The Commentariat -- May 15, 2013
Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "... the government’s annual deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington expected, and perhaps even faster than many economists think is advisable for the health of the economy. That is the thrust of a new report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, estimating that the deficit for this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, will fall to about $642 billion, or 4 percent of the nation’s annual economic output, about $200 billion lower than the agency estimated just three months ago." ...
... Steve Benen: "Thanks in large part to higher taxes on the wealthy, which Republicans said would not reduce the deficit, deficit reduction is picking up speed at a pace few could have predicted. We're now looking at over $400 billion in deficit reduction in just one year, and about $800 billion in deficit reduction since President Obama took office.... It's fair to say this problem has been largely fixed.... Let's also not forget that Republican talking points on fiscal policy have effectively been left in tatters, and every conservative political figure who's declared 'Socialist Obama is turning America into Greece!' looks incredibly foolish right now." ...
... Paul Krugman in the New York Review of Books on "how the case for austerity has crumbled." A long piece, and review material for Krugman readers.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "An inspector general's report issued Tuesday blamed ineffective Internal Revenue Service management in the failure to stop employees from singling out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Congressional aides, meanwhile, sought to determine whether the Obama administration's knowledge of the effort extended beyond the I.R.S.... The report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration offered new details on the scope and duration of the I.R.S. targeting effort.... The I.R.S. headquarters in Washington was far more involved in the effort than initially portrayed.... The inspector general did seem to back up the Obama administration's portrayal of a roguelike operation in Cincinnati flouting the wishes of senior I.R.S. officials in Washington." The IG report is here. ...
... Charles Pierce: "Now, because of the enforced toothlessness of the FEC, we have the IRS tasked de facto with the job of regulating campaign spending, which is a bad idea in theory and now looks even worse in practice." (CW: I linked the Confessore piece, on which Pierce comments, here yesterday.) ...
... Rick Hasen of Slate: "This is all about the failure of Congress to require the disclosure of donors who bankroll groups designed to influence elections.... Congress should set clear rules to require any entity, regardless of its tax status, to disclose donors whose money pays for federal election ads." CW: so, um, Republicans in Congress are outraged that they -- and Supreme Court conservatives -- set up the IRS for a massive fail, & the IRS (supposedly) obliged.
Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post: "Republicans Are Mad that DOJ Carried Out Probe of Media that They Demanded Last Year." ...
... Washington Post Editors are outraged at Justice's sweep of the AP's phone records, natch, but they too add, "The investigation of AP began in response to Republican outrage about the purported fact that White House officials were leaking secret information and spinning it to make President Obama look good for reelection purposes. In response, the Obama administration launched the present investigation, on top of the six (mostly unsuccessful) ones it had attempted previously -- which, judging on costs and benefits visible to date, was probably six too many." ...
... Michael Crowley & Zeke Miller of Time: "The New GOP Case against Obama: He's Cheney!" ...
... New York Times Editors: "The Obama administration, which has a chilling zeal for investigating leaks and prosecuting leakers, has failed to offer a credible justification for secretly combing through the phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press in what looks like a fishing expedition for sources and an effort to frighten off whistle-blowers." ...
... Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns & Money: "The subpoena of phone records is probably legal. I wouldn't say anything definitive until we know all the details, but under existing law the First Amendment doesn't provide a shield for journalists and Congress hasn't created a statutory shield. A subpoena, unlike a search warrant, doesn't require judicial approval." ...
... Alex Pareene of Salon: "The real scandal is, it was probably all legal." ...
... Jeff Toobin piles on: "It's what society chooses not to punish that tells us most about the prevailing ethical standards of the time. Campaign finance operates by shaky, or even nonexistent, rules, and powerful players game the system with impunity. A handful of I.R.S. employees saw this and tried, in a small way, to impose some small sense of order. For that, they'll likely be ushered into bureaucratic oblivion."
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday evening ordered the armed services to immediately 're-train, re-credential and re-screen' tens of thousands of military recruiters and sexual-assault prevention officers as the revelation of another sex-crime scandal rocked the Pentagon. Hagel's order came in response to the Army's disclosure on Tuesday that a sergeant first class responsible for handling sexual assault cases at Fort Hood, Tex., had been placed under criminal investigation over allegations of abusive sexual contact and other related offenses. The Army investigation comes just 10 days after a lieutenant colonel in charge of the Air Force's sexual assault programs was arrested in Arlington County on charges that he groped and battered a woman in a parking lot. That incident, along with fresh statistics showing that sex crimes have become endemic in the military, sparked a furious response from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and President Obama." ...
... AP: "A soldier assigned to coordinate a sexual assault prevention program in Texas is under investigation for 'abusive sexual contact' and other alleged misconduct and has been suspended from his duties, the Army announced Tuesday.... The Army said a sergeant first class, whose name was not released, is accused of pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates. He is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. No charges have been filed."...
... Craig Whitlock: "Military recruiters across the country have been caught in a string of sex-crime scandals over the past year, exposing another long-standing problem for the Defense Department as it grapples with a crisis of sexual assault in the ranks. In Alaska, law enforcement officials are fuming after a military jury this month convicted a Marine Corps recruiter of first-degree sexual assault in the rape of a 23-year-old female civilian but did not sentence him to prison. In Texas, an Air Force recruiter will face a military court next month on charges of rape, forcible sodomy and other crimes involving 18 young women he tried to enlist over a three-year period. Air Force officials have described the case as perhaps the worst involving one of its recruiters. In Maryland, Army officials are puzzling over a murder-suicide last month, when a staff sergeant, Adam Arndt, killed himself after he fatally shot Michelle Miller, a 17-year-old Germantown girl whom he had been recruiting for the Army Reserve. Officials suspect the two were romantically involved, something expressly forbidden by military rules."
Benghazzzzi! Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "There was a cover-up in Watergate, and people went to jail for it. There was a cover-up in Iran-Contra -- Oliver North, currently appearing on Fox News to express outrage at the Obama administration, perjured himself before Congress and shredded incriminating White House documents to hide the Reagan administration's illegal and morally abhorrent scheme. That's a cover-up. Editing talking points? Not even close."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Democrats frustrated with the GOP's blocking of a string of President Obama's nominees are seriously weighing a controversial tactic known as the 'nuclear option.' The option -- which would involve Democrats changing Senate rules through a majority vote to prevent the GOP from using the 60-vote filibuster to block nominations -- was raised during a private meeting Wednesday involving about 25 Democratic senators and a group of labor leaders."
Stanley Fish tries to figure out if the NRA's advocacy for armed rebellion against tyrants (Obama) is maybe unamerican. His answer: yes and no. If you think you are smarter than a celebrated intellectual, you are.
Wherein Pablo Pantoja, the State Director of Florida Hispanic Outreach for the Republican National Committee, becomes a Democrat. Thank you, Jim DeMint, for reaching out. Via Charles Pierce.
AND in More First Amendment Controversies -- Thomas Jefferson, Founding Nazi. Or something. Thanks to Kate M.:
... Mr. Irkfart there might like to know that one advocate for separation of church & state was his imaginary friend Jesus. (Mark 12:17) Another adherent to this view -- Martin Luther: "God has ordained the two governments: the spiritual, which by the Holy Spirit under Christ makes Christians and pious people; and the secular, which restrains the unchristian and wicked so that they are obliged to keep the peace outwardly." Jefferson might have got his idea from Rhode Island founder Roger Williams: "When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wildernes of the world, God hathe ever broke down the wall it selfe, removed the Candlestick, & and made his Garden a Wildernesse." But Jefferson more likely relied on the thinking of John Locke -- "I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other," and/or Denis Diderot -- "The distance between the throne and the altar can never be too great." When the U.S. Supreme Court (in 1947) first embraced the phrase "separation of church & state," they cited Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. Oh, and Hitler? Never said it. In short, Mr. Irkfart is an idiot (although when caught, he did walk back his ridiculous "history lesson," suggesting it was a metaphor [or something]). But you knew that.
Local News
Patrick Condon of the AP: Minnesota "Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday signed a bill making gay marriage legal in Minnesota, the 12th state to take the step, as thousands of onlookers cheered."
New York Times Editors: Florida's "indisputably defective death penalty system is made more horrifying by attempts to rush inmates to execution. There is a strong chance that [a current death-row inmate] will become the 25th death-row inmate exonerated in Florida since it reinstated capital punishment in 1973. More death-row inmates have been exonerated in Florida than in any state." Gov. Rick Scott should veto "the Timely Justice Act, a grotesquely named bill passed by the Florida legislature ... [which] would require a governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme Court, and the state would be required to execute the defendant within 180 days of the warrant."
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Reader Comments (5)
I tried to submit the following comment to the Stanley Fish column, but the levee was closed:
Professor Fish, I truly admire your attempt to conflate mentally ill gun owners with responsible citizens.
You could have ended your commentary when you noted that in a democracy we accept the results of elections, even when Diebold voting machines likely skew those results.
My nightmare scenario echoes that of Rwanda: Two groups in mutual opposition; one heavily armed; something sets off group B.
Repeal the Second Amendment. And the Tenth, while you're at it. Then, encourage the legislatures of any states that want to form another country to go in peace.
Blue states subsidize many red states. And then we have to listen to their denizens mewling on nearly every topic. Enough.
Real Americans love America and work to make it better. We don't threaten insurrection. Sorry, Sarah.
@Jack
I was also uncharacteristically--'til yesterday it had been months since I read him--lured by the Fish and submitted the following:
"If one accepts huckstering behavior that promotes and preys on the irrational as one of our nations's Founding Principles--as it is of the American business model--no doubt, the N.R.A. is quintessentially American.
What we have in the N.R.A. is more snake oil--corporatized and super-sized.
Whether that is good for the country and the majority of its citizens is another question, one with a far different answer."
Far more interesting than the original Fish maundering was the response I got from another reader. I assume it's a standard N.R.A. talking point.
"The left has adopted the rhetorical stance of calling the NRA "corporatized" or somehow fueled by corporate interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Guns are actually pretty small business (a fraction of what Americans spend on dog food, for example). The NRA is perhaps the largest organized grass roots organization in the world."
I couldn't resist, and replied in turn.
"Thanks for the rational response. You make an interesting point.
Two other points, however. First, regardless of gun manufacturing and sales's relative size as a business, less than half of N.R.A. support comes from "grassroots" membership. Second, your reply does not address my main point, that gun and ammunition sales--the recent trend is more and more of each in the hands of a diminishing proportion of the population--are fueled by ginned up fear of the Other, which in the N.R.A.'s view includes but is not limited to your and my government.
Sometimes rhetorical stances do reflect reality. I remember Hula Hoops, also adopted en masse by the grassroots. Like guns, they also made some folks a lot of money, but I'd guess they didn't kill nearly as many people."
That's enough I think; I'd guess I'm off Fish again until at least September. Should give me time to research exactly how many Hula Hoops did kill.
Am I missing something more recent in the story about Jim Irkfart? The linked article is from back in 2010.
Guys,
In the spirit of Francis Urquhart, I beg you to stop misspelling his cousin Glen's last name.
Thanks.
The Deity (patent pending)
Re: That's more than a metapho, bro; The following quote is from a professor at a Lutheran college; "Most Christians and most Christian clergy -- Protestant and Catholic -- were very enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and the Nazi cause. He promised a return to traditional values and to end the 'moral decadence' of Weimar culture," according to Ericksen. Doesn't that sound vaguely familiar? Jesus and Hitler; odd couple. I'd be against that marriage; got to draw the line somewhere.