The Commentariat -- March 6, 2015
Internal links removed.
Whistling Dixie. Anna Palmer & Lauren French of Politico: "Scores of U.S. lawmakers are converging on tiny Selma, Alabama, for a large commemoration of a civil rights anniversary. But their ranks don't include a single member of House Republican leadership -- a point that isn't lost on congressional black leaders.... Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who participated in the 1965 march alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, said he was disappointed that House Republican leaders wouldn't make the trip. But Lewis said he looked forward to hearing from former President George W. Bush, who is set to speak Saturday. President Barack Obama is also scheduled to attend the ceremonies on Saturday." ...
... CW: The WTF leadership is probably too busy in Washington, where they are cooking up bills to further curb the Voting Right Act. ...
... Steve Benen: "Republican leaders declined to participate in the Lincoln Memorial event in 2013; they've declined invitations to Selma; they had no public concerns after learning Steve Scalise attended a white-supremacist event; they're slow walking the first African-American woman to ever be nominated as Attorney General; and they're blocking a proposed bipartisan fix to the Voting Rights Act while their brethren at the state level impose new voting restrictions that disproportionately affect people of color."
** Leaving a Fox to Guard the Foxes in the Henhouse. John Eligon & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "On Thursday..., a [Ferguson, Mo.,] spokesman revealed that the fired official was ... the city's top court clerk, Mary Ann Twitty.... Her involvement in the emails and their wide distribution illustrate how difficult fixing the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court will be when many city officials led, participated in or tolerated the most controversial practices uncovered by the Justice Department. Those city employees include the police chief who authorized arrests without probable cause; the municipal judge who adds new charges when people contest their citations, yet quietly got his own traffic ticket wiped away; and the city manager who was the force behind the financially driven policies that led to widespread discrimination. Many of those same officials will now be the ones attempting to carry out the reforms demanded by the Justice Department." Read the whole story. ...
... ** Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "One should understand that the Justice Department did not simply find indirect evidence of unintentionally racist practices which harm black people, but 'discriminatory intent' -- that is to say willful racism aimed to generate cash. Justice in Ferguson is not a matter of 'racism without racists,' but racism with racists so secure, so proud, so brazen that they used their government emails to flaunt it." Coates see Ferguson in Lockean terms, & he's right. ...
... Tiny Castles. Henry Farrell, in a Washington Post op-ed, sees Ferguson in the context of government racketeering through the ages: The economist & social scientist Mancur "Olson failed to be charmed by the picturesque castles lining the German river Rhine, because he knew that each castle had been built by some local lord to threaten violence to traders going up and down the river if they didn't pay him a tariff. Local government in St. Louis appears to have been constructed along similar lines, with the victims mostly being poor African Americans rather than wealthy traders."
... Jack Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. cast doubt on the 'hands up' account [of Michael Brown's shooting death] even as he described Ferguson as having a racially biased police department and justice system."
Danny Vinik of the New Republic puts a damper on celebrations of today's positive jobs report: "Wages, the key metric that economists are watching to determine the slack in the labor market, ticked up just 0.1 percent. Over the past year, they've grown 2 percent. Thanks to falling oil prices, which have lowered inflation, real wage growth is positive over the past year. But that's still not a particularly strong number. Wages must grow at a 3 to 4 percent rate to keep up with both inflation and productivity growth. We're still not close to that."
New York Times aids & abets Scalia, et al., with top story, "As Health Law Is Weighed, GOP Plans to Replace It." No link. Because that's bull. As Greg Sargent amply documents this morning. "Perhaps we should celebrate the 50-month anniversary of the GOP vow of an alternative by showing a bit of skepticism towards similar claims being made over four years later," Sargent suggests. ...
... Update. Also read Victoria D.'s comment in today's thread. ...
(For context, go here.)
... Moops! Greg Sargent: "... during oral arguments, the idea (floated by Scalia) that Congress might provide such a contingency plan [to fix the language in the ACA which is the subject of the King v. Burwell case] was basically laughed out of the Court. Understandably so: No one who watched the chaos around Homeland Security funding could possibly imagine Congress producing any such plan." ...
... Scott Lemieux in the Week: "Scalia's argument, of course, came straight from a land of willful fantasy.... Scalia has long shown an affinity for the most witless Fox News talking points. Republicans have been making a conscious effort to reassure the court that they have a plan should the court gut the ACA. Needless to say, they don't actually have any plan -- pretending to have a plan is their only plan. Indeed, Republicans in Congress are so dysfunctional that they can barely even pretend to have a serious alternative, and any attempt to fix the law would assuredly be stillborn." ...
... CW: I was a bit surprised by Justice Moops' support for the plaintiffs because (1) this reading of the ACA goes against Moops' previous opinions on the breadth of textual analysis, & (2) even though the tax subsidies reduce income inequality (something Moops no doubt hates, because socialism!), the people who get the subsidies aren't poor layabout slackers; they are low- and middle-income workers. But then. I looked into the demographics of it. The people Justice Moops & his nasty friends want to relieve of health insurance (because freeedom!) are disproportionately women and minorities. So it all makes sense. If you're a twisted SOB. ...
... Update: This post by David Leonhardt of the New York Times suggests I didn't paying enough attention to the inequality part: "... the law is the most aggressive attack that the federal government has launched against inequality since inequality began rising four decades ago. It taxes the affluent (and corporations, which are disproportionately owned by the affluent) in order to subsidize health insurance for middle-class and poor households that lack it. If you sometimes wonder why the law has generated such political heat, that fact is the main reason." ...
... Abbe Gluck, in a Politico Magazine piece explains how textual analysis must and has worked in regard to federalism questions: "... the court has a set of doctrines that tell it how to interpret statutory text when a federalism question is at issue. Those doctrines prohibit the court from reading a statute to intrude on the states or to impose a drastic condition or consequence on the states unless the statute is crystal clear. The relevance of these doctrines to King, and the textual interpretation question at the heart of the case, is obvious: For the challengers to win, the drastic penalty their reading would impose on the states must be absolutely clear in the statute. The ACA comes nowhere close to meeting this requisite standard of clarity." Gluck cites other established doctrines of interpretation, each of which requires "a far higher bar for textual clarity than the challengers' reading of the law can possibly reach." CW: All of the justices know this. ...
... Noah Feldman, in Bloomberg View, explains why Solicitor General Don Verrilli conceded the plaintiffs' standing during oral arguments: he thinks Hillary is going to lose! CW: Okay, that's not exactly how Feldman phrased it. But that's the idea.
Paul Krugman: Blame pizza!
Civil Disobedience, Snow-Day Edition. Tim Devaney of Hill: "From sledding to snowball fights, dozens of children and their parents took to Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon to protest a controversial sledding ban. Capitol Police have refused to lift the sledding ban, but some parents organized a 'sled in' on the west lawn of the Capitol to put a spotlight on the unpopular rule." ...
British Gen. Frederick Haldimand meets his match. Boston 1775.... Yoni Appelbaum of the Atlantic provides some enchanting historical & contemporary context, as well as the illustration above. "Thursday's protest was a small act, but it stands in [a] grand tradition." ...
... More about Kids' Rights! Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link:
Presidential Race
Worse Than Reported. Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "The administration of Gov. Chris Christie offered details for the first time on Thursday about its settlement of a longstanding legal battle with Exxon Mobil Corporation over contamination in which the company agreed to pay a fraction of the damages that the State of New Jersey was seeking. A statement, issued jointly by the state's attorney general and environmental commissioner, said Exxon had agreed to pay $225 million to resolve the 2004 lawsuits. The state's own experts had placed the cost of environmental restoration and other damages resulting from the company's refinery operations in northern New Jersey at $8.9 billion." ...
... S. P. Sullivan of NJ Advance Media: "The $225 settlement also resolves some liability regarding contamination at 16 Exxon gas stations around the state.... Debbie Mans, head of NY/NJ Baykeeper, said it was puzzling why the state was including the other facilities in their agreement with Exxon. 'Those weren't part of the original litigation, so they're doing a big favor to Exxon by including them in the settlement,' she said. She also criticized the size of the settlement, claiming Christie had 'turned his back' on the Union and Hudson county residents who have lived near the two sites for decades." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Chris Christie, currently residing down in the netherworld of Rick Perryland in the latest 2016 form charts, also still has his job as governor of New Jersey. As such, he apparently has made sure that his administration doesn't dreadfully inconvenience any corporation that might want to chip in for firewood when he and his campaign are huddled around a burning oil barrel in a trainyard outside of Council Bluffs next December."
Brent Johnson of NJ Advance Media: "A group of unions representing New Jersey state troopers are the first to sue Gov. Chris Christie to force him to make a larger payment to the state's public-worker pension system than he has included in his latest state budget proposal."
** Tim Egan defines what's wrong with Hillary for President. CW: I don't fault Hillary for this. Yes, she's a rather ruthless entitled person. But the Democratic party, not the ruthless power player, is the entity responsible for leaving the bench empty. After all, Barack Obama was a rookie called up in extraordinary circumstances in 2008: a very freshman U.S. Senator who won his seat in 2006 because one GOP opponent self-destructed & the next was dangerously insane. He had absolutely no significant accomplishments under his belts. On paper, the party has much better than that to offer, but it has not put them at center stage.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The State Department has had a policy in place since 2005 to warn officials against routine use of personal email accounts for government work, a regulation in force during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state that appears to be at odds with her reliance on a private email for agency business, Politico has learned. The policy, detailed in a manual for agency employees, adds clarity to an issue at the center of a growing controversy over Clinton's reliance on a private email account." ...
... CW: I'm not sure how much "clarity" the policy adds. I don't think the department's "rules" apply to a Cabinet secretary. ...
... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "An aide said former Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood used both personal and professional email on his Blackberry -- with both going into the archives.... LaHood's experience, related in detail to BuzzFeed News, was similar to that of other senior administration officials, officials and staff said." CW: If you read the post, I think you'll find that LaHood's practice makes sense. Hillary's, not so much. ...
... Mark Drajem & Indira Lakshmanan of Bloomberg Business: "The question advocates for open government are asking now is how the public will know if all the relevant e-mails have been sent to the State Department. Instead of a government employee reviewing the records, Clinton staff members did the work." ...
... Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Democrats are scrambling to try and limit the damage from the escalating controversy over Hillary Clinton's use of personal email accounts while she was secretary of State. With their likely presidential nominee now facing congressional subpoenas, Democrats began to circle the wagons Thursday, seizing on Clinton's statement late Wednesday that she wants her emails released to the public as soon as possible.... Republicans moved quickly Thursday to turn up the heat on Clinton over the personal emails, with the Republican National Committee (RNC) asking the State Department to open an independent investigation into whether she broke the law." ...
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Chair of the Select Committee to Emulsify Hillary Clinton.... Tim Mak & Jackie Kucinich of the Daily Beast: "... suddenly, Democrats are terrified -- terrified that the Benghazi panel is about to become the House Select Committee to take down Clinton, their presumptive presidential nominee." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic has an excellent rundown of Democrats' reactions to #emailghazi. ...
... Niall Stanage of the Hill: "Republicans believe Hillary Clinton's fundamental political weaknesses have been exposed by the controversy surrounding her use of personal email while secretary of State -- and they couldn't be more delighted.... Republican strategists say that Clinton's political abilities have long been exaggerated. They contend she displays an unusual capacity to make trouble for herself and, unlike her husband, no great degree of nimbleness in getting out of it." ...
... Charles Pierce is unimpressed with the Beltway Buzz, especially as it is embodied in one "Ron Fournier, a breezy conversationalist and one-time father confessor to Karl Rove, [who] has waded into the Hillary Clinton E-Mail blogswarm with a take so hot it could melt cold steel. Maybe Clinton doesn't want to run. Maybe she shouldn't." Pierce, contra Fournier: "Look, I'm not sold on Clinton as a candidate, either.... This was an unforced error. Anybody who tries to make it into a moral disqualification for office has a very short memory for what a moral disqualification for office actually is." ...
... Tone-Deaf. Dee Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal: "Gov. Scott Walker’s political nonprofit slammed Hillary Clinton for using a private email system during her time as secretary of state -- even though Walker employed a similar practice as Milwaukee County executive.... Democratic and liberal groups immediately responded, noting the extensive use by Walker and his county executive staff of private email accounts and a secret wireless router in his county office in an effort to skirt the state's open records laws. The secret system was uncovered during an investigation into illegal campaign activities by Walker's staff and associates that led to six convictions. Walker was not charged." Thanks to Nadd2 for the link. ...
... Brian Mahoney of Politico: "Scott Walker's likely pending victory over organized labor -- passage of a right-to-work law in Wisconsin -- will be just the latest milestone in a resurgent anti-union movement marching across the industrial heartland." ...
... Update. Mary Spicuzza, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Republican-controlled state Assembly passed Wisconsin's so-called right-to-work bill Friday morning after a marathon debate that began Thursday and stretched overnight.... The measure, which bans labor contracts requiring workers to pay union fees, now heads to the desk of Gov. Scott Walker, who has said he will sign the bill by Monday. The Assembly voted 62-35 along party lines in favor of the bill."
CW: You might think that Jeb Bush's egregious treatment of Terri Schiavo & her husband Michael is an impediment to his Bush III hopes. And it is! In Iowa, movement crazies think it was horrible that he "let her die."
Beyond the Beltway
Richard Fausset & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "As it looks increasingly likely that the Supreme Court will establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage later this year, state legislatures across the country are taking up bills that would make it easier for businesses and individuals to opt out of serving gay couples on religious grounds."
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Labor Department reported on Friday that employers added 295,000 workers to their payrolls in February and that unemployment fell to 5.5 percent. The report was a big improvement from January's...."
New York Times: "A 23-year-old British man has been arrested over a cyberattack in which data was stolen from the United States Department of Defense, the police said on Friday. The man was detained Wednesday morning by detectives from the National Crime Agency of Britain on suspicion of offenses linked to a hacking that took place in June...."
USA Today: Actor "Harrison Ford was injured Thursday afternoon when his vintage single-engine airplane crashed on a golf course shortly after taking off from Santa Monica Airport."
Detroit News: "A federal judge was shot outside his west side home Thursday night in what police believe was an attempted robbery or home invasion.U.S. District Judge Terrence G. Berg was shot in the leg about 9:10 p.m. outside his home on the west side of Detroit...."
New York Times: "Liberia's last Ebola patient was discharged on Thursday after a ceremony in the capital, Monrovia, bringing to zero the number of known cases in the country and marking a milestone in West Africa's battle against the disease.... The disease had flared up recently in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the two other countries hardest hit by it."
Guardian: "A court order from the US army court of criminal appeals instructs the military to refer to [Chelsea Manning] in all future official correspondence either using the gender neutral 'Private First Class Manning' or employing the feminine pronoun."
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Reader Comments (11)
How money is ruining America's courts by Sue Bell Cobb, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court from 2007-2011 and was a judge for 30 yrs.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/judicial-elections-fundraising-115503.html#.VPjmdUKkJ-I
How does religion ignore what even they call the facts. So lets see, the magic book says slavery is no big deal, polygamy is normal marriage and gays can't buy flowers. Oh wait, I got that wrong, the book never mentions gay. America's version of the Taliban.
He's going there:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/scott-walker-political-group-criticizes-hillary-clinton-over-use-of/article_7920d8ef-34de-51de-96b0-ebf276e29057.html
If the media lets Walker get away with this, then ......I just don't know.
I have always wondered what Christie would do when he doesn't make it to POTUS. Now I know, VP for Exxon Mobil.
For decades, I have felt sorta sorry for dumb white people who put their prejudices ahead of their self-interest by voting for Republicans who have offered them a long menu of wink-wink "those moochers," gays, God, guns, abortion, blah blah.
But now, but now. These same white people, & their offspring, are voting for Republicans who directly undermine their economic self-interest by dismantling unions, refusing to raise wages & generally supporting business against labor at every turn, redistributing wealth upward via tax policy, and on & on.
At what point is it proper to say "Fuck 'em"?
Marie
Some time ago PBS Newshour featured a story about a cake-maker (can't remember in what state) who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple based on his religious beliefs. The couple is suing under their state's discrimination law. A libertarian would certainly side with the cake-maker––he should have every right to serve whom he pleases. As much as this smacks of freedom of choice, it presents an ugly underside of prejudice, bigotry and hate. To use religion in all its guises to promulgate this discrimination is, to put it very simply, not fair––and rotten to the core.
Some people are asking how Hillary could have been so naive ( read stupid) to get herself in this email mess (which may turn out to be much ado about nothing too serious). But something I recall from years ago may shed a little bit of light: When Hillary tried to defend that slimy prick of a man, Dick Morris to Harold Ickes saying Dick was a heart-headed man who knew how to win elections and understood the underside of politics, Ickes responded with, "He IS the underside."
The smart don't always make wise decisions.
On CBS radio news this morning the reporter said that Harrison Ford was injured but OK after his aircraft accident: he crashed on a golf course and there were a number of doctors right there to provide immediate aid. The reporter did not sound like he was delivering a joke, but, you know, doctors, golf on a weekday afternoon ... it only lacked a rimshot.
@Patrick: Good point. Maybe when Scalia & Co. kill ObamaCare, all the uninsured people should go lie down on a golf course when they get sick.
Well, I guess that's problematic in winter months -- a glitch I haven't quite worked out yet. Racquetball courts???
Marie
Marie, many people simply cannot deal with the reality of their own lives. Discrimination is just a way for assholes to feel important. There is no rational evaluation of anything. Money problems can never be the fault of co-people. I mean Harrison Ford survived. Thank God!, Millions of children die of hunger blame ........ Millions of Republicans are raised to be irrational and it works well.
The good news is that the majority of Americans are not Republicans. The bad news is the majority of Americans don't vote.
Thank you yet again CW for your witty commentary to stories you link - or refuse to link. The NYT front page headline article: "As Supreme Court Weighs Healthcare Law, GOP Plans to Replace It" caught my eye as I looked at the Times this morning. What utter bullshit on a couple of levels. You read the article and find out there is no draft legislation, no consensus among Republicans, and no new ideas at all. Just the usual gaggle of Republican cross-talk that we have been hearing for the last 6 years. The reporters seem to be a mouthpiece for conservatives, propagandizing a misleading idea of a viable replacement for the ACA so right wing justices won't feel so guilty taking healthcare away from millions of people.
I read the article and still have to ask: WHAT plan?
Here's GREAT examples of Marie's "fuck ems"–––especially Jack and Becky.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/03/1368268/-After-comments-on-vaccinations-Jimmy-Kimmel-reads-Mean-Tweets-and-punches-back?detail=email