Posts by Lindsay Beyerstein

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.

Is Sotomayor an Enigma on Abortion?
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on May 27, 2009 at 12:45 PM.

Yesterday, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina and the third woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is currently a federal judge on New York’s 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Born to Puerto Rican immigrant parents and raised by her mother in the housing projects of the South Bronx, Sotomayor went on to attend college at Princeton and law school at Yale. George H.W. Bush appointed her to the U.S. District Court in 1991 and Bill Clinton “promoted” her to the 2nd Circuit in 1998.

Political Scientist Scott Lemieux writes for TAPPED that, in light of her distinguished resume and inspiring biography, Sotomayor’s confirmation is all but assured:

[...] Obama cited three criteria in choosing Sotomayor: 1) her intellectual capacity (as demonstrated in her sterling academic record, her success as an assistant district attorney, and her distinguished service as a federal judge); 2) her approach to judging based on her opinions, which represent a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail; and 3) her compelling personal story, rising from poverty in the Bronx to Princeton to being an editor at the Yale Law Journal. This combination of factors will, I think, make her confirmation inevitable.

In the Nation, John Nichols says that the Sotomayor pick “reflects America”. Within hours of the announcement of Souter’s resignation, conventional wisdom had pegged Sotomayor as the odds-on favorite for the nomination. There were a few bumps along the way, though. Brian Beutler of TPM reports on the anatomy of a preemptive whispering capaign starring anonymous law clerks quoted in the New Republic questioning Sotomayor’s intelligence and temperament.

While Sotomayor has a reputation for being a liberal jurist, her record contains few hints about her views on abortion. Attorney and feminist writer Jill Filipovic reviews Sotomayor’s record on abortion for RH Reality Check. Sotomayor has only ruled on one major abortion-related case in her time as a judge, Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, and as Filipovic says, Sotomayor’s conclusion “isn’t going to warm the hearts of reproductive rights activists.”

But, as Filipovic explains, abortion wasn’t the issue at stake in this case. Rather, the question was whether the Bush administration’s Global Gag Rule was violating the constitutional rights of American NGOs. The gag rule threatened to revoke their federal funding for working with foreign NGOs that discussed abortion. For various technical reasons, Sotomayor concluded that the rule was constitutional after all. Filipovic continues:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Health Care Reform: Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on May 13, 2009 at 1:16 PM.

This week, the White House teamed up with health care industry giants for a two-day PR blitz on health reform. A coalition of industry leaders sent a letter to president Obama over the weekend, pledging to help contain health care costs. The signatories include PhRMA (drug makers), Advamed (device manufacturers), the AMA (doctors), the AHA (hospitals), AHIP (health insurance), and SEIU’s Health Care project. The corporate signatories are the very same interest groups that have fought U.S. health care reform for generations. AHIP, America’s Health Insurance Plans, helped torpedo the Clinton plan in the 1990s with the infamous “Harry and Louise” TV spots.

Progressive health care writers are divided as to whether Obama’s rapprochement is a good sign. One school of thought is that the interest groups have finally seen the writing on the wall. Arguably, the industry realizes that some kind of health care reform is inevitable and they hope to get the best possible deal by cooperating. Another perspective, not necessarily incompatible with the first, is that this kind of “cooperation” will ultimately co-opt Obama’s reform program.

Mike Madden summarizes the main thrust of the industry charm offensive in Salon:

The letter itself offers few details as to how the industries will actually go about saving money. More to the point, there’s nothing forcing these groups to follow through on anything they’ve pledged to do.

Still, if you parse the platitudes, the industry is diverging slightly from Republican anti-reform rhetoric. The GOP has been crusading against comparative effectiveness research (CER) ever since the stimulus bill set aside a billion dollars to fund it. CER is just research to discover which treatments give the best outcomes for the money, but the GOP would have us believe that it’s a stalking horse for rationing. Whereas, the industry coalition’s letter talks about cutting costs by “aligning quality and efficiency incentives” and “adherence to evidence-based best practices”–basically, big words for “studying the evidence” and “trimming the fat”–the core of the CER agenda.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Signs of Hope for Healthcare in the U.S. Senate
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on April 16, 2009 at 3:16 PM.

Of all the hurdles facing healthcare reform in 2009, the U.S. Senate is arguably the most formidable. But the prospects for passing a healthcare bill this year have brightened noticeably over the past few days, thanks to a senate seat pickup in Minnesota, solidifying support for the budget reconciliation strategy, and tentative overtures towards bipartisanship from key Republicans.

A three-judge panel declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota senate race. We don’t have a firm date for seating Franken, but Harry Reid said to be looking forward to doing so in the near future. Franken is an outspoken advocate for healthcare reform and favors expanding the public insurance system to cover more people.

Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., spoke out in favor of passing healthcare reform through the budget reconciliation process this week, as Public News Service reports. Gilibrand is the latest in a string of Democratic legislators to support the reconciliation process, which would allow the Senate to circumvent a filibuster and pass legislation with simple majority vote.

Some Republicans might even be willing to work with the Democrats on healthcare reform. Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, is hinting that she might be willing to cooperate with Democrats, Steve Benen writes in the Washington Monthly. And according to Public News Service, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is expected to work closely with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. on healthcare reform legislation: “I think [Grassley] and Senator Max Baucus of Montana are really the champions of bi-partisanship in this whole debate. I think that in order for us to get an effective piece of legislation it’s going to have to be bi-partisan,” Lee Hammond, president-elect of the AARP national board, told Public News Service at a healthcare forum attended by Grassley.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Enough Dead Pirate Porn: The Press is Relishing the Killing of Three Teenage Pirates With Disturbing Zeal
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on April 14, 2009 at 2:33 PM.

I'm relieved that the Navy SEALs rescued the American hostage from Somali pirates. Their skill and professionalism was indeed impressive.

But really ... Two days after the rescue, the banner headline on the front page of the Washington Post should not read "3 Rounds, 3 Dead Bodies." And if that's the front page headline, surely they don't need a second story about pirate-shooting in the same edition.

The American public is relishing the deaths of the pirates to a degree that's downright unseemly.

Gates said the four pirates involved in taking Phillips hostage were 17 to 19 years old -- "untrained teenagers with heavy weapons." The pirate whom Reza wounded in the hand asked the USS Bainbridge for medical attention, effectively surrendering. [WaPo]

All the jubilation is distracting from some serious questions about U.S. policy towards piracy.

The on-scene Navy commander aboard the USS Bainbridge reportedly gave the order to fire because the hostage's life was suddenly in danger. If that's true, then of course the SEALs did the right thing.

Despite the blanket coverage of the SEALs who fired the shots, very little has been reported about the evidence that moved the commander to order the shooting. So far, nobody has explained why the commander decided that the hostage was in jeopardy at that particular moment.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Why the Stem Cell Reversal Is Not a Total Victory
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on March 11, 2009 at 10:29 AM.

This week, President Obama made headlines by reversing George W. Bush’s executive order barring researchers who receive federal funds from researching all but a handful of stem cell lines created before 2001.

“Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry,” Obama wrote. “It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”

In The Nation, John Nichols applauds Obama’s restoration of science to its proper place in policy-making.  And Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly points out that, right on cue, the conservative Family Research Council has started disingenuously claiming that Obama’s reversal opens the door for human cloning.

However, as Emily Douglas of RH Reality explains, the full implications of the reversal are more complicated than you might suppose: Obama lifted Bush-era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell (ESC) researchers. However, researchers are still barred from using federal funds to create or modify human embryos, due to a legislative provision known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, enacted by Congress in 1996.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Not in Kansas Anymore: A Look at Obama's Sebelius Pick
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on March 6, 2009 at 4:04 AM.

The Obama administration unveiled two major nominations on Monday: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Nancy-Ann DeParle for health czar. The czar is responsible for shepherding healthcare reform legislation through Congress and the Secretary will be responsible for implementing the plan.

Correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation, but we’d like to remind everyone that In These Times floated Sebelius’ name for HHS in September of 2008; Ramon Castellblanch wrote:

Three major obstacles face the next secretary. One, tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance. Two, any attempt to deal with this crisis will result in the private insurance industry—and its lobbyists—swooping in to turn policy changes into a windfall for itself. And three, for eight years, the department has been crippled by low morale and staff departures caused by Bush administration mismanagement. The next secretary must have the ability to help undo this damage.

Castellblanch argued at the time that Sebelius was the right person for the job because of her executive experience as governor, her knowledge of the insurance industry, and her strong progressive values.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Will Obama Pull the Plug on His Own Health Czar Position?
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium on February 25, 2009 at 6:43 AM.

The Obama administration may be about to pull the plug on the health czar. The position has gone unfilled since Obama’s appointee-apparent, former Sen. Tom Daschle, withdrew his name from consideration for both czar and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in early February. Several serious candidates are emerging in the unofficial race to lead HHS, but there’s no corresponding shortlist for health czar.

The czar and his Office of Health Reform were initially touted as proof that Obama was really serious about shepherding a health reform package through Congress. But the Obama team may ultimately decide that the Office of Health Reform is an obstacle instead of an asset without Daschle and ditch it altogether.

As Erza Klein explains in the American Prospect, the position was created especially for Daschle and any other candidate might be worse than nothing as far as passing a healthcare reform package goes. Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly agrees, and says that nixing the health czar doesn’t necessarily indicate that the Obama administration is any less committed to healthcare reform.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

In Alaska, Stevens-Begich Race is Far From Over
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on November 9, 2008 at 8:38 AM.

Nate Silver on the phantom ballots of Alaska:

Stevens currently holds a lead of 3,353 votes, or about 1.5 percent of the votes tallied so far. But, there are quite a large number of ballots yet to count. According to Roll Call, these include "at least 40,000 absentee ballot[s], 9,000 early voting ballots, and an undetermined number of questionable ballots". Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220,000 votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313,000 votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270,000 ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket.

But even if Begich were to make up ground and win a narrow victory, this would seem to represent a catastrophic failure of polling, as three polls conducted following the guilty verdict in Stevens' corruption trial had Begich leading by margins of 7, 8 and 22 points, respectively.

I agree with Scott Horton, the more likely explanation is that someone has simply "lost track" of a good chunk of the Alaska vote.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Mercenary Firm Offers to 'Detain Troublemakers' on Election Day
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on November 3, 2008 at 2:14 PM.

A mercenary firm in Oregon offered to provide "security" on election day in case voters "get out of control," Danger Room reports:

CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, "detaining troublemakers" and making sure voters "do not get out of control."

In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he "recognized the potential conflict" that could occur on November 4th. "Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president."

The company, he said, 'proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.'

Note that Oregon votes by mail.  

SourceWatch has more on Evergreen's longstanding ties to the CIA.

Palin Supporter Pulls Gun at Rally
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 23, 2008 at 1:49 PM.

A Sarah Palin supporter pulled a loaded handgun while leaving a campaign rally in Colorado on Monday! The armed Palin supporter reported waved the gun at another driver after the two got into a dispute while attempting to leave the event:

Heated words between drivers leaving Sarah Palin's rally Monday allegedly escalated with one man brandishing a loaded handgun.

Jack B. Cheskaty, 62, of Grand Junction, said he pulled a handgun because "he wanted to be ready for anything" in what started as a verbal spat between drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving Lincoln Park around 8 p.m. Monday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Cheskaty and three family members were riding in a Chrysler, moving slowly in a line a traffic. A man behind the wheel of a Kia SUV attempted to inch in front of Cheskaty's Chrysler, the affidavit said. [Glenwood Springs Post-Independent]

 HT: ColoradoPols.

Brave New Films Exposes the Truth About ACORN
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 21, 2008 at 7:28 AM.

Brave New Films released a new short film yesterday debunking the McCain campaign's smears against ACORN. The film argues that spurious charges against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are part of a larger Republican strategy to depress the turnount of low income, minority, and young voters in battleground states. If the propaganda onslaught succeeds, the Republicans could steal the election. If it fails, the GOP has laid the groundwork to contest the legitimacy of an Obama victory. 

Watch the clip and pass it on.  Do your part to defuse these poisonous allegations before they hurt more people. 

Presidential Debates are an Insult to Our Collective Intelligence
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 8, 2008 at 1:52 PM.

Presidential debates aren't really debates. These faux debates are bad for democracy. Debates should inform voters about the issues and challenge the candidates to move beyond their talking points and think on their feet. Under the current rules, these events have degenerated into non sequitur public speaking contests.

According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-profit that sponsors these events, "the public deserves to hear and see the candidates offer and defend their positions on the critical issues facing our country in the most thoughtful and in-depth manner that television time constraints will allow. Loosening the constraints within the ninety minutes debate will allow for more serious examination of complicated questions."

Epic fail.

After three debates and the pattern is clear. Loosening the constraints just made the problem worse than last season. The candidates don't argue about anything; they take turns rattling off talking points. They don't have to engage with each other, or even answer the questions. Since Sarah Palin blew off Gwen Ifill last week, the candidates know that they don't have to respect to the moderator, either. Last night we saw McCain insulting Tom Brokaw. Both candidates felt entitled to ignore the time limits. As Brokaw put it, "I'm just the hired help."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

DNC Police T-Shirt:'We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds'
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 2, 2008 at 11:24 AM.

The Denver police union is selling t-shirts DNC commemorative t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds:" 

DENVER -- The Denver police union is selling T-shirts that poke fun at protesters at last month's Democratic National Convention, but the main target isn't laughing. The back of the shirts reads, "We get up early to beat the crowds" and "2008 DNC," and has a caricature of a police officer holding a baton. The front has the number 68 with a slash through it, a reference to the Recreate 68 Coalition, which organized several demonstrations during the convention.

I hope this design is introduced as evidence in every police brutality lawsuit launched against the Denver Police Department from now on.

Makes me extra sad to see a union joking about beating people up. 

Kurtz: Journalists Privately Admit to Censoring Palin Coverage
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 29, 2008 at 4:04 PM.

WaPo media critic Howie Kurtz says some journalists admit they're self-censoring their coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee's flailing incompetence, lest they be perceived as "piling on":

While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they're piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says Palin "just seems out of her league." National Review Editor Rich Lowry called her performance "dreadful." Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher described the interview as a "train wreck." Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker urged Palin to quit the race, saying: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

The interview is drawing extraordinary attention because of the McCain campaign's calculated decision to shield Palin from reporters. No vice-presidential nominee in modern history has been this inaccessible to the media, reinforcing the perception that she can't hit major-league pitching. When the networks balked at recording Palin's photo ops with foreign leaders at the U.N. last week unless journalists were allowed in -- and a CNN producer was granted access for all of 29 seconds -- the no-press dictum degenerated into farce. [WaPo]

So much for the myth of the ravening liberal media elite bent of the destruction of plucky Sarah Palin.

Happily, your faithful correspondent has no compunctions about covering Sarah Palin's faults and foibles. Check out my new piece in AlterNet on the Wasilla rape kit saga.

FBI Raids Home of Alleged Palin Email Hacker
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 22, 2008 at 12:23 PM.

The Wired blog Threat Level is reporting that a student from the University of Tennessee may have claimed to have hacked Sarah Palin's email account by resetting her password using publicly available information to answer the security questions.

The student allegedly posted a first person account of his exploits on a message board. Threat Level declined to publish the individual's real name because the link between the guy and the post is still "tenuous" and the authorities haven't named any suspects. 

Update 2:09pm: Fox is reporting that the FBI served a warrant on the home of David Parnell a UT student and the son of a Democratic state representative.