The Commentariat -- Nov. 6, 2014
Internal links, defunct videos & photo removed.
Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Wednesday that he accepts the American public's message in the midterm elections that Washington needs to break its political gridlock, even as he will now face a tougher final two years after Republicans won control of the Senate for the first time in seven years. 'I hear you,' Obama said at a news conference in the East Room":
... Here's the transcript of the presser, via the WashPo. ...
... Josh Lederman of the AP: "Speaking the afternoon after his party was dealt a punishing blow in the midterm elections, Obama said a new military authorization is one of a few areas where he will seek to work with Congress during the lame-duck session before a new Congress is seated in January. He said the goal was to update an authorization narrowly tailored to the fight against al-Qaida to be more applicable to the current mission against IS extremists in Iraq and Syria." ...
... Dana Milbank is awfully upset that President Obama didn't at least prostrate himself before the public, if not promise to repeal the ACA. CW: If Milbank had glanced at the exit polls, he would understand why Obama doesn't think he made a bad turn. ...
... Jim Newell of Salon: "He's basically the same guy he was the day before the election, and that's going to send many in Washington to their fainting couches." Read the whole post. Also, the Post should buy Milbank a fainting couch. ...
... Which Milbank can share with Ron Fournier of the National Journal: "From all appearances Wednesday, the president won't change -- not his policies, not his style, not his staff, not nothing. Defiant and begrudging, the president said he would meet with GOP leaders, seek their suggestions for common ground, and maybe grab a drink with Senate Majority Leader-to-Be Mitch McConnell." CW: Fournier pulls down a handsome salary for writing this garbage. ...
... AND Charles Pierce is aggravated that the President is polite. ...
... CW: How long does it take for liberals to figure out that railing against Republicans is not Obama's style? (It wouldn't help either, because the majority-white-racists in these here United States would get all askeert of an Angry Black Man.) If I were Obama, I'd do just what he did: concede he could manage sitting down for a drink with McConnell but otherwise deflect Stupid Reporter Questions. ...
... AND here was Pierce yesterday, urging Obama to "make them squeal." CW: I'm drawn to Pierce's mastery of the language & I'm in sync with many of his ideas, but I'm damned glad he doesn't hold a position of power.
Nathaniel Herz of the Alaska Dispatch News: "A day after Republican Dan Sullivan sprung to the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, refused to concede, citing tens of thousands of outstanding votes -- particularly those in rural parts of the state. Numbers released by Alaska elections officials Wednesday morning showed Begich facing daunting odds...." ...
... Alex DeMarban of the Alaska Dispatch News: "Candidates in [Alaska's] squeaky-tight gubernatorial race have urged supporters to stay patient, saying the contest is too close to call. Gov. Sean Parnell, hoping to win his second full term but trailing slightly, said in a statement Wednesday it could be two weeks before all the votes are tallied and a winner -- either Parnell or Republican-turned-independent challenger Bill Walker, the top of the 'unity ticket' -- can be determined."
NBC Washington: "NBC News is calling incumbent Mark Warner the 'apparent winner' in Virginia's Senate race, as officials work to certify election results in the razor-close race. Throughout the day Wednesday, Warner hung onto a slim lead over Republican challenger Ed Gillespie."
Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: "The in-party -- even in cases where presidents are transformative and/or have bold agendas that deliver plenty to their constituents — rarely fares well in the midterms of term 2. Combined with a very unfavorable map, the fact that midterms massively favor the Republican electorate, and Republicans at both the state and federal level figuring out that the damage you inflict on constituents will actually be held against the party controlling the White House, the Democrats were going to get clobbered, and the 'this proves Obama should have led with leadership by ...' genre is mostly a waste of time. Messaging and position-taking might matter a little at the margins, but there wasn't any magic formula that was going to prevent the 2014 midterms from being a bloodbath at the federal level."
Gail Collins: "Always look on the bright side." ...
... OR NOT. Frank Rich: "The electorate's message could not have been more clear: Having soured on hope and change, Americans voted for change without hope.... The most misleading morning-after-the-election story line is that the Republicans triumphed because the Establishment struck back and shut down the crazy gaffe-prone candidates who have dogged the GOP in the past two cycles.... Scott Brown's ability to lose in this Republican blowout was awesome, though not in a good way."
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "... turnout among core Democratic groups was lower in 2014 than it was in 2012 or even 2010. Many Democrats would have won if turnout had resembled a presidential election year. But Democrats also lost in states where turnout surpassed 2010, according to an Upshot analysis of preliminary returns and voter turnout data."
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The lesson of the last decade in politics is not to over-interpret the results of any single election. The dominant trends in American politics were mostly reinforced yesterday: the country is increasingly polarized; the low-turnout midterm electorate benefits Republicans; the Senate will remain closely contested for the foreseeable future; the House will remain the anchor of the Republican Party; Democrats have a demographic advantage in presidential elections. And very little will get accomplished in Washington."
Brad Plumer of Vox: "The outlook for climate policy looks just as dismal after these midterms as it did before -- at least in Washington. True, there were small shifts in attitude here and there. Some Republicans no longer think it's viable to deny global warming outright." ...
... John Light of Grist: The big money environmentalists spent in this election cycle mostly didn't pay off. ...
... FOR Example. Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: "In handing Republicans control of the Senate on Tuesday, Americans effectively voted for the party's hostile plans against President Barack Obama's environmental legacy. Their votes also put the Senate's environment and climate policy into the hands of the worst science-denier in national politics: Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who is almost certainly the next chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee."
Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect: "... the Democrats' failure isn't just the result of Republican negativity. It's also intellectual and ideological. What, besides raising the minimum wage, do the Democrats propose to do about the shift in income from wages to profits, from labor to capital, from the 99 percent to the 1 percent?" ...
... CW: Meyerson is right. In allowing itself to be taken over by special interests, the Democratic party has become a Seinfeld meme: the Party of Nothing. The party can't give up its pretense of "feeling the pain" of the working class, but it also can't afford to alienate its big-money donors by actually doing the things that would better the lot of working people vis-a-vis said big-money donors. Remember, healthcare reform came about only because it was an accommodation to a couple of super-huge industries. (Maybe it would have been an unchallenged success if it included a provision to process all claims thru Koch Industries.) This election was less about Obama than it was about voters' real-life economic hardships. Voters don't think either party will help them. And they're right. Democrats' tepid policy proposals -- $10.10/hour & lower college loan interest rates -- are more insulting than inspiring.
New York Times Editors: "On at least six high-profile and often contentious issues -- minimum wage, marijuana legalization, criminal justice reform, abortion rights, gun control and environmental protection '' voters approved ballot measures, in some cases overwhelmingly, that were directly at odds with the positions of many of the Republican winners."
Matthew Yglesias: "McConnell is not the most charismatic politician of our time, but he is arguably the sharpest mind in contemporary politics on a strategic level.... As McConnell told Josh Green, the key to eroding Obama's popularity was denying him the sheen of bipartisanship, and that meant keep Republicans united in opposition.... To prevent Obama from becoming the hero who fixed Washington, McConnell decided to break it. And it worked." ...
I wanted to win. -- Mitch McConnell, explaining his political philosophy
"The Dawning of the Age of McConnell." Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "... we are entering a period of paralysis.... McConnell has told big donors that he will 'work at every turn to thwart the Obama agenda, and use appropriations and the budget process to force the president to roll back key elements of Obamacare, to water down Dodd-Frank, to tilt toward coal -- to move forward on the Keystone XL pipeline, and to stop Environmental Protection Agency action on climate change,' according to the National Journal. For some Republican senators, that will not be enough. Before the election, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, refused to pledge his support to McConnell, and offered his own vision of the Senate's priorities, including opening congressional hearings into the actions of the Obama Administration, 'looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.'... Cruz might look like a moderate next to some of his new colleagues; in Iowa, the Republican Joni Ernst, as the Times summed it up, 'wants to ban abortions and same-sex marriage and impeach the president.'"
Lori Montgomery & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Within hours of solidifying their control of Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John A. Boehner were quietly laying plans for a series of quick votes in January aimed at erasing their obstructionist image ahead of the 2016 elections. First up: Action on long-stalled bills with bipartisan support, including measures to repeal an unpopular tax on medical devices and approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.... Pressure to follow through on the party's most conservative priorities was already building Wednesday. Several tea-party leaders gathered at the National Press Club and reiterated their demand that repealing the Affordable Care Act remain the party's priority. In a memo, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) also emphasized the health-care law as a top target." ...
... Here's the Wall Street Journal op-ed by McConnell & Boehner laying out their brilliant agenda. It's firewalled, so unless you're a subscriber, Google "Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans" ... especially if you feel like making yourself sick. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Interestingly, they pledge a new era of constructive governance, even as they also vow to '... repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans' health care.' This is just bluster for the base, but still: Those who profess a love of bipartisan cooperation will politely ignore the absurdity of vowing to get government working again while simultaneously vowing to keep up the repeal crusade." ...
... Steve M.: "Republicans are still awfully good at concocting (and, through repetition, meme-ifying) lofty-sounding descriptors for not-so-lofty policy goals. (They're also excellent at scaring the crap out of voters with deceitfully negative sounding phrases: 'death panels,' 'death tax,' etc.)"
Nelson Schwartz & Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "Business interests face a much more receptive audience now that Republicans are poised to control both the House and Senate next year.... [BUT] there is much less appetite on the part of business leaders for wholesale changes to the health care law. For one thing, many of the insurance exchanges are finally working well, and businesses have adapted to the new landscape. Even more important, added demand from the newly insured is likely to increase profits in sectors like hospitals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices."
Ben White of Politico: "Voters want the GOP to fix the economy. Good luck with that.... Even if Republicans manage to overcome internal fissures and unify around a set of economic proposals next year -- a big open question -- there is only a limited chance that any of them will have the kind of profound impact voters might reward in 2016.... Republicans on Tuesday bought themselves a big share of a structurally troubled American economy but may lack the tools needed to fix it. Their best hope, in fact, could be for the economy to finally gain some traction on its own, putting the GOP in position to claim credit." ...
... Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... Republicans ousted some of the red-state Democrats most inclined to work with them, such as Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, reducing the number of potential Democratic allies.... Mr. McConnell, with few votes to spare, will have to balance the views of a handful of more moderate Republicans, such as Senator Susan Collins of Maine, with those of unyielding conservatives such as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas...."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Two Senate sources say they expect Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to reach out to Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) and centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) about joining the Senate Republican Conference. Republicans have a 52-seat Senate majority and that could swell to 54 seats depending on the final vote tally in Alaska and a runoff in Louisiana next month. Both are solidly red states."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Wherein Charles Pierce complains that a CNN on-air personality has sold herself to the Republican party: "what is purported CNN 'analyst' S.E. Cupp doing bringing her smart-person glasses into an effort to groom candidates for one party or another, and then going back to opine on her handiwork both on the television and on the Intertoobz?"
AND, in Totally Unrelated News. J. K. Trotter of Gawker: "The Daily Mail is reporting the name -- Robert O'Neill -- of the retired Navy SEAL who plans to appear on Fox News and reveal that he shot Osama bin Laden. O'Neill's father, Tom, confirmed his 38-year-old son's identity to the Mail a week ahead of the Fox News interview scheduled to air on November 12. The Mail's report comes two days after the special-forces website SOFREP -- and an anonymous Gawker commenter -- both claimed that the Navy SEAL was Robert O'Neill."
Presidential Election
Jonathan Chait: "The structural advantages undergirding Republican control of both chambers of Congress are so imposing that only extraordinary circumstances could overwhelm them.... As long as Democrats hold the White House, Republican control of Congress is probably safe -- at least for several election cycles to come.... Hillary Clinton is the only thing standing between a Republican Party even more radical than George W. Bush's version and unfettered control of American government." ...
... CW: OR some more messianic left-ish political figure. I just don't see Hillary as the salvation of the Democratic brand. As Frank Rich remarks (linked above), "A cautious Clinton campaign standing for little in particular and distancing itself from Barack Obama could yet be vulnerable, just as such a Democratic campaign proved this year."
Tim Egan on gun control: "... Washington showed the model for other states. If you take the issue out of the hands of cowed politicians and put it directly in front of the voters, the results are as expected -- the will of the people prevails."
Steve M.: "How many people nationwide have heard of Sherrod Brown? Amy Klobuchar? Kamala Harris? Maybe Kirsten Gillibrand gets a bit of national attention, and self-promoters like Cory Booker, Wendy Davis, and Elizabeth Warren get more. But the party doesn't have anything like the GOP hype machine. If you don't work the system yourself, a la Barack Obama, you're nobody.... And that's why Republicans have so many A-list presidential candidates for 2016 and Democrats, with Warren taking a pass, have precisely one."
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Reader Comments (31)
Ala Egan:
Anyone else think a national initiative mechanism is in order? I don't have in mind a ready way to create one but am open to ideas...
It seems we need something other than the Constitutional amendment process, which is deliberately and understandably constipated, to give the people a direct voice in their government, a thoroughfare, not a toll road clogged, dammed and diverted with gobs of money. Lately the people's very indirect voice is hard to distinguish from no voice at all.
I've never been a huge fan of parliamentary government but I'm on the edge of being persuaded it might be a far better option than our current Congressional clusterf____.
Delicately yours,
My Oregon Ceasefire group is taking a lesson from Washington State, and we are preparing an all-out battle for universal background checks in Oregon in 2016. This initiative will not win in the 2nd amendment territory in which I presently live, but may win big in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland--which have big voter turnout and are larger in population than all of Eastern Oregon. I think gun control is going to happen on the Left Coast, sooner rather than later. Not so sure about the East Coast, and absolutely pessimistic about the South and Plain states. Minnesota maybe in the Middle West.
In the midst of extreme disappointment about the election, I will hold on to this as a ray of hope in an otherwise hopeless nation. Meanwhile, pass the Zoloft!
Thanks for the 'amusing' cartoon, CW! I was just about to go out and stock up on spike strips, but noted the wheels have already come off the pick-up.
For a hundred years now, americans have been subjected to government propaganda. They have learned how to be swayed by distortions and outright lies coming from Washington and the media. There used to be antidotes (civics classes, the draft) to the steady stream of propaganda; but the 21st century development of really supine media now gives the vast majority of people no alternative view or education. It is no wonder that people are acting like there's an apocalypse coming. In Schumann's "Faust," the four horsemen of the apocalypse are, "hunger, poverty, sorrow, death" (Hunger, Not, Sorge, Tod). People can see these horsemen around them, and, without seeing any sort of a larger picture, they react in stupid black and white ways. There really is an ecological apocalypse coming. This really is a time for a new mentality if we are to survive. But it is not surprising that people chose stupid over nuance - just very disheartening.
Although Angus King won't need to run again for four years, I hope that Scott Brown has time in his calendar to challenge our Brunswick favorite son. Brown will find that his understanding of what a drubbing is will be greatly enhanced.
On another note, all politics is indeed local. The genius of the Republican message is that President Obama has an actual influence (and a malign one at that) in people's everyday lives. Yes, I have a comprehensive insurance plan, but that's about it. Still, Republicans tossed people's economic and existential fears into an Obama crate and then sold that sloshing mess to victims of downsizing, retirees whose pension systems were bled by unregulated greed, parents whose children attend school with disturbed youth who will not be denied access to deadly weapons, women whose reproductive choices are fair game for politicians of both genders. As I said, impressive.
As for LePage and the rest of the antediluvian crowd: The Devil's greatest trick was to get pro-aristocracy words coming out of those who look like junior accountants (Scott Walker) and the guy who rents you shoes (LePage) at a bowling alley. Paul LePage LOOKS like the Mainers he represents, and if he does his best to weaken environmental regulations and chase away clean energy projects, at least he fights against SOCIALISM, which can be defined as allowing THOSE people any sort of parity in our society. Sure, some of THOSE people will excel and escape the cycle of poverty, and we can hold up those exceptions as standards toward which all people of their ilk should aspire, if only they [fill in the insulting blank].
Oh, and left out of this Maine discussion is that Mike Michaud is gay. That fact was mentioned early in the year and then dropped as if it would make no difference in this Maine (Alabama with a five-mile crust of Connecticut along the coast) in which we live. Honky, please.
As for 2016, unless we can convince Senator Professor Warren to enter the fray, we will spend our money and our time supporting the same old triangulating neoliberal nonsense that has allowed people to view Democrats as Republicans sans cojones.
America sent no message. In NJ, and I will bet most if not all America,
we had a record low voter turnout. The basic problem is that the majority of citizens simply don't give a damn.
@Marvin Schwalb: Not sure if this is about people's not caring as much as it is about people's not having the time to vote. As Dylan Scott of TPM points out, "the 2014 electorate was really, really old." Older voters aren't necessarily more civic-minded or more motivated; they just have more time on their hands, IMHO. If I had three kids & two jobs that pay by the hour, I probably wouldn't have got around to voting either except maybe if I lived in a state like Oregon, where they have vote-by-mail.
(I'll admit I did always vote back when I had two little kids & one job, but I also had jobs where I had the flexibility to take time off to vote.)
Marie
Ken:
Woodrow Wilson ( a better comparison with Obama than Frank's silly one with Carter) laid out his central ideas about constitutions––how they must be organic and living things, not rigid legal frameworks––and advocated the adoption of something like the British parliamentary system to make American government more democratic and efficient. He also addressed the way individuals could compete fairly and this would mean more government power to break up concentrations of power, wealth and entrenched privilege that distorted society and corrupted political life. Some things haven't changed much, have they?
Perhaps, Ken, we could meet under an old oak tree and come up with something better than what we have, but I reckon we'd be laughed out of the Clusterfuck and told to mind our P's & Q's ––that same message they used (still do?) for women who had the boldness to come up with new ideas in congress or in corporations.
Rachel Maddow, always one to find the silver lining in the most dire of circumstances had a segment last night where she presented some silver lining stories before she addressed the Republican trouncing. One was Tom Butts–-who won the mayoral race in Richmond, Ca. and in which millions were spent by the Kochs (they have that refinery there that has blown up four times) on another fella that fit snugly in their pocket––no regulations for him. Old Tom Butts spent only 40,000 and won. Now there's a sliver lining to write home about!
There is a Democrat who stands for something, and something that resonates with voters.
We need Elizabeth Warren to enter the race for the presidency. Now.
I agree, Ken Winkes.
According to RNC chair Reince Priebus, Republicans can't compromise with Obama to pass immigration reform because 1) Dems could have passed a comprehensive bill when they had majorities in both Houses of Congress (for a few months, while we were facing the abyss of economic catastrophe); and even better, the voters just repudiated Obama so the Republicans should be able to (paraphrasing here) do whatever they want.
To be precise, here are his words:
“Now to come back and say, after the American people repudiated the policies of Barack Obama and everyone that was connected to him to now say, ‘what are you guys going to do to compromise with the person the American people had just repudiated?’” Priebus said. “I think it’s a little bizarre.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reince-priebus-no-compromise-obama-immigration
My question to Priebus and like minded Republicans is this: how is it that when Obama won resounding victories they acted as if that hadn't happened and accorded the President and his supporters no quarter and no respect? They are just a bunch of manipulative liars - but slick.
Marie, I agree that for some, voting is a scheduling problem but as I look around, the last two generations have a very different view of their responsibilities as citizens. When I grew up voting was a major responsibility. Now for many (most) it is just an annoyance.
We might be able to solve this problem if we can create a system where you can vote on your I phone.
And to note one of the things that drives me crazy (there are many), I go walking frequently in NYC. I have a solution for the Mayor's effort to reduce pedestrian accidents and solve the cities budget problem. Make it a $100. fine if you are texting while crossing the street.
Seinfeld moment? Le plus ça change.......
LOVE ME, I’M A LIBERAL
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers ...
— Phil Ochs
CW: Most of comment removed for copyright violation, but see the bottom of today's Commentariat for an audio version of the rest of it.
Whyte,
Always loved Phil Ochs.
Now that the savages are running the show in both houses, you can bet there'll be show trials and investigations that will make it look like Darrell Issa spent the last few years sleeping it off.
The big question now is who will be the new speaker. This is of vital importance. I tell you why in a second. Chances of them letting Boehner run his lame-ass act another two years are slim. The savages will demand a bug-eyed true believer, a teabagging apostle of the New Right-Wing World Order.
Ted Cruz has promised plenty of kangaroo courts, he and Palin are screaming "IMPEACH" once more. And since there are no moderates to, um, moderate the hysteria, it's likely that they will go through with an impeachment trial. They'll want to impeach Obama for LIWHWB, living in the White House while black.
And say they do. They'll also have to impeach Joe Biden at the same time for being mean to Little Paulie Ryan during those debates a couple of years ago. You have to admit, Smokin' Joe landed some huge body blows and a couple of staggering shots to Ryan's empty head. He beat him up pretty badly. Reason enough to impeach his ass.
Which means whoever they put in the Speaker's office will be the new president, because both Obama and Biden will have been thrown out before a new vice president could be named.
So.....President Gohmert? President Ryan? President....Yoho?
Wait. I know.
President Hice.
Jody Hice. Crackpot extraordinaire.
He's got it all. Crazier than a shithouse rat, he cherry picks the Constitution like all drooling teabaggers (no First Amendment rights for Muslims, dammit), thinks women are okay in politics as long as they get permission from their lords and masters, believes gays are violent addicts and alcoholics because, well, because gay, natch, claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was punishment for not allowing Christian prayer in public schools, declared that the recent blood moons were a sign from god promising some very bad shit.
And now, he's a congressman!!
He's perfect!
Ken,
Funnily enough, I was thinking the same thing yesterday, about parliamentary government. But just imagine all the screaming from the wignnuts. If the House of Commons is any indicator, the place would be bughouse crazy from day one. I can just hear Joni Ernst's piercing voice screaming over the din in the upper house.
How about a philosopher king? Any Vaclav Havels lying around?
Victoria,
Regarding the supine press, I'm thinking that might not be the best term to describe the current fourth estate even though the results certainly suggest that rubric.
I think more and more, the press, much of it anyway, is doing an excellent job. They're doing exactly the job their bosses, which in most cases are multinational corporations, want them to do, which is do nothing to upset the apple cart. Blaming both sides keeps an even strain on things and guarantees business as usual. Keeping stories wide but shallow is the gold standard. Don't get too deep. Touch lightly on the surface then throw it to weather or sports.
The press has always attracted egotists but too many of today's pretend journalists (Chuck Todd, Little Lukie Russert, eg) are in it to be famous rather than to investigate, uncover facts, corroborate stories, discover hidden motives and goals, and report. The truth to power thing.
Those of us old enough to remember when journalism mattered might be using measuring sticks that no longer apply. Comparing Chuck Todd to Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite is inexact and unfair. Todd and Russert and everyone on Fox should be compared, instead, to pop culture entertainers. Network news programs have become much more like American Idol than See It Now. And like contestants on American Idol, they all try to sing the song just like they're expected to be sung by judges whose apparent range of musicality runs the scale from C to C# (apologies to Dorothy Parker).
The tragedy is that "news" operations realize that often they are still accorded the sort of respect previously reserved for journalists worthy of the name. The tragedy is that too many viewers take what entertainers like Luke Russert say as the reasonable and seasoned opinions of a thoughtful journalist instead of the insufferably egocentric babbling of a 12 year old with his first Twitter account.
In that respect, they have us over a barrel. There still are decent journalists out there, they just don't have the kind of soapbox given to the fakers and frauds, entertainers, and clowns.
That being the case, I suppose we'll have to jettison the adjectives supine and bovine for something closer to vulpine.
But asinine works too.
P.S. It's highly doubtful that Russert or anyone on Fox has ever encountered the Faust story in any of it's versions, neither Goethe's, nor Schumann's, nor Gounod's. The story of a narcissist selling his soul to the devil might be too close to home. But thanks to your comment, I've been humming Valentin's Aria (Avant de quitter ces lieux) from Gounod's Faust for the last ten minutes or so. Here's a brilliant version of it by the superb American baritone Lawrence Tibbett. The story goes that Valentin was his first role at the Met. He only knew part of the score and had only days to learn the rest. His singing of this aria was so revelatory that Met chorus members (a hard bunch) took pity on him and hid behind various pieces of scenery to throw him lines when he started to falter. Thanks for triggering the remembrance of something beautiful in the midst of the current disaster.
Hey!
Isn't it time for signing up for ACA? I haven't seen a word about it. Is this something else Americans have forgotten about?
The radio just played a clip of John Boehner speaking today. In addition to the Keystone XL pipeline, his priorities are:
1. Reducing the debt. Europe tried that again and they have been flirting with deflation. Boehner wants to turn us into Europe? There is a time to reduce the debt. Boehner may be surprised to learn that even Krugman believes that. Now is not the time to do that, while the average person on the (non-Wall) street is still struggling.
2. Repeal the ACA and replace it with "common sense reforms that don't get in the way of the doctor-patient relationship." He had a hard time getting that last part out, it's a new twist on his old saw. My old saw hasn't changed: Show us the details. We've been waiting for those for years.
Nevermind. I looked it up. ACA sign up starts November 15th.
Nisky Guy,
Hey man, while you're at it, can you ask Boehner about the voter-legislator relationship? It seems just a tad defective, especially when compared to the billionaire donor-legislator relationship. Maybe voters, when they're all signed up for the ACA, can get some special cochlear implants so we can decode exactly what those legislators are saying to us.....shhhhhh.
Can you hear it?
I think they're saying...
g o f u c k y o u r s e l v e s.
' I'm drawn to Pierce's mastery of the language & I'm in sync with many of his ideas, but I'm damned glad he doesn't hold a position of power.' So am I drawn to Pierce's colourful language, but I would be happy for him to have a position of power; considering the alternatives, which have been made manifest - Joni Ernst, Roberts, et al. - I'd much rather have a thinking man in Washington than these numbskulls, which DO wield great power. It's not as if the US has elected a cohort of Socrates and Plato. For Heaven's Sake, look at the quality of the Supreme Court! Scalia as Demosthenes I suppose. Pierce is too scrupulous, too intelligent, even too nuanced, to get elected to office.
@Terence: sorry to throw a relatively subtlety at you when feelings are raw, but flamethrowers don't make good legislators (or good leaders, for that matter): Ted Cruz.
Pierce is a flamethrower. His proposal to throw immigration in Republicans' face is just plain stupid. Obama's approach is sensible: he warned 'em, & if they fuck around, he'll sign an executive order. He's giving Republicans a chance to legislate, which is what the public asked him to do & what legislators are supposed to do. Pierce doesn't get that.
And it isn't Pierce's "colorful" language that I find particularly noteworthy; it's his manipulation of language, colorful & not, to make his point. Anybody can use dirty words; to use them to good effect & in original ways is a talent that takes honing.
Marie
This just in: Ignorance and stupidity win again.
The Right-Wing/Fox/Wingnut-punditry plan to extract rationality from the Ebola outbreak in western African nations and replace it with dimwitedness is going exactly as planned.
Kentucky parents want a teacher, just back from Africa, quarantined. The problem? The teacher was nowhere near the affected countries. In fact, she was on the other side of the continent (country, if you're Sarah Palin), in Kenya, a good 3,300 miles away, about 600 miles more than the distance from Boston to San Francisco.
Since transmission of bodily fluids are necessary for the spread of Ebola, that would have be one pretty powerful loogie to fly all the way from Liberia to Kenya.
But no matter. Africa is still the Dark Continent where all kinds of scary stuff comes from. Who knows what kind of black magic those natives are practicing?
Good work, Fox! You can add "well informed" to fair and balanced.
@Akhilleus: You mean you don't think that teacher is a sleeper in Obama's plan to wipe out fly-over country? You are soooo naive.
Marie
AK:
I hear it loud and clear even without the implants. An important part of my work involves listening for and describing or adjusting tonal qualities that are present for everyone to hear, but rarely noticed by the lay people. Rather, I believe the nuances are noticed but they don't have words to describe them so it comes off as a feeling: That organ sounds angry, or That organ sounds sad. To keep this from being too long of a post, I'll just say that it is a matter of education and interest.
Turtle Man said he wanted to rip out the ACA "root and branch" when they won. Well, you got the first part; now, go for it, Mitchy. As Chance said: "I like to watch."
@AK-
This Kentucky teacher may be the person who resigned saying she could not tolerate the ignorance of the parents and school authorities.
If that is not she, there was another teacher in the pre-Civil War South who yesterday did just that. She had been traveling in Tanzania, I believe. Also not close to Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia in that tiny little "country" of Africa.
AK, I agree totally that those who finance and produce the press have perfected a way to stay even-handed and would find a way to do so even if they were asked to cover The Massacre of the Innocents. ("Well, some have said that the Innocents had it coming. Here's former Herod spokesperson Dana Perrino ....")
But what's changed? I may have mentioned in the past that Mencken was wise to this 100 years ago when he wrote about how a journalist makes a living: "The problem of a modern newspaper ... is that of enlisting the interest of the inferior man. ... Unless a newspaper can arouse this inferior man's feelings it might just as well not have at him at all, for his feelings are the essential part of him, and it is out of them that he dredges up his obscure loyalties and aversions."
How does a newspaper arouse his feelings? Mencken: "At bottom, the business is quite simple. First scare him, and then reassure him. First get him into a panic with a bugaboo--and then go to the rescue, gallantly and uproariously, with a stuffed club to lay it. First fake him, and then fake him again."
As was said earlier, plus ce change ....
Here's a nice little message from that brother of mine: appears this is going around the internet.
Thank God all the political crap is over! FOX NEWS BOWS TO PRESSURE FROM OBAMA
"Fox is already cowering down to the president"...
In response to President Obama's complaint that FOX doesn't show
enough Black and Hispanic people on their network,
FOX has announced today that they will now air "America's Most Wanted"
twice a week.