Friday Reads
Posted: November 11, 2011 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: attack Iran, austerity, child sexual assault, economic growth, Iran nukes, Nouriel Roubini, Penn State, Romney 48 Comments
Good Morning!!
I’ve spent the last few days editing tables, proofreading, and formatting bibliography, cross checking table of contents and lists of tables to make sure page numbers match. It’s the kind of work that makes you want to pull out every last thread of hair on your head. I’m hopefully at the end of the road to chasing down about a dozen signatures for forms too. It’s driving me nuts!! I’m going to be so glad when this stupid dissertation gets published and I don’t have to mess with the thing ever again!
Given that I”m doing this mind numbing frustrating detail work, it’s probably contributing to some things that are making me really mad. I cannot–for one–imagine any one having any reasons to defend a football coach who didn’t report horrible instances of child sexual assault. I don’t understand the riots on campus that occurred the other night. I certainly don’t understand glib tweets defending said coach sent out to millions of fans by celebrities either. How many little boys were assaulted and how many people around them will be hurt as they spend their lives trying to overcome the trauma? How on earth do you defend some who who was covering up and not reporting a series of heinous felonies?
Demonstrators tore down two lampposts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back.
“We got rowdy, and we got Maced,” said Jeff Heim, 19, rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”
An orderly crowd first filled the lawn in front of Old Main when news of Mr. Paterno’s firing came via students’ cellphones. When the crowd took to the downtown streets, its anger and intensity swelled. Students shouted, “We are Penn State.”
Some blew vuvuzelas, others air horns. One young man sounded reveille on a trumpet. Four girls in heels danced on the roof of a parked sport utility vehicle and dented it when they fell after a group of men shook the vehicle. A few, like Justin Muir, 20, a junior studying hotel and restaurant management, threw rolls of toilet paper into the trees.
“It’s not fair,” said Mr. Muir, hurling a white ribbon. “The board is an embarrassment to our school and a disservice to the student population.”
Just before midnight, the police lost control of the crowd. Chanting, “Tip the van,” the students toppled the news vehicle and then brought down a nearby lamppost. When the police opened up with pepper spray, some in the crowd responded by hurling rocks, cans of soda and flares. They also tore down street signs, tipped over trash cans and newspaper vending boxes and shattered car windows.
The irony of all this is that the right wing noise machine has less to say about this violence and mayhem than it ever has about the Occupy Protests. Most disappointing is that Assistant Coach Mike McQueary will not be attending the game because he’s gotten death threats for doing the right thing after witnessing the sodomy of an approximately ten year old boy by then Assistant Coach Sandusky.
Raw Story has an interesting piece up about Romney who seems to have an itchy missile finger trained on Iran. Just what we need; more entanglements in the Middle East.
Accusing President Barack Obama of naivete on Iran, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney promised Thursday that if elected president he would “prepare for war” with the Islamic republic.
In a commentary published in the Wall Street Journal, Romney said he would back up US diplomacy “with a very real and very credible military option,” deploying carrier battle groups to the Gulf and boosting military aid to Israel.
“These actions will send an unequivocal signal to Iran that the United States, acting in concert with allies, will never permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” he wrote.
Nouriel Roubini has some interesting choices to lay at the feet of European Community leaders. It’s really worth a read. For some reason leaders here and in the US are obsessed with austerity. They should be obsessed with way promoting economic growth.
First of all, without economic growth, you have a dual problem: a) The socio-political backlash against fiscal austerity and reforms becomes overwhelming as no society can accept year after year of economic contraction to deal with its imbalances; b) more importantly, to attain sustainability, flow deficits (fiscal and current account) and excessive debt stocks (private and public, domestic and foreign) need to be stabilized and reduced, but if output keeps on falling, such deficit and debt ratios keep on rising to unsustainable levels.
Second, restoring growth is also important because, without growth, absolute fiscal deficits become larger rather than smaller (given automatic stabilizers). Third, restoring external competitiveness is key as that loss of competitiveness led—in the first place—to current account deficits and the accumulation of foreign debt and to lower economic growth as the trade balance detracts from GDP growth when it is in a large and growing deficit. So, unless growth and external competitiveness are restored, flow imbalances (fiscal and current account deficits) persist and stabilizing domestic and external deficits becomes “mission impossible.” Finally, note that, unless growth and competitiveness are restored, even dealing with stock problems via debt reduction will not work as flow deficits (fiscal and current account) will continue and, eventually, even reduced debt ratios will rise again if the denominator of the debt ratio (debt to GDP), i.e. GDP, keeps on falling. Growth also matters as credit risk—measured by real interest rates on public, private and external debt, which measures the default risk—will be higher the lower the economic growth rate. So, for any given debt level, a lower GDP growth rate that leads to a higher credit spread makes those debt dynamics more unsustainable (as sustainability depends on the differential between real interest rates and growth rates times the initial debt ratio).
Switching to US problems, Morgan Stanley has its knickers in a knot about potential failure of the super committee. They anticipate more downgrades of US soverign debt.
Now Morgan Stanley is weighing in on this question, as part of a broder note about the impact of the super-committee on the economy.
From MS’ Christine Tan:
S&P reminded market observers in October that the US remains on negative watch due to its unsustainable fiscal outlook, which implies a 1 in 3 chance of further downgrade from its current
AA+ rating. If the Super Committee fails to reach a $1.2trn deficit reduction deal, if such a deal relies more upon accounting changes than real deficit reduction, or if Congressional action lessens the impact of the $1.2trn automatic trigger, we believe this could potentially provide S&P with a pretext to downgrade the US further from AA+ to AA. The initial S&P downgrade of the US’s AAA rating on
August 5, 2011 roiled the markets into severe risk-aversion mode and the GRDI, Morgan Stanley’s proprietary risk appetite indicator fell to an all-time low of -5.13.So it’s important to bear in mind that the consequence of a downgrade would be an economic slowdown, not anything on the cost of borrowing side.
It sure is a crazy mixed-up world. What is on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Oh, this will make your blood boil. Women’s Rights Group Filed Rape Lawsuit Against Penn State In ’02 – Pittsburgh News Story – WTAE Pittsburgh
So it isn’t just football…the school is assholes when it comes to victim rights and women and children.
That figures. I’m not at all surprised.
Good luck with that final edit Dak…Is there a time frame for publishing?
I saw this:Obama’s Influential Mideast Envoy to Resign – NYTimes.com
And in Mississippi: Prominent Democrat makes GOP switch | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com
So the guy says he’s been thinking of switching parties for a year…and then waits until 2 days after he was re-elected as a democrat to switch? WTF?
Monday.
BTW, did you pick up on Caine’s Anita Hill joke?
This man is out of control and way out of his league. :Mad:
The whole sorry story of Penn is sickening. But I don’t think it is fair to Paterno…he was not a witness. He was passing on hearsay. The Witness was not a child; he was 28 years old. Both reported to their ‘superiors’ immediately. Why does the ‘witness’ get a pass from most people; while the coach who reported the ‘hearsay’ get fired? (and ruined).
Admittedly, I don’t know very much about this story…I’m not a college football fan, vaguely heard of Paterno before this happened. But it seems to me that Paterno is a scapegoat in this mess. Thanks for the article..I enjoy them very much.
The “witness,” Mike McQueary, is not “getting a pass.” He will not be allowed to coach on Saturday, and many people are blamig him. However, Paterno was the most powerful man in that town, and he was responsible to contact authorities if his “superiors” didn’t. If you read the grand jury report, you’ll see that there is no way Paterno did not know this was going on back in the ’90s at least. He covered it up to save himself and the program. He even forced Sandusky to retire shortly after the investigation in 1998, so to say Paterno wasn’t responsible for what happened is just wrong.
McQueary was only a graduate assisstant at the time, but he should have stopped the rape at the time and called police. He was probably afraid of losing his position with the team, but yes he was wrong.
Paterno, however, should be prosecuted. He allowed a sexual predator to continue raping children for many years and then he perjured himself to the grand jury. He’s an arrogant old man who should have retired years ago. He isn’t a hero or a saint.
Grand jury report
Don’t read it with your breakfast unless you have a strong stomach. And keep in mind that a pedophile like Sandusky probably molested hundreds of boys during his “career.”
I am going to read it, but after I have coffee and a nap, especially after hearing the details on some news reports. Good grief, the system is a failure to children…
I once reported what had been missed by several people, by someone in in indirect setting, meaning I didn’t even have enough information, but a city and a street name. When I called the person taking the information knew exactly where…interestingly enough the agency later called to notify me, as to the possibility of reprisal (first time that happened) and I in turn called a detective in my city. So, the long and short of it, was that the person who told me, who was in fear (pointed out that I wanted this person protected), but more in fear of the possibility of the person being killed, was correct in telling me…I took what little information I had and ran with it.
As it turned out, it was not the first time, nor was there only one victim, albeit it was not sexual (at least that was not what was told to me), but it was abuse, abuse of a very violent nature and it was the first time that I had heard of people too scared to tell. Given the threat to me, I now have a better understanding, but would have done the same. The person that told me, broke through their fear and in the end that saved all of us.
I looked at that thing. Couldn’t get past the first page of Victim #1. Extremely and I mean extremely disturbing. I hope Sandusky’s accomplices get caught in this thing as well. I just can’t envision a Football coach being sophisticated enough to set up a charity for the sole purpose of cultivating and exploiting children and to also be able to fool all of these people for this long without some help. We know the Penn St. people all turned a blind eye for sure but there is way more here than meets the eye.
I could not disagree more. The head football coach at a university with the kind of reputation Penn State has, has more power than anyone else at the school. Especially a long term football icon like Paterno. Passing on hearsay? The mere hint of something like child rape should result in an immediate police investigation and suspending all of that person’s activities at the university. Paterno owed that to the victims as well as to every student and faculty member at the university. Paterno had the power to make it stop and he didn’t. There can be no equivocating when it comes to raping children. That Paterno, with his almost limitless power and authority at that university is now shrugging his shoulders and claiming that he did all he could do by reporting it to his “superior” would be laughable if it was so goddamn reprehensible.
*if it wasn’t so…”
I agree with Dak except for this: McQueary did not do the right thing. He was a great big 28-year-old ex-quarterback. He should have pulled Sandusky off the kid and called the cops. Period. He did report to Paterno, but then he took a nice cushy coaching job to keep his mouth shut.
Paterno WAS Penn State. He had the power to stop child rapes by Sandusky, certainly from 1997 forward and probably even earlier than that. And he was the only one with that power. (As BB notes, these guys cannot stop themselves. They just keep raping and raping and raping.) Paterno appointed the Board. He ran the school. All he had to do was call the cops, all of whom probably worshiped him along with the college-football maniacs, and they would have done his bidding. He had the power to save children and not only did he fail to exercise that power, he engaged in a monstrous cover-up to save his own exalted reputation and his precious football program.
I don’t know if Paterno can be convicted of anything, except maybe perjury. But he has gotten a big-name criminal defense attorney. As for civil suits, yes, he will be named as a defendant. Whether the school can foist off some of its civil liability onto him remains to be seen, but I suspect the Board will do everything in its power to reach settlements out of court. The Board itself may face civil liability as well.
Meanwhile, what should happen now is simple: every single person currently on the football staff should be canned. As Barry Switzer (ex-football coach at Oklahoma and a man until yesterday I could never tolerate) said yesterday, everyone on the staff knew. They all knew. They all had to know. They are all involved in the coverup. That, of course, includes McQueary who ran running to his papa and then JoePa instead of saving a little boy. I don’t know how the university will handle the Board, but the Board members need to be replaced as well. The attorney for both Penn State and the charity should also be investigated as to whether he knew Sandusky was engaged in continuing criminal activity.
As for Sandusky, he probably thinks he was showing love for the boys. He just loves them. Hopefully, he will spend the rest of his life in jail where he can be someone’s butthole. After all, that someone is just showing him “love.” How the hell can his wife and kids bear to be near him?
You make some good points, but I am disturbed that you hope Sandusky gets raped in prison. Rape is wrong under any circumstances. Considering it just punishment for someone who “deserves it” contributes (even though I’m sure that is not your intent) to the rape culture in our society. Can we all agree that nobody deserves to be raped?
Spot on. McQueary is scum IMO.
I have no doubt McQueary would have stopped the rape if it had been a female. Afterall, everyone knows that girls are not allowed in the men’s locker room.
@Dee Yes, I agree with you that McQueary is scum. I do not think he did enough…obviously.
He witnesses a boy being raped anally by Sandusky. Does he stop it? No. Does he call the cops immediately? No. He tells his father. The father says to tell JoePa…”he will do the right thing. ”
And I guess McQueary’s daddy was right. A few days after Paterno is told about the rape, McQueary gets offered a full time job as a coach. (I don’t have time to look for link, but I will find it later tonight.)
McQueary got what he wanted, I would not doubt that was part of the conversation and payoff for him not going to the cops.
I do not condone any sort of threats against McQueary, and by the way the students have acted out their fucked up version of support for the wrong people, I bet he is getting threats from idiots that are pissed he even said anything to Paterno in the first place.
At least he did tell Paterno, but I feel it was only as a form of blackmail to get that coaching position. Meaning he told JoePa that he would go to cops if he did not get what he wanted. OTOH, it could have been Paterno who offered the job if he kept quiet. Either way it stinks like shit on the locker room floor.
Did you all see this? Now…check the date of the article: Madden: Sandusky a State secret – Timesonline.com: Mark Madden:
It is dated April 3, 2011. I don’t have time to get into it…I’ve got to go paint a house…
or the long version:
Yes, Janicen, no one deserves to be raped. of course, you are right. I was thinking that there is no way this guy will understand the enormity of his crime unless it is done to him. Which is true, but irrelevant. I retract my last three sentences.
Yes, and she probably would have been punished for it too.
Wow. I think people are being pretty hard on a guy who was just a graduate student at the time. McCreary reported the rape in explicit terms to his boss, Joe Paterno. Maybe he could have stopped it at the time, but he was at the bottom of the totem pole and Sandusky was an icon who was pals with the coach. I think if I had seen something like that when I was only 28, I would have been completely in shock and utterly confused about what to do. McCreary met with Paterno, and then the president and athletic director. He spelled out for them what happened. It was their duty to notify the police and social services. How could he know they didn’t?
McCreary testified at the grand jury, and the report says the jurors found him completely credible. It was because of his testimony that Sandusky and the other two men were arrested. Yes, it would have been great if he had stood up to Sandusky and Paterno in 2002, but at least he didn’t perjure himself before the grand jury as Paterno and the others did.
Now McCreary is getting death threats because he did report Sandusky and testify truthfully. To call him scum is really scapegoating the wrong person, IMHO.
Like Joe Paterno, doctors don’t always report abuse.
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/11/study-of-the-day-like-joe-paterno-doctors-dont-always-report-abuse/248293/
Some of you know what I did for over a year, and it was heartbreaking when I spoke to vets, it really was, and today when I read this I just broke down and cried. I know, with all the training, and years of experience, I am sitting crying my eyes out. The War mongers, want another war with Iran and don’t even care enough to provide for our veterans from these on going wars. These two wars have left more physically disabled vets, and more vets suffering mental health issues without care, out in the streets, to fend for them selves. I hope some of you remember that while Bush II was in office our veterans were receiving care in torn down, insect infested and rat infested units, while everyone wore their flag buttons pressing for the wars to continue.
I ask all those people that have been making fun of Occupy people to go and visit an Occupy Camp and see that our veterans are there, because they lack the services they need and because they finally have found people with open loving arms (young people who are not willing to shut up and go with the program), as the country hasn’t noticed they are committing suicide rates in large numbers, and some are finally calling suicide hotlines (400 calls a day…and some vets still don’t know about the hotlines).
The shooting in Occupy Burlington was a veteran…
Before I Go Song of Iraq / Afghan Wars
Paterno does not deserve to be exonerated at all.
Those charges, especially in light of what McQueary reported, should have led to an indictment. But Sandusky was allowed to continue attending games and roaming the campus at will to carry out his sickening romps with children while the others looked the other way.
Anyone with a sense of integrity would have, at the very least, severed all ties to this pedophile but it appears that life went on as usual as long as the university itself remained unblemished.
This is what happens when “celebrity” is attached to criminality. This is exactly what happened in the OJ murder case and the charges made against Michael Jackson even when the facts themselves indicated otherwise. Michael Vick was able to harm animals and is now signed on to another team and enjoying endorsements.
If these people were just “ordinary” they would be punished and banished from the rest of society for their actions. Instead reasons are found to excuse and qualify their behavior based on nothing more than the “celebrity factor”.
In the case of Jackson, just as it appears with Sandusky, troubled children from broken homes were targeted which makes it all the more egregious. These kids were “courted and groomed” by their predators and no one intervened.
There needs to be more education on ‘grooming’ of children by predators. Most people don’t understand that even ‘attention’ by a regular person on a child is a tool, not to mention a ‘famous’ person and the person that is running the show/program is all the more influential (place of authority) where a child can’t say no, by virtue of the structure.
I listened yesterday as a young man was recalling, Sandusky placing his hand on his left leg for long trips and how he asked other boys and they too said it was done to them, thus creating an atmosphere of that is what is expected in the program. People need to be on the look out for the grooming of children.
I think part of the problem is the emphasis on ‘stranger danger’ when the clear and present danger for children is unfortunately within their circle of family and family friends and school. That’s a horrible thing to think about.
Happy Veteran’s Day .Americas Heroes
and all heroes. 🙂
1 in 3 servicewomen reports being raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by comrades. Remember this too on Veterans Day.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/07/invisible-women-military-secret-gender-problem
Yes. I think rapists should be prosecuted and lose their veteran’s benefits.
We were listening to the radio in my car as I was driving my hubby and I home yesterday – the folks on the radio were talking about the Penn State issue – my guy said “What is wrong with people? Why didn’t he grab Sandusky give him a good left hook or at least shout – “Hey, what are you doing there?”
At the very least that kid would have been helped and the issue would have been brought to the public at that point.
What the heck is it with men worshiping other men? That’s part of how we ended up with our current non-leader. BB perhaps some of your wisdom on this matter would clarify the issue.
Oh, and Kat – “I’m going to be so glad when this stupid dissertation gets published…” I’m sure your dissertation is farrrrr from stupid. 😉
Joanelle, I’m not excusing McQueary in any way, shape or form, but it speaks to the absolute power that Paterno and his Assistant Coaches had. McQueary feared doing what was obviously the right thing to do. I’m guessing he felt that he was powerless.
He was 28 when he saw this, and it has me wondering how far back this goes and if…
That would have been my take. I wonder how many people would have actually been brave enough to stop the rape and go immediately to the police. It’s a terrible thought to think that you might have you entire future taken away from you fo simply doing the most moral thing. Not making excuses for him, but at least he didn’t turn a blind eye which is what I think most of these guys did. Also, the threats on his life are because he reported it, not because he didn’t stop the sexual assault. What a horrible set of priorities we have.
It has to all be over by the 21st. It’s going in for review shortly, That’s with a monday deadline. I just really want this over with.
Oh, and I just got my first pub from my dissertation today so it’s not completely stupid, I guess
McCreary should have called the police himself, but I have no doubt he would have lost his graduate assistant position and never have become a coach under Paterno. Paterno was protecting Sandusky and he is the one who could have and should have stopped it. He chose to protect himself and his football program instead. Joe Paterno has always been an arrogant SOB, and now he’s a criminal. He had a legal duty to report Sandusky to law enforcement. Instead, he told his bosses a cleaned-up version of what happened.
Paterno makes me sick. McCreary I know nothing about. If he loses his job, that’s fine. But Paterno is the real bad guy, and scapegoating McCreary won’t change that.
Paterno has hired a criminal defense attorney. It looks like he’s worried about being arrested or sued. He should be.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/joe-paterno-and-the-law/248262/
It appears that the reason McCreary hasn’t been fired is that he is being treated as a whistleblower. He’s now in protective custody. Paterno hasn’t been prosecuted because he testified against Sandusky.
http://www.csnphilly.com/ncaa/news/Report-McQueary-in-protective-custody?blockID=592580&feedID=704
I don’t think Penn State has fired McQueary,
Penn State’s McQueary put on administrative leave – CBS News
Maybe he isn’t scum but I don’t think he should be off the hook either. I still think that McQueary should have gone to the police, immediately.
I said he can’t be fired right now because he is being protected as a whistleblower–see my link. Of course he SHOULD have called the police. But it was Paterno’s legal duty to call them–McCreary was a student and had zero power in the situation. Obviously he regretted it, or he wouldn’t have been working with authorities for the past three years of the investigation–leading to three arrests.
BB, check this out:
Football is NOT an Absolute Monarchy | Crooks and Liars
The DA disappeared? How strange is that? (links to the news on the DA at the C&L link)
Yeah, I knew about the DA. There doesn’t seem to be a connection, but who knows? I saw a show about it on the ID channel (one of my addictions).
dday: DoJ Gets $117,000 Per Violation From BofA on Wrongful Military Foreclosures
Now if they could get this kind of deal for everyone wrongfully foreclosed via robosigning etc it would be a lovely thing.
Well, I think this could set a precedent.
Even that settlement foregoes the criminal penalties, but it’s better than a nothing burger.
Corporations are more hurt by cash settlements although seeing a few CEOS do perp walks would do my heart good.
NICE ENOUGH? Herman Cain Loses Half His Female Supporters (But The Men Stick Around)
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/herman-cain-loses-half-his-female-supporters-but-keeps-the-men-2011-11#ixzz1dQeEOGsK
Sheesh, MENz just keep covering up for each other. Who me? Degrade and Harass women?
The women know, and today the attacks on both women that have gone public (one on her own, the other outed) have gotten to the point of brutal. Rush Limbaugh is the biggest offender in the misogyny department.
I don’t get it. I was a big Tiger Woods fan – my dad taught me how to play golf as a kid – we couldn’t afford private clubs but we’d go to the little munis in our area. I thought Tiger was terrific – then the story broke – so what happened – he went into rehab, made a really sick speech and the guys all welcomed him back (well not quite all of them but most did) Why? because he attracted crowds, he brought in tons of money for the PGA and anyone involved. Hmmm, sound familiar?
Just sickening. :p
#MISSING : Milissa Dawn Peacock Nov 7, 2011, Dartmouth, 20yrs old, 105lbs, 5ft tall http://twitpic.com/7cruvn Plz contact police if you have seen her. Request for posting by her aunt -> @rozinck
………………………………
I hope she is found safe and sound.