The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on Tuesday for the first time directly addressed members of Congress about undercover videos purporting to show that the women's health organization illegally sells fetal tissue for profit, telling members of the House Oversight committee that the allegations are 'offensive and categorically untrue.' At a hearing centering on whether federal funding should continue for the group, Richards forcefully defended her organization, calling it a critical source for cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception care and other services for millions of women, particularly those who are low-income." ...
.... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "House Republicans during a combative hearing on Tuesday said that Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve federal funding, citing the group's political activities, travel expenses and salaries. [Planned Parenthood President Cecile] Richards defended the organization's federal support, pointing out that federal funds are not spent on abortion. She also strongly rejected accusations that her organization illegally profits from fetal tissue and organ donation, as alleged by the undercover videos."
New York Times Editors: "In the days he has left, [John Boehner] can revive immigration reform. He can pass the large-scale, comprehensive overhaul that lawmakers had worked on for years, a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with strong bipartisan support and could have been sent to President Obama's desk but for the obduracy of the nativist right in the House and Mr. Boehner's unwillingness to call a vote."
*****
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin emerged from a rare face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night, saying Russia and the US could find a way to work together on Syria, despite deep differences over the country's leadership. The US-Russian summit lasted 94 minutes, more than half an hour longer than planned, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly where the two leaders had traded barbs only hours before, particularly over the future of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad." ...
... Michael Gordon & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "After circling each other for the past year,
... Julie Pace & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin clashed Monday over their competing visions for Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday admonished those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East, telling the United Nations they led to the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "In one of the more surprising announcements during his visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping of China announced on Monday during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that his country would offer more money and more troops to aid United Nations peacekeeping efforts. China, he said, planned to set up a United Nations permanent peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops and would provide $100 million to the African Union to create an immediate response unit capable of responding to emergencies."
Clifford Krauss & Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "On Monday, Royal Dutch Shell ended its expensive and fruitless nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic -- a $7 billion investment -- in another sign that the entire industry is trimming its ambitions in the wake of collapsing oil prices. The announcement was hailed as a major victory by environmentalists, who had fought the project for years, only to be stymied by pressure inside and outside the industry to increase domestic oil production."
U.S. Senate Will Not Shut Down Government over Fake Videos Targeting an Organization that Receives 20 Cents/$1,000 of Federal Funding. Infidels! Kelsey Snell & Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "A stop-gap spending bill that would fund the government at current levels through Dec. 11 cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate Monday on a 77 to 19 vote -- and the upper chamber is expected to pass the measure as soon as Tuesday. If all goes according to the plan hatched by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House could clear the stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday, averting a shutdown with hours to spare before the Oct. 1 deadline. The only potential speed bump standing in the way of quick consideration of the bill in the Senate was Sen. Ted Cruz, but Senate leaders took procedural steps to limit the Texas Republican's options." ...
... Burgess Everett of Politico: "On Monday night, [Sen. Ted] Cruz's colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a 'sufficient second' that would have allowed him a roll call vote. Then, his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed 'no' when Cruz sought a voice vote, a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has: Just one other GOP senator -- Utah's Mike Lee -- joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies. It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that's routinely granted to senators in both parties. The first came after he called McConnell a liar this summer." ...
... Day of the Jackass. Margaret Hartmann: After John Boehner surreptitiously called Ted Cruz a jackass Sunday on "Face the Nation," Ted Cruz, on the Senate floor, accused Boehner of conspiring with Nancy Pelosi to keep the government running. Fellow senators from both parties were remarkably unimpressed. "Despite his losses in the Senate on Monday, Cruz still sees a shutdown over Planned Parenthood as a winning issue. The continuing resolution will only push off the shutdown issue to December, and Boehner's replacement may not be as willing or able to reach a resolution."
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee did not [CW: refused to] invite the creator of the secretly recorded Planned Parenthood videos to testify at Tuesday's hearing, ignoring repeated calls from Democrats. The House Oversight Committee will hold its first hearing on Planned Parenthood Tuesday, marking the first time that an official from Planned Parenthood will testify since it was hurled into the national spotlight in July."
Benghaazi! Forever. Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The House's committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been running longer than any other special congressional inquiry in the nation's history. As of Monday, the committee has been in existence for a total of 72 weeks, surpassing the 1970s effort to investigate the Watergate scandal -- the previous longest special investigatory committee, which ran for just less than one year and five months." CW: Expect it to run right up to November 8, 2016, if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee. One teeny difference between the two longest-running committee trips: in Watergate, there was plenty to investigate; in Benghaazi!, the usefulness of the investigation is long-past; in fact, it was an independent committee appointed by the State Department -- that effected changes in the department's security operations.
Jake Sherman of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner resigned less than a week ago, but frenzied campaigns have broken out already to replace him and fill the party's other top leadership slots. Four positions could open up, and the House Republican Conference is filled with courtship, intrigue and one-upmanship."
Ryan Cooper of the Week: "The GOP is the true party of 'free stuff.'... Overall, welfare benefits for the top income quintile -- largely a result of conservative policymaking -- cost roughly $355 billion yearly. Meanwhile, what passes for new policy in Republican circles -- a child tax credit -- is a government benefit for middle- and upper-class parents that carefully and deliberately excludes the poor.... the problem with [Jeb] Bush's logrolling -- and Republican policy in general -- is mainly that it directs almost all the benefits to people who don't need it."
Remember the Supremes! -- Kate Madison
... Rick Hasen, in TPM: "The future composition of the Supreme Court is the most important civil rights cause of our time. It is more important than racial justice, marriage equality, voting rights, money in politics, abortion rights, gun rights, or managing climate change. It matters more because the ability to move forward in these other civil rights struggles depends first and foremost upon control of the Court.... Constitutional change can come only from Supreme Court personnel change."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Sen. Robert Menendez scored a modest victory in his battle against federal corruption charges Monday as a federal judge tossed out two bribery counts against the New Jersey Democrat. However, U.S. District Judge William Walls rejected a flurry of defense challenges to the other 12 felony counts against Menendez, leaving enough of the indictment in place that the senator could draw a substantial prison term if he is convicted on some or all of the remaining charges. No trial is expected in the case until next fall."
Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post: "NASA on Monday announced the strongest evidence yet for liquid water on [Mars], increasing the possibility that astronauts journeying to Mars could someday rely on the planet's own water for their drinking needs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Media Matters: "After NASA announces it found water on Mars, Rush Limbaugh says it's part of a climate change conspiracy." CW: Finally, we have some clarity: scientists are tools of left-wing conspirators. ...
... Steve M. OR, it's part of an anti-Putin conspiracy. OR it was all part of a ploy by filmmaker Ridley Scott to generate interest in his movie "The Martian" opened Friday. CW: Because capitalism is awesome. I guess Matt Damon won't have to make water, after all. ...
Presidential Race
Mark Leibovich profiles Donald Trump for the New York Times Magazine. ...
... Flim-Flam Man. Nick Gass of Politico: "Under a President Donald Trump, some Americans will pay no income tax and the corporate income tax will fall to 15 percent, while the Treasury Department will maintain or even increase current revenue. And while Trump emphasized the hit the rich would take under his tax plan unveiled Monday, he pairs the closing of loopholes and deductions with such a large rate reduction that it would likely add up to a substantial tax cut for many of the well-to-do. The tax plan 'is going to cost me a fortune,' the billionaire candidate told a gathering of reporters at Trump Tower on Monday morning.... And it has the endorsement of [anti-tax Nazi] Grover Norquist." CW: Actually, no, it won't, Donald. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Who'd have guessed -- the rich Republican who inherited an enormous real-estate empire from his father wants to cut taxes for rich people in general and wealthy heirs in particular! -- Jonathan Chait, on Donald Trump's "populist" tax plan ...
... Chait: "Donald Trump has spent weeks talking like a populist, promising to make the rich pay their fair share and attacking his opponents as puppets of the party's wealthy donor base.... Trump's proposal is extremely similar to all the other Republican plans. He would cut the top tax rate to 25 percent, even lower than the 28 percent rate proposed by Jeb Bush. While Trump would not eliminate taxes on investment income, as Marco Rubio proposes, he likewise plans to eliminate the estate tax, which currently applies only to inheritances over $10 million. Trump says he will pay for all this by eliminating 'loopholes,' but fails to identify these loopholes. Even if he cleaned out every deduction in the tax code, there is not enough revenue to make up for the enormous tax cuts he would supply to the rich." ...
... Josh Barro of the New York Times: "... his plan calls for major tax cuts not just for the middle class but also for the richest Americans -- even the dreaded hedge fund managers. And despite his campaign's assurances that the plan is 'fiscally responsible,' it would grow budget deficits by trillions of dollars over a decade. You could call Mr. Trump's plan a higher-energy version of the tax plan Jeb Bush announced earlier this month: similar in structure, but with lower rates and wider tax brackets, meaning individual taxpayers would pay even less than under Mr. Bush, and the government would lose even more tax revenue...." ...
... Joe Nocera: "Like almost everything else about the Trump campaign, his tax plan is hard to take seriously. (To be fair, most of the tax plans put forth by his Republican rivals are hard to take seriously.) During the '60 Minutes' interview, Trump told [Scott] Pelley that he would force the Chinese to 'do something' about North Korea's nuclear program -- while also preventing them from devaluing their currency! -- that he would get rid of Obamacare -- while instituting universal coverage! -- and that he was on more magazine covers than 'almost any supermodel.'... I wonder, in fact, whether even now Trump is a serious candidate, or whether this is all a giant publicity ploy. Once a real developer, Trump is largely a licenser today.... He'll be out before Iowa. You read it here first." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "Mr. Trump ... proved once again that he's all talk. His tax plan, far from being a courageous departure from Republican orthodoxy, relies on many familiar Republican tricks to justify massive tax cuts in an age in which the government's burdens are increasing, not shrinking -- and with even less than usual honest arithmetic.... It seemed as though Mr. Trump's real strategy for avoiding a massive hole in the budget is wishful thinking. Mr. Trump touted the economic growth his administration would spur, and he fell back on the hoary promise to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.... What's remarkable about Mr. Trump's plan is not how different it is from what other Republicans favor, but how similar it is in its fudges, excuses and pandering." ...
It's going to cost me a fortune. -- Donald Trump, on his tax plan, Sept. 28, 2015
No matter how we slice it, we do not see how Trump can justify his claim that his tax plan would cost him 'a fortune.' On the contrary, it appears it would significantly reduce his taxes -- and the taxes of his heirs. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
... Margaret Hartmann: "Donald Trump is the boy who cried 'I'm boycotting Fox News.' Just five days after Donald Trump announced, for the third time, that he would stop doing interviews with Fox News because they're 'treating me very unfairly,' the network said the GOP front-runner would appear on Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor."
The Case of the Absent-minded Neurosurgeon. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Dr. Ben Carson says he would run outside the Republican Party, but doesn't think it's necessary and says he has no intention of doing so this election." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "Earlier this month the Republican Party made every one of its candidates sign a loyalty oath in an effort to rein in Donald Trump, but so far the pledge has only caused problems for his rivals.... When asked during a 99.3 FM interview on Monday if he'd be willing to run outside the Republican party, Ben Carson said, 'If I had to, I would, but I don't think it's necessary.' Host Keith Larson noted that Carson didn't raise his hand when asked in the first debate if he'd run as an independent, and asked two more times if he was really saying he'd run outside of the GOP.... 'So if you're not the nominee, you'll run outside the party?' Larson asked, for the fourth time. 'No, I didn't say that at all,' Carson replied, suddenly realizing that he'd made a written promise not to do so. 'That's not what I'm saying. I have no intention of running an outside campaign. Zero.'"
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Positioning herself as a steely advocate of aggressive counterterrorism programs, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina offered a vigorous defense of CIA waterboarding as a tactic that helped 'keep our nation safe' in the aftermath of 9/11." ...
... Steve M.: "You might think that she'd have a lot of company, but on this subject, many of her fellow candidates are hedging or opposed (at least nominally).... So Fiorina wins the ¿Quien es mas macho? contest again, just as she did by forcefully taking on Donald Trump in the CNN debate earlier this month.... She's already the loudest voice on the Planned Parenthood videos, and with this embrace of Bush-era foreign policy lawlessness she need only add a staggeringly regressive tax plan (I mean more staggeringly regressive than her competitors' plans) to have all the legs of the three-legged stool of wingnuttery. Oh, and did I also mention that in that Yahoo story Fiorina also boasted of her cooperation with NSA surveillance excesses?"
Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush plans to present an energy plan Tuesday that will call for lifting restrictions on producing and exporting oil and gas as part of his larger pitch for achieving 4 percent economic growth, a figure he talks about frequently as a candidate for president. The former Florida Republican governor will outline a plan with four general components that are in line with the Republican orthodoxy: lifting restrictions on exporting oil and gas; approving construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline; stripping away some environmental regulations; and urging the federal government to yield to the energy desires of state and tribes."
The Most Interesting Man in Politics is taking time out from his presidential race to fundraise for his Senate race. Jonathan Easley of the Hill reports.
The Also-Ran at Home. Charles Pierce: "Last week, Scott Walker ... gave up his job as a meathead presidential candidate and returned to his more comfortable employment as a ruinous governor. The Republic was saved, but there are still parts of Wisconsin that Walker hasn't yet poisoned, so he went right back to work at it."
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "Virginia's governor, Terry McAuliffe, on Monday denied a last-minute attempt to delay the execution of a convicted serial killer who says his life should be spared because he is intellectually disabled. Unless the US supreme court steps in this week, Alfredo Prieto will be the first Virginia inmate to be executed in nearly three years on Thursday."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Doug Kendall, a liberal lawyer and co-author of dozens of United States Supreme Court briefs challenging the prevailing conservative vision that the Constitution defines the federal government's jurisdiction narrowly, died on Saturday at his home in Washington. He was 51."
New York Times: "Afghanistan was plunged deeper into crisis a day after the Taliban seized the northern city of Kunduz, as the insurgents on Tuesday kept assaulting the reeling Afghan security forces and the government struggled to mount a credible response. Not only did a promised government counteroffensive on Kunduz not make headway during heavy fighting on Tuesday, but the day ended with yet another aggressive Taliban advance, with insurgents surrounding the airport to which hundreds of Afghan forces and at least as many civilians had retreated, thinking it would be safe." ...
... Washington Post: "Afghan forces massed near the besieged northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday, preparing for expected street-by-street battles against the Taliban a day after militants overran the city in a humiliating blow to Afghanistan's government. The counteroffensive started shortly before dawn as Afghan army reinforcements poured into the area after the U.S.-led coalition launched an airstrike to help clear the way." ...
... New York Times: "A day after the Taliban took their first major city in 14 years, a counterattack was underway Tuesday, but ground forces sent from other provinces to recapture the northern city, Kunduz, were delayed by ambushes and roadside bombs, officials said."
Guardian: "Journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates is among a diverse group of artists, advocates and scientists that make up this year's recipients of MacArthur fellow 'genius' grants, announced on Tuesday. Coates joins 23 other MacArthur fellows who will receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000, paid out over five years in quarterly installments. Other 2015 recipients include puppeteer Basil Twist, photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier and sociologist Matthew Desmond."
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Reader Comments (22)
Last night Chris Hayes had a segment featuring Carly Fiorina with Jeffrey Sonnenfield of the Yale School of Management critiquing and begins his diatribe with, "Where do I begin?" Worth watching.
http://www.msnbc.com/all
Imagine if you will a Donald doing a diplomatic hour long talk with someone like Putin. Our adversaries around the world need to be treated with respect when involved in intricate table talks (Putin's comment about Obama showing him respect points to how important this is). It's a delicate balance this diplomatic "stuff"––so much harder than threatening to snuff them out one way or another militarily.
Krugman said in his column yesterday that Obama has shown himself to be an extraordinary president amidst all the right wing maneuvers to bring him down. While the Republican party is eating their own Obama has moved forward refusing to get mired in all the winger's food fights.
@P.D. Pepe: I noted that phrase of Krugman's ("....Mr. Obama is looking more and more like a highly successful president...") because it is something I have been thinking about quite a lot. The President has been able to rise above extraordinary, possibly unprecedented, opposition to accomplish some great things while keeping his cool amidst the constant pummeling - and in the process communicating exceptionally well with the country and the world. I believe history will rate Obama fairly high, certainly well above anything his attackers could even imagine.
PD,
A Putin-Trumpy summit has all the makings of farce, or maybe tragicomedy. I see a two man off-Broadway play. I'm not sure who I'd choose to write it. It's a toss-up between Samuel Beckett and Benny Hill.
Back in the real world, there is no chance that foreign leaders consider Trumpy in any way a serious candidate, and were he to win, they'd consider it an absurd joke. How can you seriously consider a man bellowing about how he'll make all these foreign governments--sovereign powers--bend to his will? He'll kick China's ass and make Mexico pay for his Great Wall of Stupid, he'll take on everyone, and win, baby, WIN, because that what he does, dammit!
This is adolescent braggadocio on a comic book scale. And yes, most likely it's all swagger and bombast for the yokels, but does anyone believe that a Trumpy-Putin standoff would be anything other than a sham on Trump's part?
I'm sure Trumpy, who believes himself to be an unbeatable Master of the Deal, thinks he could best Putin in international chess, but Putin is no chump real estate agent or some casino grifter. Some observers believe that Putin would "eat Trump's lunch" because he doesn't make deals in the way Trumpy sees them.
Putin, who retired as a KGB colonel, was an intelligence officer back when the KGB was into some serious shit. Putin may not be Karla (the KGB mastermind who goes up against British intelligence in John le Carré's excellent Smiley novels), but he's also not someone Trump can bully and push around with insults and empty threats or finagle into some kind of deal. You don't survive undercover in the KGB for 15 years without learning a few things about playing your cards close to the vest and about manipulating people. Trump may think his towers make him a world beater but I'm guessing a half-assed dictator in a banana republic probably has a better grasp of the inside baseball of realpolitik.
In the end, Putin (and plenty of other leaders) would have a hard time believing anything Trump says, first, because he's an amateur and a blowhard, and second, because he's all bang and no bullet. The kind of threats that actually work on that level are far more subtle than the sort Trumpy throws around. For a threat to work, you have to be able to follow through. It has to be believable. Threatening to build gigantic walls and tossing out transparent bluffs like a drunken poker player way down on the night don't scare anyone.
But Trumpy is not much different than your garden variety wingnut candidate. They're all promising to bomb this country, stick it to that country, get tough with the world, fix our enemies, and come out on top, every time. This is The Decider style ignorant bluster ("Dead or alive", "With us or against us"). Confederates firmly believe they just have to "get tough" and everyone else will get in line.
Juvenile, delusional, ignorant, inept? Or all of the above.
Victoria,
Quite so. Obama has displayed a notable serenity and equanimity as all around him are losing their heads. Granted, it doesn't take much for Confederates to lose it, but Obama is working with world leaders to solve difficult, seemingly intractable problems, while Confederates are scrambling to shut down the government over what amounts to counterfeit documents. "But your honor! Read these letters. They PROVE that the defendant is guilty, guilty, guilty!" "Oh, you mean these forged letters, written in crayon? Are you serious? Case dismissed."
The difference could not be more stark.
"But...but...our lies have always worked before!"
Aiiieeee...poll numbers in support of Planned Parenthood are up, and this despite Confederates' efforts to promote doctored videos and in spite of all their beautiful wickedness.
They've been lying through their teeth for months and pushing their counterfeit "evidence" on every platform and venue. They had Carly Liarina come out in a presidential debate and say that the "real" videos are WAY WORSE. But still, Americans are unimpressed, and in fact seem pissed at the latest GOP Lie-a-thon. But their lies have always worked before. Why not now?
Wingnuts believe it's because of George Clooney. Yeah, of course. That must be the reason. "You’ve got all these celebrities coming out to defend Planned Parenthood; on the other, the pro-life movement, as you know, does not exactly have a lot of Hollywood on call." And also, the evil media is to blame as well. Excepting, of course, the deluge of media outlets who have been parroting Confederate talking points for months with little or no questions asked about edited videos. But never mind that now...
And the biggest outrage? The right's attempt to portray Planned Parenthood as nothing more than a drive-through abortion mill where baby parts are harvested and sold to evil Jesus-hating scientists, hasn't worked even with self-described pro-lifers (it's really bad when members of your own tribe think you're a lying sack of shit). "I’ve seen polling that finds even some people who consider themselves pro-life don’t know that Planned Parenthood performs abortions" says anti-choice zealot Mallory Quigley.
Renowned misogynist, Steve King, is outraged as well that Confederate lies have not moved the needle on Planned Parenthood. Rather, its favorables are up.
"'Those numbers are news to me,' said King. 'I haven’t paid any attention to the polls. But am I surprised? Yes. That would explain some of the reasons why the leadership is not committing to defund.'"
Of course, the most likely reason, and one Confederate haters, misogynists, and liars will never admit, is that Americans like and need Planned Parenthood. It's an invaluable resource to millions of American families and women.
And as much as the GOP hates that, absolutely despises it, all their beautiful wickedness can't change it. Confederates can never simply admit they lost on the issue. Someone stabbing them in the back or some conspiracy is always responsible for the American public's disagreement with their extreme positions.
"For a thousand dollars, Alex."
"Okay, in the category 'Doofuses and Douchebags'. Here is your clue:
(*ding-ding*)
Less Humane than Communist China."
Buzzzz
"What is the Republican Party?"
And that answer is correct, for a thousand dollars. While the People's Republic of China is working with the US to address climate change, and have also offered peacekeeping troops and over $100 million to the United Nations to assist in emergency aid to African nations, leaders of the Republican Party are trying to deprive poor women of healthcare in their own country."
Okay, one category left, and that's "Here "Lies" the GOP" and notice, that "Lies" is in quotes.
And right about now, the lies should be peaking at the GOP inquisition on PP, plenty of noxious hot air and pinheads bursting.
Go Cecile! Give 'em hell.
Lest we all panic, let's remember that the Italians elected Silvio Berlusconi and lived to tell about it.
Income inequality? Some happen to more inequal than others!
Despite being really really really rich, Trumpy's only ranked #121.
OMG. NYTimes reporter wakes up, brushes teeth, looks in mirror..."I need a story, I need something new, something startling, how can I grab some headlines?"
Eureka! A twist on who could be the new Speaker of the House.
Trey Gowdy!
Jennifer Steinhauer includes such juicy tidbits in her online article as these: " ..Mr. Gowdy — a Fox News superstar and the principal antagonist of Mrs. Clinton" (He's a superstar, geez, I had no idea!!!), Mia Love (R-Utah): "With impressive communication skills, genuine compassion and the tenacity of a prosecutor, he will unite the party and the people around a truly American agenda,”
Trey's mom weighs in with: "...Novalene Gowdy said in a telephone interview. “I think he would be qualified for anything there he is there." (What does 'anything there he is there' mean? Anyone?)
Trey, the superstar, a Mr. Personality. Kiddin', right?
Just look how far someone can get with a really bad haircut.
@MAG: Apparently, Congressman Conehead is not interested in the job. He's "focused on the Benghazi committee...."
Marie
From Truthout, Tuesday, September 29th 2015:
"Free Speech Gets The Death Penalty" by Dahr Jamail
"Given the latitude the military is handing itself to control, censor and target journalists with its new policy document, freedom of speech has likely never been under as much threat for journalists covering armed conflicts in which the US military is engaged."
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32999-free-speech-gets-the-death-penalty
The hagiography of Trey Gowdy is all of a piece with the way Confederate ideology has seeped, like sewer gas, into ways the media covers the right. So self-promoting, short time back-benchers are "Superstars" and not only that, but "compassionate" superstars.
I'll give you another odd example. In an article about the Planned Parenthood inquisition this afternoon, a "reporter" for the Home for Retired Supporters and Abettors of War Criminals, aka the WaPo, coined an interesting term: "The videos reignited the religious right's antiabortion rights base..."
I'm wondering what in the holy hell are "antiabortion rights" and what is the "antiabortion rights base". I'm guessing they're the ones who feel it is their right to deny choice to others. That really isn't a right. They can be against abortion (antiabortionists) or against choice (the same thing), but I'm a bit cloudy as to how this rights thing works.
Certainly they have a right to hold those positions, but that's not what this phrase is designed to imply. Whether intentional or not, it gives anti-choicers a higher degree of authority than they either have or deserve. These are the little details of incompetent "journalism" that stick in my craw, applying an almost seamless sense of entitlement that is not there, either by law or any other way.
This might seem like nitpicking to some, but it's not. Terminology matters. It matters the way events and people and movements and ideas are described. Suggesting that these people have a right to deny choice to others is heinous and dangerous, not to mention illegal. But it's certainly the goal wingers most fervently desire, the ability to inflict their personal religious belief on the entire country. No choice. Ever. And thank you once again, Washington Post for your assist in the assault on civilization. Assholes.
As for Trey Gowdy, why would he want to leave his position as chief Benghazi boogeyman and fiction editor? His committee is now the longest standing congressional committee in history. 72 weeks and counting. Babies born when this sorry excuse for investigative fiction was empaneled have learned to walk and talk in the time Confederates have droned on and on with nothing of substance under their clown shoes.
And it's a monument to the Cloud Cuckoo Land, upside down, good is bad, and we make shit up as we go along world created by and for Confederate liars that this committee, gathered to investigate a fable based on prevarications and unconscionable fishing expeditions, has now surpassed one put together to investigate an actual real world scandal, Watergate. So one of the most convoluted, byzantine plots by a Republican administration, a true constitutional crisis, was investigated and put to bed more expeditiously than the Benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI fabrication.
This record is another benchmark in Confederate malfeasance and attachment to bogus and fictional "scandals" created out of whole cloth expressly for partisan political purposes.
They must members of the Fantasy Rights base.
@Marie: Congressman Conehead is a good descriptive for such an alien-looking being as in the WaPo picture.
Charlie Pierce has more on this 'longest running (sideshow) in Congressional history—as does the link that Akhilleus noted above to The Hill article. One commenter to Pierce's column, a Kathleen Hamilton said, "Any day now, the committee is going to get to the bottom of this investigation and the truth will finally come out! They are so close to proving the Hillary Clinton murdered Ambassador Stevens with her bare hands..."
72 expensive, worthless weeks...and counting!
A correction may be in order.
In my rant about bad reportage and Trey Goo-head, I wrote this:
"I'm wondering what in the holy hell are 'antiabortion rights' and what is the 'antiabortion rights base'. I'm guessing they're the ones who feel it is their right to deny choice to others. That really isn't a right. They can be against abortion (antiabortionists) or against choice (the same thing)..."
It seems I need to rethink that last parenthetical aside. Being against abortion and being against choice are not identical positions. One is worse than the other even though they create a similar end result.
In the first instance, being against abortion, one is opposed to the procedure. In the second, one is more broadly opposed to women having any choice at all. It's a subtle difference, but I think being opposed to choice seems to be even more authoritarian and, in this case, patriarchal attitude. It's not as if there are a lot of options on the menu, but being against the right--or even the ability--to choose a direction for one's own life, strikes me as a more defiant and deterministic philosophy than simply saying "abortions are now illegal".
As I say, the end result is pretty much the same except that the anti-choicers want to make sure that the only choice available is the one they select for women, ergo the determinism inherent in the system.
Now, if you want to nail me picking a few nits, go right ahead.
Okay, one more then I'm done.
I see where the holier than thou pro-lifers in GA are lining up to kill another person. I never realized that being pro-life meant you could for life one day and against it the next.
I'm guessing that after the pope came across as a no-good, bleeding heart commie bastard who would actually sit down with homeless people (ewwww!) and advocate for the rights of the poor (double ewwwww) and immigrants!! (ewwww to infinity), it would be fun to give him the finger after he asked the state to forgo its blood lust just this one time.
But, c'mon! Those poor Georgians. Only two people killed by the state since January. Gotta keep up with Texas. They've had fun killing 10 people in that same time period. So no mercy. But we're still pro-life. Just not this lady's.
Ain't it grand? Jesus loves us so!
I'm waiting for a Hannibal Lector appearance in the next Fiorina abortion porn film. I suspect the woman would eat her young (and yours) given the opportunity. I have noticed that references to her refer to her "balls", more male is obviously the desired state. She's just odeious, vagina or not.
I just saw a snippet of CBS* Evening News on PP. I believe they said the videos clearly have an audio track edited from somewhere else, and ~"~CBS* News has asked the source of the videos if they were taken at a Planned Parenthood site, but we have not received an answer.~"~ (rough quote)
Nascent journalism?
* I'm thoroughly fried after a long day of frustrating work, it may have been another network, but I'm pretty sure it was CBS.
I was going to comment that I wish the embedded cspan video from http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/senators-have-had-it-with-ted-cruzs-shutdown.html. would have shown how fellow senators sat in chambers to watch Cruz, but does anyone really care except his radical cadre? Then I read I read Diane's comment above and thought who better to do a mutual ego stroke than Ted and Carly? He of the long suffering and exploited Cuban/Canadian/US community and her of whatever her community is: they bond because they really don't have a real community. They both are formulations of media consultants and bond through their rootless, selfish lives. Imagine if these two bright people could find strength building communities and not just devote themselves to despoiling others in their desire to expand their own power. For all their position in life, how many people could Ted and Carly trust their life with? So bright and so shallow. No body will dance at their revolution. And the media gives them, like Donny Trump a pass.
I had a bit of fun today and made a donation to Planned Parenthood in honor of Jason Chaffitz and asked that they notify him of my donation at the House of Representatives. I thought some of you might also think that was a fun thing to do.
Citizen
Perhaps Carly speaks on behalf of all the daughters of law school deans who struggle as secretaries while climbing the ladder to CEO.