The Commentariat -- Sept. 14, 2014
Internal links removed.
The World According to Chicken Little. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) blasted President Barack Obama's plan to defeat ISIS during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, calling the commander-in-chief 'disingenuous and delusional' and warning that Americans will be 'killed here at home' unless he sends ground troops into Iraq and Syria to defeat the terrorist threat."
Peter Baker of the New York Times on President Obama's private remarks re: the steps leading up to his speech to the nation on his plans to "destroy" ISIS. ...
... Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News: "Secretary of State John Kerry backtracked on the language he had used to describe the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL), saying in an interview on CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sunday that, 'we are at war' with the group." See yesterday's Commentariat for context. Seems "war" is the new White House buzzword.
Raya Jalabi of the Guardian: "Islamic State (Isis) militants have released a video showing the apparent beheading of a British hostage, David Haines. Site, an intelligence group, which was the first to report US journalist Steven Sotloff's beheading last month, confirmed the video's release. In the video, entitled A Message to the Allies of America, a masked man is shown carrying out the beheading of Haines, whose life had earlier been threatened in a video showing the murder of ... Sotloff." ...
... Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Britain stands ready to take 'whatever steps are necessary' to help an international push to destroy the 'evil' extremist group that murdered British aid worker David Haines, [British PM] David Cameron has said. In an emotional statement in Downing Street after chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee to discuss the killing, the prime minister hailed Haines as a 'British hero' and vowed to 'hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes'." ...
... The New York Times story, by Rukmini Callimachi &Kimiko de Freytax-Tamura, is here. It has been updated. ...
... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The White House believes that Congress's 2002 authorization of the Iraq war -- and not just the 2001 authorization to fight Al Qaeda -- provides a legal justification for President Obama's air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Obama administration said Friday. The White House has not issued a formal analysis of its legal thinking, but the disclosure adds to an evolving public understanding of its theory about the basis for the strikes against ISIS." ...
... Michael Gordon & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry received broad assurances but no public commitments from Egypt on Saturday as he continued his tour of the Middle East to try to assemble a coalition behind an American campaign against [ISIS].... In Baghdad, meanwhile, the new prime minister ... said Saturday that he had ordered the Iraqi security forces to stop 'the indiscriminate shelling' of civilian communities under the control of the militants. Together, the professions of good intentions in Baghdad and Cairo underscored the long road ahead for the Obama administration...." ...
... David Sanger & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is struggling to cut off the millions of dollars in oil revenue that has made the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria one of the wealthiest terror groups in history, but so far has been unable to persuade Turkey, the NATO ally where much of the oil is traded on the black market, to crack down on an extensive sales network." ...
... Ken Dilanian of the AP: "Islamic State militants, who once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, have become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence officials and private experts."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Rise of the Know-It-Alls
NEW. Ezra Klein, Chief Know-It-All: "Perhaps the single best thing that's happened to political journalism in the time I've been doing it is the rise of political science." CW Note: Any article that contains the phrase "the late, great David Broder," unless appearing in an ironical context, is probably bollocks. ...
... NEW. Thomas Frank, Chief Rebuttal Witness, in Salon: "Not only does Washington routinely fill the No. 1 spot on those 'most educated cities' articles, but the town positively seethes with academic experts. Indeed, it is the only city I know of that actually boasts a sizable population of fake experts, handing out free-market wisdom to passers-by from their subsidized seats at Cato and Heritage. The characteristic failing of D.C. isn't that it ignores these herds of experts, it's that it attends to them with a gaping credulity that they do not deserve." Thanks to James S. for the link.
Marie's Sports Report
NEW. CW: TMZ -- and nobody else -- reports that the Carolina Panthers have "deactivated" defensive end Greg Hardy, who is appealing his misdemeanor conviction for physically assaulting & threatening to kill a woman. See links in yesterday's Commentariat .
** Kent Babb & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: The NFL, "America’s most popular sports league..., generat[es] about $10 billion in annual revenue, and behind the scenes is an intricate and largely secretive three-layered security force -- mainly comprised of former federal agents -- in charge of staying in front of the league's problems. Its emphases are swiftness and thoroughness, its tentacles reaching into states even without an NFL team, its code mostly one of silence. And while its agents can help keep bad actors from ever getting to the league by vetting them beforehand, they are equally if not more valuable in funnelling information back to the league office once problems occur to help make sure NFL leaders are not caught off guard." ...
... CW: AND TMZ, a celebrity-watcher outfit, breached this wall. This report further illuminates how farcical is the NFL's "internal investigation" -- many in the NFL security team are ex-FBI agents, some of them high-ranking. The NFL chose former FBI director Robert Mueller -- who would have worked directly with these top FBI grads -- to "investigate" them. (Mueller already was known to have deep ties to the NFL & Ravens management. This just adds another layer to the cover-up.) ...
... A War Game for a Warring Nation. Mark Edmundson in the Los Angeles Times: "Football is a warlike game and we are now a warlike nation. Our love for football is a love, however self-aware, of ourselves as a fighting and (we hope) victorious people.... The rise of football over baseball is about a change in America's self-image.... Plato fears that we become what we behold." ...
... Jonathan Zimmerman in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "For the last century, schools and colleges have tried to modify the [football] game so fewer people get hurt. And it hasn't worked." ...
... CW: There are, obviously, direct connections among (1) playing a war game from the time you're 11; (2) regularly getting your brains bashed, (3) the trappings of celebrity that come with the game (even at the high-school level), (4) the remuneration -- or potential remuneration for playing the game well; (5) the value of a player to his team's bottom line, & (6) domestic violence. Every "institution of learning" that has a football team is molding young sociopaths, some percentage of whom -- because of football-related brain damage -- really cannot control themselves. Most Americans, myself included, contribute or have contributed to perpetuating this ring of violence. ...
... Maureen Dowd: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had a model in his father Charles of a profile in courage. He has no excuse for his own slimy behavior.
God News
Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "Since [Roman Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen's] death in 1979, his remains have been sealed in a white marble crypt at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the city where he spent much of his life. And though the Peoria diocese says it was promised the remains, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, who considers Archbishop Sheen something of a personal hero, has refused to part with them, citing the wishes of the archbishop and his family. Now the dispute over Archbishop Sheen's corpse has brought a halt to his rise to sainthood, just as he appeared close to beatification, the final stage before canonization. Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, Peoria's leader, announced this month that the process had been suspended because New York would not release the body."
Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. -- Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the fully armed; because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -- Pat Robertson 9:2014
"So Help Me, God." Stephen Losey of the Air Force Times: "An atheist airman at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada has until November to change his mind and swear a reenlistment oath to God, the Air Force said. The unnamed airman was denied reenlistment Aug. 25 for refusing to take an oath that concludes with the phrase 'so help me God,' the American Humanist Association said in a Sept. 2 letter to the inspectors general for the Air Force and Creech." ...
... Air Force Finds Constitution Irrelevant. Steve Benen: "In the Army and Navy, Americans have the discretion to omit [the words "so help me God." The Air Force, however, has a different 'interpretation' of Pentagon regulations.... It's worth noting that the U.S. Constitution -- the one the military supports and defends, and which trumps Defense Department regulations and forms -- says quite explicitly that 'no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.' To date, the Air Force has found this unpersuasive." ...
... Brad Knickerbocker of the Christian Science Monitor: "The US Air Force has gotten itself into a bureaucratic, legal, and public relations snarl over what would seem to be a simple thing: Four words included in its reenlistment oath."
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.... -- Leviticus 19:33-34
... Strangers in the Land of the South: David Wren of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Sun News: "Reginald Wayne Miller, the president of Cathedral Bible College, was arrested Thursday on accusations that he forces foreign students at his school to work long hours for low wages and then threatens to revoke their student visas if they complain or fail to comply with his demands. Via Steve Benen.
Congressional Races
NEW. Rick Hasen: "A three judge panel of the Sixth Circuit has just issued this order denying Ohio's request to put on hold a district court order requiring Ohio to restore early voting days (including 'Golden Week') which the Republican legislature tried to cut.... All the judges in the Sixth Circuit today were Democrat-appointed."
Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly on Bill Maher's choice of targeting John Kline (RTP-Minn.) in his "Let's Flip a District" gag: "John Kline has a reputation as a moderate but he votes with the teabaggers all the time. All the Democrats need is for his constituents to become aware of how radical his recent voting record really is and they toss him out in favor of Some Dude." See yesterday's Commentariat for context.
Southern Gothic, Ctd.
A Week in Paris
Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: Rep. Mark Sanford's (R-S.C.) former fiancee, Maria Belen Chapur said she had asked him to make their break public, but that Mr. Sanford did not warn her before announcing it on Facebook on Friday, catching her off guard. 'I learned it from the press today,' she said Saturday."
News Ledes
AP: "North Korea's Supreme Court on Sunday sentenced a 24-year-old American man to six years of hard labor for entering the country illegally and trying to commit espionage. At a trial that lasted about 90 minutes, the court said Matthew Miller, of Bakersfield, California, tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang's airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted to having the "wild ambition" of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea's human rights situation."
Share Article
Reader Comments (8)
"...Football is a warlike game and we are (now) a warlike nation." (I would take out the "now!")
So very true, and so gruesome. Every nation has some "sport" to celebrate their innate sadism. We in America have not only football, but boxing--which is even more damaging to human bodies. (One of my classmates at the University of Wisconsin died in the boxing ring after being KOed.) I do not understand how people can so unconsciously celebrate their homocidal urges by being fans of football or boxing. In Europe and Latin America, it is soccer--which is every bit as violent. And jolly old England has, of course, rugby. And let's not forget bull fighting.
I wish we would cut through our denial--admit how primitive we humans really are--and how addicted to the adrenaline high of war and violent sports. There are certainly other ways to express our sadistic instincts, but we are not evolved enough as a species to be curious about finding them. And we have the naivety to be horrified at the beheading of a few men by a "terrorist" cult, because we do not condone that particular form of violence.
As Beckett said: "Human beings are a wreck."
@Kate: It's not just football, it's hockey, ultimate fighting ( UFC), and now women's hockey, UFC for women, women's boxing, etc.
Although soccer isn't supposed to be a contact sport concussions are common for both sexes. A friend of mine used to referee teen age soccer. He said the girls were worse about fighting than the boys.
Humans apparenly delight in beating each others' brains out.
Thomas Frank on Ezra Klein, data-driven journalism, Washington isolation, centrism, and more. A good, fiesty read.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/14/all_these_effing_geniuses_ezra_klein_expert_driven_journalism_and_the_phony_washington_consensus/?source=newsletter
I attempted to post this yesterday but long comments on iPhones can be tricky. Mine deep-sixed my attempt so apologies for the less than timely topic.
It does occur to me that there seems to be a new strain of cowardice-or perhaps an even deeper one of incompetence-racing like a killer virus that Republicans refuse to take seriously (because "blah people, so who cares") through the ranks of Bagger Icons.
Li'l Randy runs away from a possible conversation with DREAMers like his right to practice self-certified medical procedures had been revoked. Sarah Palin declines all comments about a brawl begun by her entire family which turned a peaceful gathering into Wrestlemania, complete with blood and expletives and chest thumping. And Tailgunner Teddy Cruz, smartest man in the history of the senate to listen to any of his many sycophants, runs away from an opportunity to defend his position on Israel.
So, last week, Li'l Teddy lectured a group of Christians on Israel. They didn't take kindly to his thoughts and began to boo him. In a snit that would have made the most intemperate, egotistical, thin-skinned opera diva proud, Little Teddy insulted his listeners then ran away as fast as his little not-born-in-the-USA legs could carry him. Afterward, instead of attempting to parse the differences of opinion, he called them all anti-Semites. Because that's how he rolls. Like with Bush, and Palin, and the rest of the assholes, if you're not with them, you must be some kind of evil motherfucker.
The other day, Charlie Pierce presented a collection of kowtowing, ass-kissing panegyrics widely proclaiming the brilliance of Cruz; his off the charts intellect, his superior abilities as a political player, his amazing resume, his unflappable demeanor in the face of opposition.
None of which appear to have the tiniest iota of truth to them.
Just because someone claims to be brilliant, doesn't mean they are. Rob Ford, for example, claims to be a great mayor. Louie Gohmert claims to be a serious person. Duran Duran thinks of themselves as major musical talents. See what I mean?
But if Cruz were any of those things, brilliant, politically savvy, and able to converse seriously and amicably with opponents, he would have taken the opportunity at that event to engage his critics, lay out his position, point by point, and try to get them to appreciate his take on things. And failing that, he could have ended with a respectful nod to an opposing point of view and a recognition that serious people can agree to disagree.
He did none of those things. Instead, he tossed out an insult then tucked tail and ran. Afterward, he called them all Jew haters.
Smart, serious people don't do this. They see opportunity in every difficult situation. Bridge builders don't lob grenades at shaky trestles. But Cruz does. He's a pretender of the first order. An empty suit and a liar. This is another example of the reason The Great Decider and his pet shark Dickless never allowed anyone to attend one of their public events who hadn't sworn a loyalty oath, which meant neither would be subjected to inconvenient questions about their criminal and treasonous activities, because, fuck, who needs that?(This was a regular thing, by the way.)
So it appears that turning tail and running, unless surrounded by goobers and droolers and sycophants, has become one of the defining characteristics of 'bagger gameplans. Trouble? Run like hell!
Can you imagine any real leaders doing this? No. Why? Because this type of response is the antithesis of true leadership.
Has anyone seen Brawlin' Betty allow any real reporters to interview her on national television since she was humiliated when she couldn't name a single, not a one, newspaper or magazine she read? Of course not.
My guess is now, it's probably Ring Magazine, or some other boxing organ. And if she wants to be "interviewed" she goes to Faux "News".
But as far as Li'l Teddy and Li'l Randy are concerned, pay no attention to what their supporters and sycophants proclaim, and what they themselves bray about. As any good elementary school teacher passing on inside tips about what makes convincing writing would say, "Show me, don't tell me".
The only thing Cruz and Paul have shown is their true color.
Yellow.
@JamesSinger: Feisty, indeed! Would wish the Democratic leadership would heed his words, especially via one of Frank's prime examples: "Ever wonder why the economic experts never seem to change, keep coming back, despite racking up such shattering failures as the housing bubble and the financial crisis and the bank bailouts? Ever wonder why a guy like Larry Summers gets to be ..." a someone that anyone takes seriously. Seriously!
A good link!
Football will always be with us but will be more and more a game of professional or mercenary players. Well educated and successful citizens will not let their sons play this game. No athlete can play football through high school and college and not incur some permanent damage. All long term players have problems with knees or shoulders or ankles or elbows and many have the less obvious damage to the brain.
Football will continue to be popular but will be played mainly by the poor and the minorities in our society, a gladiator class. Many of the players of the big time football conferences approach this status now.
Children of Alcoholics are a special breed and carry that experience like heavy baggage for the rest of their lives. It appears that Paul Ryan and Chuck Todd both had fathers who were alcoholics. I'm not about to try and link all this to their personas, but it's worth speculating about.
I once worked with a social worker who would inquire of me each day as to how was I? As anybody that knows me would tell you I operate on a pretty even keel so that after a time I finally had to ask her why she continued to ask me day after day how I was. She revealed her problem with growing up with an alcoholic mother who she could never count on to be stable and constant. She'd come home from school each day never knowing which mother she'd encounter. Trust plays a big part in these scenarios.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/14/paul-ryan-alcoholic-father_n_5818486.html
@PD Pepe - There are so many people (especially pols) who had alcoholic fathers--and some mothers. Bill Clinton's birth father was alcoholic, and so (I suspect) was his stepfather. Also his mother, who was a gambler as well. To me, Clinton is the stereotypical "family hero." Obama's birth father was alcoholic too.
I am an ACOA (Adult Child of an Alcoholic) and while practicing as a therapist, I somehow came to "specialize" in working with ACOAs. Hmm...wonder why? What many people do not realize is that a majority of alcoholics are highly functional, and belong to every profession. Skid Row is just a few. My father and uncle were very successful lawyers; my father became a state Supreme Court judge, and my uncle a well-known lobbyist. Many in our family still do not admit either father or uncle's alcoholism.
Thinking about politicians (men) I met during my years in D.C., I would have to say there were more alcoholics than sober men. Teddy Kennedy was a good example, although all the publicity went to his wife, Joan. Tip O'Neill was classic--red nose and all.
And how about Johnny Boehner? I suspect that tan make-up covers a very red face. Rick Perry certainly acts alcoholic, as does Newtie, but I have no data.
What I find hopeful is that there is a Capitol Hill AA meeting almost every day, and it is full of Senators, Representatives and staff people. There also was a very secret AA group at the White House while Clinton was President. Don't think it continued under Dubya, since he "cured" his alcoholism by finding Jesus. The first thing Darth Cheney did after shooting his friend in the face was to jump in his limo, go back to the house and toss down "a few." I would guess he and his friends all had "a few" before the hunt.
Alcoholism is everywhere. Sobriety is not. Most alcoholics who no longer drink are "dry drunks," because they "white knuckled" it, and still have the same alcoholic behavior patterns. That old saying "It must be 5 o'clock somewhere" speaks not only to the prevalence of this preventable addiction, but to its popularity.