The Commentariat -- Sept. 17, 2013
Carol Morello, et al., of the Washington Post: "At least 13 people are dead and several others were wounded after a gunman opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, police said, spreading fear and chaos across the region as authorities sought to contain the panic. The incident, in which the death toll rose almost hourly, represents the single worst loss of life in the District since an airliner plunged into the Potomac River in 1982, killing 78.... The suspected shooter, identified by the FBI as Aaron Alexis, 34, living in Fort Worth, is among the 13 dead. Alexis was a military contractor, one official said.... [D.C. Police Chief Cathy L.] Lanier described the other possible suspect, who has not been located, as a black man in his 40s with gray sideburns, wearing an olive-drab military-style uniform. He, and the man who was cleared, came under suspicion when they were seen on surveillance videos." ...
... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The dead gunman in Monday's shooting at the Washington Navy Yard is Aaron Alexis, 34, a Navy veteran who was discharged after he was arrested in a shooting incident -- but was later hired by a government subcontractor. Police said it was unclear if Alexis acted alone, or how he accessed the tightly guarded Navy Yard.... Alexis, a native of New York City, worked for a company called The Experts, a subcontractor to Hewlett Packard on a federal contract to work on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet network, according to a statement from Hewlett Packard. It was unclear if Alexis was still employed by that subcontractor, or if his work took him to the Navy Yard." ...
... The Post has a liveblog of developments here. ...
... Liz Goodwin of Yahoo! News: "Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has postponed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on 'stand your ground' self defense gun laws slated for Tuesday morning in the wake of Monday's shooting at the nearby Navy Yard complex that's left at least 13 dead, included the suspected gunman." ...
... Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress: "David Frum is a former Bush Administration speechwriter and one of the loudest conservative voices arguing in favor of new laws targeted at reducing gun violence. When the news of the Navy Yard shooting broke Monday morning, Frum took to Twitter to explain the rules that opponents of gun law reform attempt to impose on conversations about it." CW: Frum's observations are exactly right. ...
... Winger Charles C. W. Cooke of the National Review is not amused.
CW: This is extremely weird. In a New York Times report I linked yesterday, Rick Gladstone & Nick Cumming-Bruce led with: "Rockets armed with the banned chemical nerve agent sarin were used in a mass killing near Damascus on Aug. 21, United Nations chemical weapons inspectors reported Monday in the first official confirmation by nonpartisan scientific experts that such munitions had been deployed in the Syria conflict.... The widely awaited report did not ascribe blame for the attack...." ...
... NOW, however, that same story at the same link has a new reporter -- Cumming-Bruce is merely a contributor & C. J. Chivers shares the byline with Gladstone -- and the new lede contradicts the original lede: "A United Nations report released on Monday confirmed that a deadly chemical arms attack caused a mass killing in Syria last month and for the first time provided extensive forensic details of the weapons used, which strongly implicated the Syrian government. While the report's authors did not assign blame for the attack on the outskirts of Damascus, the details it documented included the large size and particular shape of the munitions and the precise direction from which two of them had been fired. Taken together, that information appeared to undercut arguments by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria that rebel forces, who are not known to possess such weapons or the training or ability to use them, had been responsible."
Oliver Knox of Yahoo! News: "President Barack Obama on Monday formally cleared the way for the U.S. to send equipment and training to vetted Syrian rebels, enabling them to resist a chemical weapons attack, the White House said. Obama issued a memorandum to Secretary of State John Kerry saying that such assistance 'is essential to the national security interests of the United States.'"
Jackie Calmes & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday seized on the fifth anniversary of the 2008 financial collapse to warn that House Republicans would reverse the gains made and willfully cause 'economic chaos' with the uncompromising stands they have staked out on looming budget deadlines." Here are the President's full remarks, including his remarks on the shooting at the Navy Yard. CW: I embedded this speech as two separate videos in yesterday's Commentariat:
David Graham of the Atlantic: "a small team of Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee ... did Obama in" on the likely Summers nomination. "In July, almost a third of the Democrats in the Senate sent a letter to Obama imploring him to appoint Janet Yellen to the job instead.... Obama was reportedly angry at the letter, and dispatched aides to Capitol Hill to vent and get the troops in line. While Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to support whomever the president picked, he apparently wasn't able to keep his caucus completely in line.... Maybe Republicans don't have a monopoly on disarray after all." ...
... Felix Salmon of Reuters: "The real lesson of the past few months, however, is that the Fed chairmanship should never become a political football. If Obama wanted to nominate Summers, he should have just done so, rather than raising a trial balloon in July and then letting it slowly deflate."
Noam Scheiber of the New Republic: "This time, there really will be a government shutdown. What makes this different is that, in addition to having carved out hardline positions, neither side has an incentive to back down. ...
... Digby: Conservative Republicans can't decide if President Obama is "an implacable fascist dictator attempting to destroy the country" or a weaking who will back down in a standoff with Congress. "... it's hard not to laugh at people who believe a fascist crypto-Muslim anti-American dictator will back down in the face of Peter King on his signature initiative. These are not serious or smart people."
Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay more than $800 million to a host of government agencies in Washington and London -- and make a ground-breaking admission of wrongdoing -- to settle allegations stemming from a multibillion-dollar trading loss, people briefed on the matter said.
Julian Pecquet of the Hill: "Democrats and Republicans are trading accusations of crass political opportunism as the House rekindles its investigation into the terror attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) leaked a report over the weekend taking aim at the State Department's independent probe. The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), responded with his own list of the 'Top Ten Unfounded Allegations on Benghazi.'"
Gubernatorial Race
Rick Pearson of the Chicago Tribune: "Bill Daley abruptly ended his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor [of Illinois] today, telling the Tribune that a lifetime in politics had not prepared him for the 'enormity' of his first run for office and the challenge of leading the state through difficult times. Daley, a member of two White House administrations, a presidential campaign manager and the son and brother of two former Chicago mayors, dropped out of the race less than four months after declaring his political resume gave him the best credentials to replace Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn."
Local News
Michael Grynbaum & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In a coronation of sorts on the steps of City Hall, the state's Democratic leaders, eager to retake the [New York City] mayor's office after almost two decades out of power, feted [Bill] de Blasio as a bold new messenger for their party -- even as they praised William C. Thompson Jr., the second-place primary finisher who had held out nearly a week before announcing his withdrawal."
News Ledes
New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Citing the 'grotesque' misconduct of federal prosecutors, a judge on Tuesday granted a new trial for five former New Orleans Police Department officers convicted in the deadly shootings at the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent cover-up.... The order grants a new trial for former police officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso as well as Arthur Kaufman, who was convicted of orchestrating the cover-up after being assigned to investigate the shooting. All were tried and convicted in 2011 for their roles."
Reuters: "Colorado authorities coping with the aftermath of last week's deadly downpours stepped up the search for victims left stranded in the foothills of the Rockies and evacuations of prairie towns in danger of being swamped as the flood crest moved downstream."
New Jersey Star-Ledger: "The fire that destroyed dozens of businesses along the boardwalk in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights Thursday was sparked by an electrical malfunction, investigators confirmed at a press conference this afternoon. Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said fire investigators are confident that electrical wiring was to blame, saying the wiring was apparently damaged by exposure to salt water and sand during and after Hurricane Sandy."
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Reader Comments (11)
I am still not done with Larry Summers, and it will be awhile before I can forgive Obama for his bad taste in trusting him!~
Here is a quote from Juan Cole today, which summarized the Summers' dilemma for all of us by quoting from J. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Rich Boy."
..."10% of Americans at the top, i.e., the ‘friends of Larry,’ took home half the income in the country last year, something that hasn’t happened since F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in “The Rich Boy” (1926):
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand...”
Sigh and Amen. I truly wish Obama would read this. HA!
Think Progress in piece that Marie linked: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/16/2623061/nypd-shoot-times-man-acting-erractically-hit-innocent-bystanders/
I have stated this many times. No matter how well trained you are, firing into a crowd is always risky. LaPierre's wacko idea of civilians adding to the chaos is ludicrous. How are the police responding to a shooting supposed to know who's a good guy and who's a bad guy?
Kate: This is for you: Noam Scheiber writes a nifty article on how "Liberals Win the Battle Over Larry Summers––and the Demcratic Future"
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114729/larry-summers-withdraws-fed-candidacy-liberals-win-battle
Predictably, the right is apoplectic that anyone should call for gun control after the latest massacre. The fact is that although a dozen people, plus the shooter, lost their lives yesterday, the average daily total of people killed by gunshot is far higher.
But no matter, as the wingnuts are wont to say, freedom comes with a price. Except they ain't the ones footing the bill.
And once again, the Greek chorus of NRA lackeys and hard right (is there any other kind at this point?) second amendment zombies has kicked into gear screaming about freedom and rights (nothing about responsibility, natch) and the president and hordes of liberal haters of America coming to take their guns. You know, the same crap over and over again.
So here's my suggestion. Don't bother cranking up the spittle machines and creaking out the usual excuses, accusations, and declarations about the supremacy of the second amendment even at the cost of lives of men, women, and babies, and the dangers to public safety.
What they need is a 24 hour NRA/Wingnut/Gun Zealot channel. The usual specious arguments and victimization testifying that erupts while bodies are still warm should run non-stop because gun violence is non-stop. Since Sandy Hook several small towns worth of Americans have died by gunshot. So, what the hell? Just keep that loop going. Never turn it off.
Extra time to buy more guns and make sure no one makes any laws that will disallow mentally disturbed people, like the Washington Navy Yard shooter, from waltzing into a gun store and walking out with killing machines.
Just call it the Excuses for Carnage Channel.
Slate, in conjunction with @gundeaths, a group trying to crowdsource a more reliable tally of the slaughter caused by gun violence, has developed an eye opening interactive chart.
One statistic that gets lost is that nearly 2/3 of gun deaths come from suicide, most of which are unreported. Granted, many people who take their own life would find some other way to do it, but the ridiculous availability of guns just makes it so much easier. Perhaps a more difficult path to self-annihilation would give someone pause and prompt them to find some way or reason to live.
In any event, this chart lists the over 8,000 reported deaths from gunshot in the nine months since the Sandy Hook murders. You can click on each icon to see the name, age, and location of each individual and the date on which they were shot.
Seriously, if this were a chart of deaths from terrorist activities over the same period, there would be a massive public outcry for immediate action. But not for gun violence. Because, you know, freedom. And more importantly, moolah.
NRA supported gun deaths since Newtown
JP Morgan is likely going to pay a fine of somewhere in the neighborhood of $750-850M. It sent me on a squirrel trail toward various financial articles to get some perspective. This article (http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/08/jp-morgan-6-9-billion-in-fines-unknown-billions-in-legal-costs/) details 7B in fines and 16B in legal costs from 2011-8/2013. I had to just set with that for a minute especially since Dimon was not fired but rather promoted to hold a dual position and assume complete control of the company.
Its widely reported that JP Morgan's profits were 5.7B and 6.5B in the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2013, respectively. This on pace to increased profits over 2012. Profits: 2011/19B and 2012/ 21.3B. So its pretty clear that paying fines and legal fees don't really hurt the bottom line. A proposed fine of 800M is .0375% of the 2012 profits, 2013 profits are projected higher than 2012. The fine is a joke. In addition, the 2 bankers who were arrested for the fraud, are in their home countries and it is unlikely they will be extradited to the US.
A very touching video.
"...part of a suite of short films collectively titled “Translating Edwin Honig: A Poet’s Alzheimer’s,” completed in 2010. The films form a portrait of the distinguished poet, translator, critic and Brown University professor Edwin Honig"'
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/opinion/56-ways-of-saying-i-dont-remember.html?hpw
@Diane; Two comments; one, a few weeks back you mentioned without voter rights nothing else matters. I did not get time to voice agreement. Single stupid little voters like myself, if given a choice, can make a difference in government. Without the vote; all is lost.
Second; I took in a stray cat long ago; tattered ear, big, black, dirty yellow eyes, a mouser with purpose. Tucker was his handle,as in, "You Tucker," Tucker had a pizza habit he could not break. Tucker knew he would get the backhand if he jumped up on the table and helped himself to a piece of pie. Tucker did not care. Tucker would lay back his one good ear, wait till the time was ripe, make his move, get his pie and the parting slap. Tucker knew the price of doing business was a little slap up the side of his head.
So do the banks. Tucker at least was honest about his intentions.
@JJG: First of all I don't think you are as you described a "single stupid little voter"––voter, yes, single, I guess, but stupid not at all. And obviously Tucker has your number. He can indulge in his pizza habit to his heart's content knowing he only gets a back slap for his misdemeanor because he knows you took him in when he was down, knows you got that love stuff in your eyes when you nuzzle him at night, knows stupid is what banks think you and I and stray cats are. But in the end, and there HAS GOT to be an end to all this, we might just get the better part of the pie as Tucker, in his aggressive leaps onto the table, gets all of the time.
@JJG-
I am in complete agreement with PD Pepe! No "stupid little voter" you! Anybody who is savvy enough to become enslaved by a stray cat who steals pizza--is somebody I want to know. Plus it is validating to me, since I am enslaved by a 3-legged rescue cat, who will now eat nothing but gourmet kitty food--and whose name, of course, is Tripod. Lucky for me, he cannot jump on the table. (-:
Couldn't resist the pet brags. Ms. Frida, my beloved English bulldog hit the mutant gene lottery and at 3 years old is a mess of problems too numerous to enumerate. She has no bottom teeth and we have no idea where they went as they were there when we got her? Recently, she had prolonged poopers, now recovered. However, the whole family was reduced to scoring her production each time she did her business, i.e it was barely a "4", I think it was almost a "3", etc.. She gets a "cookie" (biscuit) every time it seems there's the slightest possibility she might follow directions. Yup completely in the bag for our pets.