New York Times: “Officials said [actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa] died of natural causes, he of heart disease and she of a rare viral infection. But it was Ms. Arakawa — the caregiver, lover, protector — who died first, perhaps on Feb. 11, leaving Mr. Hackman, 95 years old with advanced Alzheimer’s, alone in the house for days. He is believed to have died a week later, on Feb. 18. Their decomposing bodies were not discovered for yet another eight days, when a maintenance worker called a security guard to the house after no one came to the door.... Ms. Arakawa died of hantarivus, which is contracted through exposure to excrement from rodents, often the deer mouse in New Mexico.”
To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.
Link Code: <a href="URL">text</a>
OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.
OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.
Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.
Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.
Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.
Public Service Announcement
Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.
Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"
Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."
Democrats' Weekly Address
Marie (Feb 23): As far as I can tell, there isn't any. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like Democrats are so screwed up, they can't even put together a couple of minutes of video to tell us how screwed we are.
Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:
Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?
Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~
~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”
New York Times: “Joy Reid’s evening news show on MSNBC is being canceled, part of a far-reaching programming overhaul orchestrated by Rebecca Kutler, the network’s new president, two people familiar with the changes said. The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, 'The ReidOut,' is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years. MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host 'The Weekend,' which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.” MB: In case you've never seen “The Weekend,” let me assure you it's pretty awful. ~~~
~~~ AP Update: "Joy Reidis leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s prime time news show."
Y! Entertainment: "Meanwhile, [Alex] Wagner will also be removed from her 9 pm weeknight slot. Wagner has already been working as a correspondent after Rachel Maddow took over hosting duties during ... Trump’s first 100 days in office. It’s now expected that Wagner will not return as host, but is expected to stay on as a contributor. Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary, is a likely replacement for Wagner, though a decision has not been finalized." MB: In fairness to Psaki, she is really too boring to watch. On the other hand, she is White. ~~~
~~~ RAS: "So MSNBC is getting rid of both of their minority evening hosts. Both women of color who are not afraid to call out the truth. Outspoken minorities don't have a long shelf life in the world of our corporate news media."
As we watch in horror the rapid destruction of our democratic form of government, it is comforting to remember there is life outside politics. I took a break a while ago to enjoy a brief lesson in the history of the moonwalk: ~~~
But it may go back even further:
And this chronological account is helpful:
CNBC: “ CNN plans to lay off hundreds of employees Thursday [Jan. 23] as it refocuses the business around a global digital audience.... The layoffs come as CNN is rearranging its linear TV lineup and building out digital subscription products. The cuts will help CNN lower production costs and consolidate teams, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. Certain shows that are produced in New York or Washington may move to Atlanta, where production can be done more cheaply, said the people. For the most part, the job cuts won’t affect CNN’s most recognizable names, who are under contract, said the people. CNN has about 3,500 employees worldwide.... NBC News is also planning cuts later this week, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. While the exact number couldn’t be determined, the job losses will be well under 50....”
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
I've added an Open Thread comments page for today on Off Times Square.
** Michael Hirsh of the National Journal makes a compelling argument that Obama's war is nothing like Bush's war & there is no continuity between the two administrations' conceptions & executions of international policy on terrorism. "The Bush approach remained scattershot throughout his two terms in office and was conceived 'piece by piece,' in the words of one European diplomat in Washington."
Bob Woodward Is on the Case! The events leading up to the death of Osama bin Laden started with "an innocuous, catch-up phone call. ...
... Lolita Baldor & Kimberly Dozier of the AP: "The wealth of information pulled from Osama bin Laden's compound has reinforced the belief that he played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by al-Qaida and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, senior U.S. officials said Friday. And the data further demonstrates to the U.S. that top al-Qaida commanders and other key insurgents are scattered throughout Pakistan, not just in the rugged border areas, and are being supported and given sanctuary by Pakistanis, a senior defense official said."
Right Wing World *
**Joan Walsh: "Life is too short to refute every silly David Brooks column, but Friday's meditation on 'The Politics of Solipsism' is so backward, I couldn't ignore it.... As always in the GOP universe, it seems the only people who should practice self-restraint are unions, working people and low-income families who depend on social services. The most glaring solipsism evident today is Brooks' own." Walsh writes a good, brief history of how Brooks' hero Irving Kristol got the ball started rolling toward a dysfunctional economy. Thanks to Kate M. for the link.
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
ABC News: the federal government today released five videos which Navy SEALs acquired at the compound in Abbottabad:
You can watch all five "home videos" here. I don't think they're too thrilling.
New York Times: "The Obama administration on Saturday released five videos recovered from Osama bin Laden‘s hide-out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that an intelligence official said showed the Qaeda founder threatening the United States, condemning capitalism and at some points flubbing his lines and missing a cue. In the most candid scenes, Bin Laden can be seen watching news coverage of himself on television." See ABC News report above, with link to the videos (the Pentagon also has the audio, which it has not released.)
New York Times: "A missile strike from an American military drone in a remote region of Yemen on Thursday was aimed at killingAnwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric believed to be hiding in the country, American officials said Friday. The attack does not appear to have killed Mr. Awlaki, the officials said, but may have killed operatives of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen."
(Memphis) Commercial Appeal: "Under direction of the county Office of Preparedness, law-enforcement officials distributed evacuation notices to nearly 1,100 homes, apartments and mobile homes as a Mississippi River flood that even a National Weather Service hydrologist called 'biblical' threatened more and more areas of Greater Memphis."
AP: "Pakistan's former foreign minister has called on the country's president and prime minister to resign following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Shah Mahmood Qureshi says the operation was a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, and President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani should be held responsible."
Paul Krugman notes that "Washington looks for trouble in all the wrong places while the unemployed are left to suffer.... Unemployment isn’t just blighting the lives of millions, it’s undermining America’s future.... Yet any action to help the unemployed is vetoed by the fear-mongers." ...
... BUT David Brooks thinks democracy sucks and all of us little people should appreciate the "establishment bigwigs" who will get the federal government back on the right track. ...
... Update: I've added a comments page on Off Times Square for Krugman & Brooks & posted my comments. Karen Garcia has also posted hers. You'd probably better read our Brooks comments here, as they are unlikely to make the moderators' cut. Update 2: at 8:00 am ET, it's evident that at best, the Times moderators have decided to bury Garcia's & my comments. It's what they do. AND Valerie Long Tweedie asks a really good question. Update 3: Ah, my comment made the top of Page 2, but no Garcia to be found. Update 4: Plus more truly excellent comments. ...
... AND speaking of Brooks, which is painful for me to do, Driftglass has reimagined Wednesday's "Conversation" between Brooks & Collins in which the two pundits light-heartedly discuss the death photos of Osama bin Laden. Here's a sample graph, which I realize is nearly indistinguishable from the original. (Do read Driftglass's whole post):
David Brooks: Outside of my own children and the little stick figures I invent in my terrible books, I do not accept these 'children' as you call them actually exist. All I see are tiny, tiny Socialists. I will now collect another political product placement paycheck by gratuitously working 'Israel' into our 'conversation.'
Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "Republican senators vowed Thursday to block any nominee to lead the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unless stronger limits are put on its power, in the latest blow in a long-running battle to rein in the watchdog agency before it officially launches this summer." Here's the letter, signed by 44 Senators, to President Obama on the subject. CW: if the Democrats had any sense -- and they don't -- they would make a non-stop talking point of Republicans holding Elizabeth Warren -- or anybody -- hostage in their desperate effort to protect banks from minor oversight of their usual customer-screwing practices. Republicans are basically admitting they support the banks' attempts to snooker you.
Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) & Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), in a New York Times op-ed: the Securities & Exchange Commission, "the top cop for our financial markets, remains inexcusably blind to the activities of high-speed computer trading." It has done nothing to prevent another "flash crash" like the one we saw a year ago when "the stock market took a brief and terrifying nose-dive [and] almost a trillion dollars in wealth momentarily vanished."
Neil Irwin of the Washington Post: Treasury Secretary Tim "Geithner will meet Monday with Chinese officials in Washington and try to persuade them to let the value of their currency rise relative to the dollar in part as a way of lifting U.S. trade. That would, by the simple math of foreign exchange markets, weaken the dollar — in pursuit of economic advantage. This contrast reflects a fundamental contradiction in the U.S. approach toward the dollar. The government has put in place a range of policies that make the dollar likely to decline in value over time. But no one in a position of authority can really admit it, because of politics and the possibility of a bad reaction in financial markets." CW: the WashPo headline writer calls this "dollar diplomacy." I call it lying.
David Rogers of Politico: House Republican leaders are in disarray over their Medicare policy, stepping on their own statements, switching positions, & generally confusing their own caucus (CW: many of whom aren't bright enough to negotiate the conflicting messages). ...
... Carl Hulse & Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare — in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.... Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that while he still supports the party’s Medicare approach, opposition from Democrats made it pointless to proceed." CW: doesn't he mean opposition from the vast majority of voters?
We’re inept. We are inept and irrelevant.... Too many of our colleagues are afraid of being quote-unquote soft on terror. He [Obama] probably gets even more latitude now. -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
David Fahrenthold & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "... the death of Osama bin Ladenhas triggered renewed calls from legislators in both parties for the United States to speed up its withdrawal from Afghanistan.But it does not seem to have removed the two political obstacles that have kept these same lawmakers from putting real pressure on the White House in the past. They still lack the support of either party’s leadership. And they still do not have an urgent piece of legislation — a bill central to the war effort — to force a distracted Congress to focus on Afghanistan." ...
... Ben Smith & Byron Tau of Politico: "The cover of The Weekly Standard ... sat awkwardly on newsstands all week ... 'Leading From Behind,' ... dropped by an Obama advisor to a New Yorker reporter last month, had crystallized two years of questions about Obama’s foreign policy into a single slogan. The phrase spread like a virus until late Sunday night, when Obama announced that American commandos had, on his order, killed terror chief Osama bin Laden, resetting American perceptions of the country’s role in the world and of the commander in chief’s capacity for ruthless, dramatic leadership. But for all its inherent drama, the bin Laden shooting did not actually represent a new turn in Obama’s foreign policy. The same president who was — in his critics’ eyes — leaning too hard on the Israelis, pursuing half-measures in Libya and slow to give moral support to the opposition in Iran and Syria simultaneously demonstrated a stomach for high-profile risks by taking out Somali pirates in 2009 and green-lighting the mission in Abbottabad." CW: definitely worthy of a read. ...
... Jonathan Chait of The New Republiccomments briefly (& sardonically) on the Weekly Standard cover in a post titled "Annals of Mistimed Propaganda." ...
... Tim Egan: "The operation in Abbottabad was an unqualified success, but the American public still deserves to hear the whole story." ...
... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces this week, U.S. officials said.... The on-the-ground surveillance work was part of an intelligence-gathering push mobilized after the discovery of the suspicious complex last August that involved virtually every category of collection in the U.S. arsenal, ranging from satellite imagery to eavesdropping efforts aimed at recording voices inside the compound." ...
... Eric Schmitt & Tom Shanker of the New York Times write about a 2007 U.S. raid on a Taliban/Al Qaeda meeting in Afghanistan which intelligence experts thought Osama bin Laden would attend. He didn't. During the raid, which has not been previously reported, commandos killed "several dozen militants."
As we all know, there are numerous other candidates that are looking at it — and thank God. -- Reince Priebus, RNC Chair, on last night's Republican debaters
Pipsqueaks. Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Five Republican contenders presented themselves here [in Greenville, South Carolina] Thursday evening at the first debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, a televised session that may have only amplified the fretting among some Republican leaders that the party needs to recruit more candidates to find a credible challenger to President Obama." ...
Gov. Romney’s not here to defend himself, so I’m not going to pick on him. -- Tim Pawlenty, when asked about RomneyCare during last night's candidates debate. CW Translation: I'm really running for Vice President, even though I've denied it numerous times.
Screenshot from the big debate: **
** Might possibly be photoshopped.
Andy Borowitz: "A new survey of likely voters indicates that in a hypothetical match-up between former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and billionaire Donald Trump, a majority would choose suicide over either candidate."
Show photo as warning to others seeking America’s destruction. No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama;it’s part of the mission – Sarah Palin, tweet
Excellent! Sarah Palin’s message to the President is this: ‘You have to see the entire task through.' – the sort of important political and presidential advice she had to quit her job as governor to be able to tweet. -- Jon Stewart
Sarah Palin said he’s pussy-footing. You know, she would have bin Laden’s head stuffed & hanging in her den. -- Jimmy Kimmel
Karen Garcia: Andrew Breitbartstrikes again with a deceptively-edited video, this time at the University of Missouri. Even though the University knew the score, they caved & effectively fired the professor who was "caught on tape" not saying what the tape implied.
More on Diverse Loons. Shannon Travis of CNN: "'Deathers' take over where 'birthers' left off.... A surprisingly diverse crop of people are questioning whether Osama bin Laden is actually dead.... Their claims follow a wide range: Some believe that the world's most-wanted terrorist was not the man killed Sunday, others think bin Laden is dead but was killed many years ago, and still others believe that the September 11 mastermind is alive -- and secretly being interrogated." ...
... Even Speaker Boehner, who coddles birthers, tamps down the deathers:
Right Wing World *
CW: In bipartisan deficit reduction talks yesterday, Republicans demanded there there be no decrease to the deficit. No, really. Read Jonathan Bernstein of the Washington Post, and you'll see what I mean.
Obama is a hardcore socialist. He's scary to me. -- David Koch
Sarah Owen of New York Magazine: David Koch gives President Obama no credit for Osama bin Laden's death:
All that Obama did was say 'yea' or 'nay,' we're going to take him out or not. He just made the decision, it was obvious where the guy is.... I mean, no president in his right mind would not approve that decision to go eliminate him. So he’s getting a lot of recognition and his polls have jumped up, but his decision was the easiest of them all. The real hard work was done by the intelligence and the SEALs.
... Sure is heartwarming to see billionaire Koch stand up for the little guys who do the "hard work," isn't it? He'll probably give all his maids & janitors raises tomorrow. Or maybe you think Koch is a small-minded wad of Santorum consumed by hatred & malice.
... As for "the easiest decision of them all," Matt Yglesias points out, "The President’s judgment was that that entailed striking the compound without telling the unreliable Pakistani security services in advance. Both Obama’s predecessor [Bush] and his opponent in the campaign [McCain] said they wouldn’t do that, and if they’d followed through on their word Bin Laden might have gotten away. ...
... Meanwhile, crazy Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) sees the killing of bin Laden as some kind of political distraction that will cause President Obama to "really just exploit the issue for political reasons and not really have the insight to do what’s necessary to protect this country in the future...." Via Marie Diamond of Think Progress.
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
Pierre Thomas of ABC News reports on news of Al Qaeda plots revealed in data attrieved in the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed:
President Obama and Vice President Biden visit the troops in Fort Campbell, Kentucky:
Washington Post: "An online posting attributed to al-Qaeda on Friday confirms the death of Osama bin Laden and warns of retaliation against the United States and other nations for the slaying of the terrorist leader."
New York Times: "Pakistani officials say the Obama administration has demanded the identities of some of their top intelligence operatives as the United States tries to determine whether any of them had contact with Osama bin Laden or his agents in the years before the raid that led to his death early Monday morning in Pakistan."
President Obama spoke at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, this afternoon. NBC News Update: "President Barack Obama on Friday was briefed by members of the team that killed Osama bin Laden, and afterward thanked and awarded them the Presidential Unit Citation, the White House said." With video report. Washington Post story here. New York Times story here.
The Hill: "President Obama called for the elimination of billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks Friday, while stressing that the United States can’t drill its way out of high gas prices. 'We can’t just drill our way out of the problem,' Obama said during an energy policy speech in Indiana Friday. 'If we’re serious about addressing our energy problems, we’re going to have to do more than drill.'” Video above, under Saturday's Ledes.
Bloomberg: "The U.S. economy added more jobs than forecast in April, easing concern that higher fuel prices are slowing the economic recovery. Payrolls increased by 244,000 workers last month, the biggest gain since May 2010, after a revised 221,000 gain the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Economists projected an April rise of 185,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Employment excluding government jobs jumped the most in five years. The jobless rate rose to 9 percent, the first increase since November."
Wall Street Journal: "Commodities prices tumbled on Thursday, led by the steepest oil-price decline in more than two years, triggering a selloff in stocks as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 139.41 points, or 1.1%, to close at 12584.17, making the Dow's two-day slide its worst in nearly two months. The stock market previously had been mostly spared from the weeklong downturn in raw-materials prices."
AP: "Parts of the Mississippi Delta are beginning to flood, sending white-tail deer and wild pigs swimming to dry land, submerging yacht clubs and closing casino boats, and compelling residents to flee from their homes. The sliver of land in northwest Mississippi, home to hardship and bluesman Muddy Waters, is in the crosshairs of the slowly surging river, just like many other areas along the banks of the big river." ...
... Reuters Update: "The rising Mississippi river lapped over downtown Memphis streets on Thursday as a massive wall of water threatened to unleash near record flooding all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Water lapped over Riverside Drive and onto Beale Street in Memphis, and threatened some homes on Mud Island, a community of about 5,000 residents with a river theme park. The island connects to downtown Memphis by a bridge and causeway."
Al Jazeera: "Protesters have taken to the streets across Syria for another day of anti-government protests. Authorities have responded by deploying the military in political sensitive areas, and there were reports of live ammunition being fired in the Damascus suburb of Tel."
AP: "One of three wives living with Osama bin Laden has told Pakistani interrogators she had been staying in the al-Qaida chief's hideout for six years without leaving its upper floors, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday. The woman, identified as Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, and the other two wives of bin Laden are being interrogated in Pakistan...."
Reuters: "Heavily armed Taliban fighters, appearing in a video purporting to show frontline militants in southern Afghanistan, have said the killing of Osama bin Ladenwill inspire them to continue fighting until all foreign troops have left the country. It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the video, which was obtained by Reuters in southern Afghanistan."
Washington Post: "Lawmakers from both parties opened budget talks with the White House on Thursday with a tacit agreement to focus on areas where they might find common ground that could produce significant savings and to postpone consideration of divisive issues such as higher tax rates and a dramatic overhaul of Medicare."
Why Are We Talking about Torture? Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "Debating whether torture, years ago, was responsible for the death of Osama bin Laden and therefore vindicated ... requires not only putting together a bunch of tenuous connections to make the positive case but ignoring the much more obvious evidence of the costs of the policy along the way that matter even if that tenuous positive case is true. Or, to put it another way: It’s an easy case to make on faith, but sort of preposterous otherwise." Bernstein thinks conservatives are touting torture because (a) they want to divert attention from praise of President Obama, (b) they want to emphasize as issue that divides the parties, & (c) they feel the need to "profess their faith" in torture "loudly & often." Thanks to Trish R. for the link. CW: And they definitely want to get their names in the paper.
Gail Collins rips into Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels who, while flirting with a run for president, is preparing to sign a bill defunding Planned Parenthood in the state & further curbing abortion rights. Under the bill, which the Republican-led legislature has passed & Daniels has backed, it will be
impossible for Medicaid recipients to make use of the 28 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state and bans abortions for pregnancies that have reached 20 weeks. Also, doctors would be required to tell women seeking abortions that 'medical evidence shows that a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks,' that human life begins when the egg is fertilized and that having an abortion could cause infertility.
I've added a comments page for Collins' column on Off Times Square & have posted my comment on Collins' column. You can comment on Collins or on any other political or news items.
Adam Entous, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "U.S. and European intelligence officials increasingly believe active or retired Pakistani military or intelligence officials provided some measure of aid to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, allowing him to stay hidden in a large compound just a mile from an elite military academy.... 'There's no doubt he was protected by some in the ISI...,' a high-level European military official ... said." ...
... Yochi Dreazen, et al., of the National Journal: "The [Obama] administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive." ...
Vice Admiral William McRaven. Photo via the Washington Post.... Terrorist Hunter. Craig Whitlock of the Washington Postprofiles Vice Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the raid on the bin Laden compound. "He has worked almost exclusively on counterterrorism operations and strategy since 2001, when as a Navy captain he was assigned to the White House shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. The author of a textbook titled 'Spec Ops,' McRaven had long emphasized six key requirements for any successful mission: surprise, speed, security, simplicity, purpose and repetition. For the especially risky bin Laden operation, he insisted on another: precision."
Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: "Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee today [Wednesday] on the limitations on reducing deficits through changes in the budget process, Senior Fellow Paul Van de Water explained that Senator Corker’s proposed federal spending cap would (among other things) make the economy less stable.... Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder made the same point recently.... [The proposal also] fails to account for basic changes in society and government and would force deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security...."
The Dumbing-Down of America, Con'd. Sam Dillon of the New York Times: "Fewer than half of American eighth graders knew the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the most recent national civics examination, and only one in 10 demonstrated acceptable knowledge of the checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches, according to test results released on Wednesday."
Right Wing World *
The Ryan plan doesn't cut Medicare. Actually, it increases funding in it.... The only people in this town that have voted to cut Medicare spending are the people who voted in favor of Obamacare. That's a fact. And so the truth is the people. -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), on "Meet the Press"
Paul Krugman: "... now that the [Republican/Ryan] budget has turned out to be both cruel and ludicrous, Republicans have taken to defending it by ... lying about it. Jonathan Cohn catches Marco Rubio declaring that the Ryan plan doesn’t cut Medicare funding — when the Medicare cuts were precisely what supposedly made the plan 'serious'. (We were supposed to focus on that, not on the huge tax cuts or the plan’s reliance on assuming that discretionary spending could be reduced to Calvin Coolidge levels). Here's the Cohn article.
Known and Unknown -- What Will Donald Rumsfeld Say Next? Joan Walsh of Salon: after telling Newsmax on Monday that information that led to finding Osama bin Laden "was not torture and it was not waterboarding," Rumsfeld told Sean Hannity that the CIA got "critically important" information from people the CIA waterboarded." CW: sounds as if after his first remark, somebody told Rumsfeld he should go back to defending torture, as John Yoo, Liz Cheney & other members of the Torture Cult have been doing.
* Where facts never intrude.
News Ledes
President Obama lays a wreath at Ground Zero:
... AND Vice President Biden lays a wreath at the Pentagon:
New York Times: "After reviewing computer files and documents seized at the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, American intelligence analysts have concluded that the chief of Al Qaedaplayed a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks from his hide-out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, United States officials said Thursday." The Washington Post story is here. ABC News story here, with video report.
President & Mrs. Obama hosted a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House this evening.
President Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City earlier this afternoon. Minutes later, Vice President Biden participated in a similar ceremony at the Pentagon. Obama met with 9/11 family members. AP story here. New York TimesUpdate: "... in the wreath ceremony and in a series of meeting across Manhattan on Thursday, the president had a chance to meet one-to-one with the people whose lives were changed most deeply by Bin Laden — relatives of the victims, as well as firefighters and other rescue workers who lost comrades that morning."
Vice President Biden meets with lawmakers from both parties this morning with a goal toward reaching compromise on deficit reduction.
AP: Fake Osama bin Laden death photographs go viral, global. CW: I have heard that some of the main sites that feature these fake photos contain viruses, so before you decide to entertain yourself looking at fake pictures of a dead terrorist, consider the source. ...
... AND They Fooled Republican Senators. Time: Republican Senators have been passing around the fake photos via their cellphones, & at least three -- Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire), Saxby Chambliss (Georgia) & Scott Brown (Massachusetts) were duped into thinking the photos were real. Brown even boasted about having seen the death photos in an NECN interview & had to issue a retraction.
Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, leaders of the minority parties in the Senate and House introduced their jobs agendas in spirited fashion. Senate Republicans and House Democrats sought to demonstrate that, unlike the parties that control their respective chambers, they are focused chiefly on one of the top concerns of American voters: creating jobs and stimulating economic growth."
Al Jazeera: "The NATO-backed coalition in Libya has said it would create a fund for rebels running short of supplies and money. Italy, host of Thursday's meeting in Rome of the Contact Group on Libya, said the temporary special fund would aim to channel cash to the opposition administration in its eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi."
AP: "Claude Stanley Choules..., the last-known combat veteran of World War I..., died in a Western Australia nursing home Thursday at age 110.
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