March 26, 2014

Obama’s Ukraine Affair

Walter Rhett: Obama’s Ukraine Affair

President Obama faced his own Ukraine affair last week. He ordered military action against foreign assets controlled by an unstable interim government facing its own domestic factional opposition after deposing a former corrupt leader. Without NATO approval, the President took action on local officials’ requests. The short-term action was successful. The US military didn’t fire a shot.

Did you know about it? I didn’t.

A continual subtheme of “Digging Deeper” is the media’s tragic fail: at a time when news and information really counts, the media has collectively decided to abandon journalism for sensationalism. The media collective pursues profits and revenue as its main purpose; stories rise and fall with the sun. Ratings and rants count for more than facts or the public’s interest. So much so that the media collectively ignored a dramatic use of force in the Mediterranean Sea by a US President already faced with a military crisis in the same geopolitical theatre, albeit further east.

To me, that’s news...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/26/obamas-ukraine-affair/

March 19, 2014

Russia’s Cold War Makes Crimea a Hot Spot

Walter Rhett: Russia’s Cold War Makes Crimea a Hot Spot

Vladimir Putin is an authentic throwback. No country, not China or North Korea—or the US—has made the bold move he accomplished in under a month. As the head of state of Russia’s government, he ordered and executed the grab of another state’s sovereignty by passive force of arms, using a series of sham excuses and a phony plebiscite to install Russian hegemony over a territory that a week ago belonged to Ukraine.

That basket of facts alone is worthy of sharper focus and penetrating discussions, but US politicians, Russian specialists, and media keep talking around it. The story wanders away to ask what Putin will do next. (Will he invade Ukraine—ignoring that he already has!) Those who see news as prophecy ask how will Europe and the US respond—all without any real sense of the gravity of what Putin has already done. His announcement that Crimea is now under Russian political and military control, and his signing an agreement to annex a territory that a week ago had only local officials without sovereign power to enter into an agreement to turn its territory and governance over to another country, is monumental...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/19/russias-cold-war-makes-crimea-a-hot-spot/

March 17, 2014

Stormy Monday, 3/17/14

Jeff Rosenzweig: Stormy Monday, 3/17/14

Even before yesterday’s secession “referendum” in Crimea, Washington and the European Union had declared that the process didn’t pass the smell test. Sure as dammit, there was an off-putting spoor to exit polls suggesting 93% support for breaking away from Ukraine and joining Russia. European foreign ministers gather today in Brussels to discuss freezing Russian assets, with a Thursday conclave of EU leaders also scheduled.

Stateside, John Kerry has been spending a lot of time on the phone with Russian foreign minister Lavrov, much as Secretary Kerry’s boss has been chatting a lot with Lavrov’s. In Congress, bipartisan pressure continues to build for sanctions against Russia; the Senate Foreign Relations Committee cleared a sanctions bill last week that also guarantees $1 billion in loans to Ukraine. Just back from a meaningless but self-aggrandizing Ukraine junket, and ever the bilge – er, bridge over troubled water, John McCain yesterday unhelpfully described Russia as “a gas station masquerading as a country.” Hmm. What with “that one” in the White House for a second term, poor Senator McCain is running out of wars. Shill, baby, shill.

Fred Phelps, former capo of the Westboro Baptist church, reportedly begins the week “close to death.” Which would be a shame, except that he’s Fred Phelps.

Cyberspace could be in for a rude shock this week if Republicans make good on their excited bleating about deploying some spanking new “.gop” websites. Wow! Talk about seismic shifts: same stale, dim, destructive ideas, totally new domain!

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/17/stormy-monday-31714/

March 15, 2014

Sharyl Atkkisson Victim of ‘Liberal Bias’? It’s FALSE NEWS!

Sandy Todd: Sharyl Atkkisson Victim of ‘Liberal Bias’? It’s FALSE NEWS!

Sharyl Atkkisson has been portrayed by the conservative media as the “latest victim” in Obama’s “War on Freedom of the Press.” She recently resigned her position after complaining relentlessly to her superiors that she was stymied in her reporting, and that CBS has a “lack of dedication to investigative reporting.” That’s right. The home of 60 Minutes. The home of Harry Reasoner, Harold Dow, Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Dan Rather, Roger Mudd and Charles Kuralt. The home of Walter Cronkite, for crying out loud. Sharyl Atkkisson would have us believe that the stalwart of American news is hurdling down the rabbit hole into a land of hippies and commies.

There is no question that Sharyl Atkkisson is an accomplished journalist. She has received some of the highest honors that journalism bestows on its colleagues, an Edward R Murrow Award, I.R.E. Award, an Investigative Emmy, several team Emmys, as well as several nominations.

She has also been responsible for more “False News” in the last 10 years than I would have thought possible from a CBS reporter. Her stories have run the gamut from Red Cross “mismanagement” to Solyndra to Benghazi to Fast & Furious. Notice a pattern?

It has been widely reported that Fox News viewers are less likely to have accurate information on the events of the day. I wonder how that survey would turn out if respondents were given the choice of individual journalists, rather than networks as a whole. I also wonder how surveys rate credible news. Do they take it at face value that green energy is “Going Red,” just because Sharyl Attkisson says so? Do they repeat her claim of an Administration “Information Clamp,” when she applies a White House press corps photojournalist complaint to the press corps as a whole? One only need remember the May 2009 cover of The Washingtonian to understand why this White House is a bit more controlling of photography than past administrations...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/14/sharyl-atkkisson-victim-of-liberal-bias-its-false-news/

March 12, 2014

Try It Out!

Walter Rhett: Try It Out!

I spent the week watering the well. Drinking coffee from five Ethiopian regions, feeling a link to the small family farms that depend on the income from the sales of beans, thankful to have a good relationship with a coffee seller in DC who provides me the 15 to 20 pounds my daughter sends me every two or three months.

But I can’t get my friends to try it! The corporate brands have them dialed in. So this morning’s Sumatra brings an old question: how do you get people to change? Why is change resisted?

In part the questions explain the Republican attraction: People don’t have to give up very much except government to be Republican. It’s a safe default for the risk-averse, even when in sight of something better.

I also spent the week anticipating the visit of friends I haven’t seen in 40 years. That energy was a celebration of passage; how vision grows out of change. Vision pushes away fear and brings hope. That why Sarah Palin sneered at “that hopey thing”—it give a freedom found on the inside, a freedom to grow; not just a freedom to fight government. Friends bring collective energy, a unique group experience that in politics is called the public good...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/12/try-it-out/

March 7, 2014

IRS Agents ‘Sabotage’ Tea Party Activists? It’s FALSE NEWS!

Sandy Todd: IRS Agents ‘Sabotage’ Tea Party Activists? It’s FALSE NEWS!



It’s another day in the never-ending saga of the menacing IRS agents against the beleaguered Tea Party, some four years after the first set of applications made their way to the Cincinnati Tax Exempt Determinations Unit. The implication thus far has been that a small band of reprobate IRS agents from Cincinnati were intentionally obstructing the patriotic work of our most loyal citizens. This image is perpetuated by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee with the most extreme rhetoric, stronger than anything we’re seeing in the media. It doesn’t conduct the investigation in a fair and impartial manner, which oddly enough is what the investigation claims was done to citizens. Instead, it leaks testimony, verbally insults witnesses, cuts off the microphone of committee members, and blasts a blatantly political heading, charging: “The IRS: Targeting Americans for Their Political Beliefs.”

This is unacceptable and false on so many levels. What’s worse, this completely bogus inquisition, put on by Congressman Darrell Issa, is maligning the integrity of so many agents doing nothing more than ensuring political organizations do not intentionally evade taxes they are required to pay. The only intentional “targeting” going on is by groups pretending they aren’t going to engage in campaign activity when they know they are.

Who are these government workers who are actually under criminal investigation, thanks to Chairman Issa? They are citizens like Elizabeth Hofacre, an Army veteran, Boston University MBA, and IRS employee since 1999. She was the “emerging issues coordinator” in April of 2010 and was one of the first to be confronted with the uptick in Tea Party applications. She did not say liberal cases were not processed, as has been misinterpreted by the media. She said they were not part of her role as an “emerging issues coordinator.” In her own words, she sent “those applications to general inventory since they were not within the scope of the Tea Party emerging issue.”

She coordinated with Carter Hull, an IRS tax law specialist in Washington DC, at the Rulings and Agreements office that has oversight of the Determinations Unit in Cincinnati. Carter Hull is a Vietnam veteran who received his degree in 1965 and then gave 48 years to the IRS. In his testimony, he states he received two test cases that he reviewed with Elizabeth Hofacre and then “drafted documents stating my recommendations and analysis.” He was charged with developing a template letter that would ensure a consistent line of questioning for groups that might illegally engage in lobbying and campaigning. In the fall of 2010, the Cincinnati manager, Cindy Thomas, a 35-year IRS veteran, told Holly Paz, a Washington DC manager, that this letter was not prepared. No cases were processed during this time, meaning no “emerging issue” organization was denied tax exempt status for any reason...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/07/irs-agents-sabotage-tea-party-activists-its-false-news/

March 5, 2014

Ukraine: No Rules, No Foul

Walter Rhett: Ukraine: No Rules, No Foul

The real story in Ukraine is what happens when somebody doesn’t play by the rules. It is one of the great examples of conflict resolution unresolved. It is frothed with personalities and political interests, historic sleights and economic targets, military force, diplomacy and big money rolled into a global storm. It’s also an old-fashioned tale. So far, without terrorism.

The old Cold War, which the Ukraine conflict resembles, was always about resources and territory—hegemony—never about markets and state collapse or ideological goals. The old Cold War displayed raw, unvarnished power. The annual military parades in Moscow with the latest Soviet hardware and massed troops in lockstep were designed to reassure its citizens at home and the world abroad of its power and fierceness and its absolute domination within its sphere.

The Soviets’ largest Cold War failure came in Afghanistan. Attempting to prop up a puppet regime, the Soviets were dragged into a long-term fight that proved unwinnable for the same reasons the Americans later discovered.

The December 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, surprisingly, was swift and without violence or troop movements—unlike what we see in Ukraine. Its most notable feature was the orderly transfer of power to new national entities. In less than a month, new governments were in place in the 12 republics that were its former satellites...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/05/ukraine-no-rules-no-foul/

March 3, 2014

Stormy Monday, 3/3/14

Jeff Rosenzweig: Stormy Monday, 3/3/14

Already a month overdue, the President’s budget proposal is expected to drop Tuesday. Various House committees are already poised to posture, pontificate and proclaim their dismay, disgust and dudgeon, or – as it’s known in Washington – hold hearings.

The Senate will follow suit, and the liveliest of its proceedings will probably be the Wednesday appearance before the Armed Services Committee of Defense Secretary Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chair Dempsey. The witness panel will have the “best” seats in town at the pathetic spectacle of Republican committee members snuffling about that uppity President trying to destroy America’s ability to defend itself. Any day now, James Inhofe or Saxby Chambliss will realize that the President’s proposed cuts could leave the nation wide open to invasion… by Kenya.

Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington this week. His Monday schedule includes meetings with President Obama and with Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, plus a meeting and press conference with Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner. Netanyahu’s standard call for a hard line against the supposedly grave and gathering threat of Iran might not garner much enthusiasm from American politicians suddenly more concerned with reality in Ukraine than hypotheticals in the Middle East. Tuesday, though, Netanyahu addresses this year’s AIPAC conference, where he’ll undoubtedly find plenty of people very, very enthused.

Work is slated to begin Monday morning on a two-year, $60-million restoration of the Capitol Dome, the first such work there since 1960. A covered walkway in the Rotunda during renovations will ensure safe passage into and out of the Senate and House, which will themselves remain broken indefinitely...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/03/03/stormy-monday-3314/