The Commentariat -- January 18, 2012
My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on, oh, the banality of the Times op-ed writers. A huge chunk of it is by Akhilleus, which you wouldn't know to read it at this point (9 am ET), as most of the part he wrote is not indented. I'm working on getting that fixed.
Wikipedia is blacked out today. Go to this page to find out why. Also, if you try to call up any Wiki entry, you'll get this page, which guides you to contact your Representative. Do it. ...
... Update. Jenna Wortham of the New York Times: "With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment — a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington. The bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, are backed by major media companies and are mostly intended to curtail the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online. But the tech industry fears that, among other things, they will give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they say are abusing copyrights." ...
... The Washington Post story, by David Fahrenthold, is here.
In a fascinating New York Times op-ed, historian Kevin Kruse explains how corporate leaders co-opted God in the 1930s & '40s in an effort to discredit "creeping socialism" & restore their own prestige. Their pet phrase: "One nation under God" was meant to be used as propaganda in exactly the way Mitt Romney used it the other day -- to protect the One Percent:
When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus 1 percent, you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. -- Mitt Romney
CW: As Kruse notes, Congress [at the behest of President Eisenhower] added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. As a child, I found this change confusing, but our teacher instructed us to say the newly amended pledge, so I did. I don't anymore. I just pause while everybody else says the "under god" bit. I wish more of us would skip the addition. Or skip the pledge altogether. It's a pretty annoying piece of indoctrination, even if it was written by a socialist (who purposely left out the word "equality" because so many Americans were opposed to equality!).
If you read Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek cover story, which I linked a couple of days ago, do go and read Driftglass's response to it. Sullivan is Sullivan. Driftglass is in a class by himself.
Bob Reich: "Mitt Romney is casting the 2012 campaign as 'free enterprise on trial.'" It sure is, but he has it upside-down. "What Romney and the cheerleaders of risk-taking free enterprise don’t want you to know is the risks of the economy have been shifting steadily away from CEOs and Wall Street – and on to average working people. It’s not just income and wealth that are surging to the top. Economic security is moving there as well...."
Stewart & Colbert do this wonderful segment that shows you the total absurdity of pretending there is a "separation" between candidates & the superPACs that support them:
Right Wing World *
Paul Krugman: "Aha. Romney concedes that the estimates people have been making about his taxes are basically right:
At an event in Florence, SC, Mitt Romney told reporters that his effective tax rate is probably close to 15% because most of his income comes from investments, reports Bloomberg’s Julie Davis.
... "And an immediate question is, do you agree that unearned income should be taxed at a rate so much lower than earned income?" ...
Out. Of. Touch. Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "He also characterized as 'not very much' the $374,327 he reported earning in speaking fees last year, though that sum would, by itself, very nearly catapult most American families into the top 1 percent of the country’s earners.... As a candidate, Mr. Romney has also advocated for tax policies that would significantly benefit people who, like him, derive most of their income from investments." CW: These are tidbits from a feature article. Read the whole thing. ...
... Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "But that might not be the end of the issue for Romney. It’s likely he also benefited from related tax privileges during his time at Bain. While the lower rate on capital gains and dividend income is supposed to benefit investors, private-equity executives and hedge-fund managers who get paid by taking a share of their firm’s profits rather than a normal salary are also able to classify their income as a capital gain rather than a wage, and so they, too, pay a 15 percent tax rate — even when that money is, effectively, their salary. Ultimately, the private-equity tax loophole could become far more controversial than whether private-equity deals destroy or create jobs. Today, even the Wall Street Journal came out against the loophole...." CW: My tax rate is about double that of Romney's. And I resent it. Big time. ...
... More from Robert Reich on "The Romney Tax Loophole.... "Congress has vowed for years to close this loophole. But somehow it persists. Even when Democrats have been in charge, they haven’t been able to close it. Guess why. The managers and executives of private-equity funds are big donors to Republicans and Democrats alike."
... ** Richard Escow: "Taxing Romney under the same rules most of us follow would have put something in the neighborhood of $61 million more into the US Treasury." Escow lists some programs that just Romney's taxes (not people like Romney -- just Mrs. & Mrs. Willard) could have saved -- and hey, some of those programs actually do create jobs! Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link. ...
... Ruth Marcus: "Romney would spend hundreds of billions for a tax cut whose benefits flow overwhelmingly to the wealthiest Americans, even as he would cut even more from programs that help the most vulnerable. Those skewed priorities are hard to square with Romney’s stated concern, however heartfelt, for the poor. The man from Bain Capital needs to take another look at his figures." CW: Read Marcus' column to get a good overview of Romney's plans to make live easier for him & his super-rich friends & harder for everyone else.
How South Carolina Republicans Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Reader Haley S. sent me the link to this video. Listen to the crowd reaction -- if you can stand it. Never mind Gingrich; he is just playing to the crowd. It is they who make me weep:
... CW: I don't know how many cheering racists attended the debate, but assuming there were 2,000 there, that means than for every one of those bigots, 500 Badgers signed petitions to recall Scott Walker. On, Wisconsin! ...
... ** New York Times Editors: "In South Carolina, where a Confederate flag still waves on the front lawn of the State Capitol largely because of the efforts of the state Republican Party, it remains good primary politics to stir up racial animosity and then link it to President Obama. Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and the crowd that cheered them are following in a long and tawdry tradition, singling out a minority group for lectures while refusing to support policies that help all Americans." ...
... Dog-Whistling through Dixie. Charles Blow of the New York Times: "Gingrich seems to understand the historical weight of the view among some southern whites..., that blacks are lazy and addicted to handouts. He is able to give voice to those feelings without using those words. He is able to make people believe that a fundamentally flawed and prejudicial argument that demeans minorities is actually for their uplift. It is Gingrich’s gift: He is able to make ill will sound like good will." ...
... Ari Berman of The Nation: "This racially inflammatory rhetoric was on full display last night, as candidate after candidate auditioned to be the next George Wallace." ...
... Jon Stewart comments:
... This what that reprobate Gingrich -- I mean his non-coordinated superPAC -- thinks an Obama-Romney debate would look like. I hope he's -- I mean they are -- right:
* Where racial bigotry is a citizenship requirement.
Local News
John Nichols of The Nation on the Wisconsin recall effort: "No other gubernatorial recall drive in American history has gathered the signatures of so large a proportion of the electorate. The total number of signatures submitted Tuesday represents 46 percent of the turnout in the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election." ...
... Think Progress: "The number of signatures comes close to the 1,128,941 votes Walker received, and was far more than the 540,000 needed." ...
... Charles Pierce on the Wisconsin recalls: "On the day that his state rose up and hocked a loogie in his general direction, Scotty Walker was in the Big Apple, raising money with [Maurice Greenberg,] the founder of AIG &mdash a guy with his own checkered history — the company which, if this were a just world, would have its corporate logo serve as the official collective mugshot of the criminals and grifters and dunces who almost wrecked the world's economy. The company that paid its executives $165 million in bonuses a year after all of us bailed their sorry asses out? I mean, what the fk, Scotty? Was the banquet hall in the old Enron building booked?"
News Ledes
Reuters: "The Obama Administration rejected the Keystone oil pipeline on Wednesday, a move that Republicans decried for sacrificing jobs and energy security in order to shore up the president's environmental base before elections. President Barack Obama said the administration denied TransCanada's application for the $7 billion Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline because there was not enough time to review an alternate route that would avoid a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska -- within a 60-day window set by Congress."
New York Times: "Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday threw his unequivocal support behind a $100 billion high-speed rail line that has come under fire here in California and across the country, embracing it in a strikingly optimistic State of the State speech in which he asserted that government should pursue ambitious ventures even during times of economic strife."
AP: "As details emerged Wednesday about the missing and the dead in the grounding of the Costa Concordia, the captain was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.... Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship."
Small Fry. New York Times: "On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against [Sandeep] Goyal and six others, depicting a 'circle of friends' that together earned about $62 million in illegal gains in Dell stock."
Washington Post: "Four people were arrested as hundreds of protesters from the Occupy movement gathered Tuesday on the west lawn of the Capitol, chanting, singing, marching and disrupting congressional offices throughout the day. The demonstrators came from across the country for Occupy Congress, billed as the first nationwide gathering for the movement that began in September as a protest against corporate greed on Wall Street." ...
... ABC News: "While the Obamas were dining at one of Washington's finest steak houses, Occupy DC protesters gathered in front of the White House and for a couple of hours, drew dozens of police cars to Pennsylvania Avenue and briefly kept the press on lockdown inside the building. The cause of the commotion is unclear but may have been a smoke bomb or firecracker hurled by a protester over the White House fence from Pennsylvania Avenue."
New York Times: "With both parties largely in agreement on a yearlong extension of President Obama’s payroll tax cut, the fight in Congress over the coming weeks will boil down to how to pay for it, and Democrats appeared to hold the advantage as members of the House returned to Washington on Tuesday."
AP: "The Obama administration is providing senior state and local police officials with its analysis of homegrown terrorism incidents, including common signs law enforcement can use to identify violent extremists.... The conference Wednesday at the White House marks the first time this unclassified analysis will be presented to 46 senior federal, state and local law enforcement officials, many of whom are police chiefs and sheriffs."
New York Times: A Canadian naval officer who worked in some of the country’s key military intelligence centers has been charged with breach of trust and passing along government secrets to a 'foreign entity.' The officer, Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, 40, remained in jail on Tuesday after his lawyer asked a court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to delay a bail hearing to give him more time to study the government’s case."
New York Times: " China will expand nationwide a trial program that requires users of the country’s wildly popular microblog services to disclose their identities to the government in order to post comments online, the government’s top Internet regulator said on Wednesday." CW: See also stories above for more news on our own Internet freedom controversies.
ABC News: "Authorities in Italy suspended search operations today after the rough seas apparently shifted the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship."
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Reader Comments (9)
Marie:
While catching up with Pierces blog and reading comments on his post about Dr. King and his views on "right to work" laws... I learned, with little surprise, that this was this was on old conservative meme.
An historical perspective can be found here:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165671/right-work-and-jim-crow-legacy-affronts-kings-memory
I searched but could not find text of that Oklahoma speech...much to my disappointment. There is a draft on the mlk archive site but, sadly, it appears you have to purchase it to read it in ts entirety. That in itself is a tragedy.
@Dave S. It was hard to find the text of this speech. The King family owns the copyright, & like many of King's speeches, they are available at the archives (and elsewhere) only for a price. After some searching I did find this copy of the 1961 speech -- note the big ole "Protected by copyright law" stamped across the top of it.
Marie
I watched the debate Monday and I was sickened by the suddenly silent reaction when Ron Paul mentioned Martin Luther King. You could have heard a pin drop. These are people that still believe Martin Luther King was a rabble rouser and the state would be a whole lot better if the civil rights movement hadn't occurred. Also, Fox News salute to MLK was so tepid. Almost begrudging in its salute.
During the thirties there was a case before the Supreme Court in which Jehovah's Witnesses disobeyed school district rules requiring them to salute the flag. Felix Frankfurter said that the flag-salute rule was stupid and probably counterproductive, but not a wholly unreasonable way to instill patriotism. I have never been comfortable with the Pledge , too much patriotic zeal whose words, especially the "under God" insertion, makes my skin crawl. As a teacher I was, of course, required to carry out this ritual every morning, but I never mouthed the insertion.
The Driftglass was soooo Driftglass––loved it!
It was unfortunate that atheism and communism became inextricably linked. The capitalists could use god to club the socialists. The sad truth is the corporatists didn't give a hoot about god except the almighty buck. And I hate the way politicians have to preach "under god" crap, that and the lapel pin of stars and stripes, as they casually toss away the right of habeas corpus.
The amount of a attention paid by Right-wing hacks, apparatchiks, and apologists to symbolism like the "under God" phrase (which was not part of the original Pledge of Allegiance) and the flag which, to listen to Republicans, is in dire need of their daily protection from dirty Liberals and hippies who want to piss on it and toss it in a bonfire (it's okay, of course to urinate on dead bodies, especially if they're the bodies of brown skinned Muslims), offers about as clear an indication of the paucity of ideas on the Right and their lack of conviction in the essential tenets of right-wing ideology as you're likely to find.
Seriously, if you believe in what you're selling, you shouldn't feel the need to pass laws to force others to abide your ideology. You should just be able to trust in the essential veracity and power of your position.
This the Right cannot do. Why not? Perhaps they feel that, like so many totalitarian ideologies, unless others are forced to go along, they won't. Seems to be a pretty serious flaw, no?
Well, like I said yesterday, all you need to do is wait a few hours and Right Wing World will produce even larger mountains of atrocious crap.
It's just what they do.
thanks for the link Marie
I just read Dr. Kings speech. I came away thinking that the union busting agenda and voter ID laws that so many republican governors and legislators are pursuing are no mere coincidence.
@DaveS
Seriously? You thought them a coincidence? Talk to some of us here in WI. We all know this is NO coincidence, but a concerted, unified (and we believe long planned) GOP effort to decimate funding and votes for democratic candidates.