The Commentariat -- September 1
I've posted another Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. And I do plan to read what-all you've written over the past several days. What I did get to was terrific, as usual.
Gene Lyons in Salon: "This just in: Americans really don't care about Libya.... Every poll, however, shows how badly the White House's rope-a-dope strategy has damaged Obama politically.... People ... divide 49 percent to 47 percent about whether he's a strong leader at a time when the nation definitely needs one who can spell J-O-B-S. The wonder is that anybody thinks so." ...
... A Show about Nothing. Ezra Klein in Bloomberg News: "Obama’s speech will achieve nothing.... A speech can rally the base, and maybe even temporarily change the topic in the news. But it can’t change the fundamental fact of politics right now, which is that the two parties disagree on the most profound question in Washington. It’s not: How do we fix the economy? It is: Who should win the next election?"
Nicholas Kristof: "Libya, for the time being, has become a shining example of successful humanitarian intervention. Well played, President Obama."
Simon Denyer & Leila Fadel of the Washington Post: The "rapid disintegration [of pro-Gaddafi forces] Aug. 20 and 21 suggests that support for Moammar Gaddafi was far more shallow than the government had portrayed over the course of the six-month uprising. But the way many of Gaddafi’s supporters just melted away into the night also prompts concern about whether some die-hard loyalists are simply lying low, waiting for the day they can regroup and launch their own insurgency."
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Dick Cheney is living proof that if we are not brave enough to enforce our laws, we will forever be at the mercy of a handful of men." ...
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! talks to Lawrence Wilkerson, Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief-of-staff about Dick Cheney's memoir. The transcript is here. Here's the interview:
... Here's the Glenn Greenwald post discussed in the interview. The lede: "Less than three years ago, Dick Cheney was presiding over policies that left hundreds of thousands of innocent people dead from a war of aggression, constructed a worldwide torture regime, and spied on thousands of Americans without the warrants required by law, all of which resulted in his leaving office as one of the most reviled political figures in decades. But thanks to the decision to block all legal investigations into his chronic criminality, those matters have been relegated to mere pedestrian partisan disputes, and Cheney is thus now preparing to be feted -- and further enriched -- as a Wise and Serious Statesman with the release of his memoirs this week: one in which he proudly boasts (yet again) of the very crimes for which he was immunized." ...
... Dana Milbank provides the CliffsNotes of Cheney's memoir. Short form: Cheney never did anything wrong, but everybody else did.
Peter Finn & Julie Tate of the Washington Post: "For all the secrecy that once surrounded the CIA [rendition] program, a significant part of its operation was entrusted to very small aviation companies whose previous experience involved flying sports teams across the country." Some of the story is coming out in a billing dispute case being heard in Upstate New York.
Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times: "One of the most frustrating and stubborn aftereffects of has been the inability to restore electricity to swaths of the Northeast, especially in Connecticut, where roughly 300,000 customers were still without power on Wednesday night. Some whole towns in New England were cut off, while almost every home and business in New York City had been running on full power for days. The slow restoration of the connections ... prompted a lot of grumbling from elected officials and their constituents, most of it aimed at big utility companies."
Right Wing World *
CW: Living in Know-Nothing World, as I have been for several days, I missed Paul Krugman's Monday column. It's a must-read: "Jon Huntsman Jr. ... has been willing to say the unsayable about the G.O.P. — namely, that it is becoming the 'anti-science party.' This is an enormously important development. And it should terrify us.... Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge." ...
... A Case on Point. Tanya Somanader of Think Progress: "Ever resilient against the onslaught of facts, [Michele] Bachmann doubled down on her call to drill the Everglades yesterday, stating 'Let’s access this wonderful treasure trove of energy that God has given us in this country.' And for those inconvenient truthers who point out there’s no actual evidence of oil under the Everglades, Bachmann told Tampa Bay’s 10News that they’re nothing more than 'radical environmentalists.'“ CW: so is god a radical environmentalist who forgot to give us that "wonderful treasure trove of energy" under the Everglades? As far as I know, the only oil in the Glades comes from swampbuggy spills. ...
... This whole hurricane thing, the earthquake -- these were just god's way of telling Washington politicians to quit wasting money on poor people. Or so sez Bachmann, more or less. CW: So. What? The iPhone didn't work for god either? Surely god can think up a better way to communicate than via earthquakes & hurricanes.
Karen Garcia really has the goods on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor; a terrific read about the guy whose "trifecta of heartless rebuffs to victims of a tornado, an earthquake and a tropical storm all in the space of just a few months ... even made New Jersey Governor Chris Christie mad. One of the nastiest GOP governors who ever lived thinks Cantor is way beyond mean and nasty." Read the whole post. ...
... CW: See the video below to get a good look at the no-account rabble-rousing unemployed lazy bums purporting to be constituents whom Leader Cantor's staff labelled as "suspicious" and called the cops on to have them removed from his office. I do think the polite, measured way these women spoke to everyone on Cantor's staff was likely a subversive ploy. (Their Blue Virginia blogpost on the incident is here.)
Does the Congressman consider disagreement or requests for action as suspicious? -- One of the "suspects" in the video below
... CW: This incident reminds me to thank all of you who take the trouble to go to townhall meetings (Cantor didn't hold any during the recess) and otherwise make yourselves a presence in the political arena. That includes commenter E Adams and daughter who attended "a town hall meeting for Tom McClintock, a Repug congressman representing the 4th district in California." Adams recounts their experience in the August 31 Off Times Square Open Thread.
Update: here's the news report by Joe Brines of the Placer Herald Correspondent re: Rep. McClintock's town hall. Its headline: "Locals on the Attack...."
Elizabeth Adams, before Rep. Tom McClintock's (R-Calif.) townhall meeting. Photo by the Herald Correspondent.
With protesters waving signs outside, Congressman Tom McClintock defended his voting record to a standing-room only crowd packed into the Sunset Center.... Prior to the meeting, McClintock was greeted by a dozen protest signs addressing various issues....
Marysville resident Elizabeth Adams displayed a sign reading 'Oligarchy Sucks,' a reference to a power structure led by a small number of people. 'I’m here to meet other like-minded people so that we can realize that we’re not alone,' Adams said. 'There are other voices than the tea party.' And the Tea Party was represented by about a dozen people wearing the trademark tea party T-shirt.
* Where those of us in Know-Nothing World fit right in.
Local News
Maria Recio of McClatchy News: "Six years after Hurricane Katrina, a relative of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was found by a federal court to have masterminded a massive fraud against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the inspection of the legendary trailers that housed storm refugees along the Gulf Coast. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims found last week that Rosemary Barbour's company ... had engaged in a fraudulent billing scheme as part of a $100 million, five-year maintenance contract with FEMA.... In often colorful language, the judge described the testimony of Rosemary Barbour during an eight-day trial in May in Jackson as 'exasperating' and 'bumble-headed.' ... The judge also criticized FEMA for its 'inexcusable mismanagement' of the contract.... Rosemary Barbour is a controversial figure in North Mississippi who received millions of dollars in often no-bid federal contracts after Katrina to provide showers, tents and laundry facilities.... Her company is still operating and is listed as being 'in good standing' by the Mississippi secretary of state." Thanks to reader Bob M. for the link.
Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Florida has long been the nation’s center of the illegal sale of prescription drugs: Doctors here bought 89 percent of all the Oxycodone sold in the country last year. But with the help of tougher laws, officials have moved aggressively this year to shut down so-called pill mills and disrupt the pipeline that moves the drugs north. In the past year, more than 400 clinics were either shut down or closed their doors.... New laws are also cutting off distribution.... As a result, doctors’ purchases of Oxycodone fell by 97 percent...." No thanks to the worst governor in America: "Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, and State House Republican leaders opposed the creation of [a] database [used in a majority of states to track drug-shopping], saying it raised too many privacy concerns and was not the most effective way to curb the problem."
News Ledes
New York Times: "A long-awaited United Nations review of ’s 2010 raid on a Turkish-based flotilla in which nine passengers were killed has found that Israel’s naval blockade of is both legal and appropriate. But it said that the way Israeli forces boarded the vessels trying to break that blockade 15 months ago was excessive and unreasonable."
New York Times: "News organizations in dozens of countries are panning for nuggets in the latest and largest dump of diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, which last week suddenly accelerated its posting of the confidential State Department documents. Over a few days, the group made public nearly 134,000 cables — more than six times the total number published by WikiLeaks and many news organizations over the past nine months."
Los Angeles Times: "... The [California] state Senate approved a bill that for the first time would give them access to public financial aid. Part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, the measure would allow undocumented students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for Cal Grants, community college waivers and other public aid programs.... The measure passed 22-11 on a party-line vote, with Democratic support and Republican opposition. It is expected to return this week to the Assembly, which previously approved it, for concurrence on Senate amendments. If approved, it will be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature."
New York Times: "As world leaders gathered on Thursday for a major conference to try to consolidate international support and reconstruction aid for , recognized the fledgling rebel government despite its opposition to the NATO bombing campaign." ...
... New York Times: "A top official of Libya’s transitional government said Wednesday that its fighters had cornered Col. in a desert redoubt 150 miles from the capital and were exhorting him to give up, in what would bring a sense of finality to the prolonged uprising that routed him and his family from Tripoli a week ago. But one of Colonel Qaddafi’s fugitive sons, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi..., said ... in an audio statement..., 'Our leadership is fine.... We are drinking tea and coffee.'" ...
... Update: "The Libyan rebels’ transitional government on Thursday extended by a week its ultimatum demanding the surrender of the loyalists of Col. who control his hometown, Surt. Also on Thursday, the fugitive Libyan leader released an audio recording proclaiming that Surt was now the Libyan capital."
AP: "The headless remains of Australia's most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said Thursday, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the folk hero's body. Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia's southern Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880. His final resting place was unknown...."
Los Angeles Times: "Amazon.com Inc. is offering to build at least two distribution centers [in California] and hire as many as 7,000 workers if lawmakers back away — at least temporarily — from trying to force the Internet giant to collect sales taxes on purchases made by California customers."
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