The Commentariat -- May 4, 2014
President Obama, speaking at the White House Correspondents' dinner last night:
... AND the runners-up:
... New York Times bans David Brooks from White House Correspondents' dinner. (CW: Okay, the fastidious Gray Lady doesn't let any of her staff attend the dinner, but that's not as satisfying a headline. If Joe Biden can write his own headlines -- see video above -- so can I.)
CW: As Hillary goes, so goes MoDo. I don't think Dowd can survive at the Times without the aid of elixir of Clinton. ...
... The New York Times Editors review President Obama's foreign policy performance, & find it isn't nearly as bad as MoDo claims. ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (Va.), a close ally of President Obama's who chaired the Democratic National Committee during the president's first term, threw his support behind Hillary Rodham Clinton's prospective presidential campaign on Saturday. Addressing a breakfast meeting of Democratic women in South Carolina, Kaine called Clinton 'the right person for the job' and pledged to do what he can to draft the former secretary of state into the 2016 presidential contest."
Mike Lux of American Family Voices compiles a video of Elizabeth Warren's greatest hits. Thanks to Barbarossa for the link:
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker reviews Warren's book for the New York Review of Books.
Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: By framing sexual assault as a civil rights issue, the Obama administration has forced educational institutions to address sexual violence on campus. ...
... Richard Perez-Pena & Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Increasingly..., at colleges across the country..., more victims [are going] public, more of them [are filing] formal federal complaints, a new network of activists [is making] shrewd use of the law and the media, and the Obama administration [is stepping] up pressure on colleges."
Beyond the Beltway
The Price for Warmongering: $35,000. Kelly Heyboer of the Star-Ledger: "Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed out of giving Rutgers University's commencement speech today amid growing opposition among the school's students and faculty.... Earlier this week, about 50 Rutgers students staged a sit-in inside the campus administration building to protest the selection of Rice to speak. She was scheduled to receive $35,000 for her speech and an honorary Rutgers doctoral degree." ...
... Kathleen Geier of Washington Monthly on why Rice never should have been invited nor given a hefty speaker's fee. ...
... Mob Rule! Wingers are predictably wigged-out. This post by William Jaconbson of Legal Insurrection is a case in point. However, Jacobson's exchange with Eric Boehlert of Media Matters is interesting, including Jacobson's last response -- Hillary's "mushroom cloud appearance."
Eleanor Clift of the Daily Beast: Now the Koch brothers -- along with right-wing impresario Art Pope -- are pumping money in to a North Carolina supreme court race in a move toward take control of the state's judiciary.
Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post: "Georgia's Catholic and Episcopal churches are opting out of the state's new expanded gun law. Among other things, the expansive legislation signed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) last week bans weapons from places of worship but gives religious leaders the authority to make exceptions to that ban for licensed gun owners. In the days since it was signed, senior religious leaders in the Catholic and Episcopal communities in Georgia have vowed not to allow such exceptions." Via Steve Benen.
More from Right Wing World
I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions. -- Oklahoma state Rep. Michael Christian (apparently his real name), who "spearheaded an effort to impeach Oklahoma state Supreme Court justices who were aiming to delay" the execution of Clayton Lockett
Scott Kaufman of the Raw Story: "Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because 'Buddha didn't create us, Mohammed didn't create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures' who created us." ...
... CW: The federal government should grant free transit & a moving stipend to anyone who lives in Alabama, is not a white male fundamentalist Christian, and wishes to move to a state that embraces equal protection. ...
... Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, where the First Amendment also applies only to Christians, a Satanist group is putting the finishing touches on a statue they propose to mount on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol, next to the Ten Commandments monolith approved by the state legislature & placed there in 2012. There's evah so slight a chance the state will not approve the Satanist installation. Steve Benen notes that the Satanist's case is strong: "There are, after all, no second-class Americans citizens when it comes to the First Amendment. If one group has the right to erect a monument, so does everyone else."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Gerry Adams, the leader of the Irish political party Sinn Fein, was released from police custody without charges on Sunday after four days of questioning into a gruesome 1972 Irish Republican Army murder of a widow with 10 children. But the police will hand over a file of potential evidence against him to prosecutors, police officials said."
Washington Post: "A trio of new studies has discovered that the blood of young mice appears to reverse some of the effects of aging when put into the circulatory systems of elderly mice."
Washington Post: "Ukrainian authorities vowed Saturday to restore control over the roiling eastern part of their nation, slowly advancing on two key breakaway cities even as the Kremlin and its supporters in Ukraine said the violence demanded a response. The military operations Saturday claimed at least 10 lives, medical officials said, a day after a conflagration in a trade union building killed dozens of pro-Russian activists in the port city of Odessa in the bloodiest day in Ukraine in nearly three months." ...
... Update: "Divisions deepened in Ukraine's third-largest city Sunday as pro-Russian militants attacked a police station in Odessa and freed 67 of their allies, while pro-Ukrainian activists gathered with sticks and clubs and vowed to defend the southern city from the kind of takeovers that have occurred in the eastern part of the country. The spread of the violence to Odessa has raised the stakes dramatically in the Ukraine crisis...."
AP: "The doomed ferry Sewol exceeded its cargo limit on 246 trips -- nearly every voyage it made in which it reported cargo -- in the 13 months before it sank, according to documents that reveal the regulatory failures that allowed passengers by the hundreds to set off on an unsafe vessel. And it may have been more overloaded than ever on its final journey."
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Reader Comments (3)
Mike Lux in Daily Kos on Elizabeth Warren:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/02/1296359/-Elizabeth-Warren-Changes-the-Conversation?detail=email
I found the included video just the ticket to get fired up this Sunday morning. I'm currently reading Warren's new book, "A Fighting Chance" and enjoying it very much. It's a combination autobiography and manifesto. What she brings out in the manifesto part will make your blood boil. As far as I can tell, she wrote the book on her own--no "with" or "as told to".
When Obama leaves his day job he might want to consider going on the road as a stand-up. His timing is great and I love his "heh,heh,heh's" at the end of a joke. Best: "Orange is the New Black" and "between two plants" (referencing Fox and Friends).
Chief Justice Roy Moore's statements are incredulous. And this is a man who passes judgements on others? And he left out the Jews? Well, let's PRAY that Satan wins his place on the lawn of the
Oklahoma State Capitol nesting cozily next to the Ten Commandments––what will you bet both entities will be spray painted within a very short time––a tit for tat fun for all.
Re: MoDo's caustic column of the week: What in hell is this woman going to do if we ever get a president she likes? Maybe actually write something of substance? (which she certainly is capable of). It's really sad to see her stuck in the sand like this endlessly sticking the same old pins in the same old adversaries. Very boring.
I have just finished Elizabeth Warren's new book, and am more a fan than ever. No ghost writers for her. And she told her editors, I am sure, to leave in the "geez" and "goshes!"
Just have to share that I am going to hear her speak in Portland in late May at a fundraiser for Jeff Merkley--who you all may know is being challenged for his senate seat by a gorky teabagger who is, of course, getting big bucks from the Koch bros and Karly Rover. I am a big Merkley fan, and worked on his last (first) campaign--so I hope that will get me a good seat!
Natcherly, I will report back on my experience--geez!
@PDPepe-I agree that Obama is a natural stand-up guy! And he is wicked smart. Also has some incredible joke-writers. Enjoyed the whole shee-bang! Especially Joe Biden (what a mensch) and Nancy Pelosi getting tattooed.