Blog For Arizona

Words of wisdom from Walter Pincus on national security leaks to the media

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Walter Pincus, the National Security reporter for the Washington Post, is a consummate professional, one of a diminishing class of reporters whom I respect and admire for his body of work.

Any time the media is at the center of a controversy, they can do no wrong in their view. They posssess an absolutist view of the First Amendment right of a free press. No limitations should ever apply to the media. But as we all know, the rights secured by the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment right of a free press, come with limitations. Nothing is absolute. Especially when it endangers national security, methods and sources, and puts people's lives at risk.

Walter Pincus offers his words of wisdom on national security leaks to the media today. Will his media colleagues listen? Fine Print: The press and national security :

Whoever provided the initial leak to the Associated Press in April 2012 not only broke the law but caused the abrupt end to a secret, joint U.S./Saudi/British operation in Yemen that offered valuable intelligence against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

One goal was to get AQAP’s operational head, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso. That happened one day before the AP story appeared.

A second goal was to find and possibly kill AQAP bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri . . .

The drone attack that killed Quso hadn’t occurred when AP reporters were checking out the leak and contacting government officials. Acting responsibly, the AP withheld its story for several days at the government’s request. Lives were at stake, officials said.

Man up McCain, and apologize to Susan Rice

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This morning I posted:

The worst purveyors of this "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal have been the new Three Stooges, Sens. John McCain, his puppet boy Little Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte as "Shemp." They have perpetrated a fraud for purely partisan political retaliation. They besmirched the reputation of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who has been vindicated by the emails released this week.

The new Three Stooges owe Susan Rice and the American people an apology. They have demonstrated their utter lack of character and judgment to serve in the U.S. Senate. If they had any honor, they would submit their resignations from the U.S. Senate for their indefensible actions.

Others are making the same point. Steve Benen writes today in Rice's rehabilitated reputation:

When Time's Michael Crowley reported this week on what we learned from the disclosure of internal administration emails on Benghazi, it noted three larger takeaways, one of which was "Susan Rice got hosed."

'Benghazi!' faux scandal: Stick a fork in it, it's done

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Major Garrett, who used to work for FAUX News Fraudcasting for years, left the GOPropaganda machine to go to work for CBS News. Last night on CBS Evening News, Major Garrett put a definitive end to the conservative media entertainment complex cult's "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal, with this report (transcript by) Josh Marshall: CBS Calls Out GOP For Doctoring Benghazi Emails:

MAJOR GARRETT: Scott, Republicans have claimed that the State Department under Hillary Clinton was trying to protect itself from criticism. The White House released the real e-mails late yesterday and here’s what we found when we compared them to the quotes that had been provided by Republicans. One e-mail was written by Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. On Friday, Republicans leaked what they said was a quote from Rhodes. “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.” But it turns out, in the actual e-mail Rhodes did not mention the State Department. It read “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.” Republicans also provided what they said was a quote from an e-mail written by State Department Spokesman Victoria Nuland. The Republican version notes Nuland discussing: “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.” The actual e-mail from Nuland says: the “…penultimate point could be abused by Members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings…” The C.I.A. agreed with the concerns raised by the State Department and revised the talking points to make them less specific than the C.I.A.’s original version, eliminating references to al-Qaeda and affiliates and earlier security warnings. There is no evidence, Scott, the White House orchestrated these changes.

Video below the fold.

When the evidence doesn't fit the narrative, the GOP just fabricates the evidence

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Well, well, well . . . the "nothingburger" of the conservative media entertainment complex's "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!" faux scandal now has a real scandal, only this one involves a GOP operative "misrepresenting" the contents of an email to an all too gullible "lamestream" media wanting to out-FOX FOX News.

Jake Tapper, who used to work for ABC News but has moved to TeaNN (formerly CNN), has a scoop today on how his former employer got played by this GOP operative in its "exclusive" report last week. CNN exclusive: White House email contradicts Benghazi leaks:

CNN has obtained an e-mail sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama about White House reaction to the deadly attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that apparently differs from how sources characterized it to two different media organizations.

The actual e-mail from then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes appears to show that whomever leaked it did so in a way that made it appear that the White House was primarily concerned with the State Department's desire to remove references and warnings about specific terrorist groups so as to not bring criticism to the department.

Rhodes, White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri, and White House press secretary Jay Carney, could not be reached for comment.

Iran's authoritarian streak has deep roots

By Karl Reiner

Authoritarian rulers are not uncommon to Iran.  As Iran's June presidential election nears, the Guardian Council has yet to announce the list of approved candidates.  Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wants to see a suitable conservative elected as president.  In a country facing a faltering economy, sanctions and entanglement in Syria, the Supreme Leader may face some difficulty in getting his way.

In the 1960s, the Shah of Iran wanted to turn Iran into a new Persian Empire.  He aspired to make it a major force in the Persian Gulf area.  As the British withdrew their military presence east of Suez, the Shah was ready to step in and put his plan into action.

Oil revenues allowed the Shah to make large arms purchases.  Using the Cold War to his advantage, he knew if he couldn't buy military equipment from the U.S., the Soviet Union would sell him all the arms he wanted.  Within a few short years, Iran's military was turned into one of the most technologically advanced forces in the world.

John McCain makes a complete ass of himself over 'Benghazi!' Part 2

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh dear lord, the new Three Stooges (John McCain, his puppet boy Little Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte as "Shemp") are back at it again today. It appears that the "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal is really just about semantics, or diction. "You didn't say the magic words!"

Talking Points Memo reports, McCain, Graham And Ayotte Dismiss Obama’s ‘Generic’ Terror Reference:

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on Monday issued a statement dismissing President Barack Obama's insistence that he attributed the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya to terrorism.

Speaking in the Rose Garden the day following the Sept. 11, 2012 attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, Obama made reference to "acts of terror" — a "generic reference," as the three Republican senators put it. McCain, Graham and Ayotte cited subsequent interviews that Obama gave in which he stopped short of describing the attack as terrorism. The three senators also called for the creation of a Joint Select Committee " to resolve these contradictions and answer the many other unanswered questions about this tragedy."

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Monday also pushed back Obama's characterization of the attack, arguing during an appearance on Fox News that "an act of terror is different than a terrorist attack."

Seriously, Dude? That's all you got?

John McCain makes a complete ass of himself over 'Benghazi!'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Once again, "If it's Sunday, it's John McCain" on the Sunday morning bobble-head shows. The Beltway media are his political base, and nothing is more irresponsible.

In his 30 years in Washington, never has one man been so wrong about so many subjects as John McCain. In fact, John McCain is the perfect cipher. If you want to know what you should do, just ask John McCain what he thinks and then do exactly the opposite. You can't go wrong.

So this past Sunday, the leader of the new Three Stooges (McCain stars with his puppet boy Little Lindsey Graham and, replacing Joe Lieberman, Kelly Ayotte as "Shemp") who has been pushing the "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" faux scandal for months, went on ABC's "This Week" for an interview with Martha Raddatz, and accused the White House of a "cover-up." "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." John McCain Goes Wacko Bird and Accuses Hillary Clinton of Benghazi Cover Up:

Transcript from ABC News:

RADDATZ: Would you call this a cover-up?

MCCAIN: I’d call it a cover-up. I — I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious. It was obvious. Mr. Hicks said in his testimony, his jaw dropped when he saw Susan Rice do that — I was on — I was on another Sunday morning show after Susan Rice, my jaw dropped. I said, look people don’t bring rocket-propelled grenades and mortars to spontaneous demonstrations.

Benghazi! 'A tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There has been a remarkable amount of bad journalism this week from the corporate "lamestream" media, taking its cue from the hysterical conspiracy mongering conservative media entertainment complex cult on "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!". This is the right-wing noise machine's business model, as Jonathan Bernstein pointed out in The real lesson of Benghazi:

Part of what’s happening is, as Jamelle Bouie pointed out today, the strong demand within the conservative marketplace for scandal. But there’s more than that; it’s not just a demand for scandal, but how easily the customers accept anything presented to them. The result — and Alex Pareene is very good on this today — is that they don’t bother putting together a “coherent or convincing narrative.”

Pareene usefully contrasts Benghazi and other Obama scandals to the Bill Clinton scandals of the 1990s .  . . With Obama, there’s no need for these scandals to make sense; the conservative press will run with them either way. And there might even be an advantage to incoherence. After all, if the accusations are gibberish, the neutral reporters will tend to ignore them — and then conservatives can go on conservative talk radio and Fox News and charge the rest of the press of ignoring these extremely important charges.

Andrew Sabl asks the right questions that the lazy good for nothing Beltway media villagers are not asking. On Benghazi—An honest plea for specific charges:

Look, I’m not a Benghazi expert. I’m willing to entertain the possibility that there’s something here that the media aren’t telling me. But before I evaluate the case, I need to see some concrete charges. My challenge to conservatives is to tell me, very simply, the following:

(1) What, in your view, was the crime? Who did what and which law did it break? No crime, no cover-up (in the usual sense).

But the idea seems to be that what was “covered up” was not crime but incompetence. (That stretches the former meaning of “cover-up,” but never mind.) So:

The star of FAUX News Fraudcasting's 'Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!' not the stellar employee he imagines himself to be in his own mind

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It appears that the star of FAUX News Fraudcasting's much anticipated over-hyped and over-sold extravanganza of "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!", Gregory Hicks, is not the stellar employee he imagines himself to be in his own mind. As Dana Milbank reported yesterday:

[T]his whistleblower spent a good bit of time tooting his own horn. “I earned a reputation for being an innovative policymaker who got the job done. I was promoted quickly and received numerous awards,” Hicks informed the lawmakers. “I have two master’s degrees. . . . I speak fluent Arabic. . . . I fast became known as the ambassador’s bulldog because of my decisive management styles. . . . Incoming charge Larry Pope told me personally that my performance was near-heroic.”

It turns out that State Department staff who actually worked with this guy have a far different opinion of his value as an employee. Think Progress has this EXCLUSIVE: Embassy Staff Undercut ‘Whistleblower’ Testimony On Benghazi:

Staff who served in Libya with Gregory Hicks, the GOP’s primary “whistleblower” in this week’s hearing on the Benghazi terror attacks, undercut his story that State Department officials demoted him as retribution for speaking out, instead telling ThinkProgress about a man who one described as “the worst manager I’ve ever seen in the Foreign Service.”

Throughout his testimony on Wednesday, Hicks seemed certain that any critique of his leadership style while serving as deputy chief of mission in Libya was based solely around anger related to his stance on Benghazi. He also blamed his subsequent assignment after being pulled from Libya in mid-Oct. 2012 on his speaking out against the Obama administration’s response to the attacks.

[The State Department disputes diplomat's charges of retaliation]

FAUX fail on 'Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!' extravaganza

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The only thing that could have made FAUX News Fraudcasting's much anticipated over-hyped and over-sold extravanganza of "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" even better would have been having Geraldo Rivera host it from the congressional hearing room in a reprisal of his infamous The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults special. "I wasted two hours of my life that i will never get back watching this piece of crap, and all you got is dirt and a few empty bottles?"

As Sally Brown said to Linus van Pelt after waiting all night in the most sincere pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to appear, but who never came, "You owe me restitution!"

So it was on Wednesday when Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) Rep. Darrell "Grand Theft Auto" Issa (R-LaLa Land) held his third committee hearing witch hunt into the Whitewater "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" controversy hoping to prove that Hillary Clinton murdered Vincent Foster Ambassador Chris Stevens.

What else would you expect from someone who has been arrested for auto theft, weapons charges and suspected arson. See Meet Darrell 'Grand Theft Auto'. He is a street punk. Issa has simply dusted off Rep. Dan Burton's "Big Book of Scandal Mongering" from the Clinton administration in the 1990s that helped to build the fledgling FAUX News Fraudcasting. Roger Ailes still hates Hillary Clinton with a white-hot passion for pointing out his "vast right-wing conspiracy."

The over-hyped and over-sold extravanganza of "Benghazi! Benghazi!! Benghazi!!!" produced Yet Another Benghazi Nothingburger, in the words of Kevin Drum.

Washington Post media villager Dana Milbank delivers an appropriately skeptical narrative of Wednesday's hearing witch hunt. Whistleblower’s yarn fails to tie Benghazi lapses to politics:

They summoned a whistleblower to Capitol Hill, but instead they got a virtuoso storyteller.

CAP Christian Taliban threatens Governor Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan with specious claims about abortion

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Mullah Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) have emerged as a principal opponent of Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan. These fetus fetish anti-abortion extremists, who imagine abortion lurking in every bill in their fevered minds, have put forward specious claims that the Governor's plan will somehow "indirectly" provide funding for abortions, even though state and federal law has long prohibited such funding.

These radical extremists would rather see real live cancer patients and transplant patients in desperate need of AHCCCS healthcare coverage die, because they imagine a fictional fetus might somehow, someday be aborted. I fail to discern any "Christianity" in this position. WWJD?

The Arizona Republic reports, Arizona abortion issue heightens Medicaid standoff:

[Gov.] Brewer’s office is preparing language, to be amended onto a separate bill, that would ensure no federal expansion funding goes to health-care providers that perform abortions.

The move is a response to lobbying from Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, who says Medicaid expansion would subsidize abortions — a claim that puts in a political vise anti-abortion GOP lawmakers who back the governor’s proposal.

[Herrod first raised the abortion issue in late March in a letter to Brewer, using an opinion from a Christian legal-defense organization to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving public money.]

“In response to some of the concerns raised by lawmakers, the governor has been willing to revisit this issue,” Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said Tuesday. “It’s become clear that it would be difficult to move forward with Medicaid restoration until some of these legislative concerns about abortion are addressed.”

Tea-Publican economic terrorists threaten to take the country hostage, just because they can

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tea-Publican Party no longer does policy. Whatever President Obama and the Democrats propose, they simply take the exact opposite position -- even when it is their bill that they proposed. Some commentators have taken to calling the GOP the "post-policy party" -- they stand for nothing but obstruction. Jonathan Bernstein writes, GOP’s debt limit threat goes off the rails:

In 2010, Republicans threatened to put the nation into default unless Democrats agreed to fulfill every wild conservative wish, more or less, about the size of government.

This time? Apparently, Republicans are planning to threaten default unless they get … tax reform!

That’s the takeaway from a nice Post story about GOP strategy heading into the need to raise the debt limit this summer. The problem, basically, is that Republicans have already cut discretionary spending deeply thanks to sequestration, so it’s relatively hard for them to ask for that. What about entitlement cuts? Yes, Republicans had previously claimed they wanted entitlement cuts, and in his budget, Obama offered them Chained CPI on Social Security. But while cutting “entitlements” in the abstract is a big attraction for many conservatives, cutting Social Security and Medicare – which is what cutting entitlements actually means — is unpopular. So — while this is not entirely clear cut or decided — House Republicans apparently have suddenly decided they don’t want to ask for those in exchange for the debt limit hike, either.

Instead, they are considering forcing the Democrats to go along with them on tax reform. Jonathan Chait had some fun with this by noting that the main difference between the parties on tax reform is that Republicans insist on revenue-neutral tax reform while Democrats want net revenue increases, which means that Republicans would be threatening to default the nation unless Democrats … agree to larger deficits.

'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread' - Sens. McCain and Graham call for U.S. intervention in Syria

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week, the Obama administration announced that U.S. Intelligence points to small-scale use of sarin in Syria:

In a letter sent to lawmakers before Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's announcement, the White House said that intelligence analysts have concluded "with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin."

The White House cautioned that the "chain of custody" of the chemicals was not clear and that intelligence analysts could not confirm the circumstances under which the sarin was used, including the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

But, the letter said, "we do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime."

Note the caution and need for further investigation of the evidence in this statement. This is the lesson learned from the fabrication of intelligence and lies told to falsely lead this country into an unnecessary war in Iraq. Contrast this restraint with Neocon war monger Sen. John McCain, who said the evidence is good enough for him, let's intervene in Syria yesterday:

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, urged the administration to work for the establishment of a safe zone for Syrian rebels.

"Everything that the non-interventionists said would happen in Syria if we intervened has happened," he said. "The jihadists are on the ascendency, there is chemical weapons being used, the massacres continue.

Who Is Homeland Security Watching? Off-the-grid Fertilizer Plant vs On-the-Grid Citizenry

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Last week was an outrageous news week for our country with the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, the explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant on Wednesday, and the shoutout, manhunt, killing, and capture of the bomber brothers at the end of the week. Whew.

This Monday on MSNBC, Chris Hayes offered an interesting look back at these events. (Video link below.) During the week of the bombings, there was continuous coverage of the "terrorist attack" in Boston and continuous pundit chatter about terrorism, but relatively little coverage of the chemical plant explosion in West, Texas.

Apparently, workplace casualties caused by corporate neglect and lack of government oversight are not as sexy as pressure cooker bombers, even though, as Hayes pointed out, people are far more likely to be killed on the job than in a terror attack. Citing 2000-2010 data, Hayes reported that in that 10-year period, there were 3033 deaths from terrorist attacks, 60,394 workplace deaths, and 335,609 firearm deaths.

Given these statistics, it is ironic (and somewhat sad) to see what Congress has chosen to regulate. Not firearms and not workplace safety. They are working on further immigration regulations and further militarization of the border-- just in case some of those Mexican laborers might be terrorists.

In a stunning omission of oversight, Hayes also reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-- the same group that found the two Boston bombers in a matter of days-- didn't know the fertilizer plant in Texas existed! (Don't they know about Google Earth?)

Quoting Reuters, Hayes further reported that the plant had "1300 times the amount of amonium nitrate fertilizer that would normally alert DHS" and "100 times more than the Oklahoma City bombing."

So, who is DHS watching? Us. They're watching real people-- not corporate people. 

Watch Chris Hayes here: Willfully off the Grid

Rand Paul down with using drones to summarily execute American citizens

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Just last month the village idiot Aqua Buddha, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), led a filibuster against the notion of using drones on American soil. Wingnuttia went wild with "I Stand with Rand" hashtags on twitter, fund raising emails, and even a line of merchandize online. There was a brief "Paul bump" in Beltway media villager speculation about 2016.

So this is fun. On Monday, Aqua Buddha told FAUX News that he is down with using drones on American soil and using them to summarily execute American citizens without the niceties of constitutional due process. Oh yes he did. John Aravosis reports, Rand Paul favors using $12m drones to kill liquor store robbers (video):

In a weird moment of macho bravado, Rand Paul told Fox the following:

I’ve never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash, I don’t care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him…

How you can help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, many of whom suffered the loss of their legs or serious injury, do not all have medical insurance coverage adequate to provide for their long-term care, prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation. The New York Times reports today, For Wounded, Daunting Cost; for Aid Fund, Tough Decisions:

For victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, the terrible physical cost may come with a daunting financial cost as well.

Many of the wounded could face staggering bills not just for the trauma care they received in the days after the bombings, but for prosthetic limbs, lengthy rehabilitation and the equipment they will need to negotiate daily life with crippling injuries. Even those with health insurance may find that their plan places limits on specific services, like physical therapy or psychological counseling.

Kenneth R. Feinberg, the lawyer who has overseen compensation funds for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the shootings at Virginia Tech and other disasters, arrived in Boston on Monday to start the difficult work of deciding who will be eligible for payouts from a new compensation fund and how much each person wounded in the bombings and family of the dead deserves.

The One Fund Boston, which Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts created a day after the bombings, has already raised more than $10 million for victims and their families. At the same time, friends and relatives have set up dozens of smaller funds for individual victims.

For at least 13 victims who lost limbs, including William White of Bolton, Mass., expenses may also include renovations to their homes that make it easier for them to get around.

FBI terrorist watch list would not have prevented the Boston bombing

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Boston Globe reported, FBI was warned 2 years ago of alleged bomber’s radical shift:

Russian authorities warned the FBI in early 2011 that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been a follower of “radical Islam”[.]

* * *

A senior congressional aide privy to the Boston Marathon terror investigation confirmed Saturday that the FBI received the warning after Tsarnaev’s apparently suspicious activities caught the attention of Russian authorities keeping close surveillance on militant Islamist groups in the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union.

The FBI acknowledged Friday that it had investigated Tsarnaev in 2011, even interviewing him and his family, but “did not find any terrorism activity,” either domestic or foreign.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) confirmed on Sunday, Rep. Mike Rogers: Tamerlan Tsarnaev May Have Traveled To Russia Under An Alias - Huffington Post:

Law enforcement officials confirmed Saturday that the FBI had interrogated Tsarnaev in 2011 after the Russian government raised concerns to U.S. authorities that he was a follower of radical Islam. Rogers told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the FBI stopped tracking Tsarnaev after a foreign intelligence service failed to cooperate with its investigation.

"The FBI did their due diligence, did a very thorough job about trying to run that to ground and then asked for more help from that intelligence service to get further clarification," said Rogers. "Unfortunately, that intelligence service stopped cooperating, so what happens is that case gets closed down."

He then said that Tsarnaev "may have actually traveled on an alias to get back to his home country" last year and "that six and a half months or so becomes extremely important."

Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Screw the Constitution

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember just a few weeks ago when the right-wing was all in a tizzy about the village idiot Aqua Buddha, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and his filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan for CIA Director over the use of drones in the U.S.? There was a lot of highfalutin talk from these right-wingers about the constitutional rights of American citizens on American soil -- when they thought they were talking about far-right fringe groups like white supremacists, Christian nationalists, the militia movement, and gun worshipers and fetishists.

Then came the Boston Marathon bombing.

The 19-year old Boston Bomber suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is a naturalized American citizen. He possesses the same constitutional rights as any natural born American citizen. A naturalized American citizen does not lose his constitutional rights any more than a natural born American citizen who is a terrorist, Timothy McVeigh for example, loses his constitutional rights.

But the "war on terror" twins, Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, are once again seeking to redefine the constitutional rights of American citizens under the rubric of their Neocon "war on terror." They would declare criminal actions an "act of war" for convenience sake and to declare American citizens on American soil an "enemy combatant" in order to deprive American citizens of their constitutional rights.

Americans have more to fear from the "war on terror" twins, Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, than any wingnut conspiracy theory about President Obama using drones to kill American citizens on American soil. This pair of assholes actually wrote their bastardization of the Constitution into law, and the U.S. Supreme Court took a pass on its constitutionality. This threat is genuine.

Boston reacts to the capture of the Marathon bomber

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today's front page of the Boston Globe.

Boston rejoiced after news of the capture of the Marathon bomber. It reminded me of the celebration after their beloved Red Sox won the 2004 World Series and ended the curse of the Bambino after 86 years. It's famously been said that "Boston cares about three things: sports, politics and revenge." These terrorists picked the wrong friggin' city! Video below the fold.

BREAKING in Boston: One suspect dead, one being sought

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

From the Boston Globe:

The Boston Globe reports, People in Boston, surrounding communities, told to stay indoors as hunt for Marathon bombing suspect continues in Watertown:

WATERTOWN — A massive manhunt is underway this morning in Boston and several surrounding communities for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon terror bombing attacks. A second suspect has died in a confrontation with police, while one police officer has been killed and another has been seriously wounded.

At 8:45 a.m., a SWAT team and armored car had been summoned and police were surrounding a home and a car near the intersection of Willow Park and Quimby in Watertown, the community that officials said is the focus of their search.

“They’re pointed across the street. Guns are pointed across the street. There have been hundreds of cops here throughout the day,” said Natalie, a resident of Willow Park, who declined to give her last name.

President Obama at the Interfaith Service in Boston

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

President Obama delivered remarks at the "Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service" at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, dedicated to those who were wounded or killed in Monday’s bombing of the Boston Marathon. His speech was a celebration of the "Hub" of the universe and the people of Boston.

After the service, President and Mrs. Obama stopped by Boston's Cathedral High School to thank some of Boston's first responders and volunteers for their tireless efforts over the past few days, and then the President visited patients, their families and hospital staff at Massachusetts General Hospital, while the First Lady stopped by Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (h/t White House blog).

Read the Transcript of prepared remarks.

Video below the fold.

FBI manhunt for Boston Marathon suspects

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The FBI held a press conference this afternoon and released photos and video of two suspects the FBI wants more information on and to take into custody for questioning.

From the FBI (h/t Business Insider):

From the posters:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking information about the individual shown in the above surveillance photos which were taken near the bombing sites at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.

This individual may be able to provide additional information related to the bombings, which resulted in the deaths of three victims and the injuries of more than 170 people.

The photo below with unknown suspect #1 and #2 was taken as the individuals were walking east at the intersection of Boylston and Gloucester Streets within proximity of the finish line.

SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS

If you have any information about the identities of the individuals depicted above, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit information at https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/.

Video below the fold.

Media frenzy - media fail

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The media is at its worst when it is trying to be the first to report "breaking news." Is there some kind of prize for this? What the hell does it matter if you are first? How about being the news organization that gets it right for a change? I know, not your business model.

There are conflicting reports today about whether a person has been taken into custody in the deadly terror bombings of the Boston Marathon on Monday. Hint: FAUX News Fraudcasting and TeaNN (formerly CNN) jumped the gun in trying to one up each other for a fractional share of cable viewers who don't have anything better to do with their lives than to watch the tee-vee all day.

If you want to know what is going on with the Boston Marathon bombings, turn off the idiot box and go to the Boston Globe at boston.com. Globe source: Bombing suspectin custody amid conflicting reports:

While a source told the Globe that a person had been taken into custody and other news organizations reported the same, based on their own sources, the US attorney’s office, the FBI, and Boston police issued statements saying no one had been arrested.

“Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack,” the FBI said. The agency, which is leading the bombing probe, asked the media to “exercise caution” and check with official channels before reporting information.

Meanwhile, the city’s federal courthouse, where a large contingent of media had gathered in anticipation of an appearance by the suspect, has been evacuated this afternoon [for a bomb threat phoned in].

Update on Boston Marathon bombing

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I really hate doing breaking news stories because the media invariably gets so much wrong. While I checked multiple sources yesterday, even multiple sourcing proved to be wrong. Even Boston's police chief got it wrong in his first press conference.

So here is the latest update from the Boston Globe today correcting earlier reporting. Investigators find bomb circuit board:

Investigators combing through the aftermath of the deadly Boston Marathon terrorist attack have recovered a circuit board in the area of one of the two blasts that they believe was used to detonate the bombs, according to an official briefed on the investigation.

Investigators have also recovered components of the bombs, enabling them to determine what they consisted of: two 6-liter 'Pressure cooker' bombs packed with nails, ball bearings, and other metal. The makeshift bombs were placed in black duffel bags, the official said.

The one that exploded first was placed on the ground on Boylston Street, across from finish-line viewing stands where dignitaries, including Governor Deval Patrick, had been sitting earlier. The second bag was placed on the ground about 75 to 100 yards down the street, outside the Forum restaurant at 755 Boylston St., according to the official.

The bombs, detonated about 12 seconds apart, killed three people and injured 176 others, including 17 who are still in critical condition.

Sanctions, resistance and a campaign trip to Iran

By Karl Reiner

Economic sanctions were first imposed on Iran by President Carter in response to the hostage crisis.  They are currently imposed by the UN, U.S. and EU to prod Iran into negotiating the nuclear issue.  The goal is to make life difficult for the population. It is hoped that the economic squeeze will create enough popular pressure to force the Iranian government to agree to a nuclear deal.

Sanctions have delayed Israeli military action. At the UN, they have helped maintain unity between the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.  The combination of Iranian mismanagement and sanctions are slowing the Iranian economy.  In 2011, Iran produced 3.6 million barrels of oil per day. Oil provides the government over 50% of its income.  Its output has been depressed by 25%.  Iran's GDP has slipped by 8%, inflation has climbed to 10%, and unemployment stands at 20%.

Is Team America headed for a Korean Barbeque?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone may want to reassemble Team America: World Police (2004), because it is increasingly apparent that new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is even crazier than his old man, Kim Jong-il -- this man-child is threatening a Korean Barbeque (nuclear war) to "settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists."

Reuters News Service reported on Wednesday, North Korea to cut all channels with South:

Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at "any moment", it said on Wednesday, days of after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack.

The move is the latest in a series of bellicose threats from North Korea in response to new U.N. sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test in February and to "hostile" military drills under way joining the United States and South Korea.

The North has already stopped responding to calls on the hotline to the U.S. military that supervises the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Red Cross line that has been used by the governments of both sides.

"Under the situation where a war may break out at any moment, there is no need to keep north-south military communications which were laid between the militaries of both sides," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

"There do not exist any dialogue channel and communications means between the DPRK and the U.S. and between the north and the south."

(Update) Arizona's Neo-confederate dead-enders and secession

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

According to the Arizona Republic(an), today is the big day for Arizona's Johnny Rebs who believe they have a right to "interposition, nullification and secession" of federal laws they don't like. "States' rights!" Today at the Capitol:

Topic: Unconstitutional federal acts.

What it’s about: The House Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility Committee will take public input and vote on Senate Concurrent Resolution 1016, which would ask voters to allow the state to ignore federal regulations believed to be unconstitutional.

Details: 2 p.m. House Hearing Room 1, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix.

Will they show up wearing their dress greys and waving their Confederate battle jack flags?

Welcome to Day 1 of the Tea Party Sequester

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Welcome to Day 1 of the Tea Party Sequester. The Tea Party economic terrorists took credit for the sequester earlier in the week. Tea party claims credit as deep cuts loom:

Since the day they were swept to power more than two years ago, the tea party’s legions in Washington have made dramatic federal spending cuts the centerpiece of an economic message that has dominated the national debate.

Now they’re about to get what they wanted.

Deep reductions in domestic and defense spending begin Friday, a process known as sequestration, which will make progress toward the tea party’s goal of shrinking government. What unfolds over the following months will be a high-stakes test of whether significant cuts in spending will help or hurt the economy — and the Republican Party’s brand.

The cuts, worth $1.2 trillion over 10 years, are to become reality after several years during which the tea party — a group of Republicans elected in 2010 with the goal of radically shrinking government — has struggled to have a lasting impact on Washington.

* * *

[M]any Republicans say the sequester is the moment when the tea party can claim it has made its mark. Although both Democratic and Republican leaders are pointing fingers, the tea party and its allies are happily accepting credit for the cuts.

Senate breaks the new 'Three Stooges' filibuster of Chuck Hagel

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The U.S. Senate today broke the filibuster by the new "Three Stooges," John McCain, his puppet boy Little Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte ("Shemp"). The Washington Post reports, Hagel clears filibuster hurdle, is poised for confirmation:

Chuck Hagel’s bid to become the next defense secretary cleared a major hurdle Tuesday, beating back a Republican effort to block his nomination almost two weeks after GOP senators launched a filibuster.

On a 71 to 27 vote, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold, the former Republican senator is poised for confirmation later Tuesday afternoon, overcoming Republican objections to his views on Middle East security.

Eighteen Republicans supported moving to a final vote, joining 53 Democrats. Some of the Republicans who supported ending the Hagel filibuster — including his chief opponents, Sens. John S. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — are expected to oppose him on the final vote, which will only require a simple majority for his confirmation.

The sad decline of Bob Woodward

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

During the Watergate era, I considered Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein heroes and the venerable Washington Post excellence in journalism. That was then, this is now.

The Washington Post long ago lost its status for excellence in journalism. It is now welfare employment for Neocon war mongers and conservative pundits. The Post has partnered with billionaire Pete Peterson who is singularly dedicated to the destruction of Soclal Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Washington Post Lets Pete Peterson Write The News On The Deficit. As I have said before, everything published by the Washington Post should come with a disclaimer disclosing this parternership -- but it does not.

The sad decline of the Washington Post has occurred during a period of time when Bob Woodward has been an editor. Bob Woodward lost his soul as a journalist as well. Having access to insiders and their confidences became more important to him than reporting corruption in government.

Woodward was present when Bush and Cheney schemed to lead this country into an unnecessary war based upon fabricated evidence in Iraq, but rather than expose this war crime, it was more important to Woodward to maintain his access and confidences so that he could personally profit from the book he was writing, Plan of Attack. Had Woodward exposed the crimes to which he was privy, thousands of lives lost could have been saved. He has much to answer for.

John McCain's partisan rage

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senator McNasty, John McCain, is only relevant to his political base -- the Beltway media. No one else gives a damn what Arizona's angry old man has to say.

This is why i despise the Beltway media: "If it's Sunday, it's John McCain." This Sunday was Meet The Press Gregory, where McCain has his own green room. The Neocon war monger Senator McNasty was engaging in "Benghazi Fever" to give political cover to his puppet boy, Little Lindsey Graham, from a Tea Party challenge for reelection. Politico’s David Rogers reports today why John McCain has so decisively turned against Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, and confirms that it’s all about Lindsey!

Steve Benen adds, McCain lost in a fog of partisan rage:

Looking back at the tragic and deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last fall, we know quite a bit about what happened. We also know, thanks to an independent investigation, that "Republican charges of a cover-up" were "pure fiction."

But as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued yesterday, he can't be bothered with facts -- he has a partisan vendetta to pursue.

The Weeper of The House takes ownership of the sequester

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The GOP approach to the sequester is so deeply unserious that no deal looks even remotely possible. Greg Sargent reported last week, GOP approach to sequester jumps shark:

[Weeper of The House John] Boehner told reporters that the Senate would have to go first in coming up with a plan to avert the sequester. [This is an abdication of his constitutional duty: all tax and spending bills must originate in the House, Article 1, Section 7.] Then he added:

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told my Republican colleagues at our retreat,” Boehner said. “The sequester will be in effect until there are cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balance the budget in the next 10 years.”

So, Boehner says House Republicans are not only willing to let the sequester hit, but that the only acceptable replacement for it will be a plan that wipes away the deficit in 10 years — all without [new] revenues.

The GOP's Gimmicks-R-Us shop: Balanced Budget Amendment Redux

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I warned you that all that talk about rebranding the GOP was really all about putting the same failed policies into a redesigned box with a "new and improved!" label to try to fool low information voters into thinking the GOP has learned its lessons from 2012 and is ready to make fundamental changes. As if.

The "madmen" of the GOP's Gimmicks-R-Us shop are out today with the lamest GOP policy idea of them all: a balanced budget amendment redux. (They really don't want a balanced budget  amendment because it would require (1) substantial tax increases and (2) substantial budget cuts to sacrosanct programs like the military. It is purely political posturing). This is what you do when you've got nuthin' but gimmicks. No end to the GOP’s fiscal gimmickry:

If this is accurate, then you may as well brace for the sequester cuts to hit, because it shows even more clearly than usual that Republicans view the sequester — which they themselves say will devastate the military and tank the economy — as preferable to giving up an additional penny in new revenues. The National Review scoops the Senate GOP’s next move, and note in particular the last paragraph:

Frustrated by the months of non-stop budget fights, Senate Republicans are set to mount a fiscal counteroffensive this week with the reintroduction of a balanced-budget amendment.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and minority whip John Cornyn are leading the effort. They hope to unveil a bill by Thursday with unanimous Republican support. [...]

House Republican aides say most conservatives in the lower chamber are going to support the Senate’s plan. Speeches and media appearances are being arranged for later this week. [...]

According to a Senate GOP aide, the legislation would cap federal spending at 18 percent of GDP. It would also require a supermajority for tax hikes and debt-limit increases.

Sen. John McCain makes a complete ass-hat of himself at Chuck Hagel confirmation hearing

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Neocon war monger Sen. John McCain is one of the architects of the Iraq war. He was the Washington, D.C. patron of Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress, and was advocating for war with Iraq as early as the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, advocated for by his friends at the Neocon Project for the New American Century. Chalabi and the INC fabricated the intelligence that the Bush-Cheney regime used to justify the unnecessary war in Iraq, at a substantial loss of American lives and treasure, as well as the substantial loss of Iraqi lives. John McCain has blood on his hands for which he should be held to account, but he never will, because the media is "his base" and always treats him as a demigod.

If it were up to John McCain, there would still be more than 160,000 American combat troops in Iraq, and more than 140,000 combat troops in Afghanistan -- and their deployment would be permanent. Recall that McCain tried to instigate a war on the side of Georgia against Russia during his 2008 campaign. He would have ordered U.S. combat troops into Libya and Syria, and to any other hot spot in the world. He is a militarist who believes in PNAC's Pax Americana Empire through U.S. military invasion and occupation. The American people have rejected this Neocon "Bush Doctrine," but McCain believes he he knows better than the American people.

GDP contracts in 4Q due to not enough government spending

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So the headline on all of the economics and business pages today is U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank in 4Q. Oh noes! The caption editors really ought to read further before causing a panic with their unnecessarily dire captions.

Wednesday afternoon, after completing their first policy meeting of the year, Federal Reserve leaders signaled that they saw the decline not as indicative of some bigger downturn in the economy. Evidence since their December meeting “suggests that growth in economic activity paused in recent months, in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors,” [e.g., fiscal cliff negotiations] the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policymaking group, said in a statement. The officials left their current policies in place, maintaining near-zero interest rates and a program of buying $85 billion in securities each month.

Gross domestic product fell at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, far below the 1.1 percent gain that analysts had forecast. The number will be revised extensively in the months ahead as more complete data becomes available, but if the number stays in negative territory, it would be the first contraction for the U.S. economy since the second quarter of 2009.

PDA at the Inaugural Peace Ball (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

No, this is not a picture of the Peace Ball. I was just trying to get your attention. That's Barack and Michelle, of course. After the jump, check out Loneprotestor's video of the Peace Ball.

Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders lead the way for . . . Mississippi

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in 2011, Arizona's Tea-Publican Neo-Confederate dead-enders proposed a package of "interposition, nullification and secession" bills, Arizona Capitol Times » FantAZy Island: Secession-laced bills barging through the Legislature may fail, but they express state's legacy of rage, including this bill:

SB1433, one of more than a dozen pending anti-Washington, D.C., measures known colloquially as Arizona’s secession bills, would create a “Joint Legislative Committee on Nullification of Federal Laws” composed of lawmakers.

The group’s task would be to review federal laws and recommend their nullification if they fell outside the scope of the enumerated powers delegated to the federal government. Once nullification is recommended, the Legislature would have to vote on the proposal within 60 days.

And once a majority of lawmakers voted “yes,” Arizona citizens would no longer be obligated to follow the federal law, rule or executive order.

In short, just because the Arizona Legislature declared so, a federal law would be [nullified].

“The bill also says that the nullification committee must see to it that only the U.S. Supreme Court is the arbiter of any dispute that may arise between Arizona and the federal government over a state’s decision to declare a federal law null.”

Arizona's media villagers are failing to report on this scandal

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I previously posted about Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio's anti-government extremism:

Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio is a favorite of far-right extremist groups like former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack's conspiratorial Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Oath Keepers, made up of former and current law enforcement officers and military personnel who believe it is their duty to defy what they deem to be unconstitutional orders. These anti-government extremists are a law unto themselves.

Hence this bit of anti-government extremism from Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio on Wednesday. Joe Arpaio Says He May Not Enforce New Gun Laws (AUDIO).

Not to be outdone for media attention, "Joe, Jr.," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, penned a letter to President Obama last week saying that he too would not enforce any federal laws that he deems to be unconstitutional orders. Has anyone investigated his connections to far-right extremist groups like Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Oath Keepers?

Talking Points Memo reports Arizona Sheriff Tells Obama He Won’t Enforce Federal Gun Laws:

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu penned a letter to President Barack Obama last week criticizing the administration's gun control proposals and asserting that he won't enforce any law or executive order "contrary to what the Constitution of the United States of America says."

Aqua Buddha makes a complete ass-hat of himself

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"Tony: It's no use, the man is a complete idiot.

Village Idiot: If only. Now my father, he was a complete idiot. I'm still a half-wit."

- TV Mini-Series "The 10th Kingdom" (2000)

This is the only memorable line I ever remember from this TV show, but I am reminded of it every time I hear that village idiot Aqua Buddha, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) open his mouth and speak. The stupid, it burns.

Aqua Buddha was making a complete ass-hat of himself today during the "show trial" Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that FAUX News Fraudcasting has hyped into right-wing hysteria. Secretary Clinton maintains diplomatic composure in face of posturing by McCain, Johnson and Paul:

And then there was Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who pretends he is a libertarian when it suits his purposes and something else when it doesn't. No doubt thinking of his stature among tea partiers if he actually seeks the presidency three years from now, he sent out a video of his questioning of Clinton during which he said:

"I'm glad that you're accepting responsibility. I think ultimately with your leaving that you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11. And I really mean that. Had I been president and found you did not read the cables from Benghazi and from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it's inexcusable."

Secretary Clinton had some help with that one. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut fumed: "If some people on this committee want to call this tragedy the worst since 9/11, it misunderstands the nature of 4,000 plus Americans lost in the War in Iraq under false pretenses."

Not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis who were killed as a consequence of that concocted war. Who lost their jobs at the State Department or anywhere else over that?

GOP retreats on debt ceiling, comes up with another unconstitutional plan

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tea-Publican economic terrorists holding America hostage and threatening to destroy the economy and the full faith and credit of the United States came away from their weekend retreat with a new plan: they will not kill the hostage -- for now. POLITICO reported House Republicans plan debt ceiling vote:

House Republicans will vote next week on a bill that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling for three months and stop pay for members of Congress if the Senate doesn’t pass a budget, GOP officials said Friday.

The plan comes as GOP lawmakers across the country signal that they should not use the debt ceiling to try to extract concessions on spending from President Barack Obama, especially as the president’s approval ratings far outpace those of congressional Republicans.

It’s also a shift from House Speaker John Boehner, who has previously demanded spending cuts to match any debt ceiling hike. But Boehner isn’t retreating on the debt ceiling without conditions; He’s framing this as a way to force Senate Democrats to lay out a budget, which they haven’t done for three years.

Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated they were pleased the GOP is moving towards action on the debt ceiling, but didn’t endorse Boehner’s plan.

New study: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A new study from the Combating Terrorism Center at the West Point Military Academy highlights the threat of violent far-right movements in the United States, leading to the conclusion that, while diverse in in their causes, they are similar in their use of violence to achieve their aims. New Study Highlights Threat From Far Right-Wing Groups In U.S.:

Titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right” (.pdf), this new report instead looks as the risk that domestic groups pose to the U.S. Breaking down these groups into three categories — the Racist/White Supremacy Movement, the Anti-Federalist Movement, and the Christian Fundamentalist Movement — allows the study to examine the background ideologies and methods of each subset thoroughly, opposed to lumping them all together as most studies have.

They're baaack! Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders are back

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It was just last week that the elite political media of Arizona were reassuring us that the 51st Arizona legislature would not be as extreme and divisive as the last Arizona legislature. That self-delusion didn't last long.

Once again, Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders are back promoting the long discredited theories of "interposition and nullification" to oppose desegregation gun regulations under the banner of "state's rights."

Last year, wingnut Rep. David Gowan (R-Sierra Vista), who has now been promoted to House Majority Leader, sponsored HB 2434 which would have required employees of federal agencies to first notify the sheriff of the county "before taking any official law enforcement action in a county in this state." 'States' Rights' Tea-Publicans run amok:

Gowan said it's a simple matter of state sovereignty.

"If you look in your Constitution, you will not find there are any police powers granted to the federal government," he said. And Gowan said the 10th Amendment says any powers not given to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people.

"That means the states have the inherent right to use law enforcement,'' he said.

Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio's anti-government extremism

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio is a favorite of far-right extremist groups like former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack's conspiratorial Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Oath Keepers, made up of former and current law enforcement officers and military personnel who believe it is their duty to defy what they deem to be unconstitutional orders. These anti-government extremists are a law unto themselves.

Hence this bit of anti-government extremism from Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio on Wednesday. Joe Arpaio Says He May Not Enforce New Gun Laws (AUDIO):

During an interview with conservative radio host Mike Broomhead, Arpaio said he took an oath to defend the Constitution and he won't carry out policies that run counter to the founding document. 

"Now if they’re going to tell the sheriff that he’s going to go around picking up guns from everybody, they’re going to have a problem," the Maricopa County, Ariz. sheriff said. "I may not enforce that federal law.”

(Update) Tea-Publican Tyranny: Chaos Theory of Economic Terrorism

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have posted about the radical extremism of "chaos theory" being pursued by Tea-Publicans from time to time. For example, Tea-Publican Tyranny: Chaos Theory of Economic Terrorism.

David Firestone at the New York Times more recently wrote about this Tea-Publican "chaos theory" in Chaos as Legislative Strategy:

President Obama’s description this morning of an idealized budget negotiation with Republicans was bizarrely quaint and decorous. “There’s a pretty straightforward way of doing this, and that is to set the debt ceiling aside, we pay our bills and then we have a vigorous debate about how we’re going to do further deficit reduction in a balanced way,” he said at the final news conference of his first term, devoted largely to the coming debt-ceiling crisis.

But the debate that Washington has been having has been anything but straightforward, and demanding that it be otherwise won’t make it change. The hard-right Republicans in the House aren’t interested in sitting at a long table with pencils and budget books; they want to set that table on fire, and burn to ashes all the compromises that long defined the two-party system.

Another view on President Obama's debt ceiling strategy

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ezra Klein appears to believe that President Obama is following Sun Tzu's "Art of War" in the debt ceiling fight. Obama is burning his boats to eliminate any retreat to impress upon his army that they must fight to the death to survive. Only in this scenario, President Obama is an "army of one" and must convince himself that he must fight to the death to survive.

The White House says they won't negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling. But for that plan to work, Republicans need to believe the White House when they say they won't negotiate over the debt ceiling. On the debt ceiling, the White House tries to solve its credibility problem:

Obama is purposefully painting himself into a corner. He has taken all the various end runs around the debt ceiling — the platinum coin, the 14th Amendment, etc. — off the table. And he’s saying he won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling so loudly, so emphatically, so clearly, and so often that he is putting his credibility on the line. If, after all this, he does indeed negotiate over the debt ceiling, the White House will lose all credibility in all negotiations going forward. That’s not something they can afford to do, and so the White House is hoping that Republicans, once they realize what Obama is doing, will realize he’s serious: He really won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling. At this point, he’s made it so that he can’t.

Unilateral disarmament in a 'civil war' is not an option

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As I said in the previous post,"Make no mistake, these economic terrorists are anti-government insurrectionists at war with the United States government. And President Obama has a constitutional duty to do whatever is necessary to preserve the Union and to put down this insurrection against the United States government."

As Paul Krugman noted, Senate Democrats gave President Obama full backing in any unilateral action he might take on the debt ceiling. Reports say that Harry Reid is still partial to the 14th amendment; but there’s also the $1 trillion-dollar platinum coin and the "moral obligation bonds" or some other form of scrip option. Is That A Backbone I See?:

Just to be clear, there’s no need for the administration to commit to a solution now, or even to admit that it has one in mind. You still want the pressure on the GOP to turn away from this cliff. But you also want to be careful not to rule anything out, partly so that the GOP understands that it may face a grand fizzle, partly because it may be necessary to do something to avert default.

President Obama should ask himself, 'What would Lincoln do?'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In December, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stated, “This administration does not believe the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling — period.”  White House Dismisses Constitutional Challenge In Debt Ceiling Saga:

That challenge led [Cornell law professor Michael Dorf] and George Washington University professor Neil Buchanan to a rather unusual conclusion, in a new article they published in the Columbia Law Review: Given a choice between only unconstitutional options, the president should choose the "least unconstitutional" option. [See, How to Choose The Least Unconstitutional Option: Lessons For The President (And Others) From the Debt Ceiling Standoff - Columbia Law Review (.pdf).]

Which, Dorf says, means the White House could raise the debt limit on its own and issue Treasury bonds to raise money.

That solution, beyond being against the law, has another problem. The markets don't like uncertainty. And anyone who wants to buy those bonds might demand huge interest payments to compensate for the legal risk involved.

(Update) Tea-Publicans are rendering America a banana republic

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Yesterday, Ezra Klein argued that minting the platinum coin simply puts off dealing with the real problem — GOP recklessness and extremism — and risks turning us into a banana republic. Paul Krugman responds that the threat of default and economic Armageddon mean this is not the time or place for staging an epic confrontation with GOP nihilism. Coins Against Crazies:

Under the Constitution, fiscal decisions rest with Congress, which passes laws specifying tax rates and establishing spending programs. If the revenue brought in by those legally established tax rates falls short of the costs of those legally established programs, the Treasury Department normally borrows the difference.

* * *

Where does the debt ceiling fit into all this? Actually, it doesn’t. Since Congress already determines revenue and spending, and hence the amount the Treasury needs to borrow, we shouldn’t need another vote empowering that borrowing. But for historical reasons any increase in federal debt must be approved by yet another vote. And now Republicans in the House are threatening to deny that approval unless President Obama makes major policy concessions.

Tea-Publicans are rendering America a banana republic

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ezra Klein today examines the commentary on the platinum coin solution to the Tea-Publican economic terrorists taking this country hostage to their extortionary demands and threatening to destroy the U.S. and world economies if they do not get their way. Ezra comes out against the platinum coin option, but not because it is illegal or will not work. It is because it would be surrendering defeat to Tea-Publican economic terrorists who are rendering America a banana republic. Mr. President, don’t mint that platinum coin!

Much political commentary has, in recent days, revolved around a most unusual question: Should the Treasury Department mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin that can be used to pay off our debts in the event House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling?

The short answer is: No, it shouldn’t. The long answer is also: No, it shouldn’t.

The debt ceiling is now a time bomb beneath the U.S. economy. If the White House can render it harmless by encasing it in an indestructible tomb of platinum, then perhaps our problems are solved. And the arguments in favor of the coin are logically and legally sound. A straightforward reading of the law suggests that, whatever Congress’s intent, the Treasury Department is clearly empowered to mint coins of unlimited value. A coin of unlimited value would allow us to pay off our debts. President Obama could even, as Bloomberg View’s Josh Barro has suggested, offer to sign a bill eliminating both the debt ceiling and the Treasury Department’s ability to mint coins of any value.

 

Krugman: Rage Against the Coin

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Paul Krugman nails it again in his most recent blog post, Rage Against the Coin:

Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing — deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills — has really taken off. Last month I spoke with a senior Fed official who had never heard of the idea; these days it’s all over.

There seem to be two kinds of objections. One is that it would be undignified. Here’s how to think about that: we have a situation in which a terrorist may be about to walk into a crowded room and threaten to blow up a bomb he’s holding. It turns out, however, that the Secret Service has figured out a way to disarm this maniac — a way that for some reason will require that the Secretary of the Treasury briefly wear a clown suit. (My fictional plotting skills have let me down, but there has to be some way to work this in). And the response of the nervous Nellies is, “My god, we can’t dress the secretary up as a clown!” Even when it will make him a hero who saves the day?