The Commentariat -- June 23, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Monday morning to urge the Iraqis to bridge their sectarian differences and to encourage them to form a new, inclusive government." ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging talks between Kerry & Al-Maliki, & other developments. ...

... Loveday Morris & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The 300 U.S. advisers authorized to assist the Iraqi security forces will find an army in crisis mode, so lacking in equipment and shaken by desertions that it may not be able to win back significant chunks of territory from al-Qaeda renegades for months or even years, analysts and officials say. After tens of thousands of desertions, the Iraqi military is reeling from what one U.S. official described as 'psychological collapse' in the face of the offensive from militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)." ...

... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The Iraqi government said Sunday that Sunni militants had taken control of a major Iraqi post on the Syrian border, strengthening their ability to move men and supplies into Iraq's heartland. As the government tried to cast the setback in a positive light, saying troops had made a 'tactical' decision to withdraw, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to increase the pressure on Iraq's leadership by signaling that the United States was open to the selection of a new prime minister who could bridge the deep sectarian divides in the country." ...

... Rachel Maddow in the Washington Post: "After meeting with President Obama last week, congressional leaders emerged in rare bipartisan agreement: All said the president would need no further authorization from Congress for new U.S. military intervention in Iraq. They may agree on that, but they're wrong.... Beyond the 60-day window afforded by the War Powers Act, Obama will need overt congressional authorization for additional troops to protect the U.S. Embassy and U.S. personnel, for the several hundred military 'advisers' he has just announced, for air strikes by manned or unmanned planes or for any further military intervention." ...

... CW: There is an irony in the contrast between the right's bitter criticisms of Obama's "imperial presidency" and their acquiescence when an issue of war -- the means by which empires are usually built -- arises. As usual, what wingers really want is an imperial president, one who will use force to compel other countries to comply with U.S. interests.

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Three journalists working for Al Jazeera were convicted Monday by an Egyptian court and sentenced to seven years each in prison for conspiring to broadcast false news in order to destabilize Egypt. The journalists for the network's English-language channel -- Mohared Fadel Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian who has previously worked for CNN and The New York Times; Peter Greste, an Australian who has previously worked for the BBC; and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian who has worked for other international news organizations -- have been in jail since December." ...

... Al Jazeera America: "Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in jail, while Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years for possession of ammunition. Other Al Jazeera journalists being tried in absentia were sentenced to 10 years. Their names are: Alaa Bayoumi, Anas Abdel-Wahab Khalawi Hasan, Khaleel Aly Khaleel Bahnasy, Mohamed Fawzi, Dominic Kane and Sue Turton. Al Jazeera has always rejected the charges against its journalists and maintains their innocence."

Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: "... at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, which convened over the weekend [in Dallas], the subject of income inequality seemed to be on almost everyone's lips, and mayors wondered aloud how best to use their powers to help the lowest-paid workers." CW: Why a female Times reporter would write (in the lede, no less) that a female mayor "bellied up to the table" is beyond me.

Henry Paulson, one of Dubya's Treasury Secretaries, best known for kneeling down & begging Nancy Pelosi to save him from members of his own party who were fighting his efforts to save Wall Street is 2008 with a $700 billion bailout, is now begging Republicans to save the planet. "... it is perverse that those who want limited government and rail against bailouts would put the economy at risk by ignoring climate change.... Climate change is the challenge of our time," Paulson wrote in a Sunday New York Times op-ed. Thanks to MAG for the link. ...

... Paul Krugman is amused: "Given the state of U.S. politics today, climate action is entirely dependent on Democrats, With a Democrat in the White House, we got some movement through executive action; if Democrats eventually regain the House, there could be more. If Paulson believes that he can support Republicans while still pushing for climate action, he's just delusional." CW: Get on your knees, Hank. ...

... In his Monday column, Krugman writes, "A carbon tax [which Paulson advocates] may be the best thing we could do, but we won't actually do it. Yet there are a number of second-best things ... that we're either doing already or might do soon. And the question for Mr. Paulson and other conservatives who consider themselves environmentalists is whether they're willing to accept second-best answers, and in particular whether they're willing to accept second-best answers implemented by the other party. If they aren't, their supposed environmentalism is an empty gesture." ...

... CW: We're back to All Krugman All the Time. His review in the New York Review of Books of Tim Geithner's Stress Test is easy reading, even for us non-economists. If you thought Geithner was a weasly schmuck, Krugman will not disabuse you of the notion. ...

... ALSO in the NYRB, Steve Coll of the New Yorker reviews a book by Brad Stone, The Everything Store, about Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos. CW: If you think about it, you'll see a connection between Stone's book & Krugman's review of Geithner's. ...

... AND Sue Halpern reviews books by Glenn Greenwald & Luke Harding on the Snowden leaks.

Presidential Election 2016

Too Rich to Run? Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Hillary & Bill Clinton "are established members of the 1 percent, leading lives far removed from the millions of middle-class voters who swing elections. [Hillary] Clinton has underscored the contrast with a series of stumbles in discussing her finances -- the latest in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper published Sunday, in which she compared herself with other multimillionaires.... Multiple Obama campaign advisers -- who spoke only on the condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the Clintons -- said they fear [Hillary] Clinton's financial status could hurt her as it did Republican nominee Mitt Romney, whom Obama portrayed in 2012 as an out-of-touch plutocrat at a time of economic uncertainty."

... You can watch Diane Sawyer's full interview of Clinton, mentioned but not properly linked at the top of Rucker's piece, here.

Jeff Toobin has a long profile of Ted Cruz in the New Yorker.

Molly Ball of the Atlantic: Chris Christie's new campaign: liberalizing drug laws to treat rather than jail addicts: At the Faith & Freedom Coalition forum annual meeting, "he said, 'what works is giving those people -- nonviolent drug offenders, addicts -- the tools they need to be able to deal with their disease.' Christie drew a line between compassion for addicts and opposition to abortion: 'I believe if you're pro-life, as I am, you need to be pro-life for the whole life,' he said. The idea of changing the way drug offenders are treated is said to be personal to Christie. In April, he gave a speech in New Jersey where he said he had recently lost a friend to addiction...." ...

     ... CW: Unfortunately, this is the way with Republicans. They're against any sort of compassion for any group till they learn a friend or family member has it. So Christie has a friend who died because of drug addiction; Christie runs a state that needed federal disaster aid, etc. Apparently, Christie doesn't have any friends who are teachers, or need a pension, or smoke marijuana, or needed an abortion, etc. Republicans not only can't manage empathy for others; they think empathy is a bad thing. BTW, Christie's good friends in the private prison business must be pissed at him for this speech.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda renegades seized control of Iraq's main border crossing with Jordan late Sunday, sustaining their onslaught against crumbling Iraqi security forces as Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Baghdad. The capture of the border crossing of Turabil late Sunday followed the fall of three more towns in western Iraq's Anbar province to the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

Guardian: "The Israeli military has carried out air strikes on targets inside Syria, including a military headquarters, in response to a cross-border attack that left an Israeli teenager dead. In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and 'direct hits were confirmed.'"

Al Jazeera: "Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine's declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise."

The Commentariat -- June 22, 2014

Internal links removed; graphic & related text removed.

Juan Cole: "With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa’im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria has now been effectively erased. A new country exists, stretching from the outskirts of Baghdad all the way to Aleppo. In history, it uncannily resembles the state ruled by Imad ad-Din Zangi (AD 1085 -- 1146), a Turkish notable who came to power in 1128 after a Shiite Assassin killed his father." Thanks to contributor safari for the link. ...

Whenever the conversation is on Iraq, it's not good news for Republicans. That's not helped at all over the last week by a bunch of people who we hadn't heard from in several years -- Republican figures associated with Iraq from the Bush administration -- who were suddenly back on major shows discussing the current state of affairs in Iraq. It was not a helpful reminder. They probably should have stayed off the shows. -- John Ullyot, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide

Remembrances of Cheney, et al. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "For Republicans still smarting from the Bush years, this week's Iraq deja vu brought back painful memories."

"The Big Lobotomy." Paul Glastris & Haley Edwards have a long cover piece in the Washington Monthly on "how Republicans made Congress stupid." Major culprit: right-wing "intellectual" Newt Gingrich, who not only slashed staffed, he instituted a number of rules & policies that made Congressional committees less competent. "In addition to the outsourcing of policy development, the other big effect of the brain drain has been the atrophying of congressional oversight." And even some small-government conservatives have realized, belatedly, "that making Congress dumber has not, in fact, made government smaller." CW: After reading this article, you'll see that it isn't just gerrymandering and a more ideological voting that has made Congress more partisan & less effective.

In the Times, Maureen Dowd continues her Pulitzer-winning series My Obession with the Clintons. In today's* episode, Dowd psychoanalyzes Hillary Clinton & reveals Hillary is cautious & calculating & is something like a Disney character. Also, Chelsea Clinton makes far too much money (way more than MoDo!) at NBC. ...

     ... * Oops! Sorry, the above was linked in today's NYT Sunday Review section in the Saturday afternoon online edition, & I made the incorrect assumption that it was, well, this Sunday's Review. As I was on the road last Sunday so had no idea the column is a week old. Thanks to contributor Jack M. for setting me straight. No MoDo today. She's probably in rehab recovering from her Rocky Mountain high.

Oh, look what Politico just noticed: "Oil Boom Downside: Exploding Trains." Kathryn Wolfe & Bob King: "Communities throughout the U.S. and Canada are waking up to the dark side of North America's energy boom: Trains hauling crude oil are crashing, exploding and spilling in record numbers as a fast-growing industry outpaces the federal government's oversight." CW: The writers don't really advocate for Keystone XL to save the day.

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Longtime Alaska Rep. Don Young improperly used campaign funds for personal use, accepted 'impermissible' gifts and failed to report those gifts, the House Ethics Committee announced Friday. Young, a Republican, has to repay nearly $60,000 to his campaign, and donors, the Ethics Committee said. He has also been reproved by the committee."

Mike Allen of Politico (June 18): "SPOTTED: Rupert Murdoch, eating dinner with Valerie Jarrett at the Blue Duck Tavern in D.C. Among the topics they discussed: immigration reform." ...

... OR, as the Website Fire Andrea Mitchell (because Mitchell is so liberal -- ha!) put it: "The real POTUS, Valerie Jarrett, the unelected Iranian born Obama 'adviser' with Secret Service protect it meeting with big, bad Rupert Murdoch to help Fox News plan their amnesty pimping. The Obama, errr Jarrett regime always whines about Fox News' 'conservative bias.' Yet it seems after Bill O'Reilly two Obama softball interviews on Super Bowl Sunday, they are becoming quite chummy. Murdoch, like other Republican whores to big business wants the cheap labor. Obama/Jarrett want the future Democrat voter." ...

... Kos publishes some more reactions from Right Wing World's own special Commentariat. Hilarious. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...

... CW: Murdoch, a U.S. immigrant, as well as an immigrant from Australia to England, has long favored immigration reform here. As Jonathan Topaz of Politico reported last week, "He is a co-chairman of the bipartisan Partnership for a New American Economy, a pro-immigration group whose other chairmen include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Disney CEO Bob Iger." I am grateful to Fire Andrea Mitchell, though, for alerting me that Jarrett, gender-ineligible to be the Ayatollah, has compensated by becoming the real POTUS.

MEANWHILE, George Will is fighting his slow-moving forced retirement by encouraging Congress to stop "a lawless president," because President Obama has failed to fully implement the Affordable Care Act, as written. ...

... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "Mr. Will's concern that a law he loathes, the Affordable Care Act, isn't being implemented according to the exact wording of the bill is touching. These are the same crocodile tears they shed for the American victims in Benghazi and for prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl. They politicize every single little thing. So, by all means, try to take the president to court to enforce the Affordable Care Act. It would be poetic justice."

Reuters: "Pope Francis has issued the strongest condemnation of organised crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practising 'the adoration of evil' and saying that mafiosi were excommunicated."

The Commentariat -- June 21, 2014

Internal links & photo removed.

CW: Thanks to Reality Chex readers who contributed to Bob Hicks/Barbarossa's ALS Association fundraising campaign. Bob's page is here. Bob has made a huge contribution to Reality Chex, & readers' appreciation for that is surely a part of the reason for their generosity in helping find a cure & mediation of this debilitating disease.

White House: "In this week's address, the President previewed the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families, where he will bring together business leaders and workers to discuss the challenges that working parents face every day and lift up solutions that are good for these families and American businesses":

You are the Internal Revenue Service. You can reach into the lives of hard-working taxpayers and with a phone call, an email, or a letter you can turn their lives upside-down. You ask taxpayers to hang on to seven years of their personal tax information in case they are ever audited, and you can't keep six months' worth of employee emails? -- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), to IRS Director John Koskinen at a House committee hearing yesterday ...

... David Joachim of the New York Times: "A congressional hearing examining how the Internal Revenue Service lost thousands of emails sought by investigators turned confrontational on Friday, with Republicans on the panel accusing the I.R.S. commissioner of lying. 'Sitting here listening to this testimony, I don't believe it,' Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, told the commissioner, John Koskinen, at a hearing of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. 'That's your problem. No one believes you.'" ...

... John Dickerson of Slate: "It's hard to think of a federal agency that is less forgiving about record keeping. If you are audited, the IRS wants you to move fast. Not only do you have to keep your records for years, as Ryan says, but the IRS wants you to move quick like a bunny. And the entire process has one subliminal message to it: 'I don't believe you.'" CW: Sounds like Dickerson's audit didn't go well.

Greggers interviews Rand Paul (full interview to be aired tomorrow on Press the Meat):

Greggers: Do you think Dick Cheney is a credible critic of this president?

Paul: I think the same questions could be asked of those who supported the Iraq War. You know, were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? That's what the war was sold on. Was democracy easily achievable? Was the war won in 2005, when many of these people said it was won? They didn't really, I think, understand the civil war that would break out. And what's going on now -- I don't blame on President Obama. Has he really got the solution? Maybe there is no solution. But I do blame the Iraq War on the chaos that is in the Middle East. I also blame those who are for the Iraq War for emboldening Iran.... Iran is much more of a threat because of the Iraq War than they were before -- before there was a standoff between Sunnis and Shiites. Now there is Iranian hegemony throughout the region.

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation. Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned in myriad ways, plummeting from the sky because of mechanical breakdowns, human error, bad weather and other reasons...."

Simon Maloy of Salon: "... it's kind of funny to see Republicans so eager to declare the Obama presidency over. Right now, Barack Obama is the best thing they have going for them. Their governors are mired in criminal investigations, their leaders are being thrown out of office, and they're at each other's throats as they face down political oblivion. The only thing holding them together is hatred of the man in the Oval Office."

Dana Milbank: "The real split among congressional Republicans is between the bomb-throwers and the legislators. On Thursday, the bomb-throwers lost badly. Those who followed the old-fashioned rules of politics -- building relationships, trading favors, balancing regional interests -- prevailed. That's how to understand why [Kevin] McCarthy [Calif.], with his 72 percent conservative rating, trounced the 100 percent [Raul] Labrador [Idaho]" in the vote for House majority leader.

Dana Ford of CNN: "The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted Thursday to allow pastors to marry same-sex couples in states where it is legal. The church also voted, by an overwhelming majority, to change the language about marriage in the church constitution to 'two persons' from a 'man and a woman,' according to More Light Presbyterians, a group that supports gay rights. To take effect, that change would need to be approved by a majority of 172 local presbyteries, which have a year to vote, the church said in a statement." ...

... Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "After passionate debate over how best to help break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Friday at its general convention to divest from three companies that it says supply Israel with equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territory. The vote, by a count of 310 to 303, was watched closely in Washington and Jerusalem and by Palestinians as a sign of momentum for a movement to pressure Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to end the occupation...."

Jada Smith of the New York Times: "Financial disclosure reports released by the Supreme Court on Friday showed that book royalties continued to fill the bank accounts of certain justices, while most bolstered their incomes with teaching assignments."

Presidential Election 2016

Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "Hillary Clinton is known as a champion of women and girls, but one woman who says she was raped as a 12-year-old in Arkansas doesn't think Hillary deserves that honor. This woman says Hillary smeared her and used dishonest tactics to successfully get her attacker off with a light sentence -- even though, she claims, Clinton knew he was guilty."...

... A bit more from Allie Jones in Gawker.

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Rick Santorum appeared to make the case for greater government involvement during a speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition on Friday, adopting a populist message at odds with Republican rhetoric. The former Pennsylvania senator, who is exploring a 2016 presidential bid, quoted President Ronald Reagan to make the case for a more robust government that can provide assistance to lower and middle income Americans. He argued that the Republican would 'be appalled today' by GOP lawmakers who tailor their policy prescriptions to conservative orthodoxy rather than the economic problems at hand." CW: Yeah, I'll bet Santorum -- who seems to be reinventing himself again -- is still "appalled today" by sex. Also, I wonder if his new populist message applies to blah people, too. ...

... There Are Two Li'l Randys. AP: "Describing a nation 'in a full-blown spiritual crisis,' Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Friday vowed to fight against abortion for the rest of his political career, joining a parade of ambitious Republicans courting religious conservatives as the early jockeying for the next presidential contest intensifies. 'What America needs is a revival,' Paul declared while addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Paul, a libertarian favorite who often downplays the Republican Party's focus on social issues, plunged into an aggressive defense of 'unborn children.'" CW: I wonder what would happen if Mrs. Li'l Randy found herself accidentally in a family way tomorrow. See also NBC interview excerpt above, where Paul shows he can also speak like a rational person. ...

     ... Where the Votes Are. Charles Pierce: "If he is who he claims to be -- Play along, OK? -- Rand Paul should have been able to give this conference a good old leaving-alone, instead of showing up to convince people that he is more anti-choice than thou. He knows what he needs to do to be a nominee. He knows who really sets up the hoops, and he knows how and when to jump." ...

... Joe Coscarelli of New York: "Nothing says God Bless America like peeing on the president."

Joan Walsh of Salon doesn't think much of the GOP's star lineup for 2016. The choices are scandal-plagued governors Walker & Christie, Tea Party firebrands Cruz & Paul or past-their-sell-by-dates Romney & (Jeb) Bush: "Reporters who are busy inventing rivals for Hillary Clinton in 2016 ought to put their imagination into coming up with presidential candidates for a party that truly needs them." CW: But, seriously, is Clinton so much hotter? I'd like to invent some Hillary rivals, & I'm not alone. I wouldn't be surprised if Rand Paul were the GOP nominee, & I think it's possible he could beat any Democratic candidate. If he looked & sounded less like a twerp, he'd be a shoo-in. Republicans want a president who looks like a B-movie star, like their special favorite president. Can't you see Ted Cruz in a black-&-white oater?

A Little Way Beyond the Beltway

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed portions of the state budget Friday and vowed to defy the legislature by expanding Medicaid without its approval, setting up a legal showdown with Republicans even as he averted a government shutdown."

News Lede

Guardian: "The US has signalled its mounting concern over modern-day slavery in Thailand and Qatar after it downgraded both countries on its human trafficking watchlist following revelations of appalling maltreatment of migrant workers."