The Commentariat -- June 7, 2014
Internal links removed.
Gail Collins: Rep. Dave Camp, chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, was for tax reform -- until he voted, along with his fellow Republicans, to scrap it. "'Republicans care deeply about deficits, unless they're caused by tax cuts. Then they don't give a damn,' said [Norm] Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
Now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man. I would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details. -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), interview on CNN, Feb. 18, 2014
We were never told that there would be an exchange of Sergeant Bergdahl for five Taliban. -- McCain, interview on CNN, June 3, 2014 ...
... CW: Glenn Kessler's fact-check of John McCain's obvious flip-flop on the prisoner exchange of Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban raises a matter of which I was unaware: that the Washington Post had reported on this exact prisoner exchange in February 2014. As Kessler writes, "... the key elements of the deal that was announced last week were apparent in the article four months ago -- the exchange of five Taliban members held at Guantanamo for Bergdahl and the protective custody of Qatar. Throughout the discussions, it has always been the same five men, so their identities would have been no surprise to any lawmaker keeping track of the discussions." ...
... While it's true that not every rank-and-file MOC would be able to keep up on "the details" of the prisoner swap, key members certainly knew what was in the works. Those Republicans & Democrats who claimed they "no idea" such an "outrageous" exchange was pending might want to blame their staffs for not keeping up. And leaders like Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) & McCain should be ashamed of themselves for complaining they didn't get notification. Kessler demonstrates they've known about this pending exchange for years. ...
(Kessler's column is another instance of the liberal media picking on John McCain. Dylan Byers of Politico: "In the last week alone, Sen. John McCain has publicly accused three different media organizations of misrepresenting his remarks on subjects ranging from U.S. foreign policy to President Obama's prisoner swap for Bowe Bergdahl.") ...
... Kathleen Hunter of Bloomberg News: Dianne Feinstein, "the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, said she's not convinced there was a 'credible threat' against the life of freed Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl that motivated the White House to keep its plans secret." CW: Because five years in captivity is great: you don't have to work & you still get pay & promotions. Inexplicably, Bergdahl tried to escape at least twice from this excellent sinecure. ...
... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: John "Podesta, the senior counselor to President Barack Obama, said that the president made the decision for the swap knowing it would be controversial, but argued that methods were in place for homeland security protections that extend beyond the one-year that the five will be in Qatari custody as part of the deal.... 'There are ways that we have to monitor them beyond what Qatar is doing,' Podesta said."
Steven Levy of Wired: Silicon Valley saved Healthcare.gov. Now a new team "of programmers drawn from startups as well as large companies like Google ... is creating core features of the next generation of Healthcare.gov that will debut when the next enrollment period begins." Via Kevin Roose of New York.
David Savage & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "As fast as it can, Google is sealing up cracks in its systems that Edward J. Snowden revealed the N.S.A. had brilliantly exploited. It is encrypting more data as it moves among its servers and helping customers encode their own emails. Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo are taking similar steps. After years of cooperating with the government, the immediate goal now is to thwart Washington -- as well as Beijing and Moscow. The strategy is also intended to preserve business overseas in places like Brazil and Germany that have threatened to entrust data only to local providers." ...
... CW: MEANWHILE, of course, these spy-averse tech giants are merrily recording your every keystroke for their own purposes.
All Clinton All the Time -- A Sampler ...
... Not That She Doesn't Ask for It. Greg Gilman of the Wrap: "Hillary Clinton's town hall later this month will air on CNN, with the network's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour moderating the event.... The town hall, taking place at the Newseum in Washington DC on June 17, will focus on the former Secretary of State's new& memoir, 'Hard Choices.' CNN notes, however, that there will be 'no subjects off limits' as she answers questions from Amanpour and the live audience."
Ruth Marcus: "The last few days have offered vivid illustrations of why Hillary Clinton could decide not to run for president -- and why, in the end, I believe she will. Example No. 1 is the ludicrous debate over whether Clinton, in the latest People magazine cover, was leaning on a walker. To buy this scenario would require you to believe that People is implicated in a grand conspiracy to keep Clinton's enervated physical state from American voters. And that People's editors and Team Clinton are dumb enough, having hatched this scheme, to have her photographed with the walker cropped out, except not entirely."
Alexander Burns & Madeline Marshall of Politico: "Fair or not, [former Senate Leader Bob] Dole said the subject [of age] is as in-bounds for the 2016 Democratic field as it was for him in 1996, when he ran at the age of 73. 'We had signs, "Dole in '96," and the Democrats in some areas changed it to "Dole is '96,'" he recalled. 'Hillary will be, what, 69? Age can be a factor. I think it was in my race, and it'll be in hers.'"
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "In her new book, even as she lays out her foreign policy vision, Mrs. Clinton shows a side of herself [the 2008] campaign did not: human, motherly, jokey, self-deprecating.
Liz Kruetz & Dana Hughes of ABC News: "In an exclusive interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Hillary Clinton defended President Obama's decision to swap five Taliban prisoners for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, saying she won't second guess him."
The Other Clinton. Josh Gerstein & Darrell Samuelsohn of Politico: "Under early fire over his alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, President Bill Clinton's aides were urging him to avoid commenting on legal strategy and also to look more presidential, according to newly-disclosed White House documents the Clinton Presidential Library released Friday.... The roughly 2,000 pages released Friday by the National Archives-run library are the fifth such batch released this year as archivists process previously withheld Clinton White House records. They provide behind-the-scenes insights into the Clinton presidency."
David Leonhardt of the New York Times: Liberals "have surrendered seats on the [Supreme C]ourt by being less strategic than conservatives with the timing of their retirements. The six most conservative justices, based on their voting patterns, to have retired in the last 50 years all left the bench under a Republican president. By contrast, only one of the six most liberal justices has departed when a Democrat was president. In all, Republican presidents have named 12 of the 20 Supreme Court justices since 1960 -- even though the two parties have fought to a draw in presidential elections over that period...."
Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post writes in support of Maureen Dowd's Rocky Mountain high column. Rosenberg makes the same point I did: not everyone "... knows how to consume [marijuana] in ways that are pleasurable and safe for them, or that avoid unpleasant side effects." (Rosenberg is apparently unaware of the claims -- linked yesterday -- that Dowd got 45 minutes of instruction on how to ingest her stash.) It's reasonable, Rosenberg writes, to assume a candy bar is a "single serving."
Whither the Obamas? Corrine Lestch of the New York Daily News: "President Obama may have roots in Chicago, but Mayor de Blasio wants his legacy in New York City. Brushing aside reports in the Chicago Sun-Times Thursday that de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo offered 'tepid and unspecific' support for the Obama artifacts and letters to land in the Big Apple, Hizzoner said Columbia - Obama's alma mater - would be 'a perfect place' for a library and museum dedicated to the nation's 44th leader after he leaves office."
AND the CIA gets a Twitter account.
Beyond the Beltway
Jason Stein, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "A federal judge in Madison on Friday overturned Wisconsin's gay marriage ban, striking down an amendment to the state constitution approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2006 and prompting an emergency action by the state to halt the scores of weddings that began in the state's two largest cities. In the 88-page decision, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the prohibition on same-sex vows in the state violated the rights of gay and lesbian couples to equal protection under the federal constitution and fair treatment under the law. She did not stay her ruling but also did not immediately issue an order blocking the enforcement of the ban, sparking a heated and hasty debate on whether the ruling meant that couples could immediately marry in the courthouses of Wisconsin.... Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, said that 'current law remains in force' in Wisconsin and took immediate action to try to halt the surge of gay couples seeking to wed, filing an emergency request for a stay from Crabb."
The President's Weekly Address
White House: "... President Obama underscored the importance of helping to lift the burden of crushing student loan debt faced by too many Americans and highlighted the efforts he's taken to ensure we uphold America's commitment to provide a quality education for all who are willing to work for it":
News Ledes
Al Jazeera: "Eleven sailors held hostage by Somali pirates for more than three years have been released, Somali and United Nations officials say. Abdi Yusuf Hassan, the interior minister of Somalia's Galmudug region, said on Saturday that the mostly South Asian sailors were released with no ransom paid."
AP: "An 89-year old World War II veteran who was reported missing from a nursing home in England has been found in Normandy after traveling to attend D-Day commemorations, police said Friday."
AP: In his inaugural address, Petro Poroshenko, "Ukraine's new president, on Saturday called for dialogue with the country's east, gripped by a violent separatist insurgency, and for armed groups to lay down their weapons but said he won't talk with rebels he called 'gangsters and killers.'" ...
... AFP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered the border service to reinforce the state border with Ukraine, the Kremlin press service told Russian news agencies."
New York Times: "Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan was in intensive care Saturday after the limousine bus he was riding in was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, state police said."
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Reader Comments (6)
@Re: Bergdahl. The Code of Conduct says it all: the United States will do everything within its power to get you back. So we rightly brought him back.
So when people ask me what I think, I tell them that until the Army releases its report, I won't express an opinion. That most reporters are "talking out of their ass."
@Barbarossa: Clinton made the point in her interview with Sawyer that the military attempts to retrieve POWs no matter what the circumstances of their captivity.
I think that's a good standard, especially now when we have a strictly mercenary army. Despite all the talk of patriotism, we should be grown-ups & face the fact that most of the enlisted members of the military signed up with the employer of last resort, & that said employer has not always been too picky about whom it hires. As we honor D-Day veterans, we should bear in mind that their motivations -- on the whole -- for joining the military were different from the motivations of today's volunteers. Ergo, I don't think we should be shocked, shocked if some of them find themselves in trouble -- including captivity -- under questionable circumstances.
Until the military changes its Code of Conduct to "we will go all out to bring you back if your record of service provides excellent PR talking points," Clinton's standard is the only one that makes sense.
Marie
Wisconsin is celebrating joining the 21st century this weekend, except for Republican hacks and mean-spirited folks like our Attorney General. The most recent poll showed 55% of the state supports marriage equality. Comments by some of our extremist politicians (ex Glenn Grothman, apparently running for Congress) highlight the hatred and return to the past that fuels state Republicans. Meanwhile, Scott Walker is hiding out and backpedaling as fast as he can as his challenger Mary Burke lays out her plan to unite the state for forward progress.
We just cannot help breathing a deep sigh of relief that the game is finally on.
Today is the 21st anniversary of the 101 California killings that left 8 people dead in a SF office building. Robyn Thomas, Executive Director of the Legal Center to Prevent Gun Violence, (quoted in the SF Chronicle today) says that since that time California has greatly tightened its gun laws. Gun violence in California is down 56% in the last 20 years. Death by guns in California in the same period down from 5000 deaths a year to 3000.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/06/1304819/-One-Veteran-s-Epic-Rant-to-the-Repuli-Tea-Party-on-their-disgraceful-treatment-of-Bergdahl?detail=email
Blogger Vyan in "Daily Kos" posts quotes from CWO Jim Wright, USN (Ret): His rant reminds me of our own Ak. CWO Wright reminds us that the military hasn't conducted an Article 32 hearing. This is similar to a civilian grand jury EXCEPT the accused has the right to counsel, and can call and cross examine witnesses. Lindsey Graham knows this as he was a Navy JAG.
As for the threat posed by these five guys, I have never seen such yellow-bellied cowards ranting about what they're gonna do to us. Are they invincible supermen? Sheesh!
Maybe for tomorrow or RC readers are not too busy, for today:
http://www.vox.com/videos/2014/6/2/5771690/ta-nehisi-coates-the-vox-conversation
VOX is not yet essential reading (and listening), but it's becoming more so.
Good weekend to all.