The Commentariat -- Sept. 12, 2014
Internal links, defunct video removed.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In a rare show of unity with President Obama, House Republican leaders will summon their fractious members back to the Capitol a day early next week to push through legislation to authorize the military to train Syrian rebels for the fight against Islamist militants.The decision to bring lawmakers back on Monday, costing them a campaign day seven weeks before the midterm elections, showed how quickly the politics of Mr. Obama's foreign policy shifted after he vowed in a speech to the nation on Wednesday night to degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, and Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, the majority leader..., promised a quick vote to begin training rebels in the Free Syrian Army to take the ISIS fight into Syria." ...
... Geir Moulton & Sylvia Hui of the AP: "Hours after Britain's foreign minister [Philip Hammond] said the country wouldn't participate in any airstrikes on Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron's office overruled the comment Thursday and stressed that the government hadn't discarded the use of air power.... 'Let me be clear: Britain will not be taking part in any airstrikes in Syria,'" Hammond said. ...
... Anne Barnard & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama's expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.... The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself...."
... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post fact-checks assertions by John McCain & Jay Carney made during their CNN squabble Wednesday night. ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "President Obama, long a reluctant warrior, has committed the United States to a risky and open-ended military campaign, the ultimate consequences of which are difficult to predict. Confronted with popular outrage at the beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and political opponents keen to exploit any hint of weakness or indecision, the realist has relented.... The President, who only last year, at West Point, talked about winding down the 'war on terrorism,' has come a long way in a short time." ...
... Kerry-Anne in Addicting Information: "ISIS kills two journalists & the West goes mad; Israel kills 2,000 civilians ... YAWN." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. See Tim Egan's column, linked next, for part of the reason. ...
... ** "Video Nation." Tim Egan: "'All you need to do is see the videos of the beheadings and we're not worried about mission creep,' said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, this week, in making an argument for military engagement. That's it in a nutshell: public policy driven by visceral reaction to videos.... 'The world has always been messy,' said Obama, a smart man, making a smart observation to a public that doesn't reward that trait. 'In part we're just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through.'" ...
... Frank Rich on the national circus (published Wednesday).
Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications -- a request the company believed was unconstitutional -- according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency's controversial PRISM program. [A] ruling [against Yahoo] by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review became a key moment in the development of PRISM, helping government officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been ... found constitutionally sound.... Yahoo, which endured heavy criticism after The Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper used [Edward] Snowden's documents to reveal the existence of PRISM last year, was legally bound from revealing its efforts in attempting to resist government pressure."
Paul Krugman: "... the persistence of the inflation cult is an example of the 'affinity fraud' crucial to many swindles, in which investors trust a con man because he seems to be part of their tribe. In this case, the con men may be conning themselves as well as their followers, but that hardly matters.... This tribal interpretation ... helps explain the sheer rage you encounter when pointing out that the promised hyperinflation is nowhere to be seen. It's comparable to the reaction you get when pointing out that Obamacare seems to be working, and probably has the same roots.... Everything is political, even among those who are supposed to rise above such things. And that reality, unlike the supposed risk of runaway inflation, is something that should scare you."
Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Today, more than 14 million vehicles have been recalled by 11 automakers over rupture risks involving air bags manufactured by the supplier, Takata. That is about five times the number of vehicles recalled this year by General Motors for its deadly ignition switch defect. Two deaths and more than 30 injuries have been linked to ruptures in Honda vehicles, and complaints received by regulators about various automakers blame Takata air bags for at least 139 injuries.... The danger of exploding air bags was not disclosed for years after the first reported incident in 2004, despite red flags...."
Beyond the Beltway
Randi Kaye of CNN: "Two men ... describe an unarmed teenager with his hands up in the air as he's gunned down by a police officer. They were contractors doing construction work in Ferguson, Missouri, on the day Michael Brown was killed.... And the men ... said they were about 50 feet away from Officer Darren Wilson when he opened fire. 'He had his f**n hands up,' one of the men says in the video.... CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin says the video could play an important role in the case. 'You have practically in real time someone discussing what they saw, and that's just good evidence.' ... Sunny Hostin, a CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, says it's important to note that several witnesses are telling the same story."
... Update. Contributor P. D. Pepe found a more expansive CNN analysis of the video of the construction workers' reactions, by Catherine Shoichet & Randi Kaye, which confirms that the constructions workers are white. "The race of the witnesses shouldn't matter, but it could for the grand jury that's investigating the case, said Mark Geragos, a CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney. There are nine whites and three African-Americans on the 12-member panel tasked with deciding whether Wilson, who is white, should be charged. 'You now have some witnesses who the majority of this grand jury are going to better relate to. I hate to say it, but that's the reality of it, and that's why it's a game changer to me,' Geragos said."
Liar, Liar, Ctd. Don Van Natta of ESPN: "Ray Rice told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on June 16 that he punched his then-fiancee in a casino elevator, four sources have told 'Outside the Lines,' an assertion that contradicts Goodell's statement this week that 'when we met with Ray Rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened.' Goodell made the statement Tuesday during an interview with CBS News, saying the latest video released by TMZ Sports about the incident was 'inconsistent' with what the former Baltimore Ravens running back had told him. But four sources close to Rice say that during the disciplinary meeting in the commissioner's office on June 16, Rice told Goodell he had hit Janay Rice, then his fiancee, in the face inside a Revel Casino Hotel elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had knocked her unconscious. 'Ray didn't lie to the commissioner,' a source with knowledge of the meeting [said]." ...
... Karen Crouse of the New York Times: "Across professional sports, it is hardly unusual for athletes to be involved in domestic abuse cases, but seldom have they faced meaningful punishment from their employers. Teams and leagues have generally demurred, noting that there is a presumption of innocence and that it is not their role to supersede the criminal justice system.... In the N.B.A. alone, a starting lineup could be made of former first-round draft picks who since 2012 have faced legal troubles connected to domestic abuse: guards Ty Lawson and Terrence Williams; forwards James Johnson and Jared Sullinger and center Jordan Hill. Jason Kidd, formerly the coach of the Nets and now with the Milwaukee Bucks, could coach them." ...
... I Was Wrong to Fall Down & Hit My Head after He Punched Me. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The NFL is still scrambling to save face in the wake of the Ray Rice scandal, but somehow it managed to find a story that makes commissioner Roger Goodell sound even worse.... On Thursday, an anonymous NFL owner explained to The Wall Street Journal that Goodell was quick to drop the incident because Janay told him (during a meeting with six male NFL executives and the man who hit her, as Deadspin notes) that she felt she was partly to blame.... So don't blame Goodell for the NFL's awful response, blame ... ugh." ...
... Hartman goes on to review how CBS Sports tried to respond to the domestic violence issue. Here's James Brown in part of the pregame show last night, aired before CBS's inaugural NFL game featuring, as their bad luck would have it, the Ravens & the Steelers:
... Hartmann: Immediately after Brown's commentary "the camera cut to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was suspended for six games in 2010 for allegedly sexually assaulting a female college student. Goodell later reduced his suspension to four games." ...
... How to Cover Up the Cover-up. Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News: "Roger Goodell declined to appear on CBS' 'Thursday Night Football' pregame show.... CBS left a gaping hole when it came to discussing the independent investigation the NFL is conducting under the direction of former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III. Not once was it mentioned that Ravens team president Dick Cass worked at WilmerHale, the D.C. -- based law firm where Mueller is a partner. And there was no attempt to define the relationship between the two suits overseeing the investigation -- John Mara and Art Rooney -- and Goodell, which has been characterized as extremely close." ...
... George Jones of WJHL, Johnson City, Tennessee: "One of the most high-profile victims of domestic violence will no longer be the musical voice for a Thursday Night Football game featuring an NFL team beset by the Ray Rice scandal. Rihanna, the singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting in 2009, is featured on Jay-Z's hit song Run This Town. Her vocals on the song were scheduled to open all Thursday night games, but an official from CBS Sports told Sports Illustrated the network was pulling the song from its Sept. 11 broadcast."
In his regular feature, "Today in Responsible Gun Ownership," Charles Pierce highlights an incident in which a grade-school teacher accidentally shot herself in the leg while in a school bathroom. In the AP story, which Pierce cites, Michelle Price writes, "Utah is among the few states that allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns in public schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Teachers are not required to disclose that they are carrying a weapon, and administrators are prohibited from asking." ...
... CW: Sorry, Charlie. This is the wave of the future in red-state America. Summer Ballentine of the AP: "Missouri lawmakers expanded the potential for teachers to bring guns to schools and for residents to openly carry firearms, in a vote Thursday that capped a two-year effort by the Republican-led Legislature to expand gun rights over the objection of the Democratic governor.... The new regulations, which this time garnered the two-thirds majority needed to override [Gov. Jay] Nixon's veto, take effect in about a month. Missouri school boards already have the power to allow employees with concealed gun permits to carry weapons on their campuses." Do I think that some day in the not-to-distant future a teacher will accidentally shoot a student in the leg or chest or head? Yes, I do.
Trouble in Right Wing World
Jonathan Stempel of Reuters: "The U.S. government wants conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza to be sentenced to as much as 16 months in prison, following his guilty plea to a campaign finance law violation. In a Wednesday court filing, federal prosecutors rejected defense arguments that D'Souza was 'ashamed and contrite' about his crime, had 'unequivocally accepted responsibility,' and deserved a sentence of probation with community service.... The government ... also said D'Souza waited to 'the last possible moment' prior to trial before admitting guilt, and then went on TV shows and the Internet to complain about being 'selectively' targeted for prosecution, and having little choice but to plead guilty."
Saturday Night in "Sarah Palin's Alaska." Amanda Coyne: Last Saturday night, "There's some sort of unofficial birthday/Iron Dog-type/snowmachine party in Anchorage. A nice, mellow party, until the Palins show up. There's beer, of course, and maybe other things.... Just about the time when some people might have had one too many, a Track Palin stumbles out of a stretch Hummer, and immediately spots an ex-boyfriend of Willow's.... There's words, and more. The owner of the house gets involved.... At this point, he's up against nearly the whole Palin tribe: Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly..., Sarah screams, 'Don't you know who I am!' ... Someone in the crowd screamed back, 'This isn't some damned Hillbilly reality show!' ... As people were leaving in a cab, Track was seen on the street, shirtless, flipping people off, with Sarah right behind him, and Todd somewhere in the foreground, tending to his bloody nose." ...
... CW: I hate doing anything to raise Sarah Palin's profile, but this is just too hilarious. And apparently true. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post verifies this much of it: there was a fight, the Palins were there, & the Anchorage police showed up. Besides, Amanda Coyne is a credible reporter.
Tara Palmeri of the New York Post: "Arnold Schwarzenegger was so hot to erase any memory of his marriage to Maria Shriver that he had her face scrubbed from his official portrait as governor of California -- and he didn't even care that the hastily done job was a sloppy mess, The Post has learned.... Shriver's face originally had appeared on a small lapel pin that Schwarzenegger wore as he sat for the painting in 2003.... Many in Shriver's and Schwarzenegger's orbit had been holding their breath ... after The Post broke the news last week that she'd had an affair with her husband's campaign strategist Matthew Dowd."
Senate Race
Dylan Scott of TPM: "The Kansas Supreme Court has decided to hear the lawsuit Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor has brought against Secretary of State Kris Kobach, after Kobach argued [in a court filing] that the case should be transferred to a lower court. Taylor is suing Kobach over his ruling that Taylor must remain on the Senate ballot in November, despite Taylor's announcement that he would withdraw from the race." ...
... Election law expert Rick Hasen comments.
Gubernatorial Races
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Democrats running in five highly competitive governors races ... -- Florida, Maine, Kansas, Wisconsin and Georgia -- ... this year have vowed to expand Medicaid coverage through ObamaCare if they are elected, something that could result in 1.7 million new people getting covered.... Most congressional Democrats are retreating from ObamaCare on the campaign trail. The law remains a tough political litmus test at a time when the president's approval rating has sunk to record lows. But Democrats in some of the closest gubernatorial contests are running on a platform to expand a key piece of the law."
News Ledes
AP: "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford withdrew his re-election bid Friday as he seeks treatment for a tumor in his abdomen, ending a campaign he had pursued despite persistent calls for him to quit amid drug and alcohol scandals."
New York Times: "The Rev. Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland's firebrand Protestant leader who vowed never to compromise with Irish Catholic nationalists, then, in his twilight, accepted a power-sharing agreement that envisioned a new era of peace in Ulster after decades of sectarian violence, died Friday in Northern Ireland. He was 88."
Guardian: "The Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The guilty verdict on the manslaughter charge, a day after the judge Thokozile Masipa cleared him of murder, means Pistorius could receive anything from 15 years in prison to a suspended sentence, which would potentially allow the double amputee a chance to resurrect his sporting career. The court will resume for sentencing on 13 October."
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Reader Comments (15)
"All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war; "
So let me get this straight: Jeffrey Toobin now thinks the video of the construction workers would make a difference in the Brown case. Before that he seemed to discount all the other eye witnesses––not enough evidence to make a difference? The fact that the other witnesses are black and the workers are white may have something to do with Toobin's change of mind? One wonders.
That little prick D'Souza needs to get his just desserts; he really is a mean little man.
Bob's quote above rings loud and clear I fear.
@P. D. Pepe: From watching the video, I'm not 100 percent certain both the construction workers are white, though one of them appears to be. If you have some confirmation of this, let me know.
Toobin's point, I think, is that these are disinterested parties, reacting immediately & without filters, to what they witnessed. Their spontaneous reaction was to say & show that Brown had his hands in the air -- a universal sign of surrender -- when Wilson delivered the fatal shots. In that moment, whatever the men's politics & sympathies, their reflexive reaction was one of horror at watching a policeman gun down a man attempting to surrender. This is more powerful testimony than someone who later reports s/he saw exactly the same thing, even though the later report may be perfectly accurate & more detailed.
A juror may question the credibility of a neighbor, thinking, "Oh, she has an ax to grind," but the juror will intuitively "get" that strangers watching the scene, without knowledge they are being videotaped, are describing exactly what they saw. They may embellish their stories later, or slant them one way or the other, but at the moment of truth, the truth will out.
I think Toobin is right.
Marie
Here's a more comprehensive account of the video's impact. White seems to matter here.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/us/ferguson-michael-brown-shooting-witnesses/
@ P. D. Pepe: Thanks. I've linked the story above. So it isn't Toobin, but well-known trial attorney/celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, who said "race matters." I'm afraid Geragos is being a realist here. If all of the witnesses who provide damning evidence against Wilson are black & all of those testifying he is faultless are white, the St. Louis County majority-white grand jury most certain could see this in strictly, ah, black-and-white terms.
I still stand by my assertion that the spontaneity of the workers' responses, & the fact that their reactions were caught on tape, is crucial. Whatever their color, one just naturally thinks, "They're telling the truth." I can't think of any possible motive they might have to lie, & I doubt if secondary "motives" would have come into play anyway, within seconds of the incident. (While eyewitnesses accounts are notoriously unreliable, "He had his fucking hands up" would seem to be more credible than, say, a line-up ID of someone of a different race.)
Marie
""He had his fucking hands up" would seem to be more credible than, say, a line-up ID of someone of a different race.)"
Yeah–-I think you are right about that.
Actions, reactions, and unintended consequences.
So now we're going to start bombing Syria? Let's pull on that string for a while, eh? We've been pulling on the Iraq string for over 10 years now and look at all the wonderful consequences of that adventure (Thanks, Dickie! Thanks, Georgie!).
Of course History is not a straight line, but from a distance, one can only grimace at the binding chains of causality begun, in the case of Iraq, by a single illegitimate act by right-wing justices on the Supreme Court who made, as they then sniffed, a "one time only" decision to abrogate state's rights, one of the primary shibboleths of conservative political culture, in order to install King George as leader.
From there we got 9/11 (he slept through all the warnings), which in turn gave us Iraq (Dead or Alive!), which gave us torture (it's not so bad, says Dickie), unlawful surveillance of Americans (If you got nothing to hide, you got nothing to worry about), rendition, immense loss of blood and treaure, loss of moral stature, and on and on right up to ISIL. Actions and reactions.
We (I mean Bush and Cheney) installed a corrupt dictator as Iraq's new "democratic" leader, their George Washington as Bush once beamed. Under this tool, corruption was rampant. Also because there was no plan, no direction. Looting, street gangs, infiltration by insurgent groups, no one knowing what the fuck was going on or what to do, an Iraqi army of incompetents and cowards (which reminds me of the president's suggestion that the we don't have to send in troops because the Iraqis will take care of that. Really? You mean the guys who threw down their weapons and ran away when a band of 10 year olds with pop guns threatened them? ). Reactions to the ineptness of Republican "leadership".
And unintended consequences, those stemming from that single act of hubris by the Supreme Court to install, by fiat, one George W. Bush, that inept, incurious, smirking chimp as president, have been legion. Of course no one on the right will accept a jot of responsibility for any of these consequences, but we are dealing with them nonetheless.
As Tim Egan points out, and as I've been thinking for some time now, as horrible as the deaths of those journalists were, is that reason enough to essentially go to war? To dump tens of thousands of tons of explosives on people? I suppose it wouldn't be the first time a war was started because of the death of two people. The last time was in 1914. No bad consequences from that one, was there?
Hegel, who spent a lot of time thinking about history and its consequences, maintained that the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. He might have amended that to say that the only ones who do seem to learn from history are hardly ever in a position to do much about it.
Certainly some unintended consequences can be good, or at least have some potential. The rush to develop the atomic bomb led to great advances in nuclear power, although people around Three Mile Island and the Fukashima plant might beg to differ. Still, the reduction in the use of fossil fuels has many benefits, if we can ever get the technology and economics to balance. Aspirin was developed as a pain reliever, something its essential ingredients had done for several millennia. The fact that it was discovered to have anticoagulant properties later on was a bonus. The no-man's land around the trenches of WWI became a natural habitat for many species. A small, but good reaction from a horrible action.
But most unintended consequences seem to be of the not so good variety. Yes, we helped the Mujahedin beat the Ruskies in Afghanistan, but the army we supported and the people we shepherded into advanced military training have stuck it to us pretty good.
The consequences, intended or otherwise, of the incipient military actions against ISIL are still impossible to predict. But our track record, in that part of the world, for really excellent outcomes has been pretty dismal.
Someone once said, and if I can recall who, I'll die happy, that any action, the outcome of which is not the direct opposite of what was intended, should be considered successful.
I hope for success in Syria (for the definition of that, see above), but I wince at the possible deluge of unintended consequences. There will be reactions to our actions. We can only speculate what those might be and hope they don't take yet another bite out of our collective ass.
There ain't much left .
In the case of the Ferguson video, I'm inclined to agree with Marie that the immediate reaction of bystanders to such things tend to be about as unfiltered as you can get.
Yesterday I happened to review the video of the killing of Kajieme Powell by St. Louis police. The narration by the man shooting the video is almost as powerful as the imagery. He reacts pretty much like most of us would. The police pull up (and perhaps because he's black as was Powell, his expectation of a peaceful resolution was not very high) and he says, ominously, "Oh shit, oh shit..." then seconds later when the man is gunned down, he's stunned. "Oh my god!" then silence as he obviously tries to process this. "Oh my god, they just killed this man. He didn't even have a gun". Then "They're cuffin' him. He's already dead!"
You can't get much more unfiltered than that. And the reaction of the men seeing Michael Brown shot down as he tries to surrender appears to be equally powerful, and true. Unless these guys were diehard racists who believe that death is the due of the black man, and obviously they weren't, there wasn't enough time to process things to the point where they could take sides and craft their responses.
PD is not wrong to be aghast that it should matter whether the witnesses are white or black, but, unfortunately, it does.
So I agree that this should make a big difference. If it doesn't, then the people in Ferguson are a lot worse off than we think.
@Akhilleus. Thanks. Our George Washington turned down exhortations to become king of the new colonies & was a reluctant president. He gladly quit the job after two terms, refusing to be considered for a third term. Malaki, Iraq's "George Washington," went out kicking & screaming.
The measure of a person is not what s/he says when s/he's out of power but what s/he does when s/he has power. Malaki is no George Washington.
Marie
Barbarossa,
Let slip the dogs of war, is right.
And look at the unintended consequences for Caesar's assassins, besides being portrayed by Shakespeare as conniving rat bastards (well, sort of). Their stated motives were to save the Republic from the "tyrant" Caesar whose power was growing by the day. So they kill him, and what happens? Civil war (again), major social and political upheaval, which rocks the Republic, most of the conspirators are killed or die by their own hands either during the war or later. The vicious, puritanical Octavian takes over, renames himself Augustus, crushes the Republic, becomes emperor and declares himself a god.
So much for the civic virtues of the Roman Republic. Fell deeds, like you read about.
And what about the guy who gives the "dogs of war" speech? Marc Antony has his ass kicked at the Battle of Actium by his opponents and is chased to Egypt where he throws himself on his sword rather than be captured by the insufferable little twit, Octavian.
Beware the Ides of March. And unintended consequences.
"The measure of a person is not what s/he says when s/he's out of power but what s/he does when s/he has power."
Quite. And the same applies to Bush and especially Cheney, Bush having been smart enough thus far to keep his trap shut. Would he could have been that smart when he was in office.
"Malaki is no George Washington."
And neither was Bush. Christ, he wasn't even good enough to be Benedict Arnold, although he got the treason part down pretty well.
Stretch. Hummers.
??
Only the Palins.
Don't you just love how Sarah and her family spread joy and peace and love, you know, like the good Christians they are, wherever they go? Plus, great image of Track Palin (and what kind of name is that, anyway? Right up there with Tagg Romney--another pyscho) and Momma Bear out in the street flipping people off with daddy Todd wiping the blood off his face and sister Bristol knuckling bystanders. Now that's a memorable family portrait. I'll bet little Tripp has his own starter switchblade by now.
And please, John McCain, take one more bow, my man, for trying to put Brawlin' Betty a hearbeat away from the nuclear codes. You da man.
And once again. Stretch. Hummers. Stretched Hummers and shrunken brains. The royal family of the Modern GOP.
"Hit 'em again, Bristol!"
@Akhilleus: And here's hoping a few partygoers are shopping their cellphone videos to TMZ even as I write. I guess in Family Values Land, the family that fights together, stays together. Maybe because no one else will have them.
Marie
Pleasant news today. I just learned that, thanks to Obamacare, the 2015 premiums for my Medicare PPO will be 57 percent lower than they are this year. The copay on drugs went up slightly, but very slightly, about $15 a month in my case.
James,
Better not tell the GOP. They'll try to have you deported.