The Commentariat -- Sept. 11, 2014
Internal links, photo, defunct video removed.
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama said Wednesday night that he was ordering a significantly expanded military campaign against Sunni militants in the Middle East that includes American airstrikes in Syria and the deployment of nearly 500 more military advisers to Iraq. But he sought to dispel fears that the United States was embarking on a repeat of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.":
... Michael Gordon & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia has agreed to an American request to provide a base to train moderate Syrian opposition fighters, American officials said on Wednesday." ...
... Jonathan Weisman & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Senate Democratic leaders on Wednesday prepared legislation to expressly authorize the United States military to train Syrian rebels to help battle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and House Republicans appeared ready to follow their lead. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, abruptly called off a vote on a stopgap spending bill that was planned for Thursday to reconsider President Obama's request that training language be included." ...
... Metaphorically Speaking. Juan Cole: "Don't listen to [President Obama's] expansive four-stage program or his retooled, stage-managed John Wayne rhetoric. Look at his metaphors. He is telling those who have ears to hear that he is pulling a Yemen in Iraq and Syria. He knows very well what that implies. It is a sort of desultory, staccato containment from the air with a variety of grassroots and governmental forces joining in. Yemen is widely regarded as a failure, but perhaps it is only not a success. And perhaps that is all Obama can realistically hope for." ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... the cause is just, and Obama's plan sounds reasonable, even nuanced. What could go wrong? Well..., everything." ...
... Gail Collins assesses the President's speech, the threat ISIS poses to the U.S., & Republican opinions on both. John Cornyn (R-Texas) spoke with authority from the floor of the Senate, roundly criticizing the President's character & policies while confusing Iran with Iraq. A word from Michelle Bachmann, a member of the House Intelligence Committee!: "Hitler." At least "it's comforting to have Dick Cheney around, so we can at least know what we definitely want to avoid." ...
... NYT: Obama Is Just Like Bush. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In ordering a sustained military campaign against Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, President Obama on Wednesday night effectively set a new course for the remainder of his presidency and may have ensured that he would pass his successor a volatile and incomplete war, much as his predecessor left one for him.... He also advanced an argument that in some ways mirrored Mr. Bush's much-debated strategy of pre-emption -- that is, acting to forestall a potential threat rather than waiting for it to gather." CW: A low point in New York Times "news analysis." ...
... There Is This (which Baker doesn't mention). Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "In the space of a single primetime address on Wednesday night, Barack Obama dealt a crippling blow to a creaking, 40-year old effort to restore legislative primacy to American warmaking. Obama's legal arguments for unilaterally expanding a war expected to last years have shocked even his supporters.... Yet one of the main authorities Obama is relying on for avoiding Congress is the 2001 wellspring of the war on terrorism he advocated repealing only last year, a document known as the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) that few think actually applies to Isis. Taken together with the congressional leadership's shrug, Obama has stripped the veneer off a contemporary fact of American national security: presidents make war on their own, and congresses acquiesce." ...
... Ditto Eli Lake of the Daily Beast: "Legal experts were shocked to learn Wednesday that the Obama administration wants to rely on that 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force against al Qaeda for the new ISIS war.
Emma Roller of the National Journal: "Speaking on Wednesday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, [Dick] Cheney denounced [President] Obama's milquetoast approach, saying his administration has 'failed utterly' to maintain the post-9/11 security apparatus that Cheney and President George W. Bush put in place." ...
... Dana Milbank: Dick "Cheney's 20-minute speech, carefully read from his prepared text, had an I-told-you-so tone.... Cheney is a singularly flawed critic, because the alternative he offers is war everywhere and always -- and though there is support for taking on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, there is no appetite in the country, or even in the GOP, for Cheney's alternative extreme.... Cheney, so expert on Obama's failings, remains blind to his own." ...
... Carol Giacomo of the New York Times: "Whatever [President] Obama's shortcomings may be, [Dick] Cheney is an absurdly flawed critic on national security. He was a primary architect of the Iraq war, propelling the United States into a bogus and costly conflict that may represent the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in recent memory. It was that war, in its early days, which gave rise to the Sunni militant group that would become ISIS. Like President George W. Bush, Mr. Cheney has shown no willingness to acknowledge the impact of these ruinous policies. Instead, he's tried to spin an irredeemable legacy. It wasn't just the content of Mr. Cheney's admonitions but also the timing that was jarring." ...
... Steve M. John McCain, in a Senate hearing, cites fake James O'Keefe video as evidence ISIS (maybe masquerading as Osama bin Laden) operatives are (past, present, future tenses, I guess), crossing into the U.S. via the U.S.-Mexican border. A piece of cake, because there are "miles and miles" of unprotected border. ...
... CW: In this entertaining post, published last month, Adam Weinstein of Gawker pretty much debunked O'Keefe's claims. Via Steve M. But no matter. Sen. McCain still finds O'Keefe's Excellent Adventure good enough evidence to counter testimony from a Homeland Security witness. When you wonder what informs McCain's hawkish view of everything, remind yourself he's relying on sources like James O'Keefe. ...
... Up Next: John McCain Calls for Hearing on Interplanetary Security. Cites "War of the Worlds." Notes Obama is "in denial" about Martian threat.
GOP Senators Oppose Equal Pay, but Voted to Debate It to Stall Other Legislation. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans have a new strategy: Vote to advance bills they oppose. On Wednesday, more than a dozen Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster of legislation aimed at ensuring pay equity for men and women. That vote was 73-25 an overwhelming margin by Senate standards. On Monday, 25 Republicans voted with Democrats to advance a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform. The GOP broadly opposes both of these proposals -- but they are voting to extend debate on them to chew up the remaining few days on the legislative calendar and prevent Democrats from holding even more campaign-themed votes on raising the minimum wage, reforming the student loan system and striking back at the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision."
David Dunlap of the New York Times: "This week, 150 miles north of ground zero, the Family Room -- and a thousand stories of love and loss -- has opened to the public for the first time, in an exhibition at the New York State Museum in Albany. The display speaks of the personal communion between the victims' relatives and those who were killed 13 years ago, when terrorists took down the twin towers."
Henry Aaron (no, not the Henry Aaron), David Cutler & Peter Orszag, in a New York Times op-ed, on the cynical lawsuits designed to gut the ACA: "... now the opponents of Obamacare are asking the Supreme Court to immediately hear an appeal of the Richmond decision [which unanimously rejected the plaintiffs' specious claims], and to pre-empt the full District of Columbia court from hearing the case.... The Supreme Court should wait to see what the lower courts do before deciding whether to intervene. Whatever one thinks of the Affordable Care Act, it is absurd to argue that its drafters intended to make insurance unaffordable." ...
(CW: Here's how I know who this particular Henry Aaron is. Charles Pierce: "Let it never be said that the Republicans in the Upper Chamber of our national legislature aren't tuned in with the feral children in the House of Representatives. The president nominated a guy named Henry Aaron for a post on the Social Security Advisory Board, a job that ends on September fking 30th of this year. Every Republican voted against him. Every damn one. They wouldn't vote to let this president's appointee to an obscure executive branch position have a job for the next two-and-a-half weeks.") ...
... CW Two-Word Note to Chuck Todd, who, in his interview of President Obama, expressed the opinion that it doesn't make much difference if Republicans take control of the Senate since the House will reject Democratic proposals out-of-hand: "Henry Aaron." We cannot expect ordinary Americans -- the majority of whom pay scant attention to Washington shenanigans & can't even name the three branches of government -- to understand anything about the political process when Sunday morning "experts" like Chuck Todd, who is often referred to as a "political junkie," mislead them to such an egregious extent.
Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Late Wednesday night, [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell said that he asked Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director, to conduct an independent investigation into the league's 'pursuit and handling of evidence in the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.' John Mara, the co-owner of the Giants, and Art Rooney II of the Steelers, who are both lawyers, will oversee the investigation, the final results of which will be made public. Goodell said Mueller, who was director of the F.B.I. for 12 years, will have access to all N.F.L. records."
AP: "A law enforcement official says he sent a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee to an NFL executive five months ago, while league executives have insisted they didn't see the violent images until this week. The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: 'You're right. It's terrible.' The law enforcement official ... says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can't confirm anyone watched the video. The person said he was unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited, because he wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment. The NFL has repeatedly said it asked for but could not obtain the video of Rice hitting Janay Palmer -- who is now his wife -- at an Atlantic City casino in February." ...
... John Barr & Greg Amante of ESPN: "Revel [hotel & casino] security workers watched the incident from the operations room through a security camera of the elevator. One former staffer said Rice ... spat in his then-fiancée's face twice, 'once outside the elevator and once inside,' prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch. According to the men, as Rice punched Palmer, the elevator the couple rode was rapidly approaching the hotel lobby just two floors above the casino floor. A security staffer, dispatched from his lobby post, saw Rice starting to drag his fiancée, who appeared to still be unconscious, out of the elevator.... All of the staffers ... say they were not contacted by anyone from NFL security or the Ravens and they are not aware of any current or former co-workers who have been." ...
... TMZ: NFL Commissioner Roger "Goodell said Tuesday he did not contact the Revel Casino because it was his understanding 'the casino is prohibited from turning over material to a third party during a law enforcement proceeding' -- namely the criminal case against Rice. But Paul Loriquet, the Director of Communications for the New Jersey Attorney General, tells TMZ bluntly, 'No, it's not illegal.'" ...
... Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: "... after [Ray] Rice’s contract was terminated by his team on Monday, [Janay Palmer Rice] became the most famous battered wife in the country, a fierce defender of her husband and, to domestic violence experts and survivors, an extraordinarily public example of the complex psychology of women abused by men."
Charles Pierce: "The triumph of the campaign for voter-suppression out in the states is not going to be limited to measures like curtailing early voting and requiring state ID cards. Once established in law, these measures will lead to a 'debate' on whether or not we should reinstate property-based suffrage, or some other form of restrictions on the franchise that we all thought we were done with a century or so ago. (There's already serious talk about a property requirement bubbling up in the usual precincts -- because, of course, that's what the Founders wanted.)"
Dominic Rushe of the Guardian: "After a day of protest against Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposals for regulating the internet that was coordinated by some of the world's largest tech companies, the agency announced on Wednesday it had received a record 1,477,301 public comments about the proposals since July. The previous record of 1.4 million was set in 2004 when an alleged 'wardrobe malfunction' during the halftime show at the Super Bowl led to [Janet] Jackson's breast (plus nipple shield) being flashed to an audience of 111 million."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Hadas Gold of Politico: "Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney will join CNN as a political commentator, the network announced Wednesday. He will start Wednesday night as President Barack Obama makes a prime-time statement about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Sam Feist, CNN's Washington bureau chief said in a statement." ...
... Update. Hadas Gold: Carney wrangled with John McCain in a CNN segment. Sounds kinda like CNN's failed, exceedingly annoying "Crossfire" show, minus the charming hyenas Paul Begala & Tucker Carlson.
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Thank you Mr. Cheney, you black-hearted cowardly bit of flotsam, for advising the current President in matters of war.
Here's the video of Jay Carney on CNN having a to-do with McCain.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/09/jay-carney-spent-his-first-night-on-cnn-being-called-a-liar-by-john-mccain/380017/
You know how it is watching a relative or a friend sink into the abyss of mental infirmity? I'm getting that same feeling watching John McCain, only without the caring or good will. He is a pathetic nuisance with his constant, obsessive tantrums for war, which probably have his desire to avenge his years as a POW at root. He's General Jack D. Ripper and Colonel Nathan Jessup in one little man's body. And as seriously sad a spectacle as he's become (dear McCain family, you might want to step in soon), we have to find a way to make him stop bothering us (dear media, stop taking his calls). President Obama should appoint him to an important-sounding but fake position (oh wait he has one of those now) and send him down to the border (he can start with the Arizona portion) so he can control and patrol 24 hours a day. Like Patton. I bet there are people who would be willing to build him a wall so he can stand on it. That way he can see and strut at the same time. And leave us the hell alone, you tiresome little putz.
Nancy,
McCain has always done just as he pleased. His hero status resulting from his stay at the Hanoi Hilton was partially his own fault. He cajoled his way into a bombing run that he was unprepared for and during the actual attack, as befitting his hot-dog reputation, decided not to follow orders. Flying too low and not obeying orders got his plane hit by anti-aircraft fire (according to the official Navy report and to the other pilots who were in the air with him). But McCain insists that he was hit by a surface to air missile. I suppose that sounds better and helps deny the proof of his flying too low (being hit by anti aircraft fire). After being hit he was injured when ejecting, breaking an arm and a leg, because, again, he did not follow proper procedures.
Just months before, another of his hot-dog moves, flying under power lines in Spain to demonstrate what a hot-shit pilot he was, he hit the lines, damaged the plane and knocked power out in thousands of homes.
There is no denying what McCain went through as a POW. It must have been pretty horrific. But had he followed orders and not done the "maverick"-I-Know-Best routine, he might never have had to endure that punishment.
The larger point is that McCain is still rejecting the best advice (and factual information) in favor of his own vision of how things should be done. This character flaw almost got him killed forty some-odd years ago. Now, it seems, he won't rest until plenty of others actually are killed.
To expand on KheSanh Vet's earlier (excellent) comment about the outrage of Dick Cheney advising anyone on the prosecution of war-like activities, I'd have to say that it's not unlike a contractor who builds without plans, uses shoddy materials, and unsound building practices, whose houses always collapse almost before they're finished, often killing those unlucky enough to have bought one of his ramshackle atrocities.
One couldn't even call him and his partner, The Decider, architects. That title at least hints at the creation of some kind of plan, no matter how inept. They had no plan. Zero. Just get in, Shock and Awe, la-di-da, get the oilfields, kill them some brown people, spend ungodly amounts of money, dress up like real military, strut around and declare victory. Only, here we are, over a decade later, and those houses they built have not only fallen down, they've exploded and caused raging fires that have spread far and wide. And the pissed off neighbors, whose own homes have been destroyed into the bargain, have gathered themselves into a ragtag army which is now beheading Americans and causing all manner of chaos.
But now this compleat asshole wants to insert himself into the planning of another house, and lecture the new guy on how to build things The Cheney Way?
And you know what's worse? People are taking him seriously and listening to what he has to say.
Cheney & Bush: Contractors.
Our Houses Cave In Before We Cash Your Check.
This morning on NPR Marco Rubio declared that the president did not say what he said.
Is anyone surprised?
Last night the president (and we'll get into how nuts this is later on) stated that the US would "degrade and destroy ISIL". This morning Rubio whined that the president needs to destroy ISIL and did not say that he would do that. Say what? This sounds a bit like Chuck Todd on Sunday, winking that Obama did not make a single mention of Syria after the president had repeated the word four times.
It really doesn't matter what he says, they're all just gonna make shit up.
So "We will degrade and destroy ISIL" is not good enough for Rubio and the Republicans? No, Rubio claimed. He should have said "like wicked destroy them, like, forever, so they never, like, come back and do bad things. That kind of 'destroyed'" Oh, shit, well why didn't you say there were different definitions of "destroy".
Fucking children. That's what we've got. Fucking two year olds running around with pacifiers and dirty diapers, making like they're senators and representatives.
And who is advising the president on this shit?
Promising to destroy these people without boots on the ground is, well, bootless. And promising to keep ground troops out of the mix after bombing the shit out of them for a few months is, well, like promising not to ever get mixed up in a land war in southeast Asia again. Oh wait, it's a different part of Asia? Oh, okay. That makes it alright then.
I know he feels like he has to do something, but being bullied (again) by the ball scratchers and droolers is just too much for me. Again.
And on top of it, to have Republicans who started this megillah in the first place complaining that the president has let things get out of hand, that he's not being "aggressive enough" is surrealistically cruel enough to make Artaud gape in admiration.
Shit. I need a drink. And it's not even 10:00 AM!!
A drink? No kidding. But I need a lobotomy. I give up on this crazy country. We are a bunch of dumb motherf***ers that never learn. Onward Christian Soldiers Marching As To War. Truer songs were never sung.
Poor Obama. Poor Us. Poor World.
This is an excellent summary: http://www.alternet.org/world/9-11-americas-insane-foreign-policy-continued-under-obama-has-killed-million-and-created-isis?page=0%2C1&paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
Re: McCain. He was never a good pilot, leaving a trail of wrecked planes. His daddy is the only reason he made it to captain (O6). Fortunately, the Navy decided it was a really bad idea for him to make admiral. He graduated 894 out of 896 in his Naval Academy class. Listening to him nowadays, he must have slept through class at the National War College.
I know this is pounding on a deceased equus ferus, but just picture John McCain, one of the most powerful, unfortunately, and influential men in the country, equally unfortunately, being one of only 100 senators, obtaining vital information about national security from James Fucking O'Keefe.
Seriously? It's like NASA astronomers consulting with the lady who drew up Nancy Reagan's horoscopes while planning a manned mission to Mars. Like Julia Child getting advice on haute cuisine from the guys who make those fake plastic hot dogs. Or like a United States senator getting crucial data on possible terrorist threats from a whacko who hippity hops around like an idiot in funny masks and fake beards.
Wouldn't it have been great if O'Keefe, dressed up in his rubber Osama Bin Laden mask, had been shot by another winger gun nut? Even those idiots know a rubber mask when they see it. Way to conduct a serious investigation there, Jimmy. And kudos to Big John for taking that shit seriously.
Christ on a dense pack, are we in trouble.
Re McCain: Akhileus and others have highlighted the trail of destruction McCain has left in his wake throughout his adult life. I am certainly including his constant efforts as a Senator to take us into war and his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Yet he never seems to feel remorse let alone utter an apology for any of his disastrous decisions. And the mainstream press just keeps playing along.
People with no sense of shame can do an awful lot of damage.
Haley's consternation at our apparent inability to learn from experience, especially our mistakes, is well founded.
Yesterday, Charlie Pierce pointed a well aimed finger in the direction of notorious war criminal and smug international blackguard, Henry the K who, unlike Lady Macbeth, whose nefarious deed (singular, mind you; encouraging her husband to murder Duncan) weighed so heavily on her conscience that she succumbed to madness and killed herself, lives a full and happy life devoid of regret and, an essential quality for right-wingers, responsibility. That particular trait, a sense of responsibility for one's actions, especially in life and death situations is for little people, not for world historical figures like Kissinger and Cheney and Bush and Reagan. And for my dough you can add every single Republican politician in the country, especially pretenders like Cruz and Li'l Randy.
But the most telling part of Kissinger's appearance on that show, The Takeaway, was Kissinger's blithe dismissal that anyone today remembers or cares about his horrific history, as if ignorance or forgetfulness absolves him and his contemporary pig fuckers like Cheney and Rumsfeld, of all culpability. No memory, no foul, right?
You can almost see Kissinger's self-satisfied, oleaginous smirk, the same one we've seen hundreds of times on Bush and Cheney and Rummy, and Kissinger himself.
The fact is, these people recognize that outside of a handful of journalists and observers and people, frankly, like us, they can (and do) commit murder and walk away, breezily dismissing law, ethics, morals, and human decency.
And they're not wrong. When proven amoral war criminal rat bastards like Cheney and Kissinger are worshipped and respected by such ignorant little squids as Chuck Fucking Todd, you know we've crossed the bar.
American observers, especially those on the right, often deride (or refuse to try to understand) the European obsession with history. I put it to you that American antipathy toward history, especially if it shivs our pre-conceived ideological notions, will end us.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you, could Will Shakespeare, deft observer and recorder of the depths of human villainy and depravity have ever imagined any characters as horrible and as subversive to moral existence as Kissinger or Cheney who are currently wiggling their flaccid dicks around as flags to which the latest brand of right-wing frauds are racing, arms and mouths open wide?
I declare that neither the bard, nor the author of Paradise Lost, nor producers of the most vicious snuff films could envision fictional characters as sinister and baleful as Republican aficionados of malevolence who regularly defile our public discourse by their mere presence.
Akhilleus,
You need a blog. I would totes follow you. Marie first, then you. You would supplant Pierce as my 2nd read of the day.