Month: November 2013

 

One of the lighter moments in 12 Years a Slave

Rope-a-trope: The Trials of Muhammad Ali

“It’s just not happening”

by digby

New Pew Poll on climate change:

Opinions of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents divide into four roughly equal size groups: 23% say there is solid evidence of global warming and it is mostly caused by human activity; 19% say warming exists but is due to natural patterns; 25% see no solid evidence and say it is just not happening; 20% say there is no solid evidence but not enough is known yet.

Only 42% of all Republicans even believe it exists. And yet worst case scenario budget projections that are little more than wild guesses are treated like the received word of God. Go figure.

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Austerity pride

by digby

“Since I took office, we’ve cut our deficits by more than half.” —President Obama: http://t.co/LQAmMLjR0y, pic.twitter.com/xEFLH0dNzL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 2, 2013

My headline is a little bit unfair. His weekly address is about the budget this week and he clearly feels that rather than afflicting us with counter-productive austerity at the worst possible time, the government has reduced the deficit so that it could buy some running room to do things the president would like to do:

Remember, our deficits are getting smaller – not bigger. On my watch, they’re falling at the fastest pace in 60 years. So that gives us room to fix our long-term debt problems without sticking it to young people, or undermining our bedrock retirement and health security programs, or ending basic research that helps the economy grow.

That was the original plan — which later changed to a “confidence fairy” austerity program — which Mike Konczal analysed brilliantly here:

The comments from Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council and a key member of the team negotiating an agreement on an increase in the debt ceiling, were clearer still. The White House believes, he said, that deficit-cutting is an important component (the emphasis was his) of a growth strategy. And he repeatedly said that deficit-reduction was crucial in generating economic confidence. Confidence—he repeated this word many times….

At the same time, he said it is plain that a deal with the Republicans will involve a “bipartisan downpayment”.

At some point the president and his men decided that the bond market would fix everything. That didn’t happen so we’re back to square one. (And I must add that there’s also always been an element of “once the Republicans see we’re really serious about cutting entitlements, we’ll all live happily ever after in bipartisan comity.”)

Anyway, the good news is that in the past he’s explicitly offered to “do things Democrats might not like” and he isn’t doing that here. In fact, he says that we don’t have to “undermine” our retirement and medical programs, which is far more obscure than usual. Maybe that’s a good sign.

On the other hand, this general idea of deficit reduction buying running room to do good things is silly at this point. And I’m sure the Republicans are laughing every time they hear it. Sequestration is now the baseline for government spending and it’s hard to see how that changes with the GOP being the wrecking crew it is. The entire budget argument is framed around the fatuous notion of “closing some loopholes” in exchange for a slashing of government no Republican president could ever get away with.

There will be no “good things” at least not on a scale that will make any difference. Right now, the only marginally “good thing” allowed is the ACA and it will be a miracle if it’s allowed to work out its kinks and deliver as promised. But we’d better hope it does because it’s the last “good thing” that’s going to come out of the federal government for a good long time. When it comes to federal programs to help the people it’s defensive actions from here on in.

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Fair and Balanced and Benghazi

by digby

I posted last night about what appears to be a Benghazi hoax broadcast by 60 Minutes and reported by Lara Logan. This article in Foreign Policy adds some new details:

What’s beyond dispute is that Jones worked for the Britain-based contractor Blue Mountain, which was hired by the State Department to oversee perimeter security at the compound. On Thursday, the Washington Post obtained Jones’ written account of the Sept. 11 attack that he gave to his bosses a few days after the incident. In contrast with the 60 Minutes account, which saw him knocking out terrorists with the butt end of his rifle and scaling a 12-foot wall the night of the attack, the Blue Mountain report has Jones at his beach-side villa for the majority of the night. Despite an attempt to make it to the compound, Jones wrote that “we could not get anywhere near … as roadblocks had been set up.”

According to the newspaper, “[Jones] wrote that he visited the still-smoking compound the next day to view and photograph the destruction.”

There are also other red flags the Post story doesn’t include. For weeks, it seems, Jones tried to profit off his brush with disaster. In a Fox News report on Monday, reporter Adam Housley said his source relationship with Jones ended after he insisted upon receiving money. “He spoke to me on the phone a number of times and then we stopped speaking to him when he asked for money,” Housley said. On Fox News, that fact is introduced as an incidental footnote to the network’s follow up on the 60 Minutes story. It has become more relevant in light of The Post’s report. (Paying sources for information is typically frowned upon in American journalism.)

Jones has other ways of cashing in as well. This week, his book titled The Embassy House was published by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which is a part of CBS Corporation, which owns 60 Minutes — a fact not disclosed in the 60 Minutes story. His book is also going to make it on the silver screen. In October, Thunder Road acquired The Embassy House for a feature on the Benghazi attack produced by Basil Iwanyk and executive produced by Taylor Sheridan.

At press time, a representative at Threshold Editions in charge of publicity for The Embassy House did not respond to a request for comment. 60 Minutes has said “We stand firmly by the story we broadcast last Sunday.”

When asked if Senator Graham’s hold on all White House nominees was still in effect in light of the criticisms of Jones’s account, Graham’s spokesman said “no change.”

I would guess that 60 Minutes didn’t directly pay this fellow for his story. They didn’t have to. Their parent company is paying him for his book. That works out nicely, doesn’t it?

I would say you are definitely in trouble when it’s revealed that Fox News refused to find a way to pay this fellow for his big Benghazi scoop. They’ve pretty much changed their slogan to “Fair and Balanced and Benghazi.” If anyone would have jumped at the chance it would be them. And they didn’t.

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Violent and paranoid

by digby

Mark Potok at the SPLC reports:

The 23-year-old man who allegedly killed a TSA official at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday was carrying a one-page “manifesto” that included references to the “New World Order,” the Federal Reserve and “fiat currency,” according to a knowledgeable source with ranking law enforcement contacts.

Paul Anthony Ciancia, who allegedly wounded three other TSA workers before being shot and critically wounded himself, also expressed antagonism toward the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its chief until she resigned in August, Janet Napolitano, the source said. Ciancia’s note called former Secretary Napolitano a “bull dyke” and contained the phrase “FU Janet Napolitano,” the source said.

Ciancia’s language and references seemed to put him squarely in the conspiracy-minded world of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement. The New World Order refers to a longstanding conspiracy theory that today, in its most popular iteration, claims that global elites are plotting to form a socialistic “one-world government” that would crush American freedoms. Often, the root of the alleged conspiracy is traced to the 1913 creation of the Federal Reserve and the adoption of fiat currency — paper money that is not backed by gold, as it was once was in the U.S.

So-called Patriots also increasingly see the DHS, which produces intelligence assessments of extremists that are distributed to other law enforcement agencies, as an enemy and even a collaborator in the New World Order conspiracy. Many believe DHS has targeted their movement and is somehow connected to the alleged construction of concentration camps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The purported camps are thought to be meant for those Americans who resist a coming national seizure of all weapons from U.S. citizens.

The TSA, short for the Transportation Security Administration, is an agency of the DHS charged with ensuring the security of transportation, most notably air transportation. Although it has not been widely singled out by Patriots, it has been subjected to criticism by far-right homophobes, among others, who have alleged that TSA agents engaging in hand searches are really sexually groping travelers.

One witness told MSNBC that Ciancia asked people at the airport if they were TSA and, if they said they were not, moved on without trying to harm them.

Yesterday, several news organizations reported that Ciancia was carrying a hand-written document referring to his desire to kill “TSA and pigs.” Pete Williams and Andrew Blankenstein of NBC News, who first reported that Ciancia had referred to the New World Order, also wrote that a source said his manifesto “expressed animus toward racial minorities.” Hatewatch was not able to confirm that allegation.

Hatewatch has no records of Ciancia and he is not known to have joined or participated in the activities of any radical groups. Reporters talking to his neighbors have not yet found any evidence of such participation or radical statements.

The attack, which Ciancia allegedly carried out using a semi-automatic 223-caliber AR-15, comes at a time when the Patriot movement has been growing by leaps and bounds, from some 149 groups in 2008 to 1,360 last year, according to counts by the Southern Poverty Law Center. That explosive growth seems to have been driven by the election of our first black president and the approaching loss of a white majority in the U.S. that he represents. Another driver is the crash of the economy, which coincided neatly with the rise to national power of President Obama.

This man is very likely to be mentally ill so perhaps his violent impulses would have manifested in some way regardless of his influences. But it is worth noting that acts of violence like this often find expression in right wing paranoia. It may be that this ideology didn’t cause this person to take a gun and shoot people, we just don’t know enough facts to make that claim. But it’s certainly possible that it gave him a ready excuse for doing it.

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The immature bullyboy

by digby

This behind the scenes look the Romney campaign’s discovery of Chris Christie’s shady background and immature personality as they vetted him for VP is not news to those who’ve been following Chris Christie’s career, but it should be of interest to the GOP donor base.

He was also a fundraising dynamo, but he and his staff were overbearing and hard to work with, demanding in ways that would have been unthinkable from any other surrogate. Months earlier, Christie had banned Romney from raising money in New Jersey until Christie had given the O.K. to do so—a move Romney found galling, like something out of The Sopranos. Are you kidding me, Mitt thought. He’s going to do that? There were plenty of New Jersey donors who’d given money to Mitt in 2008; now Christie was trying to impose a gag order on talking to them? “He sounds like the biggest asshole in the world,” Stevens griped to his partner, Russ Shriefer. More recently, Trenton insisted on private jets, lavish spreads of food, space for a massive entourage. Romney ally Wayne Berman looked at the bubble around Christie and thought, He’s not the President of the United States, you know.

Chronically behind schedule, Christie made a habit of showing up late to Romney fundraising events. In May he was so tardy to a donor reception at the Grand Hyatt New York that Mitt wound up taking the stage to speak before Christie arrived. When the Jersey governor finally made his grand entrance, it was as if Mitt had been his warm-up act.

Punctuality mattered to Romney. Christie’s lateness bugged him. Mitt also cared about fitness and was prone to poke fun at those who didn’t. (“Oh, there’s your date for tonight,” he would say to male members of his traveling crew when they spied a chunky lady on the street.) Romney marveled at Christie’s girth, his difficulties in making his way down the narrow aisle of the campaign bus. Watching a video of Christie without his suit jacket on, Romney cackled to his aides, “Guys! Look at that!”

But Mitt was grateful for Christie’s endorsement and everything else he’d done. He appreciated Chris’ persona, his shtick, his forcefulness, his intuitive connection with voters. That night at the Grand Hyatt, at a high-dollar dinner after the main event, Christie’s argument for Mitt was more compelling than anything the nominee could manage.

The list of questions Myers and her team had for Christie was extensive and troubling. More than once, Myers reported back that Trenton’s response was, in effect, Why do we need to give you that piece of information? Myers told her team, We have to assume if they’re not answering, it’s because the answer is bad.

The vetters were stunned by the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record. There was a 2010 Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of Christie’s spending patterns in his job prior to the governorship, which criticized him for being “the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government [travel expense] rate without adequate justification” and for offering “insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification” for stays at swank hotels like the Four Seasons. There was the fact that Christie worked as a lobbyist on behalf of the Securities Industry Association at a time when Bernie Madoff was a senior SIA official—and sought an exemption from New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. There was Christie’s decision to steer hefty government contracts to donors and political allies like former Attorney General John Ashcroft, which sparked a congressional hearing. There was a defamation lawsuit brought against Christie arising out of his successful 1994 run to oust an incumbent in a local Garden State race. Then there was Todd Christie, the Governor’s brother, who in 2008 agreed to a settlement of civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he acknowledged making “hundreds of trades in which customers had been systematically overcharged.” (Todd also oversaw a family foundation whose activities and purpose raised eyebrows among the vetters.) And all that was on top of a litany of glaring matters that sparked concern on Myers’ team: Christie’s other lobbying clients, his investments overseas, the YouTube clips that helped make him a star but might call into doubt his presidential temperament, and the status of his health.

Ted Newton, managing Project Goldfish under Myers, had come into the vet liking Christie for his brashness and straight talk. Now, surveying the sum and substance of what the team was finding, Newton told his colleagues, If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him—he wouldn’t be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, Newton said, it’s not pretty.

I have heard this from many Democrats in the area. They sort of wonder why the Party failed to help his opponent for Governor, Barbara Buono with some money and clout seeing as Christie is so vulnerable and all. Why you’d almost think they like him.

Sadly, waaaay too many liberal men have told me that they admire Christie for his “honesty.” Strangely, I haven’t met one woman of either party who can stand the guy. I can easily see the 2016 race ending up being cast as a primitive contest between the neanderthal bullyboy and the icky old lady. It’s not as if our politics is exactly elevated these days.

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Yeah, that government shutdown sure taught them a lesson
by digby

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Congressman Mel Watt.  He’s been in congress a long time and has spent plenty of time on TV.  Here he is:

Guess what?

Republicans in the U.S. Senate made history this week when they successfully filibustered the nomination of Rep. Melvin Watt (R-N.C.) to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Watt received 56 Senate votes, four short of the 60 necessary to end the filibuster.

The move represented the latest round of raw, extremist obstructionism that Republicans have proudly practiced for the last five years, particularly when it comes to mounting extraordinary efforts to block presidential appointments that in the past were considered to be routine.

The historic element of the Watt rejection was that throughout American history it has been virtually unheard for a sitting member of Congress to be filibustered — to be denied the courtesy of a final vote — when selected by the president to fill an administration position. Prior to this week’s partisan blockade of Watt, a Congressional rejection like his hadn’t happened since before the Civil War, in 1843.

They’re not even trying to hide it, are they? Unfortunately, the press is barely mentioning this stuff so people don’t understand just how radical this is. (Old news, dontcha know?)

That important historical context should have been included in every story about the Watt filibuster, but it wasn’t. That’s not surprising considering the Beltway press corps seems to have made a conscious decision during the Obama presidency to omit virtually all context with regards to the Republicans’ continued radical behavior as they cling to filibusters to methodically block, stall and reject most White House policy proposals, as well as countless nominations.

The pliant coverage over the years has likely only enabled Republicans to push ahead with their corrosive strategy, knowing there’s certainly no downside with regards to adverse media attention. After all, Republicans moved to recently shut down the government, yet lots of journalists suggested the radical, destructive move was because “both sides” just couldn’t agree, essentially blaming Democrats for Republican extremism.

They also blocked yet another judicial nomination, the highly qualified (but penisless) Patricia Willet, claiming that the president trying to fill the vacant seat is “court packing.” Not kidding.

Meanwhile:

Of the filibuster coverage that does exist, the tell-tale shortcomings that have defined the media’s work on GOP obstructionism are on display. For instance, the Associated Press categorized the filibusters as “a setback for the president,” which is precisely how Republicans want the story to be portrayed: They embrace extremist tactics, reject the president’s picks, and the press chalks it up as a White House failure, or “setback.” (If you’re a Republican, why stop?)

The Washington Post pointed to the filibusters as examples of “partisan rancor,” suggesting Democrats were partially, or equally, to blame.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that while judicial nominations remain an issue of deep contention, “Among senators of both parties, there is agreement that a president should be granted deference in picking members of his cabinet and top executive branch positions.”

But that just completely ignores recent history. Last November Republicans launched an unprecedented, preemptive smear campaign to make sure Susan Rice was not picked as Obama’s next Secretary of State. (It succeeded.) Then they engineered an unprecedented campaign to try to stop Republican Chuck Hagel from becoming Secretary of Defense. (It failed.)

This now business as usual in the US Senate. And it’s largely because the press portrays it as business as usual.  It’s so common place that they are now barely  reporting it at all.

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It’s Election Weekend–and yes, you can help great progressives today! Here’s how.

by David Atkins

Those of us who craft and consume progressive media tend to be news junkies focused on the day-to-day wars of politics. But a great many of us do too little to put our time and effort where our mouths are and help our candidates get elected. Some believe that their own efforts won’t make a difference; others grouse that with corporatists seemingly in charge of both national parties, nothing makes a difference, anyway. Both of those views are wrong. Especially in local races, every volunteer can make a huge difference. And the more local the race, the more possibility there is of getting true wins for progressives on the ground.

Obviously, the big fish this Tuesday is in Virginia. While it’s true that few Hullabaloo readers are McAuliffe fans, it’s also undeniable that Cuccinelli is a raving nut, and Lieutenant Governor candidate E. W. Jackson is a bona fide theocratic fascist. We may not have the most exciting Democratic choices, but routing the Tea Partiers in a bastion of the former Confederacy is certainly its own reward and it’s by far the biggest prize this November. If you want to help in Virginia, just click here to start making calls from home.

If the Virginia race understandably isn’t your thing, there’s a big battle with major progressive implications going on in Seattle, where progressive stalwart and self-style “Most Progressive Mayor in America” Mayor Mike McGinn is in a neck-and-neck battle for re-election against a challenger boosted by corporate forces. Those forces include Comcast, which is spending heavily against McGinn because he dares to offer taxpayer-funded public-private partnership gigabit Internet access to Seattle residents at much lower cost and at greater availability than Comcast would provide. Every person on the phones calling Seattle residents to encourage them to vote to re-elect Mike can do a great deal to push the progressive cause forward and set an example to the rest of America. If you’d like to volunteer some time to help re-elect Mike this weekend–and I strongly encourage that you do–just click here and sign up. This is probably the biggest race in the country outside of Virginia, and it’s one where you definitely won’t have to choose the lesser of two evils. McGinn is a straight-up, kick-ass progressive who deserves and needs your help.

Finally, there are literally hundreds of local city council and school board races happening all across the country. Just to give an example, here in the city of Ventura, 58th largest city in America and about an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles, we have a significant Democratic partisan registration advantage, but our city council is dominated by conservative interests who regularly vote against progressive priorities like smart growth, pedestrian thoroughfares, environmental protections, and affordable housing. Three of the four seats up for grabs on the seven-person council are Republican incumbents, and the Ventura County Democratic Party (of which I’m the Chair) has endorsed and is electioneering for three great Democrats to replace them. We’ve sent out thousands of mailers and made well over ten thousand phone calls on behalf of our candidates; it’s the sort of thing I do for the cause when I’m not writing here at Hullabaloo, and it’s really important. (We also have a phonebank-from-home program here, so if you’d like to help us out just shoot me an email at isnospoon-at-gmail-dot-com and I can get you signed up.)

Beyond this, there is almost certainly something important happening in your local area, and there’s almost certainly something you can do to help as well. Research the candidates on your ballot if you received one. If you don’t have an election, somewhere nearby probably does. Search the web for your local County Democratic Party and see what their endorsements are. Chances are they’ve made the right decision (local county committees tend to be more progressive than the national party apparatus), but read up on the candidates to make sure. Then contact them and/or the candidate to see what you can do to help make their campaign a success in the final days.

This stuff is important, and strong field efforts make all the difference in off-year low turnout elections like this. Please make your voice heard and help push the envelope forward this year. This weekend is where the rubber hits the road.

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by digby

Oh my:

In what Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung describes as an “explosive report” on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, the venerable TV news magazine offered “a harrowing account of the extremist attack that killed four Americans” at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year. 

Naturally, Fox “News” and others on the Right — such as Sen. Lindsey Graham who promised on Wednesday to block all of President Obama’s nominees following the report — have been trumpeting it all week. 

In the report, CBS’ Lara Logan interviews a man psuedonomously identified as “Morgan Jones”, a British supervisor of security guards protecting the mission. He tells Logan that, as the attack that night went on and four U.S. officials were ultimately killed, he scaled the compound’s 12-foot wall, took out an al-Qaeda terrorist “with the butt end of a rifle” and eventually was at the hospital to witness the lifeless corpse of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. 

But, as reported by DeYoung at WaPo today, that story by “Jones”, as offered on 60 Minutes, appears to be completely untrue. That “harrowing account” by “Jones,” whose real name is reportedly Dylan Davies, is completely at odds, according to the Post, with the written account that he “provided to his employer three days after the attack” when he said he was nowhere near the diplomatic compound on the night of the deadly tragedy…
DeYoung reports that “State Department and GOP congressional aides confirmed that Davies’s Sept. 14, 2012, report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, was included among tens of thousands of documents turned over to lawmakers by the State Department this year.”

Keep in mind that Benghazi!™ is a patented right wing smear developed to torture Hillary Clinton for the rest of her life. (They don’t need it for Barack Obama because: Kenyan usurper.)

Huckleberry Graham’s involvement should be no surprise.  He was a House Impeachment manager back in the day.  His main contribution  to the case was to point out that Monica had an orgasm. Seriously.

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Nitpicky Wimminfolk lose another one

by digby

I guess I’m not surprised:

The D.C. Circuit Court has upheld a legal challenge to the provision of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that mandates employer coverage of birth control, arguing that it “trammels” the expression of religious freedom. While the legal process over the issue isn’t final, the decision hands a huge political victory to conservative activists that have long made this argument.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics, an Ohio-based firm that does food service work. The owners of the firm, brothers Phil and Frank Gilardi, have long excluded coverage for birth control or abortion in their employee health coverage, as the American Center for Law and Justice notes, via RHRealityCheck. The Hamilton Journal-News reports that the firm makes its opposition to abortion very public:

Freshway Foods trucks bear signs stating, “It’s not a choice, it’s a child,” as a way to promote the owners’ anti-abortion views to the public, according to the legal complaint.
In the majority opinion (here or below), Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a George W. Bush appointee, argues that Obamacare’s imposition of mandated coverage for birth control violates the Gilardi’s rights. “As adherents of the Catholic faith, the Gilardis oppose contraception, sterilization, and abortion. Accordingly, the two brothers—exercising their powers as owners and company executives—excluded coverage of products and services falling under these categories.” It then continues: “But along came the Affordable Care Act.” In summary:

[W]e must determine whether the contraceptive mandate imposed by the Act trammels the right of free exercise—a right that lies at the core of our constitutional liberties—as protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. We conclude it does.
Among the rationales offered by Brown (and the other two judges that joined the opinion in parts – one also a Bush appointee; one, Carter) is that the government didn’t demonstrate a compelling need for mandating the coverage. “What exactly,” the opinion reads, “is the government trying to ameliorate?” And so:

The contraceptive mandate demands that owners like the Gilardis meaningfully approve and endorse the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in their companies’ employer- provided plans, over whatever objections they may have. Such an endorsement—procured exclusively by regulatory ukase—is a “compel[led] affirmation of a repugnant belief.” … That, standing alone, is a cognizable burden on free exercise.

One of the dissenting opinions argues in opposition to this argument; that no religious burden exists on the brothers, just on the company. “They are not required to use or endorse contraception, and they remain free to openly oppose contraception. The Mandate requires nothing more than that the companies, not the Gilardis, offer medical insurance that includes coverage of contraceptive services for those employees who want it.” One reporter suggested that the application of religious freedom to the company was an extension of the “‘corporations are people’ standard.

During the healthcare debate we validated this sophistry by conceding that it was reasonable that some employers couldn’t bear to have their money touch the money of women who wanted to buy their own coverage for abortion, even if it was just a number on an accounting statement. Why wouldn’t a corporation have its “religious liberty” violated by having to offer their employees insurance that covers birth control? It’s all a bunch of ridiculous malarkey around patriarchal fear of the mighty vajajay.

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