After being taken to task for giving Jeffrey Goldberg better treatment than Jennifer Rubin, James Fallows responds to his critics. I don’t know all the twists and turns of this controversy, but Fallows links to Goldberg’s prime critic and addresses that critic’s concerns respectfully, without any of the sneering that usually accompanies a beltway media defense against a critique by lowly proles.
Read a fucking book.
mistermix has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2010.
Murderous Police Brutality
ED Kain has put together a round up of press stories, disturbing pictures and a video of the brutal beating and death of a schizophrenic man at the hands of Fullerton, California police:
āWhen I first walked into the hospital, I looked at what his mother described as my son ā¦ I didnāt recognize him,ā Thomas said. āThis is cold-blooded, aggravated murder.ā
Thomas, citing witnesses, said officers hit his son with the butts of flashlights even after he stopped moving.
He said his son was probably off his medication and didnāt understand officersā commands.
Don’t click on that link if you have a weak stomach.
The Economy Stinks
GDP growth is anemic this quarter (1.3%) and revised down to terrible (0.4%) last quarter:
āThereās nothing that you can look at here that is signaling some revival in growth in the second half of the year, and in fact we may see another catastrophically weak quarter next quarter if things go wrong next week,ā said Nigel Gault, chief United States economist at IHS Global Insight. By āthings going wrong,ā he said he means āif Congress actually starts implementing a massive contraction by suddenly cutting government spending immediately,ā as many Republican representatives hope to do.
Consumer spending was almost flat and inflation is up. There’s nothing good here.
Hot Potato
I know that the question of whether there’s any bill that the Republican caucus can pass that doesn’t involve naming a post office or declaring a recess is riveting, but there’s another question I want to ask: what are the Republicans going to do about their gay problem?
Look at Michele Bachmann, who yesterday declared that Marcus and his pray-away-the-gay psychology practice was “off limits”, even though she’s been calling Michelle Obama un-American since 2008.
And how about Scott Brown, the only member of the Massachusetts delegation who wouldn’t appear in an “It Gets Better” video. Brown says that he’s against bullying, and he voted to repeal DADT, but this minor gesture was a bridge too far.
Marcus Bachmann, the federal money he takes to pray away gayness, and even the way he pings people’s gaydar are all going to be campaign issues. (On that last point, remember that Mrs. Bachmann comes from a party where the supposedly sane commentators criticize Mrs. Obama for going barefoot in her own damn house — simple quid pro quo justifies a few questions about Marcus’ sexual history.) And if Elizabeth Warren runs against Scott Brown, she’s not going to let him out of their steel cage death match by splitting on gay rights. The 2012 election is going to be very goddam interesting if our country survives to have it.
Open Thread for John Boehner
I’m still processing last night’s epic fail, and for some reason this song popped into my head.
Philosopher not Proctologist
Here’s a really uninspiring quote from the judge leading the inquiry into the phone hacking scandal:
He said it was critical that the inquiry concentrated on “the central and most important issue”, adding the “focus of the inquiry is the culture practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter’s relationship with the public, the police and politicians.”
He said in September he would be holding in the first instance “a series of seminars on the ethics of journalism and the practices and pressures of investigative journalism”. He added: “At some stage there needs to be a discussion of what amounts to the public good, to what extent the public interest should be taken into account and by whom”.
He added he would later hold seminars on press relationships with the police, politicians and the political process.
I doubt whether Rupert Murdoch dribbled in his Depends after reading that press release. I hope Lord Justice Levenson is able to take a moment from his high-minded seminars and general concern with the public good to turn some disgruntled News Corps ex-employees into current informants. Or, perhaps the seminars are just a smokescreen, but Leveson’s announcement that he can’t complete the first part of the inquiry in the year allotted is also troubling.
Spotify Lives Up to the Hype
For those of you looking for a distraction from the debt ceiling, here’s a review of Spotify after the break.