Month: September 2014

Billo has a little tantrum

by digby

One would be tempted to think he has realized that he’s making a total fool of himself which is why he’s being so defensive.  But he’s always like this:

“Mr. Colbert and others of his ilk have no bleepin’ clue how to fight the jihad. They don’t know anything,” the Fox News host said on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “And when somebody gets beheaded, their reaction is ‘Oh, that’s bad!’ But by being completely vacant, it doesn’t stop these people from mocking ideas that might have some value, might solve some complex problems.”

“Because in the world of the ideologue, where Colbert lives, solutions don’t really matter,” he added.

O’Reilly has boasted that both Erik Prince, the former CEO of the notorious Blackwater USA security firm, and Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger endorsed his plan.

Point, set match. Or in other words:

If you missed the Colbert bit, it’s priceless:

Colbert whipped out his elementary school notebook last week on “The Colbert Report” to share his own plan for a team in O’Reilly’s “fantasy warfare league,” arguing that the “mutant double ninja super soldiers with laser nunchucks” he drew in fourth grade would be more efficient than the Fox host’s mercenary army.

“As long as we’re pretending there’s a way to fight a war that doesn’t involve sacrifice and that the American people and politicians don’t have to feel any responsibility for, we need to think bigger — like maybe my invisible bomb that blows up only bad guys,” he said.

Sadly there are people who think that already exists:

The answer to those questions may well involve the use of force on a limited but immediate basis, in both countries. Enough force to remind all parties that we can, from the air, see and retaliate against not only Al Qaeda members, whom our drones track for months, but also any individuals guilty of mass atrocities and crimes against humanity. Enough force to compel governments and rebels alike to the negotiating table. And enough force to create a breathing space in which decent leaders can begin to consolidate power.

Now I’m worried about the president’s safety #secretservicewingnuts

by digby

Ok, I’ll admit I haven’t been as freaked out about the incursion into the White House as some people. But if the fellow who wrote this op-ed for the Washington Post is indicative of the sort of people who are protecting the president, I am now truly afraid for him:

Pierson should be replaced and the next director should come from outside the Secret Service, with the deputy director remaining an agent. In this role, a true leader, not a bureaucrat, is needed. Someone like Florida congressman and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West would be perfect for the role. West has successfully demonstrated that he possesses the leadership skills of a combat officer as well as managerial and diplomatic skills of a congressman, exactly the traits needed in the next director. Highly competent and beholden to no one in the Secret Service, he would be a superb director.

This means this ex Secret Service (and CIA???) agent is a fringe right wing nutball.

Allen West has said more than once that Generals “have to be very careful about blindly following a commander in chief that really does not have the best intent for our military.” I don’t think he’d be an especially reliable person to put in charge of protecting the President he calls a “socialist” and whose voters he thinks should “get out” of the United States.

But that will never happen. Allen West will spend the rest of his days among the Tea Partiers making big money ripping off the sad sacks who like what he has to say. But it is somewhat concerning that right wing extremists would be among the people protecting any president. We already knew about Gary Aldrich, the lunatic FBI agent who made a tidy living after retirement claiming the Clintons put condoms and hash pipes on the White house Christmas tree. And now we have another one.

How many are there?

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Working themselves into an early grave

by digby

Here are some statistics on the lazy American worker who could get rich if she only worked as hard as Mitt Romney:

American workers are putting in more and more hours each week, as the supposedly 40-hour workweek has stretched to 47 hours. At the same time, they’re getting very little paid time off of work to recharge:

As you can see, it’s going the wrong way. That’s the beauty of keeping unemployment high. Makes the workers nice and docile when you take away pay and benefits.

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It’s not a religion problem it’s a species problem

by digby

There’s an awful lot of talk these days about religions of peace vs religions of war and how some are intrinsically violent and others aren’t. It’s all nonsense. Right now, for a variety of reasons, Islam features some violent extremism on the fringe which happens to be in a part of the world where everyone has an interest. But you only have to look at history to see that all religions have their moments of violence. Even Buddhism, which I think we all would assume is one of the most peaceful religions in the modern world, can be drawn into violence:

Of all the moral precepts instilled in Buddhist monks the promise not to kill comes first, and the principle of non-violence is arguably more central to Buddhism than any other major religion. So why have monks been using hate speech against Muslims and joining mobs that have left dozens dead?

This is happening in two countries separated by well over 1,000 miles of Indian Ocean – Burma and Sri Lanka. It is puzzling because neither country is facing an Islamist militant threat. Muslims in both places are a generally peaceable and small minority.

In Sri Lanka, the issue of halal slaughter has been a flashpoint. Led by monks, members of the Bodu Bala Sena – the Buddhist Brigade – hold rallies, call for direct action and the boycotting of Muslim businesses, and rail against the size of Muslim families.

While no Muslims have been killed in Sri Lanka, the Burmese situation is far more serious. Here the antagonism is spearheaded by the 969 group, led by a monk, Ashin Wirathu, who was jailed in 2003 for inciting religious hatred. Released in 2012, he has referred to himself bizarrely as “the Burmese Bin Laden”.

March saw an outbreak of mob violence directed against Muslims in the town of Meiktila, in central Burma, which left at least 40 dead.

Tellingly, the violence began in a gold shop. The movements in both countries exploit a sense of economic grievance – a religious minority is used as the scapegoat for the frustrated aspirations of the majority.

On Tuesday, Buddhist mobs attacked mosques and burned more than 70 homes in Oakkan, north of Rangoon, after a Muslim girl on a bicycle collided with a monk. One person died and nine were injured.

I don’t think the point is that because these Buddhists are acting violent that Buddhism is a violent religion. Obviously. But it does happen even to the most peaceful of them. All you have to do is look at what was done in the name of Christ the prince of peace to understand that.

Last night on CNN, I saw one of the most disturbingly obtuse interviews I’ve ever seen on cable TV (and that’s saying something.) It featured Don Lemon, Alisyn Camerota and Reza Aslan, who tried in vain to make the point I just made above and was met by a brick wall of stupidity:

Alisyn CAMEROTA: Defenders of Islam insist it is a peaceful religion. Others disagree and point to the primitive treatment in Muslim countries of women and other minorities.

LEMON: So let’s discuss this now.

We’re joined now by Reza Aslan, a scholar of religions, a professor at University of California, Riverside, and the author of “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”

Let’s talk about this because it’s a very interesting conversation every time we have it. Before we get into this discussion, I want to play with you this clip from Bill Maher’s show just this Friday night. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHER: President Obama keeps insisting that ISIS is not Islamic. Well, maybe they don’t practice the Muslim faith the same way he does.

(LAUGHTER)

MAHER: But if vast numbers of Muslims across the world believe, and they do, that humans deserve to die for merely holding a different idea or drawing a cartoon or writing a book or eloping with the wrong person, not only does the Muslim world have something in common with ISIS; it has too much in common with ISIS. There’s so much talk — you can applaud. Sure.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He went on for a good five or six minutes about that, talking about how women are — circumcision for women, not respecting the rights of women, not respecting the rights of gay people. And what’s your reaction? And then we will talk.

REZA ASLAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE: Well, I like Bill Maher. I have been on his show a bunch of times. He’s a comedian.

But, you know, frankly, when it comes to the topic of religion, he’s not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks. I mean, the argument about the female genital mutilation being an Islamic problem is a perfect example of that. It’s not an Islamic problem. It’s an African problem.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Well, wait, wait, wait.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Hold on. Hold on a second Reza, because he says it’s a Muslim country problem. He says that, in Somalia…

ASLAN: Yes, but that’s — yes. And that’s actually empirically factually incorrect.

It’s a Central African problem. Eritrea has almost 90 percent female genital mutilation. It’s a Christian country. Ethiopia has 75 percent female genital mutilation. It’s a Christian country. Nowhere else in the Muslim, Muslim-majority states is female genital mutilation an issue.

But, again, this is the problem, is that you make these facile arguments that women are somehow mistreated in the Muslim world — well, that’s certainly true in many Muslim-majority countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Do you know that Muslims have elected seven women as their heads of state in those Muslim-majority countries?

How many women do we have as states in the United States?

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Reza, be honest, though. For the most part, it is not a free and open society for women in those states.

ASLAN: Well, it’s not in Iran. It’s not in Saudi Arabia.

It certainly is in Indonesia and Malaysia. It certainly is in Bangladesh. It certainly is in Turkey. I mean, again, this is the problem is that you’re talking about a religion of 1.5 billion people and certainly it becomes very easy to just simply paint them all with a single brush by saying, well, in Saudi Arabia, they can’t drive and so therefore that is somehow representative of Islam.

It’s representative of Saudi Arabia.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: But hold on. I think that Bill Maher’s point is that these aren’t extremists. We often talk about extremists and that we should crack down on extremists and why aren’t Muslims speaking out about extremists?

In Saudi Arabia, when women can’t vote and they can’t drive and they need permission from their husband, that’s not extremists. Why aren’t we talking more about what…

ASLAN: Why?

CAMEROTA: That’s not extremist. That’s commonplace. Why don’t we talk more about the commonplace wrongs that are happening in some of these countries?

(CROSSTALK)

ASLAN: It’s extremist when compared to the rights and responsibilities of women, Muslim women around the world. It’s an extremist way of dealing with it.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But it’s not extremist in that country, in Saudi Arabia. That’s the norm.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: That’s what she is saying.

ASLAN: Oh, no, it’s not.

I mean, look, Saudi Arabia is one of the most, if not the most, extremist Muslim country in the world. In the month that we have been talking about ISIS and their terrible actions in Iraq and Syria, Saudi Arabia, our closest ally, has beheaded 19 people. Nobody seems to care about that because Saudi Arabia sort of preserves our national interests.

LEMON: OK.

ASLAN: You know, but this is the problem, is that these kinds of conversations that we’re having aren’t really being had in any kind of legitimate way. We’re not talking about women in the Muslim world. We’re using two or three examples to justify a generalization. That’s actually the definition of bigotry.

LEMON: All right, fair enough.

Let’s listen to Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: So when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas. And what they share in common, all militant Islamists share in common.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Reza, the question at the bottom of the screen that everyone is looking at, does Islam promote violence?

ASLAN: Islam doesn’t promote violence or peace. Islam is just a religion, and like every religion in the world, it depends on what you bring to it. If you’re a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is going to be violent. There are Buddhist — marauding Buddhist monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children. Does Buddhism promote violence? Of course not. People are violent or peaceful. And that depends on their politics, their social world, the way that they see their communities, the way they see themselves.

CAMEROTA: So, Reza, you don’t think that there’s anything more — there’s — the justice system in Muslim countries you don’t think is somehow more primitive or subjugates women more than in other countries?

ASLAN: Did you hear what you just said? You said in Muslim countries.

I just told you that, Indonesia, women are absolutely 100 percent equal to men. In Turkey, they have had more female representatives, more female heads of state in Turkey than we have in the United States.

LEMON: Yes, but in Pakistan…

(CROSSTALK)

ASLAN: Stop saying things like “Muslim countries.”

LEMON: In Pakistan, women are still being stoned to death.

ASLAN: And that’s a problem for Pakistan. You’re right. So, let’s criticize Pakistan.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I just want to be clear on what your point is, because I thought you and Bill Maher were saying the same thing. Your point is that Muslim countries are not to blame.

There is nothing particular, there’s no common thread in Muslim countries, you can’t paint with a broad brush that somehow their justice system or Sharia law or what they’re doing in terms of stoning and female mutilation is different than in other countries like Western countries?

ASLAN: Stoning and mutilation and those barbaric practices should be condemned and criticized by everyone. The actions of individuals and societies and countries like Iran, like Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia must be condemned, because they don’t belong in the 21st century.

But to say Muslim countries, as though Pakistan and Turkey are the same, as though Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are the same, as though somehow what is happening in the most extreme forms of these repressive countries, these autocratic countries, is representative of what’s happening in every other Muslim country, is, frankly — and I use this word seriously — stupid. So let’s stop doing that.

LEMON: OK, Reza. Let’s — I want you to listen to Benjamin Netanyahu again. This is actually the one I wanted you to hear.

ASLAN: Yes, the ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: But our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace are in danger, because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march. It’s not militants. It’s not Islam. It’s militant Islam. And, typically, its first victims are other Muslims, but it spares no one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He’s making a clear distinction there. He says it’s not militants, it’s not Islam; it’s militant Islam. Do you understand his distinction there? Is he correct?

ASLAN: Well, he’s correct in talking about militant Islam being a problem.

He is absolutely incorrect in talking about ISIS equaling Hamas. That’s just ridiculous. No one takes him seriously when he says things like that. And, frankly, it’s precisely why, under his leadership, Israel has become so incredibly isolated from the rest of the global community.

Those kinds of statements are illogical, they’re irrational, they’re so obviously propagandistic. In fact, he went so far as to then bring up the Nazis, which has become kind of a verbal tick for him whenever he brings up either Hamas or ISIS.

Again, these kinds of oversimplifications I think only cause more danger. There is a very real problem. ISIS is a problem. Al Qaeda is a problem. These militant Islamic groups like Hamas, like Hezbollah, like the Taliban have to be dealt with. But it doesn’t actually help us to deal with them when, instead of talking about rational conflicts, rational criticisms of a particular religion, we instead so easily slip into bigotry by simply painting everyone with a single brush, as we have been doing in this conversation, mind you.

LEMON: Well, we’re just asking the questions, Reza. And you’re answering. And I think you answered very fairly, and we appreciate it.

Thank you, Reza Aslan.

CAMEROTA: We appreciate your perspective…

ASLAN: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: … and helping everyone understand your perspective.

I thought he was going to come through the screen and I don’t blame him. Being interviewed by Beavis and Butthead had to be frustrating.

I’m not a religious person myself and really don’t have a stake in defending any of them. I find an awful lot of allegedly religious behavior to be hypocritical and somewhat obscure. However, it’s clear to me that the underlying problem of religious wars of the past or the violent religious extremism of the present cannot be attributed to one religion or another. This is a species problem — the human species. We will always find a reason to fight one way or another if that’s what we want to do. Religion is just one of many reasons we come up with to justify it.

You can see the interview here

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Mitt’s “reflection”

by digby

David Corn reports on Mitt Romney’s ongoing flirtation with another losing presidential race and notes that Romney continues to flail about trying to explain why he said that 47% of Americans (all 145 million of ’em) are a bunch of moochers and looters. He goes over all the explanations, quasi-apologies, rationalizations and mea culpas he’s made over the years. And then reveals a new one courtesy of Mark Liebovich who quotes him saying this:

Romney told me that the statement came out wrong, because it was an attempt to placate a rambling supporter who was saying that Obama voters were essentially deadbeats.

“My mistake was that I was speaking in a way that reflected back to the man,” Romney said. “If I had been able to see the camera, I would have remembered that I was talking to the whole world, not just the man.” I had never heard Romney say that he was prompted into the “47 percent” line by a ranting supporter.

Liebovich says he can’t ever remember Romney saying this before and Corn can find no record of it. Corn concludes:

To recap: Romney has gone from side-stepping the remark, to owning the thrust of this comment (though noting it was not well articulated), to saying he was wrong, to denying he said what he said (and contending his words were distorted), to claiming he was only mirroring the rambling remarks of a big-money backer. This last explanation is certainly not fair to the 1-percenter who merely expressed his very 1-percentish opinion. Does this mean that Romney was thrown off his game by a simple question—or that he was trying to suck up to a donor?

In the two years since Romney was caught on tape, he just cannot come up with a clear explanation of an easy-to-understand short series of sentences that were responsive to the question presented. But there is one possible explanation he hasn’t yet put forward: He said what he believed.

Actually, I think he did admit it. He just said that if he had known that what he was saying would be seen by whole world he wouldn’t have said what he said. It’s possible that Mitt is less honest in private than in public but that would make him a unique person indeed.

I’d guess that the only part of it he doesn’t agree with is the number — I’m sure he believes  it’s much higher. He’s rich so therefore anyone can become rich so if you aren’t rich it’s because you just don’t apply yourself and work as hard. That’s how conservative rich people think.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Corn provides the “rambling” question for you to judge:

“For the last three years, all everybody’s been told is, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.’ How are you going to do it, in two months before the elections, to convince everybody you’ve got to take care of yourself?”

Nothing rambling about that. There are dozens of ways Mitt could have answered that question even if he were “reflecting back” the man’s attitude. There was nothing there about the 47% or the ignorant trope that almost half the country is a bunch of freeloaders who have no stake in the nation because they allegedly pay no taxes. Mitt brought that into it all by himself:

“There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. … These are people who pay no income tax. … and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

And Mitt has a funny way of “reflecting back” this man’s attitude. He was asked how he was going to convince voters that they would have to fend for themselves. Presumably even this man felt that they were part of the body politic and should be convinced. Mitt basically said, “to hell with them — they’re a bunch of losers an there’s no point in even talking to them.” That was as much a problem as the 47% comment itself — the fact that he thought they weren’t even worth his time to try to convince.

I hope Mitt runs. The 1% should have someone who personally embodies their concerns fighting it out among everyone else. It’s clarifying.

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They won’t be dissed, Mr President

by digby

After all President Obama has done to rehab the reputations of the intelligence services and make them feel secure, this is how they treat him:

By late last year, classified American intelligence reports painted an increasingly ominous picture of a growing threat from Sunni extremists in Syria, according to senior intelligence and military officials. Just as worrisome, they said, were reports of deteriorating readiness and morale among troops next door in Iraq.

But the reports, they said, generated little attention in a White House consumed with multiple brush fires and reluctant to be drawn back into Iraq. “Some of us were pushing the reporting, but the White House just didn’t pay attention to it,” said a senior American intelligence official. “They were preoccupied with other crises,” the official added. “This just wasn’t a big priority.”

He obviously made the foolish mistake of telling a truth so obvious that he didn’t realize it could possibly offend the honor of the Deep State officials. This nonsense explains why Obama has recently been sounding like a cheap Vin Diesel impersonator.

Here’s the thing: people are trying to make this the equivalent of Bush blowing off the intelligence that said BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE THE UNITED STATES, even telling the fellow who delivered it, “fine, you’ve covered your ass…” The difference is that ISIS has not attacked the United States and neither is it likely to any time soon. It attacked cities in Iraq. Surely anyone should be able to see the difference.

The article goes on to show just how confused the intelligence was along with all the geo-political complications. Ask yourself: would anyone in the United States have endorsed Obama going back to Iraq or invading Syria or even responding to any of this with a sense of emergency a year ago? Please. Even if they were monitoring every communication (which I assume they are … ahem) the US really couldn’t do a damn thing about it to prevent it. They had to succeed to some extent to get the kind of attention that would show Republicans that they finally have the foreign policy hook they’ve needed since the Iraq debacle. Without that, they weren’t going to be on board and getting Democrats on board isn’t much easier. And then came the execution videos, which kicked it into high gear.

I still believe that Obama was reluctant to get into this.(And yes, I know that makes me a naive Obamabot, blah, blah,blah.) Say what you will about him but he has not been one to get all excited about war plans. (He’s more of a covert, clandestine kind of guy.) But, as with all presidents regardless of their party, once the war machine gears start moving there’s only so much you can do. And then the playbook clearly requires that you start flagwaving and saying a bunch of jingoistic nonsense. It doesn’t strike me as particularly natural for Obama so I suspect he said what he said about the intelligence underestimating the threat of ISIS simply because the crap he was spewing was so foreign to him.

Seriously, he’s got many flaws as I’ve endlessly documented on this blog. But being a jigoistic fool isn’t usually one of them. It just goes to show you that no good deed goes unpunished: he let the CIA off the hook for a lot of nefarious BS. And yet all he had to do was say they made one mistake and they are running to press to stab him in the back. A lot of good it did him.

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First they came for the air traffic controllers …


by Tom Sullivan

“Nothing makes people more stupid and foolish than money and fear,” the creator of The Wire told the Guardian. David Simon spoke about what drives him, and about his new mini-series, Show Me a Hero.
Set in the 1980s, the show examines a community split over a plan to build public housing in the upscale — predominantly white — east side of Yonkers, NY. It was a breakdown driven not only by race, but by fear and money.

Simon sees the dispute as allegorical of the political dysfunction in an America that no longer knows how to solve its problems. The period coincides, he believes, with the breakdown of the social contract in America, the triumph of capital over labor and the unpairing of tides and boats that had risen together in a postwar America we had come to believe was normal.

This is a point forcefully made by ex-Clinton labour secretary Robert Reich in his recent film, Inequality for All. He dates the busting of the labour unions and the rupture of the social compact to Ronald Reagan’s firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981. From then on, the idea that a market-driven society would mutually benefit those who held the capital and those who provided the labour was no longer in place, he says. For Simon, this is the point at which the shared community of interests that walked side by side as the American economy surged after the second world war came apart. The collective will that bound together communities, cities and, ultimately, America started to erode. 

“What was required in Yonkers was to ask: ‘Are we all in this together or are we not all in this together?’ Is there a society or is there no society, because if there is no society, well, that’s the approach that says ‘Fuck ’em, I got mine’. And Yonkers coincides with the rise of ‘Fuck ’em I got mine’ in America.
“That’s the notion that the markets will solve everything. Leave me alone. I want maximum liberty, I want maximum freedom. Those words have such power in America. On the other hand ‘responsibility’ or ‘society’ or ‘community’ are words that are increasingly held in disfavour in the United States. And that’s a recipe for cooking up a second-rate society, one that does not engage with the notion of collective responsibility. We’re only as good a society as how we treat those who are most vulnerable and nobody’s more vulnerable than our poor. To be poor is not a crime, except in America.”

A guy I knew in the T-party once insisted that there is no society, just as Simon describes. And if there is none, by that logic how could he bear any responsibility for it? T-party members may clasp copies of the U.S. Constitution to their breasts, but they’ve lost its spirit after rejecting the document’s first three words. There is no we in their America, just I and me. And community? Sounds too much like communism. And an excuse for low-caste Irresponsibles to collect a government check for not working.

The view portends a grim, decidedly unexceptional American future in which doomsday preppers barricade and arm themselves against their neighbors while the rich retreat to lush, gated sanctuaries protected from both by armed security.

The thing is, as more Americans slip out of the middle class and find themselves struggling to get by, they are catching on to the barrenness of that future. The Moral Monday movement caught on by bringing together a diverse community to call out the depravity of the ‘Fuck ’em I got mine’ culture of Wall Street’s Jordan Belforts, and among ALEC corporations out to strip America for parts.

But David Simon doesn’t believe We the People are quite there yet.

“I think in some ways the cancer is going to have to go a little higher. It’s going to start crawling up above the knee and people are going to have to start looking around and thinking ‘I thought I was exempt. I didn’t know they were coming for me’. 

“It’s happened to the manufacturing class, it’s happened to the poor. Now it’s happening to reporters and schoolteachers and firefighters and cops and social workers and state employees and even certain levels of academics. And that’s new. That’s not the American dream.”

First they came for the air traffic controllers, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not an air traffic controller.
Then they came for the factory workers, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a factory worker.
Then they came for the schoolteachers, the firefighters, the cops, the academics … .

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Headline ‘o the day

by digby

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Rand Paul, moderate centrist

by digby

Ryan Lizza has published a fascinating profile of Senator Paul that includes quite a bit of interesting info. I thought I’d just start with what the political media thinks is most important about it, using Chris Cilizza’s rundown of the five most important quotes in the article.  I’ll just pick two.

Here’s a note on Rand’s position within the party these days, starting with this quote:

“I’ve seen him grow and I’ve seen him mature and I’ve seen him become more centrist. I know that if he were President or a nominee I could influence him, particularly some of his views and positions on national security. He trusts me particularly on the military side of things, so I could easily work with him. It wouldn’t be a problem.” — Arizona Sen. John McCain

Chris Cilizza says:

Rand Paul has spent much of his first four years in the Senate — and especially the last two as it became clearer and clearer he was running for president — trying to reduce some of the heat directed toward him (and his father) by the Republican establishment. He knows people like McCain are ever going to endorse him for president. (My guess on a McCain endorsement? Rubio.) But, Rand also believes that having people like McCain — and McConnell — actively working either behind the scenes or in front of them against you is a recipe to lose. (Ted Cruz, on the other hand, views this antagonistic relationship as a key to victory for him.) This McCain quote suggests that Paul’s effort have paid off; he’s never going to be McCain’s guy but neither will the Arizona Republican go out of his way to say or do things to try and keep the nomination from Paul if it seems obvious the race is headed that way.

Well that’s a relief. Cilizza is also convinced that Paul is not a libertarian ideologue and is more of a pragmatic conservative — or at least is smart enough to hide his “true beliefs” in order to win. (At which point I guess his followers are supposed to believe he’ll take off the mask and become the one true libertarian they voted for. Sure he will.)

“Ron was always content to tell the truth as best he understood it, and he saw that as the point of his politics. Rand is the guy who is committed to winning.” — Paul family strategist Jesse Benton

Cilizza says:

This gets to the core of the difference between Rand and Ron Paul. It’s not — as Lizza correctly notes in his piece — fundamentally about their policy views on which there is considerable overlap. “They don’t really have differences,” Carol Paul, wife of Ron and mother of Rand, told Ryan. “They might have fractional differences about how to do things, but the press always want to make it into some kind of story that isn’t there.” The real difference between the two men is stylistic and focus-oriented. Many Republican strategists admit that if Ron Paul had simply refused to go down the rabbit hole of his foreign policy views (over and over again) during nationally televised debates, he might well have won a primary or caucus in 2012. Rand Paul, by contrast, understands the need to pivot off of topics where his views are not entirely aligned with the people he is trying to woo.

And apparently he also understands the total lack of professionalism on the part of the political press which will allow him to hide from his own record, a tactic Cilizza interestingly sees as a matter of style and focus rather than character. (Whether other Republicans will allow it is another question.)

I happen to think there’s very little difference between Paul and the average Tea Party Republican which means that he will slash domestic government programs to the bone if he can, he will end as many regulations as he can, he will end as much taxation for the “job creators” as he can — all good libertarian/conservative economic ideals. He will speak of religious “freedom” as it’s now defined, which means that he will support the notions that the government has no ability to create or enforce laws that offend someone’s religion while religion, on the other hand, has the “freedom” to insist that others abide by their beliefs. (Because otherwise they aren’t free to practice their religion which requires them to compel others to follow their beliefs — duh.) And he will also do whatever the national security state deems necessary because all presidents do that, regardless of party. There will not be any substantial advantage to voting for President Paul over President Cruz. (Well, maybe he would be less terrible on marijuana prosecutions.)

But from the looks of things, he’s being positioned as the pragmatic centrist of the GOP presidential club. Which would be hilarious if it weren’t so scary. It appears that in today’s Village, any Republican who doesn’t advocate capital punishment for pot smoking is now a moderate. Those goal posts just keep a-moving.

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Can John Oliver Writer Scott Sherman Help Expose Gen. Zinni’s Raytheon Connection? 

by Spocko

Hey Scott,

I’d love you to do a segment for John Oliver about how the network TV shows aren’t telling the public that the retired generals selling the Syrian bombing and ISIS war actually work for the military contractors who profit from the war.
UPDATE: Cost of U.S. campaign against the Islamic State likely closing in on $1 billion

You might be thinking, “Didn’t the New York Times already write this story after the Iraq war?” You are correct sir! It was written in 2008. Link  It was about the last war. Now there are all new retired generals for this war.

Here’s the TLDR of Dan Bastow’s Pulitzer winning article:

All the networks got busted for their military analysts having financial conflicts of interest.

Then why does Last Week Tonight need to do a segment? Because they are at it again. And they are ignoring the people calling them on it. That’s why we need you.

Two weeks ago Lee Fang of The Nation wrote Who’s Paying the Pro-War Pundits?  The retired generals going on the TV networks pushing for ISIS and Syrian bombing, drone strikes and more “boots on the ground.” In most cases the networks didn’t tell viewers that they actual worked for General Dynamics, Raytheon and whatever name Blackwater is calling itself this week.

Fang’s piece built on an extensive 2013 report, Conflicts of Interest in the Syria Debate by the Public Accountability Initiative. I wrote to Fang and asked what the media response was. Nada.  The TV media ignore journalism critics because they can. “Ohh what are they going to do? Shame us in print? Ohhh I’m so scared.” As you learned at the Daily show, it’s harder for them to ignore comedy TV shows. That’s why we need you.

They even tried to avoid the New York Times piece. My favorite comment from that piece was, “A spokeswoman for Fox News said executives ‘refused to participate’ in this article.”

They had to deal with the Times piece because there was a financial conflict issue. Therefore the network lawyers, accountants and HR people were forced to act, even though the spokespeople didn’t. And that is another reason we need you, not only will everyone at the networks watch the show, it now has a reputation of doing journalism and getting your viewers to act. (BTW, the FCC sends its hate.)

So how did the network’s lawyers, accountants and HR people avoid the financial conflict of interest problems? Easy, they simply don’t hire the generals to be their military analysts anymore! Clever boots eh?

Networks accountants love it, they save money and don’t need to send out all those pesky 1099 forms! Plus, since the generals aren’t employees, they don’t have to follow any annoying HR internal guidelines, corporate ethics rules or SEC reporting rules for a publicly traded company. The retired generals are now just ‘guests’ with opinions!

What this tells us is that unless the TV networks have some sort of legal or financial pressure, they’ll continue to cover for the people making money on this war.

But does it really matter if everyone knows? When I tell savvy news consumers this they say, ‘Well duh, of course they work for a military contractor. So what? What general ISN’T for more war?”

It might be different if during this run up to the bombing and war the TV networks did even the minimal, “both sides” game. Did we hear from veterans against the war or historians talking about the disastrous blow back consequences of war?

Every time they talked about those ISIS beheadings did they ‘balance’ it with heart breaking videos of innocent children being killed by US drone strikes?

Why not? Because there is no money in peace for the network. Plus it might upset the former military guests, who count on the media to let them tell their story to the public like one big infomercial.

(Side note: If these “news” shows were classified as an infomercial or as a celebrity endorsement, the FTC would be overseeing it. Fox News’ own FTC Standards and Practices rules make it clear the lack of disclosure would not be allowed. See pages 6, 10, 11, 20 and 21)

For example, look at retired General Jack Keane. He’s a Director of General Dynamics. He is paid in stock. More war, more product sold, stock goes up — he makes more money.

TV journalists aren’t identifying these connections even though:

• The Society for Professional Journalists say ethically they should
• The FCC says in principle they should,”requirement grounded in the principle that members of the public should know who is trying to persuade them with the programming being aired.” 
• The FCC Communications Act Requires Sponsorship Identification in certain cases. 
• In the past they admitted they should have seen through the war sales job. 

They’ll blow off the journalists, the FCC and ignore their own admission of blowing it last time. They follow FTC regulations for now because if they don’t it costs them money.

But they won’t blow off you guys. The next day all the internet will be aflame with the video, ‘John Oliver Eviscerates TV Journalists’ Excuses” or “Watch John Oliver Destroy Network News Divisions” And your readers will all be tweeting to the TV networks things like:

@ABC @GStephanopoulos When talking about #syriaairstrikes why don’t you tell viewers Gen Zinni works for .@Raytheon, the missile’s maker?

I’d like to think that massive public attention of their complacency would help because it would give the public something specific to ask the TV network journalists, producers and bookers to do, since, ‘Do your fucking job!” isn’t working.

As your old boss once said to the hosts on Crossfire, “Stop. You are hurting America.” They are at it again. It’s your turn now.