The Commentariat -- Sept. 5, 2013
** Alex de Waal & Bridget Conley-Zilkic of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts, in a New York Times op-ed: "What's missing [in the Obama plan to strike Syria] is a political effort to seek peace. No talks are scheduled. The regional power brokers -- Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which support the rebels, and Iran, which backs Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad -- are at odds. American military action without a peace process involving all actors would only intensify the two-year-old war.... The only aim of intervention should be peace...." The authors incorporate the writings of William Harcourt, a/k/a "Historicus," who argued against British intervention in the American Civil War. ...
... ** Fareed Zakaria in Time: " What exactly is the goal of this military action? The Administration says it is simply to reinforce a global norm against the use of chemical weapons.... The reality is, the U.S. has now put its credibility on the line. It will find it extremely difficult to keep its actions limited in a volatile situation. And were it to succeed in ousting Assad, it would be implicated in the next phase of this war, which would almost certainly lead to chaos and the slaughter or ethnic cleansing of the Alawite sect (to which Assad belongs) and perhaps of other minorities, as happened in Iraq." Read for the last graf on George Bush Pere. ...
... C. J. Chivers of the New York Times: "... many rebels have adopted some of the same brutal and ruthless tactics as the regime they are trying to overthrow. As the United States debates whether to support the Obama administration’s proposal that Syrian forces should be attacked for using chemical weapons against civilians, [a] video [showing rebels killing soldiers in cold blood], shot in April, joins a growing body of evidence of an increasingly criminal environment populated by gangs of highwaymen, kidnappers and killers." CW: The page includes what I surmise is the video; I didn't click on it. ...
... Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "Top intelligence officials in two Middle East countries said they have examined the potential for bioweapons use by Syria, perhaps as retaliation for Western military strikes on Damascus. Although dwarfed by the country's larger and better-known chemical weapons program, Syria's bioweapons capability could offer the Assad regime a way to retaliate because the weapons are designed to spread easily and leave few clues about their origins, the officials said." ...
... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "In the shadow of a confrontation over whether Syria's government had attacked civilians with internationally banned chemical munitions, a rights group, [Human Rights Watch,] reported Wednesday that Syrian armed forces had repeatedly used cluster bombs, another widely prohibited weapon, in the country's civil war." ...
... Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking House Democrats for more input in the Syria debate. In a 'Dear Colleague' letter to her caucus -- Pelosi's second in as many days -- the Democratic leader urged lawmakers to voice their concerns about President Obama's proposal for military strikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Pelosi's request is part of a broader effort to formulate a resolution for Syrian intervention that can pass through the House in the face of widespread misgivings from rank-and-file members on both sides of the aisle." ...
... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "A divided Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved an authorization of force against the Syrian government, setting up a showdown next week in the full Senate on whether President Obama should have the authority to strike. The 10-to-7 vote showed bipartisan support for a strike, but bipartisan opposition as well. Republicans voting yes included Senators John McCain of Arizona, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Democrats against the authorization included Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Murphy of Connecticut. The Senate's newest member, Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, voted present.... The committee's bipartisan leaders pressed forward with a resolution limiting the duration and nature of military strikes, while Mr. McCain demanded more -- not less -- latitude for the military to inflict damage on the government of President Bashar al-Assad." ...
... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) -- the congressman who yelled 'you lie' during President Obama's 2010 State of the Union speech -- asked Wednesday if the administration's decision to attack Syria was made to distract from other 'scandals' like Benghazi and the IRS." ...
... CW: over there on supposedly MSM CNN, supposedly straight reporter Jessica Yellin (Mrs. John King) defended Wilson as a MOC who genuinely mistrusted the President. ...
... Steve Benen: "Now, I can appreciate a wild-eyed conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but even by House GOP standards, this is just stark raving mad. First, the 'scandals' Wilson believes in don't exist; things are going fairly well for the Affordable Care Act; and sequestration was Republicans' fault." Benen notes that Wilson was joined by all-around conspiracy loon Jeff Duncan (RTP-S.C.). ...
... Charles Pierce comments on Duncan. ...
... Dana Milbank: "Officials say the evidence is incontrovertible that Assad used sarin gas against his people. Lawmakers emerging from secret, classified briefings seem to agree. But while members of Congress are coming around to an attack on Syria, the American public remains skeptical. Why? Maybe it's because the government won't let them in on the secret." ...
... CW: Peter Baker of the New York Times didn't mention this in the story I linked yesterday re: President Obama's joint presser in Stockholm, but it is important. Peter Nicholas & David Gautier-Villars of the Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Obama said on Wednesday that he could order strikes against Syria even if Congress doesn't authorize them, but that 'we will be stronger as a country in our response if the president and Congress does it together.'"
Elections Matter. Jeremy Herb of the Hill: "The Obama administration will begin providing veterans benefits to same-sex couples after the Justice Department said Wednesday it would not enforce a law restricting them. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the Justice Department would not enforce a federal statute providing benefits only to opposite-sex spouses. The administration's decision is being made in response to the Supreme Court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in June."
Explainer-in-Chief. Jason Millman of the Politico: "Former President Bill Clinton, recruited by the White House to explain the misunderstood health law, is looking to play Obamacare peacemaker. In a highly-anticipated speech from his presidential library, Clinton challenged Republicans to finally work with Democrats to improve on President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement instead of constantly trying to undermine it."
... New York Times Editors: "A new Census Bureau report documents the alarming percentages of people in Texas and Florida without health insurance. Leaders of both states should hang their heads in shame because they have been among the most resistant in the nation to providing coverage for the uninsured under the Affordable Care Act, the law that Republicans deride as 'Obamacare.'" CW: Almost all Floridians will pay for the bad behavior of America's Second-Worst Governor & his cohort, first because they have unleashed the insurance industry from rate regulation, & second because calculated into those new, higher rates will be a surcharge to cover Flordians on the George Dubya Bush Emergency Room-Only Plan. (Scott did want to accept Medicaid aid; the doofuses in the state legislature said no.)
Linda Greenhouse on a little-known Oklahoma abortion case that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this term, this one threatening early-first-term "medication abortions." CW: every time I read about men passing anti-abortion laws "to protect women," I get furiouser & furiouser.
Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post: "Current and former White House officials wary of [Larry] Summers have been reluctant to criticize him, leaving the field open for his active team of supporters. But as it becomes increasingly clear that the president is willing to nominate Summers in the face of intense opposition, that reluctance is fading.... Obama and others in the White House who support Summers were deeply impressed by his ability to navigate the financial crisis. Administration officials who endured the tumultuous crisis period -- and many people who didn't -- assume the next crisis is a matter of when, not if. Obama has confidence that Summers would be effective in handling such a crisis, while he barely knows [Janet] Yellen." CW: these "former senior officials" need to be willing to put their names to their Larry-Is-a-Dick remarks if they want me to cite them. ...
... Atrios: "If you think another financial crisis is inevitable, you're doing it wrong. They aren't earthquakes. They aren't 'acts of God.' They're a product of the system. If they're inevitable, it's because you (the people in charge) are presiding over a system that makes them inevitable."
Wednesday "President Obama participate[d] in an event at the Great Synagogue in Stockholm honoring Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat and honorary U.S. citizen who worked courageously to save lives while serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest during World War II":
... AFP Update: "US President Barack Obama will ask Moscow what happened to Swedish Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg after he was taken into Soviet custody and disappeared in 1945, Wallenberg's family told Swedish media."
The Baby-Cam Is Spying on You. Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission took its first action to protect consumers from reckless invasions of privacy, penalizing a company that sells Web-enabled video cameras for lax security practices. According to the F.T.C., the company, TRENDnet, told customers that its products were 'secure,' marketing its cameras for home security and baby monitoring. In fact, the devices were compromised. The commission said a hacker in January 2012 exploited a security flaw and posted links to the live feeds, which 'displayed babies asleep in their cribs, young children playing and adults going about their daily lives.'"
Local News
Michelle Smith of the AP: "Gov. Lincoln Chafee is not running for a second term, he said Wednesday in an announcement that surprised his political opponents and closest advisors alike and takes him out of what was expected to be a fierce primary in his new Democratic Party. The governor, who became a Democrat in May, has struggled with poor approval ratings and is a reluctant fundraiser, although he said on Wednesday he liked being governor and thinks he would have won re-election. But he described campaigning as hugely time-consuming, and said the state faces so many serious challenges that he wouldn't be able to effectively be governor and run for governor at the same time."
David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R)'s family and business partner have been receiving payments from a secret Political Action Committee called Real PAC. Half a million dollars of the money donated to the PAC has come from corporate health care interests which -- like the governor and Georgia state Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens -- oppose the implementation of the Affordable Care Act ... According to investigative reporter Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered, the PAC hasn’t filed taxes or the required financial disclosures in two years, and the information it did file for 2011 was incorrect. Contributors to Real PAC include Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross, United Health care and other interests that want to keep health insurance premiums and other costs as high as possible." ...
... CW: Thanks to contribution James S. for the lead. Here's my favorite sentence in the story: " The PAC's treasurer, former state ethics chairman Rick Thompson, protested that the PAC money is not just for Deal's re-election, but for 'Republican causes.'" (Emphasis added.) The part about Hudgens boasting that he is doing everything he can to obstruct ObamaCare makes me think it's high time the DOJ file charges him & other flagrantly obstructionist officials for failing to comply with federal law. They would squeal to the heavens, but they probably would start enforcing the law.
CW: Gail Collins discusses the New York City mayoral candidates, paying scant attention to Anthony Weiner, who is running 4th in a field of four, if I'm not mistaken. Fortunately, Weiner doesn't need Collins' help in calling attention to himself. ...
... Happy New Year! Kaili Joy Gray of Wonkette has a hilarious take on this "Talmudic dialogue" between Anthony Weiner & a citizen who called Weiner a scumbag, to which Weiner responded that the citizen was a jackass, etc., etc.:
... Update. "Married to an Arab": In today's Comments, Haley S. writes that the AP reports, "In another video, released by the Weiner campaign later Wednesday, the man can be heard saying 'married to an Arab,' presumably a reference to Weiner's Muslim wife, Huma Abedin...." I located & listened to a tape posted by TPM, which is here. The confrontation begins at 3:45 min. in. Somebody definitely says "... married to an Arab," but I'm not 100 percent sure it was the same heckler who made the remark. At the moment the remark was made, the heckler was paying his bill, so he might have made the comment to the clerk. But later, during the confrontation, the guy expresses sympathy for Weiner's wife. Weiner himself, notably, vociferously defends himself but never defends his wife, so it's also not clear he heard the "married to an Arab remark," especially since he was leaving the bakery at the time, it was noisy, he was some distance from the heckler & had his back to him. There are three sides to every story.
Gubernatorial Race
Washington Post Editors: Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli (RTP) is lying about his poast sponsorship of anti-contraception, "personhood" legislation.
News Ledes
Al Jazeera America: "Thousands of Walmart employees are striking Thursday in cities across the United States, demanding better pay and protesting the firing of those who previously demonstrated against the company -- the country's largest private employer, with 1.3 million American workers. The strike comes just one week after fast-food workers staged walk-outs at fast-food restaurants in 60 U.S. cities to call for hourly pay of $15 instead of minimum wage. According to strike organizers, many Walmart workers earn the minimum wage, which varies from state to state but typically hovers near $7 to $8 per hour."
Al Jazeera America: "The gigantic Rim Fire raging in and around Yosemite National Park began when a hunter allowed an illegal fire to escape, investigators from the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Investigations and Tuolumne County District Attorney's Office reported Thursday."
Reuters: "The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms surged in August to their highest in half a year, with industrial goods manufacturers the hardest hit, a report on Thursday showed. Employers announced 50,462 layoffs last month, up 33.8 percent from 37,701 in July...."
AFP: "Iran will support Syria 'until the end' in the face of possible US-led military strikes, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force unit was quoted Thursday by the media as saying. Iran is Syria's main regional ally and some analysts believe a wider goal of US President Barack Obama's determination to launch a strike against the Damascus regime is to blunt Tehran's growing regional influence and any consequent threat to Washington ally Israel."
AP: " A 'large' explosive targeted the convoy of Egypt's interior minister Thursday in Cairo's eastern Nasr City district, the first attack on a senior government official since a coup toppled the country's Islamist president two months ago. The minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, survived the attack, which damaged the convoy's cars and injured at least eight people, including two policemen and a child seriously. There were no fatalities."
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Reader Comments (9)
The Weiner story may be more complicated. Seems the heckler made a comment that Weiner was married to an Arab. (BTW, she is not an Arab.) Does it matter that the heckler didn't attach a nasty modifier to "Arab"? The videos I've seen don't capture the remark; I think it was at the start of the confrontation. I first read it on the Telegraph, but now can't find that article. Here's another one that mentions the comment:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/NYC-mayoral-hopeful-Weiner-bakery-customer-argue-4787156.php
Re the NY Daily News article on sociopaths and the suicide of Ariel Castro, the kidnapper, rapist and all-around monster. This is a completely incomplete description of sociopaths. The large percentage of these lying, charming manipulators are not killers, rapists or kidnappers. In fact, many are Wall Street Bankers and Hedge fund operators! The main consideration in diagnosing sociopaths is that they have superficial charm, a compelling "line," no conscience or remorse--and have shown this in their actions. In other words, they would gladly "screw" their grandmothers, and many metaphorically have.
Sociopaths lied us into war in Iraq--yes, YOU, Donald Rumsfeld--and taken advantage of impressionable neurotics--yes, YOU, Colin Powell--and their comparative naiveté. I think Obama fits in the latter category. Although he has an incredibly high IQ, it is of the cerebral sort. His emotional (worldly) IQ is much less, IMHO. I think he is intimidated by military "experts," and seems to me to have become incurious about not only what really is going on in Syria, but the possible repercussions of a missile attack. He seems to have been "sucked in" by the killing of little children (see his Newtown, CT massacre response) and perhaps likens missile attacks to gun control. Sounds crazy, but listen to some of his news conferences. He keeps referencing the 463 or 493 children who were gassed in Syria--no doubt by Assad--as if this calls for a full-on US response. He believes that we cannot allow this to happen again to "our children."
Do I think Obama is smart? Yes. Do I think he is naive? Yes. Do I think his thinking process he is impaired on this issue. Most certainly! And what disgusts me most is that NOBODY is questioning the billion dollar plus cost of dropping a missiles on Syria-when every Republican and conservative politician questions the excessive cost, of our best domestic programs--like Head Start--and tanks them without even knowing what they mean to underprivileged kids and their families.
Yes, I am furious. And, like Marie, getting furiouser--but for different reasons!
I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but just for those who might have missed the news last week that the US has recently approved a sale of 1,300 cluster bombs to the Peaceful fiefdom of Saudi Arabia. Yes, that same beacon of democracy secretly sending arms to the Syrian rebels.
That fact 100% undermines Rich Gladstone's NYT article trying to convince us Assad is a special kind of monster. Because, our very own war mongers have recently done the same, when, "88 CBU-105s rained down on Iraq in the three weeks between March 20 and April 9 (2003)."
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/08/23/2505681/cluster-bombs-saudi-arabia/
@Kate: I am no longer furious. I have given up. Assad is a monster, no doubt, but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of others like him. I just can't muster the outrage any more. Kate, our generation has known nothing but war since 1939. WWII, Korea, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Syria.
@Marie: I'm not a woman, but I too, am furiouser and furiouser about the way women are being treated. I haven't given up--yet.
RE: The Syrian Crisis: Cui Bono?
Barbarossa,
THE question that should be asked before any such ventures.
@ Barbarosa:
Am unfamiliar with that expression. Does Cui Bono = Follow the Money?
@Unwashed: It's from the Latin which literally means to whom (is it) a benefit?
Let's all take a guess at whose wheels would be greased.
Question: So much money for one missile; how much better to put it toward all those poor refugees. One method destroys and may disrupt the apple carts; the other more humanitarian method might be humiliating for Assad (or not) but at least it would be helping, not hurting.
Kate, (Last week?)I heard one congresscritter raise the issue of affordability regarding a military response in Syria - James Inhofe. I don't know about you, but it just deepens my depression.