David Carr, charismatic New York Times journalist, dies at 58
Max Ehrenfreud
Carr's colleagues Bruce Weber and Ashley Southall recall the charismatic columnist and former drug addict in an obituary:
His plain-spoken style was sometimes blunt, and searingly honest about himself. The effect was both folksy and sophisticated, a voice from a shrewd and well-informed skeptic. ...A cancer survivor with a throaty croak of a speaking voice and a storklike posture, he was a curmudgeonly personality whose intellectual cockiness and unwillingness to suffer fools found their way into his prose.
Just before his death, Carr had been moderating a discussion with Edward Snowden on government surveillance. You can watch that conversation here, sadly his last contribution to his profession.What's in Wonkbook: 1) FBI director talks about race 2) Opinions, including Brooks on the future of Democrat and Republican ideas 3) Political allies call on Oregon's governor to resign, and more
Chart of the day: The data show that incarceration does reduce crime -- but not nearly enough to account for the extraordinary decline in property and violent crime, and not at all at the excessive levels at which the United States currently imprisons its population. Emily Badger in The Washington Post.He talked about law enforcement's present biases and past discrimination against blacks. "In an unusually frank and personal speech, FBI Director James B. Comey on Thursday addressed 'hard truths' about policing, acknowledging racial bias among law enforcement officers and lamenting a 'disconnect' between police agencies and communities of color. ... 'Much of our history is not pretty,' Comey said. 'At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.' Still, Comey said, law enforcement must learn from its 'inheritance.' " Sari Horwitz in The Washington Post.
This way of talking about the problem involved serious political risks. "The speech appears be the first time that a director of the FBI has so directly addressed the way that race influences law enforcement. ... The speech by Comey -- a white Republican who served in the George W. Bush administration and donated to the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney -- did not immediately inspire the type of political backlash that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have sometimes faced when they have spoken on the contentious issues of race and law enforcement." Ryan J. Reilly in The Huffington Post.
Of course, speeches on their own don't solve anything. "Comey laid out a number of hard truths on race -- a rare move for such a high-profile white law enforcement official, or even a law-enforcement official, period ... A speech -- even one as blunt and rare as Comey's -- is the easy part. Finding consensus on a way forward is another matter altogether." Nia-Malika Henderson in The Washington Post.
Broadway interlude: Comey quoted several lines from the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" from Avenue Q during his otherwise somber speech. It's a song about laughing at racist jokes, which might have seemed inappropriate for his subject, but Comey had a point to make. Even well-intentioned police officers, as a consequence of unconscious biases against blacks widely shared across the U.S. population, can make bad decisions when they interact with civilians of color on the street. Here's the Broadway cast performing on ABC (with the lyrics tempered slightly for a network audience).
BROOKS: Larry Summers and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) debate the future of U.S. government. "On the Republican side, Marco Rubio, who has become the most intellectually creative of the presidential contenders, has given us a book, 'American Dreams.' He moves beyond the Reagan-era emphasis on top marginal tax rates. He moves beyond the Mitt Romney distinction between makers and takers. ... On the Democratic side, Lawrence Summers and the British politician Ed Balls have given us the 'Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity.' This report smashes the New Democratic approach that defined Bill Clinton’s (and an earlier Larry Summers’s) economic approach. It shows how boldly the Democrats have moved leftward and can be profitably read as a blueprint for a Hillary Clinton presidency." The New York Times.
RAMPELL: If Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) wants to save money, he should require drug tests for everyone receiving subsidies. "When Florida began drug-testing applicants for cash assistance in 2011, just 108 of 4,086, or 2.6 percent, failed. (For comparison’s sake, an estimated 8.6 percent of adult Floridians use illegal drugs in a given month.) The cost to conduct Florida’s testing was $118,140, more than the state would have paid out in benefits to the people who failed the screening. ... I think these policies are just poorly targeted. ... Want to take that deduction for home mortgage interest? I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to submit a urine sample. Eyeing that carried-interest tax loophole? Here’s a cup for you, too. (Those of us who have seen 'The Wolf of Wall Street' know that big-time financiers can afford the really good drugs.) Same with charitable deductions, health insurance deductions and everything else on your thick, itemized 1040." The Washington Post.
Look out. The middle class is coming back. "In 2013 the consumer item with the fastest sales growth was private jets, many purchased by wealthy investors flush with stock-market gains that year. By 2014, as the market slowed and the disposable income of the middle class started picking up, private jets were displaced by mainstream goods like televisions and, leading the pack, used cars and trucks. ... The poor and middle class appear to be coming back on their own, or at least on the back of global market forces that are strengthening the dollar, undermining the price of oil and rebalancing the economy in favor of the average consumer. At a moment like this, the better idea might be: Don’t just do something, stand there." Ruchir Sharma in The Wall Street Journal.
Tax reform interlude: It really is possible, according to this new essay by noted legal expert Edward Kleinbard. "A rough framework is emerging that could stun pundits by actually becoming the basis of corporate tax reform legislation," he writes.
Many of us will live to see climate change bring catastrophic, nearly permanent drought to the Southwest. "The long and severe drought in the U.S. Southwest pales in comparison with what’s coming: a “megadrought” that will grip that region and the central plains later this century and probably stay there for decades, a new study says. Thirty-five years from now, if the current pace of climate change continues unabated, those areas of the country will experience a weather shift that will linger for as long as three decades, according to the study, released Thursday. Researchers from NASA and Cornell and Columbia universities warned of major water shortages and conditions that dry out vegetation, which can lead to monster wildfires in southern Arizona and parts of California." Darryl Fears in The Washington Post.
Political allies are calling for Oregon's governor to resign. "In one of the most surreal days in Oregon political history, the state's top Democratic leaders called for Gov. John Kitzhaber to resign, and the governor vanished from public view. With support of even allies evaporating, the ability of Kitzhaber to remain in office appeared less viable by the hour." Laura Gunderson in The Oregonian.
The administration is serious about reforming asset seizures. "The Justice Department on Tuesday underscored its intention to curb questionable civil seizures by local and state police with new rules that require direct involvement and review by federal authorities before a seizure can be processed under federal law. ... A Washington Post investigation last year found that since 2001, police nationwide have seized $2.5 billion in cash from almost 62,000 people — without warrants or indictments — that was forfeited through Equitable Sharing. Thousands of people had to fight long legal battles to get some or all of their money back." Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Steven Rich in The Washington Post.
President Obama wants the public and private sectors to share data on cybersecurity. He "is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment. ... The move comes as big Silicon Valley companies prove hesitant to fully support more mandated cybersecurity information sharing without reforms to government surveillance practices exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden." Joseph Menn and Roberta Rampton for Reuters.
Meanwhile, the debate among Republican lawmakers over immigration is becoming heated. "GOP infighting between the House and Senate is growing as Republicans work to prevent a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department at the end of the month. House conservatives on Thursday pointedly criticized Senate Republicans for saying a House-approved bill funding the agency and reversing President Obama’s executive actions on immigration was dead in the Senate." Cristina Marcos and Rebecca Shabad in The Hill.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) twice wrongly claimed to have a biology degree on Thursday. "Paul studied biology at Baylor, but he didn’t earn a degree. There’s no excuse for resume-inflation, even when it’s jocular." Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post.
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