The Commentariat -- Sept. 14, 2013
** Ann Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States and Russia agreed Saturday on an outline for the identification and seizure of Syrian chemical weapons and said Syria must turn over an accounting of its arsenal within a week. The agreement will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow for sanctions or other consequences if Syria fails to comply, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said. Kerry said that the first international inspection of Syrian chemical weapons will take place by November, with destruction to begin soon after and be complete by the middle of next year." ...
... Conal Urquhart of the Guardian: "The United States and Russia have agreed that Syrian chemical weapons will be placed under international control and destroyed in a process that will begin with a week. International inspectors from the Organisation of the Prevention of Chemical weapons must be given 'immediate and unfettered' access to Syrian chemical weapons, said the US secretary of state, John Kerry, while Syria must give a 'comprehensive list' of its chemical weapons within one week."
... CW: So make that headline: "War Averted, Lives Saved, Obama Is a Weakling."
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama will not insist on a United Nations resolution threatening to use force to ensure that Syria lives up to its commitment to turn over chemical weapons, but will seek other tangible consequences for Syria if it does not comply, senior administration officials said Friday. Although Mr. Obama reserves the right to order a punitive military strike on his own without United Nations backing if Syria reneges, the officials said he understood that Russia, because of its veto power in the Security Council, would never allow a resolution that authorized such a use of force." ...
... Ann Gearan & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "A proposal for an international peace conference to end the brutal Syrian civil war could be revived if negotiations over ridding the country of chemical weapons succeed, top U.S. and Russian diplomats said Friday. The remarks by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were the first explicit indication that the diplomacy begun this week to resolve the immediate crisis of threatened U.S. military strikes could be a gateway to a broader negotiation aimed at ending the 21 / 2-year-old conflict." ...
... Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "The crisis in Syria is the most recent and most powerful example of how Mr. Obama, elected twice on a promise to disengage the United States from overseas conflicts, has moved the Pentagon to a back seat. In this case, it is Secretary of State John Kerry who is leading the charge, not the far less vocal [Defense Secretary Chuck] Hagel and General [Martin] Dempsey." ...
... John Rabe & Kitty Felde of KPCC Public Radio: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) tells of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in the early 1990s. Humorous. ...
... Grumpy McCain Expands His Media Base. Dylan Byers of Politico: "The Russian newspaper Pravda has tentatively agreed to publish an Op-Ed by Sen. John McCain in which he will attack Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an exclusive report from Foreign Policy. The piece would serve as a direct response to the New York Times Op-Ed Putin penned earlier this week." (CW: I'm not linking to the initial report, as I normally try to do, because Foreign Policy has a horrible sign-in system you have to go through before you can read any article.) CW: a spokesperson for McCain said the Senator was not content to dominate U.S. news shows & was reaching out to venues all over the world. ...
... CW: I missed this report by Tim Murphy & Tasneem Raja when Mother Jones published it last week. Fortunately, my favorite news source, Rand Paul, called it to my attention. "Over the last two decades, [John] McCain has rarely missed an opportunity to call for the escalation of an international conflict. Since the mid-1990s, he's pushed for regime change in more than a half-dozen countries -- occasionally with disastrous consequences." The story includes "a quick review of McCain's eagerness for military action and foreign entanglements." ...
... Here's how Paul describes the Murphy-Raja report:
There was a funny article the other day in Mother Jones.... It ranked the different countries on how eager Sen. McCain wanted to be involved [militarily]. So, like, for getting involved in Syria, there's five Angry McCains. For getting involved in the Sudan, there's two Angry McCains. And there's a little picture of him. You know, he was for getting involved to support Gaddafi before he was for overthrowing Gaddafi. He was for supporting Mubarak before he was for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood before he was for supporting the generals.
... MacKay Coppins of BuzzFeed interviews Paul about his views on war. Coppins writes, "... over the past two weeks, it has become clear that Paul's brand of Republicanism has spread deeply within his party. He successfully rallied a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers against a military intervention in Syria; thoroughly embarrassed Republican leaders who supported the air strikes; and temporarily elevated himself to the role of de facto foreign policy spokesman for the GOP." ...
... Ed Kilgore pushes back: "It is not at all clear that Paul was the central figure -- much less the organizer of 'bipartisan' opposition -- in the resistance to a use-of-force resolution on Syria. In his utterances on the subject, he frequently hinted at sympathy for Assad as the protector of Syrian Christians; few Republicans, and virtually no Democrats, Went There." ...
... AND Paul pissed off the jihadists of Christians United for Israel (founded by John Hagee, most infamous for opining that God caused Hurricane Katrina to prevent a planned gay parade, but an all-around offensive loon) in his Coppins interview when he scoffed at the militaristic policies promoted by "defenders of the promised land and the chosen people." ...
... CW: Here's a place I'm totally with McCain: Tim Molloy of the Wrap: "Would we be better off buying cable stations one at a time instead of in bundles? Sen. John McCain says yes, and has introduced legislation that would make it happen." I pay for perhaps 50 sports channels, none of which I ever watch.
Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "Lots of people think John Boehner has lost control of the House Republican caucus. Apparently John Boehner does, too." Cohn offers three theories of winger motivation: "They are delusional.... They are savvy.... They are selfish," any one or all of which may be true. ...
... Domenico Montanaro of NBC News: "Americans overwhelmingly do not think Congress should raise the nation's debt limit as President Barack Obama and Congress prepare once again to wage battle over the issue, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll." CW: Contributor P. D. Pepe MAG mentioned this (or a similar) poll in yesterday's Comments. These polls irritate me. Here's how the pollsters framed the question (it's Question Q 16 on the linked page):
As you may know the federal debt ceiling acts as a check and limit on the country's overall liabilities, including the federal deficit and other debts. When the U.S. Treasury needs to issue debt above the ceiling in order to avoid going into bankruptcy and defaulting on its obligations, Congress needs to vote to raise the ceiling. Congress is again currently considering whether and how much to extend the debt ceiling. Do you think Congress should or should not raise the debt ceiling? If you don't know enough to have an opinion, please just say so.
... My eyes glaze over just reading the question. Responders don't know WTF the debt ceiling is (nor should they be expected to), & the pollsters made it as difficult as possible for them to understand. The result was 44-22 percent said "no." That is, a third of the respondents declined to answer. Most of the 44 percent were just too proud to say they didn't get it. Had the pollster asked, "Do you think the government should pay its bills?" -- which is the vernacular form of the question -- the results would have been a helluva lot different. ...
... Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: "Friday's poll suggests that public ignorance over the issue could be a boon for Republicans in any negotiations." ...
... Also via MAG, Jon Chait of New York explains why "There's really only one answer Obama can give here [re: Boehner's recent 'request" to combine debt ceiling & budget negotiations]: Boehner can go fuck himself." ...
... To help you out with all this debt ceiling/government shutdown/defund ObamaCare stuff, Gail Collins provides a handy calendar, suitable for taping to your refrigerator, of upcoming events.
Scott Shane of the New York Times: "A judge on the nation's intelligence court directed the government on Friday to review for possible public release the court's classified opinions on the National Security Agency's practice of collecting logs of Americans' phone calls. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV issued the opinion in a response to a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, saying such a move would add to 'an informed debate' about privacy and might even improve the reputation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on which he sits." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The court that oversees US surveillance has ordered the government to review for declassification a set of secret rulings about the National Security Agency's bulk trawls of Americans' phone records, acknowledging that disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden had triggered an important public debate."
** Peter Beinart of the Daily Beast predicts that millenials will usher in a new age of liberalism, & he thinks Elizabeth Warren would be a a compelling presidential candidate: "The door is closing on the Reagan-Clinton era. It would be ironic if it was a Clinton herself who sealed it shut." Beinart makes a compelling case, but bear in mind he completely omits such phenomena as the yahoo factor that dominates the Republican party. His assessment of Obama's politics is, I think, exactly right.
Local News
Rod Bastanmehr of AlterNet: "Dr. Shiping Bao, the Volusia County medical examiner who was in charge of handling ... Trayvon Martin's body in February 2012, has come out and claimed that the prosecution team was biased against [Martin]..., and intentionally lost the case. According to Bao's attorney, Willie Gary, the medical examiner's office, the state attorney's office and the Sanford Police's 'general attitude was that [Martin] got what he deserved. He was in essence told to zip his lips.... Dr. Bao is speaking out in the wake of having been fired from the m.e.'s office, and is planning a $100 million lawsuit against the State of Florida." CW: I would tend to dismiss Bao's assertions as representative of "vengeful fired employee" syndrome but for this: "According to the former assistant coroner, the results of Martin's autopsy clearly showed that, despite Zimmerman's statements regarding their altercation, there was no feasible way for Martin to have been on top of Zimmerman when the gun was fired, because the bullet entered Martin's back." Shot in the back??
News Ledes
Reuters: "More heavy rain is expected on Saturday in Colorado where rescue workers are battling to reach residents cut off by the worst floods in decades, which have killed at least four people and left 172 still unaccounted for.... The flooding began overnight Wednesday. It was triggered by unusually heavy late-summer storms that soaked Colorado's biggest urban centers, from Fort Collins near the Wyoming border south through Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs." The Denver Post has a liveblog here. The Post's main story is here.
AFP: "Four Chinese ships entered waters around islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with Japan on Saturday with no sign of a compromise seen between Asia's two largest powers."
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Reader Comments (3)
War Averted, Lives Saved, Obama is a Hero.
I don't understand people. I guess if the bombs dropped on them, they'd understand.
I was talking to a young friend today. She's from Michigan and went to high school there. I'm from the Pacific Northwest. We agreed that many around here (North Georgia) don't know anything and what's more, don't want to know anything.
The Michael Hirsh article about Larry Summers is most informative. That arrogant Summers should toadie for arrogant bankers, arrogant insurance guys and all their over-attituded brethren should come as no surprise. Too much attitude is oftentimes a sure sign of minimal capacity to get the job done well even when a person is smart as blazes.
About Syria: the intractable problem of helping the less fortunate from the evil doers has been a problem about as long as prostitution has been an occupation. Helping the Syrians is like assisting someone across the street when the rest of the drivers refuse to slow down: the thanks you MAY receive is little compensation for the danger. Where do you draw the line? Luckily we are having a discussion about that. Maybe we will get our shit together a bit better about this kind of thing next time it happens. Because, the dispersal of poison gas is too easy a slippery slope to lose control for nations, governments and entities. No should mean NO with a big stick behind it for poison gas use.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/14/thomas_friedmans_latest_article_is_a_paint_by_numbers_job_partner/
@Marie: I'm sure you've asked this many times: Does Tom Friedman even read Tom Friedman?