The Commentariat -- Oct. 27, 2013
CW: There are a handful of stories out there like this one by Mike Dorning of Bloomberg News: "The rocky debut of the insurance exchanges at the heart of President Barack Obama’s health-care law poses risks to his political agenda and the activist role for government that he has championed for his second term."
When a small group of folks in Congress shuts down our government to try to shut down Obamacare, and we watch as our President stands strong, that's not just some political fight in Washington -- it is a battle about our most fundamental values and aspirations. -- Michelle Obama, speaking at the Women's Leadership Forum Conference in Washington, D.C.
... AND speaking of the First Lady, it seems she is totally responsible for the Healthcare.gov debacle because a former BLACK classmate of hers is a top executive at CGI, one of the companies that is responsible for coding the troubled Website & that, ah, gave more to Congressional Republicans -- Darrell Issa -- than to Democrats & whose executives gave twice as much to Mitt Romney as to Barack Obama. Steve M. of NMMNB seems less than impressed with the Daily Caller's big "scoop." Also, the CGI exec Michelle Obama may or may not know is still BLACK. ...
... A Tax the GOP Loves. Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "GOP senators balked when Democrats proposed delaying a new temporary fee on everyone covered by health insurance. So employers, insurance companies and other health plan sponsors are in line to pay $63 a person next year for everyone who has coverage.... The temporary fee on people with health insurance is designed to raise $25 billion over the next three years. The money will provide a cushion for insurers from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering previously uninsured people with medical problems.... GOP senators complained the delay was basically a favor for labor unions...."
Darlene Superville of the AP: "The Obama administration is stressing that information submitted while signing up for coverage under the new health care law will not be used to enforce immigration law. That's always been the practice, but lingering fear among some immigrants that personal details could be used against them led the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to clarify."
Teabaggers Say the Darnest Things
There was absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for this administration to block access to the World War Two Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial. It's never ever been done in a government shutdown prior to this administration doing so. -- Rep. Paul Broun (RTP-Ga.), running for U.S. Senate *
* The Lincoln Memorial was closed in the last government shutdown (1995). The WWII was completed in 2004, 9 years after the last shutdown. Thanks to Barbarossa for the link.
GOP Tea Party Push-Back
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "As he seeks a third term in the U.S. Senate, Lamar Alexander [R-Tenn.] is doing something few other incumbent Republicans have tried recently: Instead of running scared of the tea party, he's running hard against it.... Independent analysts and strategists in both parties think Alexander has a good chance of winning his primary against a low-profile state representative.... [Rather than following the usual GOP playbook of running away from his conservative votes,] he has mounted a vigorous defense of recent votes in which he joined with Democrats to approve a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws and a farm bill that spends billions on food aid for poor people and some cash payments for farmers and farming conglomerates...." ...
... Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "A Republican congressman from a heavily Hispanic district is breaking ranks from his party to join Democrats in an eleventh-hour push for a broad immigration overhaul before the end of the year. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) plans to sign on as the lone GOP member with 185 Democrats to co-sponsor a plan that would give millions of unauthorized immigrants the chance to attain citizenship."
Kim Barker of ProPublica, in Salon: "Two dark money groups linked to conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have paid a record $1 million in fines to California to settle allegations that the combined $15 million they spent on two ballot proposals in the state was not properly disclosed. The civil settlement, announced Thursday afternoon in Sacramento, caps a year of investigation into the activities of the two Arizona groups, Americans for Responsible Leadership and the Center to Protect Patient Rights."
Lisa Carricaburu of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Voter-suppression laws that aim to undermine coalitions like those that elected President Barack Obama are the No. 1 issue facing Americans, the president of the nation's largest civil rights organization said Friday.... Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and chief executive..., said the nation's power structure has observed the way blacks, Latinos and students of all colors are voting and 'they realize quite simply that the clock is running out on their strategy for power.'" ...
... Judge Posner Regrets. Jealous's speech brings to mind this excellent piece by law professor Fran Quigley on Indiana's voter ID law, declared constitutional by the U.S. Seventh Circuit & upheld by the Supreme Court. Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the opinion in 2007 now says he was wrong. But Quigley says, rightly, that Posner is weaseling. Also weaseling, Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the decision to uphold the law & now says he was right then but wrong now (tricky!). Quigley makes the point, articulated in the Seventh Circuits dissent by Judge Terence Evans & in the Supreme Court dissent (begins on pdf page 31) of Justice David Souter, that "the right to vote is so fundamental that a new voting restriction should not be approved unless the government can show it is necessary to serve important governmental interests." Instead the courts placed the burden of proof on the ACLU to show harm, which, BTW, they did, as Souter recounts. This summary by Jesse Wegman of the New York Times is good, too. Also, here's Paul Smith of the American Constitution Society on the Posner weasel.
Alina Selyukh & Greg Savoy of Reuters: "Protesters marched on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday to protest the U.S. government's online surveillance programs, whose vast scope was revealed this year by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.... Estimates varied on the size of the march, with organizers saying more than 2,000 attended. U.S. Capitol Police said they do not typically provide estimates on the size of demonstrations." ...
Angela's Secrets. AFP: "US President Barack Obama was personally informed of mobile phone tapping against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which may have begun as early as 2002, German media reported Sunday. Bild am Sonntag newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying that National Security Agency chief Keith Alexander had briefed Obama on the operation against Merkel in 2010.... The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported Saturday that Obama had told Merkel during their call that he had been unaware of any spying against her. It did not cite its sources." ...
... Gregor Schmitz of Der Speigel on Merkel's "delicate dance" re: U.S. spying on her & on other allies. ...
... Bryan McManus of AFP: "German spy chiefs will travel to the United States next week to demand answers following allegations that US intelligence has been tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, as a row over US snooping threatened to hurt transatlantic ties."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: President Obama & National Security Advisor Susan Rice set a more modest U.S. agenda for dealing with the Middle East. "The president's goal, said Ms. Rice, who discussed the review for the first time in an interview last week, is to avoid having events in the Middle East swallow his foreign policy agenda, as it had those of presidents before him."
Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: The pending $13 billion settlement between JPMorganChase & federal agencies "is a refresher course in how far-off the rails our largest financial institutions veered in the years leading up to the mess. It also stands as a reminder that not enough has been done to fix the flawed incentives in our sprawling and powerful financial system. This applies to both the private sector -- the mighty banks -- and their supposed minders, the regulators." ...
CW: Morgenson's "refresher course" & "lessons learned" are quite general. Matt Taibbi, on the other hand, tells it like it is. A very good read. ...
... Doing God's Work. Susan Craig of the New York Times: Goldman Sachs is "polishing its reputation" with charitable projects. ...
... Steven Perlstein of the Washington Post introduces Marty Sullivan, corporate tax policy wonk.
Steve Benen has the religious hits of the week in his post "This Week in God." ...
... AND there's this from Kerry Eleveld in Salon: "Evangelicals ... are fast becoming the fringe of the GOP, based on recently released research from focus groups conducted by Stan Greenberg, James Carville and Erica Seifert for Democracy Corps.... Both moderate and Tea Party Republicans view the Evangelical agenda as a total distraction."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Syria submitted a formal declaration of its chemical weapons program and plans for destroying its arsenal three days ahead of the deadline, the international chemical weapons watchdog said on Sunday."
New York Times: "Lou Reed, the singer-songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had an impact on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life, died on Sunday at his home in Southampton, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 71." Reed's Rolling Stone obituary is here. An "American Masters" program on Reed is here.
Mystery Barge. CNET: "Something big and mysterious is rising from a floating barge at the end of Treasure Island, a former Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay.... It's unclear what's inside the structure, which stands about four stories high and was made with a series of modern cargo containers.... Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But ... it's all but certain that Google is the entity that is building the massive structure that's in plain sight, but behind tight security." ...
... UPDATE. From the Oct. 23 Portland, Maine Press Herald: another Mystery Barge, this one in the Portland, Maine harbor, also speculated to be a Google site. Apparently Portland is not the barge's final destination. Thanks to Janice K. for the link. ...
AFP: "An Afghan soldier shot and injured two NATO coalition troops before being killed in a dispute at a flagship officer-training academy near Kabul that only opened a week ago, officials said Sunday. NATO officials confirmed the shooting at the British-run Afghan National Army Officer Academy, which has been set up to produce a new generation of professional military leaders as the Afghan army takes on the Taliban."
Reuters: "Iran has not halted its most sensitive uranium enrichment work, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said, contradicting a statement by another lawmaker last week."
AFP: " Social Democrats edged out a new populist party to win Czech elections on Saturday as voters angered by years of right-wing graft and austerity veered left, full results showed. However, the fragmented outcome of the two-day ballot leaves few options for a stable majority government, analysts warned, and the parties will have to embark upon coalition talks."
AFP: "Georgia voted in a presidential poll Sunday with a loyalist of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili favourite to replace his larger-than-life nemesis Mikheil Saakashvili at the helm of the ex-Soviet state. The vote heralds the end of pro-Western Saakashvili's second and last term and a year of his painful political cohabitation with bete noire Ivanishvili, who has promised to also step down in the coming weeks." ...
... New York Times UPDATE: "Georgian voters chose a new president on Sunday, but with billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili planning to step down shortly in favor of an unnamed successor, it remained unclear who would hold the prime minister's post, now the most powerful political office in the country. In balloting to replace President Mikheil Saakashvili, who catapulted to fame as leader of the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003, Mr. Ivanishvili's handpicked candidate, Giorgi Margvelashvili, a former deputy prime minister and education minister, was headed to a decisive victory, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls commissioned by the country's two main television stations."
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Reader Comments (8)
Here's the link to the article written for the Sacbee on Friday in re: the $1M fine for improper disclosure. It has details, including a chart, illustrating how the Koch Brothers funneled the money through various organizations. Slimy bastards. Now, if the IRS would do us a solid and drop the hammer on the rest of those slimy 503(c)(4) organizations....I know fat chance.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/24/5850790/california-fppc-issues-record.html
The Matt Taibbi piece linked today has another link to a new story he's working on: The Wall Street triple-fuck of America. Essentially convincing states overrun by the GOP to quickly throw the state's public pension funds into the Wall Street Casino, charging ridiculous fees that strangely equal up to the amount that the states have been cutting to reduce their "debt burdens."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926
If only the public would wake up to the dangerous con games that these pseudo-bankers are playing with our very own ways of life. Can you imagine the scene if the extremist 'baggers caught wind of the true reason for their dire financial situations. There wouldn't be pitchforks marching towards Wall Street. It'd be furious 'baggers with their AKs with tricorn hats and military paraphernalia waving their "Don't Tread on Me" flags. I chuckle imagining the international press trying to explain that scene on their local television.
The question to ask is who will be in charge when the next financial crisis befalls us, because it seems clear that it's nothing but a matter of time as Washington stagnates and zero meaningful financial reforms will be introduced before then. Would Hillary Clinton with her deep financial connections bring down the axe on these parasitic grifters? I doubt it. Joe Biden? And posing the question for a conservative is obviously a waste of time...
I just sent this letter to the editors of the Newark Star Ledger titled
a 'Summary of the GOP'.
So lets sum up the Republican ideology.
They oppose same sex marriage
They oppose increasing the minimum wage
They oppose reducing the effects of climate change
They oppose funding for economic stimulus
They oppose letting people of color vote
They oppose real improvement in education
They oppose immigration reform
They oppose raising the debt ceiling
They oppose health care reform
They want to destroy Social Security and Medicare
So what do they propose?
Less taxes on the rich and war.
The GOP just loves war.
Louie Gohmert has competion: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/25/1250645/-Rep-Paul-Broun-makes-aggressive-bid-for-stupidest-shutdown-claim
Yep, good ole Paul Broun of the red state of Georgia says that both the Lincoln Memorial and WWII Memorial weren't closed in 1995 during the government shutdown. Problem(s): The Lincoln Memorial WAS closed and while it's true the WWII Memorial WASN'T closed in 1995, it also didn't EXIST then. How this guy got through medical school is beyond me. Maybe that was before he lost his marbles.
Barbarossa, as someone who has seem a fair number of people like Broan get MD's and PH.D's let me sum up my observation. Politicians very frequently show a basic characteristic which has nothing to do with intelligence. Narcissism to varying degrees. When it gets really bad, they can say whatever they want without doing anything that vaguely resembles homework and it is the truth. End of story. They are so wonderful, so important, so everything.
At that level we are dealing with real mental illness. The other good news for these assholes is that the rules that apply to ordinary people (i.e. everyone on earth except themselves) don't apply to them.
This behavior can become seriously dangerous but like so many other things that confront us, we just hide from reality.
Upset that the NSA is spying on us? If you're thinking of emegrating to get away from the NSA, your choices might be limited:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/26/12_other_governments_that_enjoy_spying_on_their_citizens_partner/
I don't like the spying, but I'm not going to worry about it, either.
@Marvin Schwalb, As a (now retired) prof from a research university and research institute, I encountered plenty of narcissists and other assorted dysfunctionarians with PhD's, liberal arts as well as natural sciences, but can't recall a single individual that would today be ascribed the TP-R type of wingnut persuasion. Not the same for the cohort with professional degrees - including MD, JD and even engineering PhD's, among whom, in academia at least, wingnutism was uncommon but not rare.
@Whyte Owen-
These have been my observations as well. Narcissism is us--no matter what the profession. However, those with advanced degrees (MDs, JDs, PhDs) who are also wing nuts seem to be quite wealthy and greedy and to lack compassion. In the case of engineer wing nuts--those I know are hopelessly left-brained and unable to think out of the box. What they all share is a complete lack of emotional intelligence!