Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Russian forces reportedly seize Crimea military base
A Ukranian military base in the port city of Sevastopol has been seized by forces thought to be Russian, or at least pro-Russian, according to news services in Ukraine. About one hundred Ukranian troops had been ordered to man the base prior to Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula.
DOJ’s lead antitrust official won’t review Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal
The New York Times reports that William J. Baer, the head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, will not participate in the department’s review of Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable because he previously worked for General Electric’s NBCUniversal prior to its purchase by Comcast.
We don’t need [federal law] forcing pizza places to tell us how many calories there are in our pizza, do we really want to know? I’m not sure about you, but I don’t even want to know how many calories are on my pizza. When I eat my Häagen-Dazs ice cream, I want to enjoy those 1,292 calories and all 100 grams of fat in one sitting.
— South Carolina Republican Tim Scott, stupidly decrying a provision of the Patient Protection Act that was written to ensure nutrition information is available to restaurant-goers. The provision has yet to be implemented.
Darrell Issa apologizes to Elijah Cummings, skirts censure
California Republican Darrell Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress and the chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, said today he has apologized to Elijah Cummings for preventing him from speaking during yesterday’s public hearing. Issa apologized after Democrats offered a resolution to the House to reprimand Issa for his appalling behavior and abuse of power.
The Majority Report’s Sam Seder gives his take on yesterday’s travesty of a public hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, had summoned former IRS official Lois Lerner’s to appear before the committee. Issa made sure that he would be the only one allowed to question Lerner by adjourning the hearing before the ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings, was able to ask any questions. When Cummings protested, Issa gave the order to cut off his microphone, and walked out.
President Putin’s fiction: Ten false claims about Ukraine
The United States Department of State debunks several of the recent claims Vladimir Putin has made to justify Russia’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, which was ceded to Ukraine during the 1950s.
The speed of decisions at The Sun often cause lapses of judgment… I personally made lots of mistakes.
— Disgraced News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, testifying in her own defense at the trial over crimes she and other News Corporation employees allegedly committed when she ran Murdoch’s U.K. tabloids.
Greenpeace Canada: The fallout from the Fukushima disaster, three years later
Yesterday, hundreds of progressive students were arrested in front of the White House in what advocacy journalists say was one of the largest youth sit-ins in support of our environment in a generation. Amy Goodman has more.
FAREED ZAKARIA: You want the United States — you want United States and Britain to guarantee the independence of Ukraine, including Crimea? Does that mean you want America to help in getting Russian forces out of Crimea?
VITALI KLITSCHKO: Yes, of course. It’s the main point right now the Russians have to put — take away their Russian forces from Crimea. It’s the main point. It’s Crimea, Ukraine territory. It’s — if we talk independence of Ukraine, it’s all military forces have to remove from Ukrainian territory. It’s crystal clear.
FAREED ZAKARIA: You know, a lot of Russians say that Crimea is really originally part of Russia and that it would be okay if Crimea were to go to Russia. Do you believe that would be okay? Would it be acceptable to the Ukrainian people to — for Crimea to become part of Russia?
VITALI KLITSCHKO: It’s not acceptable. Crimea always was a part of Ukraine’s country and right now Russia try to create new territory. And it’s all situations, what happens right now is Crimea create not from Ukraine, not in Crimea.
(This exchange took place on Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday, March 2nd, 2014. The excerpt above is from the transcript provided by CNN).
Public school defenders launch movement in Austin
Ruth Conniff: “Deep in the heart of Texas, in the very center of what public-school advocate Diane Ravitch called the education-industrial complex, public-school activists from every corner of the United States met last weekend to launch a nationwide movement to defend public education against corporate takeover and phony, test-driven reform.”
I think considerable care needs to be taken in terms of what is said, so that the rhetoric doesn’t threaten what policy can’t deliver.
— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, advising fellow Republicans to cut back on criticizing President Obama over the United States’ response to the crisis in Ukraine during an interview with the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.
Andy Hill’s proposed tax breaks would cost big in the long run
The Washington Budget & Policy Center looks at the eighteen new tax breaks that Andy Hill and the Washington State Senate Republicans have proposed as part of their 2014 Supplemental Budget and concludes they will deprive the state of more than a hundred million dollars in revenue by the 2017-19 biennium.
Drip, splash, patter, patter: What a soaking late winter rainstorm sounds like around the lowlands of the Pacific Northwest.
Where have all the lobbyists gone? Into the shadows, that’s where
The Nation’s Lee Fang: “On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, D.C. like never before. What’s going on?”
This animated sketch redepicts one of the biggest moments from Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast: Ellen DeGeneres’ impromptu photo with over a dozen of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Alaska wolf killings upset National Park Service
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s dumb decision to slaughter an eleven-member wolf pack in the eastern interior last week has the federal National Park Service fuming. NPS officials had been studying the wolves; the pack’s alpha pair had been fitted with tracking collars.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What would we do if the Russians’ forces started rolling into other parts of Ukraine?
CHUCK HAGEL: Well, I won’t get into the different specific options but this could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a very provocative way. We have many options like any nations do. We’re trying to deal with diplomatic focus that’s the appropriate, responsible approach. And that’s what we’re going to continue doing.
BOB SCHIEFFER: But we do have a plan?
CHUCK HAGEL: Well, we have plans for everything all the time.
BOB SCHIEFFER: When you come right down to it what can we really do there?
CHUCK HAGEL: Well, again, we’ve got different options but for right now the responsible thing is to continue to work through the diplomatic channels and that’s what we’re doing.
(From the March 2nd episode of CBS’ Face the Nation)
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