The Commentariat -- March 11, 2014
NEW. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday accused the Central Intelligence Agency of improperly removing documents from computers that committee staff members had been using to complete a report on the agency's detention program, saying the move was part of an effort to intimidate the committee. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the committee, suggested on the Senate floor that the agency had violated federal law and said the C.I.A. had undermined Congress's constitutional right to oversee the actions of the executive branch.... John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director, denied Ms. Feinstein's assertions...."
Jay Newton-Small of Time: "As predicted, the Senate on Monday passed landmark legislation overhauling the regulations on how the Defense Department handles cases of sexual assault. The bill, passed the the legislation 97-0. It now goes to the House where passage is also likely. The measure's success was all but assured Friday after a competing bill sponsored by New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand failed to overcome a Senate filibuster.... Gillibrand ... vowed to continue fighting for her measure. The key difference between the two bills is that Gillibrand's legislation would have taken the prosecution of sexual assault cases out of the chain of command and given it to the Judge Advocates General Corps."
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Democratic Senators preparing to lead an all-nighter of climate speeches on Monday admitted a climate change bill would collapse in today's Congress -- but said they hoped to prime the politics for 2015 and the 2016 presidential race. More than two dozen Democratic Senators signed on to participate in an all-night session of speeches on climate change which was scheduled to run from about 6.30pm on Monday night to the start of the working day on Tuesday." ...
... Give 'em Hell, Harry. Ramsey Cox of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used an all-night climate change campaign in the Senate to once again bash Charles and David Koch. 'It's time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis -- the oil baron Koch brothers and their allies in Congress -- have a valid point of view,' Reid said Monday evening. 'But despite overwhelming scientific evidence and overwhelming public opinion, climate change deniers still exist. They exist in this country and in this Congress.'" ...
... New York Times Editors: "Mr. Reid's comments [about the Koch brothers] have gone to the heart of the matter. In his most recent speech [before last night], he pointed out that the fundamental purpose of the Kochs' spending is to rig the economic system for their benefit and for that of other oligarchs. They own an industrial network that ranks No. 14 on the list of the most toxic American air polluters, and got their money's worth in 2010 by helping elect a Republican House majority that has resisted environmental regulation.
ObamaScare, Ctd. Remember Julie Boonstra, the cancer patient who appears in a Koch-funded ad with an ObamaScare story that was largely debunked? Well, now, Jonathan Chait reports, Julie's story has been completely debunked. Turns out Julie is the ex-wife of a Republican county chairman AND, besides being protected under ObamaCare from insurance cancellation because of her illness, her new, ObamaCare-approved policy is substantially cheaper than her old one. Julie's reaction, via the Detroit News:
When advised of the details of her Blues' plan, Boonstra said the idea that it would be cheaper 'can't be true. I personally do not believe that.'
... Digby: "You know, I probably have as much disdain for Republicans as they have for me. But if one of them were to show me irrefutable proof that say, America has fewer gun deaths than other places due to our proliferation of gun ownership, I would have no choice but to believe it. These people simply put their fingers in their ears and sing 'lalalalala'." ...
... Glenn Kessler downgrades Julie's story from two to three Pinocchios. CW: Looks like a four to me. Maybe he's cutting her slack for stupid. Or cancer. ...
... CW: I strongly urge President Obama to send Julie to one of his re-education camps. ...
... OR, Maybe Julie could just watch "Between Two Ferns," definitely a better source of info on healthcare coverage than Koch TV:
... If you're confused, Michael Shear of the New York Times does his best to explain parody & satire. ...
... Update: Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "Zach Galifianakis is now Healthcare.gov's biggest traffic driver."
The GOP Is a Mess. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "While much attention has been devoted to the split between the establishment and the Tea Party, the growing divide along generational lines among Republicans could cause a significant a rift. Younger conservatives are more firmly staking out a libertarian orientation on social issues in a way that will shape the 2016 presidential primary as candidates seek to appeal to activists who are in the party because of social issues and also to younger voters who see some aspects of cultural conservatism as intolerant." ...
... Joclyn Kiley of Pew Research: "Today, 61% of Republicans and Republican leaners under 30 favor same-sex marriage while just 35% oppose it. By contrast, just 27% of Republicans ages 50 and older favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry." ...
... There Must Always Be a Krugman. CW: As the GOP evolves (it's not impossible!), it was be more fair-minded on issues that have important social but more minor economic impacts. On matters that directly affect economic policy, think Gold Standard & Freeeedom! ...
... ALSO, Charles Pierce notices that even the best & the brightest GOP "intellectuals" -- Rand Paul, M.D., Duke; Bobby Jindal, M.Litt., Oxford -- are stoopid.
HHS Is a Mess. Elize Viebeck of the Hill: "The Obama administration is abandoning a surprise plan to alter Medicare's drug coverage after receiving withering criticism from Congress and K Street. Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner alerted lawmakers Monday that her agency would not go forward with a proposal to give insurers more leeway to limit the number of drugs they cover for Medicare beneficiaries.... The Obama administration's quixotic push to alter Part D in an election year stunned the healthcare world when the regulations came out in January. The vote on the House GOP bill to block the regulation is likely headed for approval in a bipartisan vote, and House Republicans have kept the bill on their schedule for the week."
Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Top senators are crafting a package that includes both direct aid to Ukraine and targeted sanctions in an effort to rapidly provide assistance to the new, pro-Western government in Kiev." ...
... Patrick Wintour & Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Western officials will meet in London on Tuesday to identify Russians who will be subject to asset freezes and travel bans that officials hope will persuade Moscow to withdraw its presence from Crimea. The sanctions, which the British prime minister, David Cameron, indicated would be imposed within days, come as tensions escalate in the Crimean peninsula, where unidentified men reportedly fired warning shots as they moved into a Ukranian naval base on Monday."
Steven Myers of the New York Times: "As Russia tightened its grip on Crimea, Ukraine&'s ousted president appealed on Tuesday to the country's military units to refuse to follow the orders of the new interim authorities, declaring that he remained commander in chief and would return to the country as soon as conditions permitted."
Katie Glueck of Politico: "Former President Bill Clinton on Monday jabbed Russian President Vladimir Putin for treating Ukraine as a 'piece on the international chessboard' without concern for its people, and added that pushing the country toward a split was a 'crazy,' outdated maneuver."
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "America's spy agencies are so focused on 'mass surveillance' that they have missed clues about terrorist incidents, such as last year's Boston Marathon bombing and an attempted attack on a jetliner on Christmas in 2009, former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said Monday. In an hour-long video discussion hosted by the South by Southwest music, film and technology conference in Austin, Snowden, who is living in asylum in an undisclosed location in Russia, asserted that the National Security Agency's efforts to collect information in bulk have backfired." ...
... John Swaine & Jemima Kiss (which I assume are their real names) of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden ... insisted on Monday that his actions had improved the national security of the United States rather than undermined it and declared that he would do it all again despite the personal sacrifices he had endured." ...
... Video of the full interview is here. ...
... CW: Here's what I wanna know. If the NSA is such a savvy spy agency, can't they find Snowden when he's bopping around this undisclosed location giving hour-long video conferences? Oh, even tho he appeared "through seven proxies." ...
... AP: "A federal judge in San Francisco stopped the destruction of millions of telephone records collected by the National Security Agency more than five years ago. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who is overseeing an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the agency, issued a nationwide order Monday to safeguard evidence until March 19, when he will hold a hearing on extending the deadline further. The secret federal court that approved the agency's surveillance has required that documents be purged after five years for privacy reasons. On Friday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court denied the federal government's request to keep the records for the sake of pending lawsuits." CW: Huh. I wasn't aware a district judge could overrule the FISA court. Guess so.
Longing for Lemmings. CW: I haven't punished myself lately, so I thought I'd read David Brooks. He is very worried that young Americans are not interested in getting into world conflicts. This is not because they're isolationists but because they have no faith in the top-down org chart, according to Brooks: "For the first time in recorded history, a majority of Americans believe that their country has a declining influence on what's happening around the globe.... We live in a country in which many people [naively] act as if history is leaderless. Events emerge spontaneously from the ground up. Such a society is very hard to lead and summon. It can be governed only by someone who arouses intense moral loyalty, and even that may be fleeting." ...
... CW: Not too sure how much world influence Americans thought the U.S. had in, say, 1789 or 1812 or 1864, even though Brooks may be surprised to learn that folks were recording history way back then. Brooks's column seems to be his supposedly-data-driven version of the Giuliani authoritarian wet dream.
Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "The head bishop of the United Methodist Church in New York on Monday committed to ending church trials in his region for ministers who perform same sex-marriages, essentially freeing them to conduct a ceremony still prohibited under his denomination's laws."
AP: "Aretha Franklin has much R-E-S-P-E-C-T for President Barack Obama -- regardless of his spelling skills. At a White House concert last Thursday, Obama dropped the initial 'E' when trying to spell out 'respect' as the queen of soul does in her famous song. 'I'm sure the President had much on his agenda and was just a little tired,' the 71-year-old singer said in a statement Monday." CW: I hope we can now put behind us this embarrassing episode, so we don't have to read any more stuff like this:
... Taylor Bigler of the Daily Caller, republished on Fox Nation: "Aretha Franklin may spell out the word 'Respect' several times throughout her synonymous song, but that doesn't mean Harvard-educated President Obama knows how to spell it.... Come on, Barry! Every 30-year-old woman worth her salt knows the 'Respect' lyrics down pat...." ...
... That was last week. This was yesterday:
... Now mayb Fox "Nws" will nvr pick on Prsidnt Obama again.
Congressional Race
Ben Jacobs of the Daily Beast Does Not Believe All Politics Is Local: "Tuesday's special election in Florida's 13th congressional district is a big deal. It won't just determine whether House Republicans have a majority of 17 or 18, it will be the first significant referendum on Barack Obama's job performance and the Affordable Care Act in the president's second term." ...
... Greg Sargent (CW: rightly, I think) disagrees. "The special election is not a 'bellwether.'"
New Jersey News
Kate Zernicke & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... long before the lane closings, the Port Authority ... had already been turned into a de facto political operation for Governor Christie, a review of the agency's operations since Mr. Christie took office suggests."
William Rashbaum & Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Friday subpoenaed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for records related to potential conflicts of interest involving its chairman, David Samson, a prominent New Jersey lawyer and close political ally of Gov. Chris Christie, according to people briefed on the matter.... An examination of possible conflicts of interest involving Mr. Samson would appear to represent a significant widening of the scandal." ...
... Update. Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have withdrawn a subpoena seeking records related to Port Authority Chairman David Samson, knowledgeable sources said Monday afternoon. The subpoena, received by the Port Authority on Friday, was withdrawn Monday afternoon.... The exact reason was unclear, but the sources said that the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, who was already investigating the Port Authority's closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, would likely take over any potential inquiry into Samson...."
Darryl Isherwood of NJ.com: "Bridget Kelly has no Fifth Amendment right to withhold documents created while carrying out her job as a government employee, an attorney for the legislative committee investigating Bridgegate said in a brief filed in advance of tomorrow's hearing seeking to compel Kelly to answer a subpoena from the committee."
News Ledes
AP: "General Motors faced more pressure over its handling of a deadly defect in certain compact cars Tuesday as word leaked of a criminal investigation and two congressional committees opened probes into the matter. The Justice Department is investigating whether GM broke any laws with its slow response to a problem with ignition switches in compact cars from model years 2003 to 2007."
Washington Post: "Attorneys for an Army general [-- Brig. Gen Jeffrey A. Sinclair --] charged with sexual assault said Tuesday that they have decided to try to renegotiate a plea bargain with a new set of military officials after the judge determined that the case may have been improperly influenced by political concerns."
Tampa Bay Times: "Several polling places reported a good turnout early Tuesday as Pinellas County voters selected a new representative for District 13. The race between Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alex Sink has garnered national attention and prompted contributions of an unprecedented $12 million in campaign funds. A third candidate, Libertarian Lucas Overby, is also on the ballot."
New York Times: "The Malaysian authorities now believe that a jetliner missing since Saturday may have radically changed course around the time that it stopped communicating with ground controllers. But there were conflicting accounts of the course change and what may have happened afterward, adding to the air of confusion and disarray surrounding the investigation and search operation." ...
... New York Times: "The Malaysian police said on Tuesday that one of the two passengers known to have used stolen passports to board the missing Malaysian airliner was a 19-year-old Iranian who wanted to migrate to Germany and appeared to have no connection to terrorist organizations." ...
... New Lede: " International police authorities said on Tuesday that two Iranians known to have used stolen passports to board the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on Saturday were unlikely to be linked to terrorist groups, echoing an assessment by the Malaysian police that one of them was a 19-year-old Iranian who wanted to migrate to Germany."
... New York Times: "... according to [Interpol], only three countries -- the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates -- systematically screen travelers against the agency's database of stolen passports. "
Washington Post: Joe "McGinniss, the adventurous and news-making author and reporter who skewered the marketing of Richard Nixon in 'The Selling of the President 1968' and tracked his personal journey from sympathizer to scourge of convicted killer Jeffrey MacDonald in the blockbuster 'Fatal Vision,' died Monday at age 71."
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Reader Comments (7)
When a religion no longer stands by the principles that were recently considered inviolable, is it still a religion or has pandering become its new business model?
I'm especially intrigued when Catholics who witness the tenets of their faith falling singly and in bunches maintain that they are loyal to the husk that is left.
Sometimes they tell me that their faith overrides any decisions made by the Vatican. I'm scratching my head because what they're describing is spiritual anarchy with a catchword. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but let's not pretend that a myna bird is a Cocker Spaniel.
After I read many weeks ago that Julie Boonstra's healthcare weepy was bogus, who did I see on Meagan Kelly's program repeating the same lies, but the Boonstra herself and Kelly giving her succor––"Oh, my, it must have been terrible to go through all this..." Did I miss something, I said to myself, so I jotted down Julie's name––left out one of the O's––I'm a terrible speller–––and looked her up on the Internet and sure enough she was lying through her teeth. And you think WHF? Now that she has been throughly debunked will the people who promoted this fib do a do-over? Will you punks?
The article from the New Yorker on Adam Lanza was chilling. Both parents trying at the outset to get professional help for their very sick son, but then the father moving away literally while the mother becoming enmeshed with Adam who at the point of his controlling his mother as victim should have been institutionalized. It was painful to read.
I once worked with a boy who'd fling himself against walls banging his head as hard as he could, refused to cooperate in the special ed classroom, hit his classmates,and would spit at his mother during therapy sessions. He was finally sent to a institution, but not after we had to prove it was a danger to himself and others.
@Jack Mahoney. Most religious people aren't theologians, & they don't much care about (or usually know about) the niceties of their church teachings. Do you think Mitt Romney would have come to a reverence for the Angel Moroni if his father hadn't been Mormon? I doubt it. People have (sometimes quite vague) personal beliefs about God & All That; they use these vague beliefs to justify, rationalize or mitigate all kinds of daily actions; & they are often sure that their religion is "right" & yours is "wrong" (even though they couldn't define the difference in more substantial & foolish terms than, say, sometime like, "We don't worship the Pope!")
I don't think most Christians could adequately explain something as basic as the Trinity (why does the Holy Ghost get such short shrift?), much less transubstantiation. I doubt if they can even get the nativity story straight. In fact, for nearly two millennia, the Roman Church kept the mass in Latin because they didn't want parishioners to understand what was going on. They thought awe & ignorance best served their ends, & they were likely right about that.
As for the evolution of religious doctrines, that it as it has always been. There aren't many Jews advocating for polygamy these days, and Christianity can be rightly characterized as a Jewish sect that changed, changed & changed some more. When Christianity overtook Rome, the old pagan basilicas became Christian churches; Rome's Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is so named because it is built over (sopra) the Temple of Minerva. The worshipers of Saint Mary were often the same people who worshiped Minerva. In fact, Mary probably gets her Latin name Maria (Gr. Miriam) from another Greco-Roman goddess -- Rhea, "the mother of gods." Romans who worshiped Rhea (& built a temple on the Palatine to her) spoke of her as "my Rhea," i.e., "ma Rhea" (It.), a homonym for "Maria." The worshipers of Ma Rhea & Maria couldn't tell the difference. For them, there wasn't any -- even though there were substantial differences in the narratives & theologies that went with the goddesses (there were some interesting similarities, too).
You write of "spiritual anarchy," but I think what you mean is "doctrinal anarchy." I think the spiritual part of the religious experience is probably rather constant (when not undergoing periods of doubt or abandonment), but the doctrine will inevitably change.
Marie
Jack - I haven't noticed the tenets of Catholicism falling singly or in bunches recently, but maybe I just haven't been paying attention. Pope Francis has displayed a new tolerance for discussion of differences and opinions, and seems to be booting out some of the Vatican mafiosi, and that seems like a change ... but the Nicene Creed is still out there and no one is talking about rewriting it. (Marie will know that one word in that creed, concerning the essence of the Holy Ghost, caused the great schism. That word is still there.)
It has been OK to have meat on Fridays (but not during Lent!!) for a long time now, and girls can be altar boys (?) but not in Virginia, because that archbishop doesn't like it. And so on. But The Church hasn't lightened up on anything important to it.
What has changed is what The Church (the institution) means to its people (by definition, the "real" church), and the increased personal tolerance and diversity of many parishes in the post-War period has been remarkable. When I was a boy, the parish priest or monsignor was a highly influential person, by his office. Today he seems to be an employee of the parish, with special training and functions. He does not have the power in sermon to corral the flock in anything but prime religious activity, which is good. I haven't been to mass for some years, but in the last twenty years I don't think I ever heard a sermon about birth control, for example. And sermons about hell seem to have dropped off the list, even though they were a staple when I was young. Maybe my parish is different (the congressional district is solid D, the median income above average, divorce rate relatively low, Sunday morning mass well-attended, collection plate solid), but I suspect that the people have changed more than the institution ... but that the people like many of the things the Church offers, and don't worry about every doctrinal difference, as Marie writes above.
Patrick and All,
The urge to believe is a natural, albeit in many of its incarnations a dangerous, response to the fundamental incomprehensibilities of our lives in this (so-far) lonely universe. That said, specific doctrines are hard-pressed to stand rational scrutiny. Hence the frequent suspension of disbelief, the same mental gymnastic we perform so easily when reading any fantasy story, when we manage to "believe" despite all the evidence to the contrary. A functional FTL drive might be unlikely, but that does not interfere with the pleasure I have often gotten from a good space opera.
That said, there are certain beliefs most progressives have in common, no matter how long since we might have knelt (as my father did throughout his life) to pray. We believe that a scientific approach gives us the best chance we have to comprehend our world. We believe that human beings are, at least to the degree that the natural world allows, in charge of their fate. We believe that by dint of informed effort we can improve our lot, and that each of us on the planet has an equal right to whatever of that improvement we can manage.
Where do these beliefs come from? In my case I suspect they are bound to some of the tenets of the Christian religion I have long since abandoned, particularly to those that suggested that our conduct matters and that charity is the greatest virtue of all. When I taught, it often occurred to me my approach was one of missionary zeal. Today, when I am no longer in the classroom and devote much of my time to avowedly progressive causes, I know I am acting out the same urges.
I once heard some line suggesting you can't take the Catholic out of the boy. To this long-former altar boy and CYO president, that much turned out to be very true.
Ken, I've observed that Catholic imprint first hand. One of my second wife's, (an Irish Catholic, an entire breed of it's own making), favorite rejoinders was: "Do good works, be proud." She is currently, at age 65-plus, in Botswana, distributing condoms to the citizens.
@Ken: Welcome back from wherever you were. Your last sentences fit the old adage of "stuff that gets into you early sticks." This, I think, is true not only for religious dogma, but for the myriad other experiences we encounter early on.
Julia Sweeny has a hilarious take on her experience with the Catholic religion, the Bible, Mormons etc. called "Letting go of God," in which her constant refrain is "Have you READ THE BIBLE?" Marie mentioned above how ignorant many people are about the tenets of their own religion, but for many it doesn't matter. And right now in this country we are coming head to head with people who are using this ignorance to "cause unrest" as Monty Python was wont to say.
And for Singer's second wife's distribution of condoms under the re– joiner of good works makes one feel proud, I say, hooray, whatever works for the good.