The Commentariat -- Oct. 30, 2014
Internal links removed.
Hah! Josh Gerstein & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "House Speaker John Boehner's still-unfiled lawsuit against President Barack Obama for exceeding his constitutional power is in more trouble. For the second time in two months, a major law firm has ceased work on the lawsuit, sources say." ...
... Paul Waldman: Congressional Republicans wave the white flag. Again & again.
NEW. As Victoria D. points out in today's Comments, "And in other news, Chris Christie is still a complete and utter dick." ...
... Bada Bing! This has always been the fatal flaw of Chris Christie's presidential campaign. I've been through a few presidential races, and I've got to tell you, every day is filled with aggravations and provocations, and if that's the way he's going to react, he has no future in this. I think he thinks that this kind of 'Sopranos' approach to politics marks him as a strong leader. I think it marks him as an angry man. -- David Axelrod, today on "Morning Joe"
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "An upbeat Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that the economic recovery was chugging along and that it would end its latest-bond buying campaign on schedule at the end of the month. The Fed, in a statement issued after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, said the bond-buying program had served its purpose by contributing to stronger job growth. The Fed also upgraded its appraisal of labor market conditions, saying that 'underutilization of labor market resources is gradually diminishing.'" ...
... Janie Boschma of the National Journal: "A new study shows that the U.S. economy would expand by $2.1 trillion in gross domestic product if racial minorities had equal access and opportunities in the job market. The report, 'The Equity Solution,' was released last week by PolicyLink and the University of Southern California's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity." CW: I couldn't have put a number on it, but the study's finding is obvious. This is just one more way Republicans -- who consistently dog-whistle minority oppression -- hurt the economy.
The Real Reason the GOP Hates ObamaCare. Kevin Quealy & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "The data shows [sic!] that the [ACA] has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income -- in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies -- to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas.... Each of these trends is going in the opposite direction of larger economic patterns." ...
... Sarah Varney in Politico Magazine: How Mississippi's Tea party politicians stopped the "invasion" of ObamaCare & ensured that Mississippians would remain the sickest in the nation. ...
... "Jim Crow All Over Again." Greg Palast of Al Jazeera America: "Election officials in 27 states, most of them Republicans, have launched a program that threatens a massive purge of voters from the rolls. Millions, especially black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters, are at risk. Already, tens of thousands have been removed in at least one battleground state, and the numbers are expected to climb, according to a six-month-long, nationwide investigation by Al Jazeera America. At the heart of this voter-roll scrub is the Interstate Crosscheck program, which has generated a master list of nearly 7 million names. Officials say that these names represent legions of fraudsters who are not only registered but have actually voted in two or more states in the same election -- a felony punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison."
... Via Juan Cole.
Recidivists on the Street. Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "Wall Street has committed the corporate equivalent of a parole violation: Just two years after avoiding prosecution for a variety of crimes, some of the world's biggest banks are suspected of having broken their promises to behave. Those broken promises, a mixture of new crimes and lingering problems, could violate earlier settlements that imposed reforms and fines on the banks but stopped short of criminal charges, according to lawyers briefed on the cases. Prosecutors are exploring whether to strengthen the earlier deals, the lawyers said, or scrap them altogether and force the banks to plead guilty to a crime."
NEW. Jess Bidgood & Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "A nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone defied Maine officials on Thursday morning, leaving her house for a short bicycle ride and setting up a legal fight over a 21-day quarantine ordered by the state. The nurse, Kaci Hickox, left her house on the edge of Fort Kent just after 9 a.m., biking with her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, down a quiet paved road, followed closely by two police cars and a caravan of reporters." NBC News has video here. ...
... Aaron Katersky of ABC News: "Maine's governor indicated today that he would abandon his demand that nurse Kaci Hickox remain under quarantine after treating Ebola patients if she would agree to take a blood test for the lethal virus. Gov. Paul LePage made his comment to ABC News today as Hickox defiantly challenged demands that she remain quarantined by leaving her home this morning for a bike ride with her boyfriend." ...
... Eric Bradner of CNN: "President Barack Obama took more thinly-veiled shots at governors like New Jersey's Chris Christie on Wednesday, saying the mandatory quarantine policies some states have imposed amount to 'hiding under the covers' from Ebola. After visiting a group of health care workers who'd recently returned from the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa -- some still within the virus's 21-day incubation period, but showing no symptoms -- Obama said policies like states requiring three-week quarantines of doctors and nurses who treated Ebola patients could harm U.S. efforts to stop its spread":
... Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "The nurse who was quarantined after returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa has given the State of Maine until Thursday to let her move freely, setting up what could be a test case of whether state quarantines are legal. The nurse, Kaci Hickox, 33, who was confined first by New Jersey when she came back to the United States and then by Maine, did a blitz on morning television challenging her confinement by Maine officials and saying that she would not continue to obey the restrictions." ...
... Gail Sullivan & Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) is looking for ways to force a nurse released from mandatory Ebola isolation in New Jersey to abide by a similar 21-day quarantine in Maine." ...
... Kaitlyn Chana & Doug Stanglin of USA Today: "Two state police cars were stationed Wednesday outside the rural home of [Kaci Hickox's] boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, in Fort Kent where she has been living, WLBZ-TV reports." ...
... Danny Vinik explains why quarantining the military is different from quarantining private medical personnel. CW: I'd add this: many of the military troops we're sending to Ebola-stricken countries are not medical professionals (though some are), while most of the private American citizens working in these countries are specialists in contagious diseases. It is likely (though hardly guaranteed) that the trained healthcare workers will be better at self-monitoring & otherwise acting prudently. ...
... Here's more on the same subject from David Alexander of Reuters.
Marina Koren of the National Journal: "Press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration does not think that Netanyahu ... is in fact a 'chickenshit.'" (no link.) CW: Darn. Just yesterday, that was the official off-the-record epithet for Bibi.
Over the last several months, I have watched the administration insult ally after ally. I am tired of the administration's apology tour. The president sets the tone for his administration. He either condones the profanity and disrespect used by the most senior members of his administration, or he does not. It is time for him to get his house in order and tell the people that can't muster professionalism that it is time to move on. -- Speaker John Boehner ...
It's a little rich to have a lecture about profanity from the Speaker of the House. -- White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest (via New York)
Danny Vinik of the New Republic: President Obama is a much better crisis manager than the media report. CW: I agree. If, for instance, you compare President Obama's speech yesterday -- embedded above -- on Ebola caregivers with Christie's crude treatment of Kaci Hickox, you cannot help but be grateful for Obama's leadership & shudder at the thought of any GOP president. Now let's see if Obama can successfully maneuver the chickenshit crisis.
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Congressional progressives are calling on President Barack Obama to allow them to view secret videotapes depicting graphic forced tube feedings for Guantánamo Bay detainees. In a letter to be sent to the White House on Thursday, the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus [Raul Grijalva (D-Az.) & Keith Ellison (Minn.)] request the administration provide legislators with videotapes showing the force-feedings of detainees Abu Wa'el Dhiab and Imad Abdullah Hassan, which they call 'contrary to American laws or values'."
** Dana Milbank on Ben Bradlee's funeral:
... NEW. Roxanne Roberts of the Washington Post: "If the funeral of Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee marked the end of an era in Washington journalism, the invitation-only funeral reception marked the end of another kind: A last hurrah for the A-list gatherings hosted by the legendary Washington Post editor and his personal life of the party, Sally Quinn."
Forget "Human Exceptionalism." Jerry Coyne argues in the New Republic that Pope Francis's views on evolution & the Big Bang theory "make no sense.... The Catholic Church is in a tough spot, straddling an equipoise between modern science and antiscientific medieval theology. When it jettisons the idea of the soul, of God's intervention in the Big Bang and human evolution, and the notion of Adam and Eve as our historical ancestors, then Catholicism will be compatible with evolution. But then it would not be Catholicism."
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in Bloomberg: "I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."
Gail Collins looks to the future when we have a Republican Senate. Ferinstance, "... the Environment Committee could wind up being led by James Inhofe, the author of 'The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.'"
November Elections
A New Generation of Stoopid? Ron Fournier of the National Journal: "In a stunning turnaround, likely voters in the so-called millennial generation prefer a Republican-led Congress after next week's elections, and young Hispanics are turning sharply against President Obama. A new national poll of 18-to-29-year-olds by Harvard's Institute of Politics shows that young Americans are leaving the new Democratic coalition that twice elected Obama. The news is little better for the GOP: These voters, who more than any other voting bloc represent the future of the American electorate, generally hold Republicans in the lowest regard." ...
... Steve M.: "Millennials overall: pro-Democrat by 7 points. The subset of definite voters: pro-Republican by 4. That just means millennials are becoming like their elders.... They don't vote in midterms.... They're growing up to be typical American left and centrist voters -- disinclined to support the Republican agenda but not informed or motivated enough to oppose electing Republicans. Mission accomplished, GOP."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "In the final days before the election, Democrats in the closest Senate races across the South are turning to racially charged messages — invoking Trayvon Martin's death, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Jim Crow-era segregation -- to jolt African-Americans into voting and stop a Republican takeover in Washington. The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears of intimidation and repression.... The effort is being led by national Democrats and their state party organizations...."
Margaret Hartmann of New York has another great post on "interesting things" that happened yesterday in the midterm campaigns.
Maine. Randy Billings of the Portland Press Herald: "Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King on Wednesday announced his support for U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud in the Maine governor's race. King previously endorsed independent Eliot Cutler, who in turn used the endorsement in television ads. However, Cutler said at a news conference Wednesday that he is a long shot to win on Nov. 4 and urged his supporters to 'vote their conscience.'" ...
... Alec MacGillis of the New Republic: " This was surely not an easy concession for Cutler (and secondarily King) to make, but they deserve credit for acknowledging, if somewhat belatedly, where things were heading. Politics is about real people, and in the case of Maine, starkly so. Tens of thousands of low-income Maine residents are far more likely to get a lot more economic security as a result of what happened on this one day."
Beyond the Beltway
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The police department overseeing the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the killing of an unarmed 18-year-old has spent tens of thousands of dollars replenishing their stocks of teargas, 'less lethal' ammunition and riot gear in advance of a potential revival in demonstrations. St Louis County police made the purchases amid concerns that hundreds of demonstrators will return to the streets if Darren Wilson, the officer who shot dead Michael Brown in August, is not indicted on criminal charges by a grand jury currently considering the case."
A Weasel Doesn't Change Its Spots. Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has faced intense scrutiny in recent months, including an investigation by federal prosecutors, over his management of a commission that he created to root out corruption in New York politics, but prevented from examining his administration's conduct and then prematurely shut down. An analysis of Mr. Cuomo's handling of an earlier investigative commission, which highlighted the failures of electric companies in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, reveals some of the same hallmarks: interference, efforts to shield his administration's role and a sense that the governor had a clear idea at the outset of what the commission should conclude."
Right Wing World
Just Got a Little Crazier
Jonathan Chait: "The Obama era has seen a resurgence of conservative constitutional fetishism -- the belief that the Constitution not only requires the Republican domestic agenda, but is figuratively or even literally divine. Fox News columnist and television personality Dr. Keith Ablow has ... applied [this premise] toward American foreign policy. The result is a remarkable column calling for what he calls 'American Jihad.' 'Our Constitution is a sacred document that better defines and preserves the liberty and autonomy of human beings than the charter of any other nation on earth.... An American jihad would embrace the correct belief that if every nation on earth were governed by freely elected leaders and by our Constitution, the world would be a far better place.' Note that Ablow ... is endorsing a campaign of conquest aimed at literally every other country on Earth."
News Ledes
Philadelphia Inquirer: "Eric Frein, the suspected cop-killer who for six weeks has been the target of a Poconos manhunt involving more than 1,000 law-enforcement officers, surrendered Thursday without incident, officials said.Frein, accused of killing one trooper and wounding a second, was captured in an unused airplane hangar at the Pocono Mountains municipal airport just outside of Tannersville, two sources confirmed. He was unarmed and surrendered when confronted by a search team led by U.S. Marshals, the sources said."
Washington Post: "The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent annualized rate between July and September, the government said Thursday morning, providing fresh hope that a wobbly recovery could be gaining some stability. The latest gross domestic product figure, released by the Commerce Department, slightly exceeded analyst predictions and caps America's strongest six-month period of expansion since 2003."
Boston Globe: "Thomas Michael Menino, who insisted a mayor doesn't need a grand vision to lead, then went on to shepherd Boston's economy and shape the skyline and the very identity of the city he loved through an unprecedented five consecutive terms in City Hall, died Thursday. He was 71 and was diagnosed with advanced cancer not long after leaving office at the beginning of this year."
New York Times: "The Israeli authorities closed off all access to a contested holy site in the Old City here on Thursday for the first time in years, a step that a Palestinian spokesman denounced as amounting to 'a declaration of war.' The action came after Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man who was suspected of involvement in an attempt on Wednesday to assassinate a leading agitator for more Jewish access to the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. The closure prevented Muslims from worshiping at Al Aksa mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam." ...
... UPDATE. New Lede: "Under heavy pressure and the threat of new Israeli-Palestinian strife, Israel announced on Thursday that it would reopen a contested holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday morning, a day after closing it for the first time in years."
Guardian: "Nato aircraft have been scrambled to shadow Russian strategic bombers over the Atlantic and Black Sea and fighter planes over the Baltic in what the western alliance called an unusual burst of activity as tensions remain elevated because of the situation in Ukraine. In all, Nato said, its jets intercepted four groups of Russian aircraft in about 24 hours since Tuesday and some were still on manoeuvres late on Wednesday afternoon. 'These sizeable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European air space,' the alliance said."
Sports Illustrated: The San Francisco Giants are once again the champions of baseball. On Wednesday night, the Giants downed the Royals, 3-2, in Game 7 of the World Series in Kansas City to capture the team's third title since 2010."
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Reader Comments (14)
If Kaci walks out of her house on Friday, I assume the cops will arrest her. Wait! That means they have to touch her. Maybe put her in jail! How will they do that. Maybe the police will be trained by the CDC on how to handle a person with no symptoms. Or maybe the will just be scared shit.
My dream is that Kaci will go back to NJ and give Christie a hug.
Wonder why all the people treating Dr. Spencer in New York are not being quarantined?
Shouldn't Chris Christie be quarantined now? I mean, according to the latest medical research from Right-Wing World, just saying the word E....(you know what) can make you sick, right? Holy shit...that means we could ALL have it!
Aiiieeeeeee....
Everyone run away! Run away! It's all Obama's fault! Obama, Ebola, same number of letters, both start and end with vowels. Both have a B and end with A...it's Satan's work, that's what it is. See? Obama, Satan, both have the same number of letters, both have an A....
(This might sound ludicrous, but it's just about at the same level as most critical thinking coming from conservative leadership.)
The Greg Palast article, linked above, about the latest scam to deny the vote to Democrats, especially minority voters, is the fucking height of infamy. Here's what they're doing, apparently. Using list matching software that accesses names from the US census, the GOP schemers in a program called "Crosscheck" (spiffy name, ini't?), have decided that if the same name shows up at least twice, they will assume that that person traveled to at least two different states to vote. Fraud!!!
Go to the article and you can try it for yourself. So let's pick a name, say, Mary Brown. Enter the name, hit the button and voila. Holy shit! There are 245 possible double voters with this name! Those dirty Demycraps! That Mary Brown voted twice 245 times! Clap 'em all in irons. And with a name like Brown, there might be a lot of blahs. A two-fer!
Now let's do John Smith. Wait, what?? 563 double voters!? Christ, this is fraud on a massive scale, better call out the Marines. Get Rush on the horn. National Guard troops are needed to protect our freedoms and liberty from all these dastardly double voters.
Absurd? Of course. The Crosscheck dickheads claim to be looking for people with the exact same name and same SSN but they're trying to disenfranchise people with different middle names from states hundreds of miles apart and no checking of socials. Because if they did a legitimate test, there would be no voter fraud, no double voting (except for Republicans voting for Scott Walker), and how much fun would that be?
So some lady named Mary L. Brown from Jamestown, Colorado, votes in her local precinct, then hops in her souped up Smokey and Bandit Trans Am and races to Sitka, Kentucky in time to vote in her other local precinct. The idea is just too stupid to even contemplate.But now....think about this. It gets better. Republican donkeys are claiming that this sort of thing is happening millions of times. Millions! Is that why there's so much highway traffic on election day? All those Democratic fraudsters driving thousands of miles to vote twice? I mean, this wouldn't even be a mildly funny SNL skit, it's so retarded.
Why hasn't this shit been held up to vast ridicule by the MSM types who instead dutifully nod their bovine heads and in their best serious adult voices intone the importance of these kinds of efforts?
The only scam, as always, is coming from Republicans. The only perpetrators of fraud are the assholes trying to make sure those who might not vote for their goosestepping candidates don't get to vote at all and, even worse, are prosecuted for trying.
Oh-oh. I just found two pairs of John McCains who could have tried to double vote.
Get Jesus on the phone, stat!
And in other news, Chris Christie is still a complete and utter dick:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/10/29/359958338/watch-on-sandy-anniversary-gov-chris-christie-faces-off-with-heckler
Governor "Sit Down and Shut Up....." The thought of him anywhere near the office of president makes one cringe.
"Prosecutors are exploring whether to strengthen the earlier deals, the lawyers said, or scrap them altogether and force the banks to plead guilty to a crime."
WOW! They're serious this time! They're going to make the banks plead guilty to a crime!
Be still my beating heart.
This must mean the banks are going to go to jail. Right?
That screeching idiot Keith Ablow can say whatever the hell pops into his fried brain pan and scampers around trying to avoid the burning pine nut oil. It isn't bad enough that most of the rest of the world already thinks we're ignorant buffoons for letting someone like the Wasilla Hillbilly get near the nuclear codes, and the fact that we let poor people sleep in the cold and starve because Jesus, but now they are being told that not only are we the best ever, but god told us so and they better watch out 'cause we'll be coming for them.
What is truly villainous about all this is that a major network promotes this kind of twaddle as if it were something to seriously consider and not something to print out, set on fire, then piss on.
When the record of the media in the late 20th-early 21st centuries is written, Fox will be well represented as one of the worst things to happen to America and its citizens in its 250 or so year history.
A Nonny Mouse,
Sure there'll be jail time. A couple of janitors will be sent up the river.
I mean, they handle all the bank's dirty work, don't they?
I think 20 years with time off for good dusting should be about right.
Akhileus: I liked your well reasoned and researched rant on Crosscheck, which strikes me as just another Republican-driven voter exclusion tactic that even a ten-year-old should be able to spot. Here's another piece on the subject, from last year:
http://axisphilly.org/article/interstate-crosscheck-voter-program/
After watching the Christie clip I think Marvin's on to something. However, from my understanding of Ebola transmission there needs to be contact with infected bodily fluids. I guess that would involve Kaci planting a big, wet, sloppy kiss on his porcine puss during their embrace. Or, if she isn't allowed that close then a stupendously snotful sneeze to make sure that asshole is sufficiently slathered with the little buggers.
But, then, if he survives the infection, he would probably just reframe his copious expulsion of vomit and diarrhea as Dr. Chris's Miracle Weight Loss Program.
I agree - what an "utter dick" he is.
So Republicans are incensed that Democrats are playing hardball with them in close races in the south. Oh, please.
According to the Times piece Marie links above, Republican victories mean that "... churches will start to burn, your civil rights will be taken away and young black men like Trayvon Martin will die,”
Ah...well, yeah. That's pretty much what it means.
The sorry fact is that what Democrats are saying are all things that have happened, unlike that invented, fantasy bullshit that Republicans sling. Republicans have been working to undermine and destroy civil rights. True. They have been working to make sure that black churches have a much harder time getting their people to the polls. True again. And they have supported the murderer of Trayvon Martin with beefed up Stand Your Ground laws ensuring that more Trayvon Martins can be murdered with impunity. Absolutely true.
I'm not really in the mood to insist that Democrats play nice. After being kicked in the face for so long, it feels good to kick back, if only just a little.
And cry me a fucking river over Republican complaints about "race hustling" and race-baiting. Race-baiting is their number one strategy. They fucking invented it. Republicans have been scaring the bejesus out of white voters for decades by telling them that big scary black men will be let out of jail in droves by liberals and will descend upon their neighborhoods with knives and guns and crack demanding to know "Where de white womens at?" Pretty much every bill they file has some racial dog whistle component just to let all the Fox addicts know that, wink, wink, they're lookin' out for the interests of the white man and against those lazy moochin' blacks.
So they can shove all that race-baiting bullshit up their bigot buttholes.
I don't think Democrats should resort to out and out lies in their campaigns, you know, like Republicans do, but I'm all for some bare knuckles on the beezer when appropriate.
Day Two of the John Boehner Too Stupid Even for Irony Tour.
Yesterday, our noble hero made headlines by being all manly and talking about nose punching. This from, as I mentioned yesterday, THE most inept, ineffectual, and yes, impotent Speakers in living memory. A guy who would have trouble intimidating a couple of big for their age toddlers.
So how to follow up that ignominious display of muscular infirmity? How can he give it to the President today? Oh, I know....how about he lobs a nicely worded insult about how Obama has control issues, letting his people get out of hand about Bibi? Because ol' John, a guy who couldn't steer a baby carriage across the street without having the little tyke wind up on someone's windshield, is so good at controlling things.
Pardon while I leave the room for an hour or so as the laughing fit subsides.
I jest am too tuckered out after reading all of Akhilleus' comments to make any comments of my own cuz he has captured all the bellicose hyperbole and cracker jack-shit that is permeating the political air these days (years?). I want to scream, tear out my hair and run naked down streets shouting some obscenity––kind of a shock and awe performance (a female Lewis Black perhaps).
However––did want to make mention of the end of an era Washington style apropos Sally and Ben. Sally once wrote a piece in the NYT some years ago lamenting that the grand parties she and Ben gave that augmented such bonhomie among congressional figures were no more. Figures like Strom Thurmond feeling up both her and her mother at the canapé table–-such fun. And I wondered when did those kinds of parties cease––after Nixon? The Clintons were not part of that group nor were the Bush's, I think, and surely the Obama's never graced one of those small intimate dinner with S.&B. Enjoyed Roxanne Robert's reporting on the funeral and after party. One thing for sure––Ben was much loved and much admired especially by his youngest son whose eulogy was heartbreaking.
Re: Nothing in particular. Now that Tim Cook CEO of Apple has come out, haven't heard much from Rushbo. He's a big Mac guy from way back.
I'm sure Huckabee will weigh in though.