The Commentariat -- February 18
Times reporter Michael Slackman & his videographer are fired on by government forces in Manama, Bahrain:
... Slackman filed his story anyway. ...
... Nicholas Kristof reports from Bahrain: "To be here and see corpses of protesters with gunshot wounds, to hear an eyewitness account of an execution of a handcuffed protester, to interview paramedics who say they were beaten for trying to treat the injured — yes, all that just breaks my heart."
During House debate on a Republican-led amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) revealed that she had had an abortion necessitated by a physical anomaly. Here's a related story from The Hill. Thanks to Leader Pelosi for posting this video:
** New York Times Editorial Board: Justice Clarence Thomas' refusal to participate in oral arguments is related to his ethical problems regarding his participation in political events & his wife's income as a lobbyist for political causes.
Paul Krugman: "There are three things you need to know about the current budget debate. First, it’s essentially fraudulent. Second, most people posing as deficit hawks are faking it. Third, while President Obama hasn’t fully avoided the fraudulence, he’s less bad than his opponents — and he deserves much more credit for fiscal responsibility than he’s getting."
On the Budget. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. … Is there no other way the world may live? -- President Dwight Eisenhower (formerly Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, European Theater), April 16, 1953
David Sirota in Salon: Americans really like government programs but they don't know, or at least don't acknowledge, that they are utilizing these programs. "Americans become more supportive of government after using 'visible social programs,' but they do not become more supportive of government after using submerged-state programs"; i.e., ones they don't "see." "Rather than champion those 'visible social programs' like a public healthcare option or a new Works Progress Administration that might broadcast government's intrinsic value, [President Obama] merely pushed to expand the submerged state with initiatives like private health insurance subsidies and business tax cuts..." Big mistake.
Elizabeth Drew, in the New York Review of Books, assesses Obama's presidency & his relationship wit Republicans in Congress: "the widespread idea that Obama has 'turned to the center' has been much overstated, a concept encouraged by the White House and aimed at independents: Obama has made some symbolic gestures..., but he was no flaming liberal in his first two years in office."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: "Show Us the Jobs":
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, talks to Cenk Uygur of MSNBC about false information Powell presented to the U.N. Wilkerson says he "absolutely" believes Vice President Cheney manipulated Gen. Powell:
Homeland Security muzzles 84,000 innocent bloggers, falsely accuses them of distributing porn. Jerry Brito in Time's Techland: "... last Tuesday ... DHS announced that it had seized 10 domain names allegedly involved in advertising or distributing child pornography. Caught up in that sweep, however, were 84,000 innocent domains, all of which were redirected to the imposing 'seized for child porn' banner.... Exactly how this happened is unclear, but one likely scenario could have been prevented with better due process."
Local News
New York Times Editorial Board: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker "decided a budget crisis was a good time to advance an ideological goal ...: eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employees.... Meanwhile, the governor is refusing to accept his own share of responsibility for the state’s projected $137 million shortfall. Just last month, he and the Legislature gave away $117 million in tax breaks, mostly for businesses ... and for private health savings accounts.... Had it not been for those decisions and a few others, according to the state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state would have had a surplus." ...
... Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times Editors: "Wisconsin ... had been managing better until Walker took over.... In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.... [Then] Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January.... Walker is manufacturing a fiscal 'crisis' in order to achieve political goals." ...
... You can join the campaign against this draconian legislation by signing this letter from Bold Progressives.org. (You need not be a Wisconsin resident.) ...
... Ha Ha. Eric Lach of TPM: "File this one under: brevity win. Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor (D) is one of the 14 Democrats who staged a walkout Thursday, and who no one seems to be able to locate. But that doesn't mean she has been in total hiding. [Thursday] afternoon, Taylor posted the following message -- which TPM is reproducing in its entirety -- on what appears to be her Facebook page":
brb
... CW: for those of you who, like me, aren't up on techspeak, "brb" is "be right back."
Right Wing World
Gene Robinson: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a likely Republican candidate for president, once again shows his indifference to black Americans; he says he will not denounce a group that has proposed a state license plate honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose troops murdered black Union soldiers trying to surrender & who became a founding member & the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Barbour has a history of dismissing sensitive racial issues -- like, oh, segregation! -- as inconsequential.
When Karl Rove Is the Voice of Reason.... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "Former Bush adviser Karl Rove is calling on GOP politicians to avoid falling into the 'birther' movement trap and to stop fueling rumors that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States."
News Ledes
President Obama at Intel on Friday:
Al Jazeera: "The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlements as "illegal" and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building. All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was backed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Friday." With video.
New York Times: "The fight over a bill to slash collective bargaining for Wisconsin’s public workers came to a standstill on Friday, as Democratic state senators refused to appear at the Capitol, members of the State Assembly delayed a vote until next week and thousand of protesters, their numbers still growing, marched, screamed, sang and sat."
New York Times: "Jeff Bingaman, a Democratic senator from New Mexico, will retire at the end of his term in 2012, adding to the growing list of open seats the party will have to defend next year."
President Obama spoke at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, this afternoon. AP Related: "... President Barack Obama is naming [Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellino,] one of his critics, to an advisory council responsible for finding new ways to promote economic growth and bring jobs to the U.S...." ...
Washington Post: "The widened unrest in the Middle East took a more violent turn Friday as U.S.-allied governments in Yemen and Bahrain opened fire on their citizens, prompting Britain and France to announce a halt in arms sales. The use of live ammunition against pro-democracy protesters also triggered sharp criticism from President Obama, who urged authorities in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya to show restraint and 'respect the rights of their people.'"
** New York Times: "Government forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners marching toward Pearl Square [In Manama, Bahrain] on Friday, sending people running away in panic amid the boom of concussion grenades. But even as the people fled, at least one helicopter sprayed fire on them and a witness reported seeing mourners crumpling to the ground." See Times video in left column. ...
... New York Times: "Security forces and government supporters attacked protesters on Friday — using tear gas, batons, shotguns and grenades — in pitched street battles in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen."
... New York Times: "At least 24 people have died in protests in Libya against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to Human Rights Watch, and demonstrations were reported to have continued into Friday in what appeared to be the most serious challenge in his 41-year rule."
AP: "Thousands of mourners called for the downfall of Bahrain's ruling monarchy and worshippers at Friday prayers chanted against the king as anger shifted toward the nation's highest authorities after a deadly assault on pro-reform protesters that has brought army tanks into the streets of one of the most strategic Western allies in the Gulf." ...
... Washington Post: "The state of emergency imposed Thursday over .. [Bahrain] followed a crackdown by a police force heavily composed of foreign nationals and controlled by a widely despised prime minister."
AP: "Rivaling the biggest crowds since their pro-democracy revolt began, flag-waving Egyptians packed into Tahrir Square for a day of prayer and celebration Friday to mark the fall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak a week ago and to push their new military rulers to steer the country toward reform." ...
... New York Times: "(1) Hundreds of workers went on strike on Thursday along the Suez Canal, one of the world’s strategic waterways, joining others across Egypt pressing demands for better wages and conditions.... (2) Critics have questioned why the military has refused to free thousands of political prisoners and lift the Emergency Law...."
AP: "House Republicans on Thursday moved to block the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing new rules that prohibit broadband providers from interfering with Internet traffic on their networks. With a 244-181 vote, Republican leaders succeeded in attaching an amendment to a sweeping spending bill that would bar the FCC from using government money to implement its new 'network neutrality' regulations."
Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obama dined with a dozen leaders of the U.S. technology industry including Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs and Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg as he sought support for his education and innovation agenda and discussion on promoting growth."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Schools in Madison, [Wisconsin,] will be closed a third day Friday, as teachers continue to call in sick to protest a bill taking away union rights." ...
... Washington Post: President Obama has mobilized Organizing for America in Wisconsin & Ohio in support of public employee unions. Politico has more on the participation of OFA, an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
New York Times: Fed Chair Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee today "that banking regulators would be better able to deal with the failure of a large bank today than they were two years ago, thanks in part to the Dodd-Frank Act, which overhauled financial regulation after the crisis of 2007-8."
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