The Commentariat -- March 30, 2014
Steve Yaccino & Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls. The bills, laws and administrative rules -- some of them tried before -- shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote. Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, in particular cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election." ...
... CW: Any Republican who gave a rat's ass about American "values" would be speaking out -- screaming -- against this systematic disenfranchisement of eligible voters. I have never held a high opinion of Republican motives or policies, but ten years ago you could not have convinced me that the party would stoop so low. These actions make Nixon's secret dirty tricks against political rivals & journalists look like small potatoes; these are open & notorious dirty tricks against vast swaths of defenseless American citizens. The Republican party has no shame. ...
... CW: And how about the indignity of not being able to eat, drink or breathe? Thanks to Barbarossa for the link to this excellent essay by Dan Kaufman on the Wisconsin legislature's (and Gov. Scott Walker's) approval of "the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine" to be blasted out of the hills & river valleys of Upstate Wisconsin, endangering not only the lifelines of the local Chippewa tribe but also Lake Superior (and probably a good portion of the continent's water supply). How could this happen? Mining executives and their "supporters have donated a total of $15 million to Governor Walker and Republican legislators, outspending the mine's opponents by more than 600 to 1."
** Bruce Ackerman in the Nw York Times: "Dignity is a Constitutional principle." CW: Ackerman doesn't go there, but he could just as well apply his "Constitutional principle" to the indignity of being a person of color or an elderly person or a student going to the polls & being denied her right to vote.
Andrew Roth & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "A day after the Russian leader Vladimir V. Putin reached out to President Obama to try to peacefully resolve the standoff over Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry scrambled his travel plans to meet with his Russian counterpart in Paris on Sunday, according to a State Department official."
Tim Egan of the New York Times: "'This was a completely unforeseen slide,' said John Pennington, the emergency manager of Snohomish County. 'It was considered very safe.' He said this on Monday, two days after the equivalent of three million dump truck loads of wet earth heaved down on the river near the tiny town of Oso. Unforeseen — except for 60 years' worth of warnings, most notably a report in 1999 that outlined 'the potential for a large catastrophic failure" on the very hillside that just suffered a large catastrophic failure.' ... Logging above the area of the current landslide appears to have gone beyond the legal limits, into the area that slid...."
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "The White House on Friday opened the way to cutting emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry, saying it would study the magnitude of leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas. The announcement seemed designed to please the international community -- which is meeting in Yokohama to finalise a blockbuster climate report -- as well as environmental groups suing to force the Obama administration to regulate the oil and gas industry."
Bishop Gene Robinson in the Daily Beast: "... Christians complaining about 'discrimination' should realize what real victimization looks like."
Tim Townsend has a good piece in the Daily Beast on the first books of the Bible & the evolution of God's relationship to his flawed creation: mankind. The piece is ostensibly about the film "Noah," which premiered this week.
Presidential Election 2016
Anybody But Rand. Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Many of the Republican Party's most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates and starting talks on fundraising strategy. Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP's brightest hope to win back the White House." ...
... Yeah, and the Democrats can't think of anyone but Clinton. Both parties are stuck in a fairly ignominious past. What are people who care about the present & future to do?
Ken Vogel of Politico: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to Sheldon Adelson in a meeting Saturday for stepping on a fault line in Middle East politics during a speech he gave earlier in the day...." Christie used the term "occupied territories" to describe, um, the occupied territories. CW: This conjures for me the unpleasant image of a fat man, settling himself with difficulty into position to kiss the wrinkled ass of a tetchy oligarch. Politics is hard.
The Other Clinton
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Clinton Library took the wraps off another batch of White House documents Friday afternoon, offering new insights into how aides scrambled to address the Monica Lewinsky scandal, how the hot-button issue of race tied the White House staff up in knots and how former President Bill Clinton cast a wide net for advice in advance of his major speeches."
Odd News
Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor: "Three days after an FBI agent was cleared of wrongdoing in the bizarre killing of an associate of slain Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the only surviving bombing suspect, alleged that the FBI attempted to recruit the elder Tsarnaev as an informant. In court filings on Friday, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense team said that new information suggests the FBI interviewed Tamerlan on several occasions before the attack, and even pressured him to surreptitiously report on the Chechen underworld."
News Ledes
New York Times: "As Secretary of State John Kerry began his meeting [in Paris] with his Russian counterpart on Sunday evening to seek a political solution to the tense standoff over Ukraine, the federalization of the country was likely to be at the core of the discussion." ...
... Guardian: "Russia on Sunday night repeated its demand that the US and its European partners accept its proposal that ethnic Russian regions of eastern and southern Ukraine be given extensive autonomous powers independent of Kiev as a condition for agreeing a diplomatic solution to the crisis over its annexation of Crimea." The Washington Post story is here. ...
... Reuters: " The United States on Sunday pledged $10 million to bolster border security in Moldova at a time when concerns are rising about divisions within the country over a trade deal with Europe and Russia's intervention in neighboring Ukraine. The pro-Western Moldavan government is pushing ahead with an EU trade deal by the summer despite the increasing debate on whether to integrate with Europe or stick with former Soviet master Russia."
Reuters: "U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has sent America's top general in Europe back early from a trip to Washington in what a spokesman on Sunday called a prudent step given Russia's 'lack of transparency' about troop movements across the border with Ukraine."
AP: "American mediators held urgent contacts with Israeli and Palestinian officials Sunday in hopes of salvaging troubled Mideast peace talks -- searching for a formula to bring the sides back together and extend the negotiations beyond a current late-April deadline." ...
... Guardian: "The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, on Sunday began his visit to Israel, at a time of heightened tensions with Israel's defence minister. Dempsey and Moshe Yaalon tried to portray business as usual, weeks after Yaalon angered US officials."
Guardian: "Egypt's presidential election will be held in late May, the electoral commission announced on Sunday, finally setting dates for the crucial vote widely expected to be won by the country's former military chief who ousted an elected president last year."
Seattle Times: " The number of people believed missing in last weekend's deadly mudslide has dropped dramatically from 90 to 30."
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Reader Comments (13)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/the-fight-for-wisconsins-soul.html
Anyone who thinks Scott Walker would be a good President should read Dan Kaufman's piece in the nytimes linked above. The man is bought and paid for. X
Thanks Barbarossa for alerting me to this article which makes me mad as well as sad. As a former Wisconsinite it has special concern. When I was growing up there we lived two blocks from Lake Michigan and although usually too cold to swim in we spent a lot of time on its banks and surroundings. One day we noticed a slew of dead fish that had washed up on the banks. Turned out a factory that was located way on the other side of town had dumped their residue into the waters. I recall it caused quite a scandal. Lakes, rivers and streams are one of Wisconsin's pride and joy's––the fact that Walker seems impervious to the pleas from environmentalists and other concerned citizens isn't surprising. What IS surprising and disappointing is that Obama's promise to the Indian nation is not being heeded–––if indeed that is true.
The first item today about 'significant new restrictions on registering and voting on registering and voting...'
Anyone know if President Obama could discharge an executive order to every business in the United States that gets even the smallest tax break that they must provide time and transportation to their employees for voting. There are also plenty of volunteers in cities and towns throughout the country who could join in this effort.
Re: "What are people who care about the present & future to do?" Marie
I think about it everyday.
Some days I laugh and think about the great sweep of history and my very insignificant role on the stage.
Some days I weep when I see the results of my species actions on both ourselves and our environment.
Some days I curse and wish for a avenging agent to protect the weak and destroy the greedy.
Some days I find peace knowing that Mother Earth has her rules and regulations and sooner or later fines will be paid.
All days I do my best to live each minute in wonderment of life itself, knowing that the more positive and loving I can be makes my life and the lives of others around me better.
All days I realize could be my last so enjoy the tiniest bit of pleasure at every moment.
All days I rejoice knowing that I was born in the best of times and the best of places and am the luckiest fucker that ever walked the planet.
All days I am comforted knowing it's "dust to dust, ashes to ashes; live goes on babe".
That's what I do and think. And I'll vote for the least of the crooks.
@JJG: Beautifully put. Words to live by, indeed.
The question was rhetorical. I didn't expect an answer, much less one of great value.
Marie
JJG: Ditto--what Marie said. I'm going to copy it and read it on dark days.
Kristof has a quiz called "Do you speak Dictator"––my score: 9/12
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/03/30/opinion/30kristof-quiz.html
Took the Kristof test and I scored 9/12 also!
11/12 on the Kristof quiz. Should have paid attention to to the literal meaning of "lethal;" guess it wasn't intended as hyperbole.
As for rhetorical questions, also much enjoyed JJG's thoughtful answer. Made me think that many of our (mine, at least) RC comments are answers to what amount to rhetorical "questions" to which progressives know the correct answers but use the platform to express our deep frustration that too many others don't know them as well, obvious as they seem to us.
Thanks and good Sunday to all.
@JJG, Thanks. Got a little lift after having just read
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/03/today-in-both-sides-do-it-ctd.html
esp. paragraph 2
The Northwoods of Wisconsin is my stomping grounds. The air up there could be bottled and sold. As far as I know, Mother Earth has no remedy for open pit mining. I'm going to have to go with JJG's "curse and destroy the greedy".
@JJG-I want to add my thanks for your profound and heartfelt ode to life! I too am saving it to reread on dark days!
@PDPepe-I think we have in many ways lived in the same Karma. Although I was born in Madison, Wisconsin--my family moved to Milwaukee (Shorewood) when I was 12. We, too, lived a block from Lake Michigan, but I got a headache every time I swam in it.
And I remember the noxioua scourge of dead Alewives. Horrible!
@HaleySimon-Northern Wisconsin has always been to me "God's Country." I say that even as a non-believer! I went to camp in Boulder Junction every summer for 10 years and took many canoe trips around the wonderful (clean) lakes up there--at least they were then. Shame on Scott Walk-Over-Her! May he breathe his last while sloshing in glop from the iron-ore pits! He may just be the most despicable of all the Repubs running for POTUS!
Kate, we were neighbors. Manitowish Waters is my spot.
Just so we keep up to date on Crimea, the Tatars are restless.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/03/30/Crimean-Tatars-plan-to-declare-autonomous-territory-in-Crimea/5991396185648/?spt=sec&or=tn