Rachel Maddow's Blog, page 3406
May 25, 2013
This Week in God
First up from the God Machine this week is an unfortunate reaction from a prominent figure in the religious right movement to the deadly tornado in Oklahoma earlier this week.
Just a couple of hours after the natural disaster, Fox News' Erick Erickson, with whom I nearly always disagree, said something quite sensible: "Someone please keep Pat Robertson away from the TV cameras for a few days." Alas, the radical TV preacher, the morning after the devastation, couldn't help himself -- in fact, Robertson suggested the storm's victims were to blame, asking, "Why did you build houses where tornadoes were apt to happen?" On a more theological note, the televangelist added, "If enough people were praying He would've intervened, you could pray, Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms." [Update: I originally featured the wrong video clip. It's been removed.]
In other words, as Robertson sees it, if your community is ravaged by a natural disaster, it's your fault. That he chose not to blame the tornado on gay people is, however, a sign of progress.
Of course, Robertson wasn't the only one with an awkward theological perspective on the tornado. Did you catch this clip of CNN's Wolf Blitzer, asking a local mom if she "thanks the Lord"?
Watch on YouTubeLet this be a lesson to media professionals everywhere: don't make theistic assumptions about people you don't know.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* It may be May, but policymakers in the Texas state legislature spent some time this week approving legislation to allow public school teachers to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" and display Christmas trees, nativity scenes or menorahs. Combatting the "War on Christmas" is, apparently, a year-long affair, near the top of Texas' list of priorities (thanks to my colleague Kent Jones for the tip).
* Pope Francis caused quite a stir this week with a homily that said atheists can reach heaven through good deeds.
* Eight state legislatures this year took up proposals to promote creationism in public schools, and as of this week, all eight came up short.
* Congress clearly cannot repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, but Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) believes far-right activists need not worry: "I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we'll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare."
* A high school student in North Carolina was arrested recently for going to school with two unloaded shotguns. Soon after, he was offered a scholarship to Liberty University, a far-right Virginia college created by televangelist Jerry Falwell (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).
* Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown hosted an interfaith breakfast this week, featuring only Christians. Unlike in years past, the Jacksonville event included no Hindu priests, Muslim imams, or Jewish rabbis, and Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and Orthodox clergy were also excluded. Brown later apologized (thanks to reader R.B. for the tip).
* Arizona state Rep. Juan Mendez (D) volunteered to deliver the legislative invocation this week, and used the occasion to announce he's an atheist. He urged legislators to look at each other, rather than bow their heads, and "celebrate our shared humanness." His comments were not well received.
* And the Defense Department published this photo yesterday of gravestones honoring a Christian soldier, a Jewish soldier, and a Muslim soldier, each of whom was killed serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan (thanks to my colleague Vanessa Silverton Peel for the tip).
May 24, 2013
Decryptomaddowlogical #59
Tonight Rachel explained that the reason the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed was because its design consists of "fracture critical" members that share the burden of the bridge's load such that if one piece fails, the whole structure falls apart. As strong as all those beams and girders look, ultimately
Need help? Need to shout out the answer without spoiling anyone else's game?
*Remember to mention the number of the puzzle you're talking about.
Links for the 5/24 TRMS
The many citations for Friday's show are listed after the jump.
Modern Marvels: St. Lawrence Seaway
Span wasn't built to take critical hit
Security video captures I-5 bridge collapse
Interstate 5 Bridge Collapses After Being Hit by Truck
Sequestration Hits Memorial Day Events Nationwide
Three big federal agencies to close Friday
4 federal agencies to shut Friday
IRS Gets Friday Off – Without Pay
Lerner Replaced on Acting Basis Day After Not Testifying
IRS news poised to slow — leaving questions of what's next
IRS Safeguards Toothless in Tea Party Nonprofit Cases
Ken Cuccinelli, seeking governor's seat, stands to get an edge with Va. GOP's switch to convention
E.W. Jackson: Pro-Gay Rights Liberals 'Have Done More to Kill Black Folks' than the 'Ku Klux Klan'
The 20 Craziest Tweets From The Man Who Could Be Virginia's Next Lt Governor
E.W. Jackson a wild card in Va. GOP campaign
McDonnell being investigated over disclosure statements
New documents raise more questions about financing of McDonnell's daughter's wedding
Cuccinelli discloses more gifts from Star Scientific CEO
FBI looking into relationship between McDonnells, donor
McDonnell mum on chef's claims
McDonnell says he's still able to govern
For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine
Geographic Boundaries of United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts (pdf)
Rob Ford in 'crack cocaine' video scandal
Ahead on the 5/24 Maddow show
Tonight's guests include:
Rep. Rick Larsen, (D) Washington, represents the district where the Skagit River Bridge collapsed, member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Mark Segraves, reporter for WRC-TV in Washington, DC
And here's executive producer Bill Wolff with a preview of the show you can have at 9 p.m. ET:
Friday's Mini-Report
Today's edition of quick hits:
* President Obama delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy this morning, which was especially noteworthy because he addressed the ongoing problem of sexual assaults in the military. Obama said, "We have to be determined to stop these crimes. They've got no place in the greatest military on earth."
* Afghanistan: "Taliban insurgents blasted their way into the compound of an international organization on Friday, killing at least two people, and starting a gun battle that continued into the night, Afghan officials said."
* Here's hoping North Korea listens: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, bluntly told a North Korean envoy Friday that his country should return to diplomatic talks designed to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, according to a state-run Chinese news agency."
* Mount Vernon: "Federal officials were searching the country for a possible temporary replacement for a bridge that collapsed along the crucial Interstate 5 corridor, but Washington Gov. Jay Inslee cautioned Friday that major disruptions will last for weeks, if not months."
* Have Democrats completely given up hope on working cooperatively with Republicans? Not just yet.
* Not at all what I was expecting from John McCain and Lindsey Graham: "Two of the strongest Republican critics of the Obama administration's handling of the attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, offered strong support nonetheless on Friday for the nomination of Victoria Nuland, who played a role in editing the much-disputed talking points about the incident."
* Hey look, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) found one Latino staffer after all.
* The right's freak out over gay Boy Scouts really is a sight to behold.
* Fox's Andrea Tantaros told her audience today, in reference to a majority of American voters who elected President Obama, "If you see any of those people today, punch them in the face." Stay classy, Andrea.
* Saying goodbye to one of the greats, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Haynes Johnson, who died today. He was 81.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Putting the 'train wreck' on hold
Getty Images
The Affordable Care Act, like every landmark piece of legislation in modern times, has faced its share of trials. Getting it through Congress was nearly impossible, and the law was very nearly killed by the Republican appointees on the U.S. Supreme Court.
But with the law now secure and President Obama re-elected, there's one more major challenge for "Obamacare" to overcome: the implementation hurdle. As we discussed several weeks ago, this is at least as big a hurdle as the others, and more than a few observers have raised the prospect of a "train wreck." Even those who generally defend the law are worried.
They are, however, a little less worried today. As Matt Yglesias explained, implementation of the law is "fundamentally" going quite well.
The latest evidence comes to us today from California, America's largest state and one of the states that's tried the hardest to actually implement Obamacare. As Sarah Kliff explains, their exchanges are getting set up, and it looks like premiums for "silver" and "bronze" plans are both going to be lower than was previously expected. Far from a "train wreck," in other words, the biggest single set of clients for the program is getting something like a nice, smooth high-speed train ride.
There was also good news from Oregon recently, where insurers that had initially come in with high premium bids are now asking to resubmit with cheaper offerings in the face of competition. And the Affordable Care Act's goal of slowing the growth in aggregate health expenditures is also coming true.
Yep, at least for now, everything anti-ACA Republicans predicted -- on premiums, on competition, on exchanges, on escalating costs -- is proving to be the opposite of reality.
Now, because of state-by-state differences, there will be quite a bit of variety in outcomes. If you live in California or another state dominated by Democratic officials, you'll likely have a very positive impression of how the law is being implemented, and how it benefits you, your family, and your community.
If you live in, say, Texas, you're likely to have a very different kind of experience.
As Jonathan Cohn explained this morning:
Unfortunately, millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans live in places like Florida and Texas, where there is far less sympathy -- and a great deal more hostility -- to the idea of Obamacare. It's entirely possible that the insurance bids in those states will be a lot higher, precisely because state officials there are doing nothing to help and quite a bit to hurt implementation. But if that happens, blame won't belong with the heath care law or the federal officials in charge of its management. It will belong with the state officials who can't, or won't, deliver to their constituents the benefits that California's officials appear to be providing theirs.
It's not necessarily an explicitly partisan matter -- I'm not saying that Democrats are necessarily better at health care governance. Rather, the point is, Democrats don't have an ideological axe to grind when it comes to trying to sabotage federal health care law. Rick Perry, however, does.
To be sure, these red-state residents won't be left out entirely, and they'll still benefit from all kinds of consumer protections and expanded access that they'll really appreciate, even if they don't yet realize the available benefits. But the full benefits of implementation will elude them for a while in ways blue-state residents won't have to deal with.
Regardless, the news out of California is a bit of a breakthrough, and heartening news for anyone hoping to see the Affordable Care Act succeed. For more on this, also take a look at the reports this morning from Klein, Krugman, and Beutler.
This story has it all: the mayor of North America's fourth largest city, a crack den, a hidden camera, and a missing tipster
The Star's Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle have seen the video in question. They explain what they saw.
No, that headline isn't about Stefon's favorite new nightclub.
Tonight we are going to be updating a truly crazy story out of Toronto. In short: an editor from Gawker and two Toronto Star reporters have seen a video that reportedly shows Toronto Mayor Robert Ford smoking crack. Like, actually smoking crack and then saying some really offensive things. Mayor Ford denied it's him in the video.
Unfortunately we don't have that video. (Gawker is trying to buy it.) But we DO have this video of the two Toronto Star journalists describing it. Their plainspoken descriptions are maybe better than the original. Watch it here! It's weird and wonderful. And that's just the half of it. More tonight...
Support for gun reforms remains strong
As we get further away from the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, and the political focus shifts away from proposed gun reforms, it stands to reason that public support would diminish for new restrictions. It wouldn't be the first time we saw a public-opinion spike after a horrific event, only to fade soon after.
It was interesting, then, to see the results of the latest Pew Research poll, which found support dipping from earlier highs, but not quite as much as I would have guessed. In all, 81% of Americans support broader background checks on firearm purchases -- not quite the 9-out-of-10 data we saw in previous months, but not far from it, either. What's more, note that 81% of self-identified Republicans support background checks for private gun sales, too.
So what's the catch? Republicans support the concept, but were far less sure about the legislation.
Republicans are decidedly less supportive of this legislation than of the general idea of making private gun sales subject to background checks; 57% support the Senate bill, while 81% favor expanding background checks. Many of those who have reservations about the bill express concerns that it includes other restrictions beyond background checks, or that it opens a 'slippery slope' toward more government power.
This, in a nutshell, is why the NRA and congressional Republicans lied so blatantly and so often about the effects of the Manchin/Toomey proposal -- Americans hear bogus claims, are unsure what to believe, and doubts are raised about the merit of popular ideas.
One other polling detail on guns to remember: in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, by a three-to-one margin, Americans blame congressional Republicans for killing the background check bill.
I mention this, not only because it helps explain the GOP's unpopularity, but also because an entire legion of Beltway pundits insisted President Obama was responsible for the actions of congressional Republicans. This never made any sense, and it appears the public overwhelmingly disagrees.
An overdue conversation about infrastructure
The facts are still coming together following last night's collapse of a bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle, though given what we know, it's not too soon to note how remarkable it is that no one was killed.
Without more information, clearly it's best to wait before pointing fingers. That said, in terms of some of the details that seem especially relevant today, let's not forget that on the state's list of structurally deficient bridges, the Skagit River Bridge was deemed "functionally obsolete" in 2000. It was built in 1955, and in an inspection last year, was given a sufficiency rating of just 57.4 out of 100.
That sounds bad, of course, but there are 759 bridges in the state of Washington that have a lower sufficiency score.
And with this in mind, while we wait for more details from the area, it's not to soon to talk about the larger value of infrastructure investments. Joe Weisenthal posted this chart showing public construction spending reaching a 20-year low as a percentage of the overall economy.
I feel like I could write the same post every day, but let's just go ahead and review the basics: we have high unemployment, the need for economic stimulus, the ability to borrow at incredibly low rates, and systemic infrastructure needs -- needs that will only grow more acute as time progresses. Indeed, it costs us more, not less, by waiting to tackle these projects that are going to have to be tackled eventually anyway.
There's an assumption among many in Congress that all public investments are necessarily bad investments because, you know, "government spending" is bad. The sooner policymakers are more responsible, the better.
