The Commentariat -- May 2, 2013
Obama 2.0. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will nominate Penny Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and a longtime financial backer of the president, to be the new commerce secretary.... The president will also nominate Michael Froman, a top national security official, to be the new United States trade representative." ...
... Matt Vasilogambros of the National Journal sketches Pritzker's biography & alludes to some of the issues she likely will face in the confirmation process. ...
... ** Romney 1.0. Obama 2.0, Ctd. John Cassidy on Obama's bad pick to head the FCC -- veteran communications industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler. CW: Wheeler sounds just like the kind of nominee Mitt Romney would select -- and make Democrats howl.
Obama 1.Stupid. Pam Belluck & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration moved Wednesday to keep girls under 15 from having over-the-counter access to morning-after pills, as the Justice Department filed a notice to appeal a judge's order that would make the drug available without a prescription for girls and women of all ages.... The decision to appeal is striking in part because, before [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius overruled it in 2011, the F.D.A. -- the Justice Department's client in this case -- had moved to do exactly what Judge [Edward] Korman ordered last month. ...
... Josh Lederman & Lauran Needgaard of the AP: "The Obama administration's decision to appeal a court order lifting age limits on purchasers of the morning-after pill set off a storm of criticism from reproductive rights groups, who denounced it as politically motivated and a step backward for women's health." ...
... CW: Linda Greenhouse addressed the case in her column two weeks ago (which I linked timely), writing that Judge Korman's decision was "worth reading in full by anyone who wants to observe the judicial process at its finest." Greenhouse wrote that she hoped the Obama administration would accept Korman's decision, "and thus display judgment and courage that it has conspicuously lacked on this issue until now." Sorry, Ms. Greenhouse, but the president's desire to control his daughters' activities trumps science & all the unnecessary & often dangerous pregnancies that will occur because ... Obama's daughters.
** "Who's Sorry Now." Linda Greenhouse reflects on Sandra Day O'Connor's recently-expressed doubts about Bush v. Gore.
Tom Hamburger & Dina ElBodhdady of the Washington Post: "The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to a firm [Height Securities] and individuals in connection with the leak last month of a federal funding decision that appeared to cause a surge in stock trading of several major health companies. The move deepens the government's scrutiny of the growing 'political intelligence' industry, which has been thriving on delivering valuable information from Washington to investors."
I cannot force Republicans to embrace those common-sense solutions...It's tough. Their base thinks that compromise with me is somehow a betrayal. They're worried about primaries.... And we're going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure for them to be able to do what's going to be best for the country. But it's going to take some time. -- President Obama, at his press conference Monday
... ** Brian Beutler of TPM: "... as a long shot [President Obama] and his allies can create atmospheric and procedural and rhetorical conditions that might allow House Republicans to give Obama something he wants without appearing to have consorted with him in any way. Ideally while retaining a pretense that they've somehow dealt him a defeat.... That's precisely what Obama meant at his press conference on Tuesday when he talked about building a 'permission structure' upon which Congressional Republicans might engage in some responsible budgeting." Beutler neatly calls out Maureen Dowd & wonders if the term "permission structure" "isn't leadership-y sounding enough." ...
** NEW. Jonathan Chait: "You don't use 'leadership' against your opponents!" Read the whole post. ...
... Mark Murray of NBC News tries to explain basic Constitutional principles to MoDo: "... the greatest legislative achievements in American history have come when one party controls the White House and Congress -- usually by overwhelming numbers. In the 1930s, as Congress was passing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Democrats held between 69 and 75 Senate seats, as well as 300-plus House seats. In 1965, during Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, Democrats controlled 68 Senate and 290-plus House seats. Talk about supermajorities. Even the top legislative accomplishments under Obama -- the stimulus, the health-care law, financial reform, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal -- came when Democrats held 60 Senate seats (or close to it) and a majority in the House. But when there's divided government? That's typically a recipe for gridlock." ...
MoDo, sprawling, if not across a staircase. ... Might as well throw in Charles Pierce's delightful takedown of MoDo here: "It is the job of the voters not to elect morons. It is the job of the non-morons in the congressional leadership to keep the morons from driving the entire train over a cliff. When those two checks fail, as they obviously have, it still is not the job of the president to be the country's chief moron-wrangler. I think we are heading into the endless thicket of Dowdian Daddy Issues here again." ...
... MEANWHILE, E. J. Dionne wants Obama to be more upbeat: "Obama’s calling card was hope. There is more to be hopeful about right now than his own public weariness would suggest." ...
... NEW. AND, actually, Frank Rich remarks, Obama can show some leadership on Gitmo, where he has demonstrated a "weirdly passive refusal to be proactive in dealing with the 86 inmates who've been cleared by our own intelligence agencies for transfer out." ...
... BUT Toomey Goes on the Record. Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) revealed that some members of his party opposed expanding background checks for gun sales recently because they didn't want to 'be seen helping the president.'" CW: Oh gosh, E.J., MoDo, et al., isn't that just what Obama said (if a little more elegantly)? ...
... Steve Benen: "According to Toomey -- who presumably has a pretty good sense of the motivations of his own colleagues in his own party -- the media's blame game had it backwards. No amount of presidential arm-twisting can overcome the will of lawmakers who want to defeat the president's agenda because it's the president's agenda.... This is unsustainable. The American system of government is dependent on a series of compromises...." ...
... CW: the question is not, "Why can't Obama be more like LBJ or FDR (or Michael Douglas or Jeremy Irons)?" but "Why can't Congress have lots more Democrats?" ...
... That is, Real Democrats. Thomas Edsall, in the New York Times: "Conservative politicians..., [according to results from an academic study], overestimate the conservative leanings of constituents by the largest margins -- by about 20 percentage points; liberals overestimate by about 10 points; and centrist Democrats like [Heidi] Heitkamp overestimate by about 15 points. This suggests that Heitkamp, Begich, Pryor and Baucus are likely to have overestimated the conservatism of their constituents in making judgments on the political cost of voting for the background check amendment.... Insofar as [they] take the easy way out, they reinforce the stereotype of an all-powerful N.R.A.... Submission [to the N.R.A.] serves only to reinforce the image of Congress as the captive of special interests." ...
... Michael Tomasky of Newsweek makes the case that Manchin-Toomey will pass the 60-vote threshold the next time around, which could come before the August break. ...
... Let's end this with a related remark by Charles Pierce: "... anyone who takes idly the effect of some of the rhetoric that's been launched against this president and his policies is sleeping on a genuine national-security problem.
The survey, aimed at measuring public attitudes toward gun issues, found that 29 percent of Americans agree with the statement, 'In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.'
... CW: when you have a sitting member of Congress (Louie Gohmert) accusing the U.S. attorney general of siding with terrorists (see yesterday's Commentariat), is it so surprising that millions of Americans are girding (and many of them arming) themselves for the revolution? Gohmert's incendiary remarks are potentially a lot more damaging than tossing out perjoratives to describe minorities or scrubbing campaign accounts.
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama is warning liberal supporters that their push to make changes in a comprehensive immigration bill could jeopardize the strategy of Senate leaders, who are aiming to win up to 70 votes for the measure.... Obama and other Democrats have mounted a behind-the-scenes campaign in recent days aimed at mollifying advocates, who argue that an 844-page Senate bill excludes too many illegal immigrants and makes it too hard for the rest to become citizens.... In a private meeting with a dozen Latino leaders at the White House this week, Obama emphasized that securing a large margin in the Senate is crucial to putting pressure on House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to accept the general framework of the legislation."
Li'l Randy is an accomplished liar, but then it's in his genes. Via Driftglass:
Congressional Morons Re-Introduce Pro-Ignorance Bill. Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is rolling out the Census Reform Act this week.... The bill ... would abolish the Current Population Survey, which is used to compute the unemployment rate and labor force participation rate. We wouldn't have an unemployment rate if Duncan and his cosponsors -- who include GOP House libertarian-leaners like Jason Chaffetz, Raul Labrador, Thomas Massie, Steve Stockman and Walter Jones -- get their way.... It's hard to overstate the loss of knowledge that this bill would bring about.... This has a concrete impact on government spending.... You shouldn't worry too much about the Duncan bill becoming law ... because it has garnered the strong opposition of businesses" that "use the survey to make decisions." ...
This is not a scientific survey. It's a random survey. -- Jeff Duncan, in an exceptional display of ignorance ...
Of course, randomness is a prerequisite for scientific validity in surveys, not a barrier to it. -- Dylan Matthews
CW: I missed this Monday night, but Jon Stewart had a couple of great segments on Congress's response to airport delays:
Congressional Race
Dana Milbank: Mark "Sanford is now poised to ... hand the [Congressional] seat to Democrats for the first time since 1978, when they still had a foothold in the South. Sanford's opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, has been aided by her brother, comedian Stephen Colbert, who has helped with fundraising. In this there is a cruel irony: The 'Comedy Central' personality is helping to keep from Congress a man who would be an endless source of comedy. Not since Anthony Weiner sheathed his camera phone has a public figure exhibited such poor public judgment as Sanford has over the past five weeks." ...
... Gail Collins, in a column that wrote itself because for laughs all you have to do is copy down what Mark Sanford says/does, has her way with the hapless candidate.
Right Wing World *
Science Daily: "When it comes to deciding which light bulb to buy, a label touting the product's environmental benefit may actually discourage politically conservative shoppers." Thanks to James S. for the link.
* The best place to find dim bulbs.
News Ledes
New York Times: "In an unexpected turn in the investigation into the deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza building, the Bangladeshi police on Thursday arrested the engineer who warned a day before the disaster that the building was unsafe."
Boston Globe: "The family of Tamerlan Tsarnaev picked up the body of the alleged Boston Marathon bomber from the state medical examiner's office this afternoon, a state official said."
AP: "The FBI announced Wednesday that it is seeking information on three people who were on the grounds of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, when it was attacked last year. The bureau posted photographs of the three people and said they may be able to provide information to help in the investigation of the attack." The linked story includes images of the three men of interest.
New York Times: "North Korea said Thursday that its Supreme Court had sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor for committing hostile acts against its government. The citizen, Kenneth Bae, 44, a Korean-American from Washington State who ran a tour business out of China, was arrested in the special economic zone of Rason in northeastern North Korea in November after leading a group of businessmen there from Yanji, China. On Saturday, the North said it was indicting him on charges that he tried to overthrow Pyongyang's government." ...
... Update: "The United States said Thursday that North Korea should immediately release an American citizen who was sentenced this week to 15 years of hard labor, setting up a potential new source of confrontation between the two countries that could aggravate tensions still high over North Korea's nuclear war threats."
New York Times: "... in response to the disclosures last year that the entertainer Jimmy Savile had been a serial sexual predator with scores of victims, many of them under age," British law enforcement officials have been investigating numerous aged minor celebrities for alleged sexual abuses that occurred decades ago. Two have been arrested.
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Reader Comments (16)
I have recently begun obsessing about whether I would rather be alive or dead when our rampant racism in the U.S. of A. finally comes to a well-deserved end? I.E., when the White Male racists finally die--most of them Southern, but not all. A few females too, of course. Not remotely possible that I will outlive these asshats!
I guess the question is: will our children and their children live to see the day? I am not at all sure that will happen. We are, in the main, such an immature, ahistorical and incurious country. Myths and untruths are accepted without question. Science is not only questioned; it is disbelieved. Skin color is seen as evidence of intelligence and entitlement. How sick is that?
I am done. Think it is time to have a bit of Limoncello and turn on my Kindle!
Yesterday a few of the comments circled around , as Pierce nails him, Washington's newest case of rhetorical ringworm (was there ever a smirk more in need of being wiped off a man's face?) our very own man most likely to soil his own pants––at least we keep hoping for that scenario––and there was mention of the possibility this man would run for Pres-A-dent; not possible, since he was born in Canada. Watch what happens when and if––would the Donald change his duck-billed walk on this issue? Will Cruz call for changing the constitution? By the way last night Jon Stewart had lots of fun with Cruz––maybe Marie could add that onto our other Stewart videos.
When I read that bit about Gitmo in Dowd's column I thought, wait a minute, you Maureen O'Hara copy cat, something smells fishy here. I did some researching and sure enough Obama is NOT to blame for the delay (although he seems to have put it on the back burner). The onus is again on Congress for lack of funding and against prisoners coming onto America's sacred soil. Once again a New York Time's columnist putting out false information and getting away with it. Do they have editors there that simply skim instead of scrutinize? One wonders.
PD,
Fortunately, it is entirely legal and constitutional for the GOP to launch a Cruz missile towards the White House (crap, there's a few more NSA buzz words).
Cruz meets the Constitutional test of being a natural born US citizen by virtue of the fact that his mother was an American citizen. Don't forget that John McCain was born abroad (Panama Canal Zone) as was George Romney (remember the Rat trying to rebrand himself as coming from a poor immigrant family from Mexico who made it through hard work and superior something or other?).
And I say "fortunately" because just imagine the 2016 race with Cruz and Li'l Randy on board, with the possible addition of four or five other gimcracks. It will pandemonium. A panoply of pretenders, blockheads, and poltroons. The presence of the teabagger twins would pull everyone else so far to the right (unless we see a Gohmert candidacy) that the middle will be unreachable except via Atlas rockets.
The sideshow starts any day now.
@ Akhilleus: Damn! I forgot about his mother perhaps because I fancy him coming from the head of Joe McCarthy. Fun and games ahead as you said if we have Cruz and the Randy guy along with the other esteemed Procrustean playmates. Thanks for the information, even though it has put a damper on the day.
@Akhilleus. The trouble with your theory is that if someone like Tailgunner Ted or Li'l Randy wins the GOP presidential nomination, crazy will be the new normal, and "journalists" will go out of their nonpartisan way to cite Ted & Randy's policy positions (should they have any) as rational & even mainstream-y.
Of course I would hope as you do that a nomination of such a bonehead would be the super Nova of the GOP & the whole lot would disappear into a black hole. Romney's pretend-winger stance resulted in a mild version of that effect in 2012. But after 8 years with a Democratic president, the great amorphous mass of know-nothing voters may think it's time for a Republican president -- any Republican president. After all, their parents voted in Dick Nixon -- twice -- and nobody actually liked him.
Marie
@PD Pepe. After careful thought, I think of Cruz as coming from the other end of Joe McCarthy.
@Kate Madison. Racism will never end because (a) racists are carefully taught, & (b) it is natural to be wary of people who are "different" from us.
When I was three years old, my mother & I were visiting her parents in St. Augustine. We took the trolley downtown. A black woman got on -- I can still recall just what she looked like -- and since the woman had to "move to the back of the trolley," she passed by us. I guess I had never seen a black person before. My mother whispered to me not to stare, so evidently I was staring. Later my mother told me that some people looked different from us & that was okay. That is, I had to be taught not to be a racist. My own racism didn't have much to do with my being an American.
There will be less of the "natural" racism I experienced as a toddler as people of all colors live together more & interact more because infants will see people of other races more often & so not find their appearance unusual. But I don't see prejudice against other groups ending. Ever. Things are going better in Northern Ireland now, but people who look exactly alike hated/hate each other in that country. Same thing all over the Middle East. Group identity is more important to simple people than is peace. That's likely why the (alleged) Boston bomber's friends thought it would be a good idea to destroy evidence against him instead of turning him in. It takes a certain level of sophistication, intelligence and good will to overcome our natural affinity for our "group," whatever that may be, to see the world as others see it, and to act in the interests of the greater good.
Marie
Marie,
I haven't forgotten the problem of a supine and largely invertebrate press. I'm not sure how you can write calmly and hyper-nonpartisanly (if I may) when confronted with actual insanity and undeniably false positions and lies, but I'm sure there will be plenty who give it the old teabag try.
And we can't forget that most political junkies, on both sides of the aisle, like most of us, are hardwired into the system. Not much escapes us so we hear about all the little asides and weirdness and stupid statements that don't seem to filter out to the larger group of "undecided" voters, but I won't re-run my diatribe (not yet anyway) about the questionable brain power of voters who could still have been undecided late in the game in a match up between Obama and the Mittster.
I guess it's like the mysteries of the faith taught to Catholic children. Stuff that just can't be explained, or as Loofah Boy likes to say, "The tide goes in, the tide goes out, who can explain it?" People who think like that, I suppose, could be undecided about whether or not to breath.
But, as you say, the next few years leading up to the '16 election could be when we see the nuts move to their long looked-for fantasy habitation in Crazy Town, just over the horizon.
But then again, maybe not.
In the January 10 issue of TNYRB there is a piece by Michael Greenberg called "Occupy the Rockaways." I was surprised to learn that the Rockaways were strictly segregated and apparently in the most essential ways remain so today. Greenberg tells us what it was like back in the 1960's when he was six years old: Breezy Point (the part of Long Island that was hit the hardest by the storm) was/is occupied mainly by the Irish––firemen/ policeman––dubbed "the whitest neighborhood in the city" by the Times in 2001. When Greenberg was a boy "there was a guard in a wooden booth at the entrance to prevent outsiders from intruding...Jews were restricted, a fact that we accepted as the way life was and should be." A mile or two east was Belle Harbor where the Jews "huddled protectively among ourselves" like the Irish. Farther east were the poor, almost all black residents who had been removed from the central parts of the city, displaced by roadway construction––hello Robert Moses–– and other "urban renewal" projects during the 1950s and 1960s. And of course we have the Hamptons where the elite reside in perfect splendor so say those green with envy.
This is one example, as Marie mentions, of group identity that seems to be as permanent as the racism that accompanies it. Being carefully taught is the key––for good or bad, it all begins at the beginning.
sorry....meant "to breathe"....typos like this...who can explain it?
PD,
Growing up in a largely blue collar neighborhood, I came into regular contact with members of my "tribe" who held tightly to group rules and prejudices which were so common as to seem nearly invisible.
Sitting in a bar watching a baseball game while in my early 20s with a guy just a few years older than me, we got to talking about some changes in local schools. This guy was amazed that some people seemed unconcerned that their kids were being taught by black teachers. I told him I'd have no problem with a purple teacher as long as they were qualified and good. He was visibly shaken. Amazed, actually. He thought I was putting him on and refused to believe me since, although we didn't grow up together, we both came from the same "tribe". Not everyone thought this way but for some, any departure from the rules and beliefs of the tribe seemed inconceivable.
My two sons spent their K-8 years overseas, going to international schools in the capitols we lived in then - Colombo, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur. Such schools typically have about 20% U.S.-expatriate kids, and the rest from all around the world and the host country. We came back to the U.S. when the older entered HS as a junior, the younger as a freshman. They were both surprised and shocked at the racial divides (in a HS which is a good public high in a high-end neighborhood in Maryland) among the students. They had never been exposed to it, and it took them a while to figure out how to deal with it ("Racists are idiots!")
They grew up in places where they were the strangers, but clearly among the "elites" (expat families usually live pretty well in 3rd world countries). So they were used to being privileged, but were not used to others being relegated to any status by ethnicity. Today I am happy to say that they still can't relate to categorizing people by race, they just see people.
Comment removed as abusive.
@Roger Henry: Patrick wrote a positive comment about his sons' experiences abroad & how those experiences affected their views on race. Your response seems to be intentionally snide. Perhaps I mistake your meaning. If so, please explain. Otherwise, I'll have to remove the comment.
Commenters get to make snide remarks about public figures here, & about me, but not about other commenters (which is not to say you can't disagree with other commenters).
Marie
I follow Marie's thesis that racism will never die. Early education seems to be the answer, but it's also wholly dependent on your environment. It's not as simple as good teaching as a parent, because outside stimulus changes our perceptions from every direction; peer pressure, local culture, friend's parents, bullshitters on teevee, etc.
Being from (liberal) Kansas, my innate curiosity attracted me to those that were different. I wanted to know what things we're like back home for them, what family journey led them to be sitting next to me there in Chemistry class. I'm no racist but I'd admit I look to them as some type of "other". Not necessarily inferior nor superior but just simply different.
School and education are clearly pivotal building blocks in creating perceptions of the "other", but a critique I've always had of our education system is the lack of required foreign languages. In my public schooling they were offered and I happily obliged but of my classmates that continued even a few years I think I'm in the 5% range. It's pathetic that we don't require our citizens to take 5-10 years of a foreign language, whether it's to go abroad or simply immerse yourself in a different world, a completely different thought process. Even if you're learning French who don't look much different than us, the process of rewiring your brain through linguistics requires an opening of the spirit and a critique not only of them but you. Reciprocal reflection is a healthy process, individually and as a society.
In the US we've been healing our racial wounds but they're ingrained so deep I don't see them disappearing ever. The black/white divide systematically severed our nation in a pivotal moment of national construction, and we still see the effects loud and clear. Check out this map of theMost Segregated Cities in America to get an idea of the institutionalization of segregation we're dealing with here...
@Patrick`
Your experience with your sons gives me hope. A complete mixing of the races is--at some distant point, if earth survives--inevitable. I wonder then what will happen to people in their "groups." Probably exist in some other form. As Marie says, some form of racism--or groupism--has been with us always, and always will be. Samuel Beckett knew this when he said sadly: "Human beings are a wreck."
My own experience with raising my son in an integrated neighborhood (Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C), and having him attend an integrated day care center--which I helped establish--was that he did not distinguish color. David came home one day and asked: "Am I Black or White?" Some of the little boys had been talking about this and labeling the other children. There were several "mixed race" kids, and David was truly confused.
I hope such confusion becomes the norm in future generations, even though none of us will be around to see it.