The Commentariat -- Nov. 23, 2014
Internal links, cartoon removed.
Eli Saslow of the Washington Post profiles xenophobe Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State who has led the fight against immigrants. The headline: "Conservative expert on immigration law to pursue suit against executive action." Kobach & his wife Heather are dismayed that people are picking on him just because he believes "in rules and fairness." CW: Kobach is an expert on immigration law like Dick Cheney is an expert on environmental protection law.
... Jeff Taylor, Indianapolis Star executive editor: "On Friday, we posted a Gary Varvel cartoon at indystar.com that offended a wide group of readers. Many of them labeled it as racist. Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States. But we erred in publishing it.... [Varvel] intended to illustrate the view of many conservatives and others that the president's order will encourage more people to pour into the country illegally." ...
... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "At one point on Saturday, the newspaper apparently edited out the 'immigrant' man's mustache.... The newspaper later removed the cartoon altogether." ...
... CW: What Thompson fails to mention is that before publication, the Indy Star edited out the "immigrant" man's sombrero, serape & machete & put smiles on the faces of his menacing posse of disease-riddled braceros. Sensitive. ...
... Pilgrims' Progress. Kelly Conaboy of Gawker: "Is there a time more befitting of a cartoon lampooning unwelcome foreign guests than during the United States' holiday Thanksgiving?" ...
... Caroline Bankoff of New York: "It's fitting that President Obama's decision to temporarily protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation came just before Thanksgiving, which celebrates the generosity this country's original inhabitants showed to the undocumented immigrants who landed on their shores in 1620. Unfortunately, the connection was lost on Gary Varvel, an Indianapolis Star cartoonist who doesn't seem to like the idea of sharing anything with people who do not look like him."
Lydia DePillis of the Washington Post: "In advance of coordinated strikes at Wal-Marts across the country on the day after Thanksgiving, a labor union-backed group is accusing the world's biggest retailer of driving its associates into starvation -- and Wal-Mart is fighting back harder than ever, saying it's just providing low-cost groceries to the masses.... This is the third year in which Making Change at Walmart, a campaign financed and run by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union -- which represents employees at Wal-Mart's competitors, like Safeway and Giant -- will have staged protests on Black Friday."
This Week in Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a Huffington Post opinion piece: "I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I've generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough." Warren goes on to elaborate on why Obama's nominee for Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department -- Antonio Weiss -- is a horrible choice. "It's time for the Obama administration to loosen the hold that Wall Street banks have over economic policy making. Sure, big banks are important, but running this economy for American families is a lot more important." Thanks to Whyte O. for the link.
Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "William C. Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, defended the agency, but Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, at one point told him, 'You need to fix it, Mr. Dudley, or we need to get someone who will'":
Manuel Roig-Franzia, et al., of the Washington Post: "Sixteen women have publicly stated that [comedian Bill] Cosby, now 77, sexually assaulted them, with 12 saying he drugged them first and another saying he tried to drug her. The Washington Post has interviewed five of those women, including a former Playboy Playmate who has never spoken publicly about her allegations. The women agreed to speak on the record and to have their identities revealed. The Post also has reviewed court records that shed light on the accusations of a former director of women's basketball operations at Temple University who assembled 13 'Jane Doe' accusers in 2005 to testify on her behalf about their allegations against Cosby."
Rolling Stone: "Following Rolling Stone publishing Sabrina Rubin Erdely's harrowing report 'A Rape on Campus,' which detailed a pattern of sexual assault among the fraternities at the University of Virginia, many women who attended UVA emailed Rolling Stone sharing their own similar stories. After 'A Rape on Campus' went viral, the school itself acknowledged the Rolling Stone article by promising to make changes to their student sexual misconduct policy. Now, the University is taking even more stern action. President Teresa A. Sullivan announced in a letter to students and alumni that the school's fraternities have been suspended effective immediately. The suspension will last until January 9, 2015, which marks the beginning of the spring semester."
Presidential Election
Michael Barbaro & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "... as the 2016 White House campaign effectively began in the last week, it became apparent that this [GOP primary] race might be different: a fluid contest, verging on chaotic, that will showcase the party's deep bench of talent but also highlight its ideological and generational divisions."
CW: Let me just say how mightily the major media piss me off when they describe Kris Kobach as an "expert" & the nasty boys of the GOP as a "deep bench of talent." If you want to know why millions of people vote Republican, it's partly because the "liberal media" validate these extremist bastards.
Andrew O'Hehir of Salon: "Defeating Hillary Clinton as a political candidate does little or nothing to defeat the deeply corrupt and only half-visible spectacle of power and politics that produced her and infuses her, and in which she is embedded. Defeating 'Hillary Clinton,' on the other hand, is about exposing and dismantling that spectacle and its system, brick by brick and from the ground up, such that it does not produce future Hillary Clintons as our only plausible political leaders. A lot easier said than done, I realize. But if America is ever to escape the paralytic political duopoly of the 21st century, it's a mandatory task."
Beyond the Beltway
Daniel Wallis of Reuters: "Two men suspected of buying explosives they planned to detonate during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, once a grand jury decides the Michael Brown case, were arrested on Friday and charged with federal firearms offenses, a law enforcement official told Reuters."
Jon Herskovitz & Jim Forsyth of Reuters: "The Texas State Board of Education, whose decisions can have national ramifications, on Friday approved nearly 100 textbooks despite criticism the books exaggerated the influence biblical figures had in forming the U.S. system of government." ...
... Morgan Smith & Bobby Blanchard of the Texas Tribune (Nov. 21): "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt pulled its U.S. government title just before the State Board of Education's Friday meeting, where the 15-member board is set to take a final vote on nearly 100 products for eight different social studies courses that will be used in Texas public schools for the next decade. According to the latest documents posted publicly, the publisher declined to make changes in its government textbook that would add greater coverage of Judeo-Christian influence -- including Moses -- on America's founding fathers." ...
... CW: I'm quite certain some of the Founders were doofuses, but I doubt many of them gave a lot of thought to Moses -- an entirely fictional character -- when they were drawing up the Constitution & the Bill of Rights. ...
... Here's more from Laura Isensee of NPR.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Marion Barry Jr., the Mississippi sharecropper's son and civil rights activist who served three terms as mayor of the District of Columbia, survived a drug arrest and jail sentence, and then came back to win a fourth term as the city's chief executive, died early on Nov. 23 at United Medical Center in Washington. He was 78." Barry's New York Times: obituary is here.
Washington Post: "Negotiators working to slow Iran's nuclear program and ease sanctions pressed forward with talks Saturday amid indications that they are at an impasse with two days left before a deadline for an accord." ...
... Reuters: "Iran says it will not be possible by a 24 November deadline to reach a comprehensive deal with world powers aimed at resolving the standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, the Iranian Students News Agency ISNA reported on Sunday." ...
... New York Times UPDATE: "With a deadline for an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program just a day away, American officials finally acknowledged Sunday that the two sides would not reach a deal by Monday's deadline but would probably extend the talks a second time to explore a series of possible solutions."
Guardian: "The Obama administration announced the release of another Guantánamo Bay detainee on Saturday, rebuking recent calls from congressional Republicans to stop the transfers entirely. A Saudi man who has spent 12 years at the wartime detention facility, Muhammed Murdi Issa al-Zahrani, will return to Saudi Arabia and enter the kingdom's rehabilitation program. The transfer brings the detainee population of a prison Barack Obama has vowed for six years to close down to 142 men, 72 of whom the Pentagon considers pose little enough threat as to be eligible for transfer."
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Reader Comments (13)
Thanks to the Texas State Board of Education for demonstrating why and how America is 'exceptional'. We lead the world in climate denial, evolution denial and science denial in general and history denial. So after serious effort we have become the dumbest place on earth. Congratulations America! We are going to lead the entire human race into hell.
And BTW, if were anywhere else in the industrialized world, the Republicans on the board would be in jail for child abuse.
And lastly, please Texas and the rest of the true confederate states, secede. There will be no war, just the biggest party in all of history.
(and since I pay federal taxes that support you, a big tax cut.)
Marvin, I second everything you wrote above. That the Texas Board favors possibly imaginary people like Moses over so many worthy human beings who actually existed underlines the challenges that beset any society that encourages religious crackheads to participate in decision-making. My view is that you should either be allowed to drink yourself into oblivion or drive the bus, but never both.
Wow, the Kobach piece really is a nice piece of work for a Freshman journalist doing his best to gather some facts while giving no perspective about them.
A couple of the quotes that Eli Saslow attributes to Kobach reveal his true character, but the journalist couldn't be bothered with pointing this out because he'd then be kicked out of the The Town's club.
First of all, he describes Obama taking action on immigration as his, "absolute, worst-case, Armageddon scenario." The use of the glaring hyperbole reveals his extremist character, which Kobach even acknowledges later on that he's been labeled as such. I'm surprised he even hears about the criticism made about him but it appears his wife follows the discussion linked to her husband on the internet and relays the information to him. He brushes them all of as coming from "somebody in their basement," thus relieving himself of all need to actually consider any criticism aimed against him.
Another great quote: “Racist,” he says people label him, so regularly that “the word has almost lost its meaning for me, which is sad.”
So very sad indeed. I didn't know that once you reach a quantified threshold of someone calling you names, the word loses all sense and meaning and thus becomes indistinguishable from other words like, you know, dumbfuck or impostor.
Later, the journalist mentions one time when protestors came directly to Kobach's house when nobody happened to be home and children of immigrants left shoes on his doorstep to symbolize the deportation of their parents. Kobach's reaction to this is codified GOP extremism: "He has thought about what might have happened if he had been home to answer the door. It made him think about mob dynamics and the importance of the Second Amendment."
Right... mob dynamics and the Second Amendment. Of course the journalist doesn't wonder what exactly he means by bringing up the holy 2nd amendment here. Is he just going to wave the gun around, beat his chest and howl like a gorilla from his porch. Will be bring it out in its case and just stare at the kids like a maniac until they get the point? Maybe Kobach apparently envisioned the ravenous aliens throwing stones and maybe even molotov cocktails in which case he would have had to take his assault rifle off the wall and gun down all those kids because he needs to defend his castle against lawless intruders standing on the sidewalk.
Later, while listening to Obama's speech, Kobach responds: "“Huh?” he writes when Obama explains his reasons for acting alone. “You have NO AUTHORITY!” The journalist just leaves the quote as is with no commentary, but for those who have followed politics since the arrival of Obama the quotes is crystal clear. In the context of the article, the quote is nuanced to means Obama has "NO AUTHORITY" to take action on immigration, but what he really means is that in Kobach's extremist reasoning, Obama has no authority at all. Nada. On nothing. Everything Obama does meets contest and consternation, and the basis of this belly-aching is the innate conservative belief that our President SHOULD BE powerless, if the system had worked properly according to these GOP King Makers. Their Boys Club got infiltrated by an Outsider and they're still livid about it.
Finally, seeing as he's seen as the Conservative "expert" on immigration, its startling to see him show his true colors in front of his conservative Kansan faithful when he decries the Alien Invasion.
“Either we win this way or we lose big,” Kobach says. “If that happens, all of these illegal aliens will be eligible to feed at the trough filled by hardworking American people.”
So the man the GOP wants to hand the microphone to when responding to immigration reform seriously believes that illegal immigrants, or illegal aliens as he so kindly refers to them, are equal to the simple beasts of burden found locked up in pins and pastures across our country; the pigs and cows that we manipulate for own profits then dispense of like garbage when their market says their value has peaked.
The worst part of it all is that Kobach claims his entire life's work leads up to this point, when the whole GOP establishment comes a callin' to stand against tyranny and restore democracy. Such noble deeds. But it seems clear Kobach will flutter in the wind, à la Boehner, because his legal expertise can't stand muster in front of Obama's legal team. He's sure to fall flat because he's an "academic" lightweight whose life's work boils down to contesting superfluous issues and playing to his niche of society. But he'll blame Obama for his inevitable loss and that alone will win him back his blind followers who will hold him up as a fighter of freedom. And the GOP will draw the bridge up and fortify their walls a little tighter, losing precious ground but preserving the integrity of their ideology.
Doesn't "dismantling that spectacle and its system, brick by brick and from the ground up" defy the Law of Gravity?
A morning rife with idiocy:
"Either we win this way or we lose big,” Kobach says. “If that happens, all of these illegal aliens will be eligible to feed at the trough filled by hardworking American people.”
And who, pray tell, does he think is doing much of the hard American work? Filling Kobach's own trough, so to speak, at a Walmart price?
And a suggestion for the Texas Board of Education: Next time around insist that history texts reflect their preferred reality that Texas patriots won at the Alamo and the South really won the Civil, err, the War of Northern Aggression....Both revisions to support their firmly held belief that nothing in a textbook should cause its reader pain, reflection or even a modicum of thought.
And in another episode of Gunfail 2014, here in Washington state a three -year-old boy is fighting for his life. His father was in another room in their apartment, heard a noise from the bedroom, and broke in through a locked door to find that a playmate (age four) had shot his son in the jaw. In reporting the incident, a local news team observed this placard on the door of the apartment: "We don't dial 9-1-1," accompanied by a picture of a pistol.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/3-year-old-boy-shot-mouth-while-playing-4-year-old/njDMf/
Since the father was in the security business, he arguably had the weapon legally which means the state's new stricter background check law wouldn't have mattered. Which just proves, you can't fix stupid.
@James S.: Good catch. Surprisingly, the writer is a librul. "Dismantling from the ground up, brick by brick" works just fine in Right Wing World, where everything is upside down.
Marie
@safari: Here's the saddest part. From the Pulitzer Committee, 2014:
"Awarded to Eli Saslow of The Washington Post for his unsettling and nuanced reporting on the prevalence of food stamps in post-recession America, forcing readers to grapple with issues of poverty and dependency."
Marie Burns
Have been wondering for some time what Senator Inhofe and his ilk have in mind for the increasingly glacier-less Glacier National Park.
Have an idea. "The Senator Inhofe National Monument," (formerly Glacier National Park), renamed as a memorial to blind and willful stupidity. In the legislation renaming the Park, The Texas School Board and many more might receive the mention they deserve. How about the next Congress undertaking that action? It would be a nice break from eliminating health insurance for millions and naming post offices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/us/climate-change-threatens-to-strip-the-identity-of-glacier-national-park.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
"Serenity now!"
Always liked Marion Barry. He was bright, charismatic, and full of mischief. Truly fascinating (and entertaining) to watch.
@Marie: this comment of yours really resonated with me, "CW: Let me just say how mightily the major media piss me off when they describe Kris Kobach as an "expert" & the nasty boys of the GOP as a "deep bench of talent." If you want to know why millions of people vote Republican, it's partly because the "liberal media" validate these extremist bastards."
Those kind of articles which blindly overlook the major flaws of conservative candidates and policies drive me nuts. Since when has it been accepted to celebrate creationists and climate deniers, not to mention free market absolutists? And these attitudes are appearing increasingly in the Times, which is most annoying since I pay good money to read the drivel.
How many noticed that the minority immigrant coming through the
window for that Thanksgiving dinner had an imprint of a dark
skinned person on his shoe sole, holding something that looks kinda like a gun?
I'm completely unimpressed by UVA's suspension of fraternitys until January 9th. Most of that time they are on break. The story is horrific and well-known by the authorities and it easy enough to end the assaults NOW. Just have the cops drop-in the frat houses on Friday and Saturday nights and check out the party rooms. Surely, every parent of any student, either male or female, would support an intervention.