Good morning — and a happy (contemplative?) Bodhi Day to our Buddhist friends!
Today also marks the sad 34th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon here in New York City. His killer, Mark David Chapman, remains in prison. Eight applications for parole have been denied.
Stat of the day: 100% — After the defeat of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu on Saturday, Republicans now control all of the US Senate seats, governor’s offices and legislatures in the deep South.
At least it’s a trial –> The Senate report on CIA detentions and interrogations during the Bush years is expected to be released on Tuesday. On Face The Nation, Former CIA Chief Michael Hayden said, without any apparent irony, that “the CIA workforce will feel as if it has been tried and convicted in absentia since the Senate Democrats and their staff didn’t talk to anyone actively involved in the program.” (Via: The Atlantic.)
“A final chance for lobbyists” –> This week, we’ll all be watching Congress as it considers a $1 trillion dollar spending bill that would keep the government operating past Friday’s deadline and well into next year. The Hill’s Rebecca Shabad reports that government watchdogs are expecting the bill to be laden with all sorts of surprise goodies for various special interest groups.
Related –> WaPo’s Tom Hamburger reports that “oil, gas and coal interests that spent millions to help elect Republicans this year are moving to take advantage of expanded GOP power in Washington and state capitals.” The lobbyists’ presence was felt at last week’s ALEC conference, where they pitched bills to lawmakers limiting the impact of the Obama administration’s new emissions curbs.
“A noisy, rowdy night of action” –> On Saturday night, police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Berkeley, California, protesting the Eric Garner decision. Demonstrators reportedly set police cars alight and broke store windows during the melee, according to the SF Gate. AND: Former St. Louis police officer Redditt Hudson, now with the NAACP, writes at WaPo that his experience in blue showed him how “racist and violent” many officers are, and says that the real problem is that they rarely face any accountability.
Won’t be home for Christmas –> The Obama administration recently said that it would not end the US military’s combat role in Afghanistan, contrary to an earlier announcement. Allen McDuffee reports for The Atlantic that SecDef Chuck Hagel said on Saturday that the US will also keep 1,000 more troops in the country than had been planned because other NATO countries haven’t matched their troop commitments.
Kochtopus –> At Politico, Mike Allen and Kenneth Vogel write that the Koch brothers are supplanting the Republican National Committee after “pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans.” They write that the operation has “all the earmarks of a national party.” AND: Peter Stone reports for MoJo that the billionaire brothers have been fine tuning their messaging with the help of “the man best known for selling the nation on Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America: Pollster and spinmeister Frank Luntz.”
Compassionate –> An ill Ohio woman named Kimberly Thompson says she lost all of her state and federal benefits “because she had failed to complete the mandatory work and training requirement for receipt of government assistance.” The problem, writes MSNBC’s Seth Freed Wessler, is that Thompson was in a coma at the time.
Myth and reality –> At Vanity Fair, Michael Kinsley compares the mythic figure Ronald Reagan has become on the right with his actual record, which “should be seen as a complete failure.”
The Force Awakens, and maybe needs to go back to bed –> SNL offers a sneak peek at the new Star Wars movie, and finds that some of the original characters haven’t aged all that well.
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