Monday
Mar022015
The Commentariat -- March 3, 2015
Internal links removed.
Here are the New York Times' live updates on Netanyahu's speech before the U.S. Congress. CW: Happily for me, I unexpectedly had to be away during the whole thing. ...
... The Washington Post story, by Katie Zezima, is here. "Any agreement 'doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb,' Netanyahu said. 'So why would anyone make this deal?'” (CW: Sadly, no reports that Netanyahu employed high-tech cardboard cartoon visuals aids to emphasize his point. I guess he just couldn't be bothered to bring his magic marker. Maybe he doesn't respect the U.S. Congress.) "Netanyahu praised President Obama, who was participating in a teleconference at 11:30. A White House spokesman said he likely would not watch the speech." ...
... as one who values the U.S. – Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech – saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation. -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
NEW. Echoes of Dubya. Paul Waldman: "You don’t have to be some kind of foreign policy whiz to grasp that there’s something weird about arguing that 1) Iran is a nation run by genocidal maniacs; 2) they want nuclear weapons so they can annihilate Israel; and 3) the best way to stop this is to abandon negotiations to limit their nuclear program and just wait to see what they do. But that’s the position Netanyahu’s supporters in the Republican Party are now committed to." ...
... Jeff Mason of Reuters: "Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but the odds are still against sealing a final agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday. Interviewed at the White House, Obama moved to dial back tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on Tuesday opposing the Iran deal, saying it was a distraction that would not be 'permanently destructive' to U.S. Israeli ties":
... Here's the full transcript of the interview. ...
... Dana Milbank: "In the brawl between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran nuclear negotiations, AIPAC has joined congressional Republicans in siding wholeheartedly with the Israeli hard-liner.... They gave a boisterous standing ovation to his invocation of a 'moral obligation' to give his views on the Iran negotiations, declaring an end to 'the days when the Jewish people are passive in the face of threats to annihilate us.' Added Netanyahu: 'Today we have a voice. And tomorrow . . . I plan to use that voice.'” ...
... Ted Nesi of WPRI Providence, R.I.: "U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse won’t be among those in attendance when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes his controversial address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday." ...
... Here's the Hill's latest list of which Members of Congress will & won't be attending Netanyahu's speech.
NEW. Jaime Fuller of New York: "Boehner is so ready to be done with all this DHS drama. Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that the House will vote on a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week — perhaps by the end of the day. News organizations have reported that Boehner told his colleagues that a partial shutdown was not an option...." ...
... NEW. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The House will vote as soon as Tuesday afternoon on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year. The measure will not target President Obama's executive actions on immigration, giving Democrats what they have long demanded and potentially enraging conservatives bent on fighting the president on immigration." ...
... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "In the Senate, Democrats blocked an attempt by Republicans to force negotiations between both sides of the legislature over a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The failed vote immediately put pressure on the Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner...." ...
... Mike Lillis & Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "House Democrats expect Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring a 'clean' Homeland Security funding bill to the floor this week, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday."
NEW. Barely a Tap on the Wrist. Adam Goldman & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for David H. Petraeus have reached an agreement with federal prosecutors for the retired general and former CIA director to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with his handling of classified materials. As part of the agreement, Petraeus admitted to improperly retaining classified material, according to documents filed Tuesday in federal court in Charlotte. Petraeus has also acknowledged he misled FBI investigators, officials said." ...
... NEW. CW: As a recall, Martha Stewart, a private citizen who did not hold a position of public trust, much less the power of a CIA director with vast capabilities to betray individuals & the nation, went to jail for misconduct no worse than Petraeus's. Oh, well, she's a girl. Besides, she was a role model who had to be held up as an example.
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday called for prompt action to change police practices across the country after the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island at the hands of white officers exposed frustrations about law enforcement in minority communities. Mr. Obama, unveiling the recommendations of a White House task force created in the wake of the killings, said local law enforcement agencies should consider requiring independent criminal investigations and independent prosecutors in cases where the use of force by police officers results in injury or death."
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "President Obama said his administration is not preparing a backup plan in case the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare because he believes there is no 'plausible legal basis' for such a ruling. In his first public remarks on the high-stakes case, Obama stuck with his health secretary’s previous remarks that the administration is not concerned about how to protect the subsidies at the heart of his healthcare law. 'If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are. But I’m not going to anticipate that. I'm not going to anticipate bad law,' Obama said in an interview with Reuters."
Attorney General Eric Holder in a USA Today op-ed: "Over the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide whether state restrictions on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.... This week, the Justice Department will file a brief setting forth our position that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the fundamental constitutional guarantee of 'equal protection of the laws.' It is clear that the time has come to recognize that gay and lesbian people deserve robust protection from discrimination."
AP: "The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from same-sex marriage opponents in California who want to keep the identities of their campaign donors secret.... The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them in part because the names have been publicly available for five years."
Jim Inhofe, National Embarrassment. Washington Post Editors: "SEN. JIM Inhofe (R-Okla.) chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee — and he seems determined to make that fact a national embarrassment. Mr. Inhofe delivered a Senate floor speech about the 'hysteria on global warming' last week with two conspicuous props. One was a blown-up photo of his family standing in front of an igloo labeled 'AL GORE’S NEW HOME.'" Then he threw a snowball at the presiding officer.... Neither science nor evidence trouble Mr. Inhofe’s benighted complacency.... The Republican Party should be mortified by the face of their environmental leadership."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brendan James of TPM: "Fox News issued a clarification on Friday on behalf of its star host Bill O'Reilly, saying that he said he'd "seen" bombings in Northern Ireland because police showed him photos of them. The Washington Post spotted a passage in O'Reilly's 2013 book, 'Keep It Pithy,' in which he described seeing lethal bombings in Northern Ireland.... A Fox spokesperson told the Washington Post that O’Reilly did not witness any bombings or injuries in Northern Ireland but was simply shown photos by police officers. The Northern Ireland clarification marks the second time this has happened: On Wednesday, O'Reilly told Mediaite that when he repeatedly said he had seen nuns 'get shot' in El Salvador, he was referring to 'images' he had seen." ...
... CW: Apparently "pithy" means leaving out long words like "photographs." ...
... David Corn & Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones: "Mother Jones has obtained the CBS News report [Bill] O'Reilly filed at the end of the Falklands war. It makes no reference to the dramatic and warlike action — soldiers 'gunning down' Argentine civilians with 'real bullets'— O'Reilly has claimed he witnessed." With video.
Portrait by Nelson Shanks.The Shadow of Her Dress. Stephanie Farr of the Philadelphia Daily News: Portrait artist Nelson Shanks on an official portrait he made of President Clinton:
If you look at the left-hand side of it there's a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him. And so the Clintons hate the portrait. They want it removed from the National Portrait Gallery. They're putting a lot of pressure on them. [... A spokeswoman from the National Portrait Gallery denied that.]
David Graham of the Atlantic elaborates.
Presidential Race
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.... Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach." ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Examining the registry information for 'clintonemail.com' reveals that the domain was first created on January 13, 2009 -- one week before President Obama was sworn into office, and the same day that Clinton's confirmation hearings began before the Senate." ...
... NEW. The Shadow of Her Shades. Margaret Hartmann: "Take a moment to enjoy the 'Texts from Hillary' meme one last time, because henceforth the image of Hillary Clinton scrolling through her BlackBerry with her eyes concealed by dark sunglasses will have an entirely different meaning." In her post, Hartmann gets to the gist of Hillary's little e-mail problems. (Yeah, there's more than one.)
NEW. Charles Pierce: "Hillary Clinton finds a rake to step on." CW: Actually, it was Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-Benghaaazi!) who put the upturned rake in the middle of her primrose path to the presidency. Nonetheless, Hillary sent Trey the map to the path.
How to Look Tough AND Smart. OR Sneering & Pointing Fingers While Bespeckled. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Following a weekend full of conservative attacks on Hillary Clinton at the Conservative Political Action Conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry added to the list, questioning the former secretary of state’s 'loyalty' in an interview that aired Sunday. Responding to news that the Clinton foundation had not notified the State Department when it previously accepted a donation from a foreign nation, Perry argued that Clinton was disloyal." ...
... Steve Benen: “'Where’s your loyalty?' is an exceedingly difficult question for Rick Perry, of all people, to ask. ... Perry flirted openly with the idea of state secession a few years ago, which makes it a little awkward, to put it mildly, when the governor decides to question others’ patriotism or loyalty to the United States." Thanks to Akhilleus for the links on Perry.
Election 2016
Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, announced Monday that she will leave the Senate next year at the end of her fifth term. Mikulski, 78 and in good health, departs the way she came in — with a sharp tongue, an unabashed liberalism, and a reputation for straight talk. She won all ten of her elections to the House and then the Senate with support from more than 60 percent of voters."
Beyond the Beltway
Richael Oppel of the New York Times: "Moving to stem fresh anger over how Cleveland has handled the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Mayor Frank G. Jackson apologized on Monday for language that the city’s lawyers used in court filings to assert that the boy’s death was his own fault.... The newest controversy was spurred by a filing made in federal court late last week by lawyers for the city in response to a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Tamir’s family. The city’s lawyers argued in the filing that the boy died because of his own actions and not because of police department errors."
Emma Margolin of NBC News: "Yet another same-sex marriage ban has fallen – this time, in Nebraska. On Monday, U.S District Judge Joseph Bataillon – a President Bill Clinton appointee – struck down the Cornhusker State’s voter-approved amendment prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying.... The decision also comes just days after Nebraska’s child welfare officials agreed to stop enforcing the state’s policy blocking same-sex couples from becoming foster parents." ...
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell on Monday fired the opening salvo in a bid to get his public corruption conviction thrown out, arguing in a filing that the case against him was 'built on a boundless definition of bribery' and that the judge made legal errors throughout the process that warrant a new trial."
Kate Brumback of the AP: "Georgia postponed its first execution of a woman in 70 years late Monday because of concerns about the drug to be used in the lethal injection. The pentobarbital was sent to an independent lab to check its potency and the test came back at an acceptable level, but during subsequent checks it appeared cloudy, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said. Corrections officials called the pharmacist and decided to postpone the execution 'out of an abundance of caution,' she said. No new date was given."
Marissa Payne of the Washington Post: "In response to two male athletes on its volleyball team coming out in an article published on OutSports.com last year, [Erskine College of South Carolina], which is aligned with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian tradition, released a strongly worded denouncement of homosexuality on campus that many read to be a behavioral ban."
NEW. Katie Baker of BuzzFeed: Another woman accuses Bill Cosby of drugging & raping her. Baker puts the number of Cosby accusers at more than 30 now.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Besides providing updates on the assassination of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the BBC provides a list of the violent deaths of opponents of Vladimir Putin since 2003. You'd have to pretty credulous to believe these were "accidental" or "coincidental" or some such. Via Steve Benen.
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Reader Comments (19)
Another example of American exceptionalism. I bet that nowhere in the world would any legislator pull off the Inhofe stunt. Of course to be fair, the idea of trying to win a political fight by threatening to make terrorism easier makes Inhofe look like a genius. The fun part is that this week will end as usual on Friday.
Question:
Do all the confederates who swooned for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, and who sang songs to his manly "leadership" regret their romantic paeans now that it's obvious he's just a cheap sociopathic gangster who murders his enemies in cold blood, OR do they think "Damn! I wish I could get away with killing my enemies like ol' Vlad"?
God, will I miss Barbara Mikulski!
Her tongue lashings of imbeciles were epic.
Todays NYT post on Dr. Soon, the only scientist in America who knows anything about climate change has responded to the previous articles about his failure to disclose the 'funding' from the fuel industry.
www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/climate-change-researcher-wei-hock-soon-offers-a-defense-of-his-practices.html?
Soon said he would be“happy to comply” with possible additional disclosure requirements from scientific journals publishing his papers. He also said that he had “always complied with what I understood to be disclosure practices in my field generally.”
Really??? So this world renowned genius does not know the standard procedure for almost all scientific journals. In my experience, you are often required to sign a document stating you have no conflict of interest.
And note that the NYT article fails to mention that the genius is an aerospace engineer who only has a part time job and that job is as an astrophysicist, not a climatologist.
And if you want the whole story, see the Greenpeace article.http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/CASE-STUDY-Dr-Willie-Soon-a-Career-Fueled-by-Big-Oil-and-Coal/
Ak: I think the confederates are more subtle in their killings, more
like "House of Cards" stuff. Who wants to bloody up those thousand
$ suits.
Watching & reading more of the drama from news stories since a decision is not until June, leaves every speculating what SCOTUS will do. David Leonhardt ...tackles the story today. The following sentence illustrates a prime example of words and the deliberate MISunderstanding of definitions.
"... The legal arguments revolve around a four-word phrase in one section of the law, which says that the subsidies should go to people who buy insurance on marketplaces “established by the state."
The word state is the apparent culprit in the Thesaurus of those who want to kill ACA. Exactly what is the 'state'? We have 50 states. We speak of the state of our nation. The President delivers an annual State of the Union address. Rereading the disruptive four-word phrase, why should its implication limit it to mean certain state(s) when its interruption would appear to be inclusive of our nation state.
I went back and read more of the NYTimes comments...and happy to see there were concurrences there with my thoughts.
Other issues muddling my House of Cards binge watch, what is Frank Underwood's ultimate game plan in attempting to undo entitlements? Is there a reversal coming in later episodes? Sends a chill...
As for Viktor Petrov, the actor portraying him captures the 'real' Putin. The KGB is alive and well.
The list of Democrats not attending the Netanyahu side show is up to 57 according to the Hill piece linked above (thanks, CW). I wrote a letter begging my own congressman (Rick Larsen) to boycott the speech, and was very pleased to see his name on the list. Not that I claim causality - but still, it felt good. 57 is not insignificant - but it would be nice to see a higher number.
Sometimes the House of Cards plots - outlandish as they are - seem to blend into reality. I can just see an analogous plot on that show . ...foreign head of state plans to end-run the POTUS with the collusion of an opposition congress.
MAG: I agree with you on the portrayal of the Putinesque Viktor Petrov. In fact, it is one of the strongest reasons reason to watch H of C; which in some respects is starting to veer more sharply into cartoon territory. Using FEMA as a mechanism to push a jobs bill - really? I shouldn't say anymore as people who follow the show may be at different stages of watching it. The actor Lars Mikkelsen's portrayal of Viktor Petrov is indeed terrific.
..and the plot thickens!
Earlier I expressed a certain bewilderment over Francis Underwood's position on entitlements and then amid late morning browsing came across this interesting piece by Richard Eskow on real life Frank Underwoods
" Here's a clue: Episode One's credits list Jim Kessler as a consultant. Kessler is, as his IMDB biography notes, the co-founder of Third Way. That's a Wall Street-funded, so-called "centrist" Democratic organization with a mission: to promote neoliberal economics and make the world safe (at least financially) for its wealthy patrons.
Third Way has consistently misrepresented the financial condition of Social Security, misdirected the public debate about Medicare, and generally promoted the socially liberal but fiscally conservative worldview of its patrons."
So, the twists and turns and game-playing go beyond the on-screen storytelling.
I haven't begun to binge yet on HOC, but anyone who watched the original British series might be able to predict where it's going. It followed the first two seasons pretty closely.
Then again, "You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment."
Forrest,
True. But that's what telescopic sights are for on their hunting rifles.
Plus, I don't think Cruz or Perry buy their suits off the rack, they look like pretty expensive duds, although Rand Paul likely does considering he always looks like an unmade bed, even when he chooses to wear pants.
I tried to listen to Netanyahu on my way to car garage. I needed to get an estimate to fix the front bumper after it was grazed by a snow plow. I started yelling and banging on the dashboard, and decided it probably wasn't a good idea to do more damage to my car. So, I turned the radio off, but continued to mutter curses. I'm still mad, and I only heard a few sentences.
I thought I'd check in on wingnut moocher, government hater, and denier of healthcare to millions of Americans, "Sheriff" Richard Mack who is currently standing on some internet corner with his hand out demanding that we give him money.
In a weird way, what he is doing, by requesting that others foot his medical bill, is exactly what 'baggers and other wingnuts have been screaming about regarding the ACA, that by making participation mandatory, members of the pool (younger, healthier people) pay for others (older, sicker people), which, oddly enough, is how insurance of all kinds works. Duh.
So in effect, "Sheriff" Mack is acknowledging that the hated ACA really is not a bad idea at all.
But I was curious about this "constitutional sheriffs movement" he started with that other student of the Constitution and great American, Joe Arpaio.
You'll be pleased to know that it's not as dangerous as it sounds. In fact, it's a LOT more dangerous. Their idea is that sheriffs hold in their sweaty palms the highest powers in the land and can decide which federal laws they and their county must abide by and which they can ignore.
Supporters of these creeps have suggested that "constitutional sheriffs", because this movement grew out of the combined swamplands of conspiracy minded Birchers, white supremacists, and fundamentalist Christian haters, have the power--and the duty--to use deadly force to stop government "intrusions" like abortions. Can't you just see rugged Marlboro Men in white hats kicking down the doors of family planning clinics and shooting anyone talking about or performing abortions? Because freedom! dammit.
These people are dangerous crackpots. And if you were wondering why I put quotes around "Sheriff" Mack's title, it's because he's not a sheriff. He hasn't been an elected sheriff since the 90's, but he sure as shootin' loves playin' one on the TV machine and at 'Bagger rallies where they love talkin' 'bout secession, and shootin' federal officials, and killin' them some Kenyans.
Honestly, boys and girls, these fringey types are not on the fringe anymore. But not to worry, Mack and his constitutional sheriffs have "legal" advice from one "Judge" Navin-Chandra Naidu, who isn't actually a judge either, he just plays one on TV too. At least on Youtube TV. It seems he might not even be a lawyer either although he gives legal advice on how to make sure everyone knows America is a Christian country owned by Jesus. Seems he had a spot of trouble in Fiji--where he's a wanted man--on account of he forged his law degree. Oops. He's also pissed off the Anti-Defamation League, but what wingnut worth their salt hasn't?
Anyway, this guy Mack was planning--just before Karma hit him in his withered teabagger two-sizes too small heart with a BB gun--on taking over a county in Arizona and turning it into a Bircher/Nationalist/Constitutional Sheriff's paradise, where all the officials would be of their ilk and everyone would have to bow down to them. He claims that people of that county were begging him to come save them from the big bad guv'mint: "And I said yes...This is one time I’m gonna be the boss". Democracy, much?
It apparently doesn't matter that he doesn't live there, or that that is Navajo County, where a large percentage of the population are of that tribe and have their own tribal officers and regulations, which he cannot overstep. A small thing to a constitutional sheriff, apparently.
This is the guy, remember, who was going to hide behind a line of women he and Cliven Bundy and their 'bagger thugs were going to set up as human shields to be shot down by intruding Feds in case their range war ever got going. That would have shown 'em.
According to the SPLC, Mack and his constitutional brownshirts are looking to train "...a generation of sheriffs whose politics are infused with radical-right views...What Mack seems to want is a nation of county sheriffs who believe the government is the enemy."
Oh, by the way, Marie was right. The GoFundMe site collecting money for this cowardly moocher has taken down the comments telling him to sit on it and rotate. They left up the "He's my HERO!" comments though.
Dead Horse Department--oh wait, I think one of them moved!
So why would Bill ("I was too in combat!") O'Reilly choose to lie about things that would be so easy to disprove, such as his presence in Palm Beach, Florida when George de Mohrenschildt, a cast member of the long running Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy Show, killed himself?
According to investigative reporter and writer, Hugh Aynesworth, who was in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963, saw the shooting and watched the Oswald killing two days later, and who actually WAS in Palm Beach hours after Mohrenshildt's suicide, "the people who make up JFK stories about themselves always turn out to be what Aynesworth calls 'second-stringers' and 'wannabes'" According to Aynseworth, "They want to be somebody...that's the whole key behind it. It's people who are wannabes."
Poor Wannabe Bill.
I guess he is somebody now. A lying somebody.
I think we should ask Scott Walker what he thinks of HRC using her personal email account. I wonder if she had a secret router.
Or if there are emails documenting that it was used to circumvent existing laws.
RC readers, I beg your indulgence. I'm not binge watching House of Cards. At the very least post warnings on spoilers.
DHS funding bill passes the House. So now it's official. The current Republicans are the dumbest politicians in American history.
Just wondering if Nelson (Mr. Morals) Shanks included the shadow of a TOW missile in his portrait of Ronald Reagan.
To Goldberg's #4, Netanyahu is an amoral dick and a bully and the Israeli equivalent of our seemingly interminable national treasure, Dick Cheney. My money's on Obama.