat. Because of the high costs associated with holding an election, setting it for Nov. 5, 2013 seems like the natural choice. New Jersey is already holding its off-year state elections at that time.... But New Jersey special election law is a somewhat murky, with two provisions that are difficult to square up."
Jim Newell of Salon has a very good summary of the Sunday show folderol. Isn't it delightful that Stephanopoulos summoned Valerie Plame leaker Karl Rove to opine on the horrors of squelching leakers? CW: Newell is not as witty as Charles Pierce, but a reporter need only report what the gobshites are saying to get laughs. ...
... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) claimed on Sunday that political officials in the Obama administration directed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents in Cincinnati to target conservative groups applying for 501 (c)(4) status, but his charge fell apart when probed by CNN host Candy Crowley":
... Notice how, as Byron Tau of Politico points out, Issa "blasted White House press secretary Jay Carney on Sunday, calling him a 'paid liar' .... 'Their paid liar, their spokesperson, the picture behind, he's still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue,' Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said..., gesturing to a graphic of Carney on the set." ...
... Alan Fram of the AP writes a report for the local papers, the gist of which is that Issa is blowing smoke &/or flat-out lying: "A government watchdog has found that the Internal Revenue Service spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012, a House committee said Sunday. The chairman of that committee, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, also released excerpts of congressional investigators' interviews with employees of the IRS office in Cincinnati. Issa said the interviews indicated the employees were directed by Washington to subject Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to tough scrutiny. The excerpts provided no direct evidence that Washington had ordered that screening. The top Democrat on that panel, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said none of the employees interviewed have so far identified any IRS officials in Washington as ordering that targeting." Fram also goes into Issa's calling Carney a "paid liar," noting that Carney didn't say what Issa claimed he said. Too bad he doesn't mention that all that IRS line-dancing was going on under a Bush-appointed IRS commissioner. ...
... Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) continues her anti-woman campaign, arguing yesterday on "Press the Meat" that "federal legislation on workplace equity is condescending to women." Contributor MAG suggested in yesterday's Comments "that the congresswoman's annual pay is immediately reduced to $140,766 since she is fine with women earning 80.9% of what men earn!" ...
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The Senate's third-ranking Democrat predicted Sunday that a bipartisan immigration reform package will pass the full Senate with broad support by the Independence Day holiday. 'We're going to put immigration on the floor starting on June 10. I predict it will pass the Senate by July 4,' Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on NBC's 'Meet The Press.' 'We're hoping to get 70 votes -- up to 70 votes, which means a lot of Republicans.'"
** Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "It seems likely that Holder or his deputies have authorized other press subpoenas and surveillance regimes that have not yet been disclosed.... More than a million people now hold top-secret clearances." ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... the strength of the government's case against Stephen Jin-Woo] Kim, which is clear in this newly disclosed search warrant, makes one wonder again why Attorney General Eric Holder allowed his prosecutors to take the unprecedented step of naming [James] Rosen as an 'aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator' to the alleged crime in order to search Rosen's e-mails." Post includes a facsimile of the Kim warrant. ...
... Bill Keller: "Even an imperfect shield law would restore a little balance in the perpetual struggle between necessary secrets and democratic accountability."
David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... one cockeyed farm-aid program that was supposed to end in 2003 ... is one of Washington's walking dead -- 'temporary' giveaway programs that have staggered on years beyond their intended expiration dates. Letting them live is an old and expensive congressional habit, still unbroken in this age of austerity. Now, both the House and Senate are trying to kill off this budget leftover, 10 years late.... In all, the program has cost at least $46 billion more than it was supposed to."
"The Geezers Are All Right." Paul Krugman: "... the long-term outlook for Social Security and Medicare, while not great, actually isn't all that bad. It's time to stop obsessing about how we'll pay benefits to retirees in 2035 and focus instead on how we're going to provide jobs to unemployed Americans in the here and now."
Krugman on "the spat" with Rogoff & Reinhart:
Katie Glueck of Politico: "The College Republican National Committee on Monday will make public a detailed report -- the result of extensive polling and focus groups -- dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key demographic in the future. It's not a pretty picture. In fact, it's a 'dismal present situation,' the report says." ...
... Maybe the Romney campaign, et al., should have invested more in listening to the kids instead of in counting their chickens ...
... Why Are They Doing This? Zeke Miller of Time: "On May 29, the Romney Readiness Project, the Republican candidate's transition organization known as R2P, published a 138-page report detailing how it prepared for a potential Romney victory. It is the product of a team of nearly 500, who labored in Washington and around the country to be ready to help Romney assume the reins of power on January 20th, 2013...."
... Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money has one take on the Romney Readiness Project (which I can't publish because it's too short to excerpt). ...
... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog hypothesizes, "I think it's meant to impress us, not make us laugh (even though we already knew about the alleged brilliance this project after word of it was spoon-fed to the press shortly after the election)." ...
... CW: it's still creepy. What do the ghost Romney presidency & Al-Qaeda have in common? Corporate style! ...
... Adam Martin of New York: "Not only does Al Qaeda have its share of HR headaches to deal with while trying to take over the world, it has a complaints department in case people have issues with its brand of militancy." CW: the fact that a complainant has to go to "an Islamic state HQ" to file his grievance probably cuts down a tad on complaints. ...
... ALSO CREEPY. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed has a long piece on Strategy Group for Media, a conservative, Christian, right-wing, Republican consulting firm. Fairly fascinating, in a sickening way.
Cashing In -- Secretly. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Maureen McDonnell, the wife of Virginia's governor, was paid $36,000 last year to attend a handful of meetings as a consultant to the philanthropic arm of one of the state's major coal companies, a top coal company official said. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) indicated on his annual financial disclosure forms for 2011 and 2012 that his wife served as a paid trustee of a family charity, the Frances G. and James W. McGlothlin Foundation. But in an interview, James McGlothlin said the $21 million family foundation never named McDonnell to its board. Instead, McGlothlin said, the family asked Maureen McDonnell to become an adviser to the charitable efforts of both the family foundation and the United Co., a natural resources and real estate company in Bristol, Va., that has made the McGlothlins one of the wealthiest families in the state.... By reporting that his wife was on the board, the governor never had to say on his financial disclosure form how much she was paid." ...
Gubernatorial Race
Zeke Miller & Alex Rogers of Time recount a few of the lowlights of "The Dirtiest Low-Down Campaign in America: Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe." ...
Errin Whack of the Washington Post: "E.W. Jackson, the Republicans' choice for lieutenant governor [of Virginia], said Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II ... in 2010 ... suggested that he consider a run for lieutenant governor." Cuccinelli's campaign said Jackson "misconstrued" Cuccinelli's comments during the conversation.... Jackson has called homosexuality 'perverse,' compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, and sharply criticized Obama over same-sex marriage and foreign policy. But the former Marine said that his remarks were not meant to be offensive and that as lieutenant governor he would strive to represent all Virginians, including homosexuals."
News Ledes
Reuters: "The manufacturing sector contracted in May, driving activity to the lowest level in nearly four years, in the latest sign the economy is encountering a soft patch. Still, growth is not expected to pull back sharply, and separate data on Monday showed construction spending rose slightly in April though it trailed expectations."
Boston Globe: "Boston Fire Chief Steve E. Abraira resigned today after less than two years on the job, following a clash with his command staff over his management style and handling of the Boston Marathon bombings, officials said."
AP: "The Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage will represent himself at his upcoming murder trial, meaning he will question the more than two dozen soldiers he's accused of wounding, a military judge ruled Monday. Maj. Nidal Hasan's attorneys will remain on the case but only if he asks for their help, the judge said. Hasan, 42, faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole...."
Reuters: " The American soldier accused of providing more than 700,000 secret documents to the WikiLeaks website goes on trial in Maryland on Monday charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history. Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, faces a possible life sentence without parole if convicted for the 2010 leak that outraged the U.S. government." ...
... New York Times Update here.
AP: " Violence has flared in Istanbul [for a 4th day] between a group of demonstrators and police on the fourth day of protests set off by a brutal police crackdown of a peaceful environmental protest." ...
... Update: "Secretary of State John Kerry..., who has traveled to Turkey three times since becoming America's top diplomat, said [Monday] the U.S. is following the situation closely and is troubled by reports of excessive force by the police. He also said Washington is 'deeply concerned' by the large number of people who have been injured. He called for an investigation into the violence and said respect for freedom of expression is critical to democracy."
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Reader Comments (7)
I have been reading about the new documentary, "We Steal Secrets"--about Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. After terrific reviews in Rolling Stone and New York Magazine, I planned to go to Portland to see it. Now comes this essay by Danny Schecter in Consortium, reprinted in RSN:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/17734-a-new-front-in-war-on-wikileaks
and his observation:
..."With Private Bradley Manning’s leak trial about to start and with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange still holed up in the Ecuador Embassy in London, “We Steal Secrets,” a new big-budget documentary purports to explain the controversy but has more the look of a hit job, says Danny Schechter."
Read the article and see what you think. I am inclined, since it was funded by Comcast, to believe Schechter. And I am no longer so interested in making a special trip to see it, especially since Julian Assange was never even interviewed. HUH?
Allow me to fix my error from yesterday's comment re Marsha Blackburn and equal pay. Women don't earn 80.9% less than men, (they earn 19.1% less than men) - or I shudda said, 80.9% of what men earn! Yah!
@MAG: since I knew what you meant, I didn't even notice you "mis-phrased" it. Correction made in today's Commentariat.
Marie
@MAG; On gender; species and salaries; Here at the Sperm Producers Institute or "SPI", we take our role as defenders of sperm supremacy pretty darn seriously. So when you pointed out in your comment that women or " Egg baskets" earn far less than men for the same type of work we have to respond with a big "DUH.".
There are thousands of reasons for this discrepancy in pay, I can only touch on a few of them because of the lack of focus and short attention span that we pride ourselves on here at SPI.
Egg baskets spend much of the working day thinking about what to prepare for dinner for their sperm provider.
Egg baskets fixate on their physical appearance and spend many of what could productive minutes on grooming and fashion.
Egg baskets are emotional; some times more that others; this attribute leads to crying, tearing up, or welling of the eyes, again at the cost of getting things done.
Egg baskets look at both sides of a situation, unlike sperm producers who just jump right in; At critical times we need knee jerk reactions not well thought out analyst.
I could go on but my gnat-like attention span is forcing me to think about other things; What was I talking about?... Oh, yea, what's for dinner?
Thanks, SPI
@JJG, how does Scrambled Egg Basket à la Creamed Arsenic sound? Or Tear-Jerk Onion Frittata? Or just plain Jerk? More later, I have to go curl my eyelashes.
Funny, reminds me of when I asked for my first raise. The president of the company listened, nodded and gently explained that while I was certainly deserving...he had many in the company who were also deserving. I.e., "Charlie' who drove the delivery truck and supported a family of four. At that point, this twenty-something "egg basket" (who had mastered the cool, long stare and with a no-tears, no fluttery eyelash approach) trounced that argument with a solid and reasoned response. Charlie probably deserved more. But, I deserved more for the value of the contributions which my department added to the firm's bottom line. Yep. Got the the raise.
Okey Dokey--I have my laugh for the day, probably for many days, thanks to Heather at Video Cafe. This is for all Tommy Freedom despisers--the Thomas Friedman op ed generator. No kidding.
You can switch around the site to find a topic of (um) interest. Here is one of today's:
http://thomasfriedmanopedgenerator.com/Afghanistan%3A+Look+in+Your+Mirror+177338
I think that Darrell Issa is juicy, lusciously, roundly and sweetly ripe for being "Ted Cruzed". That is to say there are a few questions that come to mind.......Naturally Mr. Issa, someone like yourself , who is of proud Lebanese descent might be subject to undo influence from Hezbollah. Given your enormous wealth, it seems reasonable to ask for financial records that may indicate monetary support of Hezbollah. I'm sure you understand how important your relationship with Hezbollah would be to the American people?
Although he was masterful when his demeanor didn't betray how pissed he was at Crowley's poking, it was his words that underscored his bitter partisanship, calling Carney "a paid liar". He is a desperate fool.