The Commentariat -- Oct. 14, 2014
Internal links, defunct video & related text removed.
Manny Fernandez, et al., of the New York Times: "The transmission of the Ebola virus to a nurse [in Dallas, Texas,] forced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday to reconsider its approach to containing the disease, with state and federal officials re-examining whether equipment and procedures were adequate or too loosely followed, and whether more decontamination steps are necessary when health workers leave isolation units.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises. The report lays out a road map to show how the military will adapt to rising sea levels, more violent storms and widespread droughts. The Defense Department will begin by integrating plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic military planning situations to a rethinking of the movement of supplies." ...
... Joe Romm of Think Progress: "Last month was the warmest September globally since records began being kept in 1880, NASA reported Sunday. January through September data have 2014 already at the third warmest on record. Projections by NOAA make clear 2014 is taking aim at hottest year on record."
Elisabetta Povoledo & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "In a marked shift in tone..., an assembly of Roman Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document on Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples and those who have divorced, as well as the children of these less traditional families. The bishops' report, issued midway through a landmark two-week meeting, does not change church doctrine or teaching, and will now be subjected to fierce debate and revision at the assembly." The Washington Post's initial story is linked in yesterday's News Ledes.
Cloak, Dagger & Greed. Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The mysterious workings of a Pentagon office that oversees clandestine operations are unraveling in federal court, where a criminal investigation has exposed a secret weapons program entwined with allegations of a sweetheart contract, fake badges and trails of destroyed evidence."
Thomas Ricks of the New America Foundation, in the New York Times, reviews James Risen's new book, which "sets out to portray the many seamy sides of the war on terror during the past 13 years." ...
... CW: If you don't have time to read the whole review, skip down to the part about Diane Rourk, who tried to warn officials about what she assumed was a rogue operation at the NSA. As someone who is not a fan of Ed Snowden's, I must eat a dainty helping of pan-seared crow here. Rourk did more or less what I would have recommended Snowden do, and the thanks she got for her efforts were not exactly heartfelt. She says "others who discussed their concerns about the N.S.A.'s constitutional transgressions received similarly harsh handling, one reason that Edward J. Snowden fled overseas when he leaked documents...." ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson said in an interview released Sunday that she regrets not pushing the Times to publish a story by national security reporter James Risen about a reportedly flawed CIA effort to undermine Iran's nuclear program -- an account that unleashed a nearly seven-year drive by the U.S. government to force Risen to identify his sources. Risen elected to put the story in a book he wrote, 'State of War,' which was published in 2006, several years after the Times elected not to detail the saga.... Prosecutors have suggested in court filings that Risen's decision to publish the story despite the Times's refusal to do so undercuts his grounds for defying subpoenas demanding the identities of his confidential sources." ...
... Video of the interview, conducted by Lesley Stahl, is on the same Webpage as the Hayden-Keller interview. (Click on the video which features a picture of Abramson.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Not a Parody. Ira Stoll of Smarter Times: "For the price of $6,995, the New York Times is offering 13-day tours of Iran guided by Times journalist Elaine Sciolino. Promotional material for the tour on the Times website promises 'luxurious hotels' and describes Tehran as a city where 'the young and fashionable adopt a new trendy joie de vivre.' Also on the itinerary: 'a pleasant evening stroll around the colorful bazaars,' along with insights into the 'accomplishments' of the late Ayatollah Khomeini.... How fair will Times journalism be toward those calling for tougher Iran sanctions if the sanctions would force the newspaper to cancel its lucrative luxury tours of Iran? Why are Times journalists lending their reputations, such as they are, to promotional material that describes Iran as a kind of paradise -- "colorful bazaars," "trendy joie de vivre" -- while skipping over the reality of other parts of Iran, like, say, Evin Prison?" Via Scott Kaufman the Raw Story. Thanks to Bonita for the link.
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Police in Princeton New Jersey have been called in to enforce a mandatory quarantine imposed upon NBC Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman after she was spotted outside of her home despite agreeing to be quarantined following her exposure to the deadly Ebola virus. Snyderman's isolation came in the wake of one of her cameramen, Ashoka Mukpo, coming down with the highly infectious disease.... Mukpo is currently being treated in Omaha, Nebraska."
November Elections
Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: "Republicans need to call off the voting wars for their own good.... [Here's why:] 1. The voting wars are a costly, bureaucratic nightmare.... 2. The absence of voter fraud is becoming impossible to deny.... 3. The GOP's voter suppression efforts are motivating Democrats.... 4. Rand Paul says so." ...
... ** Ed Kilgore: "... I'd offer a counter-argument based on a simple premise: the War on Voting ... is closely integrated with contemporary conservative ideology.... The highly prominent Constitutional Conservative wing of the GOP considers democracy itself -- if it aims at or even allows erosion of the Ideal Governing Scheme ... established by the Founders -- as essentially un-American (This is a republic, not a democracy, they never tire of saying).... Anything that makes exercise of the franchise more difficult -- especially by those people who so poorly resemble the white yeoman farmer property owners of the early Republic -- is presumed to be a good idea in itself.... The kind of thinking that produced Mitt Romney's '47 percent' remarks is deeply entrenched in the GOP, and its root idea is that voting by people who benefit from an active federal government (and don't pay income taxes!) is corrupt.... For a large number of Republicans, 'voter fraud' means Democrats trading other people's money (their money) for votes...."
If you want to see what a brutal pro-Democratic ad looks like, here ya go:
... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "A new TV ad blames prominent Republicans for Ebola deaths, attacking them for championing spending cuts that have gone after emergency public health funding for containing disease outbreaks.... The spot was produced by the Agenda Project Action Fund, the same progressive group that has made controversial anti-Republican ads such as 'Granny Off the Cliff.' The group's spokeswoman, Erica Payne, said Monday the ad would air in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Dakota and Kansas -- all of which feature competitive Senate races that could swing the majority." ...
... CW Note: Yesterday I linked a Huffington Post story by Sam Stein that makes the same point about development of an Ebola vaccine: Dr. Francis Collins, director of the N.I.H. who does not specifically call out Republicans, say severe budget cuts are the reason the agency hasn't developed a vaccine. So, ya know, maybe that fear of Ebola Fox "News" has been fanning could hurt Republicans. ...
... PLUS. ABC Radio News: "Dr. Irwin Redlener, who directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said..., 'You only need to see what has happened to funding of the federal Hospital Preparedness Program, which was providing $515 million a year in 2003 and 2004, now cut back to approximately $250 million this year.'... 'That is simply insufficient to make sure that U.S. hospitals are ready for a large-scale bio disaster.'" ...
... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "Meanwhile, John McCain and his buddies are screaming for an Ebola czar (which maybe our surgeon general could be, if we had a surgeon general which we don't because the NRA torpedoed his nomination). Think Ebola is terrifying enough to make them loosen the purse strings? Think again. They'd rather fearmonger on this issue than fix it." ...
... Winger Erik Erikson of Red State explains why the ad "reeks of desperation." The real reason the various federal agencies are not controlling Ebola is that they're wasting all their money studying "fat lesbians..., wives who calm down quickly..., [and] "gun violence on order of the President," etc.
Kentucky. Sam Youngman of the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader: "There were a few skirmishes, but little new ground was broken as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes delivered their well-worn attack lines to each other's faces Monday night on statewide television." ...
... Danny Vinik of the New Republic highlights McConnell's claim -- the same one he's been making for months -- that he would repeal ObummerCare but keep the state's Kynect "Website." Uh-huh. Vinik calls out the media -- including that darling Luke Russert -- for comparing Grimes' stupid refusal to admit she voted for Obama to Mitt's outlandish pretense that the popular "Website" has nothing to do with the ACA: "Grimes' refusal to admit who she voted for is bad politics, and demonstrates a lack of political courage, but ultimately has little effect on how she would represent the state of Kentucky. But if McConnell got his way and repealed Obamacare while keeping Kynect as a website, it would cause 500,000 Kentuckians to lose their health insurance. That's not a gaffe[, Luke, you idiot]. It's a deceptive policy position. And the media's focus on Grimes is covering that up." ...
... CW: Here's one point on which Chuck Todd is half-right. Contra Chuck, it is the media's job to point out instances when politicians lie or mislead, as Mitch has been doing on ObamaCare & Kynect. On the other hand, politicians, when given such golden opportunities to rebut the lies & level with voters, as Grimes had in the debate forum, they have to do that effectively. She didn't. (Video here. The exchange begins at about 34:15 min. into the debate. Grimes gets to speak about 5 minutes later.) Grimes' effort to obfuscate her support for Obama & his healthcare plan is the reason she will -- and deserves to -- lose the election to Sen. Turtleman. ...
... AND, speaking of Chuck:
New Hampshire. Kaili Joy Gray in Wonkette: "In video posted by the New Hampshire Democratic Party, as [former Massachusetts Sen. Scott] Brown walked through [a] sea of tailgaters [before a University of New Hampshire football game], there were shouts of 'F**k Jeanne Shaheen!' and 'Elizabeth Warren sucks!' referring to the Democrat from Massachusetts who unseated Brown from his Senate seat in that state in 2012. The language became even more graphic at points, with one man shouting 'F**k her right in the p***y'..., although it wasn't clear if he was referring to Shaheen or Warren. At 01:07 in the video, a man also appears to refer to Shaheen as a c**t." CW: It's not clear who the young men in the video are, but since Brown reportedly came to the event with a contingent of College Republicans, certainly some of the misogynistic Brown enthusiasts were College Republicans. Gray has posted the video. Brown looks as if he's having a swell time with his "frat bros" & doesn't object to their language, though it's possible he didn't hear it. Read Gray's whole post. ...
... Charles Pierce equates Brown's New Hampshire following with those Massachusetts Brown supporters who thought it would be fun to mock Warren (who believes she is part AmerIndian) with tomahawk chops & "Indian" war cries.
South Dakota. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "A race that most had thought was safely Republican is suddenly the focus of national attention, thanks to the surprisingly successful candidacy of former Senator Larry Pressler, a Republican who is running as an independent. Mr. Pressler ... has a staff of one and a small budget, but has a longstanding connection to South Dakota voters."
Texas. Jay Root of the Texas Tribune. "The pollster for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis defended her controversial TV ad Sunday, saying it's working as intended despite widespread criticism that using the image of an empty wheelchair in an attack ad on a disabled candidate was mean-spirited and unfair." ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice: "There is nothing wrong, evil, mean, or out of bounds about that commercial, despite the fierce protestations of the sweater of the month club at Morning Joe and among the rest of our failed media. It's simply the truth. A tree fell on him. He was paralyzed. He sued and got millions. He has then spent the rest of his life doing everything he could to stop anyone else from receiving the same kind of treatment he had. It's no different from Ayn Rand receiving Social Security and Medicare and Paul Ryan using benefits to propel him to where he is now...." ...
... ** You will want to read Charles Pierce on Davis's spot against Abbott. He puts it in the context where it needs putting.
Presidential Election
Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Mitt "Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and now the tacit head of the Republican Party, visited Iowa as part of a feverish nationwide tour designed to help the GOP take control of the Senate. He has insisted that he is not interested in running for president a third time. But his friends said a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity is nudging him to more seriously consider it." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "In the past year Mitt Romney has gone from repeatedly insisting that he's not running for president in 2016 to at least pretending that he might be interested, but apparently he forgot to tell his wife about this strategy shift." ...
... Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times: "On Tuesday at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the Romneys are launching the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases, a research facility that will focus on finding cures and new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease (known as ALS), Parkinson's disease and brain tumors.... On another matter that has been the subject of much political babbling lately -- a potential third run for president by her husband -- Ann Romney was happy to wave off the possibility. 'Done,' she said. 'Completely. Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done,' she said, referring to her five sons. 'Done. Done. Done.'" ...
... Hartmann sez, "Okay, we'll put her down as a 'maybe.'" ...
... Steve M. is a cynic: "I'd like the timing of this announcement [that the Romneys are inaugurating a research facility] to generate at least a tiny fraction of the skepticism occasioned by the timing of Chelsea Clinton's pregnancy. Because while it's true that this is an act of generosity it's also true that the Romneys are just loving this little comeback tour they're on, and bringing a veneer of high-mindedness to a lot of down-and-dirty campaigning." Read the whole post.
... CW: I'm not sure how much the Romneys are contributing to the center they're "launching." According to the L.A. Times story, "Ann Romney hopes to raise $50 million to lay the groundwork for the center's research." So the Romneys' contribution could be anywhere from (1) millions to (2) nothing but signing fundraising letters.
Beyond the Beltway
Alan Zagier & Jim Salter of the AP: "Pounding rain and tornado watches didn't deter hundreds of protesters Monday outside Ferguson police headquarters, where they stayed for almost four hours to mark how long 18-year-old Michael Brown's body was left in a street after he was fatally shot by police. Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October protests dubbed the day 'Moral Monday' and committed acts of civil disobedience across the St. Louis region. In addition to the initial march on Ferguson police headquarters, protesters blocked the entrance to a major employer, held a loud rally inside St. Louis City Hall, disrupted business at a Ferguson shopping center and three Wal-Mart stores and tried to crash a private fundraiser for a St. Louis County executive candidate where U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill was scheduled to appear." ...
... AP: "St. Louis County police say civil rights activist Cornel West was among 13 people arrested during a protest at Ferguson police headquarters.... Police said arrests were made after protesters began bumping officers' shields and forced their way through the law enforcement skirmish line."
... Allen McDuffee of the Atlantic: "Over the course of the weekend in which hundreds -- and at times thousands -- of protesters for the most part demonstrated peacefully, clergy members called on the Ferguson and St. Louis police departments to 'repent' for [Michael] Brown's killing, as well as for other acts of violence and the structural racism that many in the community feel they face.... Arrests remained relatively low over the four days [of the protests]...."
Charles Pierce: "Is it just me, or does the fact that already it's been more than a month -- and $1.4 million a week, according to some reports -- and they still haven't found alleged cop-killer and survivalist fugitive Eric Frein down in Pennsylvania indicative of something more than Frein's finely honed woodchuck skillz?" ...
... CW: This story interests me because I have a cottage not all that far from the Poconos (I used to drive thru the Poconos regularly to get there), & it seems that every other year I was up there, I'd hear on the news that some convicted murderer/alleged cop-killer or similarly vile dangerous person had broken out of jail, was on the loose & had been sighted in the vicinity of my cottage. In one such Summer Manhunt Season, where the (alleged) cop-killer was spotted in every town anywhere near my cottage, I got home to Florida to find my husband watching the Manhunt Showdown on CNN; they cornered the guy & shot him dead not far from my place. I think maybe Manhunt Season is a sort of ghoulish "feature" of an Appalachian summer vacation.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the United States and Russia had agreed to share more intelligence on the Islamic State, as he sought to lay the basis for improved cooperation with Moscow." ...
... Our Friends in Turkey. New York Times: "In the face of increasing international pressure, Turkey took decisive military action on Monday -- not against the Islamic State militants that Turkey's Western allies have urged it to fight, but rather against the Kurdish militant group that has been battling the Islamic State. Turkish warplanes struck positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the P.K.K., in southeastern Turkey late Monday. The group, long an enemy of the Turkish state, had put down its weapons last year to talk peace. But on Tuesday, Turkish officials said the Kurdish militants had attacked a military outpost, leading to the government's first airstrikes against the group in nearly two years."
Washington Post: "The Ebola virus is killing 70 percent of those infected, and there could be as many as 10,000 new cases a week in West Africa by Dec. 1, a top official with the World Health Organization said Tuesday."
Share Article
Reader Comments (21)
I can't help wondering how much more you need to learn about what Snowden was up against in order to concede without "dainty" qualification that, given what he knew about the Constitutional transgressions of our government officials and their adamant refusal to admit to these violations let alone bring them into conformity with longstanding due process procedures, he did the right thing.
Why am I not surprised Hannah Arendt and Katha Pollitt share a birthday?
Happy birthday to them both.
Today Katha Pollitt is eligible to start collecting Medicare benefits. It's thanks to her and others like her that we still have Medicare from which to benefit.
@Creegr: I can't help wondering how much more you need to learn about polite discourse to cross over the threshold from being a completely obnoxious asshole to being a 99.9 percent obnoxious asshole.
Here's a Website that is likely much more to your liking. There are certainly more like it where you would fit right in. I'm not interested in knowing, but you might enjoy keeping an occasional tally to see how many people you can alienate each day by, say, noon.
Good luck to you. You'll need it.
Marie
I was going to respond to the Greegr comment, but knew the C.W. would take it in hand. Here is something less thrilling than dishing the dainty dirt some would prefer, but pretty important in the long run: How lowering oil prices could actually change the world.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_lowering_oil_prices_could_actually_change_the_world_20141014
A. Nonny Mouse,
(cute)
Anytime someone mentions Hannah Arendt, I have to applaud. I've been a fan of her writing since reading "The Human Condition" in college. Her "Life of the Mind" is on my bookshelf at work (used as an occasional countermeasure for assorted quotidian idiocies).
I hope, now that Ms. Pollitt is eligible for her benefits, she will grab them while she can. It's been a struggle to keep Republicans from grinding Medicare into the ground; the redoubts surrounding it are not impervious to ambush and attack from the right.
But it gives me hope that, as a species, in addition to the assorted barbarians and brigands, we can produce those who strive for something more useful and enlightening than bigger guns, lower taxes, and fundamentalist sanctimony.
Thanks for the reminder.
Go, Marie... I was wondering if the first commenter was using "you" personally or as an indefinite, like one would use "one..." in his wondering...and was leaning toward the personal, so I guess you leaned even MORE heavily in that direction...I share your dislike of Snowden. I can't decide if it's because he is a smug, officious little dweeb, or if I just don't want to hear/believe all those bad things about my government and he should just shut up... Or possibly it is just total overload in my brain of all the things currently going wrong, and it seems petty to fuss about loss of privacy when we lost it long ago in our push to get all the latest gadgets in order to acquire all the latest goods. Anyway, there is no place for nasty in your civilized blog, so I'm glad you shut him/her down. Cheers!
Hey, and speaking of Medicare...
Thanks, Marie, for the link to the Granny off the cliff spot. I saw it a few years ago. The sad thing is, the message is still valid today. Paul Ryan is still trying to throw granny off the cliff. After he starves her first, though. Priorities, ya know? She has to learn her lesson that only Paul Ryan gets a free lunch.
As for the ebola spot, I think it too is entirely valid. The cuts may have come from the sequester, which was agreed upon by both parties, but it's been the Republicans who have insisted on cuts to health care, preparedness, pretty much anything to do with science that can't be used to pile up the filthy lucre for their corporations-are-people-too supporters.
In fact, it was pretty well done. Don't you love how the Republicans scream bloody murder when the other side calls them out in such flamboyant fashion? A comment from one winger (probably a lot more, but I could only stomach one) on the Granny Off the Cliff Youtube page screamed about how unfair it was for Democrats to use scare tactics.
Hear that sound? That's me slapping a knee.
Unfair for Democrats to use scare tactics?
Kinda like Freddy Krueger complaining that Jack o' Lanterns are unnecessarily creepy.
Everybody read George Packer’s portrait of Laura Poitras (and Edward Snowden), “The Holder of Secrets,” in the New Yorker?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/holder-secrets
“By e-mail and in Hong Kong, he presents his motives as so high-minded and public-spirited that they never become interesting.”
De Re Assholes (On the Nature of Assholes)
Watched the video of racist beefcake boy Scott (bqhatevwr) Brown soaking in the misogynistic spittle at his Young Assholes rally, and this got me to thinking.
When you consider how many assholes the GOP attracts, how many whackos, how many presumptuous dicks, how many bullies, braggarts, gun-toting louts, ignoramuses and woman-hating shitheads, do Republican candidates have to go home after a campaign event and shower as quickly as possible to sponge off the stink of stupidity?
Can they really be so morally obtuse and malignantly degenerate as to not be bothered by the kind of hatred and ignorance they court and support?
The answer, sadly, is that it doesn't bother them a bit because they are exactly the same. They're assholes too. They aren't bothered by misogyny, or racism, or by someone calling their opponent by the C word, because not so very deep down, they're giving the thumbs up to such behavior because that's exactly how they think as well.
If Scott Brown were a real man, were a decent human being, were a real leader, he would have locked onto the idiots shouting those things and told them to grow up and shut their mouths. But he didn't. Yeah, it's possible he didn't hear some of what was said, but the human ears are far more receptive and sensitive than the mics on a cellphone camera. Yes, selective hearing can tune out a lot, but in a crowd of frat boy backslappers like that, it's impossible for him not to have picked up the general tone of gleeful malevolence. And, like the dull lemmings they are, once it was clear that the candidate was not only tolerating such slander, but kinda digging it, puerility went off the charts. "Hey....he's just like us".
But he's not.
He and all the rest of them are far worse. They're not leaders, they're followers. They follow the stupid right to the ballot box.
You can take a principled stand against a political opponent without coming off as an asshole. Unless being an asshole is your natural state of being.
Marie,
How much are the Romneys contributing to this new research center at the Brigham in Boston?
I have no idea, but it's pretty much a standard that rich people don't get--or stay--rich by using their own money. They use other people's money, natch.
That being said, the Steve M. piece is excellent. I think he's right on when he says that the Rat, as a loser, is the equal of Nixon in terms of anger and a desire for revenge, a sort of "I'll show those bastards" mindset.
Romney made his money by taking it from other people, whether it was their retirement, or their company's value. He's not the sort to give it away without being sure of a return on his investment. And why pay for it yourself when you can get others to do it and take all the credit?
And it may be true that he's getting a free ride now, from the press, him being a sad loser and all, but once the Romney Mechanism climbs up into that saddle again, things may be different. Maybe.
The truly frightening thing is that, as much as people don't like Romney (even Republicans), there are millions that dislike Clinton even more. Democrats don't hate Romney. He's a dick, but I don't know of anyone who grinds their teeth over him. The same can't be said of Hillary Clinton. The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Machine has had years to retool and replenish its forces.
We may all need a hospital stay before the next round is over.
@Akhilleus. My guess is that the Romneys gave the hospital something & made a pledge for more, perhaps including substantial lump sums at their deaths.
I doubt the hospital would have gone along with a complete hoax/publicity stunt -- even for prominent people like Mitt & Ann Romney -- without having some reasonable hope of actually being able to establish the research center at some point in the future. In my admittedly limited experience, the scenario I've sketched out is how these things work. The donee institution is of course vulnerable to donors reneging on their commitments, either because they're jerks or because they have financial reversals.
Marie
Another reason for conservatives to hate science: Newly discovered snail species named in honor of marriage equality. Ba-da-boom!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141013104210.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28Latest+Science+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
I smell a Rat. The only reported source of Romney funding for the
Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases is the profits from a
cookbook (The Romney Family Table) which was published over a
year ago. I don't know if my town is unique, but when someone
gives a gob of money for whatever charitable reason, they get their picture in the local paper and 99% of the time there is a dollar amount mentioned.
www.dailypress.com/news/la-pn-ann-romney-new-center-study-
neurological-diseases-20141014,0,293387.story
our local paper and 99% of the time, a dollar amount is
Alison Grimes, last night, had a good opportunity to define herself on her own terms as well as giving Jowly-boy a long overdue slap. For most of the debate she did pretty well. McConnell has nothing but smoke and mirrors but he's been in Washington for so long he's got the dance down pretty well. Talk, talk, talk, but don't say anything. Oh, and lie every chance you get. And blame Obama.
But Grimes' biggest blunder, and the one, as Marie predicts, that has probably already killed her chances, is her refusal to say that she voted for (or against) Obama and that she doesn't think the ACA is worse than ebola (another Obama initiative).
If she didn't vote for Obama, she needs to explain why. If she did, it gives her a chance to explain that there was no way she could vote for the Rat and the Fraud because of the draconian policies they would shove down the throats of Americans less well off and in need of assistance. Like many people in Kentucky.
Whoever counseled her to hide behind some ridiculous excuse about votes being private, blah, blah, blah, needs to be expunged from political consultancy rolls.
Stand up, fercrissakes. He's already painting you as if you're joined to Obama at the hip. Obfuscation on this point leaves voters with one of two conclusions: either she's scared or she's got something else to hide.
Voters can get lost in the weeds when complicated policy positions are debated, but a simple question requiring a straight up and down yes or no is not hard for anyone to grasp.
And as much as many Kentuckians, I'm assuming, would love to rid themselves of McConnell, a candidate demonstrating fear or insecurity does not fill one with confidence in a candidate's trustworthiness.
There's one seat the R's will probably keep. I'd love to wrong, but I doubt it.
Crap.
Advocacy wins.
Steve M., on No More Mister Nice Blog, refers to a piece by Kevin Drum on the difference between mistakes by candidates related to policy and/or process.
The process mistakes, like Grimes not saying who she voted for, or statements like "legitimate rape" transcend the minutiae of other political discussions. Joni Ernst's dance around what she may or may not have said on policy issues gets a pass, according to Drum, because, in his estimation, reporters feel less inclined to slam a candidate on policy issues at the risk of coming across as advocates of one position or another.
Steve M. takes this a step further. He claims, correctly, I believe, that most conservative voters are far more conversant in the politics (truthiness intact) of the many outrages brought to them daily by Fox and right-wing radio, much more so than non-conservatives.
Why? Because Fox and right-wing radio ARE advocates. They take a strong political position and it's always in favor of right-wing and far right-wing policies. They are not journalists even by the most lax definition. The practice political advocacy, and they do a great job of it.
But, as I argued yesterday, representatives of the MSM, such as Upchuck Todd, who think of themselves like Caesar's wife, above suspicion, act as advocates by declining to investigate and report on the multitude of lies and half-truths propagated by the right and their media apostles.
So, on the one hand, conservative candidates have a media juggernaut comprising radio, TV, and internet, going full bore 24/7 to support their wildest fantasies and craziest lies, and on the other, the rest of the media who hold themselves to a specious standard of "journalism" that allows those lies to sit on the table unchallenged, at the risk of seeming to advocate a position. The problem is, that by not saying anything, or allowing the craziest loons to spout nonsense unmolested by the mildest of interrogations, incompetents like Todd become advocates by default.
At the very least, they should be advocates for the truth, not for their own sense of self-importance.
One more then done.
The indispensable Digby takes aim at that lover of history you just can't stop, the loyal to a fault, Leon Panetta, who "...for all his apparent talent at a wide variety of government jobs, is all about Leon Panetta."
It's good.
@AK with the Steve M / Kevin Drum piece:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. And it feels as if you were looking over my shoulder as I read the local paper this morning, where a letter to the editor writer is still outraged that Candy Crowley "fact-checked" Mitt Romney during the debate, something along the lines of "completely inappropriate."
How is it that it is all right to call a politician a socialist fascist dictator wimp who pals around with terrorists but it is not OK to ask why a senate candidate is still a cosponsor of a personhood bill?
NiskyGuy,
It would be a travesty of philosophical exactitude to characterize your question as the product of a skeptic, the essence of skepticism being the vague possibility that the particular subject under consideration might be in some way wanting in accuracy.
But isn't this exactly the forensic orientation so many sycophantic MSM dissemblers and right-wing proponents seek to advance? The idea that Mitt Romney should be exempted from standards of truth while his opponent can be cast in the most mendacious terms has become the standard for acceptable reportage by too many "journalists".
In other words, as Woody Allen's young self says in "Radio Days", "You speak the truth...(2:50 into the clip)
Sorry....2:45 into the clip.
@AK: I watched the Grimes/ Turtle debate last night and I. too, thought Grimes did ok and that the little man next to her, looking smug, always smiling in a stiff kind of way believing that his fabrications were taken seriously. The moderator at one point tried to pin him down, but gave up at a point where he could have actually pinned him down. But Grimes refusal to answer the damned voting question is a puzzlement: she's a democrat––who the hell DID she vote for––Romney? I find the whole thing very silly. doesn't make much sense. Ha! and I want sense at this point? Ugh~~~~~~
Wow. OK, but the point I was attempting to raise was, given what Diane Rourk - a presumably humble, nice, likable, college educated person -, encountered when trying to stay within proper channels to raise questions about government intelligence agencies' overreach (sic), maybe it's time to set aside the ad hominem attacks and listen to what Snowden has been attempting to telling us. The response I see suggest that I am wrong. I can't resist observing: Thomas Paine, like Snowden, Greenburg, Assange et al, was thought by many to be a thoroughly obnoxious character. Regardless, I think RealityChex is the best!, indispensable really, and I apologize for having been so offensive. I certainly didn't intend to be.